ABOUT
Teresa Barreira is a transformational business and marketing leader recognized for driving growth at scale, reinventing organizations, and building the teams that make transformation work. Over 25 years across technology, consulting, and digital services, she has built a reputation for turning bold strategy into measurable outcomes — and for leading change that lasts. At the forefront of the AI era, she is helping enterprises harness AI not merely as a tool, but as a catalyst for rethinking how organizations work, compete, and grow.
INNOVATION THROUGH LEADERSHIP
Reimagining Business for the AI Era
As Global Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Publicis Sapient, Teresa has led the company through two full reinventions — first positioning it as a Digital Business Transformation Leader, then driving a complete pivot to an AI-led, product-first enterprise. She co-authored the company’s vision and repositioned it as a People + Product organization, redefining how it competes, sells, and grows. The result: more than doubling company revenue, $3B+ in marketing-sourced pipeline, $650M in bookings, and 60% year-over-year growth in brand awareness.
Under Teresa’s leadership, marketing itself became a product — reimagined as an AI-first capability where every marketer builds, trains, and deploys their own AI agents. Her team builds 5+ AI agents per week, has achieved 65–85% speed improvements across core workflows, and reduced manual tasks by up to 90%. She introduced the “AI- First Approach” as the new way of working, transforming marketers from tool users into tool builders and establishing one of the first truly AI-native marketing organizations. The results are measurable: 50% faster time to market, 40% increase in output, 30% reduction in costs, and 35% increase in lead conversion.
Growth Through Innovation
At Deloitte Consulting, Teresa repositioned marketing from a support function into a growth engine — and delivered. By redesigning the marketing organization and converting Deloitte’s solutions portfolio into scalable revenue streams, she drove billions in revenue growth and helped the firm achieve over $15 billion in total revenue growth during her tenure. She closed a long-standing brand awareness gap between Consulting and Deloitte’s other businesses, and rebuilt marketing as a data-driven, outcome-focused function aligned directly to business strategy.
Earlier at Accenture, Teresa played a pivotal role in shifting the company from a services-led to a solution-led growth model — productizing Accenture’s portfolio and orchestrating global go-to-market programs that drove growth at twice the market rate. She led marketing across several industries and practices, establishing Accenture as a solutions-led enterprise. And before that at Workbrain, she defined the product and company strategy from the ground up — raising capital, building strategic partnerships, creating a new market category (ERM) while doubling revenue.
Teresa’s foundation was built at IBM, where she spent a decade in global marketing leadership across IBM’s Software Group — leading product marketing for enterprise solutions spanning CRM, Business Intelligence, and e-commerce. As an early move in global expansion, she led the launch and establishment of IBM’s Software Group in Portugal — building the brand, market presence, and partner ecosystem from the ground up and establishing IBM as the leading enterprise software brand in the region. It was at IBM that Teresa developed her signature approach: leading with issues, creating markets, executing with speed, embracing reinvention, and driving change.
Visionary Leadership
Throughout her career, Teresa has been described as a visionary and transformative leader — someone who brings clarity to complexity, inspires belief in the possible, and turns strategy into action. Her approach blends bold ideas with rapid execution, driving change not by mandate but by building belief, shared purpose, and conviction across leadership teams.
Her thought leadership has been featured in Forbes, CNBC, Adweek, Digiday, Variety, and Business Insider. She speaks regularly at SXSW, VivaTech, WebSummit, and ANA on topics including leadership, AI transformation, and the future of marketing. She serves on the Board of Católica University in Lisbon (ranked top 20 business schools in Europe) and the Dean’s Advisory Council at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
Impact Through Storytelling
Beyond transformation and growth, Teresa conceived and executive-produced a series of three documentary films — Never Done, Forgiving Johnny, and Doc Albany — each directed by a two-time Academy Award winner. The films explore the positive human impact of technology, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and LA Docs, and received multiple Clio Awards. Never Done was selected as the centerpiece of a dedicated full episode of CNBC’s Marketing.Media.Money — leading to a full corporate profile of Publicis Sapient.