Lesley Pinckney is an accomplished marketing and digital transformation expert with a track record of building successful brands and businesses. With a focus on youth and diverse audiences, she has been a driver of marketing innovation for Fortune 500 brands across multiple categories. She’s held leadership positions in both public companies and start-ups. 
 
Joining Intel in spring of 2021, Lesley serves as Head of Marketing for Incubation & Disruptive Innovation. In this role, she oversees marketing and communication for the IDI business group, the Intel Incubation Program and all ventures within IDI. IDI combines vision technology and AI to develop vertically integrated solutions across categories like robotics, finance, healthcare and retail.
 
As the general manager of Essence.com, Lesley negotiated an internal joint venture between Time Inc. and Warner Brothers Television group. The joint venture secured investment funding for an Essence.com redesign and re-launch. In 5 years, Lesley built Essence.com to become the most profitable digital property per unique visitor at Time Inc. She also led the diversification of sales inventory to unlock new ad sales categories and revenue streams. Revenue grew by 20% year over year.  
 
As the Executive Strategy Director for GMR Marketing and the Omnicom Experience Group, Lesley built two successful agency capabilities leading the creative technology and social media practices. She was selected as one of 70,000 global employees to attend Omnicom University, considered one of the pre-eminent management development programs in the industry.  In this role her client roster included companies like Twitter, Nissan, Target, Visa, and Comcast.

Lesley has also built a successful speaking career, making appearances at conferences including SXSW, EventTech, ANA, BlogHer and Mediapost Summit. She has also served on several non-profit boards focused on improving outcomes for youth and currently sits on the Board of Directors for Near North Montessori School in Chicago.
Lesley and her wife Tiffany share a precious and precocious 6-year-old daughter named Penny (Penelope), and an even more precocious 7year-old miniature cock-poo, Ziggy. Lesley loves to cook and dreams to try her hand on Chopped.