LEAH CARUSO
Principal, CXO, CMO
Leah Caruso has held leadership roles on completed and operating landmark developments representing more than $30 billion in investment, including Hudson Yards and the World Trade Center Oculus. Across those environments, she has shaped the experiential and cultural strategies that turn ambitious real estate into destinations with identity, relevance and public life. Her work spans brand strategy, placemaking, cultural programming and stakeholder partnerships, informed by an early career in fashion that sharpened her instinct for aspiration, audience and the power of a well-told story.
Vision Matters.
Leah Caruso is a Principal, Chief Experience Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Knapp Capital Management. She leads strategic positioning, experience development, brand direction and placemaking across KCM’s active opportunities. Working alongside the firm’s principals and specialized partners, she translates complex development visions into cohesive market, cultural and stakeholder narratives - ensuring that identity and experience inform the development thesis from the beginning.
Prior to KCM, Caruso led Events and Brand Partnerships for one of the nation’s largest hotel owner-operators, directing experiential programming and activations across destinations including TWA Hotel and The High Line Hotel. Before that, at Hudson Yards New York, she led events, activations and cultural programming across the 12-million-square-foot, $20 billion first-phase campus, developing partnerships with leading global brands including Visa, Microsoft, Netflix, Tiffany & Co. and Veuve Clicquot.
Previously, at Westfield World Trade Center, Caruso developed the pre-opening, opening and post-opening brand strategies for the $4 billion Oculus. She also produced the first event held within the building, created in partnership with the CFDA and Vogue Fashion Fund, helping establish the cultural identity of one of New York City’s most consequential new public destinations.
Earlier in her career, Caruso led marketing and brand strategy at Fifth & Pacific, working alongside Tim Gunn to create multiplatform initiatives connecting fashion, media and retail experience.
Across each chapter of her career, Caruso has brought the same discipline: giving complex environments a distinct identity, a compelling public life and a reason to endure.
