Abigail Posner
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Abigail is the Head of Strategic Planning at Google. As a thought leader, author, manager and corporate executive, Abigail has spent her life catalyzing change and ensuring impact. Whether it is leading brands at DDB and Publicis to new strategic spaces; guiding teams to reinvent themselves with new tools and practices at Google; stimulating organizations to adopt new cultures and modes of behavior; challenging the cultural conversations around beauty; or motivating audiences to reexamine themselves, Abigail sees it her quest to spark novel thinking and lead people to take action on it. Thanks to her degree in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, Abigail shines a unique, humanistic lense on culture, business and technology that brings fresh perspective to corporate culture, product development, branding and marketing.
Nearly four years ago, Abigail joined Google to create the Strategic Planning Practice. She and her team works closely with the advertising and marketing communities to help develop their strategic and creative efforts for the digital space. While at Google, she has also launched an industry-first thought leadership series on human beings deep, emotional relationships with the digital space: Humanizing Digital. This research decodes technology in an inspiring and useful way. And she has created and teaches an inspirational “culture of insights” program & toolkit for internal both Google audiences and key marketers “Behold the Aha: from Data to Insight.”
Prior to joining Google, Abigail was Executive Vice President, Strategy Director at Publicis New York, where she directed strategic planning efforts for major new business pitches and provided thought leadership to key global clients, including L’Oreal, Nestlé and Coca-Cola. Before that, Abigail spent 11 years at DDB New York. There, she co-directed the strategic planning department and directed strategic efforts for a range of clients, from PepsiCo and Unilever to Hertz.
Abigail has spoken at key conferences including: PSFK, APG, SXSW, eMerge, MAD, CDX Forum, Yale & Columbia Business Schools and C2MTL. She has been featured in a host of publications including: Business Insider, Huffington Post, La Presse, CNBC, & Globes Israel.
Abigail has sat on World Design Capital Selection Committee, Jay Chiat Awards Judging committee 2014, and on the board of FAWN, Michelle Phan’s lifestyle company.
She blogs regularly on beauty in our culture at Beautyskew.com and has published the following articles: Memes Matter: Three Lessons for Brands (B&T –Australia’s Leading publication for advertising & media, April 2014); The Ads Worth Spreading that Really Did Spread (Think with Google, March 2014) The Memes With Meaning: Why We Create and Share Cat Videos and Why it Matters to People and Brands (Fast Company, June 2013); The Meaning of Mobile (Think with Google 2012) Why Beauty Matters Today (Retail Online, September, 2011), Why Packaged-Goods Companies Should Market to Men (Advertising Age.com, February, 2009), Brand Management and Its Greater Purpose (Ad Map, November Issue 2007) and Why Your Mission Matters (Advertising Age, July, 2007).
Abigail graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in social anthropology. She lives in NYC with her Husband and 3 children.