Ira Rubenstein

Chief Digital and Marketing Officer

Public Broadcasting Service

As Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, Ira Rubenstein leads digital consumer experiences and marketing for PBS. In this role, Rubenstein focuses on continuing PBS’ digital evolution through the development, implementation and scaling of world-class digital services and marketing content strategies. He also oversees the business intelligence group and leads comprehensive marketing programs to acquire, retain and engage audiences across platforms for the benefit of member stations.

Rubenstein joined PBS in 2014 as Senior Vice President and General Manager, PBS Digital, and led the expansion of PBS’ general audience and children’s content to mobile devices, over-the-top (OTT) services and other digital platforms. His accomplishments include an updated PBS.org, which yielded dramatic growth in traffic to station websites and online station donations. He spearheaded the development of Passport, a video offering available through member stations that provides donors on-demand access to a rich library of public television programming. He also led the expansion of PBS Digital Studios, PBS’ network of online-original content.

Rubenstein has more than 20 years of experience leading digital entertainment businesses. Prior to PBS, he was Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors for mobile media company MeeMee Media. Rubenstein also served as Executive Vice President, Digital Marketing for 20th Century Fox where he established the Digital Marketing organization and led the team behind ground breaking social and mobile campaigns for Prometheus, Chronicle, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: First Class, and other major motion pictures.

Before joining Fox in 2011, Rubenstein was Executive Vice President of Marvel Entertainment’s Global Digital Media Group. During his tenure, he led strategic global digital initiatives related to websites, digital comics, games, digital video distribution, and launched the award-winning Marvel Digital Comics iPad app.

Rubenstein joined Marvel after more than 12 years at Sony, most recently as Executive Vice President, Content Strategy and Acquisitions. In that position, Rubenstein led the organization’s acquisition of content for all Sony devices and negotiated global content deals with major networks, movie studios, game companies and music labels. While at Sony, he also developed worldwide digital marketing, product and distribution strategy for Sony Pictures, and oversaw the rapid growth of sonypictures.com, which ultimately became a top 10 entertainment site. In addition, he led the establishment of Movielink, a first-of-its-kind online, video on-demand service, and managed the digital growth of the studio’s most important brands, including Wheel of Fortune, JEOPARDY! and Seinfeld.

Rubenstein holds a B.A. in Management Science from the University of California, San Diego and has an M.F.A. from the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America. In addition to awards for his work from Clio, Promax, Key Art, the Webby Awards, and others, Rubenstein has twice appeared on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Digital Power 50” list and has also been featured on the PGA’s “Digital 50” list, which recognizes new media innovators.

Janice Ellig

Chief Executive Officer

Ellig Group

As the head of the Ellig Group, Janice is dedicated to increasing the placement of women and diverse candidates on corporate boards and in C-suites by 2025. Heralded by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of “The World’s Most Influential Headhunters,” Janice is often consulted for her expertise and her commitment to gender parity, inclusion, and diversity. She frequently appears at speaking engagements and as a media guest and has penned multiple articles for outlets such as Directors & Boards, Directorship, Corporate Director, The Huffington Post, and Forbes.com. Janice is Founder of the Women’s Forum of New York’s Corporate Board Initiative and its signature event, Breakfast of Corporate Champions. Since 2011, Janice continues to spearhead this event to honor companies committed to board diversity and to encourage CEOs to sponsor board-ready women for the Women’s Forum database.

Krishna Cheriath

Chief Data Officer &
VP, Enterprise Information Management

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Krishna Cheriath is the Chief Data Officer for Bristol-Myers Squibb Company reporting to the CIO. Krishna is responsible for driving the data, analytics and insights agenda for BMS while ensuring that the company’s data is accessible, reliable, secure and legally compliant protecting the privacy of employees, patients and others. He is the company’s data strategist and adviser, steward for improving data quality, evangelist for data sharing, data driven innovations and data ethics and standards, and lead technologist for data and analytic automation. His core responsibilities as CDO include:

– Building the company’s understanding of the business and data strategy
– Designing and implementing data strategies and systems
– Leading, motivating and managing large data and technical teams
– Overseeing the collection, storage, management, quality and protection of data
– Implementing data privacy policies and complying with data protection regulations
– Communicating the status, value, and importance of data

Krishna joined Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in 2006 and held several IT roles of increasing responsibility. Since September 2016 till the appointment as the Chief Data officer, Krishna served as the Head of Information & Data Management. In January 2018 he took the additional responsibility of being BMS’s EU Data Protection Officer. His was responsible for overseeing BMS’ advancement of data governance, data stewardship and digital capabilities focused on data, reporting and analytics. As the company’s EU DPO, he was instrumental in ensuring compliance with the GDPR and facilitating the company’s responses to requests from EU data subjects and data protection authorities.

He is also part of the leadership team of Business Insights and Analytics (BIA), the centralized analytics function in BMS.

Krishna has over 25 years of experience in IT, data management and analytics. Prior to BMS he was in management consulting working for such firms as TCS, PWC, IBM and Accenture.

Krishna received his undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Kerala and his MBA from the Stern School of Business at the New York University.

Lisa Farris

Chief Digital Officer

The Recording Academy

Lisa Farris is the Chief Digital Officer for the Recording Academy™, overseeing the evolution of the organization’s digital media platforms and supporting its mission through omni-channel strategies and execution. In collaboration with the Recording Academy’s leadership team, Farris is responsible for building upon the foundational elements of the organization that support all music creators, while connecting music audiences and stakeholders across digital platforms.

In her role, she is tasked with transforming and innovating digital experiences, while keeping the Recording Academy attuned to the changing media landscape. Farris leads the Digital Media team responsible for audience growth, product strategy and development, content strategy, production distribution, and data analytics. Under Farris’s leadership, the Digital Media team forges relationships with technology partners to further drive innovation and improve experiences across all digital touchpoints.

Prior to joining the Recording Academy, Farris served as chief digital & brand officer for MetricVision; co-founder of Get This, a technology that leveraged audio recognition to shop video entertainment; chief marketing officer for Move, Inc.; senior vice president of strategic marketing at Universal Music Group’s eLabs; and vice president of strategic marketing & new media at MCA Records.

Lisa currently serves as a mentor for entrepreneurship students at Loyola Marymount University and advises a summer financial literacy program there that is taught by the University’s students to high school pupils.

Mike Edmonds

Managing Director, VP Product

Moonshot by Pactera Digital

Mike is the Managing Director and VP of Product at Moonshot by Pactera, a digital product studio based in Chicago. Mike leads a team of product managers, experience designers, empathy researchers, and software engineers helping brands use design thinking and lean innovation to discover, design, and scale lovable products based on emerging technologies. Mike is also an Adjunct Professor of Digital Product Management at Northwestern’s Segal Design Institute and DePaul’s School of Computing and Digital Media.

Philip Carter

Chief Analyst, Europe

IDC

Philip Carter is Chief Analyst for the European region. This new role has been created specifically to drive innovation in new research topics and deliverables, to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing, and to increase customer satisfaction.

Carter will continue to manage the European Enterprise Infrastructure and Software Group. This group comprises a team of analysts that cover the infrastructure, middleware, and applications software markets and is tasked with writing and presenting on broader enterprise infrastructure software trends and the impact of emerging technology areas such as Big Data, cloud, mobility, and social as they relate to the European region. Carter is regularly featured on mainstream media such as CNBC and Bloomberg, and in global publications such as the New York Times. Prior to working for IDC in Europe, Carter worked in IDC’s Asia/Pacific region, covering the software, services, channels, and sustainability research areas. Before joining IDC, he worked at SAS Institute (both in EMEA and Asia/Pacific) in marketing strategy, product management, and business development roles.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Carter holds an honors degree in business science, majoring in economics and law from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Follow Philip on Twitter @carter_pc

Sara Fischer

Media Reporter

Axios

Sara Fischer is a media reporter for Axios. She joined the company in 2016 as a founding staff member. Fischer is considered one of the top reporters on her beat. Revue cited her weekly newsletter, Axios Media Trends, as the second-most popular media newsletter in the market and deemed it a “must-read” by media industry leaders. She was also recently named to Forbes “30 Under 30” Media list and to the 2019 Folio 100 in their “Creator” category. Beyond her weekly newsletter, Fischer oversees Axios’ media coverage for the newsroom, and steers the company’s products and events around that topic. Her coverage spans corporate media, technology, social media, deals, entertainment, media regulation, policy and consumer habits.

Stephanie Trunzo

GVP Transformation and Offerings

Oracle

Stephanie has 20 years experience, from executive roles at Oracle and IBM to leading her start-up through a public company acquisition. She thrives building aligned, high-performing teams and compelling storytelling platforms.

As GVP of Transformation and Offerings at Oracle, Stephanie leads the continued shift to an offerings model that is both outcome-driven and client-focused, transforming both Oracle and its clients to star in a modern cloud story, grounded in both technology and expert talent. Stephanie leads initiatives across digital and experience disciplines, driving entrepreneurial thinking into disrupting how Oracle Consulting works and how Oracle works with its clients.

At IBM, Stephanie was the Global Head of IBM Cloud Garage, a network of over a dozen innovation hubs purpose-built to meld industry practices, startup culture, and IBM’s expertise. Prior to that, she founded and led her digital transformation start-up through a public acquisition to Globant. As Managing Director, she led Globant’s largest portfolio, and pioneered incubators for AI and cognitive.

While Stephanie is a tech geek across Cloud, AI, and emerging tech, she is also a storyteller with a commitment to usability and design thinking. Stephanie was affectionately dubbed “the prototype” for the Chief Digital Officer role by the CDO Club. She is an active advisor, giving back to non-profits and early start-ups, including TechGirlz, WomenNC, and InsureLife. Her writing can be found in publications like Fast Company, Forbes, and Huffington Post.