Dani Dudeck has built her career on recognizing the right moment to join a brand and scaling its story from the inside. As Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Instacart, she leads communications, social impact, policy, and government affairs, guiding the company’s message to consumers, partners, and policymakers. Joining Instacart in 2018 when it had roughly 800 employees, she saw first-hand its potential to transform grocery shopping into a time-saving essential for millions of households. That conviction rooted in her own reliance on the service as a new mother helped her shape its public presence through rapid growth, pandemic-driven demand, and the expansion of its reach to nearly every U.S. household.
Born and raised in Poway, California, Dudeck developed an early interest in journalism and communications. She earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and French language from the University of Southern California, where she now serves on the Center for PR Board of Directors at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She began her career on the agency side, working at Cohn & Wolfe, Hill & Knowlton, and Edelman before moving in-house as vice president of global communications for MySpace. From there, she became chief communications officer at Zynga, steering its brand through the rise of mobile gaming, before taking on the challenge of building Instacart’s communications team from the ground up. At Instacart, she also serves as executive sponsor of Women@, the company’s largest employee resource group.
For Dudeck, leadership is as much about modeling priorities as it is about strategy. She protects family time each evening, keeps her phone away at meals, and attends key school events even on demanding workdays. She credits motherhood with making her a better delegator and listener, as well as sharpening her ability to advocate for women in the workplace. Anchored by Instacart’s mission to give people access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it, she sees the company’s work as an extension of her personal values. “Mean what you say and say what you mean” remains her guiding principle whether she’s speaking to her team, her CEO, or her children.