AnnaMaria DeSalva '90

Former Global Chair, Burson

AnnaMaria DeSalva is an experienced chairman, CEO and public company board leader with a record of value creation across Fortune 100 companies, global consultancies, and complex governance environments. Known for her ability to lead through inflection points where risk and opportunity converge, she has served in principal roles for some of the most consequential business transformations in recent history.

Most recently, AnnaMaria served as global chairman of the Burson Group, the global communications leader focused on reputation capital. Earlier, from June 2019 and until the creation of Burson through the merger of BCW and Hill & Knowlton in July 2024, AnnaMaria served as global chairman and CEO of Hill & Knowlton, one of the world's foremost strategic communications firms with more than 70 offices across nearly 40 markets globally. During her tenure, she led the company through a period of rapid renewal and growth, expanding strategic advisory services, creative and technology capabilities, and leadership in major industrial sectors. She also served as a member of the Executive Committee of parent company WPP plc [NYSE: WPP].

Previously, AnnaMaria was global Chief Communications Officer of DuPont, and subsequently a senior advisor to Ed Breen, the CEO of DowDuPont, as he advanced the separation and launch of new independent public companies. During her tenure, AnnaMaria established new standards to improve reputation and reduce risk while ensuring the company successfully navigated a series of special situations including an extended public proxy battle with an activist shareholder; a CEO transition; and the $130 billion merger of equals with Dow leading to the subsequent break-up and creation of three new industry-leading companies.

Before joining DuPont, AnnaMaria spent five years as a vice president of corporate affairs at Pfizer, where she was initially dedicated to the integration of the $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth. She focused on efforts to improve R&D productivity and reputation as a member of the R&D leadership team and the Portfolio Strategy and Investment Committee. When she left Pfizer in 2014, she was the head of the corporate affairs effort spanning communications, policy, and government affairs for the innovative core of the company.

Earlier, she served as the global healthcare practice leader at Hill & Knowlton. During these years, the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appointed AnnaMaria as a special advisor to the Agency for risk communication, the first ever from industry. Previously at Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, she led international public affairs in oncology and later became director of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.

AnnaMaria has spent seven years on the boards of Fortune 500 companies, most recently as a member of the board of directors of RXO [NYSE: RXO], a leading technology enabled brokered transportation provider. She previously served as vice chairman of the board of directors of XPO Logistics [NYSE: XPO], where she completed more than five years of board service on November 1, 2022, when XPO spun out RXO. Across an era of substantial value creation at XPO, and through the unique demands on supply chains forced by the global pandemic, AnnaMaria led board engagement with the company's institutional investors, advised extensively on XPO's break up strategy and its CEO succession, and worked with the chairman to continuously refresh the XPO board and form two new boards for SpinCos GXO and RXO.

In September 2022, AnnaMaria completed seven years of service on the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy. In December 2022, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia appointed AnnaMaria to the Board of Visitors of William & Mary, a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board, and a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and The Economic Club of New York. She is a frequent speaker on reputation, transformation, strategy, risk, and resilience.