Kris Lichter

Director of Marketing, Smarter Cities, IBM

Kris is currently global director of IBM’s public sector and smarter cities marketing and communications organization. In this role, Kris leads a worldwide team that connects IBM’s clients and partners with the company’s deep portfolio of smarter public sector and cities solutions and expertise that serve the education, government, healthcare, life sciences, and smarter cities segments. 

Prior to this role, Kris led IBM’s main global innovation initiatives on behalf of the Chairman’s Office, engaging the company’s people and technology resources in collaboration with a diverse range of global leaders to address the world’s largest issues and opportunities. Programs under his leadership included the Global Innovation Outlook (GIO) and the Genographic Project (in partnership with the National Geographic Society). 

Kris has an extensive background in developing and leading large-scale global alliances and projects. Additional positions within IBM include leader of its life sciences alliances team and a program manager for its emerging technologies business development and marketing programs. 

In addition to his time at IBM, Kris has been a director of operations at Internet Capital Group (ICG), a director for Palm Computing’s ventures fund, and has worked at America Online (AOL) and other organizations. He is also an active angel investor. 

Kris holds a bachelors of arts in biology and economics from Bucknell University, and a masters of business administration from Georgetown University. He currently resides in San Diego, California, with his wife and two children.