President: Ed Keller, CEO of The Keller Fay Group

Ed Keller, CEO of the Keller Fay Group is known as "one of the most recognized names in word of mouth."

The Keller Fay Group (www.kellerfay.com) is the only full-service market research firm focused exclusively on word of mouth marketing. In April 2006, Keller Fay launched TalkTrack™, the first comprehensive tracking study of America’s word of mouth conversations covering both offline word of mouth (which accounts for 90% of all consumer conversation) as well as online.

Keller is an acclaimed author of the award winning book, The Influentials, the publication of which has been called the "seminal moment in the development of word of mouth." He is President of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), as well as a board member of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).

Ed has enjoyed a distinguished twenty-five year career in marketing and media research. Prior to founding Keller Fay, Ed was the CEO of RoperASW.

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Vice President: Paul Rand, President and CEO, Zocalo Group

Paul M. Rand is Partner, Global Chief Development and Innovation Officer at Ketchum and Director of the firm's Global Technology Practice.

In his role, Paul is responsible for the firm's global growth initiative and the creation and implementation of products and services to help clients communicate more effectively. Paul also serves as the leader of 150 technology professionals and the senior leader for a number of Ketchum clients.

Paul has led or co-led the development of four industry recognized services: ChannelEdge (a sales channel communications program); Influencer Relationship Management (an influencer identification and marketing program); Women 25-54 (a service line focused on marketing to women) and Ketchum Personalized Media (delivering services in blogs, podcasts, Search Engine Optimization and mobile marketing).

Paul has 20 years of strategic communications experience, with expertise in corporate, industry analyst, financial, crisis, employee, business-to-business, media and marketing communications. As the founder and CEO of Corporate Technology Communications (CTC), Paul led CTC into becoming the Midwest's largest independent corporate and technology communications firm and among the most respected in the nation. Ketchum acquired CTC in June 2001.

For ten years, Paul served as an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and has been featured and/or quoted on business and communications issues in media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, National Public Radio, The Chicago Tribune, PRWeek, AdWeek, Advertising Age and numerous other outlets.

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Treasurer: Rick Murray, President, me2revolution, Edelman

Rick was promoted to head up the me2revoluion in April 2006. This new, global group is Edelman's media lab, and exclusively dedicated to identifying, testing, incubating and championing new forms of communications that get people talking across new platforms and channels. In this new role, he will continue to serve as client relationship manager on Unilever's AXE brand marketing business.

Prior to taking the helm of me2, Rick directed the Edelman's various creative business units (design, production, interactive services and brand experiences), while also spearheading the development of its word of mouth marketing offering.

His principal areas of expertise include: brand identity, positioning and strategy; integrated marketing communications; and non-traditional marketing in both traditional and emerging channels. Today, he provides strategic and creative counsel to many of Edelman's accounts including Microsoft, Nissan, Johnson & Johnson and Burger King.

Before joining Edelman in 2001, he served as executive vice president of Golin/Harris International, and worldwide managing director of its CrossMedia division, an integrated marketing communications business he founded in 1996. At G/H, his acquisitions of Creative Event Marketing and Ovation Studios broadened the group's geographic scope and enabled CrossMedia to credibly service larger opportunities with Nortel Networks, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, TimeWarner and Samsung.

Prior to joining G/H, Rick was chief operating officer for Motivation Media, an experiential marketing company that focused on helping clients align employees and channel partners with their respective brand and business objectives. Its clientele included Citibank, Amoco, Ameritech, Allstate Insurance and Federated Stores.

He has also served as the president of The Promotion Network, a leading sales promotion agency, and as vice president, marketing for Pepsi-Cola's $1B Canadian business, where he directed that market's response to new Coke and led his team to soft drink category leadership.

Rick ensured that Edelman was a founding member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, and co-chaired its ethics committee during WOMMA's first year. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Vermont. An endurance cyclist and aspiring chef, he and his wife Lea live in Northfield, Illinois with their three daughters.

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Secretary: Laura Shuler, Chief Strategy Officer, President (US), Jack Morton Worldwide

As Chief Strategy Officer and President, US, Laura Shuler is responsible for continuing to evolve and enhance the agency’s value to its clients as a strategic marketing partner, and for driving the growth of its US operations.

Laura assumed the leadership of Jack Morton’s global strategy and planning capabilities in 2006 to extend the agency’s position as an experiential marketing thought leader and give clients enhanced offerings in platform development, audience insight and marketing accountability.

A member of Jack Morton’s Executive Team since 1996, Laura has played a leading role in growing the agency’s brand, its core offerings and its relationships with key clients. In addition to her role as Chief Strategy Officer and her leadership of the US operations, she has held senior management positions overseeing the agency’s New York office and its Eastern operations as well as its strategic development and US brand marketing.

Laura has been a passionate spokesperson for Jack Morton's evolution as an agency and the growing value of experiential and event marketing. She speaks regularly to business and industry audiences.

Laura received a BA in Communications from the University of Delaware. She lives in Rye, New York with her husband and their four children.

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Julie Wittes Schlack, Vice President, Innovation and Design, Senior Community Consultant, Communispace Corporation

One of the founding members of Communispace Corporation, Julie is closely involved with both the design and implementation of private, online communities that enable continuous customer conversations and allow consumers and companies to build dynamic, long-term relationships. As the Vice President of Innovation and Design, she appreciates the value of passionate feedback and suggestions from Communispace users in informing each new round of product enhancements, and as a Senior Community Consultant, she enjoys the process of stimulating and facilitating online advice and opinion-sharing in general. Julie is also responsible for the company’s cross-client, cross-community research that has yielded numerous white papers, speaking engagements, and fodder for bloggers industry-wide.

Julie joined Communispace Corporation after having served as manager of learning design for Omega Performance and for Micromentor. Her background also includes consulting and developing training materials for a diverse group of corporations and non-profit organizations. Julie has received many awards in her 15 years in multimedia, including four New Media InVision awards, an Online Learning award, and three CINDY awards.

Before becoming a multimedia learning designer, Julie ran the publications and training department of a large software company, worked as a technical and marketing communications writer, managed continuing professional education programs for practitioners in the field of lifelong learning, and worked as a psychiatric aide and as a labor organizer in the garment and electronics industries.

Julie has an Ed. M. in interactive technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a B.A. in creative writing and psychology from the University of Michigan. She is a recipient of the Hopwood Award for creative writing and a regular book reviewer for The Boston Globe. She spends her non-working hours playing saxophone (an untalented amateur), listening to jazz, swimming, doing yoga, reading history, writing fiction, and hanging out with her husband Mark and daughters (in whose lives she never meddles...).

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Sam Decker, Vice President Marketing & Products, Bazaarvoice

Sam Decker is a recognized expert in eCommerce, word of mouth, and direct marketing. A frequent speaker at marketing and eCommerce events and author of a popular marketing blog (www.deckermarketing.com), Decker brings 14 years of marketing and online retailing experience to Bazaarvoice. As Vice President of Marketing and Products Decker is responsible for leading Bazaarvoice corporate marketing, PR and product strategy.

Bazaarvoice, Inc., a company focused on engaging customer evangelists to share word of mouth marketing with its clients web sites. Bazaarvoice clients include Overstock, Home Depot, BassPro, CompUSA and PETCO. Three months from launch Bazaarvoice garnered 40 press articles, an Aberdeen award for innovation, and was selected for the Red Herring 100.

Before joining Bazaarvoice, Decker spent 7 years of leadership at Dell, Inc. in marketing, eBusiness, CRM, and customer-centricity. From 1999-2003, he led Dell’s consumer website and built Dell.com into the largest consumer eCommerce website at $3.5B in annual sales, and established global best practices in merchandising, analytics, product management, and operations. Sam pioneered Dell’s successful customer-centricity strategy and customer segmentation using Six Sigma methodologies. Later he directed marketing for Dell’s $1.5B installed-based marketing division, responsible for eBusiness, marketing communications and brand management. During Sam’s career at Dell he was awarded Employee of the quarter, Manager of the Quarter, and MVP of the Quarter.

Before Dell, Decker spent over six years leading marketing at B2C and B2B startups and is recognized as a pioneer in online community building. He consulted with companies such as Apple, Claris, Adobe and Borland to help them develop word-of-mouth and installed-based marketing strategies.

Decker has authored two books on word of mouth and guerilla marketing, serves as Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the Web Analytics Association, Board of Advisors for Texchange, and is an active member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and Internet Strategy Forum. Decker holds a BS in Business Marketing Management from California Polytechnic University.

Sam is originally from Bay Area, but the Austin barbecue, lakes, and friendly culture has him hooked by the longhorns. Away from work, Sam is with his top priorities: his wife, 9-year old daughter, and 6-year old son. Sam aspires to one day enjoy an impressive collection of unused technology, get his money’s worth out of Netflix, tap into a growing stack of unopened business books, and share thoughts on his blog once in a while on how to lead, live and sell more stuff to people like him.

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John Bell, Managing Director, 360° Digital Influence/ Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy Public Relations

At Ogilvy PR, John H. Bell is the Managing Director of 360° Digital Influence and the agency’s Executive Creative Director. John developed 360° Digital Influence to connect our brand-building PR expertise with an insider’s knowledge of new digital trends, harnessing the strength of social media on behalf of our clients.

John is always scouting the next wave of innovation that can help business, advocacy groups or social marketing causes build stronger, more genuine connections with people.

The first wave of innovation was Interactive Television in 1990. (Isn’t that where everyone started?) John headed up the Visual Design Studio at Downtown Digital, a joint venture between Viacom and AT&T to create the most futuristic vision of interactive television anyone could imagine. He created programming for kids and gamers and fully interactive versions of Entertainment Tonight and fantasy sports, as well as the first Interactive Advertisement for American Express during that ITV trial.

John went on to form Media Circus Interactive Advertising in New York. There he found effective ways to use CD-ROMs, including designing the first interactive advertisement on Launch, then a CD-ROM zine, for Sony Electronics. He also created the first I-Spy CD-ROM for Scholastic, extending the brand into the electronic space and pushing the limits of what an interactive experience could be. At the same time the Internet was exploding. John designed and built complicated transaction sites like Gateway Computers ecommerce site and experiments like MTV’s Web service, connecting “stringers” all across the country reporting on the music scene in their community. (Does it sound a bit like blogging? It should and the year was 1995).

Discovery Channel was one of the first media properties to really experiment with the Web. John was brought in to transform a single Web site into a network of 14 Web properties known as Discovery.com, including live, online expeditions from the field. Reporters posted stories, audio and video from Australia in search of giant spiders and from the bottom of the ocean exploring the Titanic wreckage for the first time. He designed and built online experiences for TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Kids, Discovery Health, Travel Channel, not to mention a host of digital TV network sites and global sites.

His experience creating an online adventure service for kids with Discovery Kids, inspired John to join a startup called HiFusion that was committed to building a unique school-to-home Internet service for the K-12 community. There, he created full-service portals with every communication function under the sun – IM, mail, message boards, even a voice-to-text alert system that would reach you on all of your devices. They had a nationwide team of education professionals working to bring the service into schools and communities everywhere. But it was 2000 – a pivotal year for Internet-based business. The company was sold to Sylvan Ventures and John moved onto the next adventure.

That next adventure is Ogilvy – and 360° Digital Influence.

John graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in European History and a minor in Communications.

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Jamie Tedford- Founder/CEO, Brand Networks, Inc.

Youth Marketing Specialist-Brand Marketing Veteran- WoMM Pioneer

Jamie founded Brand Networks to help clients recruit, engage and reward “brand lovers” within social networking environments. Brand Networks has launched the first brand “engagement rewards” platform called TOKNS within Facebook with partner PUMA. They have also recently deployed their private label word of mouth software “Brand Nets” on behalf of Houlihan’s Restaurants. Other clients of Brand Networks include Monster.com and truTV.

Jamie began his career at youth marketing leader Student Advantage. As a senior manager at the IPO bound SA, Jamie became an established and credible expert in the youth market, helping clients such as Coca-Cola, AT&T, and Nike to market effectively to teens and young adults.

He joined top U.S. brand advertising agency, Arnold Worldwide in 2001 where as the SVP, Marketing and Media Innovation, he developed non-traditional marketing campaigns for clients such as VW, P&G, and Timberland. A pioneer in the growing “WoMM” industry, he is a Board Member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. He is frequent speaker and his commentary on emerging media trends has been featured on ABC’s World News Tonight, and in NY Times, WSJ and Variety.

Jamie is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, and resides in Marblehead, MA with his wife and their three children. Jamie is an inconsistent golfer, fluky fisherman, reality TV junkie, and overjoyed Boston sports fan.

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Gary Spangler, E-Business Leader, Electronics and Communications Platform, DuPont

Gary Spangler has worked for the DuPont Company for the past 26 years. He holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering Technology and an MBA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). Gary is one of five E-Business Platform Leaders in DuPont.

In addition to leading his businesses in E-Business initiatives (including both B2C and B2B), Gary is considered a thought leader in DuPont for Search Engine Marketing, E-Mail Marketing, Word of Mouth Marketing, Consumer Generated Media and Lead Management. Gary has led or participated in several corporate level efforts including the development of guidelines and governance for handling e-mail across the enterprise, use of insights from online conversations to develop marketing initiatives and integration of an enterprise-wide CRM solution. Gary is often asked to speak to audiences inside and outside DuPont regarding the role of the Internet for marketing. Gary's work in Word of Mouth Marketing led DuPont to be the first Fortune 100 company to adopt the WOMMA Code of Ethics as a corporate policy.

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Jim Nail, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony

Jim Nail has an extensive background in integrated marketing through his 25-year career that spans online marketing, market research, brand advertising and direct marketing. Jim was an analyst at Forrester for eight years, focusing on how marketing strategies and tactics must adapt to technology-driven changes in consumer media consumption habits. His research addressed best practices in integrated marketing with a focus on how online media can augment the impact of television, print and other traditional marketing tools. Prior to joining Forrester, he helped launch Web advertising network AdSmart, where he served as director of marketing. He spent 15 years planning and managing integrated marketing campaigns at leading advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather Direct, Draft Worldwide, Bates USA and Hill Holliday. Jim is a frequent participant in marketing conferences and executive forums and has been published and quoted extensively in top-tier and online media.

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Virginia Miracle, Director of Word of Mouth Marketing, Brains on Fire

Virginia Welford (Taylor) Miracle was born and raised in Richmond, VA. While her parents - an English professor and a secondary education expert attempted to immerse her in literature, her interests led her to math, modern dance, and music. After beginning her Princeton career as an engineering major with a minor in dance, her eyes were soon opened to the power of modern British fiction and her interests re-aligned with the family tree. She focused her academic efforts and graduated with a degree in English Language and Literature, spending most of her free time on internships and various leadership roles with her a cappella group and eating club.

Upon graduating in 1998, Miracle moved to Texas to work for Trilogy, an enterprise software company going through explosive growth and aggressive recruiting in the late 90s. During her 4 years there, she ran a seminar series featuring Michael Hammer and originated the industry-focused marketing role, marketing Trilogy software solutions to insurance companies.

In 2002, Miracle was honored to be chosen for a position in Dell's Corporate Strategy group in the Office of the Chairman. This was a phenomenal opportunity to learn the dynamics of the computer hardware business and the players therein from the macro level. A large part of this role was research and analysis to build content for presentations by (now-CEO, then COO) Kevin Rollins. Following this role, Miracle joined the consumer segment and worked on the launches of several new areas of Dell branded peripherals such as printers, PDAs, and MP3 players.

In a major realignment of the consumer business in Feb 2005, Virginia was asked to help the company figure out where and how to execute "viral marketing" within the existing marketing communications portfolio. After speaking with WOMMA, Miracle redefined her role as Word of Mouth, educated the organization, and got to work. She is believed to be the first person to hold a word of mouth title in a Fortune 50 company. Through extensive agency selection processes, she learned more and more about the space and started to passionately read and watch the activities of others to learn. In this role, Miracle executed the word of mouth-led introduction of the Dell DJ Ditty music player in September 2005 via branded entertainment including www.ADitty4You.com. Since the turn of the year, Virginia has had the added responsibility of leading the online advertising team (responsible for lead generation form banners, product listing, and high impact placements) but has kept the WOM projects active.

She has recently announced a mid-May move to Brains on Fire, a naming and identity agency in Greenville, SC. At Brains, she will be the Director of Word of Mouth Marketing and join forces with Geno Church, the Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer, to develop a variety of identity focused WOM efforts from concept to completion.

Virginia and her husband Jed Miracle are in the midst of relocating from Austin, TX to Greenville, SC with their mutt Rudy Ray.

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Idil Çakim, VP, Interactive Media, GolinHarris

Ms. Çakim is the author of numerous industry briefs and articles on online corporate communications, targeting valuable customers on the Net and e-commerce. She has also been a public speaker on issues regarding online crisis communications, word-of-mouth, ethnic minorities' use of the Internet, and e-CRM. She has been widely quoted in trade journals and newspapers such as CNet news, DM News, CBS Market Watch, Min's New Media Report, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Sun Times, Harvard Business Review, and the New York Times.

Idil Çakim regularly writes about communication and word-of-mouth marketing trends for Burson-Marsteller's e-fluentials blog (http://blog.efluentials.com) and the Guidewire Group (www.guidewiregroup.com). She holds an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School at University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College. She is a member of National Association of Minorities in Communication, Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), Viral and Buzz Marketing Association (VBMA), and World Future Society.

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Pete Blackshaw, CMO, Nielsen BuzzMetrics

Pete is a recognized expert in interactive marketing, word of mouth, and consumer understanding. Before Intelliseek's acquisition by Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Pete served as the Intelliseek's Chief Marketing and Client Satisfaction Officer, responsible for major client engagements and marketing efforts.

He is a co-founder of the 2004 Word of Mouth Marketing Association. He authors a bi-weekly column on digital marketing strategy targeted to CMOs for ClickZ network and several work and personal blogs, including www.consumergeneratedmedia.com, www.hybridbuzz.com, and parenting centered www.dosbebes.com.

In 1999, Pete founded PlanetFeedback.com (later acquired by Intelliseek) after a career in interactive marketing and brand management at Procter & Gamble. He also co-chaired and organized the P&G-sponsored Future of Advertising Stakeholders Summit (FAST-Summit), resulting in P&G being named Advertising Age Magazine's "Interactive Marketer of the Year." Before receiving his master's degree from Harvard Business School in 1995, Blackshaw served as a press secretary and legislative consultant to then-Sen. Art Torres in the California Legislature, where he guided several consumer-focused bills to passage and initiated the nation's first "interactive" legislative hearing.

He has a bachelor of arts degree in politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

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Dave Balter, CEO, BzzAgent

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, Inc., one of the advertising industry's most recognized word-of-mouth marketing and media firm. He launched BzzAgent in 2002, and since that time the company has established itself as the leading provider of word-of-mouth services for the world's most esteemed brands, including Anheuser-Busch, Levi Strauss and Ralph Lauren. Under Balter's leadership, BzzAgent has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. In January of 2006, the company closed a groundbreaking $14MM round of institutional financing.

Balter is an international speaker on the topic of word-of-mouth marketing and holds a provisional patent in the process and systems of word-of-mouth marketing and research. He co-authored Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, which has become the industry's seminal business title. Dubbed a "serial entrepreneur" by The Boston Globe, Balter built and sold two promotional agencies prior to forming BzzAgent. Prior to launching his own companies, Balter spent a number of years working in customer loyalty capacities for companies including Kessler Financial Services, where he managed direct marketing and affinity program implementations for Fortune 1000 clients. He was named to the "40 under 40" by the Advertising Specialty Institute in 2001 and "Top 7 Individuals Changing the Face of Beauty" by Women's Wear Daily. Balter earned a B.A. in Psychology from Skidmore College.

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Scott K. Wilder, Group Manager, Intuit

Scott K. Wilder is currently the Group Manager of Intuit's QuickBooks Online Community and User-Collaboration Web site. Previously, he served as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at KBtoys.com and eToys. He also has held numerous senior management positions at America Online, Apple Computer, Borders.com, and American Express. While working at America Online, Scott helped create the first Web-based online advertisement and commercial Web site. Wilder has a Master degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, The New York University Leonard Stern School of Business and Georgetown University's Leadership Coaching Program.

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Jonathan Carson (Observer), Chief Executive Officer, Nielsen BuzzMetrics

Jonathan Carson, Chief Executive Officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics and one of the co-founders of WOMMA, is a leading thinker on the concept of word of mouth marketing and an authority on important online trends.

Prior to BuzzMetrics, Jonathan founded Intercities, an interactive consulting firm, and he also co-founded co-founded Outer Sound, an award-winning music Web site that he successfully sold to a music industry software company. Previously, Jonathan was a lead researcher for the Georgetown University Center for Business-Government Relations, where his work included projects for the World Bank and the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

He is a frequent speaker on advertising and media issues to educational and industry groups and is quoted frequently in the media. Jonathan graduated from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

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