Cross-Screen: IAB Marketplace

Ari Bluman, an innovative digital media expert with 15 years of wide ranging experience in technology and media operations, is the Chief Digital Investment Officer for GroupM North America, holding company for media agencies Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare, and a WPP company. Ari directs and manages all areas of GroupM’s digital trading.

In August 2012, Bluman was appointed to this new role with the mission to lead and coordinate GroupM’s strategy of securing outstanding digital media value for clients, and to oversee the company’s evolving relationships with key media company partners across all inventory categories. He reports to GroupM Chief Investment Officer Rino Scanzoni.

Previously Ari Bluman was President, North America, for Real Media, a business unit of 24/7 Media, WPP’s marketing technology company. He was responsible for all of North American business development, ad operations, sales, and client services. Bluman enjoyed many roles within the company such as Senior Vice President, North American Sales and Operations; Vice President, Distribution and Operations; Vice President, Direct Solutions; Vice President, Direct Marketing, Inside Sales and Email Brokerage, as well as an Account Executive.

Prior to his employment at Real Media Group, Bluman was Vice President of Sales at Now Marketing, Inc.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, from which he holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science, Bluman joined Real Media Group (then 24/7 Real Media) in 1997.

As Managing Director of Agency Business Development, Torrence Boone is responsible for driving Google’s strategy and relationships with marketing and advertising agencies across the Americas. In this capacity, he leads a team that partners with diverse agency constituents to craft innovative ideas and campaigns leveraging the Google product portfolio to deliver business-building results for advertisers. Torrence also drives Google’s large-scale deal negotiations and leads the company’s development of sponsorships and media programs for the region.

Prior to Google, Torrence held senior agency leadership positions with WPP & Publicis: Global CEO of Enfatico; President of Digitas Boston; and VP/GM of Avenue A (now Razorfish) in New York. Before his tenure in advertising, Torrence was a senior manager at Bain & Company, where he advised a broad range of clients on corporate and business unit strategy, mergers and acquisitions, new product development, and interactive strategy.

Torrence holds a B.A. in Economics, with honors, from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is a corporate director for Finish Line (NASDAQ: FINL), a leading national specialty retailer. He also serves on the boards of the Joyce Theater, a premier presenter of dance, and Citizen Schools, a national education reform organization.

Glenn is responsible for managing the Amplify product and program at Twitter, including two-screen content partnerships with more than 60 brands, including ESPN, the NBA, and Viacom. Prior to joining Twitter in 2011, Glenn was Head of Music Partnerships at YouTube, where he managed deals with all major and independent record labels, VEVO, and other music businesses. Earlier, he was in-house copyright and privacy counsel at Google; he also served as Executive Director of Creative Commons.

Glenn earned a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard and a B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin. He is @gob on Twitter.

Artie joined ESPN as Vice President, Research and Sales Development in February 1996 and was promoted to Senior Vice President in June of 2001. Artie supervises a staff that provides multi-media research and consumer insights services to all divisions of the company on an international basis. In early 2008 Artie added responsibility for ESPN’s Digital Media Analytics group. Today ESPN Research+Analytics services a diverse set of business units for ESPN (described below) with a focus on TV audience research, digital media research & analytics, cross media measurement, consumer & brand research, content distribution, and advertising accountability. In addition, Artie supervises ESPN’s interest in the ESPN SportsPoll, The Disney Media and Advertising Lab and ESPN XP – ESPN’s exclusive cross platform measurement initiative. Artie’s team supports ESPN globally with staff in 6 offices including New York, Bristol, CT, Miami, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and London. The goal of Artie’s department is to provide reliable data and tangible insights to grow the ESPN brand, increase audiences, and develop new sales opportunities.

Preceding ESPN, Artie was Director, Research and Sales Data Services at ABC National Television Sales, Inc. since 1989. He started his career at Nielsen Media Research where he worked from 1981 to 1989, rising to the post of Vice President, Service Development.

Artie is active in many industry organizations and is a frequent public speaker. He is a past president of the Radio and Television Research Council and former chairman of both the Media Ratings Council and the Advertising Research Foundation. Artie remains a board member of the ARF, is an active member of CIMM – the Coalition for Innovation in Audience Measurement and also serves on the North American advisory board of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. Little known fact: In 2002, Artie hosted a prime time TV program on ESPN called “The Focus Group” which engaged real fans in discussion and debate about topical sports issues.

Brian Dutt currently oversees FreeWheel’s Business Advisory division. In this capacity, Brian works closely with leading TV channels, digital distributors, and cable and satellite operators to build scalable and profitable digital video businesses. His client work includes content and distribution strategy, viewer experience testing, inventory optimization, benchmarking, and workflow design. Brian also authors FreeWheel’s quarterly Video Monetization Report, and is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry events.

Prior to joining FreeWheel, Brian led International Strategy at Viacom for Comedy Central and Paramount, and was previously a Management Consulting Associate in Oliver Wyman’s Communications, Media, and Tech practice. He has also held positions in Affiliate Planning at HBO, and in Media and Telecom Investment Banking at Societe Generale.

Brian has a BA in Economics from Trinity College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

As part of the Global Consumers Insights team, Ivy looks to unpack the “why” behind consumer behavior and uncover the person behind the number, revealing ways to deeply engage consumers as they navigate the digital landscape.

Prior to Microsoft, Ivy was in the Global Strategic Research team at Prudential Financial, where she delved into consumers’ journey to financial security and retirement. Ivy joined Prudential from the Advertiser Solutions Group at the Nielsen Company where she was a Research Director advising clients on optimal advertising mix and cross-channel opportunities in the financial services, retail, and tech industries. Her work has been covered by major news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, CNET, Adweek, and AdAge. She started her career in the Financial Services industry focusing on marketing and analytics. Ivy graduated with an English and Political Science degree, with the thought of becoming a teacher. While that career path did not materialize, Ivy continues to have a passion for teaching. She has been a volunteer and team leader with NY Cares since 2004, currently leading SAT tutoring classes for low-income high school students. In the winter, you’ll often find her on the slopes of southern Vermont, usually trying to convince a newbie that falling is natural.

Frank Foster is the President and General Manager of Crossbeam Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. Crossbeam Media is a multi-platform unwired network. By buying local inventory on a national scale, Crossbeam offers clients the benefits of national coverage and pricing as well as a locally customized message. Frank offers Crossbeam Media a proven track record of leading startups as standalone entities and within Fortune 500 companies. Frank has focused most of his career on creating new business opportunities, while driving growth through internal development, strategic relationships and customer acquisition. Prior to Crossbeam Media, Frank held senior executive positions within Comcast Spotlight, AT&T AdWorks, Cheetah Technologies, and was President of erinMedia, LLC.

Eric Franchi is co-founder of Undertone and sits on the executive management team. He leads all thought leadership, industry and media relations on behalf of the company. Eric has been featured in publications including Ad Age, Adweek and The Wall Street Journal, on Fox Business News and on stages worldwide including IAB MIXX, Advertising Week and Cannes. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Publisher Development, responsible for managing and growing the company’s extensive portfolio of premium publishers. Prior to that he was the company’s first Senior Vice President of Sales, growing Undertone’s US sales team and establishing relationships with key agencies and marketers.

Since co-founding the company in 2001 Eric has played a pivotal role in overseeing its expansion. Undertone has garnered several awards since its inception including being named amongst Crain’s Best Places to Work and Business Insider’s Digital 100.

He serves on the boards of 212NYC and The Governor’s Island Alliance.

Eric began his career in the digital space as a sales executive for About.com. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University.

Toby Gabriner currently serves as CEO of Adap.tv and ONE by AOL, and brings to the company more than 14 years of experience leading companies in the digital advertising space. He is tasked with developing the company’s business and marketing strategies to compete in the global video advertising market. Prior to Adap.tv, he helped guide several companies to success, including Carat Interactive, [X+1], and Tribal Fusion. He began his career in digital advertising at Freestyle Interactive, which he led as president until its acquisition to Carat in 2003.

Todd Gordon is Executive Vice President, Integrated Trading at MAGNA GLOBAL, leading all US negotiations on behalf of IPG agencies, including Initiative, UM, BPN, Deutsch, and Hill Holiday, with clients including Hyundai, KIA, Hasbro, USAA, and Sony. A creative thinker who consistently delivers fully integrated solutions for clients, Todd has spent much of his career working on ‘challenger brands,’ which require agencies to be smarter, faster, more innovative, and more creative with their budget. This work has prepared him to overcome challenges posed by the current economic condition through active efforts to expand the agency’s definition of TV, by including broader video offerings, including place based video, cinema video, professionally produced on-line video, and Video On-Demand (VOD), etc.

Previously SVP, Managing Director of National Broadcast at IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative, Todd has taken the lead in developing best practices and enhancing systems for the Initiative National Broadcast group, including the transition from DDS to Mediabank. Prior to joining Initiative, Todd spent nine years at Mediacom, where he was one of four people leading National Broadcast negotiations, responsible for the Diageo, Volkswagen & Audi, AVIS/Budget, Staples, ConAgra, Michelin, and Realogy accounts.

Armed with a keen ability to identify and meet the challenges of some of today’s savviest marketers, Leslie Hall has led ICED Media to become one of the industry’s leading digital marketing agencies. Over the past decade, she has led global and Fortune 500 clients, including Louis Vuitton, L’Oréal, Kmart, Ford Motor Corp., Maybelline New York, and DKNY to the forefront of the digital ecosystem with groundbreaking and award-winning campaigns, earning industrywide accolades along the way.

A graduate of George Washington University, Hall spent her early career working in business development for online publishers including Vibe and Spin Media Ventures. As the first in-house digital sales executive for the company, she developed a growing revenue stream by creating innovative solutions like the “beyond the banner” model, which provided traditional advertisers such as Nike, Levis, and Sony the ability to develop deeper relationships with qualified consumers, as a prelude to native advertising.

Hall left her position at Vibe and Spin to launch ICED Media in 1999. While online marketing was still in its infancy, ICED Media carved out a niche through its expertise in online grassroots marketing, which has evolved into the digital, social, and mobile strategy that permeates the marketing landscape today. Throughout her tenure as ICED Media President, clients have earned first-mover status and innovator credibility through early adoption and success across platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Hall’s work has been recognized by technology partners and trades alike, including Facebook, The Wall Street Journal, Mashable, AdAge, and Business Insider, and she speaks as a thought leader at industry events and conferences worldwide.

A pioneer at heart, Hall oversees client services, strategy, products, and offerings, and brings her understanding of the digital space, consumer behavior, and ROI to complement the company’s creative offerings. It is this discipline that has led ICED Media to become one of the leading digital marketing firms today.

Leslie Hall balances her thriving enterprise, female mentorship in the workplace, and entrepreneurial spirit with her love of family. When not running ICED Media, she can be found at home in New Jersey with her husband and son. She’s a lover of pop culture, vintage couture, four-mile jogs, Bar Method classes, international travel, and home design, and can often be found with her Kindle, immersed in memoirs and non-fiction.

Jon Jackson is responsible for the creative direction and execution of large-scale initiatives at Huge. In his role, Jon collaborates closely with the Visual and Interaction Design teams to develop concepts and strategies for some of Huge’s largest clients including Google and Gucci. Specializing in building well-known, consumer-facing brands and extending engagement through traditional and digital media, Jon has over 14 years of experience in art direction. Prior to joining Huge, he worked at SapientNitro as an Associate Creative Director, where he collaborated with such clients as Coca-Cola, Sprint, Yahoo!, Disney, Logitech, Nissan and Sony. In addition, he’s developed creative solutions for clients such as Nike, Acura, Toyota, Chrysler, Microsoft, Sony Pictures, Nokia and Warner Brothers. Jon holds a BFA in Graphic Design from California State University, Fullerton.

Sky Kelley is Director of New Product Strategy in the digital video distribution group at Disney and ESPN Media Networks. Sky is responsible for creating and launching new multiplatform products across the Disney, ABC, ABC Family, and ESPN brands. She has worked on products ranging from converting linear networks to digital on-demand networks, interactive apps, gaming packages, pricing library content, and windowing strategies to cloud-based VOD and DVR services.

Sky has extensive cross-platform experience having worked with mobile, online, digital-out-of-home, interactive TV, and second screen applications, as well as traditional TV service. Prior to her current role, she was the Director of Business Development for Emerging Media Products at AT&T in the national advertising division. During her tenure with the company, she launched online display and interactive TV products, renegotiated mobile advertising partnerships and negotiated multiple local advertising contracts with national cable operators. Prior to joining AT&T, Sky was the co-founder of a national digital-out-of-home company called America’s Minority Health Network that had television screens in the waiting rooms of doctor’s offices. The company went public before being acquired in 2011.

Before launching AMHN, Sky ran sales and marketing for a start-up digital-out-of-home company called Care Media. Prior to that role, Sky began her career on Wall Street, completing a graduate training program with UBS and assuming roles in Derivative Sales and Equity Sales-Trading, covering telecom, media, and technology in New York and London.

Sky holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Sherrill Mane joined the IAB in 2007 as our first SVP Industry Services. Sherrill has led industry efforts to establish metrics and build measurement systems that facilitate the growth of interactive media. Sherrill is responsible for numerous IAB initiatives, including fostering greater awareness of interactive advertising opportunities in the traditional media agency community. She oversees the creation of market-making research and the collateral materials associated with findings that grow the business. Since 2011, Sherrill has been the IAB lead on the groundbreaking cross ecosystem collaboration with the agencies (4A’s) and marketers (ANA) known as Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS). Previously, she spent 14 years at Turner Broadcasting Sales, holding a variety of senior advertising sales support positions for the News division, most recently as Senior Vice President of Market Strategy. Earlier in her career, she held diverse positions at Nielsen Media Research and Group W Satellite Communications. Sherrill draws on her experience in TV and digital sales marketing to lead IAB’s Sales Executive Council. She holds a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Her graduate studies focused on the social psychology of mass media.

In 2012, Sherrill was named a Media Maven by Advertising Age.

As the Head of Brand Initiatives, Peter leads a series of initiatives designed to address the under-representation of creative brand advertising online. He was formerly Managing Director of Lowe Worldwide, the global creative agency network of the Interpublic Group, where he held leadership roles overseeing international operations. Peter’s passion is the intersection of creative ideas and technology and he is focused on fueling the full-fledged creative revolution that interactivity has long promised.

Junko is currently responsible for leading the development of digital content for markets of Maybelline New York worldwide.

Prior to joining the Global Integrated Marketing Communications team for the brand in New York, Junko lead the public relations and advertising team of Maybelline New York in the Japanese market. She was responsible for creation and execution of strategies in this highly competitive market through both mass and new media. She activated creative “out of the box” marketing communication projects, such as unique spokesperson initiatives and cross industry collaborations with Hello Kitty and UNIQLO.

Junko joined the Corporate Communications Division of Nihon L’Oréal K.K. in 2002. She held responsibility of internal and external PR activities, media relations, webmaster of the corporate internet site, as well as the launch of the company’s first intranet portal site.

Junko graduated from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, with a BA in Social Psychology, beginning her career of communications the same year through Public Relations of General Motors in Japan.

Peter Naylor is Vice President of Americas at Snap, responsible for driving the growth of the company’s advertising business across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Previously, Peter served as SVP and Head of Advertising Sales at Hulu, where he worked for over six years. Prior to Hulu, Peter was 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, Peter 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 internet sales career at Wired Digital.

Peter is on the Board of Directors for the IAB, Ad Council, the IRTS Foundation and the TD Foundation, an not-for-profit organization that provides aid to children of wounded warriors.

Josh Payton partners with Huge’s visual and interaction designers to design and rapidly prototype feature concepts and interfaces. As a product designer, his involvement facilitates a product’s gathering of user feedback on its features during the ongoing design process. While at Huge, Josh has worked with JetBlue, Disney, and Gannett. During his decade-plus of interactive design experience, Josh has acted as the User Experience Design Lead for the home and storefront pages at Amazon.com, and as a Senior Designer for Microsoft, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive, and Yahoo! News.

With more than 25 years of professional sales and sales management experience in technology and digital media, John Piontkowski is the General Manager for Microsoft Advertising’s Eastern Region.

John is responsible for leading advertising sales and services teams in New York, Boston and Atlanta that include both agency and Client direct accounts in Financial Services, Entertainment, CPG and Technology.

His team of sales professionals sell all aspects of Microsoft Advertising’s solutions to accounts such as American Express, E*Trade, Warner Brothers, Discovery Channel, P & G, Unilever, Verizon, AT&T, Samsung and Dell Computer Corporation, among others. John is also an active participant with the Advertising Club of New York, the IAB and the IAB MIXX Awards.

Prior to moving over to the digital advertising division, John was part of the Enterprise and Partner Group at Microsoft, providing software solutions to fortune 500 companies focused on e-commerce, business intelligence and corporate intranets. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Villanova University and resides in Connecticut with his wife and two children.

Effective September 2012, Liz Ross became the North American President of BPN. In this new role, Ross will lead operations for the newly-launched IPG Mediabrands’ worldwide media agency network.

Liz Ross joined Mediabrands in January 2011 to expand the unit’s North American operations through the three-pronged approach creating, acquiring, and redefining Mediabrands assets to the benefit of its diverse portfolio of clients. In October 2011, Liz was named CEO of Geomentum, a Mediabrands agency delivering excellence in the realms of shopper and geo-targeted marketing strategy. Prior to joining Geomentum, Ross served as Chief Growth Officer at Publicis Groupe’s Digitas.

A veteran of the industry for nearly 20 years, Ross rose to the role of U.S. President at Tribal DDB, where she oversaw the teams on such clients as Clorox, Visa, and Pepsi Cola in the U.S. Ross previously spent time at Modem Media in San Francisco, where she led the business development groups in San Francisco and Norwalk, Conn., and pioneered interactive brand-consumer relationships for clients such as General Motors, Delta, General Electric, HP, Michelin, Citibank, and IBM. Prior to Modem, Ross worked in Business Development and Account Management for J. Walter Thompson in Chicago and New York. She served on varied accounts such as Dell, Continental Airlines, 20th Century Fox, Kraft, Mattel, and Nabisco.

Ross was inducted into the AAF Hall of Achievement in 2008 and was named a Woman to Watch by Advertising Age in January of 2008. Ross received Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising from Michigan State University.

Steven Schuler leads ad products marketing for mobile and connected devices at Yahoo. A mobile veteran, Steven has worked in the industry for ten years having held positions on the wireless team at the web analytics company Compete, at mobile marketing pioneer m-Qube, and at Sprint / Nextel. In the summer of 2007, he rode a bicycle from Boston, MA to Seattle, WA and kept a blog using only his Sony Ericsson s710a feature phone.

Steven holds an MBA from Georgetown University and a BA from Union College.

As EVP, Research Director, David is responsible for driving consumer and media research innovation for MediaVest and its clients. David also provides broader agency leadership as a member of MediaVest’s executive team, and is a regular contributor to company publications that provide thought leadership on key industry issues.

David is instrumental in ushering MediaVest, its clients, and the industry into the marketplace of the future, and serves as a catalyst for change across all media. David was the driving force behind MediaVest’s iPanel, which launched the same day as the iPad, following users from the moment they powered on their new iPads, through exploration, adoption, changing behaviors, and shifting consumer expectations—which have subsequently shaped expectations across the full spectrum of media.

Most recently, David oversaw Community Explorer research designed to provide a human-centric view of today’s online and offline communities, the underlying motivations of membership, and the ways in which brands can connect and inspire. Additionally, David and his team developed a proprietary methodology (POEM) for measuring the impact and interactions between Paid, Owned and Earned Media, and the ripple effect they have on each other. As a result of this work and more, David was recognized by iMedia in 2011.

A 16-year research professional, David joined MediaVest USA in 2004 after spending six years with Starcom MediaVest Group in Canada.

David holds an M.A. in Communication Management from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California.