Social Media Week NYC would not be possible without the guidance and ongoing support from our Advisory Board. Our board is a collection of game changers, connectors, community builders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and practitioners. Their collaborations help make Social Media Week a reality.
Advisory Board members:
Founder, Personal Democracy Media

Founding Partner and Co-Principal, The Morris + King Company

Andy Morris, co-founder and partner/principal of The Morris + King Company (MKC), specializes in developing groundbreaking public relations campaigns and innovative branding programs for clients. He has direct responsibility for numerous client relationships and is an acknowledged expert in providing crisis management counseling to high-profile individuals and companies. Mr. Morris also plays a key role in the firm’s overall strategic planning efforts.An outstanding public relations and marketing executive with more than 15 years of experience, Mr. Morris has led communications campaigns for companies in media, arts and entertainment, healthcare, the Internet and various corporate sectors.Mr. Morris is a master at strategically timing news and launch events to generate maximum media attention and exposure. He is also recognized throughout the public relations industry for creating exciting and original communications campaigns and events that build brand awareness. Among his many imaginative and inspired ideas include the writing of the world’s longest letter for Pilot Pen, the world’s first-ever Giant Pumpkin Regatta for Stew Leonard’s and recycling the famed Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree into enrichment toys for animals at the Central Park Zoo as part of a National Geographic Channel launch campaign.
Mr. Morris is the recipient of several honors and accolades for outstanding public relations programs, including the Creativity in Public Relations Award (CIPRA), the Public Relations Society of America’s “Big Apple” award and Bulldog Reporter’s “Silver Bulldog” award. He received a B.A. from Duke University. He serves on the boards of the Middlesex School Alumni Association, TweetDrive and Social Media Week. In addition, he is a Marketing Jury Member of The Real Time Academy of Short Form Arts and Sciences (“Shorty Awards”) and an advisor to Internet Week.
Programming Director, Social Media Week

Product Marketing Manager, Google+ for Business

Senior Vice President, Technology & Emerging Media

Chaim Haas is Senior Vice President, Technology and Emerging Media at Kaplow, an independent, award-winning consumer public relations agency. He also leads Kaplow’s Knext division, which focuses on the strategic communications challenges of agile, young and driven entrepreneurial brands that have the opportunity to become household names.With more than 14 years of public relations agency experience, Chaim is a results-focused strategic thinker with strong, active media relationships, a deep understanding of social media, and extensive experience planning and managing campaigns for consumer, business-to-business, technology, media and telecommunications clients, as well as coordinating multi-national PR efforts.Chaim graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in marketing from Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business.
VP, Marketing, Mr. Youth

Executive Director, Earned/Social Media, The Barbarian Group

Colin Nagy works at The Barbarian Group as executive director of earned and social media. He also co-founded the travel company Fortnighter.com, and is also a brand and communications advisor to several NYC-based startups including Percolate, OLO, and Lot18.Prior to joining The Barbarian Group, he was a partner at Attention, a social media marketing agency based in New York. At Attention, Colin helped Tina Brown launch the The Daily Beast, and advised other media companies such as CNN, Newsweek, Mashable and the Guardian. He also represented lifestyle brands such as Ligne Roset and Herman Miller as well as respected hospitality brands Morgans Hotel Group, The Ritz-Carlton and Hilton Worldwide.Previously, Colin worked in policy, crisis communications and public affairs roles for a range of commercial and public sector entities around the world, including The Brunswick Group, based in New York, and the East West Institute, based in Prague.
His work has been cited in publications including The New York Times, The Financial Times, Fast Company, Creativity and Monocle. Colin has written for AdWeek, the innovation blog PSFK, as well as various arts and culture publications. Colin graduated from New York University with a degree in Politics and European Studies.
Vice President of Emerging Media, 360i

Media Technologist. Author, Share This! How You Will Change the World With Social Networking.

Chief Innovation Officer, Founding Partner, MDC Partners/KBS+, Spies & Assassins, Various

Faris Yakob is a strategist, writer, public speaker, creative director and geek.Most recently he was Chief Innovation Officer of MDC and founding partner of Spies&Assassins, the creative technology boutique. Previously, he was Chief Digital Officer at McCann Erickson, and Digital Ninja at Naked Communications.He’s won and judged numerous awards, strategic and creative, served as chairman of the Content&Contact and Integrated juries for the Clios, created the NEW category for the London International Awards, and teaches at Miami Ad School.
He was named one of the top 50 creatives in the world by the Clios, and one of 10 modern day Madmen by Fast Company. He writes and speaks on technology, media, brands and creativity, all over the world and was featured in Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.
If you want him to write, speak, think about things or have ideas for you, you can find him online @faris and farisyakob.com.
CEO, Sawhorse Media

Gregory Galant is the cofounder and CEO of Sawhorse Media, a movement to make it easy to find the right people on the social web through products including Muck Rack and the Shorty Awards. Muck Rack is the leading network for journalists on social media which TheNextWeb called “None of the most useful tools ever invented for media professionals.” The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media; past winners include Ricky Gervais, Cory Booker, Conan O’Brien, Sesame Street, Neil Patrick Harris, Mike Bloomberg and NASA.Previously, Greg was an associate producer at CNN.com where he analyzed the latest trends in citizens’ media. Greg has worked at Newlight Associates, a $120M technology venture capital firm. In 1996, Greg founded Halenet, an award-winning Internet strategy firm while in high school.To help fellow entrepreneurs, Greg created Venture Voice, a podcast interview series with the founders of Twitter, LinkedIn, The Vanguard Group, Brooklyn Brewery and more. Greg’s a mentor in the TechStars startup accelerator. BusinessWeek named him one of the “Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs”. He’s also a member of Twitter’s exclusive first name club. You can follow him at @gregory.
CEO & Founder Deep Focus

Ian Schafer is one of advertising’s most influential voices in interactive marketing and social media. Prior to founding Deep Focus in 2002, Ian was Vice President of the New Media division of Miramax Films.Named a ‘Media Maven’ by Advertising Age and one of Adweek’s “Young Ones”, Ian has been featured in Wired, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Adweek, Advertising Age, USA Today, New York Magazine, Variety, CNN, Fortune and The Hollywood Reporter. Ian also sits on the executive board of the Social Media Advertising Consortium, and the Global Advisory Board of Global Social Media Week.An avid technologist, Ian blogs at http://www.ianschafer.com and can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ischafer.
EVP, Global Director Digital & Creative at MWW Group

Jared Hendler brings over 20 years of creative management experience in branding, advertising, digital media & technology forged from over a decade in the corporate world along with having founded and managed 2 new media startups.At MWW, Jared directs digital, social and creative strategy across all practice areas. As digital continues to democratize media, MWW recognizes the need for it’s clients to leverage the power of digital and social strategy, content creation, distribution and measurement.Prior to MWW, Jared worked with Katalyst Media. Founded in 2000 by Ashton Kutcher, Katalyst was named top 10 in advertising and marketing by Fast Company, Katalyst is a studio for social media that connects entertainment with technology and brands.
Prior to Katalyst, Jared was the Worldwide Executive Creative Director for Edelman Digital. Jared directed creative strategy with a focus on digital engagement. Expertise included everything from web site builds, Facebook programs, e-kits, online media relations, online promotions and partnerships, to email marketing and mobile campaigns.
Jared’s entrepreneurial spirit was grounded with 10 years of experience within the WPP family at Grey Advertising. Jared was the Executive Creative Director and co-founder of G2 at WPP from 1992 and grew the group from 2 people to over 100+ in NY, while spearheading the development of over a dozen international offices around the WPP network.
Jared is the author of a digital media blog, a prior board member of the Art Directors Club, a Blue Ribbon Judge for the Emmy Award’s broadband category and is an advisory board member of Social Media Week. Jared participates at industry events such as: Adtech, Digital Hollywood, Adage 2.0.
He is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and resides as their East Coast Chapter Chair.
CEO, NUE: Agency Founder, SoundCtrl

Programming Advisor, Social Media Week

CEO, MarketSharing

President & COO, BuzzFeed

Found & Executive Creative Director, KMco

Kenny Miller is the founder and Executive Creative Director of digital agency, KMco, where he drives the development of products and platforms for clients including: AMC Networks, Comcast, The New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Conde Nast and Nickelodeon.
Prior to launching KMco, Kenny led key strategic digital initiatives at Viacom including launching 2 digital cable channels for Nickelodeon (Noggin and Teen Nick) as well as 4 years as Executive Vice President and Creative Director for MTV Networks Global Digital Media. In this role, Miller created a set of technologies and processes to strengthen Viacom’s worldwide digital businesses. He developed and implemented systems that grew global traffic by more than 10 million monthly uniques through the integrated improvement of SEO, Video Players, and Social Networking.
Miller first joined Viacom in 1992 as Executive Producer and Technical Director at Viacom New Media, Viacom’s first digital media arm responsible for video game publishing, as well as Viacom’s first interactive cable tests with AT&T. During this period he also led R&D teams that created the first interactive music games for MTV.
During 1991 and 1992, Miller worked in Silicon Valley as an artist in residence and a designer of experimental interfaces for Apple’s storied Human Interface Group.
Miller graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering, and earned a Master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he has also served as an adjunct professor.
Director, Earned Media at The Barbarian Group

Kristen Maverick is the Director of Earned Media at interactive advertising agency The Barbarian Group. In her current role, Maverick works with clients to grow their presence within social communities and develop creative ways to generate word-of-mouth, newsworthy campaigns.Throughout her career, she has had the pleasure of working on award-winning work with clients including Pepsi, Mattel’s Barbie, Expedia, GE and General Mills.She was recently named one of AdAge’s 2012 Women to Watch honoring women in the media, advertising and innovation space.
Vice President/Group Director, Brand Content The Third Act, Digitas

Paul Kontonis is a leading voice in the shaping of the digital video industry with over 15 years of interactive media experience. Paul is the GM of next generation studio, Magnet Media Originals, which combines the best storytelling with the best of social engagement into high quality web series originals and video content networks.In 2012, Paul was elected to a second term as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Academy of Web Television, a non-profit organization founded in 2008 to promote and recognize excellence in web video. Paul provides leadership and strategic vision to the industry through such pioneering efforts as the IAWTV Awards at CES, and by representing producers, distributors, and advertisers at industry events.As Lead Advisor to Outrigger Media, Paul co-developed and launched OpenSlate, a online video analytics data platform which is the only platform to deliver actionable information about the value of YouTube video to advertisers. OpenSlate launched in mid-2012 to the advertising and online video communities and is tracking the top 15,000 producers.
Prior to Magnet Media Originals, Paul was the Vice President and Group Director for Brand Content at Digitas’ The Third Act, where he led the development of original and partnered digital brand content entertainment offerings. Paul was instrumental in orchestrating the first ever Digital Content NewFronts in which video leaders – YouTube, Aol, Hulu, MSN, and Yahoo – held web originals advertiser upfronts in New York City along with 15 other leading content and distribution organizations.
Paul has executive produced numerous original and branded web series, has appeared in a number of publications and digital media books, co-founder of the web video meetup BigScreen LittleScreen and a regular speaker at digital video and media conferences.
Head of BBH Labs, North America

CEO & Founder, Luminary Labs

Principal at Lerer Ventures

SVP, Fenton
