Ali Malaz

Founder

CDO Club Turkey

Ali Malaz is currently President at TUBIYAD (Turkish CIO/CDO Association), Board Member of the EuroCIO Association, Malazlar Group and various companies. He is also founder at CDO World Magazine and Platform. Ali has a B.A. in Economics from the London Richmond University and MBA from Yeditepe University. He is passionate about and strives in all of his endeavors to support digital transformation.

Amit Kama

CEO of Kamedia Digital

Founder of CDO Club Israel

CEO and Founder of Kamedia Digital an Israeli based interactive studio and digital strategic consulting company focused on making design-driven digital products in a new era of connected customers and digital businesses. Founder of the CDO Club in Israel, the first and largest Israeli community of C-suite digital, data and innovation leaders.

Anna Frazzetto

Chief Digital Technology Officer & SVP

Harvey Nash

Anna Frazzetto leads the growth of Harvey Nash digital solutions, outsourcing and offshoring across the North American and Australasian regions. An IT solutions strategist who began her career as a software engineer, Anna plans and implements managed, outsourced and project-based IT initiatives for Global 1000 enterprises and growing multinationals. Today, she focuses on helping clients increase competitive advantage, business intelligence and speed-to-market by expanding digital capabilities and resources in the areas of Big Data, Cloud, social and mobile technology. Anna has directed projects for fast growing start-ups and leading global businesses including Hearst Publications, Omni Comm Group, GroupM, MSNBC, Honda, Hitachi and Clearwire Corporation.

Prior to joining Harvey Nash in 2005, Anna held senior executive and technology leadership roles at AIG, Agility Recovery Solutions and Spherion Technology where she developed and led the rapid expansion of key business lines. She is a sought-after industry speaker, member of HDI’s Support Center Leadership Certification Standards Committee and former HDI Strategic Advisory Board member. She is also actively engaged in ARA, an organization dedicated to attracting, retaining and advancing women in technology through mentorship.

Anurag Harsh

SVP, Founding Executive

Ziff Davis, LLC

Anurag Harsh wears many hats. He is a digital guru, a prolific blogger, a McGraw-Hill published author, contributing columnist, angel investor, and a classical musician who has performed two sold out solo concerts at Carnegie Hall. His business blog boasts substantial following across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. He has written extensively on Digital with three new books coming out in the Fall. Currently, he dedicates himself to Ziff Davis (NASDAQ: JCOM) as its SVP & Founding Executive. Anurag has seen Ziff grow into the world’s largest tech and gaming digital publisher with 700 employees and iconic brands such as PCMag, IGN, AskMen and SpeedTest. It reaches roughly 117MM users per month worldwide. Anurag is also a Founding Principal at NextGen Venture Partners. His training as a classical musician, penchant for writing, and business acumen all converge into a unique perspective on Digital. Digital thrives on the creative energy of its users and rewards innovative, holistic perspectives. This is precisely what propelled Ziff Davis into its present valuation, and won Anurag an award for Outstanding Asian American in Business. He holds an MBA & MS from Wharton and MIT. @anuragharsh, blogbrain.org, carnegieconcert.com

Ben Gray

Digital Experience

Applause

Ben Gray is a Digital Experience Analyst with Applause. He advises clients on their digital strategies to deliver delightful customer experiences. Prior to joining Applause, Ben served as a Principal Analyst with Forrester Research, where he spent more than a decade advising Fortune 500 companies on their IT strategies and was regularly quoted in top publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and InformationWeek.

Brian Dearth

EVP / Chief Strategy Officer

Centric Digital

Brian Dearth is responsible for providing transformational digital strategies, capabilities benchmarks and roadmaps to enterprise clients across sectors including healthcare, financial services, retail, industrials, etc. Dearth runs the company’s Strategy practice and supervises a global team of digital strategy professionals responsible for defining and delivering Centric Digital’s unique approach to driving and measuring digital transformation.

Before joining Centric Digital, Dearth served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Smile Train, a Forbes Top 200 non-profit, providing funding for free cleft surgery and related care for children through a network of 1,000+ hospitals across 85 countries, leveraging digital to connect and train the next generation of cleft surgeons, spread local program awareness and find patients. Prior to that, Dearth emerged as a digital thought leader in the publishing industry as the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Customer Management at Scholastic, Inc. He spent 12 years with the world’s leading consumer analytics and television measurement and monitoring provider before being selected to serve as Chief Executive Officer of Hollywood Stock Exchange, a venture-backed content and commerce company operating a virtual currency and holding four patents.

A graduate of the TEP program at the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business, he also earned an MA at Georgetown University, as well as a BA from Miami University in Ohio. Dearth lives in Connecticut with his wife, three sons, and terrier. Away from the office, he serves as President of the Ridgefield Boys Lacrosse Booster Club.

Brian Manning

President & Chief Digital Officer

Centric Digital

Brian Manning is the co-founder and President of Centric Digital, a global digital transformation firm based in New York City that specializes transforming business models, user experiences & operational processes of traditional companies for the digital age. In 2014, Centric Digital was named #34 on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States including #1 in New York State and #1 in New York City. In the last 3 years through 2014, Centric Digital has grown over 6800% and is nearing almost 200 global team members. Since its founding in 2009, Brian has been directly responsible for growing Centric Digital’s client base and revenue as well as shaping its brand, implementing and scaling its financial and business operations, and defining its products & services strategy. In addition, as Centric Digital’s Chief Digital Officer, Brian champions digital thought leadership throughout the company, for its clients including global corporations in healthcare, finance, retail, government entities, and in the marketplace.

Prior to Centric Digital, Brian served as Vice President of Ecommerce for Scholastic where he led the transformation of Book Club’s $200+MM ecommerce business and was responsible for generating several million dollars of business for its new digital product offerings. He turned around the recently launched “Printables” print-on-demand subscription business, achieving profitability and winning industry excellence awards within its second year. He leveraged this platform to launch the “Minibooks” product with minimal capital investment in less than five months. Brian also helped pivot and grow Scholastic’s acquisition of TeachersPayTeachers.com, a teacher generated content marketplace, by implementing new pricing models, advertising sales strategies, and viral marketing initiatives. As a spun off entity, TeachersPayTeachers.com recently surpassed $100MM in sales.

Prior to Scholastic, Brian served as Vice President of Online Strategy and Marketing for Citigroup, where he helped transform Citicards.com into a primary sales channel. He later expanded this approach into a comprehensive roadmap for transforming all of Citi’s online banking businesses.

Before Citi, Brian held several executive positions of increasing responsibility in business and product development at Barnes & Noble.com during its pre-IPO startup phase through its full business maturity cycle. During this time he led a multi-channel gift card program with seamless store integration, large scale website redesigns, complex ecommerce / fulfillment platform implementations and new product lines, and pioneered an ecommerce partner marketing program which received acclaim in The New York Times.

Brian started his career in management consulting at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College.

Catherine Devine

Chief Digital Officer

American Museum of Natural History

Catherine joined the American Museum of Natural History in 2012 as Chief Digital Officer. She is responsible for the Museum’s digital strategy, which is focused on driving transformation of the visitor experience, onsite and online. Catherine’s role builds on a long career in digital and technology strategy and delivery, including significant staff and consulting roles at America Online (AOL), eBay, and PBS.

To date, the Museum has implemented and launched an enterprise content management system, responsive website, personalization, ticketing and constituent relationship management systems, and a number of apps, including its flagship app, Explorer, sponsored by Bloomberg Connects. Version 2 of Explorer will launch in December 2015.

Dan Colarusso

Executive Editor, Digital
Head of Global Programming

Reuters

Dan is in charge of the editorial direction of Reuters’ online platforms and its new video product, ReutersTV.

Before joining Reuters in late 2011, he was U.S. Managing Editor for Bloomberg TV for almost three years. Before that he served as Managing Editor at CondeNast’s Portfolio.com, and Business and Metro Editor at the New York Post. He was among the earliest employees at TheStreet.com in 1997 and his freelance work has appeared in The New York Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor and The Daily Beast. He has a B.A. in Journalism from Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus.

Dana Berchman

Chief Digital Officer

Gilbert, Arizona

Dana Berchman is the Chief Digital Officer and Communications Director in Gilbert, Arizona, where she manages all internal and external communications, public relations and marketing initiatives. She leads a digital team responsible for developing forward-thinking policies on social media, digital communications, web initiatives and other tools to better serve the public. Previously, she worked at Arizona State University where she taught Journalism and Public Policy courses and handled media relations. Dana also spent six years working as a producer and director at MTV and two years as a producer and writer for Andrea Mitchell at MSNBC, both in New York City. Dana earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Arizona State University and her Master’s Degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University.

David Link

Chief Digital Officer

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

David Link is the Chief Digital Officer at Lincoln Center responsible for developing the digital strategy and building new online destinations, mobile apps and on-campus interactive experiences. David is focused on advancing Lincoln Center’s ecommerce platform, in-venue experiences and developing video and editorial content that evolves Lincoln Center from a local destination to a global online experience.

David also oversees Lincoln center’s Emmy award winning short-form video department in broadcasting livestreams and developing original short-form series.

Before joining Lincoln Center David was the Co-Founder of The Wonderfactory an experience design firm that focused on media companies, publishers and advertisers. At The Wonderfactory David mentored and partnered with executives across a number of media sectors in the planning and execution of their company’s digital business. There, he worked with such companies as Time Inc., Barnes & Noble, Lionsgate, NBC, Coca-Cola, NBA, National Geographic and Food Network to help them reinvent their consumer experience through new digital strategies and products. Before that, he was VP and Creative Director of the America Online internal creative studio that provided digital strategy, creative development and short-form video for over 18 major content channels of AOL brands.

David started his career in traditional motion picture advertising for major motion picture studios in Los Angeles. He studied Film Directing at SUNY Purchase and Visual Communications at California Institute of the Arts.

David Mathison

Curator, CDO Summit

Founder, CDO Club

David Mathison is the curator of the Chief Digital Officer Summit and founder of the CDO Club.

He is the world’s leading authority on Chief Digital and Data officers, and has been quoted by the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, McKinsey & Company, MIT Sloan Management Review, CMS Wire, ZDNet, Fierce CIO, and I-CIO, among others.

He was previously the founder and Managing Director of the Digital Media practice at Chadick Ellig, a premiere executive search consultancy named by Business Week as “one of the world’s most influential headhunters.

Mathison’s book, BE THE MEDIA, was featured in the NY Times after he pre-sold over 5,000 copies in 11 days via his web site, Twitter, and Facebook.

He has given keynote presentations everywhere from Columbia University to the United Nations (3 times in 2010), from Amsterdam to Zagreb.

From 1999-2001 he was founder and CEO of the Kinecta Corporation where he raised $30 million in under 2 years. Kinecta was acquired and is now part of Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL).

From 1994-1999 Mathison was Vice President with Thomson Reuters, the world’s largest news agency, where he pioneered online content syndication.

Mathison earned his Masters degree from Columbia University in 1995.

David Palmieri

Chief Operating Officer

Centric Digital

A senior business executive, turnaround specialist, general manager, and product developer with substantial experience overseeing B2B and B2C ventures that generate in excess of $700M in revenue per year, David Palmieri is an expert in driving business transformation, digital startups, and new product launch scenarios. Mr. Palmieri was most recently the Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Legal, one of America’s leading online consumer law brands. He joins Centric Digital as Chief Operating Officer with to help drive digital transformation for our clients and to establish the organization and processes to support the company’s rapid growth and development.

In three years at Lexis-Nexis before joining U.S. Legal, Mr. Palmieri led Martindale-Hubbell, a $180M legal marketing and information services company that he described as a “130-year old startup.” He re-organized all aspects of the business including product development, marketing, operations, and finance to focus on the brand’s core customer value proposition and invested in digital marketing to increase customer acquisition effectiveness. Mr. Palmieri rejuvenated employee morale at all organizational levels by promoting and supporting a “startup” culture encouraging speed, creativity, and accountability, and his efforts led to Lexis-Nexis developing and re-launching www.lawyers.com, a site that would attract three million unique visitors each month and grow 20% per year.

Prior to joining Lexis-Nexis, Mr. Palmieri served as Senior Vice President of Global Product Solutions & Strategy at Dun & Bradstreet, the $1.5B leader in business information, software and analytics, where he was part of the senior leadership team that drove the revitalization of the company. As Senior Vice President of Global Risk Management Solutions (RMS), he was General Manager of D&B’s core business globally and drove a major transformation of that business. He transitioned the business from printed reports and installed software to a cloud-based subscription model through the creation of DNBi, an innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that transformed the customer experience, doubled the rate of revenue growth and drove significant improvements in customer satisfaction in less than two years.

Earlier in his career Mr. Palmieri led Product Management and Business Development at several high-growth Internet startup companies. As Vice President of Products at Register.com, a leading provider of domain name and Internet marketing services, he launched services that have helped hundreds of thousands of consumers and small businesses establish and build their presence on the Web. Mr. Palmieri was one of the first employees at Barnes & Noble’s e-commerce division, BarnesandNoble.com, where he was a pioneer in the development of consumer e-commerce and helped grow the company from launch to over $100 million in revenue and its successful initial public offering (IPO). Earlier in his career he served as Product Manager for Broadband Services for Verizon developing the high-speed Internet and interactive video services that today make up the FiOS service and as a management consultant at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting).

Mr. Palmieri is a member of the board at Credit2B, a cloud-based credit data exchange center and a member of the advisory board at Placecodes, a mobile marketing technology company. Mr. Palmieri holds a BA, magna cum laude, from Franklin & Marshall College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Eric Hellweg

Managing Director
Product Management & Digital Strategy

Harvard Business Review / HBR.org

Hellweg leads the strategic direction for all of Harvard Business Review’s digital products, including HBR.org, the iPad app, smartphone apps, and new product development and user experience. Hellweg joined HBR in February 2006 as the organization’s first online editorial hire, and during this time, HBR.org has grown from 150k monthly uniques to nearly 6 million, and has become a leader across social media channels.

HBR.org re-launched in late 2014 and has posted record traffic and subscription sales since then, also winning the Best Design award at the Digiday Publishing Awards in March, beating out Quartz, The Guardian, and Bloomberg Politics.

Prior to joining HBR, Hellweg served as an executive editor at Forrester Research and an online columnist at CNN Money and MIT’s Technology Review. Hellweg was a founding editor of Business 2.0 magazine. Other previous engagements include freelance articles for publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, SPIN, RollingStone.com, and many others.

Graham Waller

Research Vice President

Gartner

Graham Waller is a Research Vice President in the Digital Business Leadership research team. He works primarily with CIOs, CEOs and digital business leaders with an emphasis on contemporary leadership (i.e., fit for “digital era purpose”) and realizing business advantage via technology. Mr. Waller is a co-author of two Gartner books: “Digital to the Core: Remastering Leadership for Your Industry, Your Enterprise, and Yourself” (Bibliomotion, October 2015) and “The CIO Edge: Seven Leadership Skills You Need to Drive Results” (Harvard Business Review Press, 2010). He has also been a co-author of the last three CIO Agenda reports, most recently “Building the Digital Platform: The 2016 CIO Agenda.”

Mr. Waller came to Gartner from Meta Group, where he led CIO-level research on transformational change as part of the Executive Directions service. This included publishing a significant primary-research, multiclient study titled “CIO as Enterprise Change Agent,” as well as conference speaker engagements and serving as an expert analyst in numerous industry press articles on this topic. Mr. Waller has more than 20 years of experience in driving business results and achieving measurable value from IT-enabled transformation. He has held both IT and business leadership positions within two Fortune 100 end-user and IT service provider companies. He is a hybrid business-IT leader and recognized authority in the disciplines of leadership and driving value from technology investments.

Jann Klose & Gary Lucas

Musicans

STEREOPTICON is the debut album by the duo of guitarist Gary Lucas and singer Jann Klose.

While Jann and Gary write as collaborators in an urban Americana / Roots Music Genre, both artists are eclectic musicians that tour throughout the world on their own.

Gary’s co-written hits with Joan Osborne: “Spider Web,” and Jeff Buckley’s signature songs “Grace” and “Mojo Pin” from the singer’s double platinum album, GRACE. ROLLING STONE says Gary is “One of the best and most original guitarists in America…a modern guitar miracle.” He is currently collaborating with Steve Kilbey (The Church), and Chris Shinn (new Live singer), and was Music Director of “State of Grace,” a multi-artist Australian tour that paid tribute to Tim and Jeff Buckley.

Born in Germany and raised in Kenya, South Africa and the United States, Jann Klose is currently collaborating with Ann Hampton Callaway, Renaissance’s Annie Haslam, Hall & Oates’ John Oates and The Yardbirds’ Jim McCarty. In 2015 Jann and his music appeared in the short film THE BEAUTY OF DISASTER (Glimmer Girl, USA) and the award-winning Australian feature documentary A VENUE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD (BrinkVision, USA). His most recent album, MOSAIC won three 2014 Independent Music Awards and charted for several months on the AMA and Roots Rock charts.

Gary and Jann both worked on the movie GREETINGS FROM TIM BUCKLEY (Tribeca Film/Focus/Universal). Jann is the singing voice of Tim Buckley, while Gary consulted and played guitar. Follow them on Twitter: @lucasgary @JannKloseBand

Jeff Dennes

Former SEVP - Business Development and
Digital Transformation

BBVA Compass

Jeff Dennes is the former Chief Digital Banking Officer and head of Business Development and Digital Transformation at BBVA Compass, where he was charged with digital integration of the bank’s products and services. His responsibilities included marketing, consumer and business banking, payments, customer experience, channel development and the business strategy. He is a member of the BBVA Compass Management Committee.
Before joining BBVA Compass, Dennes led digital efforts at SunTrust and Huntington National Bank, where he was head of digital and chief digital officer, respectively. He was listed among the 2011 Top 10 Innovators of the Year by Bank Technology News and also landed on Bank Systems & Technology’s Elite 8 in 2010 for his work at USAA, where he was the executive director of digital. In each position, Dennes worked to implement a revamped strategy across channels that included online, mobile and ATMs.
A 20-year veteran of the financial services industry, Dennes’ background also includes experience in integrated banking, investments and insurance self-service strategies and solutions.

Jeff Reid

EVP Digital Center of Excellence

Humana

Jeff Reid, Enterprise Vice President of the Digital Center of Excellence, is an executive leader in the continued evolution of digital at Humana, including the web, mobile, and social platforms. Jeff is responsible for developing and executing Humana’s digital strategy by focusing on creating simple, connected and personalized digital experiences that empower our members to achieve their best health.

Before joining the Digital Center of Excellence in July 2014, Jeff was Vice President of Digital Marketing, Strategy and Channels for TIAA-CREF Financial Services, where he led enterprise digital efforts and achieved the highest channel customer satisfaction in firm history. Jeff also previously served as an executive at The Hartford. He held several roles related to digital, including management of the flagship website TheHartford.com, alongside mobile channels, and the employee intranet site iConnect. Prior to that, Jeff served 16 years at UPS, where he was responsible for managing UPS’s Global Digital Channel, including 104 country websites translated into 32 different languages. He defined UPS’s online channel strategy, execution and measurement.

Jeff holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. His expertise stems from over 21 years of digital marketing and channel experience in several diverse industries including healthcare, financial, and business services. He loves being a husband, a father to two, and taking care of his West Highland White Terrier, Cooper.

Jonathan Becher

Chief Digital Officer

SAP

Jonathan Becher serves as chief digital officer and head of the SAP Digital business unit. Jonathan reports to Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP SE.

Jonathan is responsible for driving the growth and direction of SAP’s new digital business, which will expand the company’s addressable market through entry into new areas such as content and data. Under Jonathan’s leadership, SAP Digital is helping individual business consumers discover, buy, use, and renew offerings in an entirely digital interaction.

From Spring 2011 until November 2014, Jonathan served as SAP’s chief marketing officer (CMO). In his role as CMO of SAP, Jonathan increased the revenue generated from Marketing by 80% and amplified Marketing’s return on investment by 50%. Jonathan was named by Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s most influential CMOs. He is a board member for the Churchill Club, Silicon Valley’s premier business and technology forum, and Revel Systems, an iPad point of sale solution.

Jonathan holds a master’s degree in computer science from Duke University in North Carolina, and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Virginia.

Kevin Bandy

SVP, Chief Digital Officer

Cisco Systems

Kevin joins Cisco as the Chief Digital Officer, bringing a bold vision, coupled with a diverse set of skills – a combination of global channel development, entrepreneurialism, and operational excellence.

As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, Bandy will help define our next generation digital strategy. He will lead our growth efforts across our Digital portfolio as well as work with teams across Cisco from go-to-market functions to Operations and IT teams, to design a comprehensive vision for us, our customers and our partners, to capture the true value of digitization by leveraging Cisco’s broad portfolio of solutions and services.

In his previous role as Senior Vice President, Enterprise Transformation at Salesforce.com, Bandy was responsible for growth and market expansion by making Salesforce.com the foundation on which companies reengineer their front office operations. Creating faster responses to market transitions, increasing customer relevance, redefining ROI and establishing greater relevance in channel partner relationships generated wider, global adoption of broader cloud enabled operating models.

Prior to joining Salesforce.com Bandy was the principle of Rhea Springs LLC, a strategy consultancy firm founded to work in a personal advisory manner with Fortune 500 senior leadership. Rhea Springs designed and executed mission-critical, multi-year business transformation programs for major corporations.

In previous experiences Bandy was brought into Accenture to establish market relevance for the firm to the growth portion of their clients’ business. His efforts aided in the development of their Sales and Marketing Transformation practices and a market leading SaaS practice. Before joining Accenture he ran the growth and strategy efforts for a sales outsourcing company that assisted companies like IBM, Apple, GE, HP and other major FORTUNE®500 companies pursue higher sales growth by building and running sales organizations focused on retail, direct and indirect channels. This background, along with significant experience on the front lines managing major global sales operations, has enabled him to direct the development of innovative “routes to market” solutions for numerous large enterprises around the world.

Bandy also worked at IBM after he successfully completed the licensing of a software company to its Multimedia Studios. At IBM, he served as a Regional Sales Manager overseeing direct sales and distribution for the eastern United States, the Caribbean as well as defining global distribution strategies.

Bandy received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee.

Kevin Eagan

Chief Digital Experience Officer &
General Manager of Digital Platforms

IBM Digital Business Group

Kevin Eagan is the Chief Digital Experience Officer and General Manager of Digital Platforms in the IBM Digital Business Group. In this role he is responsible for the end-to-end customer experience on IBM’s digital presence and channels. Kevin oversees teams focused on strategy, design, engineering and business operations of IBM’s digital experience, which includes the worldwide Marketplace as well as the platform that powers IBM.com. Drawing from IBM’s portfolio of ecommerce, digital marketing and cloud technologies, Kevin leads the creation of new ways to do business with IBM that make buying and using IBM expertise and solutions easier for clients and partners.

Kevin joined IBM in November 2014 from Microsoft where he was Vice President and General Manager of Online Commerce. During his 25-year career at Microsoft he has held numerous leadership positions spanning Marketing, Sales and Engineering, with a successful track record of building new businesses and creating new channels at the forefront of industry transformation and technology disruptions.

Kevin holds an AB honors in Economics from Harvard University.

Larry Kramer

Director

Harvard Business School Publishing

Member of the Board of Directors of Gannett Co, Inc. Former President and Publisher of USA Today. Chairman of the Board of TheStreet, Inc. Founder and Former CEO of CBS Marketwatch.com. The first president of CBS Digital. Sits on the Boards of Harvard Business School Publishing, Syracuse University Board of Trustees. Former reporter and editor for The Washington Post and San Francisco Examiner.

Lauren Lockwood

Chief Digital Officer

City of Boston

Lauren Lockwood is the Chief Digital Officer for the City of Boston, focused on digital communication, engagement, and service delivery. She graduated from Harvard Business School in 2014, where she focused on entrepreneurship and digital strategy for organizations. Prior to HBS, Lauren spent several years at Morgan Stanley, leading digital initiatives. She also has experience as a product manager for a number of startups. Lauren received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Vassar College. She and her husband live in Boston with their son, Theo, and their dog, Rawls.

Linda Boff

Chief Marketing Officer

GE

Boff is GE’s Chief Marketing officer leading customer experience, marketing and brand for the company. In her role, Boff is focused on GE’s transformation to a digital industrial company, leading industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive.

Previously, Boff was GE’s global brand marketing leader. She also served as CMO of iVillage Properties, part of the NBC Universal. Boff joined GE in early 2004 with 18 years of experience in marketing, advertising and communications including senior roles at Citigroup, the American Museum of Natural History and Porter Novelli.

Boff is a 2014 AWNY Changing the Game Award winner, B2B Magazine’s 2012 Digital Marketer of Year and 2012 Media Maven. She is on the Board of Partnership with Children, a NYC-based organization which provides social support to 5000 hard-to-reach school children. Boff is also on the Ad Council’s Executive Committee and is a member of Digital 50.

Boff earned a BA in Political Science and Psychology from Union College. She lives in Irvington, NY with her husband and two children.

Magnus Gylje

Chief Digital Officer,
Editor-in-Chief

Nobel Media

Passionate about journalism, education and dialogue, preferably in combination, Magnus Gylje works with engaging a global audience around the Nobel Prize through the discoveries, works and actions of the 900 Laureates who have been awarded the Nobel Prize since 1901. And by lifting topics of importance for our present and future world in the fields of science, literature and peace.

As Chief Digital Officer at Nobel Media he’s responsible for digital strategy – and as Editor-in-Chief of the official Nobel Prize Channels he leads an editorial team that publishes on nobelprize.org and social media channels including Facebook.com/NobelPrize. The global reach of the Nobel Prize digital channels nearly doubled in 2015 to a new record high, due to an increased focus on social media and by strengthening the storytelling and dialogue aspects of material published.

Magnus Gylje joined Nobel Media in 2014 and has 15 years of editorial experience in the newspaper industry as editor of culture magazines and digital storytelling projects at Svenska Dagbladet (svd.se), and as radio station manager and podcast producer. A Master of Social Science graduate from Uppsala University, Sweden, specializing in prejudice research. He has also studied Psychology end Economics at University of Edinburgh. Food and moody music lover.

Mary Thompson

Reporter

CNBC

Mary Thompson joined CNBC in 2000 as a general assignment reporter. She has covered a wide range of stories for CNBC, including the 2008 financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina from along the Gulf Coast and the mutual fund industry’s market-timing scandal in 2003.

Thompson has reported extensively on the banking and insurance industries, executive pay and the stock market from the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ MarketSite. She also appears on NBC’s “Today” and “Weekend Nightly News.”

In 2010, Thompson received a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for breaking news coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal. In 2005, she received a National Headliner Award for her reporting on price fixing in the insurance industry.

Prior to joining CNBC, Thompson worked for Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio, from 1992 to 2000, covering the stock market from the New York Stock Exchange and anchoring special coverage of Federal Reserve meetings. She also worked as a print reporter for Bloomberg, from 1991 to 1992, covering small banks and retailers.

Before joining Bloomberg, Thompson worked at Fidelity Investments in a variety of sales positions.

Thompson holds a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.

Follow Mary Thompson on Twitter @MThompsonCNBC.

Mayur Gupta

Senior Vice President, Head of Digital

Healthgrades

Mayur Gupta is the Senior Vice President, Head of Digital at Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Mayur joined the company in August 2015 and leads the vision, strategy and development of Healthgrades digital healthcare marketplace connecting major health systems with enterprise, emerging and innovative marketing technologies. His role is to drive convergence in the healthcare ecosystem by connecting healthcare data and creating context with content and communication, in order to deliver the most relevant and seamless healthcare experience for patients.

Prior to joining Healthgrades, Mayur was the first ever Global Chief Marketing Technologist at Kimberly Clark, one of the largest global consumer packaged goods companies. He successfully established a Global Marketing Technology organization at KC with responsibility for building a global, connected, digital ecosystem across Media, Content, Data and Commerce organizations. His oversight included everything from big data and analytics, media and content, eCommerce, CRM, mobile, social as well as driving innovation through a network of start ups, incubators and VCs. The goal: to ultimately CHANGE CONSUMER BEHAVIORS and drive top line growth for the company through seamless consumer experiences.

Last year, Mayur was recognized as one of the “40 under 40” leading marketers in the industry by BrandInnovators and also received the CMO Programmatic Award by the CMOClub. Harvard Business Review (HBR) and the Economist profiled him as the model Chief Marketing Technologist in 2014. He sits on various Advisory Boards including the IBM’s CMO Council, BrandInnovators and Global MarTech Conferences besides being a mentor for a number of start-ups. He frequently writes on the convergence of Marketing, Technology, Creative and StoryTelling to fundamentally change consumer behaviors and has been a big proponent of putting the HUMAN at the CENTER.

A self starter, digital evangelist, marketing technologist & innovation thought leader, Mayur brings more than 15 years of experience in leading digital transformation on both the agency side and the Fortune 100s. Adept at influencing Senior Executives, company Presidents and the C-Suite in high stakes decision making, negotiations, strategic partnerships & public speaking and writing. Prior to Kimberly Clark, Mayur spent almost 13 years @SapientNitro leading digital marketing engagements for global brands like Coca Cola, Unilever, ESPN XGames, Mars, Citibank, Chrysler, FIAT Abarth, Motorola, Burger King & many others; he lead the largest production studio for the company for a number of years before becoming the marketing technology thought leader for one of the North American business units.

He is a Buddhist and lives in Chicago with his wife and two beautiful daughters who help do his Human Revolution each day. If he were not here, he would be playing Cricket for India or Tennis for the USA.

Michael Krigsman

Founder

CXOTalk

Michael Krigsman is founder of http://cxotalk.com. He is recognized internationally as an industry analyst, strategy advisor, enterprise advocate, and industry commentator.

As a columnist for ZDNet, Michael has written over 1,000 articles on CXO thought leadership. His work has been mentioned about 1,000 times in major newspapers, television, radio, trade publications, presentations, academic dissertations, blogs, and other media. Michael has been quoted in about 50 books, published in the Wall Street Journal, and is syndicated on important technology websites.

Michael is often a judge in prestigious industry contests such as the CIO100 contest (CIO Magazine) and CRM Idol. He has presented to groups such as Harvard University, Babson College, Seton Hill University, University College London, Boston University, Suffolk University, SAP Sapphire, NetSuite SuiteWorld, Oracle OpenWorld, Dynatrace Perform, Federal Home Loan Banks, MIT CIO Symposium, Educause, CRM Evolution, SXSW, Cloud CIO, Minn. HR Tech Expo, CIO Mobility Innovation Summit, Enterasys Partner Advisory Council, Act-On tour, Cintrifuse Innovation Summit, Dartmouth Center for Digital Studies CIO Roundtable, and others.

He is also a photographer whose work has been published by the Wall Street Journal, MIT, CNET News, the National Park Service, Inc. Magazine, and others. Michael is on Twitter at @mkrigsman.

Nancy Hallberg

Chief Marketing Officer

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Nancy Hallberg leads the enterprise-wide marketing strategy for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), developing programs to help the organization boost its growth, increase visibility and support, and be positioned as a world-class cancer nonprofit. She directs an integrated marketing team that operates in all channels – digital, social, print, broadcast, email and direct response. The team supports all fundraising activity as well as patient outreach and education.

Her career has been devoted to building relationships between consumers and brands, embracing new channels that have allowed a more direct and engaging dialogue. She previously headed marketing teams at The Taunton Press, Bonnier, and Time Inc., Consumer Research at Condé Nast Publications, and led business strategy and marketing planning efforts for brand-name clients with both J. Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam.

She holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, with a major in marketing.

Phil Bienert

Chief Marketing Officer and EVP, Digital Commerce

GoDaddy

As CMO and EVP Digital Commerce, Phil oversees all facets of corporate marketing, including strategic planning and business development for Marketing, Global Branding and Product Management.

Prior to joining GoDaddy in 2013, he held senior positions at big brands, including AT&T, CitiGroup, Volvo and Ford.

Phil received his M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and his B.A. from Georgetown University.

Rich Napoli

CEO

ObjectFrontier Inc

Since 2010, Rich Napoli has helped lead OFS through a dramatic growth period and has positioned OFS as a leader in outsourced product development. Mr. Napoli has over 35 years of experience in the software industry running product development for five different software firms, including Voxware (NASDAQ: VOXW) and two others that he helped grow and then sell to Oracle and State Street. In recent years, Rich served as CEO of Fusion Technologies, an offshore software services firm that he grew and sold to Alliance Consulting in 2006. Rich also served as CIO for a division of State Street where he led an IT staff of 250 people. Rich has his BS in Computer Science from Stony Brook University and his MBA in Finance from New York University.

Robertson Barrett

President, Hearst Newspapers Digital

Hearst

Robertson Barrett was named president of digital media for Hearst Newspapers in January 2016. He is responsible for all digital development and product innovation of the next wave of news, information and entertainment across Hearst Newspapers’ local markets.

Prior to joining Hearst, Barrett oversaw Yahoo’s owned and operated media properties, content strategy and major partnerships, as well as Yahoo Media’s collaboration with Yahoo Product divisions. His work in 2014-15 included high-profile hires (including Katie Couric and David Pogue), creation and development of new owned and operated verticals, off-network content distribution and execution of major media partnerships.

From 2011 to early 2014, Barrett was vice president of Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance. While at the helm of Yahoo News, Barrett launched Yahoo’s groundbreaking on-air and online integration with ABC News and the development of a Washington, D.C., news bureau team boasting several blue-chip talent acquisitions from the news and political media space. He was also the architect of Yahoo News’ unique, user-centric coverage of the 2012 presidential race. At Yahoo Finance, the world’s largest business news site, Barrett launched a major strategic alliance with CNBC to create original cross-platform financial news video programming and go-to-market strategies.

Earlier in his career, Barrett served as chief strategy officer of Idealab’s Perfect Market, a Comcast-backed venture; EVP of Tribune Interactive, where he ran online properties in 40 U.S. markets, including latimes.com; and VP and GM of The FeedRoom Inc., an Internet news video venture backed by NBC. Previously, Barrett helped launch online ventures for Time Inc. (time.com), Disney (ABCNEWS.com) and Primedia (Channel One Interactive).

Barrett holds a bachelor’s in Ancient Greek from Duke University and a master’s in public policy from Harvard University.

Sharon Feder

Chief Digital Officer

Rachael Ray/ Watch Entertainment

Sharon Feder is the Chief Digital Officer of Rachael Ray’s parent company Watch Entertainment.

In her role as CDO, Sharon works across the company’s core media, consumer product and philanthropic initiatives to build new digital opportunities and experiences for the brand and its very loyal fan base.

Previous to joining Watch Entertainment, Sharon was the COO of Mashable, a company she joined early on and played a key role developing. She was actively involved in shaping Mashable’s community management offering, company culture and client-supported branded content, a program she helped pioneer at Mashable early in her career.

Sharon also held the roles of publisher, managing editor and features editor at Mashable.

In 2009 she co-founded and later sold MySocialDog, a hyper-local social network for dog owners.

Sharon is currently an advisor to The Muse, Mashable, FitBark and #GivingTuesday.

Susan Poulton

Chief Digital Officer

The Franklin Institute

Susan Poulton is President of the digital strategy consulting firm Door 44 Digital and the Chief Digital Officer of The Franklin Institute science museum in Philadelphia. She has seventeen years of digital media strategy experience, working with organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Before founding her current consulting firm, Susan spent seven years as Vice President of Digital Media for the National Geographic Society and prior to that spent nine years at America Online specializing in large-scale digital live event and content production.
An avid traveler, photographer, and space enthusiast, Susan spends her spare time photographing rocket launches and volunteers to provide media and digital training to non profit organizations around the world including photography workshops with young people through National Geographic Photo Camp.
Susan Poulton graduated from Virginia Tech University in 1996 with B.A. degrees in Journalism and English Literature.

Tianhui Michael Li

Founder

The Data Incubator

Tianhui Michael Li, PhD, is the founder of The Data Incubator, an education startup training STEM PhDs to be data scientists and quants. He has worked at Foursquare, Google, A16Z, NASA, JPMorgan, and D.E. Shaw. He is a Hertz, NSF, and Marshall Scholar and is an alumnus of Princeton and Cambridge. Michael founded a student-run conference in quant trading that features leading industry figures and raises money for educational non-profits like America Needs You.

Todd Unger

Chief Digital Officer

Daily Racing Form

As Chief Digital Officer of Daily Racing Form, Todd Unger leads a rapidly expanding digital business that includes DRF.com, horse racing’s premier digital media property, a robust e-commerce business focused on premium data and content and DRF Bets, the country’s fastest-growing online wagering platform. Unger has served as general manager of 5 major digital media properties spanning pure-play, publishing, cable television and video gaming, in both corporate and start-up environments. He was a pioneer in the Local online space, building Digital City/AOL Local into the country’s leading online city guide and led digital organizations at Lifetime Television, Time4 Media (a former division of Time Inc., with 19 high-profile enthusiast sites) and Major League Gaming. Prior to his digital career, Unger spent a decade in brand management and advertising at Procter & Gamble and Leo Burnett, where he worked to build brands in consumer products, automotive and electronics categories, including pioneering an entirely new consumer products category with the launch of GladWare Plastic Containers. He graduated from Miami University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.