IAB NewFronts (May 2-5) is the world’s largest digital content marketplace that gives media buyers a first look at the latest digital content from the biggest names in media and entertainment. This must-attend showcase brings together thousands of brands, agencies, and media buyers for a week full of digital content presentations and celebrity talent, while kickstarting discussions about issues critical to the future of the media industry.
IAB live streamed the first three days of presentations, Monday through Wednesday, from venues throughout NYC, and virtual-only presentations on Thursday. This year’s theme, ‘Stream On,’ embodies the cultural zeitgeist of consumers’ penchant for digital video content when and how they want it.
Maria Twena has over 30 years of experience in marketing, a career she began after securing a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Mass Communications. She has worked at various high-tech companies (both agency and brand), then spent years at MRM (McCann’s digital arm) servicing marquee clients, including Microsoft and Verizon. After two decades in the general market arena, she decided to turn her focus to the 1.5/2.0 generation Hispanic consumer segment. While at MRM she founded an advertising practice exclusively focused on digital marketing to the bicultural Hispanic and received an AdColor Innovator Award for her ground-breaking research on the native-born Hispanic. Prior to joining Adsmovil, Maria served as CMO of two media organizations and as an Agency President and remains committed to assisting brands navigate the Hispanic market, leverage best practices, and better serve the community at large. Maria is also an author of children’s books: the MariVi Master Navigator Series (wearemarivi.com).
As Co-Head of Content and Programming for IMDb TV, Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service, Lauren Anderson oversees all programming for IMDb TV, including development, production, licensing, research, and strategy. Prior to joining IMDb TV, Anderson served as Head, Strategic Content for Amazon Studios, she spearheaded such series as The Savage x Fenty Show for Prime Video. Prior to joining Amazon, Anderson was the Chief Content Officer (CCO) for Indigo Development and Entertainment Arts, the joint venture studio between NBCUniversal and Snapchat. As CCO, she was responsible for all aspects of the business and creative development for the studio. During her tenure, Indigo produced a variety of Snap Originals for the Discover platform, including the Webby-nominated and longest-running scripted hit The Dead Girls Detective Agency.
Previously, Anderson was Senior Vice President of Primetime Programming at NBC Entertainment. It was this work that saw her named by Variety as one of Hollywood’s New Leaders. During her time at NBC, she worked at both the studio and network, developing and/or shepherding series including The Good Place, AP Bio, Parks and Recreation, The Office, The Carmichael Show, and the musical drama Smash. Her work at NBC also included oversight of several non-traditional offerings, including a multi-season live scripted series. Anderson began her career at NBCUniversal as an Entertainment Associate. Prior to joining NBC, Anderson served as an executive at the National Basketball Association in New York City. She began working at the NBA as a summer intern while earning her BA from Columbia University in New York City. Although based in Los Angeles, she still calls Ohio home.
Three-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas has built a brand off being one of the most interesting, honest basketball players on the planet. After an 11-year pro career where he went from second round pick to averaging over 20+ points per game and becoming the face of Adidas basketball and 20-point per game scorer, Gilbert transitioned his big personality (he was named “Best Celebrity Blogger” in the mid-2000s for his ongoing blog on NBA.com) to media after he hung up his sneakers.
Starting with Out of Bounds, a daily sports show on Complex, Gilbert launched the No Chill podcast in 2018 to create an unfiltered platform for himself and his unique brand of analysis. In 2020, No Chill launched on Fubo Sports Network and expanded from digital-only to television. The show is now a fan favorite with streams, downloads and views in the millions. No Chill has earned a silver Telly, a first-place Cablefax Program Award and was named a finalist in the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards.
As GM of Audience Measurement at Nielsen, Ameneh Atai is responsible for leading global digital and advanced TV commercial strategy, sales and business development teams in the US.
Ameneh joined Nielsen in 2015 through the acquisition of eXelate. Ameneh brings diverse knowledge to the Ad and MarTech space as her previous roles were in Director of Solutions Architecture and Director of Artificial Intelligence Solutions; her strengths are in advising and working directly with marketers and advertisers. She is client focused with a strong background in data-driven software solutions and extensive experience in the digital advertising ecosystem.
Ameneh started her career in Systems Engineering and held positions at International Submarine Engineering and Engineering Consulting, designing autonomous submarines and Big Data collection and monitoring infrastructures. She received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering – Electronics from Simon Fraser University and holds three US patents in systems design, one of which has been in collaboration with University of Waterloo. In her personal time, Ameneh is an avid traveler. She also is classically trained in dance and passionate about empowering young women by teaching dance and choreography.
Along with a Phd in Physics from Kent University, Shampa brings to Canela an extensive background in driving innovation and growth at the intersection of media, entertainment, technology and products. Her ability to build and effectively manage large teams on a global scale has been at the root of her success.
Justin Barton is Vice President of Digital Strategy and Partnerships at BLACK ENTERPRISE. Barton is responsible for digital content, production, ad operations, social media, programmatic and partnerships.
Prior to Black Enterprise, Barton worked for SJR, the digital content consultancy of WPP, as Head of Analytics. He has also held executive roles at iHeartMedia as VP, Audience Development and ViacomCBS, as Sr. Director of Digital Insights.
Barton holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Hofstra University and an MBA from Long Island University.
John Battelle is co-founder and Executive Chair of Recount Media Inc., a NY-based media platform. He also serves as chairman of the board at sovrn Holdings, LLC and a Director at LiveRamp, an NYSE listed company. In addition, he is Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Scholar at the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He previously was founder and CEO of six media and technology companies, including Federated Media, the Industry Standard, and Wired. In 2005, Mr. Battelle wrote “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture” (Penguin/Portfolio). Mr. Battelle holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley.
Reggie Becton is a bold storyteller, who shoots straight from the heart with every emotion emphatically oozing out. Reggie’s music is an audible depiction of the emotional complexities that millennial men face when dealing with love, life, and loss. Despite emerging as a voice for men, women continuously find Reggie’s music endearing largely due to the honesty found in his lyrics and the vulnerability that can be heard in his suede vocal tone.
It is with this vulnerability that he found instant success with the release of his debut album, California. Boasting over 1 million streams across DSPs, it’s easy to see why the PG County, MD-native was dubbed one of Apple Music’s 2021 “Artists We’ll Love.” An album three years in the making, California serves as Becton’s most intimate project to date, The album has landed coveted spots on Apple Music’s “New in R&B” and “Breaking R&B” playlists; Billboard’s “Fresh Picks of the Week” (“Issues,” “So High,” “Rm 143”); and Uproxx’s “Best New R&B,” with The Sourcestating that Becton “shows he has something to offer in the new age of R&B’s renaissance.” Through his sultry delivery and genre-bending fusion of Gogo, new wave rock, and soul, Reggietackles everything from toxic masculinity, forgiveness, heartbreak, to sense of self on the 12-song set. In its first hour of release, California saw 60K+ streams on Audiomack and since its release Reggie has received cosigns from DJ Booth, OkayPlayer, Pitchfork, DefPen, LiveNation, BET, among others, with Becton also being selected as a finalist in Fender’s 2021 Player Plus Sessions program.
Starting his post-pandemic year off right, Reggie was selected to perform on The Roots ‘Road to Roots Picnic presented by Hip-Hop Legends, The Roots. He then launched into the Californiaalbum cycle with a performance for Amazon Music’s Breakthrough LIVE show in June, and landed the face of Amazon’s official “Breakthrough R&B” playlist with the release of the project’s lead single, “Issues.” Reggie was then tapped for two back-to-back shows on Juneteenth for Leimert Park Rising and the Soulection sponsored Crenshaw Unifest. Shortly after, Reggiewas a featured performer at Soulection’s “The Sounds of Tomorrow” showcase series at LA’s Regent Theatre. In support of California’s release, Reggie joined Grammy Award-winning artist Grace Weber, on “The Beautiful Space” tour which spanned across 9 major cites in the US.
Inspired by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Prince, Tank, Avant, and Brandy, the PG County native began releasing music back in 2018 with his debut EP Phases. He followed it up with a 5-track declarative EP titled, My Beanie’s Orange (2019), which fused together alternative R&B with 80’s soul and rock. The project’s lead single, “Rainin’ In LA,” was an immediate fan favorite garnering a feature on Ebro Darden’s Beats1 show. In 2020, Reggie delivered an EP titled, Thank You for Listenin’, dedicated to his fans. Despite its December release date, Thank You for Listenin’ was called “One of the best R&B EPs of 2020” by Def Pen. The EP’s lead single has over one million streams on Apple Music.
Now, with the release of three successful EPs, a full-length album, a national tour, and collaborations with Ye Ali (the pair’s “Right Time” collab has over 5M streams), Grace Weber,and R&B Legends like Tank, Reggie Becton’s “growing talents” (Uproxx) have cemented his position as a soon to be frontrunner in the new era of R&B. With a career quickly on the rise, we can only expect nothing but up from here.
As the Group Vice President, Advertising & Data Sales, Adam is responsible for the go-to-market strategy of VIZIO Ads, a platform with one of the largest connected TV footprints in the U.S. His role includes building brand and agency partnership strategy, as well as informing product and marketing decisions.
Having spent close to a decade in and around the OTT space specifically, Adam helped launch YuMe’s connected television suite, driving advertisers to consider the relationship between OTT and traditional TV investments. From there, Adam led partnerships and strategy at The Daily Beast, a leader in thoughtful, provocative journalism. That path led him back into the data, measurement, and OTT community, taking on a leadership post at Samba TV.
With experience ranging from ad-tech, publishing, measurement, and start-up mentorship, Adam’s focus remains on brand-led solutions, connecting consumers with content they desire, and driving business outcomes.
Mélanie Berliet is SVP and Group General Manager of the Home & Design team at Dotdash Meredith, overseeing Better Homes & Gardens, Real Simple, Southern Living, the Spruce (Home, Pets, and Crafts), MyDomaine, Martha Stewart Living, and DailyPaws.
Mélanie has 15+ years of experience creating, managing, and publishing lifestyle content across platforms. She is also the author of two children’s books.
Prior to joining Dotdash Meredith in 2018, Mélanie was the Chief Editorial & Strategy Director of Thought Catalog. She has worked as a producer and writer for brands including MTV, Vanity Fair, Elle, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, Salon, Esquire, Maxim, and iHeartRadio. Mélanie started her career as an Analyst on the Fixed Income Trading Desk at Credit Suisse. She earned a B.A. in Political Economy from Georgetown University.
Krishan Bhatia serves as President & Chief Business Officer for NBCUniversal’s Advertising and Partnerships division, reporting to Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Global Advertising & Partnerships. Bhatia oversees Advertising Sales for all Streaming & Data Products as well as the division’s One Platform Strategy, Partnerships, Data, Product, Technology, Measurement, and Operations functions — spanning a portfolio of TV, CTV and digital assets that reaches 1B viewers globally, including the company’s ad-supported streaming platform Peacock.
In 2021, Bhatia launched the company’s Enterprise Data unit to develop NBCUnified, the 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 Advertising, Freewheel and Sky Media, as well NBCU’s advertising partnerships with Amazon, Apple, Google/YouTube, Roku, Snap, The Trade Desk, TikTok, 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 on the Executive Committee of the IAB, as a board member of OpenAP and a board observer for the company’s investments in Anzu and TVScientific.
Peter E. Blacker is currently Executive Vice President, Streaming and Data Products at NBCUniversal’s Global Advertising & Partnerships division. Blacker is responsible for leading the company’s efforts to grow revenue and relationships across NBCUniversal’s best-in-class products including Peacock, Streaming, Programmatic, DDL and Partnerships, working in close coordination with the entire sales team. In addition, Blacker also leads NBCUniversal’s DEI initiatives across the ad sales division driving a single, streamlined DEI team that supports all internal employee programs and external DEI-related partnerships.
Benjamin Blank serves as President of Media for WMX, Warner Music Group’s next generation services division that connects artists with fans and amplifies brands in creative, immersive, and engaging ways. In this role, Blank leads WMG’s newly formed digital advertising and creative content division, which unifies WMG’s digital advertising firepower under one unit.
Blank most recently served as CEO and Chief Creative Officer at UPROXX Media Group, which has been part of the WMG family since 2018. UPROXX is comprised of an award-winning studio producing digital and linear content, and a massive publishing arm that commands an audience of over 40 million people across the web, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube.
Prior to UPROXX, Blank co-founded the production company Locksmith Content where he directed award-winning television commercials, branded content, and films for high profile clients including American Express, Nike, and Groupon. Before co-founding Locksmith, Blank served as a producer at Anonymous Content, where he worked with influential directors including Mark Romanek and Antoine Fuqua.
Hanna Bolte is a proven communications and marketing executive having led successful, award-winning audience campaigns in Television, Sports, Music, Consumer Brands, and Technology. As the owner and leader of her agency, Bolte Media, she led marketing, and communications, and multicultural, awards and talent strategy for numerous entertainment, sports, technology and consumer brands including Stage13/Warner Bros., Premiere Boxing Champions, adidas combat sports, Applause Entertainment as well as numerous athletes, actors and producers including Olympians, EMMY and Oscar nominees, and World Champions.
She was the VP of Media Relations, Talent Relations, and New Media at mun2/NBCU; AVP of Global Communications, Media Relations and New Media at music rights organization BMI, and ran her own agency Bolte Media prior to joining Estrella Media. She is a former board member and Entertainment and Sports section chair for the Public Relations Society of America and is a member of the Television Academy. She is a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma (B.A. in Journalism/Public Relations) and is an alumnae of the Haas School of Business Executive Education program at the University of California, Berkeley.
Alysia Borsa is President of Meredith Digital of Meredith Corporation’s National Media Group, the leading multi-platform media company focused on women – reaching 95% of all U.S. women and more than 190 million unduplicated American consumers every month. Borsa oversees all digital strategy, content, products, technology, sales, marketing, e-commerce and operations for the company’s 40+ iconic brands, including PEOPLE, Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes, Southern Living and REAL SIMPLE.
Since joining Meredith a decade ago, Borsa has served in several executive roles, including EVP/Chief Data Officer, Chief Business Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. Her distinguished record and forward-thinking approach have been instrumental in Meredith achieving many key milestones, including the establishment of the Meredith Data Studio. This suite of advertising solutions leverages the company’s rich, proprietary first-party data and predictive insights capabilities, helping to inform its partners’ marketing, product and business strategies. Under Borsa’s leadership, Meredith has also expanded its business partnerships with a wide array of retailers and blue chip marketers.
Prior to Meredith, Borsa held senior positions in the technology, telecommunications and consulting sectors. She worked at Nokia, Comcast and Accenture, developing and executing strategies to grow new and legacy businesses.
Borsa serves on the ANA’s Data & Technology Growth Council and the boards of directors of the Interactive Advertising Bureau; AdLedger, an industry blockchain trade group; and 4-H, a nonprofit youth development organization.
Meredith Brace is the Chief Marketing Officer at Samba TV, where she is responsible for defining and driving strategy to accelerate Samba TV’s growth and market position as a global leader of omniscreen marketing solutions powered by its first-party TV data and identity. With deep expertise across the buy and sell side, Meredith joined Samba TV from marketing, advertising, and sales leadership roles at HP, Microsoft, true[X], and FOX with a focus on innovation at scale and delivering results that matter for brands. She currently acts as an advisory board member to The Forem and has sat on the boards of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), OpenAP, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Bianca Bradford is the director and head of agency for North America at Meta, where she partners with agencies to help them thrive in the digital landscape, drive transformational growth, and deliver strong business outcomes. Previously, Ms. Bradford was an EVP at Leo Burnett, primarily working with quick-service restaurants and retail accounts. She also spent almost a decade at marketing communications company Burrell Communications and worked at Carol H. Williams Advertising and DDB Chicago.
As EVP, Global Head of Brand Assurance, Deva leads dentsu’s US and Global Media Brand Assurance offerings, bringing together Brand Responsibility, Brand Safety, and Brand Suitability to address evolving media threats and enable clients to make the best, most responsible media decisions. In this role, Deva partners closely with others across the organization, including on the Investment and Economic Empowerment teams, to constantly monitor and understand best practices in deliverability, suitability, viewability, responsibility, and sustainability. Deva is also leading the creation of a global Brand Assurance steering committee. Prior to taking on the Brand Assurance leadership role this year, Deva served as the EVP, Head of Digital Investment, leading marketplace strategy and positioning across digital & publishing for dentsu’s US media agencies.
A true digital native with nearly 25 years of experience in the media industry, Deva spent several years within GroupM and Publicis agencies, with client experience spanning the Technology, Pharmaceutical, CPG, Retail, Financial Services and B2B verticals. Deva also spent three years on the client side within the KFC Corporation and was responsible for the development and launch of the brand’s digital marketing discipline.
Stephen serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc, (MGM) where he oversees global marketing and brand strategy for MGM film and television properties around the world.
Prior to MGM, Stephen was Vice President of Creative Marketing at Netflix for four years and oversaw the global teams who conceptualized, created and executed on the positioning and promotion of Netflix Originals across all verticals. This encompassed series (e.g. Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Orange is the New Black, The Crown, Narcos, etc), feature films (e.g. Bird Box, Mudbound, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, etc), documentaries and unscripted (e.g. Wild Wild Country, Making a Murderer, Queer Eye, Nailed It, etc) and comedy specials. He arrived at Netflix in December 2014 and relocated to Los Angeles from New York City.
A veteran entertainment marketing executive, Stephen had previously been with The Weinstein Company and prior to that with Miramax Films. As the President of Marketing for TWC, Stephen successfully supervised the execution of theatrical releases including Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, Lee Daniel’s The Butler, The Artist, and Fruitvale Station.
Stephen also worked at HBO as a Director of Consumer Marketing working on titles such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Eastbound and Down.
He graduated from Boston University. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Stephen is a lifelong Eagles fan, and he prefers his cheesesteaks from Jim’s.
Chris Bruss is the Head of the Roku Brand Studio. Roku’s Brand Studio was created in March of 2021, through an acquisition of Funny Or Die’s award-winning branded content business, which was merged with Roku’s existing, best-in-class Sponsorships and Brand Experiences business. The mission of the Roku Brand Studio is to deliver advertiser experiences and storytelling built for TV streaming.
Prior to joining Roku, Bruss was the President of Funny Or Die, overseeing FOD’s digital business, including Editorial Content, Programming, Sales, and Partner Content – the award-winning Branded Entertainment division launched in 2010. Bruss also co-founded FOD’s successful commercial production company, Gifted Youth, which it sold to production company Caviar in 2019. Under Bruss’s leadership, FOD’s brand work was recognized by the Cannes Lions, the Clios… and even the Emmys. Bruss has been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s 35-under-35 list, AdAge’s 40-under-40 list, and Variety’s New Leaders list. He has served on the juries for both the One Show awards and the CLIO awards.Prior to Funny Or Die, Bruss worked in the Business Development group at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Bruss is based out of Roku’s Santa Monica office.
As President of Peacock and Direct-to-Consumer, Kelly Campbell is responsible for growing and elevating NBCUniversal’s streaming business and spearheading go-forward strategy for the platform. In her leadership role, Campbell oversees teams across programming, marketing, product, technology, partnerships, and data sciences that together support NBCU’s direct-to-consumer portfolio. Prior to joining Peacock in October 2021, Campbell was President of Hulu, where she led the SVOD and live-TV streaming businesses, following a role as Hulu’s Chief Marketing Officer, where she guided overall marketing and drove Hulu’s strategic brand vision and voice. Prior to joining Hulu, Campbell spent more than a decade at Google in marketing leadership roles across the Google Ads and Google Cloud businesses. Campbell is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Vanderbilt University. A respected leader and innovator, Campbell has been recognized as one of Business Insider’s Most Innovative CMOs, the Adweek 50, AdAge’s Women to Watch, FierceCable’s The Fierce 50: Executives Reshaping the Business of Pay TV, and Forbes’ Most Influential Global CMOs.
As co-founder and CTO of Innovid (NYSE:CTV), Tal leads the company’s long term technology vision, overseeing global technology development and implementation, product creation, business development and partnerships. Tal previously served as an officer in the Israeli Air Force and co-founded Garage Geeks. Tal is an IAB board member and owns several global patents for interactive TV technology.
Monique Chenault is a four-time Emmy nominated executive producer, writer and content creator with over 20 years of development and production experience in network, cable and nationally syndicated television. She has produced over 10,000 hours of non-fiction programming that spans across all unscripted formats including talk, variety, reality, documentary, investigative journalism, court TV, hard news, entertainment and pop culture news and branded integration series.
As a proven show runner, Chenault has successfully launched start-up productions and elevated legacy shows to new heights by increasing their viewership on traditional media and expanding their audience reach by creating and executing multi platform strategies. Uniquely skilled at thriving under day & date pressure, she has mastered meeting immediate deadlines while delivering with great efficacy. A veteran media executive, Chenault has specialized in building partnerships with niche outlets and creating ancillary programming that
broadens brand appeal. She has been applauded for her expertise in managing multiple shows in concurrent production, effective team building, talent development and overseeing all aspects of production and delivery. Employing a multidimensional skill set, Chenault also established a full service, independent production company through which she provided original content to various media outlets and ultimately landed an exclusive, overall production deals with major cable networks. A graduate of UCLA and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, her credits include but are not limited to CBS News, NBC News, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, The Insider and Central Ave.
Agnes Chu joins Condé Nast from the Walt Disney Company. She joined Disney in 2008, and most recently served as SVP of content for Disney+. In this role, Chu commissioned an original slate of programming, featuring series, feature films and short form content for the service, receiving 19 Emmy nominations in its first year. She also led the Originals teams for scripted, unscripted and animation, working closely with Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and NatGeo. Chu has been featured on The Hollywood Reporter’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment. Prior to joining Disney, she worked in documentary production, including the Oscar-nominated “Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room”.
Chauncey Citchens is the Director of Marketing at The General. In her role she oversees the team who manages paid, earned, and owned media as well as marketing campaigns. This work covers a robust suite of marketing programs and tactics including digital communications, digital marketing, content marketing, social media, PR, integrated partnerships, and agent marketing. Chauncey began her tenure at The General in 2016 and has held positions across digital communications, digital products, and marketing strategy. Prior to working for The General, Chauncey held marketing and product roles at H&R Block and C Spire.
Allison Clarke is currently the Head of Agency Development at VIZIO. She is a strategic leader with an extensive background in the media industry, including sales management roles with AMC Networks and NBC Universal. Most recently she was SVP, Ad Sales and Partnerships, AMCN, overseeing BBCA, WE tv, and IFC networks. She also led upfront negotiations across agency holding companies for the AMCN Portfolio of networks, including AMC and Sundance Channel across all platforms – linear, digital, social, VOD, events.
She previously held several roles at NBC Universal across various networks – USA, SyFy, Bravo and started her career at MTV Networks.
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.
Matthew Coleman is a Marketing Director for State Farm where he leads their media, sponsorships and digital marketing functions. His product marketing, performance marketing and branding efforts contributed to State Farm being named a 2020 Marketer of the Year by Ad Age. His partnerships with the NBA, NFL, MLB and NCAA resulted in State Farm being named a top company for sports sponsorships by Sports Business Journal. Matthew is a curious learner who is passionate about understanding evolving consumer behaviors to anticipate the needs of others.
Adriana came to the U.S from her native Venezuela in 2008 after developing a successful career in digital advertising for several companies, including Starmedia, Up-Mobile and Connectium Limited. As a first-generation immigrant, she managed to establish her reputation as a team player and leader with Cisneros Group, developing innovative mobile advertising solutions for the Hispanic market. This experience allowed her to become Admosvil’s product developer and operations manager. Adriana has always been passionate about the digital marketing industry applied to multicultural audiences and Hispanic population. She’s based out of sunny Miami, Florida. She received her degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Universidad Metropolitana from Caracas, Venezuela.
Stacie Danzis serves as A+E Networks Senior Vice President of Digital Media Sales responsible for digital revenue, monetization strategy and advisory services. She oversees direct and programmatic video, social and audio product sales across the companies’ TVE portfolio (The History Channel, A&E, Lifetime, FYI and Biography). Danzis brings more than 20 years of media experience to her role. Prior to joining A+E Networks, she represented NBC Universal’s network and cable entertainment group for over seven years as one of the Network’s first digital hires. Previously, she spent five years in various linear sales roles at Discovery Networks and The Food Network. Before her sales career, Stacie planned and bought national television media with TN Media and Initiative. Stacie lives in Pelham, NY with her husband Brian and three daughters.
Pamela Drucker Mann oversees all ad sales and ad product strategies globally, and works with commercial leads across the company’s 31 markets to drive overall ad, agency, and B2B revenue. She has played an integral part in leveraging brands and scale to develop new revenue streams and opportunities for advertisers. Drucker Mann has twice been named to Adweek’s list of the top 50 executives and is an Advertising Age Media Maven, 2015 Advertising Age Publishing Executive of the Year, an Adweek First Mover, and a 2016 Folio Top Women in Media in the Entrepreneur category.
JP Evangelista is Vevo’s Senior Vice President of Content, Programming & Marketing. In this role, JP oversees Vevo’s original content, production, music programming, editorial, talent, events, label relations& social teams globally. His teams work closely with artists, managers, major and indie record labels to secure, schedule and promote music videos, exclusive premieres, live events and other original programming across the Vevo platform. Prior to working at Vevo, JP held various positions in the eLabs and Global Digital Initiatives departments of Universal Music Group. During this time, JP was one of several members of UMG chosen and tasked with building out the Vevo platform and helping launch the company. He has been with Vevo since prior to the company’s launch in 2009 having been promoted multiple times during his tenure at the company, based in New York.
Brian Fisher is the Senior Vice President, Digital Sales, for Estrella Media. In his role he is tasked with growing and developing Estrella Media’s digital sales opportunities across its broadcast and streaming platforms. He brings over 25 years of extensive media knowledge in both traditional and digital formats to the role. He has a multifaceted, consultative approach to sales, reflecting skills he learned when he started his career as a media buyer at McCann-Erickson, one of the world’s leading advertising agencies.
Brian joined the executive leadership team at Estrella Media following his entrepreneurial passion for building and strengthening smaller media properties such as ShermansTravel, Beamly, and RGM Group. He helped establish Tribune Media’s 42 local stations as a viable alternative to major national news platforms before its acquisition by Nexstar Media Group in 2019. Previously, he was a Senior Account Executive at Bloomberg Media, handling the network’s largest account list and focusing his attention on cross-platform video opportunities, including linear, digital, and OTT.
He spent 11 years at the ABC Television network, where he was appointed as the National Vice President of Digital Sales in 2007. Brian was responsible for ABC’s Full Episode Player, ABC.com, ABCNews.com, GMA on Y!, Oscar.com, SOAPnet.com, and the Hulu Network. Prior to his promotion, he was an Account Executive for Broadcast News Sales and a Senior Account Executive for Digital Sales.
In 1999, Brian made his first foray into the digital space at LookSmart, one of the leading search directories, and then strategically moved to The Excite Network as an Account Executive representing iWon.com and Excite
Codee Fuquay is a Sr. Leader of Product Marketing at LG Ads Solutions. His expertise lies in developing a comprehensive product vision, strategy, and roadmap for complex product lines. Prior to joining LG Ads Solutions, Codee held multiple leadership positions at different companies focused on creating robust go-to-market frameworks that yielded double-digit gains, fostered strategic partnerships, and created demand generation funnels for some of the top businesses across the globe. He completed his MBA with a Concentration in Business Analytics at Brenau University and currently lives in Atlanta Georgia.
Marianne Gambelli serves as President of Advertising Sales, Marketing and Brand Partnerships for Fox Corporation. In this role, she oversees ad sales efforts across the company’s portfolio of brands and platforms, including FOX Entertainment, FOX Sports, FS1, FS2, FOX Deportes, FOX News Media, which includes FOX News Channel and FOX Business Network, as well as TUBI and TMZ.
Recognized by peers as a creative leader and trailblazer within the media and advertising industry, Ms. Gambelli has a successful history of furthering innovation and driving change in the ad marketplace.
Throughout her tenure at FOX, the ad sales teams continue to provide advertisers new and compelling ways to reach and connect with audiences. Additionally, she’s emphasized the necessity to improve the overall ad experience for both consumers and marketers. This has led to the development of enhanced emerging media strategies, the introduction and rollout of audience-based ad capabilities, the evolution of the divisions brand studios for content development, the establishment of cloud-based platforms, as well as other groundbreaking next-gen advertising resources.
Under her leadership, FOX recorded unprecedented revenue during the 2021-22 upfront. In 2020, the FOX Sports Ad Sales team delivered record-breaking revenue for FOX’s broadcast of Super Bowl LIV.
Before assuming her current role in March 2019, Ms. Gambelli served as President of Advertising Sales for FOX News Media. During her tenure, FOX News Media experienced record years in advertising sales for both 2017 and 2018.
Throughout her career, she has developed and supported programs that mentor the next generation of leaders, as well as implementing initiatives that drive meaningful change and professional opportunities within the ad sales industry. In 2020, Ms. Gambelli launched the FOX Ad Sales Diversity and Inclusion Council. The mission of the council is to further build and enhance the culture of inclusivity within FOX Ad Sales by focusing on recruitment, education, development, and retention.
Prior to joining FOX News Media in May 2017, Ms. Gambelli served as Chief Investment Officer at Horizon Media where she managed its $7 billion investment portfolio. She was responsible for a team of over 350 general market investment specialists and actively developed key new business acquisitions across top tier brands.
Ms. Gambelli joined Horizon following a successful career at NBC Universal, where she held a variety of ascending leadership roles, including the position of President of Sales and Marketing. During her 22-year tenure at NBC,
Ms. Gambelli oversaw partnerships and strategy across NBC’s News, Sports and Entertainment brands, optimizing its $7 billion in media investments. While at the company, she was a member of GE’s Women’s Network, served as a Division NBCUniversal Leader, and was active in the company’s Commercial Leadership Program.
She began her professional media and advertising career on the agency side, working for Grey Advertising and Backer Spielvogel Bates.
Ms. Gambelli has been lauded with numerous professional awards during her distinguished career. Most recently, she was honored as an IRTS Hall of Mentorship honoree. In 2020 and 2021, she was named to the Adweek 50 list, which recognizes the top executives within the media and advertising industry. Additionally, she’s been recognized with the Multichannel News Wonder Women award and named by Advertising Age as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising, among other industry honors.
Currently, she serves as Vice Chairman of the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS) Foundation.
Ms. Gambelli graduated from Pace University with a Bachelor of Business degree in Marketing. In 2016, she was awarded an Honorary Degree from Pace Pleasantville Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma.
David Gandler is co-founder and CEO of fuboTV, the live TV streaming platform that is transforming how people watch sports, news and entertainment. Under David’s leadership, fuboTV has quickly evolved into a leading virtual MVPD with a focus on innovation.
fuboTV launched in 2015 as a streaming soccer service and today is a sports-first cable TV replacement for the entire family. The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “FUBO” in October 2020.
Popular with cord-cutters, fuboTV is consistently first to market across a number of areas including product and technology (“firsts” include 4K streams, Multiview on Apple TV and live TV recommendations), advertising (launched dynamic ad insertion in January 2018 ahead of most competitors) and content (distribution agreements with 100+ channels and 770+ local network stations in 99% of the U.S.; its own fubo Sports Network with original programming). Forbes named fuboTV to its Next Billion Dollar Startups list in 2019.
Prior to founding fuboTV, David had a prolific advertising career with more than 15 years of video sales in local broadcast and cable TV within both the general and Hispanic market, including at Scripps Networks Interactive, Time Warner Cable Media Sales and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo Media.
David has been named among Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs (2019), Variety’s Dealmakers (2020, 2019) and Broadcasting & Cable’s Power 100 (2017). He is frequently quoted in major publications and has been a featured speaker at leading industry and banking conferences.
As Verizon’s Vice President of Media Platforms, Jennifer is responsible for media strategy and activations across Consumer, Business and 5G/Brand portfolios. This is inclusive of ensuring a holistic marketplace approach is in place to deliver end to end demand generation to reach key audience segments and drive business growth.
Sheryl Goldstein is the Executive Vice President, Chief Industry Growth Officer at the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau). In her role, she oversees engaging the IAB’s 650+ members across all of the IAB’s vast initiatives, activities and thought leadership programs. Under Sheryl’s watch are the Member Engagement, Centers of Excellence, Research and L&D teams. She also spearheads talent development, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and runs the IAB CRO Council.
Sheryl Goldstein is a “net vet” with over 20 years of driving meaningful revenue growth through consultative selling in the dynamic digital landscape (Yahoo, AOL, About.com). She is adept at building successful teams, developing go-to-market strategies and gaining consensus across key stakeholders. Her background includes a wide variety of digital media platforms and technologies and numerous leadership roles.
In addition to her experience as a sales leader, Sheryl brings years of talent development and training to her role and is committed to making the digital media landscape a great industry for diverse talent to thrive and have a long and exciting career.
Sheryl is a current board member for 212NYC, Makers and was a past Board member of She Runs It. She serves on the Rutgers Business School Advisory Board for Marketing and is helping RBS craft a digital marketing graduate program. In addition, she has served on Boards and Committees for the NY Ad Club, Women in Communications, Inc. and the IAB and is a member of Chief. She is an award-winning sales leader (Yahoo Accelerator Award, AOL Best Media Partner presented by Verizon, AOL Presidents Club, AWNY Crystal Award Winner).
Sheryl is a graduate of Syracuse University Newhouse School and lives in New Jersey with her partner Cindy and dogs Pancho and Camden. On the weekends, you can catch her on the pickleball court or riding around the Jersey Shore on her new electric bike. Her daughter Sarah-Jaana lives in the Boston area with her husband Michael.
Jeremi Gorman is Chief Business Officer at Snap Inc., leading global sales, agency partnerships, revenue operations, and creative strategy. Jeremi joined Snap in November 2018 from Amazon, where she oversaw business intelligence and analytics, and the international expansion of Amazon’s advertising business. Jeremi has spent her career in digital media, serving in businesses roles at Yahoo, Variety Magazine, and Monster.com. Jeremi holds a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA.
As Chief Revenue Officer, Mr. Guelton oversees all of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s ad-supported properties through Crackle Connex, the company’s advertising platform that simplifies the buying process with consistent measurement and performance tracking. Crackle Connex offers brands a unique and powerful way to engage with over 80 million monthly active users (MAU) across a robust portfolio of rapidly growing owned and operated AVOD and FAST networks and platforms Crackle, Redbox and Chicken Soup for the Soul, nearly ten thousand digital out-of-home screens located at top retailers around the nation, and over twenty third-party independent CTV streaming partners. Mr. Guelton was formerly the chief executive officer at SheKnows Media (now She Media), President of Thrillist Media Group, Chief Operating Officer at Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., and Chief Executive Officer of Japanese media company Fujingaho (now part of Hearst).
Vanessa is the Director of Snap Originals at Snap Inc. Under her leadership, the Shows format launched on Snapchat in 2016. She oversees all Snap’s Originals development, production and operations. Vanessa was named to Variety’s 2017 Hollywood’s New Leaders in Digital, featuring prominent up-and-comers in the entertainment business, as well as Fortune’s 2020 40 Under 40.
Eric Handelsman is Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of Food, where he oversees the brand from content and marketing strategy to product and technical development. He has spent his career working at media companies across a variety of roles from FP&A to operations management.
Before joining Dotdash Meredith in 2013, Eric spent 10 years working in lifestyle media at Condé Nast where he led operations and finance for various brands including Epicurious, Gourmet, and Brides.com. Prior to Condé Nast, he worked in the business department at the New York Press, as well as in commercial and TV production.
Eric received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Andrew “Hawk” Hawkins is an activist and talented television digital personality shaking up the entertainment industry. After playing for several top teams in the NFL, he took his talents to Hollywood by venturing into a variety of verticals within media, business, and film. Throughout the years, his thought-provoking and hilarious content have made audiences laugh and smile. Hawkins’ work has earned him a coveted Shorty Award and two Emmy Award nominations for emerging talent on the NFL Network. Continuously believing in athletes transforming the world, he served as a producer in Matthew Cherry’s Oscar Award-winning short film’ Hair Love,’ in 2019.’
Hawk’s 7-year NFL career was as unlikely as his post-NFL successes in media, business, and entertainment, and his journey is currently being developed into a film.
The former NFL team captain and budding talent graduated with a master’s degree and a 4.0 GPA from Columbia University while playing in the NFL. Hawkins’ business acumen pushed him to continue growing in expansion and growth. He served as the Director of Business Development and Creative Strategy for LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Entertainment, which has brought forth several television and film projects.
His first foray into entertainment came by joining the cast of the SpikeTV unscripted football competition series, 4th and Long. After retiring from the NFL in 2011, Hawk began his media career at ESPN, becoming one of the founding anchors of the two time Emmy-nominated SportsCenter on Snapchat, and in 2021 he was nominated for Emmy Awards as both a talent and a producer (Outstanding Sports Personality-Emerging On-Air Talent, Outstanding Digital Innovation).
Hawk currently serves as an on-air talent for the NFL Network, Amazon Studios, Discovery, and Uninterrupted. He continues to write and produce award-winning digital content for audiences to enjoy. Hawkins’ lives in Los Angeles with his family.
Sandie Hawkins is the Head of US E-Commerce Operations at TikTok where she is focused on turning TikTok into a shopping destination.
Prior to this role, Sandie spent 2.5 years as the General Manager of North American Global Business Solutions at TikTok where she oversaw the strategic business direction of the Global Business Solutions teams across the region. During this time, she built a world class team helping brands and agencies meaningfully grow their business on TikTok. Before TikTok, Sandie held an executive role at Adobe as VP and Head of America’s for Adobe’s Advertising Cloud. Prior to Adobe, she held leadership roles at Varick, Underdog Media and Rocket Fuel.
Sandie graduated with honors from Brown University, where she still holds the school record for the javelin. She resides in Fairfield, CT with her husband, Charlie, 10-year-old daughter, Dylan, and her new puppy, Maverick.
John Heilemann is a co-founder of Recount Media and executive editor of The Recount, a social and streaming video news outlet covering politics, business, technology, and culture. He is the host of The Recount’s Hell & High Water with John Heilemann, a weekly YouTube series and podcast about the intersection of politics and culture; a host, creator, and executive producer of Showtime’s Emmy-nominated weekly political docu-series The Circus; national affairs analyst for NBC News and MSNBC; and co-author of Game Change and Double Down, the definitive accounts of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. (A New York Times No. 1 best-seller for eleven straight weeks, Game Change was adapted by HBO into a movie of the same name, which went on to win five Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and a Peabody Award.) Heilemann previously served as a managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and host of the daily MSNBC and Bloomberg TV program With All Due Respect. He is a former staff writer and columnist for New York, The New Yorker, Wired, and The Economist. A graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Heilemann was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in New York City.
Sofia Hernandez is the Head of US Business Marketing for TikTok, the leading short-form video platform designed to inspire creativity and bring joy. She’s responsible for building innovative marketing solutions that help brands become TikTok fluent and engage with their communities through powerful and creative storytelling.
Prior to TikTok, Sofia was the Chief Client Officer at consumer insights platform Suzy where she was responsible for driving revenue retention and growth, informing the product roadmap, and ensuring the entire company was rooted in a ‘customer first’ approach. With over 18 years leading some of the most iconic global marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies including P&G, J&J, Netflix and Spotify, Sofia’s passion for people and what makes them tick continues to fuel her keen understanding of how to drive successful connections between brands and the people that love them.
An activist at her core, Sofia recognizes her role as part of the 1% of Latina Executives in Tech and is committed to fostering inclusion in the tech industry by incorporating DEI into everything she touches–from a company’s hiring practices to its advertising. Sofia is a passionate advocate for social justice and co-founded a unique apparel line, Black on Black BK, that’s dedicated to spreading messages of equality and empowerment.
Selena Hill is an award-winning, multi-media journalist with a passion for social justice and women’s empowerment. She currently works as the Deputy Digital Editor for Black Enterprise magazine, where she covers general news stories affecting African Americans and the black business community. She also conducts on-camera interviews with celebrities and business luminaries like Phylicia Rashad, Spike Lee, Charlamagne tha God, and Janice Bryant Howroyd, the first African American woman to build a billion-dollar business. Selena has appeared on WNBC, WNYC (NPR), and Bold TV.
Infusing her passion for journalism and social justice, Selena created “Let Your Voice Be Heard!,” a radio show and podcast that addresses current events, politics, and social issues from a diverse millennial perspective. The award-winning talk show broadcasts on WHCR 90.3 FM “The Voice of Harlem” and is streamed via Facebook Live Sundays at 11 a.m. ET. A number of high-profile speakers have appeared on the show,including Sen. Cory Booker, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Russell Simmons. The show has been featured in The Guardian, The Source, and Woman Around Town.
Selena also works as a TV correspondent and assistant producer for “What’s Eating Harlem,” which airs on PBS local affiliate station NYC Life. On the show, she books and interviews entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and movers-and-shakers in Harlem like restaurateur and celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson and playwright Vy Higginsen.
Previously, Selena has worked as the Special Election Coverage Reporter covering the 2012 presidential election under Russell Simmons at GlobalGrind.com. In addition, she freelanced for the New York Amsterdam News, one of the nation’s longest running historically black newspapers, and has worked at NV (New Vision in business) Magazine, where she’s landed on-camera interviews with Rev. Jesse Jackson, Angela Simmons, and Big Sean.
Selena was honored by The New York Association of Black Journalists Award for Best Blog Commentary in both 2017 and 2016. “Let Your Voice Be Heard!” won a New York Press Club Award for Best Commentary in 2016.
Rob is the Vice President of Programming at Roku, where he oversees the development and growth of The Roku Channel, a leading free ad supported service on the platform, as well as the overall programming strategy for America’s #1 TV streaming platform.
Prior to Roku, he was with Comcast, where he developed and executed the strategy for Comcast’s advanced advertising group to become the industry leading solution for premium video content, supporting billions of dollars in advertising at programmers and MVPDs. He also held roles with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, where he helped lead the Corporate Strategy group and ran projects across the broadcast and cable networks, advertising, digital and the film studio.
Previously, Rob held a range of roles with the successful media technology start-ups BNI Video (acquired by Cisco) and VUDU (acquired by Wal-Mart). Earlier in his career, Rob oversaw Corporate Development for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios and was an investment professional with Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital.
Diana Horowitz is senior vice president, advertising sales at fuboTV, the live TV streaming platform that is transforming how people watch sports, news and entertainment.
A highly experienced digital and broadcast sales executive, Horowitz leads the national ad sales team, as well as overseeing ad operations and overall sales and growth strategy for fuboTV and its linear channel, fubo Sports Network.
Prior to joining fuboTV in 2020, Horowitz was vice president, sales for Telestream’s full range of advanced media technologies in the eastern United States. Previously, Horowitz was executive director, sales for IBM Watson Media, also holding positions at Comcast Technology Solutions as global client director and director, VOD sales. Horowitz joined Comcast from Scripps Networks Interactive (now Discovery, Inc.), where she led the digital advertising sales team, northeast region for Food Network and Cooking Channel.
Horowitz started her career at The New York Times Company, where she held numerous leadership roles in both New York and Paris for The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Named Top Women in Media’s 2021 Lifetime Empowerment and Achievement award honoree, Horowitz is a sought-after thought leader at industry conferences and events.
Eric John leads the IAB Media Center, a dedicated unit within the IAB whose mission is to simplify the video and audio supply chain, providing best practices and education for brands, agencies, and media companies. Eric drives the center’s efforts in the development of market-making research, industry standards, best practices and buyer/seller terms and conditions. Before joining the IAB, Eric served as VP of Digital Services and Strategy at the Alliance for Audited Media and as Global Director of Publisher / Developer marketing at Nokia, managing the company’s world-wide mobile app developer ecosystem. Prior to Nokia, Eric launched and led advertiser brand engagement solutions for Yahoo!, creating advanced, data-driven video, mobile and interactive campaigns for brands such as Pepsi, L’Oréal, GM, Audio and Nikon. Eric began his career at internet advertising pioneer DoubleClick (Google) where he led product development and marketing within the DART for Publishers (DFP) and DART for Advertisers (DFA) business units where he launched the industry’s first post-click measurement tools. Eric is an alumnus of Miami of Ohio (BA) and Indiana University (MA) and is a graduate of Columbia University’s Product Management Program.
A versatile creative in traditional and new media, JOSIAH JOHNSON has created, produced, directed and/or hosted for Netflix, Comedy Central, Showtime, Complex, Yahoo Sports, NFL Network, Bleacher Report, Fox Sports, Wave TV and ATTN. A social media savant, Josiah’s unique creative social style has been emulated by major sports brands like ESPN, B/R and Complex.
JOSIAH has been crowned the “King of NBA Twitter” for his raw original content (memes, mash-ups, parodies, takes) that generate billions of views and impressions across social media.
Jesse Judelman is Vevo’s Senior Vice President, National Sales, based in New York with over 16 years of premium video sales experience. In addition to running Vevo’s National Sales Team, Jesse is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with the national agency holding companies and developing go-to-market strategies and strategic sales initiatives. Prior to joining Vevo, Jesse led East Coast Sales at Hulu and worked in TV ad sales at FX and Fox.
Michael E. Kassan is the founder and CEO of MediaLink, a leading strategic advisory firm. Described as the “ultimate power broker,” he is a trusted advisor on speed dial with every major executive in the media, marketing, entertainment and technology C-Suite. MediaLink is a part of UTA, which acquired the firm from Ascential plc in 2021. In 2019, Kassan was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame, which is considered the highest honor in advertising.
Chris is the CEO and co-founder of Upwave, the leading analytics software platform giving brands, agencies, and media partners a unified, cross-media solution to measure brand advertising.
Chris is a serial tech entrepreneur with experience in enterprise software, big data, brand marketing, financial services, and management consulting.
He founded multiple web startups, including an online college textbook market and DeliveryEdge, a same-day delivery service for consumer goods startup. Earlier in his career, Chris worked in Marketing and Business Development for SavvyMoney, was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Co. and an Investor at Matrix Partners.
Chris is an accomplished Founder, Entrepreneur, and Venture Capitalist. Chris holds a degree in finance and economics from the University of Notre Dame.
Evie Kelly is the Midwest Sales Lead for Crackle Plus, based in Chicago. In her role she develops and represents sales efforts across the Midwest for Direct and Programmatic OTT/CTV media, data, and brand partnerships for the robust Crackle Plus portfolio. Evie has spent much of her career developing revenue streams, sales solutions, and territories for linear, experiential, content, and digital sales roles across media organizations like AMC Networks, Viacom, and Turner Broadcasting.
As EVP and GM, North America Service Business, Samsung Electronics America, Sang Kim is responsible for building next-generation TV products and services for the Samsung Smart TV platform, the largest globally with hundreds of millions of Smart TVs in 195 countries worldwide.
After joining Samsung in 2013, Sang was tasked with building out the global business development organization. Since assuming his new role in Product in 2018, Sang has been at the helm of all product initiatives for the Tizen TV Platform including Universal Guide, Samsung Health on TV, as well as Samsung TV Plus, which has become one of the top streaming apps on the Samsung Smart TV platform under Sang’s leadership.
With the increase in content choices across live TV and streaming, Sang’s focus has been on proprietary discovery tools and services such as Universal Guide, Search and Bixby to help consumers find and watch what they love across all sources and apps, including Samsung TV Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Apple Music, HBO Max, YouTube and more.
Prior to Samsung, Sang held leadership roles at Google Inc., both in the US and APAC. He was responsible for business development and go-to-market strategies for early products, including mobile, YouTube and advertising platform syndication.
Sang holds a BS degree in Business Administration from UC Riverside.
AJ Kintner, an engineer by education, started his career as a part of the Media team at Avenue A/Atlas, which was ultimately acquired by Microsoft. Following this, AJ worked at several other prestigious companies including Right Media, Invite Media, Adaptly, DoubleVerify, AppNexus and Merkle. He has always been drawn to adtech and has a passion for leveraging data to drive efficiencies and success. He is currently VP of Sales (East) at LG Ads Solutions. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, 3 children and 2 dogs. He enjoys spending time with his family.
Raghu is the Chief Executive Officer at LG Ads Solutions. Previously, Raghu was VP of Product at VideoSurf where he built one of the first TV second-screen applications for iOS and Android. VideoSurf was acquired by Microsoft Xbox where Raghu worked on content experiences for Xbox and launched immersive second-screen products such as SmartGlass. Prior to that Raghu spent a decade at Yahoo! and built the big data content platform which powers most Yahoo! sites. Raghu also ran engineering for Yahoo’s marketplace properties with a combined user base of over 100M unique and $300M in revenues. Raghu has an MBA from Wharton and a MS in Computer Science from Syracuse University. He lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two boys.
Charley Lanusse is the Chief Technology Officer at Samba TV, where he heads up the global engineering teams that deliver and implement innovative technology at the heart of TV. Prior to joining Samba TV in 2015, Charley built five technology startups as founder and CEO across social media, entertainment, and fintech. Previously, he led creative teams at Carbine Studios / NCSoft and was Head of Product Management at Obscura Digital.
As the Head of Sales Strategy & Programs for YouTube BrandConnect, Johanna Lara is responsible for advancing strategic programs to elevate the connection between advertisers and global content creators in effort to fuel creator monetization on the platform. She oversees partnership deals for YouTube’s Branded Content, which offer creator-driven content solutions and full service to agencies and clients. Prior to BrandConnect, Johanna worked as a Multicultural Brand Strategy Lead at Google. She brings over a decade of knowledge and expertise in TV, digital, and social media marketing having worked at other other media conglomerates such as NBCU Comcast, Univision Communications, and CBS Television Stations.
Johanna is one of the co-founders of Latinos in Tech Chicago, working to empower the Chicago community of Latino Leaders. She also serves as a co-chair for SheRunsIt Multicultural Committee infusing diversity, equity, and inclusion into programs and fostering community among its members.
Mike Law is the U.S. CEO of Carat, a dentsu company, where he’s responsible for the agency’s strategic growth in the U.S. market, leading over 1,000 specialists, and working closely with clients and partners to continue to transform their businesses.
Previously, Mr. Law was overseeing all investment and buying activity across dentsu’s media service line of business in the U.S. as president of Amplifi. He also served as EVP and managing director for all U.S. media investment, oversaw dentsu’s approach to video strategy in the U.S. market, and served as director of media for Pfizer and VP and group director at Carat. He started his career as a national TV media buyer at Arnold Worldwide.
Mr. Law is a graduate of Providence College.
Dallas Lawrence is the Chief Strategy Officer, for Telly, the company revolutionizing the future of TV with the world’s first free dual screen television supported entirely by advertising. A veteran of the connected TV and advertising landscape, he was previously head of communications for the Roku platform where he led strategic positioning for the Roku ad business, The Roku Channel, Roku Originals, Roku distribution and Roku’s public policy efforts. He previously served as the Chief Brand and Communications Officer of adtech leaders OpenX, Rubicon Project (now Magnite) and Samba TV. Prior to moving to the tech sector, Dallas served as the Global Chief Digital Strategist for WPP’s largest public relations agency. During more than a decade in Washington, DC, Dallas served as a member of President Bush’s communications team during both terms leading strategic outreach efforts for the President’s signature domestic policy initiative before deploying to Baghdad, Iraq on behalf of the White House to serve as a spokesperson for the Coalition.
Jerry Leo is a `highly experienced Content Strategy executive with a track record of success in linear and multi-platform programming strategy & acquisitions. He spent over 14 years at NBC Universal Media, in particular with the highly successful Bravo Network.
Alison Levin is the President of Advertising & Partnerships at NBCUniversal. Reporting into Mark Marshall, Levin is responsible for shaping and executing the division’s audience focused sales strategy, and has oversight of all advertising sales initiatives for NBCUniversal across national, local, SMB Growth, Peacock, sports and Olympic and Paralympic Sales.
Before joining NBCUniversal, Levin served as Vice President of Global Ad Revenue and Marketing Solutions at Roku where she led the new product and go-to-market strategy for the company’s advertising business, including the TV streaming division. As the first ad sales hire for the company, Levin shaped Roku’s early value proposition with advertisers and built out the ad sales and support teams both in the U.S. and internationally, including marketing, research, analytics, publishing partnerships, strategy and more. Prior to Roku, she was a sales executive with YuMe, managing key accounts for its ad tech business, and has held sales positions with IAC and BusinessWeek.
Levin has received industry-wide recognition and was named to the 2019 Ad Age 40 Under 40 List, the 2019 NYC Television Week’s 40 Under 40 List, the 2020 Cynopsis Top Women in Media List, the 2021 Multichannel News Wonder Women Honoree List, and the 2023 Campaign US Inspiring Women Honoree List. She holds a B.A. from Boston University.
As Chief Content Officer, Lewinson is responsible for content strategy and acquisitions for Tubi, the largest free movie and TV streaming service. Lewinson heads up Tubi’s Los Angeles office where he manages one of the largest libraries in streaming (larger than Netflix). He oversees more than 250 content partners including every major studio in Hollywood.
Most recently, Lewinson was the Senior Vice President of Programming & Marketing at Sony Pictures Television and the streaming platform Crackle. Lewinson oversaw the programming strategy and content slate for Crackle and led the expansion of the service’s content library to include titles from most major studios. He was also instrumental in the launch of Crackle Original Series and Movies, including Mad Families (Charlie Sheen), StartUp (Martin Freeman) and Snatch (Rupert Grint). Lewinson was also the programming executive on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2016 Emmy Nominee), including the most-viewed episode with President Barack Obama.
Previously, Lewinson spent more than a decade at FX Networks, most recently as Senior Vice President, Programming & Production. Lewinson spearheaded the launch of FXM (formerly Fox Movie Channel) and oversaw the channel’s programming portfolio. As a member of the senior executive team, he oversaw production and current programming of special projects including Sons of Anarchy late night talk series Anarchy Afterword, 10/90 sitcom Partners with Lionsgate/Debmar-Mercury, and the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Prior to joining FX, Lewinson served as the Vice President of Studio Entertainment at Lifetime Television where he was instrumental in the growth of Lifetime Movie Network and expanded the network’s partnerships with the major studios. He also held positions at The Walt Disney Company and Columbia Pictures.
Adam is an Emmy award-winning producer for FX’s A Tribute to Mel Brooks and produced the acclaimed series Fox Legacy alongside former Fox studio chairman Tom Rothman. Lewinson holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the American Film Institute, studied at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and achieved a BA from Vassar College. He also wrote the 2015 sci-fi adventure novel Earthbound.
As the US Chief Investment Officer for dentsu’s media service line of business, Cara manages $19B in annual investments for all of dentsu’s media clients in the US market.
In this significant role, Cara oversees all US investment activities including publisher direct media, biddable media, research, economic empowerment, productivity and strategic partnerships. She is tasked with maximizing efficiencies for her clients by leveraging the collective buying power of dentsu and delivering innovative solutions that address the changes in the media landscape.
Cara has been with dentsu since 2010. Most recently, Cara oversaw all publisher direct media investment across video, out of home, print, digital direct, DRTV, Local and Network TV, and Audio channels. Previously, Cara led video strategy and investment across all screens and devices for dentsu US clients as the EVP of Video Investment. Cara joined dentsu to manage video investment and activation for the Pfizer Pharmaceuticals account for three years and then the General Motors account for four years before expanding her remit to oversee all media spend on behalf of General Motors.
Her media career spans 23+ years, with five years of DTC experience between two of the biggest Pharmaceutical Companies (Pfizer and Glaxo SmithKline). Cara also has a strong background in packaged goods and retail, working on the SC Johnson and Sears business for over nine years, as well as a handful of travel accounts. Her past agency experience includes MediaEdge, TN, Initiative, and MPG.
Cara was named as Cynopsis’ Top Women in Media in 2020 as an Industry Leader. She was also honored as a She Runs It Working Mother of the Year in 2020. Cara’s expertise is constantly tapped by industry reporters and has been featured in Adweek, Digiday, and MediaPost, to name a few.
Cara serves on the junior board for The Valerie Fund for the and currently runs sales and promotion for Careoke for the Kids, an industry event in its 16th year. She was honored at The Valerie Fund Thanksgiving Gala in 2019 for her tremendous contributions to the cause. In November 2019, Cara was also an honoree at Coaches vs Cancer. Cara will be honored at Partnership with Children Gala being held in June 2022. Cara was recognized at her previous agency with a 5th dot award. She is a breast cancer survivor and enjoys the beach, crafting, playing games, reading, sewing, traveling and most importantly being with her family.
Monica Longoria serves as the Head of Product Marketing and executive champion for DE&I at LG Ads Solutions. She started her career via the Emma Bowen Foundation, a nonprofit focused on building a more diverse media industry. Monica has over a decade of experience working in sales enablement for major broadcast and cable media conglomerates. With a background in design and research, her expertise is data storytelling for both brands and consumers.
Spencer Ludwig is a Latin Grammy winning and Grammy performing trumpeter, songwriter, producer and musical director. Since being the original trumpeter in the multi-platinum band Capital Cities, the Los Angeles-born, half-Filipino vocalist-instrumentalist has gone rogue, adding a new dimension of possibility to not only his sonic weapon of choice, but to pop music, overall and in 2019 he earned himself a Latin Grammy for co-writing and performing on Fonseca’s album “Agustin”. In 2016 he was signed as a solo artist to Warner Records who released his debut single “Diggy” and launched his career through a global Target campaign. His songs have also been featured in ads for Herbal Essences, the feature film Happy Death Day, and the video games Just Dance and Madden. Since becoming an independent artist and forming Trumpet Records in 2018, his songs have earned over a hundred ad, film and tv placements, and in 2019 he became one of the faces for Tommy Hilfiger’s global denim campaign. As a solo artist and as the trumpeter for Capital Cities, Ludwig has performed at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, ACL, Late Night with Seth Meyers, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Live on David Letterman, the Queen Latifah Show and The Ellen Show and he has toured the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America with Bebe Rexha, Betty Who, Fonseca, Fitz & The Tantrums, and Katy Perry. He has also performed with Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Gallant, Mike Posner, Foster the People, Portugal. The Man, Fitz and the Tantrums, RAC, Joywave, St. Lucia, Cherub, and The Wailers.
Steve Mandala is the Chief Revenue and Local Media Officer for Estrella Media. In this role, Mandala will lead Estrella’s network, national, and local sales teams, driving growth across the companies multiple platforms and increasing brand value for our partners on a national and local level. He is based in the company’s New York offices.
Mandala recently served as President, Ad Sales & Marketing at Univision, where he was pivotal in growing Univision’s valuation before its sale. Before that, he was at NBCUniversal, where he led sales throughout the cable group and Telemundo, driving double-digit sales growth. In addition, he held numerous other positions while at NBCUniversal and played a key leadership role in integrating cable and broadcast channels following Comcast’s acquisition of NBCU.
He is a former CableFax and HispanicAd “Media Executive of the Year” and has been a featured speaker at many industry events, including ANA Multicultural, Advertising Week, and AHAA. In addition, he is a board member of the Cultural Marketing Council. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California.
Serge Matta is the Head of Commercial at LG Ad Solutions. His expertise lies in leading sales teams across industries to meet revenue goals and creating strategic, symbiotic partnerships. Prior to joining LG Ad Solutions, Serge held multiple leadership positions at different companies – he was the CEO at Comscore, President of Global Sales and Marketing at GroundTruth, and CEO at video audience and content intelligence provider ICX Media. During his tenure at these companies, he helped grow the businesses and strengthen their sales forces. He completed his MBA at American University and resides in Vienna, Virginia.
Sean McCaffrey is President and CEO of GSTV. In this role, Sean’s focus is driving business growth through understanding the evolution of the media landscape, the consumer journey and consumer behavioral insights leveraging data, technology, and scale of GSTV’s video platform.
Sean has energized GSTV’s customer base and partnerships through a series of key executive hires, data and analytics partnerships and driving the evolution of the company’s unique national video network. He and the team continue a relentless focus on delivering value to brand, agency and retailer partners while building a fresh and entertaining consumer experience across the country.
As President of Sales and Distribution at Vevo, Kevin McGurn is responsible for leading the network’s monetization efforts and expansion across streaming and digital platforms. He oversees: global, national, and local ad sales; distribution, client, and agency partnerships; and research, insights and analytics. Since joining Vevo in 2017, McGurn’s vision launched Vevo from a digital-first company to a music television destination, accessible on 35 CTV partners, and the largest FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) network in the world, with over 150 FAST channels in 13 markets. Prior to Vevo, McGurn has served several prominent positions: Head of Sales at Fullscreen and Otter Media; Chief Revenue Officer of Shazam; Senior Vice President of Sales at Hulu; and positions at NBCUniversal and Doubleclick.
Jeff Meier is currently Head of Programming for the Crackle Plus family of AVOD and FAST channel services. Through mid-2020, Meier served as General Manager/SVP, Programming at Sony where he oversaw Sony Movie Channel, Cine Sony, and getTV, and planned the programming strategy for Sony’s trio of Spanish-language FAST channels under the Sony Canal name. Under his leadership, Cine Sony grew to become the #1 rated Spanish-language movie channel on TV. Specializing in channel launches, Meier also served as SVP for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and SVP for TV One, both during their development and launch phases. At TV One, in addition to managing all acquisitions and scheduling, he also created the channel’s original hit program UnSung, now a six-time NAACP Image Award winner of over 160 episodes.
Tanya Memme is an Emmy Nominated TV Host. She’s had a thriving Hollywood career for over 25 years. Tanya’s awards and accomplishments are many. To name a few, she is a former Miss World Canada, she’s won a “Best Leading Actress Crystal Reel Award, a “Global Beauty Award”, she’s an Emmy nominated TV Host and is currently nominated for another “Global Beauty Award 2022”. She is currently the star of A&E’s “Sell this House” and executive producer and star of “Smart Home Nation” on Crackle TV and Chicken Soup for the Soul’s all new streaming service. As a staging and design expert, Tanya has helped more than 500 individuals and families across America sell their homes on TV.
Maria Menounos is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, TV personality, actress, motivational speaker, New York Times best-selling author, former pro wrestler and digital entrepreneur whose many accolades include conducting the only sit down interview with the Obama family, being the youngest host of Entertainment Tonight and wrestling at Wrestlemania. As host of the Noovie cinema pre-show, Maria is the most watched female in movie theaters along with being a frequent guest host of Live with Kelly and Ryan. She is founder of the AfterBuzz TV Streaming Network, first to produce the now popular TV after-show as well as one of the first digital networks. As an actress, along with being one of the leads in Mike Myer’s recent Netflix hit series, Menounos starred in her second Lifetime Christmas movie this last holiday season. She is also host of the critically acclaimed daily Life Improvement series, ‘Heal Squad x Maria Menounos’. Surviving brain tumor surgery, Menounos’ main passion today is seeing others heal and get better in all areas of life.
Pooja leads global marketing across Comcast Advertising, which includes FreeWheel, a technology platform connecting buyers and sellers, and Effectv, Comcast Cable’s ad sales division, as well as Effectv’s sales development function.
Pooja and her team build awareness for each company’s differentiated value and accelerate growth for local, regional and national market opportunities. She oversees Comcast Advertising’s brand offerings, enhancing products and solutions for the rapidly changing media and technology landscape.
She joined Comcast Advertising from true[X], where she was president. Career highlights include leadership roles at ABC Television Network, ViacomCBS, MTV Networks, MTV Networks International and Nickelodeon.
Pooja has been quoted and featured in The New York Times, Advertising Age, Adweek, AdExchanger, Broadcasting & Cable and more. She was also named an Adweek 2016 “Young Influential,” a Cynopsis 2017 “Top Women in Digital: Industry Leader,” a Multichannel News 2019 “Woman to Watch” and a 2021 “Wonder Woman in Streaming.”
Pooja serves on She Runs It’s operating board and is also co-chair of the IAB Video Center of Excellence.
She earned a BA in international business from Lehigh University and a MBA from Columbia Business School. Pooja also completed the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications’s (NAMIC) Executive Leadership Development Program.
Julian Mintz is responsible for growing partnerships with major Fortune 100 brands spanning Automotive, Entertainment, Technology, CPG, Insurance & Retail verticals. He has deep expertise in driving revenue emerging media platforms, first party data & measurement, mixed media strategies, and custom content curation. Prior to Roku, he was responsible for West Coast video revenue at Conversant Media, part of Epsilon, and held senior sales positions with Defy Media and Digital Broadcasting Group. Julian is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Kenny Mitchell is Chief Marketing Officer at Snap Inc. Mitchell has a reputation for building iconic brands and driving industry-leading performance through innovative, fully-integrated and award-winning marketing programs. His work has earned multiple Cannes Lions, film festival selections including Tribeca, and two Emmy nominations. In 2017, Fast Company named Mitchell one of the “Most Creative People in Business.”
Prior to Snap Inc., Mitchell was the Vice President of Brand Content & Engagement for McDonald’s USA, Gatorade’s Head of Consumer Engagement, oversaw Brand and Consumer Marketing for NASCAR, and was Vice President and General Manager at the Dew Tour, a division of the NBC Sports Group.
Laura Molen is President, Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal. In this role, Molen leads strategic agency relationships and oversees many key advertising sales initiatives for NBCUniversal across Entertainment, Hispanic, News, Peacock, Direct-to-Scale, and Syndication. In addition, she actively helps lead and support the division’s efforts around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Molen reports to Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Global Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal.
Matt Montemayor is SVP of Sales at Canela Media for the West and Central Region. He is responsible for sales including CTV, digital video/display/audio, branded content and Canela’s key verticals of Canela Music, Canela Sports and Canela Kids. As a sales and marketing leader with over 20 years of experience across Digital, TV, Audio/Radio and Streaming focused on multicultural and the Hispanic market, Matt has continued to be on the cutting edge of media. He has a proven track record for delivering both innovative solutions and results for brands looking to connect authentically through culture with highly sought Hispanic audiences.
Erin Moran is the Global Chief Revenue Officer of WMX. Erin is a media veteran with over 15 years of industry experience in sales leadership and technology and joins us from Google where she spent the last 5 years. At Google, Erin was Head of Industry for the Education sector, and led teams to transform and digitize experiences for institutions and learners, underscoring her passion to establish more equitable and accessible education for all.
Prior to her role as Google’s Education Industry Head, Erin led strategic partnerships between Google and AT&T.
Pre Google, Erin worked at Twitter overseeing strategic international accounts. She joined Twitter in 2012 prior to their IPO and played a critical role in building and scaling their revenue organization.
Erin started her career in media in 2006, working for Undertone where she was a pioneer in the AdTech and Programmatic space.
Erin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fairfield University, where she currently serves on the Board of Advisors.
Rosa is the Director of Sales for General Market at LG Ads. An accomplished sales executive, Rosa has been selling strategic digital marketing solutions for Fortune 500 brands for the past 11 years. She started her career on the agency-side at Carat Dentsu-Aegis and has since worked for multiple ad-tech establishments in the digital media space, including the likes of Interclick (acquired by Yahoo!), Rocket Fuel, and most recently Nativo, to bring in multi-million dollar yearly revenues within both the Pacific NorthWest and New York regions. Rosa was born and raised on the beaches of Hawaii and now resides in Los Angeles with her husband.
Alan Moss is Vice President of Global Advertising Sales at Amazon Ads where he focuses on helping businesses around the world engage customers and build their brands.
Prior to joining Amazon Ads, Alan spent 13 years at Google, where he most recently served as Vice President of Professional Services supporting advertisers and publishers globally. Other roles included leading Google’s largest U.S. customer sales sector, as well as its Americas mid-market sales organization. Alan has also held leadership positions at other technology and internet-based companies, including PayPal, ChartOne, GoTo Shopping (acquired by Yahoo!), CareTools, Wang Laboratories, Microsoft, and LEK Consulting. Alan holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a master of business administration from Harvard Business School.
Alvir Navin is a co-founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Samba TV, where he leads the company’s global operations. Prior to co-founding Samba TV, he led the teams responsible for compliance, editorial, advertising, and video ingestion at BitTorrent Inc.
Ashwin Navin is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Samba TV. He possesses over 20 years of co-founder and chief executive leadership with deep expertise in starting and scaling successful startups in the media technology space. Prior to co-founding Samba TV, Ashwin was the Co-founder and President at BitTorrent, Inc., which he started in 2004 before leaving to launch Samba TV in 2008.
Peter Naylor is Vice President of Global Advertising Sales at Netflix, responsible for launching and driving the ad-supported advertising sales revenue strategy for Netflix’s advertising business.
Naylor joined Netflix from Snap Inc, where he was the Vice President of Americas responsible for driving the growth of the company’s advertising business across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Prior to Snap, Peter Naylor was the SVP and Head of Advertising Sales at Hulu where he oversaw the sales and operations teams driving the company’s billion-dollar advertising business. Under Naylor’s leadership, Hulu more than tripled its ad revenue and significantly expanded its offerings for brands, introducing new interactive ad units and alternate ad solutions, and deeper data and analytics. Naylor was also the leading force in delivering solutions for measurement in the Streaming TV space, achieving complete measurement of viewership in OTT and launching the industry’s first closed-loop attribution tool.
Before Hulu, Naylor was the EVP of Digital Media Sales for NBCUniversal (NBCU) where he ran digital advertising sales for NBCU’s entertainment, news and sports digital properties. Before NBCU, Naylor served as the SVP of Sales for the iVillage Properties, which was acquired by NBCU in May 2006. Prior to joining iVillage, he served as Vice President of Sales for Terra Lycos. He started his digital advertising sales career at Wired Digital.
In the advertising community, Naylor is on the Board of Directors for MMA Global and the Foundation Board of She Runs It. He also is a board member and sits on the executive committee for and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), in which he served as the Chairman in 2012 and was named the founding chairman for the IAB’s Video Center of Excellence in 2014. He also serves non-profits such as the Sandy Hook Promise media advisory board, the National Kidney Foundation and the TD Foundation, an organization that provides aid to Gold Star Families.
Naylor has earned several industry accolades, including being honored as one of Variety’s Digital Innovators pushing the boundaries of media and one of the 50 Most Indispensable Executives in Media by Adweek. He was also recognized in 2020 as Digiday’s Video Executive of the Year.
A results-oriented revenue and operations leader responsible for developing growth strategies at VIZIO’s Inscape data division, a leading provider of automatic content recognition (ACR) technologies and TV data. Fueling the data-driven strategy for VIZIO’s CTV business and leading data monetization for third-party measurement platforms powering the future of TV currency.
Ken is a sales and marketing executive with expertise in media measurement. Prior to Inscape, Ken was responsible for setting and implementing business development strategies at Nielsen across advertiser verticals for Nielsen Brand Effect, a cross-platform TV, digital, and social ad resonance measurement solution. Ken is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s University and resides in New York City.
Steve Ochs, EVP/CMO, leads GSTV’s marketing and is responsible for the company’s marketing, communications, and brand design teams and functions, setting strategy and overseeing all marketing operations. Through a breadth and depth of leadership experience, industry and sales knowledge, and passion, Steve helps to continue GSTV’s business acceleration and shape our story to partners and consumers.
Steve has held leadership positions across marketing, sales, digital media and business development at well-known companies that span technology, music, broadcasting, and entertainment. Most recently, Steve served as Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing and Creative, at National CineMedia (NCM), where he headed up the NCM consumer brand group focused on marketing, brand story and content development for theatrical and digital platforms.
Prior to NCM, Steve ran his own marketing and digital strategy firm, rocket science industries, and previously served as SVP of digital integrated marketing, for MTV Networks Music & LOGO group. Prior to joining MTV, Steve developed, executed and sold marketing and programming brand partnerships for Yahoo!, Inc.. He began his career working at Capitol Records with artists like Beastie Boys, Radiohead and Foo Fighters.
Steve holds an MBA in marketing and finance from The Wharton School, and a BA in political science from Colgate University.
Top Executive and Marketing head at leading minority & female-owned media company, helping brands create meaningful connections with the new multicultural majority. 360-marketer with 10 years’ experience across strategy, implementation, management, analytics, and the spaces between.
Capitalizing on her nearly 20 years of global marketing experience with Fortune 500 companies, Cathy Oh serves as Chief Marketing Officer, TV & Mobile Service Business, Samsung Electronics. 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 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 Multichannel News’ “Wonder Women.” Cathy lives in New Jersey with her husband and dog Adonis.
MMr. Olive has been with Crackle Connex (owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment) for the last 10 years, and holds the position of President, National Ad Sales and Strategy. In his role, he leads a national sales team driving revenue for media, sponsorships and branded content across their owned and operated AVOD and FAST networks and platforms Crackle, Redbox and Chicken Soup for the Soul. In addition, Crackle Connex holds sales rights for a growing portfolio of over 20 premium streaming services as well as the Redbox OOH kiosk network. Mr. Olive has spent the better part of his 20+ year career helping media companies like Discovery Networks, Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation build out their digital and OTT video sales organizations, sales strategy, and revenue.
As President, Ad Sales, A+E Networks®, Olsen oversees Ad Sales, Advanced Targeting Teams and Content Partnerships across the company’s portfolio of linear and nonlinear brands. He was promoted to this role in October 2014.
Previously, Olsen served as both Senior Vice President and then Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, The HISTORY® Channel/H2®, as well as holding similar role at A&E® and BIOGRAPHY®. He joined A+E Networks® in 2005.
Prior to this, Olsen served at Mediacom as EVP/Director of National Broadcast. He was named National Media Buyer of the Year by Ad Age’s Television Week in 2003. His prior experiences include sales positions at WSBK-TV Boston and within the sports division at NBC. Olsen graduated with a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Massachusetts.
Mike O’Donnell is the Chief Revenue Officer of Platform Business at VIZIO the second largest smart TV company in America. In his first year at VIZIO, O’Donnell not only led the launch of VIZIO’s exploding direct-to-device advertising business, but his team has transformed the streaming ecosystem on VIZIO’s SmartCast platform by launching over 100 new free ad-supported linear channels, and striking new deals with Disney/ESPN/ABC, Peacock and NBCUniversal, Apple, Marvel, Amazon and dozens more.
An advertising industry veteran, Mike helped pioneer the first generation of connected TV advertising solutions at YUME as SVP of North America where he helped grow the company from a start-up to its listing on the NYSE. Prior to joining VIZIO, O’Donnell served as Chief Revenue Officer of Connekt and led distribution and monetization efforts of their SmartTV technology platform.
A dedicated husband and father of three children under age ten, O’Donnell enjoys quiet time Sundays from 6:30-8am.
Earnest Pettie (he/him) is the Trends Insights Lead on YouTube’s Culture and Trends team, which tracks content and creator trends on YouTube. He leads the team’s global research efforts. Having worked in web video for 14 years, Earnest maintains a vigorous passion for sharing creativity from unexpected sources and underrepresented groups.
Ryan Pirozzi is the Co-Head of Content and Programming at IMDb TV. In this role, Ryan oversees all programming for IMDb TV, including development, production, licensing and strategy. Prior to taking on this role, Ryan was the Head of Worldwide Television & Film Licensing, licensing television and film on a worldwide basis for Amazon’s Prime Video service. Ryan lead a team of content acquisition professionals that continuously monitored the industry for the best-available content to license for Prime customers. Before joining Amazon in 2011, Ryan spent seven years at the specialty retailer Best Buy where he led several categories including physical and digital video. Before entering the private sector, Ryan spent five years serving in the United States Air Force, where he held the rank of captain and specialized in the acquisition of major information technology programs. Pirozzi is a native of Long Island, New York, USA. He attended the United States Air Force Academy, earning a bachelor’s degree in Human Factors Engineering, and St. Mary’s University, earning a master of business administration.
Liz is a filmmaker, award-winning journalist, author and the executive producer and host of several critically acclaimed digital series at Vox Media and NBC News. Her influence stretches across major social platforms where she gives her audience access to her life as well as breaking down important news stories.
Andrew Polsky is Chief Revenue Officer at Adsmovil and leads the company’s national sales team in the U.S across multiple channels including mobile, video, audio, CTV, branded content and data. Previously, Andrew was SVP of Sales – East Region at Pulpo Media (an Entravision company) where he managed a team of national sales directors and drove the multicultural ad network’s revenue growth. He led the digital division at Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) as VP of Digital Media driving brand, content and revenue strategies for all properties, including cable network MegaTV, 17 radio stations in the top U.S. Hispanic markets, and SBS Entertainment, the company’s concert division. Andrew was Digital Sales Manager for CBS, managing revenue lines for TV and radio station digital assets for the company in Miami. Prior to CBS, Andrew was an Digital Account Executive for the Miami Herald and CNET Networks. Andrew is an Advisory Board member for Brandstar’s BELatina and FIU’s CARTA. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Florida International University.
Katherine Pond is Group Vice President at VIZIO, leading digital distribution, content acquisition & programming, platform partnerships, and enterprise programs. Since joining VIZIO in 2012, she’s initiated, negotiated, and closed deals across content distribution and acquisition, IP technology, advertising, and data verticals. Katherine has a history of building, growing, and monetizing new lines of business, including VIZIO’s owned and operated service, WatchFree+. She leads the teams responsible for closing deals with Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google, Netflix, Warner Bros., Discovery, and more. Katherine is passionate about the development and success of future generations, serving as a mentor at her alma mater and co-founding VIZIO’s Ascend Women’s Network.
Nyma Quidwai is the VP of Client Services and Inventory Partnerships at VIZIO Ads, leading the development of campaign management across direct buys and overseeing the programmatic ad stack. She has extensive experience in the ad tech community from content partnership curation to demand facilitation with an emphasis on CTV. Her focus lies in developing yield management and monetization strategies. She was named DMN’s 40under40 and is a published Forbes author on CTV.
Isabel Rafferty Zavala is a digital marketing pioneer. She is the Founder and CEO of Canela Media, a leading digital media tech company that gives brands the tools they need to effectively connect with multicultural audiences through multiple touchpoints, including its free-to-stream platform Canela.TV, influencer marketing, branded content, and more than 180 exclusive Spanish-language sites. Prior to starting Canela Media, Rafferty founded Mobvious, a company dedicated to reaching U.S. Hispanic and African-American audiences via mobile advertising. Under Rafferty’s leadership, Mobvious quickly became the largest Hispanic-focused ad network, as ranked by Comscore, before being acquired by PRISA in 2017.
Will Richmond is editor and publisher of VideoNuze, a widely followed online publication which provides daily original analysis and curated industry news for TV and video decision-makers. Will also hosts and produces VideoNuze’s Connected TV Advertising Summits and other industry events, which thousands of industry executives have attended over the past 10+ years.
Will has worked in the broadband, cable TV, content, Internet/technology and advertising industries for over 25 years. He is an acknowledged thought-leader in the fast-growing connected TV and online video industries whose insights are sought out by C-level industry executives, venture capitalists, journalists and others. LinkedIn named Will as one of the top 10 media writers of 2015. Earlier in his career, Will spent 8 years at Continental Cablevision (then the 3rd largest U.S. cable TV operator), where he was VP, Business Development and part of the founding team of Continental’s pioneering broadband Internet access service “Highway1”. Subsequently he served as VP, Business Development for CMGI’s iCast and for Narad Networks. He was also the founder of PoliticalWag.com, a popular political discussion/community site. Will serves on the board of overseers and chairs the Emerging Media and Technology Committee of WGBH Boston, the largest producer of TV programming and online content for PBS. In addition, Will is an adjunct professor in the Boston University College of Communication’s graduate program in Media Ventures. Will has a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Andres Rincon has been Canela Media’s SVP of Sales for the East Coast since 2020. Prior to joining Canela, Andres spent ten years as VP of Sales and Strategic Partnerships for LATV Networks. Rincon’s trajectory also includes key sales and management positions at Azteca America, Telemundo, and CNBC Europe. Andres is an industry-leading ad sales professional with experience in multicultural media sales, marketing, management, and business development. His leadership, innovation, and collaborative approach have earned him industry acclaim. Andres holds a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing from NYU. He’s a native from Colombia and resides in Brooklyn.
Dan Robbins is Vice President, Ad Marketing & Partner Solutions at Roku, where he leads the marketing, measurement/research, design, events, and communications teams for the ad business. Prior to Roku, he worked on several strategic partnerships and product rollouts at Nielsen. Dan was named to the 2018 Broadcasting & Cable “40 Under 40” List, the 2019 GRIT Future List, and the 2019 Fellows Program at the Economic Club of New York. Dan is a graduate of Cornell University and based in New York.
Michael is an award-winning sales professional with 20+ years of experience driving revenue for youth culture brands. As the Head of Sales & Partnerships for REVOLT, his team provides actionable insights, authentic creative, and contextual planning for brands looking to connect with young adults through the power of Hip Hop and Black Culture.
Michael is skilled in branded content creation, cross-platform campaigns, experiential events, and technology-fueled partnerships. He formulated first of its kind co-sales initiatives with major players including ESPN, Jaunt VR, Twitter, VEVO, Vice, Electus, and Funny or Die and was a founder in the development of the multi-award winning REVOLT Music Conference and REVOLT Summit X AT&T.
Before joining REVOLT, Michael spent 13 years with Fuse and MuchMusic serving as VP of Advertising Sales, overseeing the Eastern Region’s TV and Digital teams and opening their first ever Midwest office in Chicago.
Michael earned his bachelor’s degree from University of Delaware’s Lerner College of Business and Economics. His passion for music and technology was already in focus, working with Hi Frequency Marketing, interning at Blue Note Records, and hosting his own show on WVUD’s college radio station.
Whether you know him from his wildly popular tenure as the original host of HQ Trivia, his anchoring of the live, MLB whip-around show ChangeUp on DAZN, his own, critically-acclaimed late-night talk show Running Late with Scott Rogowsky (and the pandemic-inspired spin-off IsoLate Night), his two shows on Verizon’s Go90 (Start Talkin’ produced for Complex Networks and Weird World of Sports produced for Whistle), his ABC Primetime series Would You Fall For That?, or his current hosting roles on the Business Casual podcast from Morning Brew and Wild Cards on NTWRK, Scott Rogowsky has quickly made a name for himself across the media landscape as the host with most.
To the tens of millions of people around the world who joined the live, daily HQ Trivia broadcasts, Scott became a household name — outside of the Rogowsky household, even! — and was affectionately called “Quiz Daddy” by his fans (a nickname he finds equal parts flattering and unsettling). Admired for his quick wit and improvisational panache while hosting the viral app sensation, Scott racked up hundreds of thousands of new followers while being invited to make guest appearances on Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Live with Kelly & Ryan, The Voice, ABC’s New Year’s Rockin Eve, FOX’s New Year’s Eve with Steve Harvey, and most importantly to Scott, MLB’s All-Star Celebrity Softball Game broadcast on ESPN.
When he’s not on camera or behind the mic — and when there isn’t a global pandemic raging — Scott is on stage at comedy clubs and college campuses performing stand-up or hosting Running Late, his self-produced talk show on which he has interviewed over 400 celebrity guests since 2011 including Jon Hamm, Paul Rudd, Steve Buscemi, Sarah Silverman, John Oliver, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Amy Sedaris, Nick Kroll, Paul Dano, Matt Groening, Kevin Nealon, Reggie Watts, Dick Cavett, Jim Gaffigan, Dan Rather, Janeane Garofalo, Abbi Jacobson & Ilana Glazer, and Desus & Mero.
Scott is also a talented writer and producer, having worked behind the camera on Debate Wars (Sees)o, Crowd Goes Wild (Fox Sports 1), White Guy Talk Show (Fuse), The Onion News Network (IFC) and Onion SportsDome (Comedy Central). He has also produced, written, and/or starred in several viral videos including “Mother’s Day Lie Detector” (18 million YouTube views) and the “Fake Books on the Subway” series which has been viewed over 200 million times across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Scott is active in fundraising for many charities, donating sales from his vintage clothing collection at Quiz Daddy’s Closet to various causes including Chai Lifeline, the National MS Society, the Movember Foundation, CityMeals, Food Bank for NYC, and DonorsChoose.
Scott was born in New York City but currently resides in LA (Los Angeles, not Louisiana).
Mark Rotblat is the Chief Revenue Officer of Tubi – FOX Entertainment’s free streaming service. As CRO, Mark is responsible for driving the company’s global sales and partnerships, expanding the company’s revenue efforts, and increasing value for advertising partners.
Prior to joining Tubi in early 2018, Mark was Senior Director of Agency Sales & Activation for the Adobe Advertising Cloud at Adobe Systems. Leading up to his work at Adobe, Mark was part of TubeMogul’s founding team in 2007, which held its IPO in 2014 and subsequently was acquired by Adobe for $540M in 2016.
Mark held a variety of roles at TubeMogul, including marketing, business development and various sales leadership positions. As SVP of Agency Sales at TubeMogul, his responsibilities included driving sales strategy, communications and execution with agency partners. Mark also has experience working in business development and management consulting for healthcare organizations, including Healthline and Stockamp & Associates.
Mark holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BS from Duke University and resides in the Bay area with his wife and children.
Editor-at-Large, PEOPLE Magazine and Host of PEOPLE Every Day
Janine Rubenstein is an Editor, writer and on-air correspondent for breaking news, entertainment, human interest and style content at leading national magazines and digital news sites. Author and conveyor of compelling content that drives high-volume reader interest and engagement.
Janine earned Bachelor of Arts degrees from U.C. Berkeley in English and Theater, and a Master of Arts in Print Journalism from University of Southern California
Detavio Samuels serves as CEO of REVOLT, America’s fastest growing Black-owned media company.
Detavio sits at the intersection of culture and content and is one of corporate America’s youngest and most accomplished senior executives. With his unique background as a millennial with over a decade of executive experience, he has helped a decorated roster of top global companies like Walmart, McDonalds, AT&T, Chrysler, the NBA and Johnson & Johnson build impactful brands with deeper connections to their consumers.
In March 2021, Detavio was appointed CEO of REVOLT, the nation’s leading creator and distributor of Hip Hop and Black culture content founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs. Under his leadership, REVOLT aspires to shift the narrative around Black people globally by building the world’s largest and most powerful ecosystem for Black storytelling.
Tasked with managing a growing bi-coastal team and spearheading the daily operations of the company, Samuels is focused on rapid growth and digital expansion to further position REVOLT as the preeminent driver of global culture. Samuels is dedicated to helping Millennials and Gen-Z better understand the shifting world and ignite change by using Hip-Hop as a lens to explore the Black experience globally.
Samuels has been recognized for his work as a marketing executive, receiving several honors including being named a Trailblazer in Media by 100 Black Men of NY, Network Journal 40 Under 40, MAAX Media Executive of the Year, and the 2017 Trailblazer Award from the National Urban League. In addition to his notable work within creative industries, Samuels is also an Amazon best-selling author.
Samuels received his B.A. from Duke University, along with an MBA and Master’s degree from Stanford University all by the age of 25. Samuels remains poised to redesign the modern media landscape and empower creators by building innovative platforms aimed at advancing Black culture.
Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer at Meta, overseeing the company’s business operations and serving on its board of directors. Before joining the company then called Facebook, Sheryl was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Clinton, a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank.
Sheryl received a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
Sheryl is the co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy with Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant. She is also the author of the bestsellers Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and Lean In for Graduates. She is the founder of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more equal and resilient world through three key initiatives, Lean In, Option B, and the Dave Goldberg Scholarship Program. Sheryl also serves on the boards of Women for Women International, ONE, and Momentive.
Sheryl lives in Menlo Park, California, with her fiancé and their five children.
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René Santaella serves as Chief Digital & Streaming Officer for Estrella Media. Santaella was previously EVP, Digital & Streaming Media, and is credited with launching the company’s successful streaming and AVOD platforms and leading the digital transformation of Estrella Media’s content and distribution strategy, operations, and new revenue initiatives. Under his guidance, Estrella Media has quickly become a leader in multi-platform, Spanish-language, ad-supported content distribution, with a digital content reach of more than 4 billion minutes per month, viewed across its multiplatform media portfolio, including its FAST, AVOD, and streaming audio platforms.
Among the platforms that have launched under his guidance are: the EstrellaTV APP available on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung, Vizio, iOS and Android mobile; four Estrella Media curated live streaming T.V. networks – EstrellaTV, Estrella News, CineEstrellaTV and Estrella Games – seen across The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, Vizio WatchFree, Xumo, Xfinity Flex, PlutoTV, Amazon News, Tubi and FuboTV. Estrella Media is a top 20 leader in streaming audio with stations like Que Buena Los Angeles, QB Underground, La Raza and El Norte – all available on TuneIn, the EstrellaTV APP and EstrellaTV.com.
Prior to joining Estrella Media, Santaella was the Senior Vice President, Head of Ad Sales & Business Operations, at Sony Pictures Television Digital Networks, and built Crackle into a leading free ad-supported streaming network with the Emmy nominated hit, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. He also led the creation of a premium video network for advertisers targeting a large audience of “connected gamers” that included PlayStation, Funimation, Pluto TV and Crackle. Before Sony, he was Director, Ad Sales Marketing for Disney Interactive, leading digital and cross-platform advertising and integrated marketing solutions across the company with corporate alliance partners.
Santaella is based in the company’s Burbank headquarters and reports to Peter Markham, CEO of Estrella Media. He was named to The Wrap’s 2023 “Latino Power List,” and the Estrella News FAST channel received the prestigious “Achievement in FAST Programming” award from NextTV under his guidance. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA and a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA. He was also a member of the Puerto Rican National Swim Team and UCLA Men’s Swim Team.
Michael Scott is Vice President of Ad Sales & Operations at Samsung Ads. With more than 20 years of sales, business development and marketing experience in the television marketing services, digital advertising, programmatic and sports marketing industries, Michael works with brands to leverage Samsung Ads Smart TV insights to reach consumers where they consume their content across Smart TVs, mobile or desktop devices. Most recently, Michael served as Chief Revenue Officer at Tru Optik where he managed business development and strategic partnerships with advertisers, agencies, data companies and adtech partners leveraging Tru Optik’s proprietary data set to access OTT audiences. Prior to Tru Optik, he was Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships for Cox Media Group’s Gamut, where he grew revenue by nearly 20 percent and Managing Director, Ad Intelligence for Ebiquity, where he led the advertising consultancy practice with teams around the globe and doubled revenue within his first year. As an entrepreneur, Scott started and later sold, two successful content marketing businesses/agencies – Fourth Element Group and MacDuff Inc. Earlier in his career, Scott worked for NBC Television as the Director of Olympic and Sports Marketing.
Over his career, Evan Shapiro has been an outspoken thought-leader in the entertainment industry. For many years via his work with Ghetto Film School and One Day Immersion, he has strived to make the media business a more diverse and inclusive community. For decades, he has created innovative, award-winning programming and media properties, including Take My Wife, Funny Women of a Certain Age, This Is Film Is Not Yet Rated (Sundance Film Festival Collection), Dinner for Five (Emmy Nomination), HitRecord (Emmy Award), Brick City (Emmy Nomination and Peabody Award), and the iconic Portlandia (Peabody Award).
Recently, Shapiro’s impact on media has expanded, as he has evolved into a noted commentator on the entertainment industry and become recognized as the Unofficial Official Cartographer of The Media Universe.
In 2020, Deadline published Shapiro’s first Media Universe Map, the first view of the media business to truly include all the major combatants in the war for attention. It was immediately adopted by businesses, executives, analysts, and colleges as the unofficial official representation of the map of media.
His essays on media have become must-reads for industry professionals, and his ensuing updates to the Media Map, and two subsequent maps – the Gaming Omniverse and the CTVerse – have made him one of the most influential thinkers in the business, making him a sought after speaker, and serving him as a Professor of Media & Entertainment at both New York University/Stern School of Business and Fordham University/Gabelli School of Business.
He is currently producing the podcasts Roast of Your Teenage Self and Next with Novo, as well as the feature film Grimm Legacy for Disney+, the feature All Over Christmas with Vortex Pictures and the series Cooper’s Bar for AMC.
Kristina is the VP of Global Advertising Sales and Partnerships at Roku, helping to manage Roku’s global agency and brand relationships while overseeing a sales team who work with clients such as; Verizon, Coca-Cola, Papa John’s, Nationwide and more. Kristina has been at Roku since early 2017 and has helped to break and grow business with what are now some of Roku’s largest clients. Kristina has been named to the 2021 AWNewYork Future Is Female Shortlist, 2021 Cynopsis It List, and most recently she was recognized in the 2023 AdMonsters Top Women in Media and Ad Tech Awards. Prior to Roku, Kristina was a Sales Director at a leading mobile ad tech company.
Jessica Shepherd MD, MBA, FACOG, is a board-certified OB-GYN and the Chief Medical Officer for Verywell Health. She is the founder and CEO of Sanctum Med + Wellness, a wellness concierge practice, and is affiliated with Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
She is a well-known media personality who appears regularly as an expert on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Talk, Dr. Oz, CNN, MSNBC, and CBS News. She has written for outlets like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar, Essence, and Self.
Dr. Shepherd’s passion for women’s health—from minority health disparities to reproductive justice issues—has led her to speaking engagements at events ranging from WELL Summit to the 2020 Women’s March in New York City.
As a healthcare expert, Dr. Shepherd strives to educate people on how to address their physical, sexual, and emotional health. She currently sits on the advisory boards for Ro Medicine, Women’s Health Magazine, Abbvie, Myovant, Responsum, Hologic, and HealthyWomen.org. In her Dallas practice, she works with a team of therapists, yoga instructors, Ayurvedic wellness coaches, nutritionists, exercise specialists, and other health professionals dedicated to women’s health.
Dr. Shepherd attended medical school at Ross University and completed her residency at Drexel University-Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She went on to complete a Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Fellowship at the University of Louisville, where she also earned her MBA. She also served as the Director of Minimally Invasive Gynecology at the University of Illinois for six years.
Eric Z. Sherman is the Executive Vice President of Insights & Analytics at GSTV. Reporting to the CEO, Eric oversees audience insights, ad effectiveness research and data strategy.
Prior to GSTV, as head of US media research at Twitter, Eric led a team charged with demonstrating and quantifying the value of Twitter to media companies, content owners and multi-platform marketers. Before joining Twitter, Eric oversaw audience measurement, ad effectiveness research and geospatial analytics for Clear Channel Outdoor’s $1.3 billion US advertising business. He also spent seven years at NBCUniversal, heading up ad sales research and web analytics for CNBC. Previously, at Digitas and Dynamic Logic, Eric advised clients on digital marketing strategy and measurement.
Resh Sidhu is a highly accomplished and respected global leader in the field of creative technology and augmented reality. As a co-founder of Arcadia Creative Studio, at Snapchat, based in New York, she leads a world-class team of AR pioneers and manages a wide range of high-profile projects. With over two decades of experience in the industry, Resh has a proven track record of success in a variety of roles, including Chief Creative Officer for Barbarian, Group Creative Director at AKQA, and Creative Director at Oscar-winning visual effects studio Framestore.
Throughout her illustrious career, Resh has consistently been lauded for her ability to foster an inspiring, inclusive, and forward-thinking work environment. Her leadership is characterized by a commitment to innovative thinking, and she has played a pivotal role in delivering iconic experiences for an extensive portfolio of global clients, including esteemed names like Nike, Disney, Livenation, L’Oréal, and Coca-Cola, among others.
Resh Sidhu’s contributions to the creative industry have not gone unnoticed. She has been recognized by numerous prestigious organizations, earning accolades such as inclusion in Adweek Creative 100 and a spot among Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. In addition to her accomplishments, Resh is a highly sought-after speaker who has graced events like TEDx and Cannes Lions with her insights on creativity, design, and technology.
With her distinctive perspective on the intersection of design and technology, Resh Sidhu remains an influential driving force in shaping the future landscape of digital experiences. Her recent appointments as the Jury President for Cannes Lion Digital Craft and her reception of an honorary doctorate from the University of Art London underscore her enduring impact on the industry.
Rachel Jo Silver is the founder of Love Stories TV, a global media brand that provides entertainment and wedding inspiration through uplifting, high-quality and emotional video content. As the only video platform in the $300B global wedding industry, Love Stories TV reaches 50M+ monthly viewers through their website and social channels.
Rachel’s background is in building communities and creating content that helps consumers make purchase decisions. She is a recognized expert on social and video strategy as well as a resource for the modern, social media savvy bride. As Digiday put it, “It’s not often that a marketing employee feels like a celebrity. But most marketers aren’t Rachel Silver.”
Former NFL athlete turned chef, Derrell Smith, is the host of Tastemade’s hit show, Mad Good
Food, where he shows viewers the value of not only cooking for those you love, but also
cooking for yourself. As the host of Mad Good Food — currently in its third season — Derrell
creates a meal he’d normally make family-style for friends and family, and then breaks it down
into a new distinct meal for one using the components of the original dish. He also serves as an
executive producer as well as the creator & CEO OF 99EATS, LLC — a virtual culinary brand
with a mission to spread love through food, content, and experiences.
After earning Delaware Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 2006, Smith accepted a full
athletic scholarship to Syracuse University, excelling both on and off the football field. Derrell
was a three year starting linebacker, two-time All Big East performer, team MVP and captain,
and ranks second all-time for forced fumbles in Syracuse history. In 2010, he went undrafted to
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and was picked up midseason by the Houston Texans. In his
second season, Smith earned the starting fullback position until a neck injury, suffered in
practice, ended his career. The following day, Smith returned to Syracuse to enroll in a Master’s
program. This would be a decision that would change his life forever.
One evening after a long day of school, Smith decided to make spaghetti and meatballs using
ingredients from his fridge and cabinets. The sauce was so good, he immediately called his best
friend over to his apartment, and during dinner told him “I’m gonna sell this one day!” The rest is
history. Derrell moved to Los Angeles in 2020 with no plans, but ambitions to host his own food
television show. This became a reality in April 2021 when the first season of Mad Good Food
premiered on Tastemade. To date, Derrell has hosted or worked with brands including, Netflix,
NBCUniversal, Disney, Amazon, Sesame Place, Subway, Bed Bath and Beyond, and others.
Evan Spiegel is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Snap Inc. Spiegel graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Product Design. Snap Inc. is a camera company and believes that reinventing the camera represents their greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Their products empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world and have fun together.
As VP, Business & Creator Marketing on BPM FOA – Team, Jim is responsible for helping businesses of all sizes and creators to be successful on the platform. Prior to joining Instagram in 2013, Jim played a key role in the introduction of sponsored content in News Feed and mobile for Facebook. Before joining Facebook in 2009, Squires led product at both Mixercast, a startup that enabled brands to use widgets as a promotional vehicle, and Ning, a social networking platform. He was also director of product management at Yahoo, where he developed many of the company’s video and entertainment products. He joined Yahoo in 1999 with the acquisition of Broadcast.com. Squires holds a BA in marketing from Texas Christian University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley
As Vice President of Media and Distribution Marketing at Vevo, Aneessa Steilen leads Vevo’s B2B marketing strategy and execution for agencies, brands, data and distribution partners, helping communicate Vevo’s value proposition in the marketplace. She has held several roles within Vevo over the past 6+ years, including launching the distribution partnership management team in 2019. Prior to Vevo, Steilen held various sales and marketing positions at Tumblr and News Corp.
Julie Stewart-Binks is the host of “Drinks With Binks” on Fubo Sports Network, the live, free-to-consumer TV network featuring sports stories on and off the field. Drinks with Binks launched with the network in September 2019 and Ball is Back, a special series, highlights the return of major tournaments and sporting events.
“Drinks With Binks” has a light, casual vibe that encourages deeper conversations. Guests open bottles (alcoholic or otherwise) and open up about life, sports, motivations, fears, anything. New episodes air Wednesdays at 8PM and 8:30PM ET/PT.
“Ball is Back” gets the full story with predictions and storylines on major sporting events such as the NCAA basketball tournament and NBA playoffs with guests like current all-stars, Hall of Famers and sports journalists.
Who is JSB?
JSB, as she’s known around the studio, has a sports/journalism/entertainment resume as deep as the ‘67 Maple Leafs roster. An avid hockey fan and player, she jumped into her career with both blades. She was a reporter on FOX Soccer’s “FOX Soccer Report” in Winnipeg; a program assistant at CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada”; and as a sports anchor and reporter at CTV in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Her dedication and persistence led to a move from the land of extreme weather warnings to sunny Los Angeles, where she helped launch FS1 as one of its original anchors and reporters. As FOX Sports grew, she hosted the 2014 Sochi Olympics and reported on the 2015 Women’s World Cup.
In 2015, Julie became FOX’s regular sideline reporter for their newly acquired MLS matches, before moving to ESPN as a sideline reporter for MLS, the U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer teams and college football.
In fact, Julie is the first female reporter to call two straight MLS Cups with two different networks (FOX and ESPN).
In 2017, Julie joined Barstool Sports as the host of “Barstool Breakfast” on Sirius XM, before ultimately leaving to forge her improv and comedy skills. And it’s a good thing she did. Because 2019 was the year of the Binks.
After training at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater and trying her hand at stand-up, Julie was able to show off her comedic and improv chops hosting “The Thread,” a daily show on SNY; at CBS Sports HQ; and an NHL podcast on the athletic which led her to what she’d later describe as her “dream situation.”
Landing at Fubo Sports Network, she took on writing, producing and hosting duties of two shows; “Call it a Night,” a late-night style show which earned a Telly Award, and “Drinks with Binks” a laid-back interview show over a beverage of the guest’s choosing. Since then, JSB has sharpened her interview skills further with “Ball is Back,” where she has found the middle ground between her sports journalist roots and disarming comedic persona.
Connect with Julie on Twitter @JSB_TV, Instagram @juliesb_ and Facebook at jsb989
Nada C. Stirratt is the Vice President, North America, Global Business Group for Meta. Prior to Meta, Nada served as the Chief Executive Officer of Verve Wireless, Inc., a provider of SaS-location-based mobile advertising solutions for retail, auto, CPG, restaurants, and other drive-to-retail brand advertisers.
Nada also previously served as Chief Revenue Officer and Executive Vice President for Acxiom, the data-mining and analytics company. In this role, Nada led all of the client-facing areas of the business, including field, account management, and consulting across the globe.
Stirratt came to Acxiom with a proven track record of delivering transformational business results. Prior to Acxiom, she served as Chief Revenue Officer at MySpace, where she led global sales, strategy and advertising operations. Previously, Nada served as Executive Vice President of digital advertising at MTV Networks, where she successfully led the company’s aggressive expansion into the digital advertising arena across all properties, overseeing advertising sales, strategy and operations.
Earlier in her career, Nada was senior vice president and general manager of advertising sales at Advertising.com and also held senior positions with some of the world’s most well-known brands, including AOL, Moviefone, Hearst Publications and Condé Nast. Stirratt holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Illinois. She is based in New York City.
Chad Stoller is a marketing and branding specialist with over 20 years of experience building brands, increasing awareness and consumer engagement. As Global Chief Innovation Officer, Chad is responsible for prospecting and integrating both new and emerging technologies to deliver best-in-class solutions and products across the UM network and client portfolio. He also identifies new layers of revenue generation for the UM, IPG Mediabrands list of clients and partners.
Rachel Tipograph has considered herself amongst the digerati since the moment she became an eBay power user at 13. After joining Gap as the company’s youngest-ever Global Director of Digital and Social Media, where she oversaw strategy, implementation and measurement, Rachel traveled the world for 100 days and then founded MikMak, a global eCommerce enablement and analytics platform for multichannel brands.
Since then, MikMak has earned recognition for its workplace culture and DE&I efforts as a “Fastest Growing Company in America” and “Best Place to Work” by Inc Magazine, “#10 Startup in the United States” by LinkedIn, “Breakthrough Brand” by Interbrand and “Nineteen Technologies Underpin AI And Analytics For Retail” by Forrester.
Rachel has also been recognized as a thought leader by leading media publications including Forbes (“30 under 30 Who Are Changing The World”), Fast Company (“The Most Creative People in Business”) AdAge (“The Most Creative People of The Year”), Adweek (“The Young Influentials Shaping Business and Culture”), Entrepreneur ( “50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs” and “100 Women of Impact”), Inc (“Female Founders 100”), Marie Claire (“The 50 Most Influential Women in America”), Business Insider (“New York Tech’s Coolest People”), Goldman Sachs (“100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs”), Refinery29 (“Rising Female Tech Stars”), The Wrap (“The 11 Change Agents Disrupting Hollywood”), and LinkedIn (“Next Wave: Top Professionals 35 & Under”). She has also been named to the “Advertising Hall of Achievement” by the American Advertising Federation.
Esto te sirve? Mario is the head of Canela Music, who has previously worked in other companies with music verticals like AOL, Telemundo, Vevo, Latido Music and more. One of his biggest career highlights has been the effort of creating a space for Hispanic artists at Vevo, calling it SomosVevo and has now created an amazing opportunity for brands in Canela Music.
As Senior Director of Consumer & Artists Insights at Vevo, Laura Vanison leads the strategy, planning and execution of all primary and marketplace research, informing Vevo’s content, product, distribution, and marketing strategies. With 15 years of experience in media and market research, Vanison uses her understanding of research methodologies and passion for consumer trends to drive actionable, forward-thinking insights. Prior to Vevo, Vanison spent several years at Universal McCann leading campaign effectiveness and channel planning research for major consumer product and entertainment brands.
As Vice President of Inclusive Sales at Vevo, Rob Vélez is responsible for developing, expanding, and overseeing Vevo’s multicultural ad sales revenue. By gathering marketplace insights, proprietary research data, and Vevo analytics, Vélez develops a go-to-market strategy that delivers thoughtful client solutions utilizing Vevo’s cross-platform capabilities. He also plays an active role internally at Vevo, leading the company’s various cultural celebrations and resource groups. Vélez is a member of AIMM and was honored as one of Adweek’s Young Influentials in 2022. Prior to Vevo, he held several sales management and business development roles at beIN Sports and TelevisaUnivision.
Brian Verne is the Founder and CEO of Wave Sports + Entertainment.
Brian has spent the past 8 years building products at the intersection of young athletes, fans, and emerging media. Prior to founding WSE, he was the CEO and co-founder of Phenom, a 500 Startups-backed community for young athletes to tell their stories and talk about their favorite products and brands.
Founded in 2017, Wave Sports + Entertainment is a world-class sports and entertainment company serving modern-day fans via content, products, and experiences. With over 110 million highly-engaged global followers and a reach of over 500 million sports fans monthly, WSE has tapped into something incredibly powerful in record time.
The company is one of the top sports partners to Snap, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube by creating some of the most popular sports media brands available on digital platforms today, including BUCKETS, FTBL, GYM HEROES, HAYMAKERS, and JUKES.
Brian is originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and is a graduate of Oberlin College where he earned four letters as a member of the baseball team, while serving as team Captain for two years.
Tara Walpert Levy leads the Americas’ business organization for YouTube and is also responsible for YouTube’s global content verticals, ranging from Shopping to Gaming to News. Tara previously led Agency and Brand Solutions for Google and YouTube and was responsible for Google’s advertising and technology business with the third-party ecosystem: agencies, consultants, channel marketing partners, and trade associations. Tara came to Google in 2011 to help bridge Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley by leading Ads Marketing.
Prior to Google, Tara was the President of Visible World (acquired by Comcast NBCU), building the technology infrastructure and SaaS company into the leading addressable TV platform. She was also a leader of the Global Media & Entertainment and Sales & Marketing practices at McKinsey & Company.
Tara currently chairs the Advisory Board for Next Gen Board Leaders and serves on the boards of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc., a restaurant chain holding company, and Braze, a SaaS marketing technology business. She is committed to giving back to the industry and is an active board member of the Ad Council, MAKERS, and The Female Quotient. She is also a past Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and a member of the board of the John Reisenbach Foundation.
Tara writes and speaks frequently on the shifting marketing, media, and technology landscape, the evolving responsibility and impact of private and public boards, and the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She has been inducted into the AAF Advertising Hall of Achievement, identified as a dMexco Global Trailblazer, and named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.”
Tara is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children.
Kristal Walton, VP, CPG, is responsible for helping to shape GSTV’s go-to-market strategy and grow brand partnerships for CPG and retail. She is hyper-focused on the development of successful brand campaigns leveraging GSTV’s captive and engaged audience.
Prior to GSTV, Kristal was Omni-Customer Marketing Manager at SC Johnson. Kristal has an extensive background in the development of omni-channel marketing campaigns that span national media as well as shopper marketing tactics. She is proud to have led marketing strategy and execution for a myriad of initiatives across new store openings, new product launches as well as ideating and executing successful incremental sales growth initiatives throughout her 15+ years in marketing.
Kristal is a native Texan who currently resides in Chicago. She is a University of Arkansas Alum where she ran Track & Field for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Maria Weaver serves as President of WMX, Warner Music Group’s next generation services division that connects artists with fans and amplifies brands in creative, immersive, and engaging ways. Weaver oversees the vast array of resources and areas of expertise under the WMX umbrella, including Artist & Fan Experiences, streaming account management & playlisting, direct-to-fan and merchandising operations, consumer acquisition, content creation, legal & business affairs, and finance. In addition, she leads the growth of Warner’s network of owned-and-operated consumer brands, which encompasses EMP, the merchandising e-tailer; and the company’s Media and Content division, which includes UPROXX, the youth culture & music destination; Songkick, the live music app; and HipHopDX, a leading hip-hop media platform, among other digital destinations.
Prior to WMX, Weaver was Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer at Comcast Advertising where she oversaw the company’s advertising sales division, Effectv, including leading its rebrand from Comcast Spotlight. She also oversaw Comcast’s full-service creative agency Mnemonic, as well as FreeWheel, which provides advertising software and solutions for the television ecosystem. Previously, Weaver was one of the founders of Interactive One, the digital division of Urban One (formerly Radio One) and held senior marketing and creative services posts at HBO and Showtime.
Gila Wilensky is President of Xaxis U.S., where she is focused on driving growth and transforming digital media into real business outcomes for brands. Overseeing a deep pool of expert talent and product innovation across platforms and channels, Gila is a steward of the global company’s overall vision within the U.S. Named one of Ad Age 40 Under 40 and Business Insider Rising Stars, Gila is an industry thought leader who is regularly featured on panels, podcasts, and in publications.
Andre Woolery serves as the SVP of Branded Content at REVOLT, one of the fastest growing Black owned media companies. He also leads REVOLT’s internal creative/content agency, #000000, to deliver award-winning campaign and concepts.
Andre Woolery is a seasoned professional with 15+ years of developing brands through content, branding and creative marketing. Andre began his career in advertising, helping companies use media and technology to market their brands. Since then he has found ways to blend content, media, technology and creative to deliver audiences unique experiences. His past roles include Creative Synthesis Director at Media Kitchen/Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners and Ogilvy & Mather collaborating with brands such as Giorgio Armani, Armani Exchange, Victoria’s Secret, PBS, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj fragrances to name a few. Much of his award-winning work has been focused on developing rich content and creative campaigns, strategic marketing plans, high impact concepts, and innovative direction.
Andre has also made a name for himself as an emerging visual artist. He has done several art commissions for public spaces and was the featured artist in a nationally broadcast commercial for Coors Light alongside DJ Dahi and Don C. His work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Texas, Jamaica and Norway.
Andre is an extremely ambidextrous talent that can flow from creative to content to technology. He is driven to relentlessly drive innovative concepts that is present in all his work.
Andre has a degree in Computer Science from Duke University. Andre and his family live in Los Angeles, CA.
Leah Wyar is the President of the Entertainment Group at Dotdash Meredith. Leah has nearly 20 years of experience in media and is a veteran beauty expert with numerous appearances on television shows such as Today and Good Morning America. She was a judge on season two of Lifetime’s American Beauty Star.
Before joining Dotdash Meredith, Leah was the Chief Beauty Director of Hearst, where she oversaw the content for 12 brands including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Women’s Health, while bringing trends, news, and solutions to more than 20 million women every month. She also covered the beauty and wellness circuit for Fitness, Self, and Health. Leah graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Susquehanna University and lives in New York City.
Tania Yuki is a tech founder and entrepreneur with a strong commercial and marketplace focus, a massive love of data, and experience driving innovation in insights-focused businesses.
Tania re-joined Comscore in late 2021 after Shareablee, the venture-backed technology startup that she founded in 2013 and led as CEO through to the end of 2021, was acquired by Comscore.
Shareablee was an industry-leading martech and analytics company in the social media space which continues to support many of the world’s most innovative brands and publishers, such as NBC, Sony, Barstool Sports, Mondelez, Ulta Beauty and more, and was listed as one of Inc.5000’s fastest growing companies and Women President’s Organization (WPO)’s 50 Fastest Women-led Companies.
Prior to founding Shareablee, Tania led product management for Comscore’s Video Metrix, the world’s leading online video and CTV ratings service, and was also VP Advertiser Solutions at Visible World (acquired by Comcast).
Tania currently participates on the World Economic Forum’s Media and Entertainment Council and sits on the Board of the American Australian Association. Tania recently served on the Government of Dubai Media Office’s Future Council for Media and the Recording Academy’s Grammy Awards Digital Council where she led initiatives specifically focused on social media marketing and optimization in growing the Grammy Awards’ digital brand. She also founded wimLink, an organization that holds regular events and seminars to promote entrepreneurship, leadership and professional development for women at the intersection of media and technology.
Dennis Yuscavitch is a product and marketing leader with 15+ years experience leading innovation and go-to-market strategies for various technology firms. Currently, Dennis is Global Head of Product Marketing at Samsung Ads and Adjunct Professor of Marketing at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, NJ. Prior to Samsung Ads, Dennis was Vice President of Global Product Marketing at Outbrain and held operational and product roles at DoubleClick, Resonate and Experian Marketing Services.
Angela Zepeda is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Hyundai Motor America. Angela is responsible for all of Hyundai’s marketing and advertising activities in the U.S., including the strategic direction, brand development, national and regional advertising, experiential marketing, digital and social media, brand partnerships, and lead generation, among other responsibilities. Angela was named CMO in October 2019.
As a former NBC Page rocking the grey suit that Kenneth made famous on 30 Rock, Daryn came right out of the Page Program to assist one of the most influential pop culture icons currently on television, Andy Cohen. While at Bravo, Daryn created the web series,“@sk Andy” that she hosts and runs on bravotv.com. In the series, fans of Andy and Bravo are given a forum via social media to ask Andy anything and get an insider’s look into the special and often hilarious relationship he and Daryn have developed over the past few years. At the start of 2014, Andy and Daryn left Bravo to start a new production company, Most Talkative.
Since leaving, Daryn became a correspondent for Bravotv.com where she hosted her own web series including, “Throwback Bravo,”, “Cease and Assist,” as well as the exclusive behind-the-scenes series, “Bravo Pregame” in which she interviewed the Bravo talent in the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen greenroom probing them with questions. She was also the official BravoCon correspondent in 2019 for the Bravo channel.
As of November of 2019, Daryn hosts PEOPLE TV’s Reality Check, a daily online interview show diving into all the drama and hilarity of reality tv. She has interviewed everyone from The Jersey shore cast to Busta Rhymes to even her own boss, Andy Cohen. She has appeared monthly on Good Morning America’s ‘Binge This” segment discussing the hottest content in entertainment to catch up on. Since 2017, Daryn has been in three national commercials for AUTOTRADER with Andy Cohen. She was on the cover of her hometown publication, Montclair Magazine. In the summer of 2020, Daryn created and Executive Produced Tiny Talk Show for Quibi starring Marsai Martin as host. Since 2017, Daryn has been in three national commercials for AUTOTRADER with Andy Cohen.
Daryn also co-hosts a weekly Oxygen podcast, “Martinis and Murder,” which dives deep into the actual crime and the theories surrounding each murder, while drinking an appropriately themed cocktail. The podcast has millions of downloads and was featured in the New York Times, as well as Cosmopolitan. It was Martinis and Murder” was nominated for the 2018 Shorty Awards for Best Branded Podcast. In the spring of 2020, she launched and co-hosts another podcast with Embassy Row, Scissoring Isn’t A Thing, which interviews the moguls of the LGBTQ+ community to break down and lean into the stereotypes of our day. At the start of 2021, Martinis and Murder ended and was re-branded as an independent podcast, Shaken and Disturbed.
Former NFL athlete turned chef, Derrell Smith, is the host of Tastemade’s hit show, Mad Good
Food, where he shows viewers the value of not only cooking for those you love, but also
cooking for yourself. As the host of Mad Good Food — currently in its third season — Derrell
creates a meal he’d normally make family-style for friends and family, and then breaks it down
into a new distinct meal for one using the components of the original dish. He also serves as an
executive producer as well as the creator & CEO OF 99EATS, LLC — a virtual culinary brand
with a mission to spread love through food, content, and experiences.
After earning Delaware Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 2006, Smith accepted a full
athletic scholarship to Syracuse University, excelling both on and off the football field. Derrell
was a three year starting linebacker, two-time All Big East performer, team MVP and captain,
and ranks second all-time for forced fumbles in Syracuse history. In 2010, he went undrafted to
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and was picked up midseason by the Houston Texans. In his
second season, Smith earned the starting fullback position until a neck injury, suffered in
practice, ended his career. The following day, Smith returned to Syracuse to enroll in a Master’s
program. This would be a decision that would change his life forever.
One evening after a long day of school, Smith decided to make spaghetti and meatballs using
ingredients from his fridge and cabinets. The sauce was so good, he immediately called his best
friend over to his apartment, and during dinner told him “I’m gonna sell this one day!” The rest is
history. Derrell moved to Los Angeles in 2020 with no plans, but ambitions to host his own food
television show. This became a reality in April 2021 when the first season of Mad Good Food
premiered on Tastemade. To date, Derrell has hosted or worked with brands including, Netflix,
NBCUniversal, Disney, Amazon, Sesame Place, Subway, Bed Bath and Beyond, and others.