As the tech industry accelerates, the people shaping how its biggest ideas reach the world are becoming increasingly important. From AI and robotics to industrial technology and global tech brands, communications leaders help companies build trust, navigate change, and make complex innovations matter to wider audiences.
Here are ten communications leaders worth watching now, each bringing a distinct perspective to the evolving tech and deeptech landscape.
Stephanie Roberts, Hitachi (USA)
Stephanie Roberts is the Head of Communications at Hitachi in the Americas, a region with approximately $11 billion in annual revenue. During more than eight years with the Hitachi Group, she progressed from being a one-person communications team within a single business unit to building a global branding and communications function from scratch.
In 2026, Roberts has taken on a broader regional communications remit as Hitachi expands its work across AI, digital infrastructure and industrial technology.
Olga Golovina, Humanoid (UK)
Olga Golovina leads global communications at Humanoid, the leading humanoid-first, full-stack robotics unicorn in the UK and continental Europe. In July 2026, Humanoid announced a $152 million Series A at a $1.35 billion valuation, marking a major milestone for Europe’s emerging humanoid robotics sector. Today, Humanoid has established a regular presence in leading international media, including Forbes and Reuters, and on the stages of high-profile industry events, from CES 2026 in Las Vegas to Sifted Summit 2026 in London. Together, these put Humanoid in the same league as US robotics unicorns and long-established industrial names.
Golovina has spent more than a decade in tech and business communications across Europe, the UK and the US. At Humanoid, she handles one of the hardest parts of the job in robotics: explaining the complex industrial technology to investors, partners and people beyond the robotics community. In 2026, Golovina was recognised in the PR Communicator of the Year category at the Women in Marketing CEE Awards for bringing European humanoid robotics onto the global stage.
Amanda Coffee, Higgsfield AI (USA)
Amanda Coffee is a communications leader with 15+ years of experience in storytelling and executive thought leadership, now heading PR at Higgsfield AI, an extremely well-known creative AI startup.
Her move to Higgsfield in 2026 comes as the company scales rapidly: Higgsfield reported more than $1 billion in annualised revenue run rate in September, just 18 months after launching its AI-native creative suite. Coffee leads communications for a fast-growing AI business whose story extends beyond new models and features into marketing, enterprise adoption, and the future of creative work.
Kendall Pennington, 1X (USA)
Kendall Pennington leads communications at 1X, the AI and robotics company behind a humanoid robot designed for home use. Pennington focuses on telling the story of a technology that is moving from research labs into people’s homes.
As 1X moves closer to bringing humanoid robots into everyday life, Pennington continues to build public understanding of what these robots can do in domestic settings and how they could become part of everyday life.
François Lesage, Mistral AI (France)
François Lesage leads communications across EMEA at Mistral AI, the French AI company seeking to establish Europe as a serious contender in the global AI race.
The stakes have risen sharply during his time at Mistral. In September 2026, the company raised €3 billion at a valuation exceeding €21 billion, in one of the most significant milestones yet for Europe’s AI sector. In May 2026, Lesage was part of the communications team behind Mistral AI’s highly anticipated first AI Now Summit in Paris, which brought together more than 1,500 innovators, industry leaders, and builders and 70 speakers, sharing their AI journey and lessons.
Amanda Carl-Pratt, Google DeepMind (USA)
Amanda Carl-Pratt leads external communications at Google DeepMind, helping shape how one of the world’s leading AI research organisations communicates its breakthroughs and approach to responsible AI. For more than 18 years, including work at IBM and Google, Carl-Pratt has translated complex technical stories into compelling narratives that resonate well with audiences.
In 2026, Carl-Pratt was named to Ragan’s Top Women in Communications list after being included in PRNEWS’ Top Women in PR 2025. Her work has included shaping communications for Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis at major international forums, including the World Economic Forum in Davos and the Paris AI Action Summit, as the global debate over AI’s potential and risks intensifies.
Cole Garry, Runway (USA)
Cole Garry leads communications and PR at Runway, the generative AI company developing tools for filmmaking, creative production and, increasingly, robotics. Before moving in-house in 2025, he was a senior director and later vice president at tech PR agency SBS Comms, whose clients include Cloudflare and GitHub, and where he worked on the Runway account.
In 2026, Runway reached $200 million in annual recurring revenue, doubling in five months. The company has also expanded into world models and robotics, introduced DIFFUSE to connect AI-native creative talent with brands and studios, and launched App Studio for building custom creative applications without coding. Garry leads communications during a period when Runway is reaching new audiences, from filmmakers and advertising agencies to enterprise customers and robotics developers.
Joe Paluska, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (USA)
Joe Paluska is Chief Marketing Officer at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), one of the world’s best-funded fusion energy companies. At CFS, he oversees marketing and communications for a company developing technology that could fundamentally change how electricity is produced.
One of Paluska’s current projects is a public awareness campaign building toward 2027, which CFS has likened to a “lunar lander” moment for fusion. To introduce fusion energy to audiences outside the scientific and energy communities, he has brought CFS to the World Economic Forum, Cannes Lions and CES. The campaign coincides with CFS’s construction of SPARC, an experimental fusion machine the company plans to switch on in 2027. Communicating the progress of a technology still years away from commercial deployment requires balancing public interest with realistic expectations about what fusion energy can deliver.
Mylene Mangalindan, NVIDIA (USA)
Mylene Mangalindan is Vice President of Corporate Communications at NVIDIA, where she oversees global communications. A former technology reporter at The Wall Street Journal and partner at Brunswick Group, she joined NVIDIA in 2023 and has since taken on an expanding remit that now includes corporate and enterprise communications, analyst relations, social media and influencer marketing.
Mangalindan’s role extends from major corporate announcements and strategic partnerships to the reputational challenges surrounding NVIDIA’s rapid growth. The company faces scrutiny over US restrictions on AI chip exports, its business in China and the wider implications of increasingly powerful AI systems. She was named to PRovoke Media’s Influence 100 in both 2025 and 2026, as NVIDIA became a company whose announcements are closely followed by investors, governments and technology companies around the world.
Sasha de Marigny, Anthropic (USA)
Sasha de Marigny is Chief Brand and Communications Officer at Anthropic, the company behind Claude and one of the leading developers of frontier AI models. She oversees communications, editorial, brand, creative and product marketing. Before Anthropic, she led brand communications at Stripe, where she helped build Stripe Press, and at Thrive Capital.
Sasha de Marigny helped bring Anthropic into the spotlight with its first Super Bowl advertising campaign, developed with creative agency Mother. The campaign challenged the idea of advertising inside AI assistants and went on to win the Film Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. Beyond brand marketing, de Marigny oversees communications around Anthropic’s AI safety commitments and its relationships with policymakers, businesses and the public.
