Why one CMO swapped consumer marketing for B2B
With a passion for business and economics forged in her teenage years, Michelle Peluso took her skill for thinking outside the box all the way to The White House, before swapping politics for entrepreneurship, tech and B2B in her current role as CMO at IBM.
By Sarah Vizard
It was a trip to the Soviet Union when she was 15 that piqued Michelle Peluso’s interest in business. She describes “conning” her way onto a media tour by saying they needed a student representative, convincing her parents to pay the surprise $3,000 (£2,336) cost for the trip and then being fascinated by a country whose economy was opening up to the outside world.
Peluso went on to study economics at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford University. Unsurprisingly, a career running businesses both large and small followed.
What ties Peloso’s career together is an interest in industries that are going through turbulence. From working at The White House during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings to joining Citi right as the financial crisis hit, she has been fascinated by companies and sectors that need people who think differently.
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