#SMWNYC

Rishad Tobaccowala has been the chief strategist and the chief growth officer at Publicis Groupe, an advertising and communications firm whose 80,000 employees worldwide are dedicated to delivering marketing and business transformation. For his pioneering innovation, Businessweek named Tobaccowala as a top business leader. He regularly presents keynotes at industry conferences and speaks at well-known global organizations, including Bank of America, Walmart, Google, and Facebook.

Pam Wasserstein is the President of Vox Media, the leading independent modern media company, where she oversees strategic initiatives, including ecommerce and consumer businesses, as well as the New York Magazine brands. Prior to the 2019 merger with Vox Media, she had been the CEO of New York Media (since May 2016), leading premium media brands New York Magazine, Vulture, The Cut, Intelligencer, Grub Street, and The Strategist. During her time as CEO, New York received seven National Magazine Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and was named Magazine of the Year by both Adweek and Ad Age; Wasserstein received a 2018 Spirit of ABNY Award recognizing distinguished service to New York City, and was named to Crain’s New York’s 40 Under 40 class of 2017. She has spoken at SXSW, Advertising Week and Code Media, and on Time’s Up panels at the Tribeca Film Festival and Digitas NewFront, among other venues. Before becoming CEO, Wasserstein served as co-chair and head of strategy.

Prior to joining New York Media, Wasserstein worked at Tribeca Enterprises, most recently as vice president, corporate development. Before that she worked at Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm, where she evaluated potential investments and managed existing portfolio companies, and as a corporate lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP. She is a board member at Spaceworks, a nonprofit cultural community development organization, and at the Charles H. Revson Foundation. She’s a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Joe Marchese is the CEO of Attention Capital, a holding company scaling the next generation of media and technology companies. A multiple time founder, and sometimes media executive, Joe is also the co-founder and Chairman of Human Ventures.

As the President of Advertising Revenue for Fox Networks Group, Joe oversaw advertising sales and innovation for FOX Broadcast, FX, National Geographic and FOX Sports, which included tentpole advertising events like the World Series and Super Bowl.

Prior to Fox, Joe served as CEO of true[X], the leader in engagement advertising technologies, which was acquired by Fox in 2015. He has co-founded a number of companies including Human Ventures, a venture capital fund and startup studio.

Joe is a widely recognized leader in the media and technology industries and was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Achievement in 2016. He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center for Media and is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Human Ventures, the Tribeca Film Institute, Team Rubicon, and Clear Channel Outdoor.

He graduated from Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance.

Quinn is currently the Head of Partnerships and Consumer Experience for the portfolio of brands at Heineken USA where he gets to blend his two passions together; brand building and a great pint of brew. He joined Heineken in 2013 as the Brand Director on Newcastle Brown Ale. He then led communications for the Heineken brand as a Senior Brand Director before leading the Dos Equis brand here in the US. During his time at Heineken USA, Quinn has been named an Adweek Brand Genius, named to the Ad Age Creativity 50, and named a member of the PR Week Power List while leading campaigns that won almost 30 Cannes Lions including the coveted Titanium Lion.

Prior to Heineken, Quinn worked at PepsiCo and General Mills in Brand Management and Shopper Marketing leadership functions. Quinn started his career in the advertising industry prior to making the move to client side. Quinn received his BA from Gettysburg College in Political Science and Spanish and his MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in Marketing and Strategy. When not selling or drinking beer, Quinn can be found coaching his two daughters’ basketball and softball teams while occasionally running a marathon when his sanity slips.

Alison Moore is the Chief Executive Officer at Comic Relief Inc., also known as Comic Relief USA.

Moore comes to Comic Relief USA with extensive experience as a top executive in the media and technology industries, where she has successfully expanded business operations and growth initiatives for a number of content-driven organizations and world-renowned brands.

Most recently, Moore served as Chief Business Officer, Beauty Collection at Condé Nast, overseeing the brand strategy, monetization, and operations for women-focused brands, such as Glamour and Allure. Prior to Condé Nast, Moore was Chief Revenue Officer at SoundCloud, the global digital music and audio platform, and previously held senior positions at NBC Universal and HBO, focusing on digital consumer experiences, brand development and consumer engagement strategies.

In addition to her previous corporate roles, Moore is active in the entrepreneurship space, working with socially conscious start-ups and incubators. She is also a Board member of TRACE, the leading global media, entertainment and brand platform for connected Afro-Urban millennials.

Mathew Sweezey is Principal of Marketing Insights for Salesforce and is regarded as one of the leading minds on the future of marketing. His visionary insights into consumer behavior, technology, and new business strategies have changed the way startups, Fortune 500 brands, and nonprofit organizations alike find customers, break through, and build modern brands. Prior to his current role, Mathew was an early pioneer of the marketing automation space and played a key role in the success of the marketing automation technology company Pardot (now a part of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud).

In addition to his work with brands, Mathew is the host of the award-winning podcast The Electronic Propaganda Society and an accomplished writer. Mathew has written for many leading publications, including The Economist, Forbes, HBR The Observer, and Adage. His second book The Context Marketing Revolution, published by HBR, will hit the shelves in 2020.

Mathew is a graduate of the University of Georgia and resident of Charleston, South Carolina. When he’s not in the office you can find him at the local surf break in search of the perfect wave.

Raashi drives creative strategy for some of Google’s largest and most strategic products including Search, Maps, Lens, Photos, and Messaging on the Global Brand Marketing team for Consumer Apps. Prior to Google, she helped build the Creative Strategy team at Pinterest, where she worked across CPG, retail, automotive, technology, and entertainment brands to develop award-winning creative campaigns. Raashi got her start in strategy at Grey and Razorfish, where she developed insights and recommendations around storytelling and commerce experiences. She received her Masters degree in Integrated Marketing with a digital concentration from New York University and a BA in Neuroscience from Bowdoin College.

Botswana born and raised in the UK, Steven Bartlett is the 26-year-old CEO of The Social Chain – a global, social-first marketing agency and production house. From a bedroom in Manchester, this university dropout built the group’s two flagship companies – Social Chain and Media Chain – when he was just 22 years old.

Steven is currently based in NY, leading a company of 200+ like-minded individuals who are quickly disrupting the ever-changing social sphere. Social Chain’s impressive client list includes the likes of Apple, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Superdry, New Balance and Nokia, with their presence now felt in Manchester, London, Berlin and New York. Since its onset, the digital publishing house ‘Media Chain’ now owns some of the largest media assets online – reaching over 10 billion people a month through a series of online brands.

An award-winning entrepreneur with accolades such as Great British Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 and Most Influential Agency Figure 2018, Steven also acts as a speaker, investor and content creator, hosting top charting podcast, ‘The Diary of a CEO’. Steven is the voice of a generation, inspiring people daily with his disruptive methods, unconventional business model and unique company culture.

Neil is the co-founder and CEO of Whalar, the world’s largest dedicated influencer marketing company that was the first to win a prestigious Gold Lions at Cannes and is an official marketing partner of Facebook, Instagram and Snap.

Neil dropped out of Uni in 2006 with friend and future co-founder, James Street to start their first business. After a string of successful projects, the pair soon launched Shore Projects, a watch brand inspired by the British seaside which in its first year alone sold in over 30 countries.
Noticing a key shift in the way consumers connected with brands, they were able to grow Shore using social media creative and influence.

Rapid growth led to awards and recognition – one such being the top selling fashion and apparel brand on Shopify in 2015 and getting to spend a week on Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson. On Necker, the idea for Whalar was born and they began work on it within weeks.

Whalar now serves over 200 brand clients such Unilever, Hyatt, Estee Lauder, Gucci, Shopify, Porsche, American Express, Vodafone, Wallgreens Boots Alliance and is supported by an impressive board made up of Sir John Hegarty, Bob Greenberg, Roxanne Taylor and Andrea Wong.

Neil has built a reputation as one of the most renowned thought leaders in the social space, championing creators with influence, creative freedom and social influence as acquisition. He has spoken/is speaking at leading industry events including Websummit, Cannes Lions, Advertising Week, Dmexco, MWC and the Youth Marketing Summit.

YuJung Kim is President of The Dodo, the largest digital destination for animal content and most engaged with media brand in the world on mobile. The Dodo produces and distributes emotionally compelling and entertaining videos across the full spectrum of animals, from pets to wildlife. Previously, she managed the National Basketball Association’s digital media business, with a focus on distribution strategy and expanding the league’s footprint to international markets. Prior to that, she worked in finance across private equity and financial research in the technology sector. YuJung holds a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Mario Moreno is a passionate and strategic marketer who drives value and results in this modern day marketing era. With a background in social media marketing, Mario has managed to lead teams and drive strategic thinking with organic and paid social media and influencer marketing tactics. Mario currently is the Head of Marketing for H&M USA.

Gary Coichy is Founder and Head of Partnerships for Pod DigitalMedia. He’s worked at some of the largest media agencies from WPP Mediacom to Omnicom Resolution Media. He’s also worked with brands such as Lacoste, Verizon, Luxxotica, Volkswagen, BMW, L’Oréal and Dell.

After 15 years of leading marketing efforts on both the agency and brand side. Gary founded Pod Digital Media – a premium Podcast agency. Pod Digital is the first Multicultural Podcast agency network giving advertisers access to the multicultural audience segment in the podcast ecosystem. PDM partners with podcasters to customize and deliver tangible results to blue chip advertisers.

Gary Launched Pod Media when he was Looking to retain one of his former clients – L’Oréal Carol’s Daughter. Gary reached out to all the podcast networks, but they had very limited rosters of shows reaching his client’s target audience. That was the light bulb moment that pushed him to launch Pod: The gap in the marketplace for African American-, LGBTQ-, Women-hosted podcasts.

Gary grew revenue by 120% within the first 10 months of operations by partnering with the major media agencies and securing brand direct relationships. Partners include but are not limited to Moet Hennessy, Tidal, GroupM, Ad Results, OMD, Hearts & Science, HBO, Toyota,
Showtime, Harry’s, Hint Water, Viacom BET, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and many others.

Gary attended Berkeley College in White Plains, NY where he received a Bachelor of Science in Business. Gary also studied abroad at Regents College in London and has an Executive Certificate from Cornell University. Gary received Ad Age Advertising leading publication top 40 under 40 in 2019.

Kirstin Benson is the Global Vice President of Entertainment for Getty Images where she leads and manages Getty Images’ coverage of over 70,000 entertainment events including the Academy Awards, Grammys, Cannes Film and Sundance among others, each year. Kirstin and her team also oversee Getty Images STUDIO — the company’s end-to-end visual storytelling service that leverages Getty Images’ visual expertise and data to advise brands on how best to connect with audiences. Under Kirstin’s leadership, she has evolved Getty Images entertainment into a social-first, data-driven visual powerhouse, elevating in-house expertise and empowering creative outputs.

Kirstin and her team are consistently blending creative insights with Getty Images data around customer visual consumption habits and interests to help clients tell better stories. Her teams know that data can be an empowering tool to drive visual communications – all the better to inform, illustrate and connect.

Kirstin has 10+ years of experience working in entertainment, media most recently as the founding Editor of Instant, an all-video, first-of-its-kind outlet dedicated to the world of social media stars.

Kirstin is based in Los Angeles and holds a Masters in Communication Management in Entertainment from the University of Southern California.

Joe Federer is a strategist and author who employs psychological frameworks to navigate brand engagement. Having led social creative and strategy teams at major agencies like Energy BBDO and Ketchum, Federer went on to establish Reddit’s Brand Strategy team in 2016. His first book, The Hidden Psychology of Social Networks, will be published in 2020 by McGraw-Hill.

Rachel Tipograph considered herself amongst the digerati since the moment she became an eBay power user at 13. Forbes listed Rachel as one of its “30 under 30 Who Are Changing The World”, Marie Claire named her one of “The 50 Most Influential Women in America,” Fast Company named her one of “The Most Creative People in Business”, AdAge named her one of “The Most Creative People of The Year,” AdWeek named her one of “The Young Influentials Shaping Business and Culture,” Entrepreneur named her one of the “50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs,” Business Insider named her one of “New York Tech’s Coolest People”, Refinery29 named her one of its “Rising Female Tech Stars,” The Wrap named her one of “The 11 Change Agents Disrupting Hollywood,” and LinkedIn named her one of its “Next Wave: Top Professionals 35 & Under.” After being the Global Director of Digital and Social Media at Gap where she oversaw strategy, implementation and measurement, Rachel traveled the world for 100 days and then founded MikMak, the eCommerce platform for social video and beyond.

Chris Marino is the Director of Digital Media Acquisition at American Express in the Global Commercial Services division. Global Commercial Services provides a suite of payment and lending products, solutions for travel and everyday business spending, cross border payments, global currency solutions, and business financing. In his current role, he is responsible for optimizing a multi-million dollar advertising budget to convert small to mid-sized business owners on card and non-card solutions across paid social and display channels. Chris is a data driven marketer with a passion for quantifying the impact that brands are having through digital experiences.

In his previous role as Director of Global Social Media Strategy, he led the transformation of American Express OPEN’s social media strategy through audience first creative. Over his six years at American Express, Chris has worked in a variety of cross-functional capacities including Finance, Marketing and Strategy.

Chris graduated from Syracuse University with a B.S in Management and Marketing. He is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at the Cornell Johnson School of Management.

Chris is an avid foodie, traveler and Syracuse Orange basketball fan residing in New York City.