Stephanie Ruhle is the host of MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” on weeknights at 11 p.m. ET. Ruhle also appears across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms as NBC News’ Senior Business Analyst, including “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” “TODAY”, NBCNews.com, and TODAY.com’s “On The Money” with Stephanie Ruhle.

Ruhle has interviewed titans in politics, business, entertainment and sports. As a Wall Street veteran, she is known for bringing her business acumen and hard-hitting style to high profile interviews, for her original reporting and bringing humanity into her news coverage and her daily “Good News Ruhles” segment. 

Ruhle served as the consulting producer of “Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets,” an MSNBC and NBC News Studio film coined by traders within the social media community of Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets where users post stock and option trading. Ruhle is also the host of the podcast, “Modern Ruhles: Compelling Conversations During Culturally Complicated Times.” The show takes aim at zeitgeist topics with the goal of understanding and respecting ideas that conflict with our own.  

Prior to Bloomberg, Ruhle worked at Deutsche Bank, serving as a Managing Director in Global Markets Senior Relationship Management. Ruhle began her career at Credit Suisse, where she was the highest-producing credit derivatives salesperson in the US. 

Ruhle plays an active role in women’s leadership development, having founded the Corporate Investment Bank Women’s Network and co-chaired Women on Wall Street. Ruhle is a member of the board of trustees for Girls Inc. NYC and in 2016 was honored as one of their Women of the Year. She is also on the Leadership Council at Robin Hood, NYC’s largest poverty-fighting organization. 

Ruhle received a bachelor’s degree in International Business from Lehigh University, living abroad in Guatemala, Kenya and Italy.

Matthew Ball is the CEO of Epyllion, a diversified holding company which makes angel investments, provides advisory services, and produces television, films, and video games. 

Ball is also a Venture Partner at Makers Fund, Senior Advisor to KKR, Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, and sits on the board of numerous start-ups. His first book, “The Metaverse and How it Will Revolutionize Everything”, was published in July 2022 and became an instant national and international bestseller. Ball is also an “Occasional Contributor” to The Economist, holds bylines at Bloomberg, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and wrote the August 8, 2022 cover story for Time Magazine.

Epyllion’s start-up portfolio includes Genvid Technologies, The Athletic, Dapper Labs, Polygon, Antenna, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Parrot Analytics, Pushkin Industries, Blaseball, Headspace, Mirror.XYZ, One More Multiverse, LivingCities.XYZ, LightForge Games, Noodle Cat Games, RSTLSS, and many other unannounced companies.

Epyllion is the majority shareholder in Ball Metaverse Research Partners, which provides the Index behind the world’s largest gaming and/or Metaverse-themed ETF, the Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF, which can be found on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: METV), and was also the largest sector ETF launch of 2021. Epyllion is also a co-founding partner in the Ball Multicoin Bitwise Metaverse Index Fund, the world’s largest crypto-focused thematic Metaverse fund.

Epyllion Entertainment produced Rival Peak and The Walking Dead: The Last Mile, and is producing a large TV adaptation of a globally popular video game franchise, as well as games set in various comicbook, video game shooter, and video game horror franchises.

Ball was previously the Head of Strategy for Amazon Studios, and an executive at The Chernin Group’s Otter Media and Accenture. In the 2000s, he was a full-time wildfire fighter in Canada.

Fidji Simo joined Instacart as CEO in August 2021 and has been a member of its Board of Directors since January 2021. Simo has spent 15+ years leading strategy and product development for some of the world’s leading businesses and consumer products. 

Prior to joining Instacart, Simo was Vice President and Head of the Facebook App. Over the last decade at Facebook, she oversaw the Facebook App, including News Feed, Stories, Groups, Video, Marketplace, Gaming, News, Dating, Ads and more.

Simo serves as Co-founder and Board Member of Metrodora, a multidisciplinary medical clinic and research foundation with a focus on advancing health equity for all women. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors for Shopify.

Simo holds a Master of Management from HEC Paris. She grew up in the South of France and now lives in California with her husband and daughter.

Baratunde Thurston is an Emmy-nominated, multi platforms toryteller and producer operating at the intersection of race, tech, democracy, and climate. He is the host of the PBS television series America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston [pbs.org], creator and host of How To Citizen with Baratunde [baratunde.com]which Apple named one of its favorite podcasts of 2020, and a founding partner of the new media startup Puck [puck.news].

His comedic memoir, How To Be Black, is a New York Times best-seller. In 2019, he delivered what MSNBC’s Brian Williams called “one of the greatest TED [baratunde.com]talks of all time.” Baratunde is unique in his ability to integrate and synthesize themes of race, culture, politics, and technology to explain where our nation is and where we can take it. Baratunde serves on the boards of BUILD.org [build.org]and the Brooklyn Public Library [bklynlibrary.org]and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Erin Egan leads the global privacy and data public policy team at Meta, formerly Facebook. She collaborates with policymakers, regulators, advocates, academics, and other experts on issues related to privacy and data protection, ensuring Meta’s products and features reflect input from people around the world. She also works with experts around the world to help shape legislation on data use issues, including AI, youth, and data localization. She previously served as the company’s VP of US Public Policy, where she led federal and state public policy efforts. Prior to joining Meta, Erin was a partner and co-chair of Covington & Burling’s global data protection practice, where she represented technology and media companies on privacy and consumer protection matters.

Greg Lyons is the Chief Marketing Officer of PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA), where he leads the strategic, communications and innovation agenda across PepsiCo’s $22 billion beverage portfolio in the U.S. The portfolio includes iconic brands like Pepsi, MTN DEW, Gatorade, Tropicana, Starbucks, Lipton, Pure Leaf, Rockstar Energy, as well as recent innovation like bubly, LIFEWTR, MTN DEW RISE Energy and Driftwell.

Greg has implemented a holistic portfolio strategy and new innovation framework to accelerate growth in new categories and ensure future business success on existing brands. He has moved the innovation agenda forward significantly for PBNA, delivering more than $2 billion in innovation in 2019 and 2020 through new brands like bubly, LIFEWTR and Gatorade Zero. He also has led brand Pepsi’s return to 12 straight quarters of growth.

Passionate about capability building and talent development, Greg established an award-winning in-house creative content studio, and an in-house media measurement team that has resulted in a 40% improvement on media ROI since 2017. He’s invested in the people of PBNA marketing by implementing training across performance marketing, creative excellence, consumer intimacy and strategic planning.

His work to strengthen PBNA brands, his team and the industry has led to several recognitions, including the Advertising Research Federation’s CMO Great Mind Award, Adweek’s Top 50 Marketing Executive, Adweek’s Top Tech Savvy CMOs, Business Insider’s Most Innovative CMOs and Campaign Magazine’s CMO 50 list, among other accolades.

Previously, Greg led the MTN DEW and Energy portfolio. He also held positions as CMO of PepsiCo’s Canadian Beverage business and was the lead of the Marketing department for the Walkers business in the UK and Ireland. Early in his PepsiCo career, Greg worked across all of Frito-Lay’s major brands in the Marketing department.  Prior to PepsiCo, Greg worked in consulting for Marketing Corp of America.

Greg serves on the Board of Directors for the North American Coffee Partnership. He is also active in his community serving on the Board of Directors for the Ridgefield Boys & Girls Club.  Active in the marketing industry, Greg serves on the CMO Growth Council for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Adweek Steering Committee, and the Time @100 Advisory Board.

Greg holds a BA in Economics from Amherst College and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with majors in Marketing & Management and Strategy. Greg keeps a full house in Ridgefield, CT with his fiancée Beth, his two children Molly and Jack, his soon-to-be stepchildren Crawford and Max, and two Bernese Mountain Dogs.

As Chief Marketing & People Experience Officer, Barbara Messing leads all aspects of marketing, communications, and employee experience operations at Roblox. She is responsible for overseeing the development of the company’s global brand strategy to drive innovation and continued growth and establish Roblox as one of the most beloved brands in the world among kids and teens.

Prior to Roblox, Barbara spent the last two decades serving in a number of leadership roles, including Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Walmart U.S. and TripAdvisor. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Overstock.com and Vacasa.

Barbara holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a BA from Northwestern University.

Emeka Ofodile is vice president of sports marketing at ESPN. In this role, he oversees global brand strategies for ESPN’s entire portfolio of sports properties, including NFL, NBA, College Football, UFC, MLB, NHL, Formula One, Golf, Soccer, College Sports and Networks, Boxing, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+.

Ofodile joined ESPN in 2002 and, over the past two decades, has developed innovative marketing strategies – such as ESPN’s 365 marketing strategy – to maximize the impact of ESPN’s largest sports properties (NFL, NBA, and College Football Playoff), and established the brand as the home for sports storytelling. The “Ready for Football” campaign in 2021 promoted the most-watched Monday Night Football season in more than a decade, while the award-winning “It’s NBA on ESPN Time” brand platform repositioned the season as a single journey to the NBA Finals. Ofodile also built the College Football Playoff on ESPN brand from the ground up, beginning with its inaugural year which produced one of ESPN’s most successful marketing campaigns.

A pioneer working at the intersection of sports, music, and culture, Ofodile has extended the ESPN brand to new audiences, generated significant media value, and deepened ESPN’s roots in the music space. Hallmark collaborations include the first-ever exclusive label deal with Interscope Records to promote College Football and ESPN’s successful music curation role with artists like Diplo, DJ Khaled, and Drake for Monday Night Football. He also led efforts for the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship halftime show that brought together music, event and sponsorship initiatives for Kendrick Lamar’s performance and new trailer premiere for “Black Panther.”

Ofodile has been recognized with multiple industry awards, including OnCon Top 100 Marketers (2022), AdWeek 50 (2021), Top 100 Diverse Leaders in Sports (2020), and CMO Club Rising Star (2019). He was also nominated and selected for the NAMIC Executive Leadership Development Program, a 9-month intensive offering from the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Ofodile has made significant contributions to ESPN’s efforts around social and racial justice, focusing on advancing goals through collective impact. By building partnerships across sports, media, academia, and more, he has guided efforts to champion Black businesses and identify other opportunities such as creating the Social Justice Sports Workshop that brought together professional league partners, and drove meaningful change and collective impact.

Born in Nigeria, Ofodile moved to New Jersey at an early age and attended Columbia University where he was a Division-1A Varsity soccer player and a Dean’s List student.

President of Vayner3, Avery Akkineni, is leading the mission to guide the world’s largest enterprises and intellectual property owners in navigating the next iteration of consumer behavior, Web3.

In July 2021, Akkineni launched the VaynerX consultancy, Vayner3 (previously known as VaynerNFT), alongside serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. In less than twelve months, Akkineni successfully led the expansion of the consultancy to 50+ global Web3 experts in a remote-first environment. Partnering with dozens of Fortune 500 corporations across industries, Vayner3 has successfully advised organizations on strategic Web3 initiatives across cryptocurrency applications, NFT program development, and immersive digital experiences.

A leader, mentor, and investor in pioneering Web3 projects and communities, Akkineni is also an active advisor for several tech platforms; serving on the Board of Advisors of OneOf and Tracer, on the Web3 Advisory Board for Salesforce, Meta Creative X, and Facebook’s Metaverse Council, in addition to being a founding BFF member.

Akkineni has appeared as a featured keynote speaker at global events including Cannes Lions, SXSW, Consensus, Permissionless, VeeCon, IAB, C2, and others. In addition, she is frequently featured in publications across the business (WSJ, CNBC, Forbes), advertising (AdAge, The Drum, Campaign), and crypto industries (Decrypt, CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph), sharing her knowledge from inside the burgeoning space.

Before the launch of Vayner3, Avery spearheaded VaynerMedia’s expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, building a team of 150 people and opening VaynerMedia offices in Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Sydney, while securing 2021 Independent Agency of the Year (Gold) within two years. Additionally, Avery has been honored on the “Woman to Watch” by Campaign, on “NFT100” by NFTNow, and on “30 Under 30” by The Drum. Before VaynerX, Avery spent her early career at Google in Silicon Valley, while she now resides in Miami, FL.

Lee Applbaum has served as WUP’s Chief Marketing Officer since October 2020. Mr. Applbaum has over 25 years of experience transforming iconic brands such as Patrón, Grey Goose, Target and Coca-Cola. In his role as Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Applbaum leads all strategic marketing, brand positioning, and member experience initiatives. He has been recognized throughout his career as a brand builder and innovative marketer whose work has disrupted industries including his oversight of the successful $5.1 billion sale of Patrón to Bacardi in 2018, where he also previously held the Global Chief Marketing Officer role. Mr. Applbaum holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Krishan Bhatia serves as President & Chief Business Officer for NBCUniversal’s Advertising Sales division, reporting to Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Global Advertising & Partnerships. Bhatia, with the help of his 500-person team, oversees Digital & Advanced Advertising Sales as well as the division’s One Platform Strategy, Partnerships, Product, Technology, Measurement and Operations functions — spanning a portfolio of TV, CTV/OTT and digital assets that reaches 230M U.S. adults every month, including the company’s ad-supported streaming platform Peacock.

In 2021, Bhatia launched the company’s Enterprise Data unit with responsibility for developing a unified first-party data platform that serves NBCUniversal’s portfolio of industry-leading consumer businesses — including the company’s TV & streaming properties, the NBC News Group, Universal Filmed Entertainment and Universal Parks & Resorts.

Bhatia also manages the corporate partnerships with Comcast/Freewheel and Sky Media, as well NBCU’s advertising partnerships with Amazon, Apple, Google/YouTube, Hulu, Roku, Snap, The Trade Desk, Twitter and others.

Bhatia took on his role at NBCUniversal after Comcast acquired the company in 2011 and led the integration of the two companies’ advertising businesses. He joined Comcast in 2005 as a founding executive team member of Comcast Interactive Media, where he played an instrumental role in creating and growing the digital media business for Comcast through acquisitions and partnerships.

Prior to Comcast, Bhatia was a Principal with Booz Allen Hamilton’s Global Media & Entertainment Practice in New York, advising many of the world’s leading media and technology companies.

Bhatia serves as a board member of the IAB and OpenAP.

Mariano Bosaz is the global head of Consumer Data Strategy for The Coca-Cola Company

Previously, Mr. Bosaz served as Digital VP of The Coca-Cola Company of China & Korea, and as digital lead for EMEA and Latin America regions. Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, Mr Bosaz held a number of digital lead positions since 1997 at Media Holding Groups, Venture Capital companies and Startups.

Mr. Bosaz earned a bachelor’s in international relations and an EMBA from London Business School where he is guest lecturer since 2015 in digital transformation. He also engaged in executive education at Columbia University. He was one of the initial forming board members at IAB Argentina.

Rishi leads Global Gaming Partnerships at Twitter, bringing exceptional content from global gaming leagues, esports franchises, publishers & developers, and gamers to fans in real-time, while driving reach and revenue for these strategic partners and Twitter. Since joining Twitter, Rishi has launched brand new content partnerships with developers like Activision Blizzard & Riot Games, world-renowned gaming events like The Game Awards, and some of the world’s most popular esports organizations including FaZe Clan & 100Thieves. Prior to joining Twitter in 2017, he spent time at Mobcrush, where he grew the mobile games live streaming platform to over 1 million monthly active users within 30 days of launch. As the vice president of content partnerships at Major League Gaming, he helped launch the company’s live streaming platform, MLG.tv, and led strategic partnerships with top publishers, including Valve, to create programs like the first North American CS:GO major, MLG Columbus. Prior to Major League Gaming, Rishi focused his career on elevating the visibility of the gaming community at notable organizations such as Machinima and Gunnar Optiks. Rishi is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, where he received a BA in Economics. Follow him on Twitter at @RdotChadha.

Dan Callahan serves as Senior Vice President of Data Strategy and Sales Innovation for Fox Ad Sales. He is based in New York and reports to Marianne Gambelli, President of Fox Ad Sales.

In this role, Callahan leads a team that is focused on the ‘next generation’ of advertising capabilities, notably around audience and programmatic advertising solutions and driving their widespread adoption by marketers and agencies. This includes efforts around the company’s cutting-edge tools, using data, and automation called FOX Next, that deliver precision and drives impact for the company’s advertising partners. Additionally, Callahan leads various business development and strategy initiatives that focus on growing FOX’s digital footprint and building partnerships that evolve ways the company can target and measure advertising campaign performance.

Callahan serves as FOX’s board member of OpenAP an industry consortium focused on developing new industry standards around data driven advertising.

A 15-year veteran of the company, Callahan joined Fox in 2007 and has held a multitude of ascending positions within the Ad Sales Division. In 2014, he was elevated to VP of Programmatic Sales for FOX Sports and his role expanded the following year to the Fox Networks Group. In 2019, he was promoted to his current position.

Callahan graduated from Wake Forest University with a bachelor’s in Communications. He was also a member of the school’s ACC Championship football team. He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife Brittany and three children, Riley, Declan and Liam.

David Cohen joined IAB in April 2020 as President and was named Chief Executive Officer in September 2020. Cohen is a widely respected advertising agency leader who, prior to IAB, served as President, North America for MAGNA, Interpublic Group’s (IPG) centralized media intelligence, investment, and innovation arm. In this role, Cohen was responsible for more than $20 billion in media spend. During his tenure, Cohen structured and executed large global transactions on behalf of IPG and its clients, with such major IAB member companies as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Spotify, Twitter, and Verizon Media.

Prior to MAGNA, Cohen served as Chief Investment Officer of UM, ensuring that digital innovation, data, and technology acumen flowed throughout the agency to drive performance. From 2001 to 2011, Cohen served in critical, transformational roles at UM during the explosive growth of digital advertising, including Chief Media Officer, Chief Digital Officer, and Executive Vice President, U.S. Director of Digital Communications. In the late 1990’s, Cohen was responsible for launching and building IPG’s digital practice.

Cohen has a long history of working with trade organizations including IAB and 4As, where he served as chairman of the Interactive Marketing Committee from 2009-2013. He has also been instrumental in initiating several vital industry-wide programs, including the Future of Television, facilitated by EY. Cohen is a Queens native, with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Adelphi University. He was recognized by Adweek as a “Media All Star” and was part of the “Adweek 50” in 2012.

In 2016, David was elected to the Board of Directors of Partnership with Children a non-profit whose mission is to strengthen the emotional, social, and cognitive skills of vulnerable children in New York City to help them succeed in school, society, and life.

David enjoys spending time with his wife and two teenage daughters. A self-described gadget-geek and sometimes fitness fanatic – he ran the NYC Marathon in 2014 and 2019 and Boston Marathon in 2016.

An Atlanta-based, award-winning marketer, Tia Cummings-Hopkins has 15 years of brand marketing experience across companies like Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg’s, IHG Hotels & Resorts, and Procter & Gamble. Currently, she serves as the SVP, Global Brand Marketing Lead for Square.

Prior to her career in brand marketing, she had varied experiences in corporate philanthropy, manufacturing operations, and product development. Tia has a B.S. in chemical engineering from Hampton University and an MBA from Purdue University. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering, traveling, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

Alvaro De La Rocha is the Chief Marketing Officer at Bespoke Post, the leading lifestyle startup delivering thoughtfully curated goods and guidance through a monthly subscription service and e-commerce shop.

In his role, Alvaro oversees all marketing, customer acquisition, public relations and customer experience initiatives. He was a founding team member at Bespoke Post and has helped the startup grow to reach over a million customers across the U.S. and Canada.

Bette Ann Fialkov is the Head of Entertainment & Culture at hims&hers. She leads a team responsible for celebrity partnerships, influencer marketing, and strategic brand partnerships. Prior to hims&hers, Bette Ann was the Director of Influencer Marketing at Lyft for 3.5 years and spent 6 years at Google leading celebrity, influencer, & fashion partnerships across Google+ & Google Hardware. Bette Ann currently lives in Miami Beach with her husband & son. 

Lauren Garcimonde-Fisher is the Vice President of Brand & Culture at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In this role, she leads the development and execution of bold strategies through brand, creative, and partner engagements that create a more favorable and inclusive cultural and political environment for everyone who needs sexual and reproductive health care.

Lauren has spent her career helping brands – like Planned Parenthood, Verizon, Twitter, Annie’s, Ultraviolet, Every Mother Counts, The Climate Reality Project – tell their stories. She also volunteers her time as an IDEO U Alumni Coach to help professionals expand their strategy and creative leadership skills; and as a University of Florida Gator to Gator Coach to give graduating advertising students insight into their new career.

Lauren is Cuban American, which explains her love of dancing, coconut flan, and sunshine; and her belief that hard work can make amazing things happen.

Paul Gelb is the Sr. Director and NA Head of Media Activation and Investment at Bayer. In this role, he leads relationships with all major ad marketplace platforms and creates the strategy, tactics, targeting, advanced optimizations, and ad operations process across all media channels and brands. He built and manages the preeminent digital in-house ad-buying function in North America. Bayer’s media activation was recognized by Adexchanger, winning 2021 Best in Show award and the Best In-house Media Team in 2020 and 2021.

Previously, Paul was the Head of Programmatic at Twitter, overseeing the company’s worldwide programmatic agency trading desk business. Before that, he was the Head of Strategy and Marketplace Development at MoPub, the largest mobile exchange, which Twitter acquired in 2013. Paul began his digital media career at Razorfish as the Vice President and Founder of the mobile practice, which was ranked #2 by Ad Age for agency mobile revenue. He was the youngest executive to receive Mediaweek’s Media All-Star award. Forrester recognized the global mobile practice he founded as a mobile marketing agency Industry Leader, their top rating. Paul’s clients included Mercedes, Disney, Samsung, Unilever, Starwood, and Citibank. His innovative work won mobile marketer of the year, luxury mobile marketer of the year, and a Cannes Lion shortlist selection.

Jenna Habayeb, Chief Brand Officer, Beauty For All (BFA) Industries, is an accomplished marketing professional with nearly 20 years of experience leading creative marketing to drive growth for leading lifestyle brands.


In her role at BFA Industries, Jenna oversees brand marketing for BFA, including IPSY, BoxyCharm, Refreshments and BFA’s ESG initiatives. Jenna specializes in the strategic development and implementation of fully integrated marketing campaigns with a core focus on brand storytelling and data-driven design. She has applied this philosophy to help brands create authentic experiences, engage with consumers on a deeper level, and maximize brand exposure and awareness.

Michael Hahn is Executive Vice President & General Counsel at IAB and IAB Tech Lab. Michael has responsibility for all legal matters, including the direction of legal strategy, privacy compliance, antitrust compliance, intellectual property rights issues, and general corporate matters. Michael is also responsible for serving as an advocate for the digital advertising industry on common legal issues affecting member companies.

Michael joined IAB and IAB Tech Lab from Lowenstein Sandler LLP where he served as Vice Chair of the firm’s Antitrust Practice Group. In that role, he provided clients with strategic counsel around competition, distribution and governance issues. In the area of litigation, Michael’s matters have included multiparty class action antitrust defense representation.

Michael served previously as Co-Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association Antitrust Law Committee. He also previously served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Competition Law 360 and the Advisory Board of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section’s Civil Torts & RICO Committee. Michael frequently publishes on a range of legal and policy issues.

Michael earned his B.A. in History and Political Science from Rutgers University, M.P.P. from Georgetown University and J.D. for Georgetown University Law Center.

Steve began his career at ABC Television before joining HBO, where his work as a producer earned him industry recognition with four Emmy Award nominations & two Emmy Awards. He has served as a juror and speaker at multiple industry events including Cannes Lions, SXSW, Spikes Asia, Festival of Media and Dubai Lynx. Steve was most recently the president of Localize.city and prior to that, he drove growth and led business for R/GA and Twitter across 20 countries throughout APAC & MENA.

Arthur Leopold is the President of Cameo, the leading marketplace connecting fans and brands directly with tens of thousands of pop culture personalities in the form of personalized video messages, engaging fan experiences and marketing and events partnerships. He oversees our Cameo for Business and Talent organizations, and the teams behind the newly acquired celebrity merch platform, Represent.

Arthur joined Cameo as Chief Operating Officer and first employee in 2016 to build the talent organization from the ground up. He also pioneered Cameo for Business, bringing the magic of celebrity to over 12,000 unique brand customers in less than two years. Leopold previously served in various sales and account executive roles at Sprinklr, LinkedIn and RBC Capital Markets. He is a Duke University graduate and was the youngest elected delegate for Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign.

As Chief Marketing officer of Shake Shack, Jay is responsible for marketing, product (culinary / menu / supply chain) and the digital experience (Shack App / shakeshack.com / kiosks / delivery). Prior to Shake Shack, Jay served as Chief Marketing Officer of BARK, makers of BarkBox. Before BARK, Jay was Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Bank of America where he held senior marketing roles across the corporation during his twenty-year career. Jay is also an active angel investor in over thirty startups, has executive produced several feature films, and is a founding member of Unite America. Jay is from Knoxville, Tennessee and lives in New York City.

Alex Lopez joined McCann Worldgroup as President & Global Creative Chairman in 2021.

Alex is one of the most accomplished and awarded brand marketers and creative storytellers of this generation. For nearly a quarter century Mr. Lopez has defined, differentiated, and dimensionalized the Nike brand, shaping its positioning and messaging, driving enterprise- wide alignment, and leading teams around the world to best-in-class execution. Alex has been at the forefront of evolving the ways Nike connects with consumers both at scale and on an individual basis via traditional avenues and through the use of existing and emerging technology and platforms.

Alex led some of the most noteworthy efforts in Nike’s history, most recently leading the Dream Crazy, Equality, and You Can’t Stop Us campaigns. Alex also led efforts to launch new sport categories like Nike Skateboarding, the brand’s launch into Digital Sport via the Fuel Band, and most recently its efforts into premium long-form entertainment by co-founding and leading Waffle Iron Entertainment. Mr. Lopez has worked across the portfolio of brands within Nike, Inc, and has overseen a diverse set of functional expertise departments like Advertising/Brand Communication, Social Media, Media Planning & Buying, Digital Brand Innovation, Events, and more at both the Global level and across several of its geographies and territories across the world.

Alex’s work has led to significant business growth and brand affinity and has been received widespread critical acclaim. The Jordan Brand doubled in revenue during Alex’s time leading the Brand’s efforts, and North America revenue grew 25% in two years, delivering its first ever $4B quarter. Nike’s brand strength metrics have grown in all segments, and Nike is the #1 overall brand for its core consumer globally and in each of its key cities. Mr. Lopez’s work has won every significant creative marketing award, including multiple Emmy nominations and one Emmy win, seven Cannes Grand Prix Lions, the D&AD Black Pencil, the Effie 5 For 50, One Show Brand Of The Year, and hundreds of other awards over the years. Alex’s work has also been recognized by being added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Alex is an empathetic and empowering team leader who believes the work and results are a consequence of the culture he creates and has coached and mentored many senior marketing and creative leaders in the industry. He has also served as a keynote speaker, external advisor, board member, and subject matter expert for companies and organizations of all sizes and stages of development, both in the for- profit and non-profit worlds. He received his bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University in 1997.

Since founding Lotame in 2006, Andy has been focused on building the world’s leading data management technology. Andy led Lotame’s successful ad network for several years, targeting thousands of campaigns valued at millions of dollars, all delivered and executed through the Lotame platform. In 2011 he shuttered the ad network to focus the company on its original vision: a full featured, SaaS based DMP. Under Monfried’s leadership, Lotame has grown into 100+ person company with offices in the U.S., E.U. and APAC. Prior to founding Lotame, Andy was an executive with Advertising.com from 1999-2005.

Ian Orefice is a three-time Emmy and two-time Peabody award winning producer, currently serving as President & COO of TIME and TIME Studios.

Under Ian’s leadership, the Emmy award-winning TIME Studios, which barely existed two years ago, has become TIME’s fastest-growing business, generating more than $70M in revenue. With over 19 Emmy ® nominations, including three wins to date, TIME Studios has become home for the world’s most impactful storytelling and top creative voices. More than 20 projects from TIME Studios have been sold to streaming services, including Netflix, Amazon, Paramount+, as well as to TV networks and other distributors, including HBO, Showtime, Nickelodeon, CBS, PBS, ABC, NBC, A&E, Magnolia and CNN Films.

Previously, Ian was the Head of Video at Time Inc. where he oversaw an in-house team of over 275, leading TIME Inc. and its iconic brands (TIME, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, People) to 12 consecutive quarters of record ratings across all platforms and numerous industry awards.

In addition, Ian has directly executive produced more than 75 hours of premium documentary and unscripted television including critically acclaimed hits such as jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy (Netflix), Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space (Netflix), 89 Blocks (FOX) alongside EP LeBron James, The Story of Diana (ABC), Emmy Award-winning A Year In Space (PBS), The Mars Generation (Netflix), and the Emmy Award-winning A Boy Helps A Town Heal.

Christopher Ruddy, Chief Executive Officer Christopher Ruddy founded Newsmax Media, Inc. in 1998 and serves as its CEO. Newsmax today is one of the nation’s leading broadcasting and digital media companies. The Company includes the Newsmax network, the 4th highest-rated cable news channel in the U.S., according to Nielsen. Ruddy began his career as a journalist at the New York Post and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Multichannel News named him to its “News Titans” list of the top 10 people to know in television news. Newsweek ranked him one of America’s top 20 most influential news media personalities. Ruddy has also served as a member of the Knight Foundation’s Commission on Trust, Media and American Democracy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from St. John’s University in New York and a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics. He has been a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

Jennifer Risi is the President and Founder of The Sway Effect, an integrated marketing and communications network.

Jennifer is a seasoned communications executive with 20 years of experience in international reputation, strategic global media relations, CEO positioning, and crisis communications. She is also an expert in nation branding – having led award-winning global campaigns for Mexico, Colombia, USA, and Indonesia. Her clients are CEOs and Heads of State the world over.

Jennifer is a champion for diversity – often writing and speaking on key issues as well as mentoring and sponsoring next-generation talent. She is also a member of the 4A’s Foundation Board and forged Ogilvy’s membership with the Unstereotype Alliance. She serves as an ongoing advisor to UN Women.

Notably, during her career, Jennifer launched UN Women’s HeForShe campaign, managed Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Climate Summit for Local Leaders at COP21, as well as the Citizens Financial Group IPO.

Jennifer was named to Observer’s Power 50. She was also inducted into the 2019 PRWeek Hall of Femme and has been named a PR News Top Women in PR multiple times, including 2022 in the Entrepreneur category. She has also won multiple awards for her corporate reputation and nation branding campaigns from PRovoke, PRWeek and Cannes Lions.

Jennifer also led a cross-agency team and was awarded the UN Foundation’s Global Leadership Award for Common Ground’s LXL campaign. Notably, The Sway Effect was named 2021 PRovoke Media’s New Agency of the Year and finalist for 2021 PRWeek’s Boutique Agency of the Year.

Jennifer lives in New York City and is an alumna of Barnard College, Columbia University.

Mallory Russell is the Head of Global Content Marketing for Square, overseeing content marketing strategy as well as our editorial, social media, SEO, and lead generation functions. In her role, she builds content experiences and journeys that educate and inspire businesses of all sizes and help grow the brand and the business.

She previously led content marketing at Change.org where she used social and editorial channels to tell stories of people making change all over the world. Before working in tech, Mallory reported on the world of marketing at Advertising Age and Business Insider and worked at some of San Francisco’s most storied ad agencies.

Mallory holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Southern California and an M.A. in Business and Economic Journalism from New York University.  

Hamid is SVP of Digital Retail at Liquid Death, where he oversees revenue growth across a wide range of digital partners. Hamid was the first VP of Marketing at Liquid Death and helped drive the rapid rise of the brand as the fastest growing beverage brand in history.

Prior to Liquid Death, Hamid worked in advertising, working on brands like Nestle, PlayStation, Volkswagen, Taco Bell, Zillow, and many others.

Steve Szaronos is the Co-CEO of Bespoke Post. Together with friend and business school classmate Rishi Prabhu, Steve launched Bespoke Post in 2011. In the seven years since, the duo has built Bespoke Post to be a leading lifestyle subscription and e-commerce service, delivering goods and guidance to over half a million customers across the U.S. and Canada.

Prior to business school, Steve spent time in supply chain & logistics at Callaway Golf and Deloitte.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Miami University and his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He is based out of Bespoke Post’s New York City office.

For over two decades, Liz Taylor has been recognized as one of the industry’s most progressive creative leaders. She currently serves as global chief creative officer of Ogilvy. Before that, she was global chief creative officer for Leo Burnett and chief creative officer for Publicis Communications North America.

Her work has been featured in the Museum of Modern Art and multiple Super Bowls, seen across the pages of Harper’s Bazaar, Fast Company and Rolling Stone, and even topped the Billboard charts. Her career credits include iconic and brand-defining work for Budweiser, Clorox, Gatorade, Wrigley, Michelob Ultra, Morton Salt, Beam Suntory, GE, Kimberly-Clark and Boeing.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Portfolio Center, Liz is based in her native Chicago, where she lives with her husband, a Goldendoodle and her two kids when they are home from college.

Armando Turco is Executive Director of Brand & Creative at Oatly North America. In his role leading the Oatly Department of Mind Control in North America, Armando is responsible for all regional brand and creative development – and ultimately activating the company’s mission to make it easy for people to eat better and live healthier lives by providing options that are less taxing on the planet – through brand voice, creativity, influence, partnerships, and other marketing-type things.

Prior to joining Oatly, Armando was the SVP of Content at Vox Media for five years, where he helped connect hundreds of brands to audiences through the things they care about. He oversaw development of all branded content including several original podcasts, events, and two documentary films: A Woman’s Place with KitchenAid (Hulu, 2020) and The Beauty of Blackness with Sephora (HBO Max, 2022).

Before landing at Vox Media, Armando spent 15 years at creative agencies like BBH and McCann in various management positions, partnering with brands including Sony PlayStation, Axe, Johnny Walker and ABSOLUT.

He lives in New York City with his husband Matt and rescue mutt Andre Johnson.

Deborah Wahl is the global CMO of General Motors.

Previously, Ms. Wahl served as the global CMO of Cadillac and, prior to joining General Motors, as the SVP and CMO for McDonald’s. Additionally, Ms. Wahl has held a number of CMO and marketing leadership positions, including at PulteGroup, Chrysler, and Lexus.

Ms. Wahl earned a bachelor’s in economics from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She also has a master’s from The Lauder Institute.

Kevin Warren is Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Marketing Officer at UPS. In this role he’s responsible for U.S. and International Marketing, The UPS Store, Digital Channels, Revenue Enablement, Business Planning, Forecasting and Pricing, Digital Marketing, Customer Experience, Brand Relevancy and the company’s Ware2Go subsidiary. His highly developed perspective on data-centric business and non-traditional engagement channels is driving change at UPS and setting new standards in digitally enabled customer experience. As the e-commerce business era takes shape, Kevin is shaping those critical aspects of UPS strategy that will deliver the business of the future.


Most recently, Kevin served as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Xerox Corporation, where he was responsible for marketing, worldwide channel strategy, salesforce effectiveness and global client engagement for the company’s diverse portfolio of hardware, software and services.

Previously, Kevin served as president of Global Growth Opportunities, responsible for accelerating revenue growth outside the United States. In addition, he had strategic oversight for two Xerox operating units, Global Imaging Systems and Xerox Canada, as well as leading the company’s 3-D printing strategy.


He also led the integration activity surrounding Xerox’s $1.5-billion purchase of Global Imaging Systems. In 2007, he was named chairman, president and chief executive officer of Xerox Canada and in 2010, was named president of U.S. Client Operations. Kevin joined Xerox in 1984 as a sales trainee in Washington, D.C.

Kevin is a board member for Fiserv, Georgetown University and The UPS Foundation. He is also a current member of the Executive Leadership Council and a founding member of the Black Executive CMO Alliance (BECA). Previously, Kevin served on the board of Illinois Tool Works and the national board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

A native of Washington, D.C., Kevin received his Bachelor of Science in finance from Georgetown University and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, having completed the Advanced Management Program.

Lauren Weinberg is an experienced and goal-oriented marketing executive with over 20 years of experience. She’s an expert in finding insights in data and using them to drive strategic marketing plans that fuel revenue growth.
 
She is currently the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Square,  driving marketing and comms strategy globally, which includes investment decisions, optimization of marketing channels, brand strategy, analytics, marketing technology, creative execution and communications.  As part of her remit, she is responsible for managing Square’s entire marketing budget to ensure the company achieves its revenue and brand goals.  She also directs the channel and creative strategy across all of Square’s marketing channels including search, online display, organic social and content, email, television, audio and digital video. Prior to Square, Lauren was the founder of LMW Consulting, a strategic advisory firm assisting startups and established businesses alike in marketing strategy.  Before consulting, Lauren served as Yahoo’s Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Insights, where she oversaw media planning and buying, brand and marketing effectiveness research, consumer analytics and industry research. Prior to Yahoo, Lauren was Vice President of Digital Insights and Research at Viacom. She spent the three previous years at Advertising.com as Director of Research and worked at Nielsen and comScore as a Media Analyst and Product Manager, respectively.

Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg are co-founders and co-CEOs of theSkimm, a digital media company dedicated to succinctly giving women the information they need to make confident decisions and helping them live smarter. The former news producers disrupted the media landscape a decade ago with the launch of theSkimm, and have built a brand that continues to be a trusted source for a community of millions. Today theSkimm ecosystem includes the Daily Skimm, the Daily Skimm: Weekend, Skimm Money and Skimm Your Life newsletters, top-rated podcasts: “Skimm This” and “9 to 5ish with theSkimm,” theSkimm mobile app, virtual course series SkimmU, and Skimm Studios which creates innovative in-house video and audio content. theSkimm’s first book, How to Skimm Your Life, was released in June 2019 and debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Carly and Danielle have been featured on a number of prominent lists including: Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media, Vanity Fair’s The Next Establishment, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, Variety’s Power of Women and Adweek’s Young Influentials; and have received numerous accolades including the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit as one of the most 100 Intriguing Entrepreneurs. Carly is a Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute.

Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg are co-founders and co-CEOs of theSkimm, a digital media company dedicated to succinctly giving women the information they need to make confident decisions and helping them live smarter. The former news producers disrupted the media landscape a decade ago with the launch of theSkimm, and have built a brand that continues to be a trusted source for a community of millions. Today theSkimm ecosystem includes the Daily Skimm, the Daily Skimm: Weekend, Skimm Money and Skimm Your Life newsletters, top-rated podcasts: “Skimm This” and “9 to 5ish with theSkimm,” theSkimm mobile app, virtual course series SkimmU, and Skimm Studios which creates innovative in-house video and audio content. theSkimm’s first book, How to Skimm Your Life, was released in June 2019 and debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Carly and Danielle have been featured on a number of prominent lists including: Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media, Vanity Fair’s The Next Establishment, Fortune’s 40 Under 40, Variety’s Power of Women and Adweek’s Young Influentials; and have received numerous accolades including the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit as one of the most 100 Intriguing Entrepreneurs. Carly is a Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute.