AnnaMaria DeSalva is a CEO, board leader, and strategic advisor recognized for leading organizations through transformative periods shaped by innovation, enterprise risk, stakeholder complexity, and global change. Across a three-decade career spanning Fortune 100 corporations, global consultancies, and public company governance, she has earned a reputation for bringing the strategic clarity, operational discipline, reputation stewardship, and governance judgment that determine long-term value. Today, she advises CEOs, boards, and emerging enterprises on strategy, transformation, innovation, and stakeholder trust.

Most recently, AnnaMaria served as global chairman of Burson Group, one of the world’s largest strategic communications advisory firms. As one of the two leaders who shaped the 2024 merger of Hill & Knowlton and BCW, she helped define Burson’s global strategy, senior leadership, and brand. Previously, as global chairman and CEO of Hill & Knowlton, she led a multi-year growth resurgence—accelerating net sales into consecutive double-digit growth years and materially expanding operating margin—while strategically repositioning the firm. She strengthened advisory and creative capabilities, accelerated AI-enabled solutions, and expanded the firm through international acquisitions and a global rebranding.

Her executive experience includes major corporate transformations at DuPont and Pfizer. As DuPont’s global chief communications officer and subsequently a senior advisor to DowDuPont, she provided central leadership through an activist proxy contest, CEO transition, portfolio restructuring, and the Dow–DuPont merger and subsequent separation into three independent public companies. Earlier, as a vice president at Pfizer, she led corporate affairs across global R&D, portfolio strategy, and the medical division, serving on the R&D Leadership Team and Portfolio Strategy & Investment Committee following Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth. Her work supported the transformation of Pfizer’s innovation engine, helping improve R&D productivity, strengthen scientific reputation, and renew investor confidence.

As a public company director, AnnaMaria helped guide XPO Logistics through its evolution and separation into three independent companies. As vice chairman of XPO, then a Fortune 200 global transportation and supply chain leader, she chaired the Nominating, Governance & Sustainability Committee and held leadership responsibilities in CEO succession, investor engagement, strategic transactions, and board formation for the spin-offs of GXO and RXO. She also served on RXO’s inaugural board, supporting its establishment as an independent public company. Her experience in governance in the national interest includes service on the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy) and her current role on the Board of Visitors of William & Mary, where she chairs the Committee on Academic Affairs.

AnnaMaria is a Member of The CEO Center at The Conference Board, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and a frequent speaker on governance, transformation, enterprise risk, innovation, stakeholder trust, and the leadership imperatives shaping the next quarter-century.