Catherine Hernandez - Blades

SVP, Marketing and Communications, SAIC

Catherine Hernandez-Blades is an award-winning corporate leader in Marketing, Communications, Government Relations, CommTech, Digital Transformation, Change Management and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) with more than 30 years of professional experience, including C-suite roles at three Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, she served as the youngest executive director by gubernatorial appointment in modern Louisiana history when running the Louisiana Seafood Marketing and Promotions Board advocating on behalf of the state’s $2B seafood industry. She specializes in large-scale turnarounds for companies in highly regulated industries.

She is an acknowledged expert in crisis management, specifically in navigating complex legal matters when stakes are at their highest such as in durative and executive personal conduct litigation. She has a passion for solving complex problems and a reputation for developing future-focused, sustainable solutions driven by data, which are flawlessly implemented and have a significant bottom-line impact.

Currently, Catherine is the SVP of Marketing and Communications at SAIC, a company that delivers innovative and transformational solutions to the U.S. government in the civilian and defense markets. She is responsible for driving SAIC’s brand recognition and reputation, engaging the company’s 26,000 employees, and leading the company’s ESG and change management efforts. She also runs a revenue generating organization responsible for providing Marketing and communications services to government agencies that require highly cleared personnel and materials.

Prior to joining SAIC, she served in the Chief ESG, CMO and CCO roles at Aflac and as CMCO of Flextronics. Earlier in her career, she served in leadership roles at Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. In addition, she is an experienced non-profit director, having held several board chairmanships, including for Court Appointed Special Advocates in New Orleans and Operation Homefront, a national organization that supports military families and is one of SAIC’s longtime philanthropic partners.

Among Catherine’s extensive achievements, she is an Emmy winner, and in the PR News Hall of Fame, PR Week Hall of Femme and Women in Communications Hall of Fame. She has been recognized by Forbes, PRWeek, Latino Leaders, and at Davos and Cannes. She is LatinaStyle’s 2019 Executive of the year and has been named to the Forbes global list of Top 50 Most Influential CMOs. She is a Loyola University Environmental Communications Fellow and holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.