David Yaun oversees IBM’s global thought leadership and influencer engagement strategy, including the company’s editorial content platforms and executive speaker bureau. He also manages the content strategy for IBM c-suite offices and executive briefing rooms, producing unique video programming for three oversized ultra-high-definition displays at corporate headquarters.
He and his team draw upon IBM’s unique ability to convene a diverse ecosystem of business, academic and government influencers to inform and shape provocative long- and short-form content that helps leaders better understand the intersections between technology, institutions and society at large.
From 2014 to 2016, David managed all media and external relations, employee engagement and executive communications teams for IBM’s portfolio of six key growth business units, including IBM Watson, Watson Health, Watson IoT, IBM Analytics, IBM Commerce and IBM Research.
He spent six years as vice president, global industries marketing, driving IBM’s go-to-market strategies targeting 18 major industry segments worldwide. He and his team played a central role in the design and execution of IBM’s award-winning “Smarter Planet” strategy, including Smarter Cities.
From 2004-2008, David served as IBM’s lead executive responsible for conceiving and implementing a broad range of global collaborative innovation programs. Three innovation programs that he managed or made major contributions to were named among the 100 Iconic Moments in IBM’s history.
David launched the company’s annual Global Innovation Outlook program and The Genographic Project, a joint research program with the National Geographic Society that mapped how humankind populated the planet. He managed the development of 10 new major business opportunities resulting from IBM’s pioneering “InnovationJam” program, an open, collaborative brainstorming program launched during the summer of 2006. Within three years, these investments delivered more than a billion dollars in incremental revenues to IBM.
A graduate of St. Bonaventure University in western New York, he holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communication. He co-chairs the Advisory Council for the university’s Jandoli School of Communications.
