Carol Cone ON PURPOSE names Kristian Darigan Merenda chief operating and innovation officer

Carol Cone ON PURPOSE has promoted Partner Kristian Darigan Merenda to chief operating and innovation officer as the agency expands its Purpose x AI work and broader innovation strategy. The move puts one of the purpose field’s best-known builders in charge of operations, product development and AI-enabled services.

Why it matters: - Carol Cone ON PURPOSE is tying its operations and innovation strategy together as AI reshapes how agencies work and deliver value. - Kristian Darigan Merenda has helped define the modern purpose field, giving the agency a leader with deep client, product and field-building experience. - The role signals that purpose work is moving beyond campaigns toward tools, services and operating models built around measurable impact.

What happened: - Carol Cone ON PURPOSE named Partner Kristian Darigan Merenda chief operating and innovation officer. - Merenda will oversee agency operations and lead the innovation agenda. - Merenda will advance CCOP’s Purpose x AI practice and develop new AI-enabled thought leadership, products and services. - Merenda authored CCOP’s recently published Purpose x AI guide and set agency-wide standards for responsible AI use. - Merenda will continue leading key client relationships and report to founder and CEO Carol Cone. - Merenda’s second book with Cone, a sequel to Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding, is scheduled for publication next year.

The details: - Cone said Merenda helped create Go Red for Women and built many of the methods the field now uses to create lasting purpose initiatives. - Cone said Merenda combines curiosity with execution, which will matter as CCOP evolves. - Merenda said the next decade of purpose will look more like products, new funding models, digital tools and social ventures. - Merenda said employee engagement will increasingly focus on people rather than programs. - Merenda said AI-enabled services should make impact faster to achieve and easier to measure. - That shift is already visible in Merenda’s client work, including KIND’s Equality Bar and Whirlpool Foundation’s support of The Washing Machine Project. - The Washing Machine Project’s Divya washing machine was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025.

Between the lines: - The title change formalizes a trend already evident in Merenda’s work: purpose strategy, operations and AI are becoming one business function instead of separate lanes. - CCOP appears to be betting that AI will not replace purpose expertise, but will change how the agency staffs, measures and delivers that expertise. - Merenda’s comments point to a broader industry shift toward solutions that are productized, scalable and easier to track.

What happened before: - Merenda led the team that created Go Red for Women and stewarded the movement for more than a decade with American Heart Association leaders and corporate partners. - Go Red has raised more than $800 million and won PRWeek’s popular vote for the best PR campaign of the past two decades. - Over more than 25 years working with Cone at Cone Communications, Edelman and CCOP, Merenda helped build initiatives including PNC’s Grow Up Great, the American Lung Association’s LUNG FORCE, the American Stroke Association’s Power to End Stroke, Johnson Outdoors’ Clean Earth Challenge, FIRST’s I Am More Than and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. - Those initiatives have raised more than $2 billion through corporate, government and individual investment and guided the allocation of billions more. - Harvard Business School and the United Nations published four programs Merenda led, including Go Red and Grow Up Great, as case studies. - Merenda also helped shape research that included Edelman’s goodpurpose studies and Cone’s the B2B Purpose Paradox with The Harris Poll and the ANA. - Beyond agency work, Merenda taught innovation, entrepreneurship and nonprofit leadership for a decade at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and Harvard University Extension School. - Merenda co-founded Atlanta(x)Black, a pro bono collective focused on ending systemic racism in Atlanta’s Black community. - Merenda is serving her third term on the Canton, Massachusetts, School Committee and previously served as chair. - Merenda is also helping secure funding and oversee construction of a $275 million middle school.

What's next: - Merenda will help steer CCOP’s operations, AI standards and new offerings as the agency develops more AI-enabled services. - CCOP said Merenda’s next book with Cone will publish next year. - The agency is likely to keep building around Purpose x AI as it looks to package purpose work into new products and services.

The bottom line: - Carol Cone ON PURPOSE is elevating one of the purpose industry’s core architects to run operations and innovation at a time when AI is forcing agencies to rethink how they work, measure impact and grow.