Gene Cornfield

Gene leads growth and customer experience transformation with global clients across industries. He also leads Accenture’s global CMO community of 650+ senior-most marketing leaders who gather throughout the year to collaboratively tackle their most pressing challenges. In 2018 Gene led creation of the Customer Performance Indicator (CPI) methodology for measuring customer experience and its impact on business outcomes, and for how to increase business performance by optimizing customer experience.

Prior to joining Accenture, Gene spent ten years as a CMO for early- and growth-stage companies, five of which were acquired, and two of which made the Inc. 500 during Gene’s tenure leading marketing (the #6 Software company in 2012 and the #23 Marketing/Advertising company in 2013). Also in 2013 Gene and his team coined and popularized the concept of 'branded currency' to describe the digital convergence of loyalty, coupons and gift cards into a more powerful influence on consumer spending.

Earlier in his career Gene spent six years at Microsoft, where he led some of the company’s first software-as-a-service and cloud initiatives, including creating the Web Services Ecosystem, introduced by Bill Gates in 2001 as Microsoft's new global partner model unifying the roles of software developers, software vendors, integrators and communications service providers. In 1999 Gene led Microsoft's first pilot of subscription software licensing, and then Apptimum, the first commercial cloud platform, a predecessor to Azure.

Gene frequently speaks and writes on the future of marketing and customer experience, and currently teaches a graduate course in digital innovation at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.