Gabrielle Heyman is Head of Global Brand Partnerships for Zynga, where she is responsible for Zynga’s direct advertising business. Gabrielle is a leader in Gaming and Digital Media, and has a passion for the revolution in entertainment consumption and its impact on brands.

Julia is a growth enablement and business development specialist with global experience. As a Senior Director Global Solutions & Innovation, she leads the strategic rollout of emerging solutions – Gaming media and Digital Audio. In her role, she drives the development and incremental revenue growth, while providing competitive advantage for the business by turning solution opportunities into scalable approaches across GroupM’s agency brands.

Julia’s journey in the realm of advertising is marked by her exceptional proficiency in programmatic advertising operations. Leveraging her expertise, she has successfully introduced a plethora of solution propositions, such as Conversational Ads, the Nexus Arcade Dashboard and most recently Sonic – an audio reach planner.

As an Inclusion board member at WPP NL, she devotes her energy to foster an inclusive workspace and educate on cultural awareness. In her advisory role she designs collaborative initiatives, consults the business, builds practical tools and provides best practices to advance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion throughout the organization.

In recognition of her trailblazing efforts, Julia was awarded the Wires AdExchanger award for Ad Tech Rising Star and was named among the Management Today’s Women 35 under 35.

With over a decade of experience in digital advertising, I am a passionate and driven leader who thrives in the dynamic and fast-growing gaming industry. I oversee Enthusiast Gaming’s global advertising business: sales, account management, programmatic, revenue operations and marketing strategy. Enthusiast is the largest gaming media platform in North America, reaching over 300 million gamers monthly. We work with leading brands and agencies to create innovative and impactful campaigns that connect with engaged audiences and drive brand growth. I bring a strategic approach to processes, new product ideation, and people that is both creative and solution-oriented, which has been instrumental in building Enthusiast Gaming’s advertising revenue business since I joined in the fall of 2019.


I have extensive experience in global brand partnerships at Electronic Arts, where I worked with major brands such as Coca-Cola and Verizon to integrate them into popular gaming franchises such as FIFA, Madden & TheSims. ​


I am a proud member of both Chief (a private network of women leaders who support and inspire each other to achieve their goals) and SheRunsIt (a network for women in advertising). I’m always eager to learn from and collaborate with diverse and talented teams. I believe that gaming is not only about play, but learning, creation, and ultimately dee.​


I started Raise Your Game, an initiative that focuses on connecting trailblazing women, persons who identity as women, and nonbinary individuals in the ad industry. RYG provides a place to share stories, experiences, & triumphs in the professional world while using gaming as a backdrop.

Adam Shlachter is Head of Partner Marketing at Niantic, responsible for working hand-in-hand with brands and agencies to create innovative and immersive marketing programs that drive real-world business results. Prior to joining Niantic, he spent over 20 years in a variety of senior roles across the advertising and media industry, including WPP, Publicis, and Group Nine Media.

Derek J. Smith comes to IAB with over twenty years of experience in the educational and nonprofit industries. As an Experiential Educator, Derek has utilized the classroom and nonprofit spaces to encourage innovation through the creation of technology-forward programs, leadership development workshops, writing and teaching curricula, organizational operations, and serving others! Most recently, Derek was an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Haven, where he taught Esports Basics, an introductory course to the world of esports. Previous positions also include an Educator for Teach For America; a Guidance Counselor for Texas public schools, and Executive Director for A House on Beekman.


Derek has a Bachelor’s in Communication, a Master’s in Educational Counseling, and will attain a Master’s in Esports Business and Management from the University of New Haven next summer. Derek enjoys spending time with his three children, designing bowties, and simracing (virtual car racing) on the weekends.

Zoe Soon has 10+ years of experience building products in technology-driven businesses with a heavy focus on mobile. Six years ago Zoe flew 21 hours from Sydney to NYC for a 30min coffee meeting which led to her first job in NYC. Since then she’s worked with three major New York based media companies, The New York Times, Condé Nast and Business Insider on projects ranging from location-based apps to paywalls. Zoe began her career as a user researcher and UX design consultant working with three of the top five banks in Australia. She was then hired to establish a user insights practice at Fairfax Media, a leading Australian news and media conglomerate. Here she led the user research for the flagship news apps which won Best Mobile News Product at the 2012 Australian Mobile Awards and went on to become product lead for the news sites. In this role she launched a content paywall and a unified user data system to diversify revenue and enable more targeted marketing.

Prior to joining the IAB Zoe was General Manager of apps and email at Business Insider where she was charged with defining the go-to market strategy for these platforms. In this role Zoe launched Insider Inc’s first OTT apps across Apple, Amazon Fire and Roku offering advertisers cross-platform video digital distribution and access to an audience that generates over 2 billion views each month.

Zoe has a Masters in Organizational Psychology and lives in New York. She enjoys burning pancakes, Cuban salsa dancing and talking to strangers in line.

As Head of Global Gaming Business Marketing at TikTok, Rema Vasan is responsible for building innovative marketing solutions that enable the gaming industry to become TikTok fluent and wield the power of the platform to deliver against business goals. She is focused on helping brands develop strategies to engage with communities through culturally-relevant creative storytelling and understanding TikTok’s full-funnel impact.

Prior to TikTok, Rema led global marketing for some of the biggest and most recognized brands at Pfizer, P&G, J&J, GlaxoSmithKline, Coty, and more. She has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and North America, championing brilliant creative work and business-driving ideas, capabilities, and innovations. With 20+ years of experience, both in-house and at agencies, she addresses business opportunities and challenges with an inherently integrated mindset.

An immigrant and woman of color, Rema is a passionate believer and investor in the power of mentorship to elevate high potential talent. Rema is a proud girl mom, boy mom, dog mom and lives in New Jersey with her family.