Roela Santos, chief marketing and communications officer at Science Applications International Corp., has won WashingtonExec’s 2020 Chief Officer Award for Public Company CMO.
In its inaugural year, the Chief Officer Awards luncheon was held June 17 as a virtual live-streamed program to accommodate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations about in-person events. Over 500 people watched as C-suite executives in both industry and government were recognized for their innovation, expertise, impact, and thought leadership.
Santos has over 25 years of integrated communications and marketing experience working in IT, cybersecurity, defense and high-tech industries companies, according to her LinkedIn.
As chief marketing and communications officer at SAIC, Santos expanded her team’s role by initiating national campaigns and enhancing customer group-level communications.
“It’s been exciting to build a marketing function that helps drive demand, productizes differentiated solutions, and partners with business development to position SAIC on contract wins,” Santos previously said, reflecting on her time at SAIC. “I’m also proud that the communications and marketing team has stepped up as our company tackled new exciting opportunities (such as two large, game-changing acquisitions and a CEO transition) and new challenges (such as COVID).”
Santos has received several awards recognizing her leadership, including the International Association of Business Communicators’ Communicator Award and a Silver Quill Award.
She has a bachelor’s degree in business management from Loyola Marymount University, an MBA in marketing and IT from UC Irvine and a master’s degree in PR/corporate communications from Georgetown University, where she lectures a program on developing effective communications plans.