Kristine Go | Senior Vice President | Smart Communications, Inc
Kristine Go is a dynamic marketing and business leader with a proven track record in driving growth, transformation, and social impact. Currently serving as the Senior Vice President and Head of Smart Prepaid, Postpaid, and Fixed Wireless at Smart Communications Inc., she brings nearly two decades of expertise from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry to the telecommunications sector.
Before joining Smart, Kristine was the CEO and General Manager for Unilever Nutrition across Southeast Asia, where she led business strategy, innovation and the P&L. During her 18-year tenure, she handled multiple categories, including food, ice cream, laundry, and skincare. She made history as one of Unilever’s youngest General Managers and the first Filipina to hold the role. Throughout her career, she has championed purpose-driven initiatives, from pioneering digital marketing efforts for Lifebuoy’s award-winning Help a Child Reach 5 campaign to spearheading Knorr’s Nutri-Sarap program, which significantly contributed to reducing childhood malnutrition in the Philippines.
As Vice President of Foods & Refreshments at Unilever, Kristine revitalized the Ice Cream division, driving growth through initiatives like Share HapPinas, which combined e-commerce success with spreading joy. She also co-led the Pilipinas Kontra Gutom Movement, a nationwide effort to combat hunger through multi-sector collaboration.
Now at the helm of Smart’s prepaid, postpaid, and wireless businesses, Kristine continues to leverage her expertise in brand leadership, business transformation, and innovation to make a lasting impact in the telecommunications industry. Her career is defined by strategic excellence, customer-centricity, and a deep commitment to purpose-driven leadership.
At EliteX, we are proud to have Kristine Go as part of the edition: 10 Extraordinary Women in Business, 2025.
Her journey into the corporate world was inspired by her love for strategy and creativity. Although she studied engineering in university and was expected to work in manufacturing, she discovered her passion for marketing. Being a consumer herself, she realized she had a natural talent for creating products and advertisements that resonated with people. Her enthusiasm for championing products that meet consumer needs made her career fulfilling and rewarding.
Throughout her professional journey, Kristine has faced challenges, but she considers organizational politics to be the most significant. She likens it to navigating an English court, where success makes one a target, while failure can lead to losing one’s place. Over time, she learned to master her actions and emotions to handle these challenges. Initially, she was open and shared both her successes and struggles, believing that honesty would be met with understanding. However, she soon realized that workplace gossip and misinterpretation were common. This experience taught her to control the information she shared and manage her reactions. By building a strong personal framework, she developed resilience and an unbreakable mindset.
Among her many accomplishments, Kristine is particularly proud of two key achievements. The first is transforming the businesses she has led into forces for good. During her time at Unilever, she launched a global campaign promoting handwashing with soap, which not only drove business growth but also gained global recognition. This initiative led to the inclusion of handwashing with soap in the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. She has continued this approach in other roles, addressing malnutrition through fortified food products, spreading joy during the pandemic with ice cream, and making digital connectivity more accessible to students.
Her second and most important achievement is being a mother. Balancing a successful career with motherhood has been a challenge, but she has always prioritized being present for her daughter. Whether it was reviewing essays, critiquing presentations, or supporting extracurricular projects, she made time to guide her daughter in her choices. While she never pushed for academic excellence, she takes pride in the person her daughter is becoming.
Kristine recognizes the impact her work has made over the years. When she took over the Unilever foods business in the Philippines, it was much smaller than other categories. Through a focused strategy, she led the team in growing the business significantly, eventually surpassing home care and hair care to become Unilever Philippines’ largest category. More importantly, their efforts led to a 50% reduction in malnutrition within communities they reached by fortifying products with iron and educating mothers on nutrition. This success reinforced her belief that businesses can thrive while making a positive societal impact. Her motivation comes from her team. She enjoys collaborating, brainstorming, and sharing stories with them. The trust built through these interactions fosters an environment of psychological safety, which she values deeply. In addition, her biggest inspiration is her family, who provide unwavering support and motivation.
Her leadership style combines vision and action. She believes in setting clear goals and ensuring execution with a strong bias for action. She holds herself accountable to values such as drive, passion for high performance, and respect. For her, drive fuels great ideas, passion ensures excellence, and respect fosters positive relationships with colleagues, consumers, and competitors. With respect as a guiding principle, arrogance has no place in her leadership approach. For young women aspiring to start their own business, Kristine advises them to do what they love. She believes that finding work that aligns with one’s passion brings long-term happiness and fulfillment. She also emphasizes resilience in handling setbacks. She acknowledges that failures are a natural part of life and encourages individuals to learn from them and move forward.
Looking ahead, Kristine envisions her business expanding into adjacent categories to sustain growth. She understands that existing markets will eventually plateau, so exploring new, high-growth areas is essential. To stay innovative and relevant, she continuously learns from industry leaders, peers, and conferences. She also conducts annual moonshot workshops, where her team collaborates on breakthrough ideas. Many successful projects she has led started from these co-creation sessions.
Despite the demands of work, she strongly believes in maintaining a work-life balance. She follows the principle of “work hard, play hard,” focusing on key priorities during work hours and dedicating evenings and weekends to her family. While there are occasional work commitments outside office hours, she ensures she makes up for lost time with her loved ones. She acknowledges that while professionals can be replaced in their jobs, their role in their families is irreplaceable.
“Businesses thrive when they make a positive societal impact.”
To recharge and stay focused, Kristine enjoys reading, watching TikTok videos, and playing Pokémon Go. These activities provide her with moments of relaxation and enjoyment. She encourages other women in business to define their own limits and not allow others to set restrictions on their potential. Most importantly, she reminds them to always love and take care of themselves.
