Meet the speakers

Adam Harris is the Global Head of the Twitch Brand Partnership Studio. Adam is an award winning creative leader with 20 years global media experience in the worlds of gaming, sports and entertainment. He advocates for gaming as a significantly untapped marketing opportunity and provides thought leadership on the gamerverse, Generation Z, live streaming and the creator economy. Adam had the honor of Judging the Entertainment category at 2022 Cannes Lions, was named one of the world’s top 100 digital marketers in the Drum Digerati 2019 list, on the 2019 #Influencer50 list of the brightest minds in global influencer marketing and has collected a 'Leader In Sport' under 40 award, is an advisory board member of the Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA) and is a regular speaker at industry conferences.

Bio coming soon...

Alison Cuan is the worldwide Business Development Lead for Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) at Amazon Ads. Alison joined Amazon Ads in 2013 as a Product Specialist for the CPG vertical, and has held several roles in Agency Programmatic Partnerships and AdTech Business Development. She led the sales launch of AMC, and now leads the partnerships team focused on supporting adoption of AMC. Prior to joining Amazon Ads, Alison led analytics at an adtech start-up named 33Across.

Chris Bellinger is the Vice President over Creative and Digital for Frito-Lay and Quaker North America. He runs the in-house creative agency, known as D3, that is responsible for supporting a number of the biggest brands within the PepsiCo Foods organization. The responsibilities of the agency include traditional campaign and creative work, strategy, production, social, digital, and recently have added cause and purpose to their remit. The D3 agency has created comprehensive large-scale campaigns that range from recent Popcorners Super Bowl work to portfolio projects that include campaigns for the World Cup, Holiday, Summer, the NFL and more. The D3 team are also the Social Agency of record for the majority of the brands within the Frito-Lay and Quaker businesses and have been named The Drum’s In-house social agency of the year.

Chrissie is the CEO of OMD USA, and leads the agency's transformation of experiences that achieve better outcomes for brands, businesses, and people.

Having spent 23 years collaborating with global, regional, and national clients across many verticals, Chrissie has developed the paradigms, protocols and partnerships that empower teams to make more empathetic, effective, and efficient decisions on behalf of clients. Better decisions that propel brands into the heart of culture, with the rigor that marries creative excellence and strategic clarity to deliver the precision to drive revenue growth.
She is committed to supporting her teams to align their personal path to purpose with a shared path to growth, enabling OMDers and their clients to unearth the insights that inform actionable and outcomes-based communications.

As a regular contributor to industry and business publications, and frequent guest on industry panels, Chrissie is a passionate advocate for the unique roles that people, brands, and technology play in unleashing the power of creativity around the world. She serves on the Board of the Ad Council, and the American Advertising Federation, where she works to harness the efforts and commitments of OMD USA team members to support the broader priorities of the nation.

Chrissie has been a jury member and President on awards ranging from the Cannes Lions, to WARC Effectiveness, Shorty, Clio awards, and more. She seeks to actively champion the work that demonstrates greater DE&I and Sustainability effort. Chrissie is committed to celebrating the work that drives better business outcomes, and is deeply vested in ensuring the industry moves towards a net positive ecosystem.

Bio coming soon...

Heidi Arthur brings together leading creative agencies, corporate brands, media and technology platforms, and nonprofit and government partners to drive public education, awareness, and action. She has more than 25 years of experience creating change around pressing social issues like diversity and inclusion, minority education, hunger prevention, Type 2 diabetes prevention, and high blood pressure awareness. Heidi’s work also includes the Ad Council’s groundbreaking COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative, which contributed to building trust and reducing hesitancy nationwide, and she currently leads the Ad Council’s mental health and racial justice efforts. Her campaigns have gone on to win numerous accolades, including Cannes Lions, Effies, Clios, and an Emmy.

To ensure continued creative innovation and excellence, Heidi also manages the Ad Council’s Creative Review Committees, comprising nearly 30 of the industry’s top agency leaders. The committees meet regularly to review, refine and raise the bar on the Ad Council’s social-good campaigns.

Heidi joined the Ad Council in 2000 after spending 10 years in the ad industry at Grey and Wells, Rich, Greene. She is a graduate of Union College and has a Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from Harvard Business School. She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Baylor College School of Medicine, the steering committee for the National Response to COVID-19 (an initiative of the Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention), and the Board of Directors for AIMM (Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing).

Jeff Cohen is a Tech Evangelist at Amazon Ads. Jeff travels the world sharing insights on Amazon Ads technology and best practices. Jeff joined Amazon in January 2022 to build community in the Amazon Ads tech space. Since joining he has created a weekly LinkedIn newsletter that is read by thousands of partners and advertisers who seek to keep up on the world of Amazon Ads. Prior to joining Amazon Ads, Jeff was head of product and marketing at Seller Labs, an Amazon Ads tech partner.

Jeff Lewis is a home design extraordinaire, entrepreneur, podcast host and television personality who became a pop-culture staple through his house-flipping series that aired for 11 seasons.

After renovating properties for over two decades, Lewis launched his own full-service interior design firm in 2009, Jeff Lewis Design, specializing in design finish selections, furniture and accessories, and residential remodeling and new construction around the country.

In 2017, Lewis began hosting his highly acclaimed weekly radio show Jeff Lewis Live on SiriusXM. His show quickly expanded from one to five days per week and can be heard Monday through Friday on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, Channel 102. 

After a brief break from television, Lewis returned with an all-new series, Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis, now on Amazon Freevee. 

Jen Sargent is a successful entrepreneur and executive with 20 years of digital media experience. She is currently the CEO of Wondery, a premium podcast studio acquired by Amazon in 2021, known for its character-driven, binge-worthy stories including Dr. Death, The Shrink Next Door, Even the Rich and Business Wars. Wondery is behind seven of the “Top 10 New Shows of 2021”, according to Podtrac, including #1 (The Apology Line) and #2 (Suspect).

Jen was previously the President of Uproxx, a Comscore Top-100 digital publisher and award-winning content studio programming cultural content for Millennials. As President, Jen led the strategy, revenue generation, partnerships, and operations across the organization. Uproxx was acquired by Warner Music in Summer of 2018. Prior to Uproxx, Jen was the CEO and co-founder of HitFix, a multi-platform entertainment news brand focused on helping consumers discover and experience movies, TV and pop-culture. HitFix featured entertainment’s most celebrated tastemakers and a cross-platform reach of 300 million monthly viewers. HitFix was acquired by Uproxx in 2016. Previous roles include head of Online Marketing & Development for Reed Business Information (parent of Variety); the International Media Group of top ad-serving technology company DoubleClick; venture capital experience from BV Capital in Hamburg, Germany; and finance experience from JP Morgan investment banking in New York. Jen earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Jérôme Bloch started his career in the food industry, and in 2000, found his calling in the Telecom business. In 2008, he joined Samsung’s European Telecommunication Operations, and in 2012, became the Global Account Director for Orange Group. In January 2021, his career brought him to Samsung Electronics France as the Marketing Director for the Mobile eXperience Division, where he and his team are responsible for business strategy, pricing, and offer policy.

Jon is the Global head of Agency and Partner BD and Solutions at AWS. His role focuses on developing strategic advantage for partners and customers via their use of AWS services and Solutions for Advertising and Marketing technology. 

He has more than 20 years of experience in the advertising and marketing industry. Prior to joining AWS, Jon developed and led global agency, partner and customer sales organizations at Oracle Data Cloud, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Snap, Inc.

Jonathan Cloonan is an Agency Group Head, US, at Amazon Ads leading a talented team responsible for business development and partnerships across several ‘Big 6’ Holding Companies. Jonathan also runs Amazon’s American Creative Agency Development unit across IPG, OMG, Publicis and WPP. He is most proud to be a Board Member of ‘glamazon’, Amazon's LGBTQIA+ affinity group, focusing on a mission to unite and empower LGBTQIA+ communities around the world.

Jonathan joined Amazon in 2019 from Fullscreen Media, where he served as VP of Business Development. In this role, he was overseeing agency relationships, managing a direct-to-advertiser sales team, and deploying ‘PLAYA’ - a SAAS tech platform focused on influencer marketing and social content at scale. Prior to his time at Fullscreen Media, Jonathan spent over a decade working in strategic planning, media buying, and branded entertainment roles across GroupM, Ogilvy, VICE Media, and Wunderman Thompson, where he focused on AT&T, GSK, Nestle, Unilever, and VW.

An alumnus of the prestigious ‘WPP Fellowship’, Jonathan has worked in Singapore, London, and New York. Recognized as a ‘Forbes 30 Under 30 Innovator’, he has been a keynote speaker at ‘The Web Summit’ and ‘Intellectual Property World Forum’.

Joseph Wilson who has been a queer drag performer, currently an artist and moving image creator who has been working with and documenting the eclectic East London queer scene for the past five years. Since graduating from University of the Arts London with a BA in Fine Arts (print and time-based media).
He wrote and directed a series of films amplifying marginalised voices of in LGBTQI+ community, and his first documentary project was entitled ‘Drag is my Ecstasy’, an intimate portrait of underground drag collective Sink the Pink, which was accepted into the program of the BFI Flare: London LGBTQI+ Film Festival and screened at The East End Film Festival. Wilson has recently been commissioned to create a long form documentary on the history of Sink The Pink, commissioned through Sky Arts.

Four of Wilson’s films centring on the LGBTQ+ lived experience have been previewed on global arts video channel NOWNESS. In 2019 he directed ‘Il-Widna’, a reimagined reality of queer people banished from the UK after Thatcher’s Section 28 amendment. The film had its online premiere on iD at the start of 2021 and has just been accepted into the 2021 Fringe! Queer Film & Art Festival.

Wilson was recently selected as one of the FLAMIN (Film London Artists Moving Image Network) artists in recognition of his film ‘Isn’t it a Beautiful World’ (2021), which, through lipsyncing, depicts the stories of Queer performers Soroya, Harry and Kenya.

With the “Isn’t it a Beautiful World’ film, which was part of the LFF Festival, Wilson also won the prestigious CIRCA x DAZED Class of 2021 – announced by Marina Abromovic with the prize winning award of a Studio at 180 The Strand and a £30,000 prize.

Recently Wilson has enjoyed making work with Amazon, directing the Amazon Prime x TIKTOK LGBT+ Modern Love Stories, and also directed the ‘Just so you know’ music video for Bailey.

Kacie is a leading ecommerce expert with deep CPG and agency experience. She has spent the last 15 years in the digital and ecommerce space. Currently, she is responsible for end-to-end ecommerce capability creation and evolution from digital shelf, retail media, DTC to ecommerce assortment and their ecommerce growth strategy

Prior to Kacie joining Kenvue, she held various roles from Global Ecommerce Strategy to Ecommerce Trade Marketing Lead, Agency Commerce Lead to Head of Retail Media across brands such as Graco, Rubbermaid, FoodSaver, Sistema, Arm & Hammer, IKEA, LOL Surprise, Little Tykes, Sharpie, Papermate, Parker and Waterman. Her specialty is both organizational redesign and ecommerce general management.

Kate McCagg is Head of the Brand Innovation Lab at Amazon Ads, which builds new and groundbreaking experiences that expand the horizons of how advertisers can grow their brand with Amazon. She led the Brand Innovation Lab in the US for over three years before moving to London in 2021 to lead the team globally. Prior to Amazon, she worked as an Executive Creative Director at Havas and a Creative Director at Razorfish, where she embraced the constantly evolving world of technology and social media. Kate’s work has been recognized by the NY and National Addys, The Epica Awards, The Andys, The Kellys, Communication Arts, and Lürzers Archive.

Latasha Gillespie is the Executive Head of Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) for Amazon Studios and Prime Video. In her role, Latasha is responsible for the development and management of all content related and customer facing DEIA work for the organization. Under her leadership, Amazon Studios created the entertainment industry’s first Inclusion Policy and Playbook, and standardized DEIA into its Greenlight Process. Prime Video is currently leading all streamers in percentage of women and underrepresented film directors. In her current role, Latasha created the Howard Entertainment Program, the first of its kind partnership between a major studio and a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Prior to her current role, Latasha led the Global Diversity and Inclusion Organization across Amazon Corporate where she worked with Jeff Bezos, and regularly briefed both the Board of Directors, and Congressional members on Amazon’s DEIA Strategies and progress. In addition, Latasha is credited for Amazon joining the HBCU Partnership Challenge, and founding Amazon’s Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) annual conference and curriculum.

Prior to Amazon, Latasha spent 20 years in Finance and Human Resources with Caterpillar Inc. She started in the Caterpillar Finance Rotation Program, as an analyst with assignments in Treasury and both North America and Latin America Dealer Organizations. In 2000, Latasha joined the Human Resources department; holding various positions including: Six Sigma Black Belt, Compensation and Benefits Director, and Employee and Labor Relations Director for the organization’s facilities in both U.S. and Mexico. During her tenure with Caterpillar, Latasha is credited for launching the first diversity recruiting team and the company’s Employee Resource Groups. She also held the position as Caterpillar’s Chief Diversity Officer for three years prior to relocating overseas to Singapore to serve as the organization’s Head of Human Resources for Africa, Middle East, CIS/ Russia and Asia Pacific.

Latasha is a celebrated speaker, host, and moderator with organic relationships with Talent, Content Creators, and other influential public figures. Latasha has been called upon to publicly interview several different prominent celebrities including: Chef Marcus Samuelson, Simone Biles, Meagan Good, Barry Jenkins, Jemele Hill, Gloria Calderon Kellett, Congresswoman Karen Bass and rapper and author, Common to name a few. She has moderated panels for Sundance, New York Ad Week, IMDb and Easterseals. Comfortable speaking on both national and international stages, Latasha has been a featured speaker at Stanford University, the Hollywood Commission, the Recording Academy, the Television Academy, the NFL, Rio2C, re:Invent, and CES.

Latasha was recently honored as a 2022 Multichannel News Wonder Woman. In 2021, the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce named Latasha Executive of the Year and she ended the year on the cover of Inclusion Magazine for her leadership in implementing organizational inclusive and equitable practices. She was featured in Variety’s 2021 Women’s Impact Report and Variety’s 2021 Inclusion Impact Report. Latasha was also featured in Forbes in 2020; Black Enterprise Magazine named her one of the 2019 Most Powerful Women in Corporate Diversity and she is a 2018 Ebony Magazine Power 100 Honoree. Latasha is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and currently serves on the Board of ThinkLA. She previously served on the Boards of the Tri-County Urban League, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale - College of Business Administration External Advisory Board, and City of Refuge. Latasha grew up in the Chicago area and received her degree in Finance from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Latasha currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

As Vice President, Global Sports Video, Marie Donoghue leads all of Prime Video’s global sports content business. She oversees Prime Video’s global sports strategy, identifying and evaluating new opportunities, managing acquisitions, programming and production, enabling Amazon Prime customers to access original and live sports content on hundreds of devices, in over 240 countries and territories.

Marie led the groundbreaking acquisition and production of Thursday Night Football, marking the first time a streaming service aired an exclusive national broadcast package from the NFL. In addition, Prime Video’s sports content includes Premier League in the U.K., UEFA Champions League in Germany and Italy (U.K. starting in 2024), ONE Championship (U.S. and Canada), and the WNBA.

A long-time leader in the sports industry, Marie has received numerous honors and extensive media coverage in recognition for her achievements, including “2021 Innovators” (The Wrap), “Most Powerful Women in Sports” (Adweek), “Most Influential People in Sports” (Sports Business Journal), “Power 100 Women in Entertainment” (The Hollywood Reporter), “New York Impact List” (Variety), “The Most Powerful Women in Cable” (CableFax: The Magazine), “Women to Watch” (Advertising Age and Advertising Women of New York) and “Game Changers” (Sports Business Journal). 

Prior to joining Amazon, Donoghue spent more than 18 years at ESPN, where she most recently served as Executive Vice President, Global Business and Content Strategy. She led the ongoing development and implementation of ESPN’s enterprise-wide business and content strategy and also headed ESPN’s business affairs, business development, and partnership group, oversaw ESPN Films (30 for 30), and launched several award-winning digital properties, including Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight and The Undefeated. 

A native of the Bronx, Marie earned her bachelor’s degree from Columbia College and a law degree from Columbia University.

Maureen has worked in the Media business for 25+ years as a leader in Strategic Investment guiding both clients and agency teams to driving maximum value in the marketplace. She has also focused on building relationships with the media partners to better facilitate the negotiations and client’s executions in market.

Maureen began her career as an Assistant Media Buyer in National Broadcast at the inception of IPG’s General Motors MediaWorks buying unit and was quickly promoted to a Buyer overseeing GM’s $300MM+ Sports investments. At GM Maureen lead negotiations for various marquee events
including their Olympics partnership, NCAA Basketball sponsorship and the NFL.

In 1997, Maureen then went to work on the sales side at Discovery Communications as a Sales Planner. At Discovery she learned the sales side of the business which proved invaluable in terms of learning how to negotiate with media partners. Maureen crafted sales plans and marketing ideas for such clients as Procter & Gamble, Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, Exxon Mobil and M&M Mars.

After Discovery, Maureen went to back to the agency side working at Universal McCann for fouryears on the Coca-Cola account. While working on Coca-Cola Maureen ran their high-profile Olympics sponsorship which was more than $100MM in addition to managing their juices and water
brands. At McCann Maureen was the recipient of their prestigious Truth Well Told Award recognizing employees that made a difference in the organization.

Maureen joined Optimedia, NY in April 2004 as a VP, Associate Director in charge of buying for T-Mobile, BMW, ServiceMaster among other brands.

In March of 2010 Maureen was promoted to EVP of the National Video department overseeing the strategic investments across all clients as well as participating in successful new business pitches including Pizza Hut, Bridgestone Tires and Liberty Mutual representing billings more than
$400MM.

Maureen joined Initiative in February of 2016 and is currently the Chief Partnerships Officer overseeing all investments across the portfolio of clients including Amazon/Amazon Prime Video, T-Mobile, Liberty Mutual, Merck, Gilead, and Lego to name a few. Maureen works closely with MAGNA to develop strategic partnerships in the marketplace that yield both efficiencies and impact for clients.

Maureen’s buying experience spans across several key categories including auto, retail, wireless, film/entertainment, beverage, pharma, casual dining, insurance, and packaged goods.

Maureen graduated from Fordham University with a BA in Communications and has since been an alumni sponsor mentoring graduating students in the media field. In addition, Maureen has volunteered her time giving back to the media business through various teaching and mentorship programs.

As an active member of the media industry Maureen is on the 4 As National Broadcast Committee and the IAB Video Board.

In 2010, Maureen was named as one of Broadcasting and Cable’s Next Wave of Leaders. Maureen was also named one of the 2013 Working Mothers of the Year as selected by She Runs It and in 2013 AdWeek highlighted Maureen as a Media All Star. Maureen was recently honored by She Runs It for the Changing the Game awards which highlighted her advancements when it comes to more inclusive buying practices.

Melissa Burdick is the President of Pacvue and is an expert in designing for online and e-Commerce marketing strategies. A 10-year Amazon veteran, Ms. Burdick helped launch the Amazon CPG/Health & Beauty retail business, building a business from the ground up with an evolving strategy to sell profitably online. She was an early leader of the Amazon Media Group, launching the first vendor display video ad, and developed and grew the Amazon advertising business. Ms. Burdick is well known as an e-Commerce thought leader, Forbes Agency Council member, and participates as a speaker at e-Commerce conferences and industry podcasts.

Nate Notwell is the Head of Consumer Experience (CxO) for Kenvue. He has responsibility for leading media, digital and connected commerce capabilities across the Consumer Health portfolio while advancing J&J’s digital-first capability and talent agenda. He is passionate about combining data and technology with consumer insights and brand expertise to find new and innovative ways to connect with consumers and drive business growth.

Prior to his current role Nate spend the majority of his 15-year career at J&J in international roles including Global Marketing Leader for iconic brands such as NICORETTE® and ZYRTEC® and European Marketing Leader for J&J’s Digestive Health portfolio. Nate started his career with J&J in Canada working in marketing across the OTC business on brands such as TYLENOL® and REACTINE®.

Nate is an avid golfer, an aspiring chef, and a new dad. He really also misses sleep.

Nneka Onuorah is a trailblazing, Emmy Award-winning Nigerian-American filmmaker, producer, and activist committed to telling narratively- and formally-daring stories that re-examine and lift up underrepresented communities.

In September 2022, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program' for Amazon’s Lizzo's Watch Out For The Big Grrrls. The series—which also won the Emmy for ‘Outstanding Competition Program’—follows superstar Lizzo on the hunt for confident, badass women to join her world tour. This marked Nneka's first nomination and win, and a historic moment for queer women of color directors at the Emmys.

She will next direct a docuseries, currently in production, with Megan Thee Stallion which will chronicle the Grammy-winning rapper's meteoric rise in the music industry and beyond, produced in collaboration with Time Studios & Jay-Z's Roc Nation. 

Nneka’s recent directorial work has twice been nominated for ‘Outstanding Documentary’ at the GLAAD Media Awards: in 2017, for  The Same Difference,  about internalized homophobia within the black lesbian community; and in 2022, for The Legend of the Underground, which premiered at Tribeca before debuting on HBO in June 2021, produced by John Legend and focused on Nigerian youth challenging their country’s discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws. Her other credits include Netflix’s prison-themed  First and Last; Viceland’s black queer-focused  My House; Burn Down The House, which premiered at NewFest; and  The G Word, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions.

Rachel is the Global Head of Inclusive Innovation at Mindshare, leading strategy and innovation for how brands use marketing, media and technology to reshape society for good. As an autistic woman, Rachel is a content creator on TikTok, LinkedIn and Instagram to educate and advocate for neuroinclusion in professional environments. Rachel has over 85,000 people in her community across platforms because of her unique perspectives as a creative leader who is autistic.

Rachel works with global Fortune 500 brands such as Nike, Chanel, Campari, Unilever, Abbott, Kimberly-Clark and Booking.com to be more intentional in marketing. With Rachel's leadership, she created a first-of-its kind digital Inclusion Private Marketplace to support journalism for marginalized communities in media. Rachel is passionate about the possibilities of creativity in media for social impact while considering the ethics of how we use – or shouldn’t use- technology. She is also the co-founder of the agency’s global DE&I employee resource group Mindshare Collective.

A respected industry thought leader, Rachel’s insights have been featured in Ad Age, Adweek, The New York Times, Campaign Magazine, and more. She has been personally honored as one of Business Insider’s 35 Under 35, and Advertising Week’s Future is Female award for her creativity in media. Rachel is an esteemed speaker, having been invited to speak at prestigious stages such as the United Nations, Cannes Lions, CES, SXSW, Yale University, and more around the world.

Rich Ferraro is the Chief Communications Officer of GLAAD, the world’s most visible LGBTQ advocacy organization. In 2022, he was recognized on the OUT100 and PRWeek 40 Under 40 lists. He has most recently spoken on LGBTQ representation in advertising and communications at ADCOLOR, the Public Relations Society of America’s ICON Conference, AdAge’s LGBTQ Town Hall, PRNews’ Social Shake-Up, and during the Arthur Page Society conference.

 Ferraro joined GLAAD in 2008 and oversees GLAAD’s Communications department including GLAAD's Press, Talent Relations, News and Rapid Response, and Creative departments. He also leads GLAAD's social media team, which was recognized as a 2022 Webby Award winner in the category for “Social: Public Service & Activism.” In his role, Ferraro leads much of GLAAD's behind-the-scenes work with brands, journalists, content creators, and social media platforms. Ferraro has worked on hundreds of LGBTQ-inclusive media projects and in 2015 he received a Daytime Emmy Award as part of the team behind the MTV and Logo documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word.” He has advised companies including Delta, P&G, Kellogg's, Absolut, among many others, on LGBTQ-inclusive advertising and campaigns. Ferraro has programmed LGBTQ private events featuring global CEOs during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He is also an Executive Producer of the GLAAD Media Awards stage show and leads the selection process for the GLAAD Media Award nominees, honorees, and award recipients. Previously, he served as Senior Director of Communications and Public Affairs at ViacomCBS, where he worked on press for series and campaigns including MTV True Life, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and MTV’s 2016 election campaign, which drew attention to issues including immigration, LGBTQ equality, and racial justice. He currently volunteers on the Board of Directors for the Public Relations Society of America’s New York chapter and also regularly speaks on LGBTQ news in mainstream media including The New York Times, Associated Press, Variety, Adweek, CNN Business, and The Advocate.

Based in Denver, CO and joined Slalom nine years ago. Two decades of experience in digital spanning strategy consulting, marketing technology, data, and media. Expert in Customer Experience (CX), digital transformation, digital marketing, and marketing & advertising technology. Slalom’s global lead for Advertising & Marketing Transformation and AWS + Ads relationship. Creator of Slalom’s Digital Strategy capability including MarTech/AdTech advisory. Blogger and author who speaks frequently at industry conferences and events, and member of the Fast Company Executive Board

Shula is CSO EMEA & WW at mSix&Partners where her brief is to accelerate its strategic offering to match the pace of the agency's growth. Previously she was Global Head of Strategy at Spark Foundry. A hybrid strategist, she is a firm believer in breaking down silos across creative, media and tech disciplines in service of an intuitive consumer experience.Sinclair is a familiar face in the industry, acting regularly as a judge for Effies and Campaign. In 2020, she was media jury president for D&AD, and took on the role of co-chair of the 2021 World Media Awards. She has won awards for both her brand and media strategic work and is a trustee of The Big Draw.

Stéphane Grenier is the Head of Amazon Ads France, and has been at Amazon Ads since 2018. In this position, he and his team support advertisers and their agencies in the development of their brands and the digital transformation of their organizations.

Stéphane spent 16 years at L’Oréal in different functions in Marketing and general management in France, the Philippines, South-Africa and Italy. He then became CEO of Miller Harris and of Murdock London in the UK before joining in 2016 the Amazon France team as Category Director.

Tara Ford is the Chief Creative Officer of The Monkeys, Board Member of the Advertising Council of Australia and Member of the D&AD Advisory Board.

Tara was named ‘Creative Captain 2022’ in the Women Leading Change Awards by Campaign Asia Pacific. She was named ‘Global Creative Leader of the Year 2021’ by Creativepool. 

In 2020 she was named ‘Creative Person of the Year’ (Australia/New Zealand)by Campaign Asia. 

She was also on ‘The Global Creative Influencer of the Year’ top 100 list according to Creativepool 2020. In recent years she has also been ranked #1 for Executive Creative Directors in Australia by Best Ads and #6 on B&T’s Women in Media Power list.

And under her creative leadership The Monkeys has taken out the coveted Campaign Brief Agency of the Year title 2021 and Mumbrella Creative Agency of the Year 2022 and AWARD Creative Agency of the Year 2022. And so far in 2023, Spikes Australian Agency of the Year 2023 and Spikes Strategy and Effectiveness Agency of the Year 2023.

Tara’s work has been consistently recognised throughout her career, at the highest level of every major international award show across an expansive range of clients and disciplines. Ford has judged and chaired at every major global award show. 

And with her work as a board member of the Advertising Council of Australia, the AWARD Council and the D&AD Advisory Board, she helps guide the future direction, reputation and values of the industry.

Coming soon...

Theresa Gaarde is the Head of Sales & Channel Partnerships for Brand Collaborations at Popular Pays, a Lightricks company. In this role, Theresa is responsible for scaling both the sales and partnerships teams while defining and implementing the go-to-market strategy.  Prior she was VP of Sales at Popular Pays, which was acquired by Lightricks in March 2022.

Before joining Popular Pays, Theresa was crafting strategic partnerships at a variety of content and publishing firms including Viacom, Pandora, SAY Media, Funny or Die, and Onion Labs.

Walter Frye is Global Director of Brand Marketing at Amazon. He previously spent 15 years at American Express in various brand leadership roles. Walter is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Yale University, and his honors include an Emmy, AdAge 40 Under 40 and Billboard Top 100 Power Players.