Cynthia Cardona

As president of the Lilly Foundation, Cardona leads its philanthropic activities to advance racial justice, improve educational outcomes for underserved students, enhance global health outcomes and improve the quality of life for people in Indianapolis. As head of Lilly’s social impact team, she will lead the company’s civic and investor engagement, employee giving and volunteerism, corporate responsibility reporting, global health partnerships and disaster relief efforts. Cardona first came to Lilly in 2001 as a pre-MBA diversity fellowship intern and became a full-time employee in 2004. Her experience has spanned from working in primary care sales to holding a variety of consumer and brand marketing leadership positions, including chief marketing officer of Lilly Japan. Most recently, Cardona worked on Lilly’s corporate affairs team on strategic enterprise-wide projects, including developing Lilly’s corporate messaging and health equity framework. Cardona serves on the board of a local nonprofit, La Plaza, Inc., which provides and connects the Central Indiana Latino population to critical health, educational and other social services. She earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.