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2021 IAB Podcast Upfront Fall is the world’s largest digital audio marketplace for media buyers to preview the latest in innovative podcast programming. The event brings traditional and digital agency planners, buyers, creatives, and brand marketers together to educate and evangelize the power of podcasts as a valuable platform for reaching consumers.
Leading podcast publishers share upcoming releases and opportunities for advertisers to showcase their brands. The program will define the podcast landscape and demonstrate how to create more personalized user experiences, showcase the various options for monetization, and highlight creative opportunities for brands.
This event is open to brand marketers and agency executives only. To request a pass to 2021 IAB Podcast Upfront Fall, click on the red button at the top of this page.
Nora is the CEO & Co-Founder of new entertainment company Mason Media. She most recently covered the latest innovations and technologies across entertainment and business as a news anchor on Cheddar, where she was the daily co-host of “Between Bells” and “Closing Bell.” At Cheddar, she co-created and co-hosted a weekly series envisioning our post-pandemic future called “Fast Forward: Life After Covid-19” and a series examining and celebrating diversity called “All Hands: Race Toward Inclusion.” Nora previously led teams of engineers and designers as a Senior Product Manager at e-commerce company Jet.com, which she joined prior to its launch and subsequent $3.3 billion acquisition by Walmart. She started her career by advising institutional investors on equity investments and IPOs as an Asian Equities Analyst at Goldman Sachs. Nora graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in Statistics and Quantitative Finance. Nora is an avid violinist and indoor boulderer in her spare time, grew up in Minnesota, and currently lives in New York City.
As a former NBC Page rocking the grey suit that Kenneth made famous on 30 Rock, Daryn came right out of the Page Program to assist one of the most influential pop culture icons currently on television, Andy Cohen. While at Bravo, Daryn created the web series,“@sk Andy” that she hosts and runs on bravotv.com. In the series, fans of Andy and Bravo are given a forum via social media to ask Andy anything and get an insider’s look into the special and often hilarious relationship he and Daryn have developed over the past few years. At the start of 2014, Andy and Daryn left Bravo to start a new production company, Most Talkative.
Since leaving, Daryn became a correspondent for Bravotv.com where she hosted her own web series including, “Throwback Bravo,”, “Cease and Assist,” as well as the exclusive behind-the-scenes series, “Bravo Pregame” in which she interviewed the Bravo talent in the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen greenroom probing them with questions. She was also the official BravoCon correspondent in 2019 for the Bravo channel.
As of November of 2019, Daryn hosts PEOPLE TV’s Reality Check, a daily online interview show diving into all the drama and hilarity of reality tv. She has interviewed everyone from The Jersey shore cast to Busta Rhymes to even her own boss, Andy Cohen. She has appeared monthly on Good Morning America’s ‘Binge This” segment discussing the hottest content in entertainment to catch up on. Since 2017, Daryn has been in three national commercials for AUTOTRADER with Andy Cohen. She was on the cover of her hometown publication, Montclair Magazine. In the summer of 2020, Daryn created and Executive Produced Tiny Talk Show for Quibi starring Marsai Martin as host. Since 2017, Daryn has been in three national commercials for AUTOTRADER with Andy Cohen.
Daryn also co-hosts a weekly Oxygen podcast, “Martinis and Murder,” which dives deep into the actual crime and the theories surrounding each murder, while drinking an appropriately themed cocktail. The podcast has millions of downloads and was featured in the New York Times, as well as Cosmopolitan. It was Martinis and Murder” was nominated for the 2018 Shorty Awards for Best Branded Podcast. In the spring of 2020, she launched and co-hosts another podcast with Embassy Row, Scissoring Isn’t A Thing, which interviews the moguls of the LGBTQ+ community to break down and lean into the stereotypes of our day. At the start of 2021, Martinis and Murder ended and was re-branded as an independent podcast, Shaken and Disturbed.
Abdine joined the Rooster Teeth team in 2012 to develop an in-house direct sales and integrated marketing team focused on growing The Roost, Rooster Teeth, and RTX brands with new and existing advertising partners. His department manages all aspects of Rooster Teeth’s advertising presence including display, pre-roll, product integrations, show sponsorship, RTX sales and marketing, and whatever other new and unique ideas percolate from the Rooster Teeth creative team. In his free time, Abdine is an avid mountain biker, IPA connoisseur, and enjoys long walks on the beach.
Harish is the cofounder, President and Chief Technology Officer of Chartable. Harish started his tech career as a co-founder and CTO of Octopart, an early YCombinator-backed company (W07) which was acquired by Altium in 2015. He was most recently at AngelList, where he led a team of five engineers and designers developing the talent marketplace.
Bryan Barletta is the voice behind Sounds Profitable, the podcast adtech focused newsletter and podcast from the Podnews Network. His focus is on freely sharing his knowledge to help better the entire industry, from independents to the leaders in this space, as they all use the exact same technology.
As NPR’s senior vice president for news and editorial director, Nancy Barnes oversees NPR’s journalism and journalists around the world and across platforms. She leads an award-winning team of journalists and newsroom executives who are committed to excellence, innovation and the highest quality reporting and storytelling.
Barnes has spent nearly 30 years leading high-performing teams in delivering award-winning journalism to the public. She joined NPR in November 2018, after serving as executive editor for Hearst Texas Newspapers and the Houston Chronicle. She developed the Houston Chronicle into a metro paper known for national caliber journalism with deep local roots. Previously, she served as executive editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune Media Company from 2007 to 2013, leading the newsroom to a Pulitzer Prize in local reporting, as well as other national awards.
She began her career as a general assignment and statehouse reporter and has worked at an array of other newspapers from Massachusetts to North Carolina. Barnes has a master’s degree in business administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. She is the president of the American Society of News Editors and is a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, Columbia University.
Jason Baron is Senior Vice president of Direct Marketing and Podcast Sales for WarnerMedia Ad Sales. Within this role, Baron oversees all direct response advertising across WarnerMedia’s portfolio of leading brands, including managing advertising sales for the WarnerMedia Podcast Network. He is based in New York.
Under Baron’s leadership, the company’s direct response division implemented new strategies, including integrating the direct response teams across linear and digital, which resulted in significant revenue growth across all categories. Baron joined the company in 1997 as a CNN account executive and held ascending positions before being promoted to senior vice president in 2011.
Molly Barton is the CEO and co-founder of Realm, the audio entertainment company behind the #1 hit podcast series Memory Lane (written by the New York Times bestselling creator of Pretty Little Liars) and Orphan Black: The Next Chapter. Previously, Barton was Global Digital Director of Penguin Random House, where she led the audiobook and ebook businesses, and founded a corporate-backed platform for user-generated fiction. She earned her B.A. from Wesleyan University, has spoken in over a dozen countries on the future of media and publishing, and has served on the board of directors for multiple international start-ups
RJ Bee is Co-Founder and CEO of Osiris Media. He hosts the Helping Friendly podcast, The Drop, and several other podcasts from Osiris. RJ was previously SVP at Hattaway Communications, a strategic communications firm that uses the power of strategy, science, and storytelling to help visionary leaders. RJ has a BA from The Ohio State University and an MA from the University of Chicago.
Brooke specializes in bringing leading private sector practices to public institutions. Among her many client engagements in the public sector, she has helped to stand up a new Federal agency, including structure, operating model, and culture; supported the creation of an innovative cross-government shared services model; and led a human capital strategy for a multilateral bank.
Brooke is focused on the growth of women leaders in the workplace and serves as a leader of the firm’s Family@BCG and Women@BCG efforts. She is also passionate about telling stories of the work BCG and its clients do.
Ben Brock Johnson is the Executive Producer of Podcasts at WBUR, where he helps direct strategic and editorial initiatives involving on-demand audio across the organization. Ben also co-hosts the podcast Endless Thread. Previously Ben was the host of the national daily program Marketplace Tech, where he also conceptualized and launched the podcast, Codebreaker in partnership with Business Insider. Ben has also worked at Slate and WNYC.
As a former NBC Page rocking the grey suit that Kenneth made famous on 30 Rock, Daryn came right out of the Page Program to assist one of the most influential pop culture icons currently on television, Andy Cohen. While at Bravo, Daryn created the web series,“@sk Andy” that she hosts and runs on bravotv.com. In the series, fans of Andy and Bravo are given a forum via social media to ask Andy anything and get an insider’s look into the special and often hilarious relationship he and Daryn have developed over the past few years. At the start of 2014, Andy and Daryn left Bravo to start a new production company, Most Talkative.
Since leaving, Daryn became a correspondent for Bravotv.com where she hosted her own web series including, “Throwback Bravo,”, “Cease and Assist,” as well as the exclusive behind-the-scenes series, “Bravo Pregame” in which she interviewed the Bravo talent in the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen greenroom probing them with questions. She was also the official BravoCon correspondent in 2019 for the Bravo channel.
As of November of 2019, Daryn hosts PEOPLE TV’s Reality Check, a daily online interview show diving into all the drama and hilarity of reality tv. She has interviewed everyone from The Jersey shore cast to Busta Rhymes to even her own boss, Andy Cohen. She has appeared monthly on Good Morning America’s ‘Binge This” segment discussing the hottest content in entertainment to catch up on. Since 2017, Daryn has been in three national commercials for AUTOTRADER with Andy Cohen. She was on the cover of her hometown publication, Montclair Magazine. In the summer of 2020, Daryn created and Executive Produced Tiny Talk Show for Quibi starring Marsai Martin as host. Since 2017, Daryn has been in three national commercials for AUTOTRADER with Andy Cohen.
Daryn also co-hosts a weekly Oxygen podcast, “Martinis and Murder,” which dives deep into the actual crime and the theories surrounding each murder, while drinking an appropriately themed cocktail. The podcast has millions of downloads and was featured in the New York Times, as well as Cosmopolitan. It was Martinis and Murder” was nominated for the 2018 Shorty Awards for Best Branded Podcast. In the spring of 2020, she launched and co-hosts another podcast with Embassy Row, Scissoring Isn’t A Thing, which interviews the moguls of the LGBTQ+ community to break down and lean into the stereotypes of our day. At the start of 2021, Martinis and Murder ended and was re-branded as an independent podcast, Shaken and Disturbed.
Over the past fifteen years, Martina Castro has produced and edited award-winning audio content in both the U.S. and Latin America and is a sought after speaker and educator in audio storytelling. Before founding Adonde Media in 2017, she worked at NPR, KALW-FM in San Francisco, CA, and NPR’s Radio Ambulante, a Spanish-language narrative journalism podcast she co-founded in 2011. At Adonde, Martina has led multilingual and multinational teams as Executive Producer with clients such as TED, Duolingo, Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation, Vice News and Spotify to create innovative podcasts that aim to bring new audiences to the medium.
Antonia Cereijido is the Executive Producer of LAist Studios and the host of the LAist podcast Norco ’80. She was a producer for six years on NPR’s Latino USA and hosted her own segment The Breakdown. She has hosted podcasts for Mic and Slate. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Code Switch, and NPR’s All Things Considered.
Coverage has ranged from a profile of the Mexican-American man who runs the largest and most controversial migrant youth shelters, to a deep dive into the controversy over Oprah’s book club selection American Dirt.
Dan was formerly a K9 handler and Violent Crimes detective at the same Small Town police department as his brother. Dan regards his years as a K9 handler to be the most rewarding of his career. He is now retired.
Dave began his career in law enforcement in 2007. Before his recent promotion to Sergeant, he spent six years as a detective primarily investigating Sex Crimes and Child Abuse for his police department in Small Town, USA. He still serves as a Crisis and Hostage Negotiator, and during his tenure as a detective he served on the advisory boards of multiple children’s and victims’ advocacy groups. Despite Dave’s well-deserved promotion, the Small Town Dicks Team will continue to call him “Detective Dave” on the podcast because … well… we like to give him a hard time. And because “Detective Dave” is basically his stage name now so we’re sticking with it.
As Chief Strategy Officer for APM Studios, Tom leads efforts to drive advertising and partnership revenue growth for the organization’s portfolio of on-demand audio content – spanning business news, investigative, kids/family, lifestyle and more – developing new business models to extend APM’s podcast IP into innovative content formats, experiences and products. Before joining the podcast team at American Public Media Group, Tom has spent his career working at the intersection of media, culture and emerging entertainment technology. He specializes in translating cultural and marketplace insights into creating revenue generating content products and partnership for publishers as well as Clio, Adweek and Webby award-winning marketing campaigns for brands like Beats by Dre, Universal Pictures and T-Mobile. Prior to joining APM Studios, Tom worked at ViacomCBS where he launched its first-ever social media branded content offering, operated its first-ever influencer marketing team, and developed partnerships with leading digital video publishers. Earlier in his career he founded a digital production company that produced a Sundance Film Festival Official Selection, Funny or Die exclusives and nominees for the MTV O Music Award Most Innovative Music Video category. Tom is also a startup advisor with Quake Capital Partners and Snap’s Yellow accelerator. Tom has a degree in History from Georgetown University and studied Corporate Innovation at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business LEAD Program. He loves to cook, ski and spend time in nature.
Lizzy Denihan, Head of Partnership Strategy, leads podcast sales strategy, content, and integrated brand partnerships for Audacy’s Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios. Denihan develops, oversees, and executes innovative initiatives for the premium podcast studios’ broad range of best-in-class talent, partners, and critically acclaimed content. Denihan is an eleven-year veteran of the Integrated Sponsorship Sales team at Major League Baseball.
As EVP of Digital Investment and Partnerships at Publicis Media Exchange (PMX), Hayley Diamond has the important task of representing the needs of all Publicis Groupe clients to the marketplace. She manages Publicis Media’s digital components at the annual TV Upfronts, helping clients shift their linear investment into digital platforms. Whether it’s key investment opportunities, omnichannel partnerships with trusted premium publishers and networks, or ensuring clients have the right access to partner offerings including data, unique innovation opportunities, optimum commercials and more, Diamond does it all.
Diamond has brought new, innovative ad offerings to clients such as Kellogg’s, Georgia-Pacific, Maker’s Mark, Chase and Wingstop, and has negotiated Publicis Groupe as the exclusive partner for a variety of opportunities, including Hulu’s Binge Ads product. She has continued to educate clients on non-linear offerings, helping clients move to true, cross-screen experiences to reach broader audiences spanning the pharma, CPG, auto, retail, tech and liquor industries.
She also proactively works with key partners in the TV and video space to ensure clients understand and are able to take advantage of the benefits of true, data-driven, targeted delivery on premium CTV inventory. Through this collaborative effort, she enables better measurement, smarter retargeting, access to premium inventory and delivery of incremental reach – modernizing the approach to TV advertising and guiding clients with non-linear ad platforms.
Diamond joined Publicis Media in 2007 as a Media Associate at Starcom and subsequently rose through the ranks in roles spanning digital strategy and marketplace solutions. In her most recent position as Head of Digital Strategy and Marketplace Solutions at Spark Foundry, Diamond oversaw and developed the agency’s partnerships within the digital marketplace. She worked closely with investment leads to ensure a holistic marketplace strategy and approach.
As an established industry leader living in New York City, Diamond can be found exploring the city, practicing yoga or eating at her favorite sushi spot when she’s not in the office.
As VP of Ad Innovation Strategy at SXM Media, Claire considers key market trends and lends them to proprietary ad product initiatives, ensuring seamless go-to-market offerings that solve industry-wide challenges for advertisers. With a decade of agency history – at Digitas and Razorfish – creating digital strategies for high profile brands prior to joining Pandora in 2015, Claire brings solutions to brand challenges in a way that scales across SXM Media’s continually evolving platform. As audio consumption trends shift towards smart speakers and an influx of spoken word content, Claire helps brands solve the challenge of building an audio strategy that takes advantage of creative and personalization levers in the audio space. Claire’s work has aimed to push the boundaries of audio measurement in a space that has room to catch up to its visual counterparts. Claire is a graduate of New York University and resides in Manhattan Beach, CA with her husband and two children.
A.J. Feliciano is Head of The Roost Podcast Network at Rooster Teeth and oversees platform and content partnerships for all podcasts in the network. The Roost is the industry-leading video-centric podcast network, boasting a curated collection of more than 100 shows and productions that achieve more than 300MM monthly impressions. The Roost reaches millennial and Gen Z audiences across all platforms where they watch or listen to podcasts, including video platforms like YouTube, Rooster Teeth FIRST and RoosterTeeth.com. Prior to joining Rooster Teeth, Feliciano spent eight years earning his stripes at NBCUniversal as an unscripted development executive overseeing various hit series before later cutting his teeth in the gaming start-up world at VR/AR startup Well Played Studios.
Anne Frisbie brings more than 20 years of experience building and leading teams at some of the world’s leading digital media and technology companies, such as Yahoo!, AltaVista, Overture, and at Elon Musk’s first start-up, Zip2. Anne most recently served as SVP and GM for InMobi Exchange and North America sales. Anne launched InMobi Exchange, which is the largest, independent in-app global mobile exchange built for brands, in 2014. She also was a driving force for improving industry standards for in-app mobile video, in order to provide third-party measurement along with a buffer-free consumer experience.
Ashutosh Gangwar leads the TV partnerships team at The Trade Desk. In his role, Ashutosh is responsible for growth of the CTV business with key networks such as Disney, NBC, ViacomCBS and Warner. His focus is on building partnerships that maximize value for the clients and long-term competitiveness of the platform.
Before coming to The Trade Desk, Ashutosh was VP of Business Development at Nielsen, where he headed the partnership team for the Marketing Effectiveness practice. Ashutosh brings 15 years of experience in digital media and advertising. This includes global brands such as AOL, CBS, and Nielsen.
Ashutosh received his Aerospace Engineering degree from IIT Bombay and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Business.
Anya Grundmann oversees NPR’s industry-leading podcast portfolio, in addition to NPR Music, NPR Events and NPR’s entertainment and talk radio programming. Under her transformational and creative leadership, NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts have become a household name in music discovery and the NPR Programming division has dramatically expanded NPR’s on demand audience and journalism footprint with the launch of more than 15 podcasts and radio shows in collaboration with NPR News, including four of the top 20 podcasts in America.
Before becoming the head of NPR Programming in 2015, Grundmann was the founding Executive Director of NPR Music, a premiere award-winning source for music discovery and innovative multiplatform journalism that reaches more than 12 million people a month across npr.org, YouTube, podcasts and NPR radio programs. In 2013, Billboard named her as one of the “Power 100” in the music industry, and Fast Company noted that Anya and her team are “re-inventing public radio for the post-radio generation.”
Before driving the launch of NPR Music, Grundmann served as the Director of NPR’s Music radio division, including the Peabody award-winning classical music radio program, Performance Today where she started as an intern and eventually became the editor overseeing features, daily scripts, and live broadcasts from remote locations. In 2002, she left NPR briefly when she was awarded a year-long fellowship with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University.
She got her start in public radio as a volunteer at member station KNAU (Flagstaff, Arizona) where she helped create KNAU’s first music database and worked as an on-air announcer. She graduated from Grinnell College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez is an education reporter and new host of a mystery podcast series coming soon from LAist Studios.
As a reporter for KPCC and LAist, Adolfo focuses on stories about college students who are at a crossroads, particularly those on the first rung into higher education. Many of those students are trying to overcome academic and other challenges because they believe college will be the path to a better life. How do the people around them — in their personal lives and at the institutions they attend — help or hinder their success?
Nearly two decades of reporting in Los Angeles helped Adolfo understand how students’ futures are shaped by race, politics, finance, and other factors.
As a co-founder of AdvertiseCast, Dave Hanley heads up advertising sales and business development for the organization. With a long time passion for podcasts, Dave leveraged his experience starting two successul enterprise software companies when joining forces with AdvertiseCast CEO Trevr Smithlin to build the industry’s first and largest podcast marketplace.
Eric John leads IAB’s Media Center, a dedicated unit within the IAB whose mission is to simplify the video supply chain, providing best practices and education for brands, agencies, and media companies to drive continued growth through the evolving convergence of television and digital video. Eric drives the center’s efforts in the development of market-making research, industry standards and best practices and buyer/seller terms and conditions. Before joining the IAB, Eric led digital services and strategy at the Alliance for Audited Media and the MPA. Eric also served as global director of publisher marketing at Nokia, managing the company’s world-wide mobile app developer ecosystem. Prior to Nokia, Eric launched and led advertiser brand engagement solutions for Yahoo!, creating advanced, data-driven video, mobile and interactive campaigns for brands such as Pepsi, Loreal and Nikon. Eric began his career in internet advertising at DoubleClick (Google) where he served in business and product development within the DART for Publishers (DFP) and DART for Advertisers (DFA) business units where he launched the industry’s first post-click “Spotlight” measurement tools. Eric is an alumnus of Miami of Ohio (BA) and Indiana University (MA) and is a graduate of Columbia University’s Product Management Program. Read articles by Eric John.
Megan works on the partnerships team at Podsights. She believes data-enriched podcast advertising is a powerful way to help brands and publishers grow their biz.
Before Podsights, Megan worked in podcast measurement at Chartable. She also cut her teeth in multi-channel ad sales and marketing at NPR.
Lamar Johnson is VP of Marketing at National Public Media, NPR’s sponsorship subsidiary. He leads the efforts of NPM’s marketing team to create sales & marketing materials, generate sponsorship leads, drive thought leadership opportunities and execute sponsor participation in high-profile events like NPR’s How I Built This Summit. Prior to joining NPM in 2020, Lamar spent over 25 years driving growth and traction for some of the most iconic global brands in agency, entertainment and brand marketing environments. Lamar serves as a judge for the Emmy® Awards News & Documentary division and enjoys international travel with his family.
Kevin Jones is the Founder and CEO of Blue Wire. He spent 10 years working professionally in sports media, with stops included reporting and managing content at KNBR in San Francisco, the Cleveland Browns, and at CBS Affiliate WUSA-9 in his hometown of Washington D.C.
These days, Jones is busy running Blue Wire, which has gone from idea to 30 full-time employees in less two-and-a-half years. The media company partners with hundreds of unique podcasters in sports, including Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Baron Davis, Greg Olsen, Grant Wahl, Lisa Leslie and dozens of high-powered regional influencers. Blue Wire is reaching millions of consumers each month with its approach of hyper-targeted content for the younger audience.
Twitter: @Mr_KevinJones
Brigid works on the partnerships team at Podsights. With the experience of a former buyer under her belt, she helps brands, agencies, and publishers understand the value of transparent reporting and accurate attribution.
Before Podsights, Brigid was the Digital Audio Investments Manager at Horizon Media. She holds a Bachelor of Music from Syracuse University and sings the National Anthem in front of thousands of people as a hobby. YouTube it.
Sean King is the Executive Vice President and Head of Monetization at Veritone leading media, marketing, operations, growth, mergers and acquisitions. His forward-thinking marketing and operational insights have solidified Veritone One as the leading AI-powered audio and influencer advertising agency in the world; grown Veritone Licensing as North America’s premiere AI-based content licensing firm; and launched VeriAds, an AI-based revenue solution for radio stations. Sean is a Forbes contributor and regularly provides commentary on the advertising industry to numerous publications including AdWeek, DMN, and The Verge. He resides in southern California with his wife and two daughters.
Ken Lagana is the Executive Vice President of Digital Sales at Audacy, the #1 creator of original, premium audio content representing an audio universe of discovery and connection. Home to the industry’s most influential collection of broadcast and digital content, podcasts and premium live experiences, Audacy engages over 170 million consumers each month. In this role, Lagana leads sales strategy for the company’s large and rapidly growing digital business, including the fastest growing digital audio app in the United States (formerly RADIO.COM), and Audacy’s Podcast Network, which includes Cadence13, an industry leader in podcast creation and distribution, and Pineapple Street Media, an award-winning, renowned independent producer of top-rated podcast content. Prior to joining Audacy (then Entercom) in 2019, Lagana served as Head of Sales and Marketing for Megaphone, the leading provider of breakthrough podcast technology for publishers and advertisers. He played a key role in developing and promoting Megaphone Targeted Marketplace (MTM), the company’s game-changing advertiser-driven targeting and measurement solution. Previously, Lagana was Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for CBS Digital Media where he oversaw revenue generation and integrated marketing for the company’s entertainment, news and sports properties globally. His media career spans over 20 years and also includes sales and management positions at Turner Broadcasting and planning and strategy roles at Grey Advertising. Lagana earned a Bachelor of Science degree in strategic communications from the University of Delaware.
Maggie Lanter is the VP of Business Development at Blue Wire, where for the past year she has led revenue generation and strategy for the sports media startup, including advertising/sponsorship sales, content production agreements, strategic partnerships, and new business opportunities.
Prior to joining Blue Wire, Maggie spent 6 years at Wasserman at the sports agency’s HQ in Los Angeles, working in the brand consulting division, serving clients like Microsoft (e.g., Surface, Xbox) and American Express in their sports and entertainment marketing and partnerships.
Twitter Handle: @maggielanter
Juleyka Lantigua is the Founder and CEO of LWC Studios, an award-winning digital media studio whose original work reaches rising audiences with programming that has a social-justice vein. She created and executive produces 70 Million, the first open-source solutions journalism podcast chronicling how locals are tackling jail reform around the country. In 2020, LWC Studios received a Peabody Award nomination, earned silver in the audio documentary category at the New York International Radio Festival, and won “The Director’s Prize,” their first Third Coast award, also known as “The Oscars of Audio.” In 2021, “Driving the Green Book,” which she edited and the company produced for Macmillan Podcasts, earned the inaugural Ambie for Best History Podcast. A Fulbright Scholar, Tory Burch Fellow, and Stanford SLEI alumna, Julleyka holds a BA from Skidmore College, a Master’s in Journalism from Boston University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.
Ashley Lusk is the Head of Content and Audience Strategy for CNN Audio. Prior to joining CNN, she was the director of marketing and audience development at New York Public Radio, where she developed forward-thinking audience development strategies for the entire New York Public Radio portfolio of brands, including WNYC, WNYC Studios, WQXR, Gothamist, and The Greene Space. Lusk also previously worked with organizations like the Smithsonian, the United Nations, The Clinton Foundation, and the Girl Scouts. Lusk currently resides in Washington, DC.
Jacob Margolis was the host of The Big One and host of the sequel about California Wildfires with LAist Studios.
Jacob reports on climate change and related disasters. He spends a lot of time thinking about how we got here, if we’re working towards a better future, and who’s being left behind along the way. He is skeptical of where we’re going, but hopeful that we can end up in a better place than is projected in all those problematic “business as usual” scenarios.
Matt will talk to anyone. He’s the guy in the grocery store that compliments your eye makeup and then two minutes later you’re asking him for dating advice. He is a therapist and holds a Masters of Clinical Psychology, specializing in Narrative Therapy. Podcasting for over seven years, Matt is the co-host of Reality Gays, which was ranked by Screenrant as the number one reality podcast everyone should be listening to for 2020. At the same time, he is a successful commercial actor, actor (Modern Family, Saving Mr. Banks), has produced content for TBS, and has performed stand-up all over the West Coast. He is a contributing host on Portland Afternoon Live (KATU ABC). Originally from Southern Oklahoma, he now calls Los Angeles home. Find all things Matt on social media, @theMattMarr.
Chandresh Patel is the COO of Blue Wire. Leveraging his experience across media and technology, he oversees the day-to-day management of the company, while also driving the long-term growth strategy.
Prior to Blue Wire, Chandresh led media and business development across Europe, Middle East, and Africa, for the National Football League. Preceding his time at the NFL, Chandresh led the distribution strategy team for the Walt Disney Company’s Media Networks in the US. He focused on growing ESPN, ABC, Disney Channels and Freeform within the everchanging US media landscape. Before joining Disney, Chandresh was a part of the finance and strategy team at Apple, focusing on growing overall sales worldwide.
Twitter: @ChandreshHPatel
Hayley Romer is the Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer of The Atlantic. In this role, she leads the company’s global commercial efforts and is responsible for the revenue generating and brand marketing teams, strategies and initiatives. Hayley has been a key leader in the transformation of one of the country’s most important publications, The Atlantic, by pioneering new revenue streams within the media industry and driving six consecutive years of record sales and profits for the brand. Through Hayley’s work, The Atlantic has become known for its award-winning branded-content studio, Atlantic Re:think, as well as The Atlantic’s creative consultancy division, Atlantic57.
Prior to joining The Atlantic in May 2012, Hayley spent five years at the Condé Nast Media Group, overseeing sales and marketing teams across publications such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired. Before joining Condé Nast in 2007, Hayley spent seven years at Forbes Media.
In 2016, Hayley was named to Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 list for her progressive work in her nearly 20 years in media. Hayley was also named Folio’s Top Women in Media in 2018. Hayley is a frequent speaker at global conferences such as the World Economic Forum where she hosts conventions on everything from diversity, equity and inclusion to the importance of independent journalism in democracy.
Hayley is a member of the COLE Advisory Board at FUQUA at Duke and sits on the Executive Committee of the board of The Ad Council, a non-profit leading producer of public service advertisements in the United States. Hayley also sits on the family council committee of the New York Cares board. NY Cares is New York’s largest non-profit organization focused on volunteer management.
Hayley is adept at driving cultures where people thrive. Hayley’s belief that human connection and understanding drive business ambition toward real growth has been the catalyst for the results demonstrated throughout her career.
Liliana Segura is an award-winning investigative journalist covering the U.S. criminal justice system, with a longtime focus on harsh sentencing, the death penalty, and wrongful convictions. She was previously an associate editor at the Nation Magazine, where she edited a number of award-winning stories and earned a 2014 Media for a Just Society Award for her writing on prison profiteering. While at The Intercept, Segura has received the Texas Gavel Award in 2016 and the 2017 Innocence Network Journalism Award for her investigations into convictions in Arizona and Ohio. In 2019 she was honored in the Abolitionist category of the Frederick Douglass 200, a recognition given by the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives and the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University.
Alan Sepinwall is Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic. He’s been covering this new golden age of TV from the beginning, starting as a reviewer for Tony Soprano’s favorite newspaper, The Star-Ledger. He is the author of the books The Revolution Was Televised, TV (THE BOOK), Breaking Bad 101 and The Sopranos Sessions.
Amory Sivertson is a Senior Producer of Podcasts at WBUR. She’s the co-host of Endless Thread and the Supervising Producer of Circle Round. Previously, she was one of the founding producers of Modern Love: The Podcast from WBUR and The New York Times. She also produced the advice podcast Dear Sugar Radio (now called Dear Sugars), hosted by Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond
Yeardley Smith is an Emmy Award® winning actress, producer, novelist and playwright who has appeared on television, film and Broadway. She has been the voice of Lisa Simpson on Fox’s hit television show The Simpsons since 1987. She has also appeared in numerous films including All Square (in post production), New Year’s Eve, Miles, Offer and Compromise, As Good As It Gets, Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive, City Slickers, and The Legend of Billie Jean. Favorite television appearances include The Mindy Project, The Big Bang Theory, Mom, Fresh Off the Boat, Hot In Cleveland, Mad Men, the sitcom classic Murphy Brown, 5 years as Greg’s crabby secretary ‘Marlene’ on Dharma and Greg, and 3 years as ‘Louise Fitzer’ one of the Fox network’s earliest sitcoms, Herman’s Head. She wrote and performed her one-woman show, “MORE” off-Broadway in 2004, and in Los Angeles in 2005. She published her first novel, I Lorelei, through HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2009. She owned her own women’s luxury shoe line called Marchez Vous for 5 years beginning in 2010. And in 2015, she co-founded the development company, Paperclip Ltd., with Ben Cornwell, for the purpose of developing stories at their earliest stages across all mediums.
Jordan Smith is a state and national award-winning investigative journalist based in Austin, Texas. She has covered criminal justice for more than 20 years and, during that time, has developed a reputation as a resourceful and dogged reporter with a talent for analyzing complex social and legal issues. She is regarded as one of the best investigative reporters in Texas. A longtime staff writer for the Austin Chronicle, her work has also appeared in The Nation, the Crime Report, and Salon, among other places.
Chris Snyder is the Media Planning & Strategy lead for Cox Communications. In his role he oversees the placement of traditional and streaming media in 30 markets across the U.S. He has a passion for innovation and has worked on a number of industry firsts in the audio space, including dynamic ad insertion in podcasts, traffic automation, and dynamic ad generation using contextual triggers. Chris also serves on IAB’s Audio Board of Directors representing brands using audio to connect with their customers in new ways.
Gabriel Soto, Director of Research at Edison Research, is committed to supporting better marketing resources for underserved populations in the U.S. through strategic investigation in media, such as radio and podcasts. Soto is the primary architect and co-presenter of the first comprehensive report on the U.S. Latino podcast audience called the Latino Podcast Listener Report. He manages other national audio studies from Edison Research including, Share of Ear® and The Podcast Consumer Tracking Report, working closely with clients such as NPR, Audacy, ESPN, Spotify and other key players in the media and audio space. He has shared research findings on Latino radio listeners as a featured presenter at the annual St. Jude Promesa y Esperanza seminar.
Megan Tan is creator and host of Snooze, a podcast created with LAist Studios and is coming soon.
In 2020, Adweek named Megan Tan “Producer of the Year” for her work on California Love, a “Best Podcast of 2020” by Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and The Atlantic and a 2021 Webby Winner for “Original Music Score / Best Sound Design 2021.” With a background in photojournalism and documentary film, she started her own audible-visual style while hosting, producing, and managing Radiotopia’s Millennial, which made The Atlantic’s “50 Best Podcast” list for three consecutive years. She has also produced shows and episodes for Gimlet Media’s The Habitat, Pineapple Street Media, TED, WNYC’s Radiolab, NPR’s Planet Money, NPR’s All Things Considered, and KALW’s The Stoop. For her fifth career, Megan wants to be a park ranger and a ceramicist.
Marshall got his start nearly 30 years ago an early adopter, salesman and advocate of direct response radio. He quickly became one of the larger buyers of endorsement radio in the US for various companies before venturing out on his own when he formed the Williams Media Group in 1997.
A year later, Williams connected with current business partner Russell Lindley, to form “Ad Results, Inc.” and in 2016 Ad Results, Inc. merged with “Brown Bear Digital, Inc.”, founded by current Partners Steve Shanks, Kurt Kaufer and Michael Kropko.
Vivian Yoon is host of the upcoming KPOP podcast from LAist Studios and is a 2.5 gen Korean American writer, actor, and performer from Koreatown, Los Angeles. The “2.5” due to her Dad having immigrated to the States at six years old and being arguably more “American” than she is. (He grew up waving lighters at Pink Floyd concerts, served in the Persian Gulf War as a sergeant in the U.S. Army, watches college football and likes it, etc.) Vivian’s background is in improv and sketch comedy, and pre-pandemic she was performing weekly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.
As a writer, Vivian has written on various animated shows for Amazon, Netflix, and Verizon Media’s 5G studio RYOT. As an actor, Vivian has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, been in many national commercials, and starred in a CW comedy pilot. You can also hear her voice acting in Disney’s animated film Spies in Disguise, for various Korean dramas and films on Netflix, and in the critically acclaimed podcast Moonface.
Vivian grew up in Koreatown, Los Angeles and has been a fan of KPOP ever since her first trip to Korea in 1995. She was a massive H.O.T. fan growing up (Sech’s Kiss who?), sported skinny bangs and highlights all throughout elementary school, and regrets having been Team Tony then because LOOK AT JANG WOO HYUK NOW. Vivian also co-created and hosted The KPOP Show, UCB’s first and only all-female, all-Korean comedy show.
Dave is the cofounder and CEO of Chartable, the full-stack podcast analytics and attribution platform. Chartable helps advertisers understand the effectiveness of their podcast campaigns and helps publishers understand and grow their audiences. Prior to cofounding Chartable, Dave was a Venture Hacker at AngelList, where he founded AngelList’s recruiting platform and NYC office. He previously cofounded two startups and was an engineer at HOTorNOT and Microsoft.