Neha Saxena:Bringing Multicultural and Multisector Experience to the Forefront of Sustainability Marketing

Every day, the global conversation shifts—carbon footprints are no longer an afterthought, and sustainability isn’t a distant goal, but an urgent mandate. As industries look for ways to adapt, innovate, and thrive while preserving the planet, the line between technology and the environment is growing ever closer. From AI-powered climate-tech platforms to green construction aggregators, the race is on to build a future that is not just sustainable, but regenerative.

 

Amid this groundswell of innovation, one voice is helping steer the message—and the mission—with clarity and conviction. As Head of Marketing at Accacia, Neha Saxena is at the helm of a climate-tech AI platform and green construction aggregator, turning complex emissions data and net-zero targets into stories that move markets and mindsets.

 

Neha Saxena’s career spans multiple industries and geographies, yet her leadership has consistently been guided by a clear set of principles: empathy, clarity, and adaptability. Whether she was shaping consumer experience at Charles & Keith across APAC or leading sustainability marketing at Accacia on a global scale, Neha has remained committed to listening with intent, aligning teams around a shared vision, and adjusting strategies in response to cultural and market nuances. These core values have served as her compass across sectors ranging from FMCG and retail to the rapidly evolving world of PropTech.

 

Leading a Revolution in Emissions Tech

For Neha, the most defining project of her career has been leading the company’s integrated marketing transformation. Unlike previous roles where the focus was on building brands within established categories, Accacia presented a rare, ground-up opportunity—to craft not just a brand, but an entirely new category: Sustainability Tech.

 

At Accacia, sustainability wasn’t treated as a marketing angle—it was the product. Neha positioned the platform as more than just a tool for carbon accounting; she framed it as a partner in real estate’s decarbonization journey. By fusing climate data with compelling storytelling, she engaged key stakeholders to not only measure emissions but reimagine their role in shaping a low-carbon future—through smarter materials, greener buildings, and proactive energy strategies.

 

This role marked a fundamental shift for Neha: from marketing consumerist products to championing sustainability as something deeply aspirational. It became a confluence of her values—purpose-led innovation, measurable impact, and using marketing not just to sell, but to mobilize change.

 

The Predictive Horizon of Personalization

Neha believes that AI is poised to radically transform personalization—from being reactive to truly predictive. Over the next five years, she sees hyper-personalized experiences becoming the norm across consumer goods, retail, real estate, and even healthcare. By leveraging real-time behaviors, contextual triggers, and subtle micro-indicators, brands will create journeys that anticipate user needs before they’re explicitly expressed. Whether it’s auto-replenishment of household staples in FMCG, personalized colourways in fashion, or region-specific green solutions in real estate, Neha envisions a marketing future where AI doesn’t just serve the customer—but intuitively understands them.

 

Turning Insight into Action

Reflecting on real-world impact, Neha recalls her time at PepsiCo, where AI-powered cart analysis revealed a surprising drop-off point in the eCommerce purchase journey. Acting on these insights, the team restructured product detail pages and created platform-specific content at scale, driving a more than 40% uplift in conversion rates. At Accacia, a leading sustainability tech platform, she applied AI-driven intelligence to create impactful, localized narratives—leveraging geographic sustainability data to tailor content strategies. This enabled hyper-local messaging and more efficient media spending, showcasing how data and storytelling, when purposefully fused, can drive both meaningful environmental impact and marketing performance.

 

Scaling eCommerce Across Different Terrains

Neha has successfully driven eCommerce expansion across both emerging and developed markets—a feat that demands nuanced strategy. In developed markets, she notes, precision is everything. These regions benefit from robust data infrastructures and more mature consumer journeys, allowing for advanced segmentation, predictive modeling, and lifecycle marketing. Meanwhile, in emerging markets, the game shifts. The focus becomes accessibility, education, and building consumer trust. Here, mobile-first user experiences, simplified messaging, vernacular content, and strong marketplace partnerships play a pivotal role. According to Neha, success lies in recognizing that “scale” has different meanings depending on context—and designing strategies that honor those distinctions without compromising agility or innovation.

 

Bridging the Old and New

When it comes to digital transformation in legacy organizations, Neha brings a grounded, results-oriented approach. Reflecting on her experience at Abbott, she recalls how entrenched systems often resist change—not out of defiance, but due to sheer operational complexity. Her solution was to begin small and smart: launching modular, minimum viable products (MVPs) that could demonstrate quick ROI. These early wins weren’t just about metrics—they became persuasive stories that brought skeptical stakeholders on board. Neha’s strength lay in translating technical shifts into language the business could understand and rally behind. She framed transformation not as a disruption, but as a shared opportunity for reinvention.

 

Leading With Cultural Intelligence

Having lived and worked across India, Singapore, and global roles, Neha’s leadership style has become a blend of cultural intelligence and mindful presence. Her years in Singapore taught her the power of structure, foresight, and intentional planning, while her experiences in India instilled in her a deep appreciation for adaptability, resilience, and the ability to thrive in dynamic environments.

 

But beyond professional milestones, Neha’s approach is deeply rooted in personal awareness. A long-time practitioner of mindfulness, she sees leadership not just as a strategic function but as an act of conscious presence. Before making decisions, she pauses. Before speaking, she listens. This reflective practice allows her to notice what isn’t said—the unsurfaced concerns, the quiet tensions, the emotional undercurrents within teams.

 

Rather than lead with assumptions, Neha begins with empathy—tuning into people, cultures, and the moment. This ability to create psychologically safe spaces, where every voice is honored and every perspective matters, is what sets her apart. By balancing global performance standards with a meditative awareness of local context and human dynamics, Neha leads teams that not only deliver but thrive—with clarity, compassion, and purpose at their core.

 

The INSEAD Catalyst

Neha credits her MBA journey at INSEAD as a pivotal moment in her leadership evolution. Immersed in a classroom that brought together more than 90 nationalities, Neha was elected Vice President of the Student Council by over 500 peers—a role that demanded not only organizational acumen but also cultural fluency and emotional intelligence. It was here that she refined her systems thinking and learned to lead from the middle, rallying diverse voices into unified action. For Neha, innovation is no longer just about disruptive ideas—it’s about cultivating environments where bold thinking can thrive, evolve, and deliver collective value. Her INSEAD experience laid the foundation for the way she now influences global business strategy: inclusive, intentional, and always impact-driven.

 

Curiosity, Code, and Creative Instinct

According to Neha, high-performing marketing teams today must possess three essential traits: curiosity, agility, and cross-functional fluency. The traditional silos of brand versus data no longer hold up in a world where machine learning and behavioral analytics shape every campaign. Neha believes marketers now need to oscillate effortlessly between audience archetypes and algorithmic insights. In her view, the best teams are those that stay hungry to learn, adapt quickly to evolving tech landscapes, and operate seamlessly across creative, analytical, and commercial functions. For Neha, excellence in marketing lies at the intersection of adaptability and depth.

 

Striking the Modern Marketing Balance

Neha views creativity and performance metrics not as competing forces but as complementary engines driving marketing excellence. At Accacia, she’s pioneered a collaborative approach that brings content creators and data scientists into the same room—starting campaign planning with insight and ending with measurable impact. Her philosophy is clear: data should sharpen creative instinct, not suppress it. Whether it’s storytelling for sustainability or positioning a new tech platform, Neha ensures that every narrative is grounded in purpose and every performance indicator reflects meaningful engagement. In an age increasingly shaped by automation, her leadership continues to champion both art and analytics.

 

Marketing at the Edge of Sustainability and Immersion

Neha is deeply inspired by the convergence of sustainability technology and immersive storytelling. For her, this intersection represents a seismic shift in how brands can engage audiences—not just to inform, but to transform behavior. She’s particularly excited about innovations like VR-powered green building walkthroughs, which bring future-forward sustainability visions to life, and blockchain-enabled material traceability, which adds layers of accountability and trust to environmental claims. In Neha’s view, these technologies elevate marketing from message delivery to emotional resonance, blending the rational with the sensory in ways that truly move people. It’s marketing that not only speaks—but acts.

 

Mantra for Marketing Leaders of Tomorrow

When asked what she’d tell aspiring marketers hoping to lead global transformation, Neha offers a succinct but profound mantra: own your voice, but stay in beta. She believes that impactful marketing leadership requires the confidence to take a stand and the humility to keep evolving. For Neha, transformation isn’t a one-time leap—it’s an iterative journey powered by curiosity, clarity, and adaptability. Her advice reflects a leadership style rooted in listening just as much as leading, and a deep understanding that global relevance is earned through continuous refinement, not static perfection.

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