Warren Ackerman, Principal, VP Business Development, Affinitive

Warren brings over 10 years of interactive marketing experience to Affinitive with positions based in New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Sydney. It is this accomplished track record of marketing brands, products and services which has been instrumental to the development of Affinitive's products and services since he joined in 2003.

In Sydney, Warren managed the online sales channel for Ticketek, the leading supplier of sports and entertainment tickets in Australia. Highlights of this client-side experience include increasing online ticket sales by 200%, increasing Ticketek's customer database by 350% and managing a high profile product launch for the first print-from-home ticket ever in Australia. In Hong Kong, Warren spent two years working for China.com's online marketing consultancy The Web Connection. He served as a key member of the account services team managing client relationships for Citibank, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and STAR TV.

Warren started his interactive career in San Francisco, when he joined multimedia consulting firm, Mann Consulting. Warren has worked on projects for Apple Computer, Universal Pictures and Rolling Stone magazine.

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David Adler, CEO/Founder, BiZBash Media

David Adler is founder and CEO of BiZBash Media, the source for essential information about event marketing, meeting and event planning, and business entertaining in New York City, Los Angeles/Southern California, Toronto, and Florida. BiZBash Media operates BiZBash.com and publishes BiZBash magazine. The company also hosts the annual BiZBash/M&C Meeting and Event Style Show attended by the industry's top professionals. In 2005, the company’s annual award show was featured in the center column of The Wall Street Journal. In 2004, Adler was named one of the “25 Most Influential Leaders” in the meeting and event industry by Meeting News magazine.

From 1994 until 2000, Adler was vice president of corporate communications for PRIMEDIA and held the same post at Macmillan Inc. from 1988 to 1990. In those positions, Adler was responsible for events, public relations, charitable giving, branding, and special chairman and C.E.O. projects including the Notre Dame University Conference on the Holocaust in 1998. Events projects included the 50th anniversary of Seventeen magazine, the 25th anniversary of New York magazine, the annual New York magazine awards, the 100th anniversary of the Daily Racing Form, and the annual Soap Opera Digest awards celebration.

From 1990 until 1993, Adler was vice president of media relations and cause-related marketing, where he was responsible for development and execution programs such as the initial Avon Breast Cancer Initiative, the Reebok Human Rights awards, the Polaroid Missing Children Program, and the John F. Kennedy Library Profiles in Courage awards.

At the age of 21, a month after graduating from American University, Adler founded Washington Dossier. The magazine, which covered power, society, politics, and entertaining in the nation’s capital, was one of the pioneers of the regional luxury magazine explosion currently taking place. The publication grew from a 16-page newsletter to a 250-page monthly magazine when it was sold in 1988, and was featured regularly in the national media. Its regular annual features included the “Top 1,000 Most Powerful People in Washington,” the Diplomat List, the Social 400, and the Senatorial Dossier, a guide to the personalities of United States senators.

Adler resides in New York City is active in several nonprofit and professional organizations, including board positions on NYC & Company, the WNET Education Committee, and the Dean’s Advisory Council of the American University School of Communications. Previously he was a member of the board of trustees of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, the Magazine Publishers Association, and City Meals On Wheels. He also chaired the public relations committee of the Magazine Publishers Association from 1998 to 2000.

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Julian Aldridge, President, Freestyle Interactive

As president of Ammo Marketing and Freestyle Interactive, Julian is responsible for the overall development and vision of the two companies, whose clients include Electronic Arts, Volvo, Dolby, Cadbury-Schweppes, Honda, Speedo, Brown-Forman, Logitech, Microsoft and Lonely Planet. Julian was headhunted to head up Freestyle Interactive, and ultimately joined Freestyle as part of the acquisition of Ammo Marketing by Aegis in February of 2006, in order to lead the seven year-old Online Advertising Agency into new and rich territories in the digital space.

Julian joined Ammo Marketing in February 2003, from Red Sky Interactive, where he was most recently vice president and practice lead of AGENCY.COM's Red Sky division, which specialized in the interactive marketing of consumer lifestyle brands such as Miller Brewing Company, Kodak, Paramount Entertainment, The Coca Cola Company and Fairmont Hotels.

Julian's background covers 21 years in the communications and branding industries. A native of London, he learned his trade at some of the biggest and most creative shops in the UK, including Ted Bates and Mellors Reay, working on virtually every consumer goods category, from 3 years in the Petfood world with Pedigree Petfoods, to sports with Nike, to Tourism, Pharmaceuticals and Entertainment with the launch of The Disney Channel. During his London days he was responsible for many multi-award-winning campaigns for Nike, Sherry, Red Stripe Lager and DHL.

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Perry Allison, VP, Strategic Accounts, Alloy Media & Marketing

Perry has over twenty years of experience as a sales and marketing executive in advertising and publishing. She is currently the VP, Strategic Accounts at Alloy Media + Marketing and leads the charge for the company’s efforts in Word of Mouth Marketing. She has been at the forefront of several significant new trends in media- the advent of the internet and online advertising and also the early days of wireless advertising and marketing. As one of the founding executives at SkyGo, Perry helped lead the way in evangelizing the new medium of wireless marketing. She also served as the Global Chairperson for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). Prior to joining SkyGo she was the VP, Sales of AltaVista. During her tenure at AltaVista, Perry played a key role in growing revenues for the company by developing key commerce initiatives and partnerships.

An early pioneer in the internet advertising medium, she was one of the very first sales executives promoting internet advertising- working then for NewsPage, a web site from Individual.com. She also served as an original member of the Internet Advertising Bureau.
She has held an accomplished record of marketing and sales positions with leading Internet sites and print publications including Bolt, NewsPage, Walking Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Inc. Magazine and SAIL Magazine. She also spent several years working at advertising agencies in Boston and San Francisco.

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Dave Armon, COO, PR Newswire

David B. Armon oversees global sales, marketing and distribution operations for PR Newswire's 39 offices in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

A former wire service reporter and public relations account executive, Armon joined PR Newswire in 1989 as Cleveland bureau manager. He led his sales team to a dominant market position in Ohio and Indiana. After being named Midwest regional vice president, he orchestrated an aggressive Illinois sales campaign that contributed to PR Newswire's acquisition of PR News Service in Chicago in 1996.

After his arrival in New York as vice president for national sales in 1998, Armon concentrated on broadening the company's product offerings to include more interactive services. He has played significant roles in the company's acquisition and integration of the ProfNet and NEWSdesk services. He also served as chairman of a steering committee whose recommendations led to PR Newswire's presence on the World Wide Web. He was senior vice president of customers and markets before being named president of the Americas division in 2000. As president, Armon oversaw sales, marketing and personnel for PR Newswire's 29 bureaus in the United States, Brazil and Mexico. In August 2003, Armon became chief operating officer.

Prior to joining PR Newswire, Armon was a public relations account executive at the Saatchi & Saatchi firm of Rumrill-Hoyt. He worked as a business reporter and bureau chief for United Press International in Syracuse and Rochester from 1983-88.

A native of Rochester, Armon earned a bachelor-of-arts degree in journalism from Utica College of Syracuse University and has attended graduate business programs at Cornell University and the American Management Association. He is a frequent lecturer to business groups on subjects including crisis communications, using technology to reach shareholders and media measurement.

Armon is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and the National Investor Relations Institute.

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Dave Balter, Founder/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 firms. He launched BzzAgent in 2002, and since that time the company has established itself as the leading provider of word-of-mouth marketing and media 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 “40 under 40” lists published by The Boston Business Journal (2006) and the Advertising Specialty Institute (2001) and he was named “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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John Bell, Managing Director/Executive Creative Director, 360° Digital Influence, Ogilvy Public Relations

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.

He heads up the global 360° Digital Influence team - Ogilvy PR’s latest interactive discipline designed to manage brands in an era when anyone can be an influencer and we are all influenced in new ways. It connects our brand-building PR expertise with insider’s knowledge of new digital trends. This team of Digital Influence Strategists uses the power of personal media and technology and social innovations to create a comprehensive approach to all things interactive. He has developed strategy and executed award-winning programs for clients including Novartis, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and the National Institutes of Health.

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, gamers, fully interactive versions of Entertainment Tonight and fantasy sports. Turns out they were a bit ahead of their time but began a legacy of innovation.

He created the first Interactive Advertisement for American Express during that ITV trial. John went on to form Media Circus Interactive Advertising in New York during the 1990’s. 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. He designed and built complicated transaction sites like Gateway Computers ecommerce site and wild experiments like MTV’s Web service that connected “stringers” all across the country reporting on the music scene in their community (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. They had live, online expeditions from the field. Reporters would post stories, audio and video from Australia in search of giant spiders and from the bottom of the ocean where we explored the Titanic wreckage for the first time. All while the events were happening. 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 him to join a startup called HiFusion 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 an 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. They sold the company to Sylvan Ventures and moved onto the next adventure. For him that next adventure is Ogilvy.

Where did he get his schooling? John graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in European history and a minor in communications spending a lot of time at the Annenberg School of Communications.

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Ryan Berger, Executive Creative Director, Buzz Marketing, Euro RSCG New York

When Euro RSCG won the Polaroid business, Ryan's task was to buzz the brand by linking it to the absolute latest in pop culture. Turns out the hottest rap group at the time was OutKast and that their number one single, "Hey Ya," happened to feature the lyric, "Shake it like a Polaroid picture." But how to get in touch with the group? The answer was right there in Ryan's Blackberry, of course. The owner of a retail sporting goods store in Atlanta had contacted Ryan about an item, and the two of them had ended up shooting the breeze about music. Three guesses who knew OutKast's manager. A few days later, Ryan was in touch with the group, and the rest is pop culture history. Thanks to OutKast, Polaroid was in celebrity hands everywhere, from Saturday Night Live to the NBA All Star Game to the Grammys.

A pop culture icon was born.

And so was a career in buzz marketing.

For winning one of the top non-traditional campaigns for Polaroid in 2005, Ryan was featured on the cover of 25 Twenty Something's to Watch in Ad Age. The Polaroid and Outkast partnership was valued at $40 million. Euro RSCG spent $75,000 on the deal. No money ever changed hands throughout the partnership; instead Ryan organized events and programming and media coverage in exchange for the cameras and film.

Since that time, Ryan's career has been one big idea into the next, soon running the Buzz Group at Euro RSCG. Whether is was taking Lean Cuisine to Sundance to partner with Fred Segal for the first ever food delivery program in Park City to launch their Spa Cuisine, or bringing to life Jaguar's "Gorgeous" campaign with the first 'G' New Year's Ball at the red-hot Setai in Miami, Ryan has brought an edge and a sexiness to Euro RSCG and its clients.

Working closely with the creative department, Ryan's work has been tied to the communications of the brand resulting in consistent messaging across all mediums. Ryan tends to work across all of the Euro RSCG clients to make sure the right people are buzzing about the brand, whether that is through product placement, event/influencer marketing, or any other non-traditional vehicle that creates word of mouth that will benefit the Euro RSCG clients best.

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Jon Berry, co-Author, The Influentials

Jon Berry, Senior Vice President of the Keller Fay Group, is one of the nation’s leading experts on word of mouth and consumer trends. Mr. Berry is senior analyst on Keller Fay’s TalkTrack™, the first tracking study of consumer word of mouth in both online and offline channels.

Mr. Berry’s book The Influentials, co-authored with Keller Fay CEO Ed Keller, has been called the “seminal moment” in the development of word of mouth marketing, and was named one of the most important books of 2004 by the American Marketing Association.

Before joining Keller Fay, Mr. Berry was senior vice president and editorial director of RoperASW’s Roper Reports consumer trends research service. He previously was marketing editor of Business Week and senior editor for BrandWeek and AdWeek magazines.

The Keller Fay Group (www.kellerfay.com), a market research and consulting firm specializing in word of mouth marketing, was launched in 2006 by Mr. Keller and former RoperASW managing director Brad Fay.

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David Binkowski, Director of Online Outreach, Hass MS&L

David Binkowski is the Director of Online Outreach at Hass MS&L and is a member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). He combines his 8 years of entrepreneurial vision and Web experience with his clients' goals to create strategic online PR and marketing initiatives.
His client list includes GM, P&G, as well as companies that do not have two-letter abbreviations.

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Rex Briggs, Author, What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds

Rex Briggs is the founder and CEO of Marketing Evolution, a marketing research consulting firm with offices in New York and California, and with clients in more than 20 countries around the world. Marketing Evolution helps clients measure their marketing to improve effectiveness of their advertising and increase ROI—in other words, to get more for their money.

Rex has more than 15 years’ experience specifically in marketing research: He started his career at the strategic
market research consulting firm Yankelovich Partners, where his clients included McKinsey & Company, IBM, Toyota, Nissan, AT&T, Hearst Magazines, Fox Studios, Disney, and Microsoft. Before he was 30 years old, his marketing theories were being taught at Harvard and published in books.

The Industry Standard called him a “wunderkind.” Rex was named one of the dozen “Best and Brightest” in Media and Technology by Ad Week, and one of the people to “watch and learn from” according to BrandWeek. He has been honored with the Atticus Award for his work in Direct Marketing, the Tenagra Award for outstanding contribution to branding, and the Fernanda Monti award for his work in customer relation marketing (CRM). Rex pioneered the leading methodologies for cross-media marketing measurement, tracking television, magazine, radio, interactive advertising, CRM, events marketing, and the effectiveness of Web sites.

Rex has recently co-authored a book, “What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds” which was released in September 2006 by Kaplan Publishing. “What Sticks” reveals how companies can capture greater value from their marketing spending (and in some cases even decrease spending) while improving results.

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Dan Buczaczer, VP, Director, Denuo, Starcom MediaVest Group

Dan Buczaczer leads word of mouth brand communications agency Denuo, a division of Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG). Uncovering opportunities, partners and tactics of the word of mouth spectrum to create campaigns that spark effective brand communication, Reverb builds and develops brand advocate programs for Kellogg, Sara Lee and Best Buy, among others. Before joining SMG, Buczaczer was manager of advertising at Taco Bell. His team developed the “talking Chihuahua” campaign, which helped reverse company sales decline and won a Grand Effie for advertising effectiveness.

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Idil Cakim, Director of Knowledge & Development, Burson-Marsteller

In her position as Director in the Knowledge Management Group, Idil Cakim specializes in interactive marketing and custom research. She manages Burson-Marsteller’s Internet related proprietary studies, including the e-fluentials.

Ms. Cakim is the author of numerous industry briefs and articles on online entertainment, transitioning offline companies online, targeting valuable customers on the Net and e-commerce. During her tenure at Cyber Dialogue, Ms. Cakim has also been a public speaker on issues regarding ethnic minorities’ use of the Internet, e-CRM and digital music. She has been widely quoted in trade journals and newspapers such as the Industry Standard, Inter@ctive, CNet news, CBS Market Watch, Min’s New Media Report, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Sun Times, NY Post, and The New York Times.

Ms. Cakim holds an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School at University of Pennsylvania where she concentrated on cross-cultural communication and media intervention campaigns, and a B.A. in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College. She is a member of National Association of Minorities in Communication.

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Jim Calhoun, CEO, PopularMedia

Jim Calhoun is the CEO and co-founder of Popular Media, Inc. A Silicon Valley veteran, Jim has helped a broad range of companies grow their business through technology and marketing -- from startups to global leaders like Yahoo!, HP and IBM. Before founding Popular Media, Jim was a co-founder of CustomerClick LLC, a full-service direct marketing firm. Previously, Jim served as Vice President of Products at NetObjects, Inc. and a software reviews editor at CNET. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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Dax Callner, VP, Communications Strategist, Jack Morton Worldwide

Bio to come

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Jonathan Carson, CEO, Nielsen BuzzMetrics

Jonathan is a recognized authority on important online trends with a history of Internet business accomplishments. As Chief Executive Officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, he manages the company's operations and client relationships. Jonathan co-founded BuzzMetrics and nurtured it from a two-person start-up to a market leader, with almost no outside capital investment.

Jonathan is a leading thinker on the concept of word of mouth marketing. He is a co-founder and director of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, a highly successful industry group. Jonathan co-authored a chapter about the effect of the Internet on corporate governance for a Euromoney/Institutional Investor textbook with Jim Felton, the Central Michigan University professor whose Journal of Finance paper proved that the Enron scandal was first leaked on the Yahoo stock message boards. He is a frequent speaker on advertising and media issues to educational and industry groups, including Harvard Business School, Carnegie Mellon, The Conference Board, and ESOMAR, and has given special counsel to major political and military leaders. Jonathan is frequently quoted in the media, and has been interviewed by numerous outlets, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, NPR, CBS News, and MTV. Jonathan graduated from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

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David Clark, President, TALK Marketing

In 2005 Dave and two partners purchased TALK Marketing, a 28 year old word of mouth sampling company. TALK Marketing uses its proprietary database of 70,000 groups, clubs and organizations to help clients reach their target audiences through their membership in local groups, clubs and organizations. The grassroots sampling effort works through Group Leaders who opt into the program and agree to bring to their meetings and talk about the clients' samples, literature and coupons. The relaxed atmosphere of a peer group setting allows consumers to experience the brands and provides a venue for word of mouth.

Previously, Dave was the Founder and President of Celebrity Radio Productions. This syndication firm created daily, celebrity-voiced radio series for corporate sponsors and distributed the programming to medium and small markets across the country. The company focused on selling its services to the consumer products industry. For nearly twenty years Dave sold radio series sponsorships to advertisers including Kraft Foods, Ralston Purina, Nabisco, Johnson & Johnson, AARP and Time, Inc. Dave has also worked as marketing and sales director for a specialty medical magazine and sold publication services to public relations firms.

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Amy Cotteleer, President, A Squared Group

Amy Cotteleer is the President of A Squared Group, a full service experiential marketing company that specializes in integrating word of mouth programs into the marketing mix of major consumer brands.

A Squared Group’s award wining work includes the development and execution of viral campaigns for Gap, Nintendo and Motorola.

Prior to A Squared Group, Amy worked for the PR firm Harrison & Shriftman in their Los Angeles office. She is a graduate of University of Southern California with a degree in business.

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Steve Curran, Founder/Creative Director, Pod Digital Design

Steve is the founder and creative director of Pod Digital Design, a leading viral marketing company that creates games and branded broadband content to engage a target audience.

His company has produced successful viral marketing campaigns for clients including Warner Brothers, Atlantic Records, Art and Entertainment Network International, The History Channel, FuseTV and many others. Pod campaigns have been recognized by Marketing Sherpa two years in a row as top case studies of the year in their Viral Hall of Fame report, and have received viral marketing awards and nominations from MITX, and OMMA.

He began his career in creating interactive content in 1988, as a creative director in the video game industry, directing the marketing and development of video games for the Nintendo, Sega, Sony and PC platforms.

Steve Is the author of the books MOTION GRAPHICS: DESIGN FOR TELEVISION AND FILM, COVERGENCE DESIGN: DESIGN FOR ITV, BROADBAND AND WIRELESS, and is a contributor to the book CONNECTED MARKETING, authoring the chapter on advergames and branded entertainment.

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Sam Decker, VP, Marketing & Products, Bazaarvoice

Sam Decker has spent his career as a marketing leader in startups, as a consultant, and recently for Dell -- maximizing marketing, technology and online business results. As Senior Manager of Dell Consumer eBusiness for four years, Sam drove 4x growth in online conversion rates and consumer online sales over $3 billion. Sam launched Dell's Consumer CRM & Segmentation team, improving processes for sales call routing, direct mail, email, and customer experience.

Today, Sam is VP of Marketing & Products for Bazaarvoice.

Sam is a recent Green Belt, but a lifelong student of continuous marketing improvement through statistical analysis and creativity. He is also author of "301 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Ideas" and "How to Market with Computer User Groups."

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Tom Eiland, Partner, Conkling, Fiskum & McCormick

Tom Eiland is a charter WOMMA member and a partner at Conkling Fiskum & McCormick, a public affairs, communications, and research firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon. He heads CFM's research and word-of-mouth practices. For the past 15 years, Tom has conducted research for major corporations, associations, and government agencies. During the past year, he has worked on word-of-mouth efforts in consumer products, public affairs, and public broadcasting. Tom has a BA from the University of Alabama Huntsville, has studied international political science and economics at Georgetown University, and has an MBA from George Washington University.

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Laurent Florés, Chief Executive Officer, crmmetrix

Laurent Florès is CEO of crmmetrix, a leading customer listening company. Laurent founded crmmetrix by leveraging more than 15 years of experience measuring and building brands offline and online around the world. The company is based in New York, Paris, and Bombay and counts Fortune 500 companies such as Kraft, Coca Cola, P&G, L’Oréal, and IBM as clients, working in areas such as Relationship Marketing, Innovation, and Word of Mouth measurement. Laurent regularly publishes, speaks, and teaches internationally at conferences such ARF, AMA, ESOMAR, MSI, and WOMMA. He sits on the board of ESOMAR, the worldwide leading marketing research professionals association.

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Leslie Forde, VP Strategic Alliances, Communispace

Leslie Forde is responsible for developing strategic partnerships with customer-focused organizations including marketing consultancies, advertising and public relations firms.

Leslie has a robust history of bringing partners together. Most recently, she was the Corporate Sales Director for Cook's Illustrated and managed channel sales and marketing efforts across all products including: retail book distribution, sponsorship sales for the public television show 'America’s Test Kitchen', and alternate circulation programs for multiple publications and formats. In this capacity, she helped the company solidify significant international distribution partnerships and new channels of trade and established alliances with QVC, Williams-Sonoma, and HarperCollins Canada.

Prior to Cook's, Leslie was a Vice President at Northern Light Technology where she managed sales, marketing, and business development efforts in the US and abroad. Key client relationships included The Economist, The New York Times, and Fidelity Investments. She moved to London to launch the company's International Division, where she lived for over two years and grew enterprise clients and alliances by over 300% within the first six months. Previously, she held marketing and brand management positions with Xerox, Bausch & Lomb, and Allstate Insurance.

Leslie also has a culinary degree, and loves everything associated with food and wine. In her spare time she is usually cooking, running, reading, or spending time with her family.

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Maxine Friedman, VP, Corporate Marketing, Brandimensions

Maxine Friedman, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, is responsible for all aspects of global branding and marketing for BrandIntel. Previously, Maxine held various positions at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). As managing director of marketing, she managed all aspects of marketing and branding for the 2500–person organization. Her other roles at CBRE included director of business development and marketing director for the company's Global Research & Consulting Division.

Maxine has an extensive track record building marketing and public relations campaigns for both start-up and Fortune 500 high-technology clients. During her five-year tenure with Citigate Cunningham, a leading high-technology marketing communications firm, she partnered with executive teams to help establish their company’s leadership platforms and served a variety of clients, including Adobe, Charles Schwab, Informix, Infoseek, Oracle, Motorola and RealNetworks.

Maxine received her B.S. in Journalism from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. She is currently a candidate for a M.B.A. from Columbia University and London Business School.

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John Goodman, Vice Chairman, TARP

In 1972, Mr. Goodman became a founding member of TARP, a research and consulting organization that specializes in customer service and quality improvement.

Throughout his career John has managed more than 800 separate customer service studies, including TARP’s White House sponsored evaluation of complaint handling practices in government and business; studies starting in 1978 quantifying word-of-mouth, and the bottom-line impact of consumer education. He has also supervised more than a dozen benchmark studies of best practices for customer service, escalated complaint handling, Voice of the Customer processes, Web service and customer education. He has taught courses on quality measurement and improvement for Wharton Business School Executive Education and the American Society for Quality.

Mr. Goodman graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

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Rob Gould, Partner, Porter Novelli

After earning his doctorate in social psychology and an early career as a marketing professor, Rob joined Porter Novelli in 1984 as an associate director of research. Over the last 22 years, Rob’s played many roles, including stints as leader of PN’s research, crisis management and health care practices. Today he is a Partner of the firm, the Managing Director of PN’s Washington office and serves as senior counsel to many of PN’s major commercial and nonprofit clients. Among Rob’s proudest accomplishments has been his work for PN’s signature campaigns in “social marketing” - the application of marketing thinking and approaches to social and health issues. In fact, one of the most celebrated of those programs - the anti-tobacco ‘truth’ campaign - Rob credits as seminal to his thinking about horizontal influence.

A winner of numerous industry awards and honors, including selection as a “PR All Star” by Inside PR in 1999, Rob is a frequently sought after public speaker and serves on a number of Boards, including the Partnership for Prevention, the American Psychiatric Foundation and the National Eating Disorders Association.

Rob’s two young adult children are both his inspirations and mentors on the rise of horizontal influence.

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Bill Hanekamp, Co-Founder & CEO, The Well Advertising

Bill is co-founder and CEO of The Well Advertising, an innovative marketing firm that focuses on emerging media strategies and techniques - such as microsites, email campaigns, RSS, blogs, mobile, and online advertising - to deliver more efficient, ROI-based marketing solutions for its clients.

Bill has been in the online world since 1995 when his agency began creating online material for Sony Electronics, American Express, Sprint, and Gore-Tex. He then sold his agency in 1999 to an e-Consulting company looking to add creative and marketing services to its IT and Web offerings. Bill's unique expertise comes from his in-depth understanding of advertising and marketing and a comprehensive grasp of technology. In a world where the CMO and CIO don't often get along, Bill is able to bridge the communication gap to produce strategically sound, creative ideas that work in the real world.

In his former life, Bill managed the campaigns of national and state politicians before moving to Leo Burnett, where he worked on Philip Morris, Dewar's Scotch, and Sony. Bill graduated with honors from Dartmouth College.

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Kathleen Hessert, CEO, Sports Media Challenge

A thought-leader in harnessing technology to protect and enhance sports brands, Kathleen Hessert has worked in the sports marketplace since 1988. Hessert developed the Buzz Manager product, a tracking tool that measures online word-of-mouth through the combination of a proprietary search engine and human analysis. Hessert coined the term “Fan-Generated Media™” to better represent the passionate sports community’s engagement in blogs, message boards, chat rooms, and social networking sites.

A former television anchor, reporter and talk show host, Hessert founded Sports Media Challenge in 1988 in order to focus on building communication champions in the sports marketplace with a focus on Media Training, Reputation Management, Public Speaking and Image. Some of her clients include NFL MVP Peyton Manning, 4-time NBA World Champion Shaquille O’Neal, New York Yankee’s Captain Derek Jeter, and NASCAR Superstar Kasey Kahne, universities including Notre Dame, Texas and Tennessee, as well as the NBA, PGA TOUR, and ESPN.

Hessert is a popular conference speaker and the author and voice of “Winning the Media Game: A Guide for NFL Players”, “Power Training: How to Win the Media Game” and the "Coach’s Communication Playbook".

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Julia Hood, Editor-in-Chief, PRWeek

Julia Hood is editor-in-chief of PRWeek, the leading publication for PR and communications professionals. She began her career in publishing, and subsequently held positions in corporate communications for such companies as Mobil and BAT Industries. Hood has been at PRWeek for four years, first as a reporter, then as Bay Area Bureau Chief. She was promoted to her current position in September of 2002. Hood has an MA in journalism from New York University.

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Jackie Huba, Co-Author, Citizen Marketers

Jackie Huba is the co-author of "Creating Customer Evangelists" and the new book, "Citizen Marketers." She, along with coauthor Ben McConnell, writes the award-winning Church of the Customer blog.

Since 2003, "Creating Customer Evangelists" has organically grown into a worldwide phenomenon; the book has been translated into six languages. As an example of what word of mouth can trigger, prior to the book's release, Google returned only two mentions of the term "customer evangelists." Today, the search engine today finds this meme has hundreds of thousands of citations.

As a business advisor, Huba has worked with Yahoo, Brown-Forman, Microsoft, Ulta, Whirlpool, Discovery Education, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and others.

Her work in researching passionate customer word of mouth has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, BusinessWeek, Fortune, U.S. News & World Report, the Financial Times, Fast Company Magazine and several thousand blogs.

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Inus Hwang, CEO, Advantage Marketing Lab

Bio to come

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Ed Keller, CEO, 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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Rob Key, CEO, Converseon

Formerly head of the Innovations Group at a division of Young & Rubicam and member of the WPP.com board, Rob is CEO of Converseon, a leading digital communications agency that helps clients "join the conversation" to manage brands and drive sales. Converseon utilizes a range of cutting edge services - including brand monitoring, search and word of mouth marketing, digital PR, Search Engine Reputation Management (SERMA), affiliate marketing, Blog/RSS strategies and more - to help companies manage and protect their brand, build buzz, drive sales and more effectively engage target audiences in the digital environment.

Founded in 2001, Converseon provides innovative digital communications solutions to a variety of leading brands including Hilton Hotels, Paypal, Dow Chemical, Coldwell Banker, among others.

Rob's twenty years of marketing experience spans public relations, reputation management, search marketing, affiliate marketing and online media/advertising, which has convinced him that markets clearly are "conversations" that require new ways of communicating. He has been involved in digital marketing since 1995.

Rob is a frequent speaker at a range of leading industry conferences, including Affiliate Summit, Ad:Tech, Igniting Buzz, Syndicate and the Search Engine Strategies Conferences (SES), to help evangelize his message of creative communications innovation.

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Peter Klaus, Vice President, Fleishman-Hillard

With a background in i-media and youth, social, and cause marketing, Peter Klaus joined Fleishman-Hillard in November 1998. He currently leads Fleishman-Hillard’s online editorial and word-of-mouth strategy team, dedicated to achieving client goals through a custom-tailored approach involving earned media and relationship development in the Web environment. He also serves as one of the firm’s leading experts on blogging and Web-based self-publishing, maintaining relationships with many of the world’s most influential bloggers. His perspectives on interactive media and popular culture trends have been published in both general market and trade media including: Ad Age, Associated Press, PR Week, USA Today, and The Washington Post. Mr. Klaus also regularly serves as a guest lecturer for the communications program at the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

Mr. Klaus manages a team of online media professionals who generate increased awareness, relevance, and Web traffic for clients including: AARP, AT&T, Council for Responsible Nutrition, Dannon, Fortune, H&R Block, Library of Congress, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Park Service, P&G, Social Security Administration, Visa, World Wildlife Fund, and Yahoo!. He is a founding member of Fleishman-Hillard’s White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) account team. ONDCP’s National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is widely recognized as one of the largest and most comprehensive integrated social marketing campaigns in the history of the federal government.

Mr. Klaus also specializes in the integration of social issues, corporate marketing, and the Web. He has worked with companies and nonprofit organizations ranging from Ford and Warner/Reprise Records to America’s Second Harvest and WaterPartners International in this capacity. In 2004, he was invited to serve as chief creative strategist for the nonprofit organization STAND (Students Taking Action Not Drugs), a national, college-focused, peer prevention program funded by the Drug-Free America Foundation.

Mr. Klaus is a graduate of Loyola College with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. A member of SAG, he is also a classically-trained actor and graduated from Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory in Washington D.C. Credits include roles for HBO, National Geographic Channel, and Walt Disney/Buena Vista.

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Ted Leonsis, Vice Chairman, AOL

Ted Leonsis, Vice Chairman of AOL LLC, leads the company's Audience Business, which seeks to grow AOL's Internet audience via Web-based programming and products across AOL's leading network of Web properties - including AOL.com, AIM, MapQuest, Moviefone, Netscape.com, Advertising.com, Weblogs, Truveo, and others - and to monetize this audience through advertising, search, and commerce.

Leonsis is a pioneer of the Internet and new media, a sports team owner, and an innovator in the world of philanthropy. He has been with AOL for 13 years and is credited with positioning AOL as a major media company and inventing the successful channel programming model.

As head of AOL's core service, Ted became known as AOL's "champion of the member," delivering a world-class experience for AOL's members. He led efforts to develop cutting-edge products and programming across the company's dial-up, broadband, wireless, and voice services.

Prior to joining AOL, Leonsis founded and was CEO of Redgate Communications Corp., considered the first new-media marketing company, participated in launches of the Apple Macintosh, the IBM PC and Wang office automation, and founded four computing magazines.

As majority owner of National Hockey League's Washington Capitals, Leonsis has employed state-of-the-art consumer and interactive initiatives to dramatically boost the Capitals' attendance and revenue. He is a minority shareholder in the National Basketball Association's Washington Wizards with future purchase rights to the team and to Verizon Center in Washington. In addition, Leonsis' investor group owns and operates the Washington Mystics, a franchise of the Women's National Basketball Association.

Leonsis is a former mayor of Orchid, Florida, and sits on the boards of Georgetown University and several charities, where he has used the interactive medium to encourage greater volunteerism and involvement. Recently, he received an Andrew Heiskell Community Service Award from Time Warner, AOL's parent company. Leonsis was named one of the 25 most powerful people in sports by Sporting News and businessman of the year by Washington Business Journal.

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Nicholas Longo, CEO, CoffeeCup Software

Nick is the Founder and CEO of CoffeeCup Software. (www.coffeecup.com) CoffeeCup started in a real Coffee house he owned in 1994 and by intuition about the Web it became one of first 25 Internet Cafe's in the world. Nick was a Webmaster and Coffee house owner who was then unfulfilled by what software was available to create Websites. He started to create software while running the Coffee house in 1996 so every person in the world could create a Website or make what they had even better.

With over 10 years in the Web Design Software business he has helped develop the Web as people see it and use it today. CoffeeCup Software users number over 15,000,000 people worldwide now and Nicks insight and ability to connect with them on a fundamental personal level is renown in software and marketing. He is also the author of the book My Website is Better than Yours - Learning Web Design from the Inside Out, and numerous articles on marketing and business Zen. Nick was awarded a Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Endicott College in May of 2002 for his Technological and Social contributions to the Internet.

Nick believes software is about feelings and is something people hold to and actually feel. It is very personal and changes lives every day; which fundamentally changes who we are as a society.

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Owen Mack, Co-Founder/Lead Strategist, coBRANDit

Owen Mack is co-founder/strategic chief of coBRANDiT, a social media and marketing consultancy specializing in web video for online communities and opt-in environments. The coBRANDiT story includes brand hi-jacking, market research, viral video, and the launching of the world's first open-source ad agency. Recent projects include video production for Treehugger, fashion.psfk, ihaveanidea, and WOMMA, as well as production and consulting work for PUMA Running.

Owen's marketing interest originated with his involvement (starting at age 11) in the family retail business. This formative experience taught him early on the value of customer-centric thinking and the importance of presenting information honestly and authentically. Studies at Washington University in St. Louis fused his interest in vernacular design and marketing. His annoyance with conventional advertising led in 2002 to an epiphany: advertising ought to be about real people in real places discussing real product. He teamed up with partner Jesse Buckley and got to work producing unauthorized documentary "ads" for Schlitz beer and PUMA which received national attention.

Most recently Owen has been applying his knowledge of the web video space to new delivery systems including YouTube brand channels, Google video AdSense programs, post-roll content, videoblogs and other opt-in formats as well as consulting on video sharing tools in brand communities. He has been featured in various publications including Inc. magazine and Dentsu-ho (the Japanese AdAge), spoken at the New Communications Forum and PodCamp Boston, and been recognized as a Social Media Innovator at the BlogOn 2005 conference.

Owen lives in Boston, Mass. where he can be found riding bicycles made of spare parts and building plywood sculptures painted aqua blue.

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Axel Maier, Head of Business, Emergence Agentur fuer Oeffentlichkeitsarbeit

Bio to come

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Hal Malchow, President, MSHC Partners

Hal Malchow is one of the pioneers of political fundraising, voter contact mail and the development of advanced targeting techniques. His fundraising clients have included the Democratic National Committee, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Sierra Club, President Clinton, Vice-President Gore and many others. His voter contact firm, MSHC Partners, is the largest voter contact firm in America. Its clients include the AFL-CIO, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Sierra Club and a number of Democratic governors, senators and Members of Congress.

Over the years, Hal Malchow's political writing has won more creative awards from the American Association of Political Consultants than any other writer or firm in America. He has helped advance the use of regression analysis and other advanced targeting techniques and his book entitled "The New Political Targeting" is the definitive text in the field.

In 2005, the Direct Marketing Association of Washington named him the Sisk Vision Award winner for pioneering vision that has shaped the American direct marketing industry. The last two winners were the National Geographic Society and the marketing director of NIKE.

Mr. Malchow is President of MSHC Partners, the nation’s leading voter contact firm. He is also Chairman of Predicted Lists, LLC, a firm that provides statistical modeling services for non-profit fundraisers and political campaigns. Mr. Malchow holds a law degree from the University of the Pacific where he was named one of two outstanding graduates of his class. Prior to moving to the Washington area, he served as Campaign Manager for Al Gore’s first campaign for the United States Senate.

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Brian Marr, Group Marketing Manager, Windows Vista, Microsoft

As a senior product manager for Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition with the Windows Division, Brian Marr is responsible for all aspects of product planning, management and marketing for 64-bit Windows-based PCs and workstations. Marr will also be a vital participant when Microsoft Corp. launches the next version of the Windows operating system, code-named Windows “Longhorn”.

Marr joined Microsoft in 2000 as a product manager for Windows XP. Since then, he has worked for the small business team and recently transitioned to manage the Windows XP Professional x64 team.

Marr grew up in California and graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. After college, he worked as a system administrator for Coastek Inc. and as a marketing manager for SCO before leaving to join Microsoft. He enjoys photography, cycling and travel in his spare time.

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Michael Masnick, President and CEO, Techdirt

Mike is the visionary behind Techdirt, building up the core idea into reality and recruiting the management team. In addition to providing the strategic direction for the company, Mike oversees all editorial aspects of the Techdirt's public and customer sites. Mike's insight into the realms of business and technology are the basis for his frequent posts to the award winning Techdirt blog. The widely followed, often quoted blog was launched in 1997. Prior to founding Techdirt Inc., Mike worked in business development and marketing at Release Software, an e-commerce startup, and in marketing at Intel. Mike has a bachelor's degree in Industrial and Labor Relations and an MBA -- both from Cornell University.

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Tom McMillian, Director, Relationship & Interactive Marketing, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare

Tom McMillian is the Director of Relationship & Interactive Marketing at Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. Tom has led Pfizer Consumer Healthcare’s involvement in the interactive space for the last five years. Among a host of activities, Tom’s team profitably publishes a portfolio of newsletters to millions of consumer as well as recently orchestrated the award winning update of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare’s website.

As a core capability, Tom has developed a scalable WOM capability for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare that has supported recent new product launches.

Tom is an industry veteran of 20 years. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago and his AB in Biochemistry form Harvard University.

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Randy Melcher, VP, Sales, eCRUSH

Bio to come

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

Virginia recently returned to her southern roots by joining Brains on Fire in Greenville, SC. Until early May 2006, she worked at Fortune 50 powerhouse Dell, Inc., in Austin, Texas, as their first marketing communications manager focused on word of mouth activities and later as the head of online advertising for the consumer and small business segments. Miracle's projects at Dell include the word of mouth-led introduction of the Dell DJ Ditty music player in September 2005 via branded entertainment including www.ADitty4You.com. After beginning her career in enterprise software, she joined Dell's Corporate Strategy group in 2002 and also served on the brand side of Dell's Electronics & Accessories business before the dive into WOM. Ms. Miracle also holds a B.A. in English from Princeton University. Virginia (or VeeDub to her friends) is believed to be the first person to hold a word of mouth title in a Fortune 50 company. At Brains on Fire, she is the Director of Word of Mouth Marketing and is joining forces with Geno Church, the Word of Mouth Inspiration Officer, to develop a variety of identity focused WOM efforts from concept to completion.

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John Moore, Author, Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture

For the past decade, John Moore has made his mark in the marketing world by creating, championing and implementing marketing ideas and branding ideals for Whole Foods Market and Starbucks Coffee. Today, through his Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice, John shares business and marketing advice with small- to midsize companies aspiring to become the next Whole Foods or Starbucks. John is also the author of the Brand Autopsy blog and the author of TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE, a business management book from Dearborn Trade.

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Rick Murray, President, me2revolution, Edelman

Rick Murray was promoted to head up the me2revolution 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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Gaylene Nagel, Head of Lifestyle Marketing, Electronic Arts

Bio to come

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Jim Nail, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Cymfony

Jim Nail is the Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer of Cymfony Inc., an award winning market intelligence and media analysis company. Jim has an extensive background in integrated marketing through his 22-year career that spans online marketing, market research, brand advertising and direct marketing.

Prior to joining Cymfony, Jim was an analyst at Forrester for eight years, leading their coverage of 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 Forrester, Jim 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 including the Forrester Consumer and Executive Strategy Forums, AD:Tech, ANA Marketing Accountability Conference, and New Media Council and has been published and quoted extensively in top-tier media.

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Dave Neupert, CEO, M80

Dave Neupert is the founder of M80 Services, Inc., and acting CEO. M80 specializes in developing online publicity, promotions, and grassroots marketing campaigns for top entertainment properties and consumer brands. M80 identifies, empowers, and activates word-of-mouth marketing among online influencers and opinion leaders. Dave oversees the company's financial operations and provides the vision for the strategic direction of the company. M80 has developed and implemented marketing campaigns for more than 150 top entertainment and consumer brands, including Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Comedy Central, BBC America, The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Honda, Napa Auto Parts, Cingular Wireless, Fox Broadcasting, and Fox Home Entertainment.

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David Rabjohns, President, MotiveQuest

David is founder of MotiveQuest, a marketing consultancy specializing in helping manage the marketing and business implications of online consumer dialog.

Their unique "Online Anthropology" approach focuses on digging deeper than mere buzz measurement to create models of consumer emotion and loyalty. The eclectic group of world class strategists at MotiveQuest claim to live their Motto "Fearlessly Seeking The Reason's Why?"

MotiveQuest has worked in a wide range of industries with clients including Citibank, DuPont HP, Mini and Motorola.
Prior to starting MotiveQuest in 2003 David was EVP, Brand Strategy Director at Leo Burnett Chicago. David has also worked in marketing and strategy positions at IBM (UK), PepsiCo (Aus), Saatchi & Saatchi (UK) and McConnaughy (US).

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Paul Rand, Partner, Global Chief Development and Innovation Officer, Ketchum

In his role, Paul is responsible for Ketchum's global growth initiative and the creation and implementation of products and services to help clients communicate more effectively. Paul also serves as the senior leader for several 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 10 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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Robert Ricci, Director, Web Relations, Weber Shandwick

Born and raised in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, Robert is an accomplished, Web-obsessed, New Media professional who currently serves as Director of Weber Shandwick's Web Relations Group in New York. His journey thus far has put him before a wide range of clients including the Coca-Cola Company, Dunkin' Donuts, Electronic Arts, The Islands of the Bahamas, Marilyn Manson, Masterfoods USA, MTV Networks, Nine Inch Nails, Nintendo, Pepsi, Sony, U2, Unilever and the Walt Disney Company. For his thoughts on the changing media landscape, visit his blog.

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Nick Runyon, Director of Marketing, PrintingforLess.com

Nick Runyon naturally gravitates to roles where he can streamline processes to boost results. Nick moved to Montana in 2002 after graduating from Taylor University in his home state of Indiana with a degree in Business Systems Administration. After a stint as a ski instructor at nearby Big Sky, Nick joined PrintingForLess.com in October 2003. As a Technical Service Representative, Nick led his team to break company pre-press production records. In 2005, his work in optimizing the local press facility and co-managing press and bindery staff helped the production team set new all-time highs for plant throughput and efficiency.

In his current role as Director of Marketing, Nick is optimizing PrintingForLess.com's online, print and media marketing efforts, while managing public relations and assisting in new product development projects. Nick also directs the company's subsidiary CreativePro.com, an online resource for news, education and tools for graphics arts professionals.

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Stuart Sheldon, Director of Brand Activation, Coca-Cola

Stuart Sheldon, Director - Brand Activation for Coca-Cola North America, leads a team of marketing professionals responsible for national integrated marketing program development. Examples include the Olympics, NCAA March Madness, American Idol, Holiday (Sundblom Santa) and My Coke Rewards. He also currently leads word-of-mouth marketing efforts at CCNA.

Prior to his current role, Stuart spent four years as a senior brand manager, first on
Mello Yello and then Coca-Cola.

Stuart joined Coca-Cola North America in 1999 after eight years of marketing consulting work. As a consultant, Stuart’s client portfolio included work with Coca-Cola in nine different countries on four continents, with a focus on associative marketing. Other client industries include consumer electronics, white goods, financial services, apparel and footwear and confections.

Stuart and Karen, his wife, live in metropolitan Atlanta with their three sons. When not chasing the boys, Stuart plays water polo and volunteers with several local not-for-profit organizations.

Stuart graduated from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He grew up in Wichita, Kansas.

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Michael Silberman, Director and Senior Strategist, EchoDitto

Michael Silberman is the Director and Senior Strategist at EchoDitto, an online strategy and communications firm headquartered in Washington, DC. EchoDitto specializes in harnessing current and emerging technologies to build and sustain vibrant online communities and word-of-mouth campaigns.

Prior to starting EchoDitto, Silberman directed Howard Dean’s hugely successful Meetup campaign in over 1,200 local communities worldwide.
He managed the grassroots field operation and leadership development programs for Dean's prominent support base while developing an innovative online communications strategy enabling thousands of grassroots leaders to engage and directly connect with national headquarters. Silberman is frequently called upon as a source for the use of effective technology in converting online activity into tangible offline movements.

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George Silverman, Author, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

George Silverman, President of Market Navigation, Inc., is a recovered and reformed psychologist (ABD for a Ph.D. in educational psychology). His primary interest is in the psychology of marketing, decision-making, persuasion and particularly word of mouth, for which the formal study of psychology had not prepared him, but 30 years of marketing consulting has. He is the inventor of the telephone focus group, co-inventor of the peer word of mouth group (widely acknowledged to be the most powerful marketing method ever developed in the pharmaceutical industry) and has successfully used word of mouth techniques to accelerate purchase decisions for some of the most successful products ever introduced, including the VCR, the automatic teller machine, the Trac II razor, the NordicTrack and many of the most successful pharmaceutical launches in history. He is a past Treasurer and Board member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA), and has been Chairman of its Professionalism Committee. His book, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth, was published by AMACOM in 2001.

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Joshua Sinel, CEO, Kaava

A new media veteran, Mr. Sinel co-founded Kaava (then BBI Systems) in 1996 after serving as Executive Producer for PoliticsNow, a joint production of Times-Mirror, ABC-Disney, and The Washington Post-the first real-time, online political news center. Prior to launching PoliticsNow, Mr. Sinel served as a lead producer for the then-forming WarnerBros.com. Still earlier, he was an original member of the team that developed and launched Hearst's HomeArts.com, the first-ever venture to take offline magazine publications to the then-new medium of the Internet.

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Gary Slack, Chairman/CEO, Slack Barshinger

Bio to come

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Gary Spangler, Platform E-Business Leader, DuPont

Gary Spangler has worked for the DuPont Company for the past 25 years. He holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering Technology and an MBA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). Gary's career with DuPont has been extremely varied, including management positions in Sales and Marketing, Customer Service, Supply Chain, and Plant Operations. Gary was an early adopter in DuPont for introducing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for account management and in developing a Web site for one of DuPont's businesses in the late 1990s. This work positioned Gary in 2000 for his current role as global E-Business Manager for one of five technology platforms in DuPont. During the past 6 years, Gary's scope of work has continued to expand.

In addition to leading his platform 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, 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 business groups in DuPont regarding the role of the Internet for marketing.

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Gary Stein, Director of Strategy, AMMO Marketing

Gary has been in interactive marketing, advertising and communication since the mid-nineties. After grad school, he was the Director of Content at Mactivity, where he helped organize one of the first conferences for Web developers, as well as taught seminars, and co-authored a book. Following that, Gary worked at agencies Poppe Tyson and Red Sky on clients including Sony Playstation, HP, Lands' End, P&G, and Coca-Cola.

Before joining AMMO, Gary was the Senior Advertising Analyst at Jupiter Research, where he wrote dozens of reports on advertising practices. In his current position, Gary oversees strategy for one of the top word-of-mouth marketing firms. Gary also writes the "Intellectual Capital" column for ClickZ, maintains a popular blog on advertising and has appeared on NPR, CNN, and in The Wall Street Journal, MediaPost, CNET, BusinessWeek, and CBS MarketWatch.

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Greg Stielstra, Author, PyroMarketing: The Four Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them For Life

Greg Stielstra is the author of PyroMarketing: The Four Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them For Life (HarperBusiness, September 2005). An innovative marketer, author, speaker and consultant, he was the marketing director for numerous best-selling books including The Purpose-Driven Life, the best-selling hardcover book in history. He now works as Vice President of Marketing for Christian Trade Books at Thomas Nelson Publishers. Greg has his BA from Central Michigan University and an MM from The Aquinas School of Graduate Management. He lives with his wife and children in Franklin, TN.

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Chad Stoller, Executive Director, Emgerging Platforms, Organic

Bio to come

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Jamie Tedford, SVP, Marketing & Media Innovation, Arnold Worldwide

Since joining Arnold Worldwide's Brand Promotions unit in 2001, Jamie has focused his attention on leveraging non-traditional marketing strategies to develop brand building promotional marketing campaigns for clients such as Puma, Monster.com, VW, Truth, Southern Comfort, and Radio Shack. He has also leveraged his extensive youth marketing experience to help launch Arnold's youth marketing practice area, known as Project Y.

Recognized as an experiential marketing leader, word-of-mouth marketing pioneer and youth marketing specialist, Jamie has spoken at numerous industry conferences such as The Word Of Mouth Marketing Association Summit and IIR's annual "Capturing the Growing College Market" event. His team has enjoyed industry acclaim, winning the PMA's Gold Reggie in 2002 for the Truth Infect Tour. ABP has also won Reggie and Effie Awards for two campaigns last year: The VW/Apple iPod "Pods Unite" campaign and VW/W Hotels "Get Behind the Wheel" promotion.

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Mike Walsh, CEO and Founder, Leverage Software

Mike Walsh, CEO and Founder, drives vision and corporate innovation for Leverage Software. As a pioneer in Online Communities, Mr. Walsh has been instrumental in developing revolutionary business applications for social networking including sales lead generation, word of mouth marketing, employee recruitment, and brand building. Prior to founding Leverage Software, Mr. Walsh was co-founder and Vice President of Sales at mvion and Vice President of Sales and Business Development for ProjectArena which develops professional services automation applications to improve productivity and profitability of services organizations. Mr. Walsh holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and MBAs from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Columbia University.

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Betsy Weber, Chief Evangelist, TechSmith

Betsy Weber joined TechSmith in 2000 and is the company's Chief Evangelist. With nearly a decade of experience in corporate training and product management, she has worked on both the development and customer service side of delivering business applications. Betsy heads up the company's highly acclaimed evangelism program where she collaborates with customers, industry experts, and technologists from all over the world. She is also the voice behind The Visual Lounge blog where she shares stories about how customers are using TechSmith's suite of software products in practical, unique and innovative ways.

Betsy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing and Logistics Management from Michigan State University and resides in Lansing, Michigan with her husband.

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Debbie Weil, Author, The Corporate Blogging Book

Debbie Weil, aka the MonaLisaOfBlogging, has a unique background as a veteran journalist with an MBA and corporate marketing experience. Her consulting company, WordBiz.com, Inc., shows large companies how to brand themselves as customer- and employee-friendly as well as media-savvy... by using blogs, RSS, podcasts, wikis and other social media as next-generation marketing and communication strategies. Her clients include Edward Jones, HP and Wells Fargo.

Debbie is the author of The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right to be published in August 2006 by Penguin Portfolio. She invites you to download a free chapter at TheCorporateBloggingBook.com. She publishes an award-winning e-newsletter, WordBiz Report, read by over 18,000 subscribers worldwide. She blogs at BlogWriteForCEOs.com on the topics of corporate blogging and CEO or senior executive blogging. Her blog was recently named #8 in a list of the top 25 most influential authorities on the topic of business blogging.

Debbie worked at Network Solutions, Inc., the original dot com company, and has several decades of experience as a reporter and editor with major newspapers, including The Atlanta Constitution and Roll Call. She is frequently quoted on the topic of corporate blogging (Fortune, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, etc.). She graduated from Harvard with a B.A. cum laude in English, earned an MBA from Georgetown University and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin.

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Scott Wilder, Group Manager, QuickBooks Online Community and Collaboration, Intuit

Scott K. Wilder is currently the Group Manager of Intuit's QuickBooks Online Community and Collaboration website. Before working at Intuit, he was the Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at KBtoys.com and eToys. He has held numerous senior management positions at America Online, Apple Computer, Borders.com and American Express. When Scott worked at America Online and its subsidiary, GNN.com, Scott was involved in creating the first online advertisement and commercial website. Scott received master's degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and New York University. He also holds a degree in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University.

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Renee Wilson, SVP, Director, Consumer Practice, MS&L

Renee Wilson is Director of the Consumer Practice of MS&L/New York and is a member of the NY office Executive Team. She is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Consumer Practice, including client strategy development, client service, staffing and new business.

With more than 16 years of award-winning experience, Renee specializes in influencer marketing, marketing to women and launching new products. She plays a key role managing the P&G portfolio of brands including Always, Tampax, Febreze, Swiffer, Charmin and Pringles along with providing counsel to the Novartis (Keri Lotion), Cartier, Western Union and Philips clients. A strong proponent of developing word-of-mouth break-through thinking, Renee is helping to further the firm’s specialty in this area.

Prior to joining MS&L, Renee directed the Consumer Practice of another international firm and spent four years based in London managing pan-European programs for Kellogg’s and J&J. Renee is a member of the PRSA Board of Directors. She also has spoken at several conferences on international communications and marketing to women as well as published on the subject of international marketing.

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