Torod Neptune will be honoured with the Individual Achievement SABRE Award on 28 May 2020, at the Virtual North American SABRE Awards.

Neptune is Lenovo’s worldwide group vice president & chief communications officer, joining the company in 2017 after spending almost seven years with Verizon, where he oversaw communications for each of the company’s major business units, rising to the role of corporate VP of corporate communications.

During his 25-year career, Neptune has emerged as one of the industry’s most effective change agents — championing the business impact of communications, to restructuring for the modern era of communications, to calling on agencies to improve diversity and inclusion.

“Torod’s principled and results-focused leadership has made him and his team invaluable in helping me lead Lenovo’s ongoing business transformation,” said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo chairman and CEO. “From championing a new organizational design for our global communications function, to helping us better access data to understand and manage increasingly complex stakeholder expectations.

"A key marker for me of the success of our company transformation is closing the gap between who we are as a company and who we aspire to be. Torod’s continued counsel and stewardship of our reputation is doing exactly that and helping us connect with our customers and communities in more meaningful and impactful ways, ultimately delivering real business results."

As head of the global communications group at Lenovo, Neptune inhabits a truly multinational role, overseeing the company’s reputation, products, brand events, social marketing, and stakeholder engagement and advocacy. Since joining, he has spearheaded the development of Lenovo’s first ever Global Diversity and Inclusion report, and the launch of the company’s philanthropic arm, the Lenovo Foundation.

As Neptune puts it, his priority is handling “the daily challenge of aligning an organization and its people around a critically important set of new integrated marketing and communications skills, while staying laser focused on driving quantifiable business outcomes over activity.”

Neptune began his career as a reporter with The State, and prior to Verizon was senior vice president and global public affairs practice leader for WE Communications and chief communications strategist for the U.S. Congress, responsible for establishing the first post-Sept. 11 and anthrax crisis communications function for the U.S. House of Representatives. Before Capitol Hill, Neptune was SVP of corporate marketing and communications with Bank of America.