Leigh Anne Cappello

Leigh Anne knew she had found her place in life and work when she was asked to help lead a team of designers, engineers, technologists and marketers to think about the Future of Play at Hasbro. With over 20 in the toy and game industry, Leigh Anne was a passionate student of play. To her, it’s what makes the world go round. She views play as a natural extension of curiosity and a critical component of innovation. Play equals experiment, try, fail and try again. From play, we grow.

Leigh Anne has over 30 years of growth from play under her belt, pulling on her critical thinking, storytelling and business strategy skills to solve problems, grow businesses and scale opportunities in a variety of capacities ranging from senior leadership roles in the health services industry, to co-founding a high tech start-up, and consulting with large and small healthcare institutions on business model innovation. As a futurist and VP of Future Thinking at Hasbro, Leigh Anne and her team mined the world for inspiration related to play and social engagement, generating insights  in the areas of parenting, education, child development, creativity, aging and more, and turning those insights into opportunities.

After Hasbro, Leigh Anne connected with a colleague from the MIT Media Lab to co-found the world’s first ever social robot for the home called Jibo, initially designed to help seniors live healthier more independent lives. After Jibo, she became the Director of the Patient Experience Lab at the Business Innovation Factory. There she dove into her passion for design thinking and human centered approaches to innovation, specifically targeting the underserved populations. She took this inspiration with her to Benchmark Senior Living where as the SVP of Brand Strategy and Marketing, overseeing all marketing activities as well as customer experience and innovation, she led the company through a branding, communication and storytelling overhaul.

Leigh Anne is lifelong learner, a passionate leader, and a savvy businesswoman.  She is an advisor for a high tech healthcare company called Pillo Health, targeting the aging population and she sits on two small boards is RI, an innovative non-profit called RIElderInfo.com, and the Montessori Children’s house, a private elementary school in Providence. In all of her roles, she says she ‘gets to help great people do great work.’

She lives in Barrington RI with her husband Mike, daughter Katie and dog Jax. She loves to be on the water in the summer and on the mountains in the winter, and dances (and plays) every chance she gets.