B2 Awards Top Jury

ALISSA GAVRILESCU

Managing Director, Segment Marketing
and Messaging Strategy
CIGNA Corporation

BIO

Alissa Gavrilescu is the Managing Director, Segment Marketing for Cigna Healthcare. In this role, Alissa is accountable for the Marketing Strategy for Cigna healthcare and Individual and Family Plans, Field Marketing, Messaging Strategy and Marketing Analytics. 

Alissa joined The Cigna Group in June 2018 with more than two decades of experience developing successful digital, product, and performance marketing strategies that deliver growth and earnings diversification. Prior to leading segment and messaging marketing at Cigna, Alissa served as the leader for B2B Lifecycle marketing Center of Excellence, delivering growth marketing campaigns, marketing analytics, email marketing, and marketing automation for Cigna and Evernorth. She also previously led product marketing for The Cigna Group’s specialty solutions portfolio, driving product pipeline, launch, differentiation, and penetration. 

Prior to The Cigna Group, Alissa spent 10 years at Solstice Benefits where she led the marketing function and the public sector proposal unit. Additionally, Alissa previously led regional marketing at both Prudential and Better Homes and Gardens’ Real Estate sectors. 

Alissa previously served on the board for the Center for Plain Language. She holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Florida and lives in South Florida. 

Q&A with Alissa Gavrilescu

Please provide one word that defines great B2B brand leadership today.   

Human. 

Please share one trend you are watching closely.  

I suspect we’re all looking at AI – it’s application to our work but also the impact it’s making on consumer experiences, information consumption, and human experience as a whole. Beyond the AI, which is obvious, I am deeply interested in human centered growth. Personalization, humanized brand experiences, and how brands can earn the trust of our audiences in new ways. 

In one sentence – What will it take to make an entry worthy of a B2 Award?  

Impact: B2B marketing accelerates business goals and audience experience. I am eager to see what entries do that well, and how they approached business challenges in unique ways. 

What advice would you offer to teams preparing submissions for the B2 Awards?  

Enter! It’s a great opportunity to get feedback from a diverse group of marketing leaders from different industries and career experiences. There is value far beyond the award. 

Why do awards programs like the B2 Awards matter to the health and progress of the marketing industry?  

Consumer brands are generally highly visible in society – from Superbowl ads to being part of big cultural moments. This is a great place where B2B marketing can be showcased and celebrated… and to connect B2B thinkers and doers – recognizing the art and science of B2B marketing, and connect this community of likeminded marketing gurus. 

How have your expectations of great marketing evolved over the past few years— and how does that shape how you evaluate work today?  

B2B marketing has gotten closer to consumer marketing; improvements in data and technology, personalization, humanizing our buying committees and thinking about out audiences less like a job title and more like a complete person. 

When reviewing submissions, what signals tell you that a program is driving real, sustainable business growth?  

Clear impact to business goals – whether that’s improving brand favorability and consideration or creating a healthy sustainable pipeline. I also think the development of a growth ecosystem is critical – alignment with sales, finance, and technology are needed for sustainable, long-term growth, not just moment-in-time results. 

How do you balance creative ambition with commercial accountability when assessing great B2B work?  

Both are needed. I believe B2B marketing sits at the intersection of art and science. Too much science and we lose the heart and soul of our brands… and our ability to connect authentically with our audiences. Too much art and we have fun creatie that doesn’t drive business impact. It’s not either/or, it’s both. 

An effective performance evaluation framework is critical to show the value a marketing campaign delivered. What type of evaluation framework do you use when assessing marketing efforts? What metrics and KPIs will you expect entrants to provide in their submissions?  

We need leading and lagging indicators. Channel performance, engagement measures, and marketing insights are all important to know the marketing tools are effective and optimized… but those need to add up to business KPIs that sales, finance, and key partners align to as value delivery. 

What lessons from your own leadership journey most influence how you assess excellence?  

Progress over perfection. B2B marketing can be complex (all the systems, data messes or lack of data, technology, etc) can keep us from moving forward because the task feels too great. You need to pick a place to start and go. What can you do with imperfect systems? What bridges can you build as you move from Point A to Point B? 

Get to know the 2026 B2 Top Jurors.