Laura Desmond

Laura Desmond is the Chief Executive Officer of Smartly, the leading AI-powered advertising technology company helping brands unify creative, media, and intelligence to drive measurable business growth.

She leads the company's global strategy, operations, strategic partnerships, acquisitions, and product innovation. Under her leadership, Smartly has expanded its AI capabilities through strategic acquisitions, including Viralspace.ai, Ad-Lib.io, and most recently INCRMNTAL, the pioneering AI-powered incrementality measurement platform, strengthening Smartly's ability to connect measurement directly with creative and media optimization in one unified platform. Before becoming CEO, Desmond served as Chair of Smartly's Board from 2020 to 2022.

Prior to Smartly, Desmond served as Chief Revenue Officer of Publicis Groupe and Chief Executive Officer of Starcom Mediavest Group, the world's #1 media and marketing services agency brand for five consecutive years under her leadership.

Throughout her career, Desmond has partnered with many of the world's leading marketers, including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Visa, Spotify, Uber, and P&G. She is a past Chair of the Ad Council and serves on the boards of Adobe, DoubleVerify, and Smartly.

Desmond is also a champion of women's sports, serving as an early investor in Chicago women's professional sports franchises, including the Chicago Sky and the Chicago Stars FC.