David C. Edelman

David C. Edelman is an internationally recognized authority on digital marketing strategy, customer experience, and business transformation who serves as a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the Harvard Business School. He has spent over thirty years helping global brands, asset managers, and start-ups navigate the complexities of digitization and organizational change. Edelman has been recognized by Forbes as one of the "Most Influential CMOs in the World" and by AdWeek as one of the "Top 20 Marketing and Technology Executives" for his transformative contribution to the advertising and technology sectors.

Edelman’s deep strategic authority is anchored in both corporate leadership and elite advisory roles. He served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the Fortune 50 healthcare giant Aetna, where he directed a radical, digital-first transformation of the enterprise's customer engagement and brand footprint. Prior to his corporate officer role, he co-led the Global Digital Marketing and Marketing Technology practices at McKinsey & Company, and held senior executive positions at Digitas and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He is the co-author of the groundbreaking work Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI (HBR Press, 2024), a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, and a sought-after board advisor on AI scaling and agile operations.