“News Saves Lives” Virtual Townhall

At Verizon Media, Marinn Jackson leads premium sales strategy, managing a team that forges collaborative partnerships with the company’s top advertisers. With deep experience across media and marketing, Marinn takes a customer-centric approach to helping brands and agencies build their campaigns.

Prior to joining Verizon Media, Marinn was a Head of Industry at Facebook leading the strategy, go to market plans and sales efforts across the restaurant category. She was responsible for guiding clients across the c-suite, media, marketing, IT and operations to assist companies through their transformation to a mobile first world. Before that, Marinn spend 18 years at Viacom, where she was most recently SVP of Strategic Accounts, developing partnerships with the company’s top advertisers.

Marinn is a graduate from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Marinn is an executive member of She Runs It (formerly the Advertising Women of New York).

Brad Berens has enjoyed a wide-ranging career with powerful storytelling as an organizing theme. As Editor in Chief of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Berens oversees all thought leadership, research, and event programming. He is also a Strategic Advisor and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg, where he was formerly Chief Strategy Officer. Berens is a trusted advisor to a variety of companies, from a venture capital firm focused on artificial intelligence to a startup trying to eradicate media bias, among others. A futurist, he works with companies all over the world and also gives regular domestic and global keynote addresses. Earlier in his career, he had a long tenure as the Global Chief Content Officer at dmg events, having started as the Editor in Chief at iMedia Communications before dmg acquired iMedia. Still earlier, he was Managing Editor at EarthLink the ISP, worked in startups at the dawn of the digital age, and was a Hollywood story analyst for companies like DreamWorks, Mirage, New Regency, and Scott Free. Berens began his career as an award-winning teacher of Shakespeare and writing at U.C. Berkeley. Keeping his hand in, he is presently writing The Shakespeare Strategy, a book about Shakespeare as a business genius. Follow him on Twitter as @bradberens, learn more about him at www.bradberens.com, and read his novel, Redcrosse, a near-future dystopia.

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.