Cris Gardner

Cris Gardner is VP, Futurecasting at AARP where she is responsible for helping AARP make sense of and respond to emergent future trends and disruptive forces.  She surveils a variety of different trends from artificial intelligence to shifts in trust to healthcare disruption to fanbases.  By drawing out the implications of each of these disruptive changes she helps shape AARP’s strategy. She started her career here at ASI where she led the data, research and integrated marketing functions. At AARP she has held operations and strategy roles and was also instrumental in shaping AARP’s early innovation capabilities.

Prior to AARP, Cris came from Euro RSCG, an international marketing agency. There, as VP Client Services, she led database design and development, research, modeling and segmentation initiatives on behalf of key clients. She has worked with clients such as Sprint, Guinness, Saab, Citibank, Liberty Mutual, the NFL and others to improve their customer acquisition, retention and sales effectiveness efforts.

Prior to her marketing career, Cris studied and taught in the social sciences. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she received her Masters of Anthropology.

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