Michelle Peluso Biography
Michelle Peluso born was born in 1971, She is the daughter of an environmental engineering executive. Education: University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, undergraduate degree, 1983; Pembroke College, Oxford University, graduate degree.
Michelle Peluso Interests
Michelle has traveled and lived in more than 40 countries, salsa danced in Cuba, tail-hooked on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as a White House Fellow, served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Labor, and was once temporarily stranded on a deserted island off Pisa with a group of girlfriends. And yet all that somehow pales to the adventures she and her husband have every day raising their two curious, funny and high energy children in Tribeca.
Michelle Peluso
Michelle Peluso IBM
s Senior Vice President of Digital Sales and Chief Marketing Officer, Michelle oversees all global marketing and brand initiatives, strategy, response lead management, customer relationship management and execution for the IBM company. Her team includes thousands of marketing professionals and digital sellers located in hundreds of countries worldwide. Michelle brings to IBM deep, customer-centric marketing, sales, and leadership experience, as IBM accelerates its transformation to an AI & Cloud platform company.
Prior to IBM, Michelle was CEO of Gilt from 2013 until the sale of Gilt to Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in February of 2016, and a Board of Directors member since 2009. While at Gilt, she oversaw the expansion of the business and the drive to profitability. Michelle was the Global Consumer Chief Marketing and Internet Officer of Citigroup from 2009 until 2013. In that role, she was responsible for the digital experience for Citi’s 100 million consumers globally as well as for Citi’s global consumer marketing strategy and execution. She also led Citi’s effort to bring CitiBike to New York City.
From 2002 to 2009, Michelle was the CEO of Travelocity. She joined Travelocity following the company’s acquisition of Site59, a travel site she created and launched in 1999 as CEO.
Michelle was a White House Fellow and Senior Advisor to Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and worked as a case leader for The Boston Consulting Group in New York and London. She serves on the Board of Directors for NIKE, Inc., nonprofit TechnoServe, and Tech: NYC. She also serves as a Strategic Advisor at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), a Palo-Alto based venture capital firm that has backed companies like Facebook, Spotify, Netflix, and Zillow.
Michelle received an MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Pembroke College at Oxford University, where she was a Thoroun Scholar, and her BA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Michelle Peluso Travelocity
Travelocity renegotiated its third-party agreements, upgraded its technology platforms and took costs out of operations. It launched an advertising campaign featuring a traveling garden gnome and offered travelers satisfaction guarantees and a “bill of rights.” Finally, it increased its presence in Europe by acquiring lastminute.com, a London-based Internet travel site.
In December 2003, Peluso was promoted to president and CEO of Travelocity, which went from losing $55 million in 2003 to making $13 million in 2004. She credits determination and passion throughout the company. “We’re passionate about being better than the next boy — or girl. When you look at our recent successes, it’s because we want it and we want it badly.”
A willingness to take on risk is critical for organizations, but also individuals, she said. “Risk-taking is an easy concept to talk about, but it is much harder to execute. Many leaders mandate ‘Let’s take risks.’ But they forget that taking risks implies failure.”
Fear of failure can be paralyzing for employees who don’t want to look like a fool, or lose their job if they take on a risky venture that goes bad, said Peluso. So managers need to build a culture that cushions that fear. Travelocity recently botched the execution of an improvement to the site and Peluso said she was stunned to receive a note from a junior employee in the San Francisco office taking the blame. She made him the company’s ‘hero of the week’ in a company-wide e-mail. “I was blown away,” said Peluso. “To me, the mistake was understandable. It was complex. What was extraordinary was we have a culture that allows people to say, ‘It was my fault and here’s what I’ll do differently next time.’”
Individuals also need to take on risk in their own lives and careers, she suggested. Staying at an unsatisfying job because it pays well, or remaining in a familiar city, can be seductive, but in the long run, it limits potential. “Being a leader is about being able to crawl out of a comfortable shell and take on a new one.” Peluso also advised potential leaders to “check your ego at the door….Complacency and arrogance are opiates that crush real innovation.”
Michelle Peluso Salary
As the Independent Director of NIKE, the total compensation of Michelle Peluso at NIKE is 278,722. There are 10 executives at NIKE getting paid more, with Mark Parker having the highest compensation of 13,851,500.
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