Hey! I’m Nata, otherwise known as KokoNata. I’m a streamer that mainly plays multiplayer games, including Genshin Impact! I focus heavily on a sense of humor and community, providing for all especially those who cannot be who they are anywhere else. The vibes here are sometimes wholesome and always chaotic, but never toxic!

JeromeASF, is not only the fearless host for the 2021 LEGO® Technic™ | Luminosity Academy First Class, but a frequent guest host of NFL Tuesday Night Gaming’s Family Game Night for season 1 with plans to return for season 2. He is also a massively successful content creator that produces Minecraft content at a near inhuman level. Publishing several videos per day, Jerome personifies dedication to his craft.

Anzu’s Co-Founder and CEO, Itamar Benedy, is the driving force behind the global intrinsic in-game advertising revolution that has transformed how game developers monetize their titles and advertisers reach gaming audiences.

When Benedy co-founded Anzu in 2017, he had a degree in Computer Science, a background in marketing and advertising, had been recognised by Forbes Israel as part of their ‘30 Under 30’ program, and had led AdTech giant Glispa as CEO. Ultimately, these experiences have culminated in him building and leading a company that bridges the gap between advertising and gaming, and is the most advanced intrinsic in-game ad solution for mobile, PC, console, and the metaverse.

Kurt Benkert is an NFL QB who has played for Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, and San Francisco 49ers. On and off the field, he is also a family-friendly social star who enjoys making content related to football and FPS games. A former NFLPA Twitch Rivals Streamerbowl champion who has worked with Cape Coral Animal Shelter, NFL Tuesday Night Gaming, and is partnered with Rogue Energy.

Ricardo Briceno is the Chief Business Officer at Gamefam, a leading metaverse game developer and publisher that creates connected experiences with the largest gaming communities and well-known brands. As the first executive hire at Gamefam, Ricardo oversees the company’s brand partnerships, advertising network, as well as franchise development for the company’s growing portfolio of IP. Additionally, he is responsible for off-platform marketing, communications, social media strategy, finance and business operations.

Since joining Gamefam in 2021, Ricardo led the creation of the Gamefam ad network, which has generated millions in revenue and delivered over 2B brand engagements in campaigns for globally recognized brand partners, including Hasbro, Spin Master, Wowwee, Netflix, Paramount, Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, Mattel, and more. Ricardo also oversees the special events and concerts team at Gamefam, responsible for the development of two of the top-rated concerts on Roblox from 24KGolden and The Chainsmokers, and the launch of the #1 branded music game on Roblox: Festival Tycoon by The Chainsmokers. Under his leadership, the company has scaled to over 250 team members and established business processes to allow Gamefam to deliver 11 quarters of consecutive growth.

Ricardo brings a wealth of knowledge in franchise management and marketing from his previous position at Mattel as the Vice President of Franchise Management. There, he was responsible for developing strategies to extend Mattel’s portfolio of brands, including iconic multi-generational properties such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Thomas and Friends, Monster High, UNO, Masters of the Universe, and American Girl across digital gaming, live experiences, video content, and consumer products. He also launched Mattel Creations, the company’s direct-to-consumer business targeting adults as consumers with collaborations between Mattel brands and leaders in arts, fashion, and entertainment.

Prior to Franchise Management, Ricardo was the Global Head of Brand Marketing for Hot Wheels, where he led the integrated marketing process from strategy to execution. In this role, he implemented plans to maximize brand buzz, engagement, and revenue for Hot Wheels – finding innovative ways to delight millions of consumers and help build a 50 year old heritage brand, maintain relevance and play in pop culture. He created the world’s largest traveling car show, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, where fans around the world could enter their life-size custom cars and compete for the chance to become the next Hot Wheels toy car. Ricardo led the brand’s hugely successful expansion into gaming through brand integrations with top console and mobile racing games including Need For Speed: No Limits, Racing Rivals, Rocket League and Microsoft’s Forza; and with a fully branded, top-rated mobile game: Hot Wheels Race Off. During his tenure on Hot Wheels, Ricardo guided the brand to doubling its revenue after seven years of consecutive growth.

Ricardo, 43, is a native of Venezuela and bilingual in English and Spanish. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Simon Bolivar and his MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He is based in Los Angeles and loves to spend time with his adopted dog, Lucas.

Casey Campbell is the Managing Director, North America at Gameloft for brands. Casey focuses on connecting brands with a highly-engaged audience through mobile games and compelling rich media. With over 15 years of working experience at Gameloft and over 23 years in business solutions, Casey manages all Sales and Business Development activities in the U.S. & Canada for Gameloft, one of the world’s top mobile games publishers, with a vast portfolio of titles including Asphalt 9: Legends, the latest in the lauded Asphalt franchise, War Planet Online, and a suite of licensed titles including Disney Magic Kingdoms, Disney Princess Majestic Quest, Minion Rush, LEGO Star Wars: Castaways, and more.

Casey is a strong strategic thinker and started his career in the systems integration and consulting business. He is also a passionate gamer, and in 2006, Casey pursued a life-long passion for video games and joined the mobile games industry in its infancy. Throughout 16 years in mobile gaming, he’s navigated massive upheavals in technology and business models. By turns disruptor and disrupted, Casey has unique insight into this dynamic and growing sector.

Glenn Chin is the marketing lead on NBA All-World at Niantic. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the video game industry working on sports franchises and with athletes in various roles throughout his career.

Prior to joining Niantic, Glenn has held several roles across sports, tech, and video games. At Nike, Glenn was responsible for leading a partnership with Apple to launch the fitness tracking device Nike+. As Head of Global Brand: Nike Basketball, he was part of the team that signed Kevin Durant to his first Nike deal out of the University of Texas, and signed extensions for NBA stars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James following the Beijing Olympics. He also created the marketing and the inaugural and iconic Hyperdunk sneaker, with the 2008 USA Basketball “Redeem Team”.

At Electronic Arts, Glenn was responsible for various projects across EA Sports’ portfolio including: Madden Football, NCAA College Football, FIFA Soccer, NBA Live, and more. While at Electronic Arts, he created the company’s first NFL x Celebrity gaming competition, ESPN’s first NBA Player x Celebrity competition, and EA Sports All-American HS Basketball game which featured LeBron James and rising stars from across the U.S.

Beyond his time with Electronic Arts and Nike, Glenn has also served as Rules Committee Member & Brand Consultant for Euroleague Basketball and was a key presenter at the Presidents’ & Owners’ Summit in Paris. He is a recipient of Brandweek’s Guerilla Marketer of the Year award as well as Electronic Arts’s Most Valuable Player Award in addition to his title of “Minister of Culture.” Glenn holds a B.A. from San Diego State University.

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.

Nicolas Comestaz is a Digital Marketing and Media senior leader with 18+ years track record of driving Digital & Media transformation in complex multinationals. He is currently the Global Vice President of Media, Communication & Performance activities at COTY where is driving a client centric and data driven organization supporting Coty’s brands, divisions and markets in fully unlocking the potential of their activations throughout the consumer journey. Nicolas is also an Executive Committee Member of the World Federation of Advertisers.

Alex Dooley is a Founder and Director at Block Evolution Studios with a background in Robotics and over a decade’s experience. Alex’s goals include bringing immersive advertising to gaming. Advertising in the gaming space is already a literal game changer for brands. Over the coming years we will see a huge shift in advertising, with millions of leads generated through games. Block Evolution Studios’ Club Roblox is one of the biggest online games in the world. Having already worked with a multitude of global brands, he is right at the forefront of this new market.

As Senior Director of US Sales, Kelly Drake oversees all of Activision Blizzard Media’s direct sales efforts and agency partnership relationships in the US. Prior to joining Activision Blizzard Media in early 2019, Kelly led the direct sales efforts at AdColony, where she oversaw a team focused on brand and agency relationships across the east coast. With over 13 years of digital marketing experience and over 8 years with a concentration in gaming, Kelly brings a unique perspective on the effectiveness of gaming to both her clients and the marketplace.

Jennilee Dunwoody is a brand management and marketing executive with 15+ years leading business units for the worldwide leader in beauty, L’Oréal. She is currently the CDMO Vice-President of Innovation & Strategic Growth and is trailblazing initiatives regarding the future of digital identity, creation, and ownership. Jennilee is a recent MSc graduate from HEC Paris, active amongst the web3 community, guest lectures at NYU, and loves life as a first-time mom.

Marc is the CRO, CMO and a Board Member at Scuti, responsible for Corporate Strategy, Sale Operations, Key Partnerships, Co-Marketing, Social Media, is active on the speaking circuit. Marc has been regarded as a Change Agent, no matter the company that employs him. He is a well-respected & highly networked Media & Marketing Executive, with a 25 year track record of turning marketing investment into new customers and revenues for his businesses. Having worked for P&G (agency side), Verizon and Reckitt Benckiser as the client-side Head of Media Strategy and Investment for both, and Future plc as VP of US Marketing, Marc has led massive teams within highly matrixed organizations to deliver best-in-class marketing innovation and ROI.  He has personally overseen the investment of over $15 Billion in media and marketing budgets, that the aforementioned companies entrusted him with over the span of his career.  Marc is regarded as “the Godfather of Digital Video” (per a Forbes.com article in 2009), a name he earned as he was the pioneering brand-side marketer to trend-spot, test, and heavily invest in digital video ad inventory and technology years before it’s mass acceptance.  This earned Marc the coveted Advertising Age Media Maven Award in 2009, he was only 34 at the time.  Since then, he has fine-tuned his Executive management skills in Corporate America, launched a white-glove digital consultancy firm, moved from a media-centric career path to becoming a VP Marketing for an international conglomerate, and ultimately joined Scuti as CMO & CRO because he sees our platform as “the next evolution in shopping behavior”.

Luis (Lou) Garate is Head of Global Sponsorship Sales for Twitch. Since joining the organization in 2019, Garate has overseen the build and implementation of the Twitch Properties business, creating a new sponsorship strategy for the Twitch sales organization that leverages intellectual property, promotional and partnership rights, events, hospitality and more across Twitch’s premium owned and operated non-media assets and major third-party esports and gaming properties. His team has successfully entered into partnerships with category leading brands that include – Ally Bank, Dunkin, Pizza Hut, State Farm and Verizon. Previously, Garate acted as Senior Vice President at NASCAR, leading their sponsorship team which included major Fortune 500 clients such as Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Goodyear, Xfinity and many others. In addition, he has served in various sales and marketing roles at Ryan Partnership, Loews Cineplex, Millsport, National Football League and Sports & Co. A University of Connecticut graduate, Garate resides in Connecticut with his wife and two daughters.

Arda Genç is the co-founder & CEO of LIVAD Technologies, building interactive entertainment and monetization technologies for the creator economy.

Having experienced Austrian, French, American, and Hong Kong educational systems throughout his formative years, Arda has been exposed to various cultures at a young age.

After studying Computer Science at Northwestern University, Arda co-founded LIVAD Technologies at 23, combining his passion for technology, media, and entertainment.

In his spare time, Arda enjoys playing tennis and producing electronic music.

Michael Goldstein is Head of Comms Strategy for DDB North America. He has crafted effective and press-generating comms strategies using a tapestry of media touchpoints for brands at DDB like NBA2K, Miller Kroger, iShares, Orkin, Miller, and Royal Canin, and has previously won Cannes, Effies, and Clios for his work with Verizon, JET.com, Overwatch, NY Lottery, PBS, and USPS. He is passionate about collaborative advertising on platforms like Roblox and figuring out the best ways to activate gaming communities for brands.

A native of Chicago and a life-long gamer, Matt spent the first part of his career in Hollywood working in Film & TV Production as a Writer, Producer and Production Coordinator on such shows as Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Diagnosis Murder before making his move into digital media.

Matt began his digital media career at iFilm.com where he built and led the Ad Operations and Account Management teams. iFilm was one of the Web’s first video-sharing websites (before YouTube) on which users could upload, share, and view videos. At its height the iFilm Video Network powered such sites as Disney, College Humor and Rotten Tomatoes.

He spent the next decade at Yahoo! leading a national organization of Account Managers and Managers supporting over $250MM in annual revenue for the Autos, Entertainment/Gaming and CPG/Pharma categories. Matt has built and led Customer Success teams at Yahoo!, Glassdoor, Helix, Zeldavision and now at Enthusiast Gaming.

Matt earned his BFA from USC School of Cinema-Television.

Ryan Griffin is Senior Director of Brand Partnerships at Niantic, the world’s leading augmented reality company, with a focus on how AR-games, entertainment experiences, and education unite the digital and physical worlds.

In this role, Ryan leads the efforts that bring brands to life inside of Niantic’s vision for the “Real-World Metaverse”, working hand-in-hand with marketers, agencies, and consultancies to create innovative programs that drive real-world business results. He can also be found catching Pokémon with his family in their Brooklyn neighborhood, pushing towards 4 Million steps taken in Pikmin Bloom, and dogfooding upcoming Niantic releases.

A veteran of the mobile, gaming, and advertising industries, Ryan previously led revenue, strategy, and solutions teams at Flipboard, AdColony, and Undertone. He started his career in the agency world, where he spent more than 13 years building innovative programs with clients including Mars-Wrigley, American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM, Samsung, Cisco, and Volkswagen.

Zach Hahn is the Senior Vice President of Partnerships Super League Gaming (Nasdaq: SLGG), a global leader in metaverse gaming and experiences. In his role, Hahn manages partnerships across Super League’s businesses and explores new commercial opportunities for the company.

Zach is a passionate and accomplished executive-level digital marketing and media thought-leader, creative brand marketer and new business development leader. His expertise lies in understanding, strategizing and executing digital, OTT, VR, programmatic media, branded entertainment and strategic partnerships. Through his extensive time at world-class organizations including Sony, Disney and Nielsen, he has developed top-tier sales solutions and marketing campaigns that directly drive business and revenue growth while also ensuring operations are streamlined, effective and cost-efficient.

Zach has built teams and grown businesses by working tactically day-to-day with direct reports along with the larger teams all while strategically leading big bet projects for some of the most iconic brands in media, entertainment and gaming. Prior to Super League, he spent 6+ years working at the intersection of TV and Digital media in the streaming/OTT space and growing Sony’s media business with the #1 gaming brand in the world.

Ann Hand serves as CEO and Chair of Super League Gaming {Nasdaq: SLGG}. She brings to her current role over 25 years of experience as a market-facing executive across several industries, including consumer retail and sustainability.

As CEO and Chairman, Ann shapes and guides Super League’s growth-focused mission of building and operating multiple networks of games, monetization tools, and content channels across metaverse gaming platforms that empower developers, energize players, and entertain fans. The company’s solutions provide incomparable access to an audience consisting of players in the largest global metaverse environments, fans of hundreds of thousands of gaming influencers, and viewers of gameplay content across major social media and digital video platforms. Ann’s proven track record in brand creation, and her expertise working at the intersection of social impact and consumer trends and technology, gives her a unique perspective and ability to guide Super League’s path into the future. At her core, Ann is a retailer, operator, and builder of enduring strategic partnerships, brands, and cultures.

Under Ann’s leadership, Super League has developed deep knowledge and insights in open metaverse gaming platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft, as well as ad tech solutions that are currently deployed within more than 150 curated, brand-safe games in Roblox that reach more than 70 million monthly active players; measurable formats within the largest free Minecraft server host community in the world, Minehut; and dynamic home page placements across dozens of YouTube channels collectively boasting more than 65 million subscribers who are passionate about gaming entertainment.

Throughout her career, Ann has been honored with multiple awards and industry recognition, and was most recently named to Ad Age’s Leading Women of 2022 List. Additional honors include “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” by Goldman Sachs, “Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs” by Fortune, “100 Most Creative People” by Fast Company, “40 under 40” by Advertising Age, along with Grand Clios and Cannes Lions for integrated marketing campaigns she developed and executed.

Prior to joining Super League, Ann served as CEO of Project Frog, a venture-backed firm whose mission is to democratize healthy, inspired buildings that are better, faster, greener, and more affordable than traditional alternatives. Previously, she held a variety of senior executive positions with BP plc, including most notably Senior Vice President, Global Brand Marketing & Innovation where she oversaw the entire brand portfolio of B2C and B2B brands including BP, Arco, am/pm and Aral. Prior to that, she ran BP’s Global Liquefied Gas Business Unit that had $3B in annual revenue and over 3,000 employees worldwide.

Prior to BP plc, Ann worked at McDonald’s and Mobil Oil Corporations in retail development and operations. Ms. Hand has received various recognitions including Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People, Fortune’s Top 10 Most Powerful Female Entrepreneurs and Ad Age’s Leading Women.

Ms. Hand earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from DePauw University, an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and completed executive education at Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford Universities. Having spent a significant part of her career abroad in China and the UK, she holds a dual US/UK citizenship, but is a proud Midwesterner at heart.

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.

Phil Hong is the Head of Publishing for Niantic US Game Studios. He served as the Executive Producer for Niantic’s latest global release, NBA All-World as well as the upcoming Marvel World of Heroes. Phil came to Niantic after a successful 8 year career at The Walt Disney Company. At Disney, Phil led the effort to develop innovative games and experiences across the entire spectrum of the company’s blockbuster IP’s producing hit titles such as Epic Mickey, Star Wars Force Arena, and Marvel Future Fight; games that have delighted and engaged millions of fans around the world.

Prior to Disney, Phil was a Senior Producer at Pandemic Studios where he was on the original Star Wars Battlefront team and went on to lead the production for The Saboteur. Phil’s curiosity to explore a constantly changing landscape of entertainment platforms brought him to Niantic to team-up with equally curious developers, marketers, and operations people to play in a white box of creative possibilities that is the emerging field of AR.

Tommy has over 15 years of agency experience, working across some of the biggest clients in the CPG, pharma, alcohol and tech verticals.

Tommy has spent the last 6 years developing innovative network level partnerships with dentsu’s largest global partners, providing strategic benefits to clients and teams across dentsu.

In his current role, Tommy is responsible for gaming and web 3.0 innovation across the dentsu network. Tommy has developed gaming and web 3.0 strategies for clients such as Subway, 7 Eleven and most recently for Heineken, helping to launch the first virtual brewery in Decentraland.

Jack joins the IAB with over 20 years of experience at platforms, brands, and agencies leading global research and insights initiatives that foster smarter business decisions. An enthusiastic data-driven storyteller, he’s passionate about exploring the boundaries of research to elevate industry intelligence and strives to inspire action through insights.

Prior to joining the IAB Jack led and scaled global research, insights, and measurement teams at rapidly emerging digital media platforms including Microsoft, EA, LinkedIn, and Spotify. Most recently Jack was at Reddit, where he established the Marketing Sciences organization responsible for advancing ad measurement capabilities and partnerships, producing research amplifying industry awareness and understanding of online communities, and uncovering contextual insights and identifying audience trends that tell the world about their world.

Jack and his teams have accepted awards from industry bodies such as the Advertising Research Foundation and the Insights Association, and he’s had the pleasure of sharing research findings in publications and on industry stages around the globe. He attended Washington University in St. Louis, earning degrees from the Olin School of Business and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Noam Korin is the Vice President of Brand Partnerships at Overwolf, the guild for in-game creators. In this role, Noam is responsible for leading Overwolf’s direct partnerships with advertisers and their media agencies. With over 20 years of experience in educating brands on the power of innovative platforms to reach and engage gaming communities, Noam led companies like Playstation and Zynga to develop their advertising solutions and brand partnerships teams from the ground up.

Noam served as a founding member of the IAB UK Gaming Steering Group. He is also the winner of the Cannes Lion Award for Innovation (adidas) and the IAB UK Creative Showcase Award (Nike). 

Samantha Lim joined the Publicis Media Content and Innovation team as SVP of Gaming Strategy and Innovation in October 2022. Lim’s 18 years of agency experience includes a heavy emphasis in digital media, bringing a balance of branding and data driven strategy to her clients. Prior to joining the PMCI team, Lim held multiple client and investment lead roles with Starcom. Over the course of her career, Lim has worked on a variety of movie studios and held global leadership roles on Xbox and Amazon. Lim is excited to build on her collective experience of platforms and entertainment to craft truly innovative gaming solutions (via Web2 and Web3) for brands.

Born and bred in Los Angeles, Samantha attended the University of Southern California majoring in Business Administration with a minor in Web Technologies and Applications. In her free time, she enjoys working out, playing video games, streaming TV shows, and volunteering at an animal rescue. 

Samantha has been a featured speaker at industry events, including those from partners such as AdExchanger, Digiday and NBCUniversal.

Phillip loves growth-stage technology businesses and establishing focused, high-impact partnerships with a particular current interest in the intersection between technology and humanity. Currently, he leads business development and strategy at MediaScience, the leader in media and advertising innovation research. MediaScience clients include some of the largest publishers, agencies and brands in the world. Phillip has just launched Mediascience’s newest lab in London, establishing a new market for innovation research. Phillip was an early UberEats team member and helped grow the business to $10bn+ in annual gross bookings, being a key member in launching multiple regions for the tech giant. Phillip brings a spirit of discovery and curiosity to his endeavors, challenging the status quo with a focus towards leadership and strategy.

Nicholas Longano is a leading entrepreneur in video games, advertising and gCommerce.

He is a gaming industry veteran with over 22 years of experience launching top game franchises for Vivendi, Blizzard, Valve, and Universal Interactive.

Nicholas was President of Massive Incorporated, the world’s first in-game advertising network, which was acquired by Microsoft.

Longano is currently the CEO and Founder of groundbreaking new rewarded gCommerce platform, Scuti, which is setting the foundation to drive video game and metaverse industry growth through its interoperable commerce and rewards platform.

Chanel Marks is on the Sales Marketing team at Zynga, where she drives the strategic development and execution of immersive advertising campaigns for Zynga’s clients. With over 10 years of experience working across entertainment and gaming, Chanel brings deep-rooted knowledge and passion to help brand partners deliver on key marketing objectives, drive results, and to reach the highly engaged gaming audience through fun and innovative opportunities.

As Head of Esports and Gaming, Sports Marketing, Paul Mascali is leading the charge in how PepsiCo’s portfolio of beverage and snack brands tap into the ever-growing market of nearly three billion gamers worldwide. Just seven years into his budding career, Paul oversees all brand partnerships and activations with gaming properties, advising on long-term strategies and customized programming. He has played an integral role in developing highly successful gaming strategies for MTN DEW®, Doritos® and Rockstar Energy®.

A graduate of Fordham University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, Paul began his career as an intern with Omnicom agency, Optimum Sports. There he supported media buying and competitor analysis within traditional sports, with a specialty focus on the MLB All-Star Game and Home Run Derby. Tapping his innate insight into pop culture and media trends led him to OMD USA. First on OMD’s Ignition Factory innovation team, Paul helped established brands like Bacardi and Grey Goose drive innovative media plans through partnerships with emerging businesses and technologies. This role eventually led to his passion of esports and gaming, where he led brand partnerships and activations with VR and gaming platforms.

Natrian Maxwell is a GM of the Emerging Channels at The Trade Desk focusing on the immersive inventory channels including  Gaming, Mobile App,  Audio, DOOH, Retail Media, and Social. Natrian started his career 16 years ago working with mobile publishers and large advertisers at Right Media Exchange, the first programmatic exchange created. Prior to TD, Natrian spent 4 years at Amazon building a programmatic offering called Amazon Publisher Services and expanding into international regions such as APAC, LATAM and EMEA.

Experienced leadership executive, with a demonstrated history of innovation, bridging tech with media, and advancing the video industry across both linear and digital.  Some examples of his visionary moves and where he’s made his impact across digital strategy, how media is planned and bought would include, leadership roles at DIRECTV, TiVo, Discovery Communications, Microsoft/XBOX, and Dish. Developing some of the first advanced TV ad products – such as, DVR/time-shifting, Addressable TV, ad supported VOD/OTT/CTV, and the use of ACR TV measurement to address the increasing shift in viewing behavior.

Jonathan Meyers currently serves as SVP & GM of Partnerships at NBCUniversal’s Advertising & Partnerships division. Meyers leads and scales partnerships across NBCU’s digital business, including partnerships with Apple News and YouTube, video distribution (YouTubeTV and Sling), platforms (Amazon, Roku, and Samsung) social (Twitter, Snapchat and Tik Tok), as well as emerging partnerships (ReachTV and Anzu.io.). 

 

Prior to joining Advertising & Partnerships, Meyers spent 11 years in NBCUniversal’s News division, where he most recently served as General Manager and Senior Vice President of CNBC’s events business, leading its rapid growth and expansion. Before that, Meyers was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations for CNBC Digital, overseeing the day-to-day digital business operations, including strategy, partnerships, analytics and marketing. He joined CNBC in 2010 as Vice President of Global Business Development. He previously worked at Forbes and Sony Music Entertainment. 

As the Head of Marketing & Communications at Saber Interactive, Shaun oversees the brand, PR and community teams at Saber across the many games the company is developing and publishing, including hits like World War Z, Dakar Desert Rally and Evil Dead: The Game. Prior to joining Saber, Shaun was a Partner at Sandbox Strategies, an award-winning PR and Infleuncer Relations agency. He has over 15 years experience in games publicly and marketing. 

Jude joined Bidstack in 2022, adding more than 20 years of adtech experience to the team. He began his career working at large internet companies like Yahoo! and AOL, before excelling in the gaming space, most recently with AdColony – one of the largest mobile gaming monetization platforms in the world.

He thrives in roles that allow him to tactically build things from the ground up and has managed hundreds of employees in both national and international roles. During his time at AdColony he transformed the business into a two-time winner of AdWeek’s “Mobile Ad Network Of The Year Award” before leading them to a successful exit in 2021.

At Bidstack, he will be responsible for overseeing revenue and growth while leading the team across sales, publishing, marketing, and strategy.

Capitalizing on her nearly 20 years of global marketing experience with Fortune 500 companies, Cathy Oh serves as Vice President, Global Head of Marketing & Analytics for Samsung Ads. As one of the founding members of Samsung Ads, her leadership has been integral in redefining the Advanced TV landscape.

Throughout her career, Cathy has achieved notable success developing marketing programs for global brands, launching large-scale marketing strategies and activations, and spearheading marketing programs for multi-national, enterprise organizations. In her current role, she has created a global marketing and analytics organization from single-digits to nearly 100 professionals throughout the US, Canada, Latin America, EMEA and AsiaPac regions.

Prior to joining Samsung Ads, Cathy served as Head of Marketing for iAd, Global Brands & Agencies (a division of Apple), and held marketing positions of increasing responsibility at companies that include WebMD and NBC Universal.

Cathy received a Master’s Degree in Integrated Marketing from New York University and a Bachelor’s of Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

When she isn’t traveling the globe for work and pleasure, Cathy serves on the board of the Korean American Community Foundation and sits on the advisory board for Conscious Step. She is a founding member and executive sponsor of Women+, a Samsung Employee Resource Group designed to mentor and support women within the organization. Since launching less than a year ago, Women+ has grown to include women and men from 13 cities and eight countries. In 2021, she was recognized as MultiChannelNews’ “Wonder Women.” Cathy lives in New Jersey with her husband and dog Adonis.

Leading Creator Partnerships at LIVAD Technologies, Sue Ozevin oversees a global roster of top digital creators, working hand-in-hand with talent agencies, Esports teams, and individual streamers. She’s responsible for crafting legendary live creator + brand interactions that result in memorable moments between brands, creators, and fans.

With over eight years of experience as a creator and a live streamer, Sue has built a community of 100k+ followers across socials. Combining that first-hand experience with an extensive background in Influencer Marketing, she has an in-depth understanding of the creator space.

Ciji-Danielle Robinson is Senior Director, Sports Marketing at Nickelodeon, a global kids and family brand at Paramount based in New York City. Ciji-Danielle is a 19-year marketing veteran, building her expertise in brand marketing and management, integrated marketing, strategic marketing, campaign development, licensing and advertising across global brands in the sports & entertainment landscape.

In her current role, Robinson oversees sports partnerships and strategic development and execution of marketing campaigns for linear sports series, working closely with internal departments and external partners to amplify marketing efforts across Nickelodeon’s non-linear platforms and initiatives.

Robinson was previously Senior Director of Sports Marketing for the Nickelodeon Experiences group, where she developed the Nickelodeon sports program into a comprehensive, sustainable marketing operation that allowed the brand to support key initiatives across sports, engaging kids and family audiences and developing memorable experiences that have created buzz and excitement for the brand and team partners alike.

Robinson joined Nickelodeon in 2015, as Sports Marketing Manager and was responsible for the development and execution of marketing programs with sports leagues and teams across a variety of co-branded events. Those marketing programs include activations like the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway, which received the 2016 Cynopsis Media Award for Brand Activation at Live Events and the 90’s Nickelodeon Nights with the Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks amongst others.

Robinson previously served as Manager, Brand Management and Licensing at Madison Square Garden for the New York Rangers, New York Knicks and New York Liberty, developing integrated marketing plans, retail and e-commerce marketing strategies and managed licensee relationship tied to larger strategic brand initiatives.

Prior to her stint at Madison Square Garden, Robinson was Associate Marketing Manager of Global Brand Communication in Reebok’s sports division, concepting, developing and executing global marketing campaigns, developing and managing retail campaigns and managing relationship with league partners. Before this position, she was Assistant Marketing Manager, Sports and Retail Marketing at Nike, Inc. developing strategic marketing programs and seasonal marketing plans for their Exeter Brands Group portfolio. Robinson began her career in licensing at the National Basketball Association managing licensee accounts, supporting product marketing campaigns, developing promotional activations with licensee and marketing partners and researching new business opportunities.

Robinson earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management at Babson College, where she was a Women’s Leadership Scholar and Endeavor Scholar. She has also studied abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

Avner Ronen is Vice President, Product Development at Samsung Electronics and a long-time technology and media entrepreneur. He was the founder/CEO of one of the earliest social networking services and later went on to be the founder/CEO of Boxee, a next-generation media streamer acquired by Samsung. A relentlessly creative thought leader named one of Rolling Stone’s “Agents of Change” for 2009, Avner has built his career by successfully navigating the leading edge of what people will want next.

Jillian Rothman is the Vice President of New Business & Ventures at Warner Music Group where she leads partnerships, strategies and development across gaming, the metaverse, and Web3. Additionally, Jillian helps manage WMG’s corporate venture fund, which invests in early-stage companies that will drive the evolution of our industry. Prior to this role, Jillian served as an attorney at Ropes & Gray, LLP, and clerked on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. A graduate of the University of Michigan two-times-over, Jillian is a native of New York City, which she says is the world’s best place to escape, but also to return.

David Sable is an advertising industry veteran with over 40 years of experience in the ad industry. The former global CEO and Chairman of VMLY&R, one of the world’s leading global marketing communications companies, he is now a startup catalyst, entrepreneur, global influencer, published author, and public speaker, as well as board member for American Eagle and Ethan Allen. As an early digital entrepreneur, David has been an active presence online sharing his marketing and digital expertise worldwide, living by the mantra of “do it big or stay in bed”.

Ali Saraniti is Fandom’s Director of Sales Research & Insights. She drives the growth of the B2B insights strategy and product offering across Fandom’s growing Global Ads business. Prior to Fandom, she gained experience on both the publisher side, spearheading the Content Insights division at Conde Nast and the ad agency side working on product development for the research arm of Dentsu Aegis Network’s M1 platform.

Erin joined Niantic in October 2020 where she is the SVP of Revenue and Global Operations. As a member of Niantic’s Executive Leadership Team, Erin oversees brand partnerships, enterprise and advertising sales; business operations; customer support for 40M+ users; data operations (including building a 3D map of the world); and trust and safety efforts.

Prior to joining Niantic, Erin spent 14 years at Google where she led global teams in multiple operating functions – Sales, Partnerships, Operations, People and Finance – and consistently over-delivered against big company-level goals across Advertising, YouTube and Google Cloud. Chief accomplishments include:
– growing Google’s TV and YouTube advertising businesses from $0 in revenue to $10B by developing and leading Google’s first go-to-market function (a combination of product development, product marketing and sales) and delivering creative solutions including the conception and execution of Google Preferred, YouTube’s TV alternative advertising package along with Google’s larger Global Incentive Program
– exceeding partner and user satisfaction and retention goals for global audiences in the hundreds of thousands and billions respectively including via initiation and landing of a holistic change to YouTube’s partner service model to increase retention of media and music companies and creators that distribute content on the platform
– leading a successful turnaround and building new teams in complex environments, as evidenced by the notable and swift pivot of YouTube’s Trust & Safety function from a reactive to a proactive organization to effectively remove terrorist content from YouTube.

Erin holds a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University and a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Erin is currently a Board Member (and active volunteer) at the Hillsborough Schools Foundation along with BUILD, focused on igniting under-served youth via entrepreneurship and at Parca Auxiliary, offering services to enrich the lives of people with developmental disabilities. She, along with her husband and two elementary school age kids (and most of the Bay Area), loves cheering on the Golden State Warriors.

Matt Sharpe serves as Creative Director, Advertising at Zynga, where he helps guide campaigns for brand partners across the company’s portfolio of titles. He is a 15 year veteran of the tech and advertising space with a focus on creating engaging experiences for audiences.

Jon Smith is a Founder and Director at Block Evolution Studios. He delivers and maintains key infrastructure associated with Club Roblox’s success. Using his background in Robotics, Jon provides a systems approach to growing and maintaining online communities. Using over 14 years of platform experience he has helped guide development and maintain a constant focus on delivering fun and engaging gameplay. Seeking to grow a game into a Metaverse, Jon views Club Roblox as less of a game and more as a digital city where its residents work, live, and play virtually.

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.

Shahar Sorek is the Chief Marketing Officer at Overwolf, the guild for in-game creators. In this role, Shahar is responsible for leading marketing initiatives, overseeing investor relations, and executing fund investments. With over 15 years of experience in the games and technology industry, Shahar has founded and managed leading startups including 7 Elements Studios, a game studio specializing in massive-multiplayer-online strategy games. Shahar has also held advisory positions at GK8, Flytrex and Treebute.io, and previously worked as a creative producer and actor in Hollywood and Israel. He is a former five-time Israeli national champion in Taekwondo.

Karl Stewart is SVP, Strategic Partnerships & Innovation of 1TwentyFour, a division of IGN.Karl started his career in gaming as Creative Director for Eidos Interactive prior to it’s acquisition by Square Enix. He then then held roles within the organization ranging from Head of Global Brand, VP. Strategic Marketing, and Head of Strategic Partnerships across the Marvel’s Avengers franchise. In 2017 Karl founded 1TwentyFour, a Strategic partnerships agency focused on the Film, TV & Gaming sectors. He has launched strategic campaigns for some of the most popular entertainment content producers and successful brands in the world, including AT&T, DC Comics, Marvel Studios, DELL, Discovery, HBOMax; Fever, Creator+, Mattel, Netflix, Peacock, Square Enix, WarnerMedia and Wizarding World.In September 2022 1TwentyFour was acquired by IGN Entertainment, where Karl is now responsible for working across the entire IGN organization to establish and develop strategic partnerships and business offerings for new and existing film, television, gaming entertainment, QSR, CPG, automobile and technology clients across eCommerce, media, social engagement and WEB3.

Sarah Stringer leads the Media Partnerships team across dentsu Media in the US, working with our biggest partners and identifying the newest innovators to maximize value for clients and differentiate the dentsu offering. She has transformed dentsu’s Partnerships initiatives with the world’s largest platforms, leading the strategic investment for $4BN in the US.

Under her leadership, Sarah and the Partnerships team have accelerated dentsu’s groundbreaking Attention Economy research, recognized as 2021 Best Media Research Study by the Market Research Society. The Attention Economy team is continually innovating and partnering with major and emerging media platforms to study attention and prove media investment value.

With 14 years of gaming experience, Sarah is also the emerging platform and gaming guru for dentsu’s US media agencies, always experimenting and educating around innovations like NFT’s, Web3 and the metaverse. Sarah helped shape the global dentsu Gaming offering launched in 2021, and continues to lead some of the most innovative uses of media.

Sarah joined Carat Australia in 2011 as a strategist, delivering impressive results on brands such as Disney, Nintendo, Adidas and Mattel, including the launches of movies: The Avengers, Frozen and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Previously named a ‘Formidable Femme’ in Campaign Asia’s Women to Watch 2015, she became the youngest member of the agency’s senior management team, founding the Innovation department in Australia, where she focused on delivering technology and trends insights to agency teams and clients.  Stringer joined the Carat USA team in 2016 and was recognized as a 2018 Adweek Young Influential and Internationalist Agency Innovator.

Sarah is a distinguished thought leader and has spoken on panels hosted by the 4A’s, ANA, Advertising Week, IAB and She Runs It and more. She sits on the Gaming and E-sports boards for the 4A’s and the IAB, and on dentsu’s Global Web3 committee.

Jonathan Stringfield is VP Global Business Research & Marketing at Activision Blizzard and the author of Get In The Game: How to Level Up Your Business with Gaming, Esports, and Emerging Technologies. At Activision Blizzard he oversees a global team responsible for crafting legendary marketing experiences, conducting rigorous science to substantiate the unique power of gaming to advertisers, and supplying partner teams with evidence-based insights that drive innovation.

Previously, Jonathan was Director, Marketing Insights and Analytics at Twitter where he was responsible for all measurement and ad effectiveness research for the US advertising business. Prior to that, Jonathan was an early member of Facebook’s measurement solutions research team and led demographic research for Nielsen’s TV and media research services. Jonathan holds a PhD in Sociology, where his NSF-funded research focused on identity and audience conceptions among users of social media technologies.

Marian Thomas is the Director of Partnerships, Research & Measurement at Zynga, where she combines quantitative and qualitative data to drive efficiencies for Zynga’s advertising organization. With over 20 years of experience working across the digital media landscape, Marian is passionate about understanding consumer behaviors and harnessing data to create engaging and effective ads.

Prior to joining SuperAwesome, Walters was founder and CEO of Hopster, the app that helps kids learn through the stories they love. Founded by Walters in late 2012, the Hopster app grew to serve eight languages and over 100 countries, topping the App Store grossing charts in over 20 markets. Before founding Hopster, Walters spent six years at Viacom International Media Networks.

As co-founder and CEO, Bobby is leading the development and growth of AdArcade’s breakthrough Native Playable ad technology that converts a brand’s video ads into a suite of playable creatives and programmatically delivers these playable ads into mobile games, matching ad gameplay with each player’s native gameplay.   He leads partnership development with brands and agencies to help them capitalize on this innovative ad tech to tap into the enormous digital touchpoint of over 3 billion global players.  With a diverse career background in national and tactical missile defense, on-line gaming, music licensing, and mobile game technology, he has lots of stories to tell.

Erika Wheless is a technology reporter covering social media platforms, influencers, and esports. She was previously the e-commerce reporter for Digiday, and is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.

Beth Woodruff is a self-professed student of culture, and in her role as Sr Director of Branding—Strategy, Integrations, Gaming and Innovation, she’s working to redefine the future of finances at Ally. Her curiosity and passion for the Ally brand has led to highly disruptive partnerships, integrations and campaigns that helped bring to life Ally’s commitment to representation, innovation and showing up in cultural moments.

After spending fifteen years working for companies like Ally, Driven Brands and AAA, Beth understands that brand storytelling is the driving force behind creating meaningful relationships with consumers. She also serves on the newly formed Emerging Tech Committee for the Ad Council which will develop and frame key topics in emerging technology as a way of providing information to the industry and non profit organizations.

When she’s not telling the Ally brand story to anyone and everyone who will listen, Beth loves traveling, watching movies and playing with her two sons, Freddie and Oscar.

Beth holds an MA in integrated marketing communication from the University of Alabama. Roll Tide!