Mary Ann leads the global organization responsible for driving the Hitachi brand through compelling storytelling. As vice president and Chief Communications Officer, Mary Ann is responsible for the company’s brand and creative services, global public relations, investor relations, industry analyst relations, social media, executive and internal communications, global events and customer advocacy groups. Prior to joining Hitachi in 2009, Gallo led Global Communications for virtualization leader, VMware. Prior to VMware, Mary Ann was vice president and group head of the Enterprise Software and Security Group at Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations agency. Her clients at Edelman Silicon Valley included TIBCO, Symantec, iPass and start-ups in the security space. Mary Ann’s 20-plus years in marketing and journalism fields have also included several senior marketing roles at technology startups like Luminous Networks, an optical networking company and Resonate, a software performance management company. Mary Ann began her professional career as a radio and television broadcast reporter and leverages those storytelling skills today. Mary Ann was a reporter/anchor for the CNN-radio affiliate, KLIV in Silicon Valley and was an on-air television reporter for CBS-affiliate, KBIM-TV in New Mexico. Mary Ann holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism from San Jose State University. She has also completed executive leadership programs at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth, IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and the WOMEN Unlimited LEAD program. Gallo is an avid proponent of diversity issues and founded the Women of Hitachi program. She also serves on the Board of Advisors for an athletic dance fitness program featured at gyms and fitness centers around the world, U-Jam Fitness.