Laura Desmond is an operating partner at Providence and CEO of Smartly.io.

She is also the founder and CEO of Eagle Vista Partners, a strategic advisory and venture investing firm serving the marketing, technology and digital industries.

Prior to joining Providence in 2018, Ms. Desmond was chief revenue officer of Publicis Groupe and chief executive officer of Starcom Mediavest Group, the #1 media and marketing services agency brand globally for five straight years under her leadership. While CEO, the business at SMG more than doubled and successfully pivoted to a digitally centric organization focused on emerging channels, data, analytics and content.

She led a diverse team of 6,500 employees across more than 100 offices who bring unconventional thinking and a passion for the art and science of marketing strategy, media investment, digital, data and analytics.

Ms. Desmond has worked with some of the biggest and most successful marketers worldwide, including Samsung, Coca-Cola, Visa, Bank of America, P&G, and a host of emerging online consumer brands such as Airbnb, Spotify, EA Sports and Twitter. In her work, Ms. Desmond has forged a new breed of partnership with media companies such as Google, Facebook, Acxiom, Comscore and Tencent.

Ms. Desmond is a past chair of the Advertising Council and serves on the boards of Providence portfolio companies DoubleVerify and Smartly.io.

She also serves on the boards of Adobe Systems and WBEZ/Sun Times Business Council.