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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.