Gwen Migita
Gwen Migita is a thought leader at the crossroads of sustainability and socio-economic equity among large corporations and pro-business advocacy organizations. Her work involves developing powerful programmatic strategy, focused organizational alignment, and topline growth strategies toward a net social good. Gwen’s early work was covered in Harvard and MIT case studies on the business value of sustainability, balanced scorecards in operations, and the service profit chain. Her initiatives were integral to a government relations-oriented approach to corporate responsibility. Operating under the business development functions, Gwen contributed to gaining new operating licenses from rural and urban policymakers seeking to expand to new industries for a stronger local economy. Over a 17-year career at a $12B Fortune 500 company, Gwen contributed to market and consumer insights for international expansion and emerging jurisdictions in the U.S. She later served as the business manager and advisor to the Executive Vice President of Government Relations & Corporate Communications. She handled the running of the business, which involved finance, budgeting, planning, people, and operations, and led the business unit through rapid growth, followed by downsizing, given economic headwinds and changes in ownership structures. During severe business headwinds, Gwen led the development of a best-in-class environmental and social sustainability strategy. Its unique grassroots and ROI driven approach was considered a model program among private equity owners and industry peers. She later doubled down on evolving the company’s long-standing social safeguards, community relations, and diversity programs into an issues and outcomes strategy. Gwen addressed the most material issues in the industry, sought systemic interventions, and collective action across unusual partnerships to confront human trafficking and houselessness while prioritizing the integration of immigrant communities into local economies. Her 25-year career began with local and country-based market research and communications in the Asia-Pacific and Southwest U.S. She developed successful products geared toward consumer spending and visitation habits among targeted travel segments, media consumption studies, and destination travelers’ satisfaction surveys. Gwen opened and expanded offices in the West Pacific and U.S. Southwest for a 30-year-old advertising agency seeking to extend its polling, public relations and interactive services to new clientele. Gwen successfully established a foothold in new markets through her extensive networking, thought leadership, and high-visibility professional association roles as President of American Marketing Association chapters in several cities. In 2021, Gwen shifted back into management consulting to further her craft with business transformation, data analytics, operations, and supply chain experts across consumer retail, manufacturing, energy, and financial sectors. Gwen served as an executive business manager and senior advisor to a team of 30 associates that completed 200 client engagements in several years. Across the firm, client satisfaction and loyalty (Net Promoter Scores) are 2x above competitors. Thus, associate engagement, operational processes, and management expectations are high in a strong leadership culture. Gwen is a graduate of the University of Washington with a concentration in marketing and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas executive program. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and active in the Pacific Southwest Chapter. She serves on the Advisory Board Network of Sustainable Brands and is a board member of Climate Solutions. Gwen is a TedX speaker and expert presenter on the topics of ROI and sustainability, governance, and the intersection of social and economic equity and climate action.
Sessions
Sustainability targets are often left out of big business transformation initiatives entirely. Sustainability priorities typically aren’t shared by other departments. Sustainability KPIs aren’t always respected as indicators of business performance. And now,... see more
Track: Governance and Metrics for ROI and Impact
This workshop will kick off by summarizing best practices as laid out in a recent 3 part virtual masterclass on this topic hosted by Sustainable Brands in partnership with Valutus. Following the... see more