Gartner Expert

Stephen E. Smith

VP Analyst, Chief of Research/KI Leader

Stephen Smith is a Vice President and Chief of Executive Leadership Research with Gartner in the CEO and Digital Business Leadership Research team. Mr. Smith covers digital business, organizational politics, the cross-industry impact of disruptive innovation and strategic planning. During his tenure with Gartner, he has led the Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Retail, Energy and Utilities, Media, Government and Education teams. He has also served as the Retail agenda manager, the cross-industry Key Initiative Leader and currently serves as the Executive Leadership, Digital Business Transformation Key Initiative Leader.

Previous experience

In addition to his 17.5 years with Gartner, Mr. Smith has more than 18 years of sales and marketing experience in the grocery retail, consumer products and advertising industries. Prior to joining Gartner, he was VP of marketing for The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., a division of Ahold. Before that, he held senior marketing and sales management roles at The Quaker Oats Co., and was employed in advertising account management at William Esty Advertising.

Professional background

Ahold USA, VP, Marketing - The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., 3 years

The Quaker Oats Co., Director, Kids Ready-to-Eat Cereals, 12 years

William Esty Advertising, Account Executive, 3 years

Areas of coverage
  • CIO Innovation Leadership

  • Executive Leadership: Digital Business (Retired)

  • Executive Leadership: Enterprise Strategic Planning and Execution (Retired)

Education

M.B.A., Marketing, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University

B.A., Writing, Saint Lawrence University

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Top Issues That I Help Clients Address

01

Identifying digital business transformation strategies

02

Digital business acceleration

03

Organizational Politics

04

Driving value with innovation

05

Leveraging Cross-industry digital strategies