Alice Fournier
WD-40
Chief Digital Officer
Alice is Chief Digital Officer at WD-40. She is a growth-minded digital commerce leader, with deep expertise leading organizations through the changes driven by digital acceleration. With years of strategic work at the intersection of eCommerce and marketing, she has a unique perspective on brand growth, online. Alice is passionate about transforming organizations through a people-first approach, and has a demonstrated track record of building the capabilities to take traditional global workforces towards successfully meeting the needs of the digital world.
Alison Keith
COTY Inc
VP Global Digital & Media
Alison Keith is the Global Vice President of Media & Digital at Coty – one of the largest beauty businesses in the world. With a passion for data, technology and consumer behaviour, Alison has built over 20 years of marketing, creative, tech and media experience to bring some of the biggest brands meaningfully into consumer’s worlds.
Amanda Klemm
Colgate-Palmolive
Worldwide Director Oralcare
Amanda is a global marketing executive with 20 years of experience in consumer products and strategy consulting. She is currently the Worldwide Director of Oral Care at Colgate-Palmolive where she is responsible for strategy and brand development across brands big and small, including Colgate, elmex, meridol, Tom’s of Maine, and hello. Amanda’s global experience with Colgate-Palmolive spans 4 continents. Her experience in North America includes roles in brand, innovation, & multicultural marketing in oral care, personal care, & pet nutrition. As Director of Innovation & Advertising in Africa & Eurasia, she led development of unique bundles to fight local brands, in addition to launching successful global bundles. She built new capabilities for the region in the areas of eCommerce, digital marketing, & campaign design. As Marketing Director for Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, & Brunei, she led the marketing function to deliver sales growth & share leadership in key categories. She led the region’s digital transformation including building the eCommerce Marketing team which doubled the business year on year.
Prior to Colgate-Palmolive, Amanda worked in strategy consulting at Swander Pace & Company serving clients in the consumer packaged goods industry. Amanda holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Amanda Richards
MyPura.com Ltd
CMO
Amanda Richards is Chief Marketing Officer at Pura, the direct-to-consumer eco-friendly baby care brand that is disrupting the UK baby care market with high quality, convenient and affordable plastic free baby wipes and eco nappies, that are helping parents to protect the future of our planet today.
Prior to this Amanda was Vice President of Global Marketing for the Philips Health and Wellness brands Sonicare Oral Health Care and Avent Baby Care, based out of Amsterdam.
Amanda started her career with the multi-national FMCG marketing leader Unilever where she spent 20 years across global, regional and local brand marketing, media and innovation roles, based in the UK, then Italy and The Netherlands.
Amanda has a Master’s degree in Modern Languages from Cambridge University, is a native English speaker as well as being fluent in Italian and conversant in French, German and Spanish. She lives in The Hague, Netherlands with her husband Tom and two sons, aged 15 and 13. Amanda loves sport and travel, food and drink in more or less equal measure!
Amit Bedi
Alembic Pharmaceutical Ltd
SVP and Revenue Head
Business transformation and growth leader with 29 years of hybrid experience in directing strategic and operational excellence programmes in fast-paced, ambiguous environments. Possess an entrepreneurial leadership style; ability to grow revenue, reduce costs, and improve productivity; and flair for building and mentoring teams that create measurable value.
Recognised for leading organisations at different stages (start-up, expansion, maturity, and merger) – drove efforts for merger of two large, competing organisations in telecom space; setup and grew businesses of two start-ups in retail industry and one start-up in telecom; and integrated two family-owned businesses into a large MNC in FMCG sector.
Amos Susskind
L'Oreal UK
Managing Director
Amos Susskind is a Belgian executive currently based in London with his wife and their 3 children, Matan, Dan and Emma.
Amos’ career started at L’Oréal in Belgium in 2004 as Product Manager, quickly becoming Marketing Director for the brands Garnier and Maybelline in Belgium, before being promoted in 2011 to L’Oréal Paris Marketing Director Western Europe, based in Paris.
He then embarked, in 2012, on an entrepreneurial adventure outside of the L’Oreal Group, setting up a start-up in subscription e-commerce, “Deauty, Discover Beauty”, launching the first Beauty Box in Belgium.
In 2017, Amos re-joined L’Oréal in Belgium as the Managing Director for the Active Cosmetics Division, accelerating brands such as La Roche Posay and Vichy.
In 2019, Amos was promoted Managing Director at L’Oreal UK and Ireland for the Consumer Products Division, managing successfully the full P&L of top beauty brands such as L’Oreal Paris, Garnier and Maybelline New York.
Amos is an entrepreneur, actively seeking growth opportunities while reinventing business models. He is known for leading his team with a clear and ambitious vision, with purpose and values at the heart, leveraging the power and reach of the brands he is managing to impact positively on the society.
As a people manager, Amos leads with trust, empowerment, growth mindset and kindness. He genuinely believes happy colleagues are more productive and creative.
Andreea Sapunaru
Unilever
Global Marketing Director
Andreea is the Global Sustainability Marketing Director for Unilever Fabric Cleaning. In this role, she leads the sustainability agenda to enable the delivery of the company’s Clean Future commitments.
Andreea started her marketing career at Procter & Gamble, where she held a series of brand building and brand development roles in the Oral Care and Feminine Care categories, on iconic brands such as Oral-B, Crest and Always.
She joined Unilever to lead the household cleaning business in the UK, where she cemented Unilever’s leadership in the toilet cleaning category and turned the surface cleaning business back to share growth. As a result, she was asked to join the global team, to lead the expansion of their toilet blocks segment. After tripling the business, she decided to take on a different type of challenge, and led the global innovation strategy for the fabric care category. She continues to leverage her expertise in strategy and innovation in her current role, combining it with her passion for sustainability to nudge consumers towards sustainable choices via compelling innovations.
Andy Groves
Nestlé
Head of Commercial Framework
Originally from Northern Ireland, based in Switzerland, divorced, with two teenage kids and an amazing life partner!
Passionate about people, running & cycling and doing my bit to help save the planet.
Senior Commercial executive, inspirational leader of change, big picture thinker who values execution.
Across a 30 year career in local operational & world-wide strategic, Sales and Marketing roles, I have delivered business results, driven organisation redesign, defined commercial solutions and built individual, team & unit capability.
Currently Global Head of Sales and Commercial Development covering all Nestlé geographies, categories and routes to market (physical & digital stores).
Responsible for defining and implementing Group strategy to win with shoppers and customers including: revenue management, category strategy, channel development, shopper centricity, customer management, route to market and store activation. Driving global eCommerce acceleration: practices, partners, tools, data, resources, mindset. Leading the digital transformation of Sales: data & analytics to drive effectiveness, efficiency and agility.
Artur Martins
Kia Corp
CBO & CXO
Industrial sector executive with senior experience in several Global Marketing positions within four leading Groups (Kia Corporation, Volkswagen Group, Toyota Motors, and FIAT Group). I have international professional experience, having worked and lived in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Germany, and South Korea, speaking fluent Portuguese, Spanish, English, and reasonable French and Italian.
Wide experience, in-depth knowledge, and proven track record within the Marketing and Sales areas in different executive positions having played a fundamental role in the successes of the companies where I worked. Used to build profitable turnover growth through innovative Marketing Management and to see challenges as opportunities to invent and initiate pathways to turn around adverse business situations.
A great believer in the people’s commitment through empowerment and accountability, as well as teamwork to better, achieve results and overcome daily and future challenges. High personal commitment and self-motivation with full focus on the results and team building
Arun Sinha
Vestrata
Global CMO
Transformational Global Chief Marketing Officer who specializes in building revenue, brand, image and reputation among customers, employees, media, Wall Street and regulators. Record of growing brands to top 100 Global Brands. Expertise in providing growth through global change management, data analytics and digital marketing, and growing customer experience to become market leader in a category. Successfully launched more than 28 new brands and sub-brands, and consolidated hundreds of brands to create effective portfolio management. Unique combination of expertise from consumer goods, financial services, fintech, technology and academia. Creative, strategic, entrepreneurial, team builder, media commentator and author of highly acclaimed business strategy books. Awarded “Chief Marketing Officer of the Year” and “Marketer of the Year”.
ArzuYazgan
Tofas
Corporate Communications Director
Arzu holds a degree in Economics (English) from Istanbul University. She began her professional career as a planning specialist at Doğuş Automotive Service and Trading, which is the distributor company of Volkswagen Group Brands in Turkey, in 1995. Between 1998 and 2003, she served as Planning and Logistics Manager and VW Commercial Vehicle Marketing Manager. From 2003 to 2004, she took on the duty of Regional Director at Doğuş Auto Marketing, retailer company of Doğuş Automotive. In 2005, appointed as Alfa Romeo Brand Manager at Tofaş, the automotive company, which is an equal partnership of Koç Holding and Stellantis, which carries out the production, R&D activities of Fiat and Fiat Professional and distributorship of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Ferrari and Maserati brands. She continued as Business Unit Director of Alfa Romeo and Lancia in 2008. Since 2012, ArzuYazgan has served as Corporate Communications Director at Tofaş.
Bob Rupczynski
PayPal Inc
VP Growth Marketing
Bob Rupczynski is the Vice President of Consumer Marketing at PayPal. He leads the global marketing strategy for the platforms, products, and partnerships that sit at the center of PayPal’s two-sided consumer and merchant network. Bob is responsible for driving growth through game-changing marketing initiatives, leveraging an innovative suite of capabilities unique to PayPal’s platform, and defining a new standard for how and where PayPal customers pay and get paid. Prior to PayPal, Bob was the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing Technology for McDonald’s where he led the implementation of data-driven marketing across the McDonald’s consumer base. Before McDonald’s, Bob was the Kraft Foods Group Vice President of Media and Consumer Engagement, responsible for reinventing Kraft’s marketing capability and consumer communications in the age of media, data and digital disruption. Bob has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science/Mathematics, and a Master’s degree in Integrated Marketing. He is from Chicago and outside of work, enjoys the freedom that his hobby of aviation allows him.
Carlos Zepeda
Moët Hennessy
VP Strategy and Transformation
Carlos Zepeda is VP, Strategy and Transformation for Moet Hennessy USA. He is responsible for the growth agenda and for driving an enterprise-wide transformation to achieve the 2030 vision and ambition by embedding strategy into the organization and focusing resources on key strategic imperatives and capabilities.
He joined Moet Hennessy as VP for Belvedere Vodka in 2014, leading the US business and marketing agenda for the brand. Prior to Moet Hennessy he was VP of Marketing for Havaianas, leading the expansion of this iconic Brazilian brand in the US.
Previously, he held several marketing roles at PepsiCo over a span of 10 years where he led marketing for Diet Pepsi, Starbucks Frappuccino Ready-to-Drink, and customer marketing for the Foodservice division. He served as chair of Adelante, PepsiCo’s LatinX ERG in the US.
Earlier in his career, Carlos held consulting positions at Ernst & Young’s Customer Connections practice and at Peppers and Rogers Group, both in NYC working for a diverse industry set including Retail, Telecommunications, Luxury Automotive, Consumer Financial Services and Real Estate.
Carlos is passionate about developing talent and building high performing teams. He is co-chair for ANA’s Educational Foundation Talent Forward Committee and an advisory board member of Fashion Institute of Technology’s (FIT) global marketing program.
Catherine Tan-Gillespie,
Brands - KFC Global
Global CMO Yum!
Catherine Tan- Gillespie serves as the Global Chief Marketing Officer for KFC, based in Dallas, TX. In her role, she oversees Marketing strategy, communications, promotions, pricing and food development activities, and is responsible for omni-channel restaurant revenue growth.
Catherine began her career in the UK, as an intern at Hewlett Packard, then joining the Pepsi-Co graduate program. She transferred to Australia in 2000 and since then, held a number of roles in sales, marketing, strategy and general management. Throughout her career, she’s worked for large food and beverage businesses, as well as for Sony Pictures, where she helped successfully merge with Universal Pictures and took a position on the board. She joined KFC Australia in 2015 as Marketing Director, then Chief Marketing Officer, before moving to her Global role in 2017.
During her, almost two decades, in Australia, she attained an MBA (with excellence), met her husband and was lucky enough to have two daughters. While her passion is marketing, food and all things KFC; she enjoys pottering at home with her family, renovating, practicing Iyengar yoga, being healthy and outdoors, exploring new places especially in her RV, and trying to create a simple life that is Finger Lickin’ Good!
Ceren Turkben Kaya , MasterCard, VP Marketing and Communications, HGEM
Senior Executive with 18+years of marketing and strategic leadership experience in United Kingdom and Turkey with a track record of business turnarounds and sustainable growth across diverse brands. Started her career in Reckitt Benckiser Marketing department in 2002. She later joined Unilever Turkey in 2003 and managed a diverse set of brands in multiple categories from Dove to Cornetto. Snuggle to Sana. She introduced Ben& Jerry’s in Turkish market. By October 2010 she moved to London to become senior global marketing manager for Flora for Unilever. In 2013 she joined Mastercard Turkey office as Head of Marketing South East Europe. In 2019 March, she was appointed as Vice President Marketing and Communications for High Growth European Markets. Likes travelling, cool hunting and reading. Mentors and volunteers for charities like CMD.org.tr in her free time.
Chad Wolf
Optimizely
Executive Vice President & Chief Customer Officer
Throughout my career, I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with highly talented people at high growth and innovative companies including Parker Hannifin, Sprint PCS (acquired by T-Mobile), my own consultancy eVergance, KANA Software, Verint, Episerver, and now Optimizely. I have gained deep experience in Customer Success, global technology operations, consulting, cloud services, and education/learning functions driving pipeline, revenue, and margin success via the execution of organic and M&A strategies. I am an active investor in technology start-ups assisting with go-to-market and revenue-generating activities.
As Chief Customer Officer at Optimizely, I am passionate about driving the success of our customers. Since joining the company in 2016, we have taken great strides to help our customer and partners. in 2021, we launched our innovative program "Customers for Life" which is about transforming the way we do our business to drive growth and lasting value for our customers. My other great passion is helping our team members succeed, both with their own growth and within the teams that they serve. We truly believe Optimizely is a great place to work and strive to make that a reality every day.
In my personal life, I am married and have 2 sons. I live in Overland Park, Kansas, USA. Outside of time with my family, I enjoy playing golf, working on home projects, and reading!
Cheryl Rodness
Calix
Leader, Talent Enablement and Culture
Cheryl brings over 20 years Marketing expertise in both high tech and consumer goods. Her career has spanned across the marketing discipline with a focus on GTM strategy, persona-based marketing, insights & analytics and marketing skills/training development. She is currently the Leader of Talent Enablement & Culture at Calix.
Prior to Calix, Cheryl has held executive leadership roles as IBM, Juniper Networks, Unisys and J. Walter Thompson. In addition, Cheryl has taught several marketing and organizational leadership classes at the graduate level as an adjunct professor and is often asked to speak at 3rd party and client events.
Chris Osner-Hackett,
Sanofi, Consumer Healthcare
Head of Integrated Marketing
Chris Osner-Hackett is an accomplished global marketing leader with demonstrated success connecting data-driven marketing solutions to today's business challenges to drive profitable growth. He excels at building and leading large cross-functional teams to deliver outcome-based strategies by pioneering new technologies that transform consumer experiences.
Chris is recognized as a trusted, collaborative, and engaged leader who creates a culture of inclusion, integrity, and achievement. He is well respected across all levels for facilitating change while promoting diversity of thought and accountability. Chris serves on the Advisory Boards of Google, Verizon, and Montclair State University’s Feliciano School of Business.
Christina Bauer-Plank
Unilever
Global VP, Hellmann’s
Christina leads Hellmann’s, one of Unilever’s biggest food brands found in millions of homes across the world. 25 years ago, her PhD in Chemistry took her into R&D at Unilever, an MBA then into marketing. Christina served in multiple roles across Unilever’s Foods business and now brings her expertise to both the science and communications of sustainability and purposeful brands. Next to Hellmann’s, Christina leads the food waste agenda across Unilever and she is member of the Champions 12.3 Consumer Behavior Change taskforce. Today, Hellmann’s is committed to helping people around the world to become more resourceful with their food and make taste, not waste.
Cigdem Kurtulus
Reckitt Benckiser
CMO, UK& Ireland
Cigdem joined Reckitt in 2020 and is responsible for Marketing, Research, Media and Digital Transformation in the UKIHygiene business. She brings over 20 years of marketing and household goods expertise to her role and since she joined Reckitt, Cigdem has driven its purpose-led approach to marketing for trusted consumer brands including Vanish, Finish and Air Wick.
Cigdem is a digital transformation leader and has been leading the global transformation for Reckitt Western European countries. She is also a certified Scrum and Agile Coach.
Before joining Reckitt, she spent 16 years at Unilever joining in 2004 as a Brand Manager in Central Asia, Cigdem held a variety of local and international Brand, Global Category, Marketing and Agile Innovation roles. She held various roles at L’oreal before Unilever.
Cigdem still continues her post grad studies at University of Oxford in Innovation & Strategy and holds an Economics Degree from Marmara University in Turkey. She has worked & lived in Turkey, Central Asia, Switzerland and London, and enjoys spending time with her two children.
Cynthia Chu
Audible
CFO
Cynthia Chu joined Audible in 2015 as Chief Financial Officer. Adding oversight of marketing in 2021, her role has since expanded to CFO and Growth Officer. She most recently served as CFO for the USA Network division of Comcast NBC Universal, which followed her first divisional CFO appointment overseeing NBC's newly acquired Oxygen Media. Prior to her long career with NBC, Cynthia worked at GE, where she earned a Six Sigma black belt qualification. A native of Hong Kong, Cynthia is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.
Dan Thomas
UN Global Compact
Chief, Communications and Strategic Events
Dan Thomas leads communications and strategic events for the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.
Before joining the UN Global Compact in 2018, he served as Communications Director for the 70th and 71st Presidents of the UN General Assembly.
He joined the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General in 2014 to head up communications, mobilization and outreach for the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Team in the lead up to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.
A former journalist with Reuters and BBC Television News, Dan joined UNICEF as a multimedia producer in 2000. In 2008, he left the UN to head up media and communications for Gavi – a public-private global health partnership based in Geneva.
He has worked in more than 50 countries including Afghanistan, Ethiopia and North Korea and lived in Cardiff, Hong Kong, London, Nairobi, Geneva and New York.
Danielle Bibas
Avon
CMO Brasil
Danielle Bibas is VP of Marketing at Avon Brazil. She started her career at Avon in 2010 as VP of Marketing for Latin America and later became responsible for the fragrance category globally and after that for the global strategy of the Avon brand. Between 2018 and 2020, she was responsible for Avon Brazil's external and internal communications, from a commercial area to the sales force, in addition to leading the cultural change project of the Brazilian subsidiary until March 2020.
During her carreer, Danielle has lived across 5 countries in Latin America, Europe and North America. She has a strong business development professional skilled in Marketing Management, Business Planning, Consumer Products, Market Research, Product and upstream Innovation to deliver strong P&L results and Organizational strength.
Graduated in Business Administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), Danielle is a mentor to other women executives and elected Women To Watch in 2018. She is an advisor to the Brazilian Association of Advertisers (ABA) and mentored by the Woman Business Director (WCD), where she prepares to act as an independent advisor and to increase the number of women in leadership.
David Tinson,
Electronic Arts
CMO
David Tinson is the Chief Marketing Officer at Electronic Arts. For more than 15 years, he has driven EA’s marketing and communications transformation, contributing to the company’s growth and performance on a global scale. Leading all aspects of EA’s global marketing organization, David oversees brand management, communications, creative and design, production, community engagement, marketing analytics, consumer insights, influencer relations and paid media. His team works across EA’s renowned brands and franchises, including EA SPORTS FIFA, Madden NFL, Apex Legends, The Sims, Battlefield, Need for Speed, and more.
David’s leadership has been instrumental to EA’s transformation into a globally recognized entertainment and technology brand. In his tenure, he has developed the company’s first direct-to consumer communications and marketing strategy; transformed EA’s approach to marketing creative; invested in a community-first approach to player engagement; and championed a brand transformation for Electronic Arts. He has also led the creation of several industry firsts, including EA Play Live, EA’s annual consumer showcase; Game Changers, a community partnership that brings players and content creators into the game development process; and The Positive Play Project, a company-wide commitment to fostering healthy play and safer online communities.
As Chief Marketing Officer, David is focused on the Total Brand Experience – creating unforgettable experiences for players at every touchpoint they have with EA’s games and brands. This comprehensive approach has contributed to the excitement and growth that has defined many of EA’s top franchises in recent years, from the Battlefield 1 reveal that produced one of the most-watched video game trailers of all time, to the surprise launch of Apex Legends that brought in more than 50 million players in the first month, to the most successful year in Madden franchise history, to record-setting engagement in the global FIFA franchise. His team’s work has been recognized through numerous industry awards, including Gold, Silver and Bronze recognition from Cannes Lions for FIFA; Webby Awards for The Sims, Apex Legends and Star Wars Battlefront 2; D&AD Wood Pencils for FIFA; a Clio Award for Anthem and more. Prior to being named Chief Marketing Officer at EA, David served as Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications, where he was responsible for setting the tone and voice for EA through creative storytelling, community engagement and communications. He also served as Senior Vice President of Global Communications and VP of Communications for EA SPORTS. David holds a degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and resides in the Bay Area with his wife and their three boys.
Dayna Carroll
Intel Corporation
Director, Creative & Experience
Marketing professional with 14 years of experience leading integrated brand and product campaigns.
-Leader and manager, responsible for career development and growth of direct reports
-Proactive problem solver and dedicated relationship builder
-Highly skilled at navigating heavily matrixed organizations
-Experience with Internal and external agency management
-Passionate about organizational management and implementing processes that make workflow seamless
Dennis Cary
Copa Airlines
CCO
Dennis Cary is the Senior Vice President, Commercial & Planning (Chief Commercial Officer) at Copa Airlines, a position he has held since 2016. Copa Airlines is a full-service airline connecting more than 75 cities in 33 countries throughout North America, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean from its Hub of the Americas™ in Panama. For the past decade, Copa has been consistently ranked as one of the most on-time airlines in the world, and has also consistently delivered financial performance among the best in the industry
Dennis reports to the CEO and is responsible for leading all commercial functions: Sales, Marketing, Customer Experience, Loyalty, Digital, Distribution, Pricing & Revenue Management, Network Planning & Alliances, and Commercial Intelligence. His team is responsible for designing all aspects of the product and customer experience for Copa passengers and delivering the revenue performance required by the company and its shareholders.
Dennis has three decades of experience in the airline industry working for airlines or airline clients in North America, Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During his career he served as the Chief Marketing Officer for United Airlines, the President of the AAdvantage Loyalty Program for American Airlines, and he also served as the Interim Chief Commercial Officers for two clients during a period of several years doing management consulting. Dennis holds a B.S. in Computer Science from California State University at Northridge, and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Edlynne Laryea
Facebook
Head of Industry CP
A passionate advocate of new technology, Edlynne Laryea has spent the majority of her career using emerging tech to help organizations transform how they connect with the consumers of today. She is an expert in helping companies adapt to new trends and build the right capabilities and ways of working to drive growth.
Most recently, Edlynne was Global Head of Digital Transformation and Sustainability at Johnson and Johnson. The majority of her time at J&J was spent as the as the Global Head of Social Media for the Consumer sector, where she was responsible for leading the relationships with Facebook, Google and other partners. Over the course of six years, she shifted the company’s global advertising approach away from traditional communication to more modern ways of connecting with consumers. This switch helped drive successful launches and growth across a number of the company’s brands.
Edlynne has worked for large multi-national companies and early stage start-ups, on both the client-side and the agency-side, which makes her the rare marketer who understands how to get things done no matter on what side of the table she sits.
She has worked for, or with some of the world’s leading brands, including spending time at Anheuser-Busch InBev launching a new import brand and as part of the brand team at Unilever that launched the original Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. In 2017, she was named a Women in Power fellow at the 92nd Street Y and she was recently named a Top 40-under-40 marketer and a Women to Watch.
Edlynne is a graduate of the Queen’s University School of Business in Ontario, Canada and currently resides in New York City where she is attempting to eat at all of the Eater Essential restaurants in the city. In her spare time, she buys too many gadgets, works on her latest house cocktail recipe and is learning to play tennis.
Ella Robertson McKay
One Young World
Managing Director
Ella Robertson McKay is the Managing Director of One Young World, the global forum for young leaders. Ella oversees the annual One Young World Summit which has taken place in ten different cities across the world, from Bangkok to Bogota. Since its inception in 2010, One Young World has impacted the lives of 30 million+ people.
Ella is the co-author of How To Make A Difference - the authoritative handbook to activism; she has also written for Prospect, City AM, Glamour Magazine and The Telegraph. Ella read English Literature at Balliol College Oxford and began a law training contract with a Magic Circle firm before changing track and pursuing a career in the third sector. She is a school Governor at two schools, a primary and a secondary, and is training to be a Childline Counsellor. Ella stood for election in the Scottish Parliamentary Elections in 2021; she was on the Scottish International Debating team and was recently featured in British Vogue for her activism in getting more women into politics and was on the Management Today/Daily Telegraph list of 35 Women Under 35 in 2019
Eric Gregoire
Bayer
SVP Global Digital & Media
Eric Gregoire is Bayer Consumer Health Global SVP Digital, heading Global Digital & Media as well as leading the company Global Digital Transformation. He joined Bayer from Google where he is was Director Global Brand Solution, leading the team in charge of the strategic partnership with some Google’s largest clients and agencies. Eric was also leading the Global Consumer Goods Vertical at Google and a member of the Alphabet Food Lab
Eric has advised companies on digital transformation and growth strategies for approximately 10 years, first with The Boston Consulting Group and then with Google. Prior to that he spend the first half of his career in marketing and general management position with Procter & Gamble.
Eric holds a Double Master’s degree in Engineering & Management from Ecole Centrale de Lille (Fr) and Cranfield University (UK) and a Master in Marketing Management from ICADE (SP) and is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Esi Seng
Tom’s of Maine - Colgate-Palmolive
General Manager, Tom’s of Maine
Esi Seng is a global proven leader with more than two decades of accelerating business growth and building high-performing teams across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Esi has a track record for cultivating a culture focused on outpacing the market with world-class brand building campaigns, breakthrough innovation and empowering teams to realize their full potential.
Currently, Esi serves as General Manager, Tom's of Maine, North America, overseeing all commercial activities for this leading manufacturer of natural personal care products. Headquartered in Kennebunk, Tom’s of Maine recently earned Certified B Corporation status, recognizing its long-standing commitment to social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability as part of the brand’s mission to be a force for good.
Esi is also a driver in instilling the company’s true commitment to do good for people and the planet. She oversaw the launch of the first-of-its-kind recyclable tube toothpaste, which was recognized as one of The Best Inventions of 2020 by TIME Magazine and continues to spearhead the brand’s efforts to produce new sustainable products.
Before joining Colgate in 2007, Esi held marketing and brand management positions at companies including L'Oréal and Nickelodeon. Esi earned an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business, participated in The Tuck School of Business’ Global Leadership Program at Dartmouth and received her Bachelor’s Degree from Boston University. She was named one of Brand Innovators 40 under 40.
Esi and her family are based in Maine.
Ezequiel Sambucetti
Telefónica
CMO Argentina
I´m Ezequiel Sambucetti, also known as “Sambu” amongst friends, family and colleagues. I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina almost 45 years ago. I live here with my wife Mary, and Francisco, my 7 year-old son. I spent my high school years in Weston, CT in the U.S., but that was a long time ago. I have Master’s degree in Business and 20+ years of experience in the telco business, leading sales and marketing teams. I am currently the CMO for Telefónica in Argentina, one of the largest integrated telco companies in the Spanish-speaking world. I love skiing, hiking, stand up paddling and played first division rugby for many years.
Fatih Alper Ergenekon
Turkcell
CMO
Fatih Alper Ergenekon received his Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University in 1996. He started his professional career as a project manager at OTA NGO, Berlin, Germany in 1996. He worked as a consultant at I-BIMSA, İstanbul between 1997-2000. After getting his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Rochester, New York, USA in 2002, he worked as a Senior Marketing Specialist at FedEx, Memphis, Tennessee, USA between 2002-2005. He joined the Marketing Department at Turkcell in 2005 and was appointed as Marketing Manager in 2006 and Marketing Director in 2010. He has been serving as Strategy Director since September 2018. Mr. Ergenekon, was appointed as the Executive Vice President of Marketing on April 29, 2020.
Fernanda Scozzafave
Avon
Executive Director Global Insights
Ferry Kamp
Meatless Farm
CMO
As Chief Marketing Officer at Meatless Farm, one of Europe’s fastest growing plant-based food brands, Ferry support the mission to shape a new global food system as an investment in our future, by nurturing the natural planet and democratizing plant-based food.
Concurrent to this role Ferry provided board advisory and interim CMO services to a diversity of leading FMCG companies needing to accommodate changing global demands and disruption. As Vice President Business Transformation at Startupbootcamp–Innoleaps, Ferry led programs for both start-ups and corporate innovation teams, facilitating acceleration through rapid experimentation cycles, MVP building, scaling-up and venture building. Prior to this Ferry spent 20 years in international marketing positions at Unilever accelerating business growth through innovation, digital transformation and building more purposeful and sustainable brands.
Florian Clemens
Amazon
Head of Global Accounts
Florian is Head of Global Accounts for Amazon Advertising, managing a team of partnership leads who support the global media relationships with top advertisers. Key global workstreams for the team are Joint Business Planning, Global Brand Planning Integration, Global Programmatic and Martech integration, Learning & Measurement, as well as Education & Digital Transformation.
He began his career with Procter&Gamble in Germany, before advancing to European and global marketing roles for P&G Global Laundry and Danone Global Baby Nutrition. As head of the Strategy Practice for Effective Brands (now Kantar Consulting), he led teams to define global marketing strategies, global-local marketing org structures and marketing capabilities for top CPG and CE clients.
Florian holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and Business Administration from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany. He has been with Amazon since January 2014.
Gustavo Lara
Danone
VP Marketing EDP, Mexico
Gustavo is a Mexican business executive with extensive experience leading marketing teams from various top 500 Fortune Companies such as Unilever, Mead Johnson and Mars Inc. where he served as General Manager.
He began his career at Unilever, where he held different positions over the course of 17 years as Global Brand Manager, Marketing Manager of the Home and Personal Care Category and Regional Leader of the Skin Care Category for Latin America.
In 2013 he led Mead Johnson’s Marketing & Corporate Affairs department while also being a member of the company's steering committee. By 2016 he served as General Manager for Mars Chile where he led the transformation of the company by innovating and promoting new development products in both leading categories, chocolate and pet food.
In 2018 he returned to Mexico as Danone’s Marketing Vice President for Mexico and Central America for the Dairy and Plant Based Businesses and thanks to the reconfiguration of his market vision to be a consumer centric company and accelerate the plant-based innovation strategy and products in the Mexican market, allowed him to be part of the largest transformation period of the company, achieving the best company’s growth over the last 10 years.
Gustavo is an Industrial and Systems Engineer from the Instituto Tecnológico y de EstudiosSuperiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and holds an Executive Management MBA from The University of Texas at Austin-McCombs School of Business. He’s also a member of the Board of Directors of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and has been part of the EFFIE’s jury, and the iabMixx, FIAP awards, among others. Throughout his career, as team leader, he has been recognized with awards such as Effies and Cannes Lions. Gustavo currently serves as Marketing VP for all Danone Mexico’s businesses including Dairy, Plant-Based and Waters.
Hanne Søndergaard
Arla
EVP & CMO
Hanne Søndergaard is CMO and member of the Executive Management Group at the farmer owned dairy cooperative Arla Foods. She is responsible for Marketing, Innovation, Communication and Sustainability. Hanne is committed to building strong brands based on consumer-driven innovation and marketing. She is equally engaged in driving the transition towards a sustainable dairy sector that takes action on climate and provides nutritional food to the world.
Ilca Sierra
Via Varejo
CXMO
In this incredibly inspiring episode of the Humanizing Growth Series, we sit down with Angela Ahrendts, Former CEO Burberry & Former SVP Apple Retail. Angela opens up about her journey from a small town in the mid-west to becoming the CEO Burberry, her thoughts on why CMOs are best placed to become CEOs, and how to take shareholders on the journey to pursue more humanized growth.
Isil Akdemir Evlioglu
Garanti BBVA
Executive Vice President
Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu graduated from Bilkent University Department of Economics and earned her MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management. She started her career in 2003 as a Consultant at McKinsey where she last served as a Junior Partner between 2003-2012 before joining Garanti BBVA. Ms. Akdemir Evlioğlu served as the Vice President of Marketing at Garanti BBVA Payment Systems between 2012- 2017 and as the CEO from January, 2017 to February, 2020. On February 29, 2020, Ms. Akdemir Evlioğlu was appointed as the Executive Vice President in charge of Customer Solutions and Digital Banking. In addition, Ms. Akdemir Evlioğlu serves as Vice Chairman of Garanti BBVA Pension and Life, and as Board Member of Teachers Academy Foundation and SALT. With 17 years of experience in banking and business administration Ms. Akdemir Evlioğlu’s areas of responsibility are Digital Banking, Client Digital Solutions, Corporate Brand Management and Marketing Communication, Customer Experience and Satisfaction, Insurance and Pension Coordination, Customer Contact Center and Customer Analytics, Innovation and Product Development. Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, who is active in sports and a good animal and nature lover as well, is married with 2 children.
Isil Heves
Google
CMO, Turkey
Born marketer- Non-stop Learner- Loves connecting the dots Işıl Heves is Chief Marketing Officer at Google Turkey. Prior to Google, she held various Brand Management positions at Unilever. Işıl graduated from Bilkent University and holds Master degree from Sabancı University. She completed Executive Marketing Academy program at Wharton University. Işıl is the creator of the “She Makes Program” in Turkey to help increase the women’s recognition and representation in industries that are shaping the future. Işıl selected as the “Fark Yaratan Kadınlar” (Women Making Marks) in 2020. She is married with 2 daughters.
Jacqueline Wambuca
Roche Kenya
Head of Government Affairs, East Africa
Jay Picconatto
General Mills
Head of Global Ecommerce
As the head of Global Commerce and Media, Jay is responsible for setting clear connected commerce and media objectives, vision and strategy, and influencing the global organization through clear and transparent communication. In this enterprise-wide role, Jay’s primary vision is to drive global growth through stringent strategic integration, relevant capabilities and innovation.
Jay holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Saint Olaf College and a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he continues to serve as a guest lecturer to their marketing program. Jay is a husband and father of three – Beck (16), Tommy (14), El (12) – and enjoys coaching his two sons’ hockey teams and trying to keep up with his daughter’s drama and volleyball schedules.
Jeff Cartwright
Morning Consult
Chief Growth Officer
Jeff joined Morning Consult in 2015 as a leader in the company’s growth from a small startup to a global enterprise tech unicorn in less than six years. He oversees Morning Consult’s marketing, communications, content and creative functions to build its runway for audience expansion and engagement as well as works with stakeholders across the company on key growth initiatives.
Morning Consult is a billion-dollar, global enterprise company leveraging real-time survey data, enterprise technology and industry-leading expertise to help customers win in today’s rapidly changing global market. Morning Consult delivers the foresight organizations need to make key strategic decisions when they matter most.
Prior to Morning Consult, Jeff executed communications strategy for both The Atlantic and National Journal. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Strategic Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has contributed data-driven insights to CNBC, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and more.
Jennifer Roberti
Save the Children
CMO
An integrated brand, marketing and communications executive with more than twenty years of experience across geographies, cultures and channels, I have served in leadership positions within global advertising agencies and at one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world ($25 billion dollar market cap/223 million subscribers). I have worked across multiple categories including Consumer Electronics, FMCG, Tobacco, Pharmaceuticals and Telecommunications. I believe that creatively collecting and distilling consumer insights can lead to brand and communications strategies that cross borders and work globally. Attention to detail and an understanding of local cultural nuances combined with ruthless execution in advertising development, IP management, sponsorship, customer experience, retail presence, agency management and internal branding will create a positive impact on business results, while building a powerful brand.
Jonathan McCarthy
Cadbury
Global Director
I am the Global lead for Cadbury, one of the world’s most iconic Confectionary brands and the Taste of the Nation in the markets it operates. Cadbury was founded almost 200 years ago with a mission to be a force for good and this lives on today through the brand’s purpose of inspiring more Generosity in the world. I’m a passionate believer in the responsibility of brands and businesses to be the change that we want to see and bring that passion and provocation to the brands I have the privilege to work with.
I joined Mondelēz at the beginning of 2021moving from Unilever where I spent 13 years in Beauty & Personal Care in a variety of Global, Regional and Local marketing and strategy roles across Europe, Asia and Australia. I began my career at Diageo
In extra-curricular activities I recently completed a Master’s in Digital Transformation with Hyper Island Singapore.
Originally from the UK, I now live in Zurich, Switzerland with my wife and two young Daughters.
Katherine Jones
Deputy Director
insights, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Kat Jones leads the Global Delivery team’s insights formation and delivery, integrating disparate data into actionable insights. The insights team focuses on improving access to and demand for health services and interventions in low-income countries, through investments that help their health systems reach underserved communities. This work includes understanding the needs and wants of people in those communities, particularly women, and the challenges faced by the health providers who serve them.
Kat joined the foundation in 2020, and before that Kat served as the Director of Strategy and Mission/s for the Design Institute for Health, a radical collaboration between the Dell Medical School and the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Earlier, Kat led Milkshake, a strategy and brand consultancy she founded in 1999 which has created and shaped brands that build community including LIVESTRONG, Populous, Generation TX, and National Co-op Grocers. Trained as a medical illustrator, Kat works to understand complex concepts and then to translate those into a story for many to comprehend. Kat’s expertise lies in finding the radical clarity by sorting large amounts of information, listening deeply, recognizing patterns, and then pinpointing the “surgical moments” or defining elements which can then translate into language and experiences that express the story.
Katherine graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Fine Arts and a BGS in Zoology and earned an MA from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Biological and Medical Illustration.
Katie Williams
GSK - Consumer Health
CMO, US
Katie Williams is the US Chief Marketing Officer at GSK Consumer Healthcare. In this role, she works to shape the future of consumer experiences with our portfolio of GSK brands. She is a leader in CPG marketing with extensive experience and proven success in delivering growth, creative courage, digital transformation and employee development. She is best known for her relentless focus on inclusivity as a critical pathway for business and brand growth.
She joined GSK in 2020, and most recently led the Marketing transformation at Mondelez International. In this role, Katie was charged with modernizing the brand and consumer engagement approach across the North America portfolio with focus on full funnel consumer experience marketing, direct to consumer platforms, and cultural activation via sponsorship marketing and out bound licensing of brands like Oreo. Prior to this role, Katie helped to build brands in and US and globally including such iconic brands as Ritz, Sour Patch Kids, and Trident Gum.
She began her career at P&G as a research scientist and earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Katie lives in Montclair, NJ with her two sons CJ and Chase and her husband Cameron.
Khensani Nobanda
Nedbank
Group Exec: Marketing and Corporate Affairs
Khensani is the Group Executive for Marketing and Corporate Affairs at Nedbank Group. As both the executive in charge of marketing, and a member of the Nedbank Group executive leadership, she ensures the cohesive and consistent alignment between marketing messaging, brand positioning and business objectives across the group, while also providing strategic input into various Nedbank structures, committees, and partnerships.
Khensani joined Nedbank in September 2017, as Executive Head of Group Marketing, before being promoted to her current role, and the Nedbank Group Exco, in May 2018. Her more than 20-year marketing career has afforded her invaluable experience in a number of leading South African and multinational organisations. After starting out as an assistant brand manager at Unilever, she rose through the ranks to eventually head up the Skin Category for Unilever in Africa, Middle East, and Turkey. This was followed by various leadership and executive roles in Diageo, South African Breweries and Vodacom, before joining Nedbank.
She is passionate about brands and the potential they have to deliver tangible value to consumers, and more broadly to society, by being purpose led and value driven.
Khensani has a BCom from the University of the Witwatersrand, and an MBA from GIBS. She is a member of the board of Effie Awards South Africa, a regular member of the judging panel for the Loeries and Bookmarks Awards, and a sought-after public speaker.
Kim McBee
Papa Murphy's International
CMO
With a marketing career spanning more than 30 years, McBee joined Papa Murphy’s in October of 2019. She has been a senior executive working across all disciplines of marketing and communications in corporate, agency and franchisee organizations. Her extensive experience in creating impactful, integrated and effective marketing programs have help develop and position major restaurant, retail and consumer brands. Her results-based performance stems from leveraging high-performing teams to grow sales and profits for brands such as Applebee’s Restaurants, Red Robin Restaurants and Big O Tires, just to name a few. McBee received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Public Relations from The Ohio State University.
Kristin Fallon
GE Healthcare
VP, Brand & Digital Marketing
Kristin Fallon is the Vice President of Global Brand & Digital Marketing for GE Healthcare, an $18B medtech company, where she is responsible for the company’s brand positioning and campaigns, external channels, and martech. In 2020, she boldly sent a filmmaker out in a mobile home to cover stories of courage, kindness, and innovation in the healthcare industry at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—delivering the company’s best-performing brand campaign ever and winning industry recognition. Throughout her career, Kristin has helped non-profits and the private sector meaningfully engage with stakeholders and grow market share—working with innovative technology companies from start-ups to GE, and international development organizations from NGOs to the World Bank. She began her career as a volunteer in the US Peace Corps and brings that same sense of purpose and adventure to her work today.
Kushilla Thomas
Distell
Marketing Director, Africa
My professional career extends across the Pharmaceutical and FMCG industries for over 20years. I am a Pharmacist with extensive experience in the Production, Research and Development and Commercialisation of new chemical entities in 2 of the largest Pharmaceutical companies in the Southern hemisphere, Aspen Pharmaceuticals and Adcock Ingram. A noteworthy mention is our contribution to the research and development and the ultimate commercialisation of the first generic antiretroviral drugs in South Africa.
The next phase of my career took me into the Alcohol industry, when I joined South African Breweries (now ABInBev) in the exciting role, of Marketing Development for Africa and Asia. I spearheaded the generation of insights and formulated innovation solutions that were market specific in these emerging markets. My role extended into developing the geographical footprint across the African continent as well as India, Vietnam and China, culminating in being the Marketing Director for East Africa and being based in the beautiful country of Tanzania for 7years.
I joined Distell 4 years ago and am currently the Marketing Director for Africa, with the mandate of expanding our geographic footprint across East, West and Southern part of the continent whilst consolidating a more deliberate and relevant portfolio across over 10 African countries with the aim of share gain. To date we have made significant strides in being able to locally produce our brands in strategic markets and consolidate local insights to create locally relevant propositions. The strategic imperative for growth is localisation and we are winning on this front by building marketing competence and being deliberate in insight generation and its use thereof.”
Leonora Scarpa
P&G
E-business Vice President
Lloyd Lorenzsonn
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.
DEWALT Global Brand Leader
Lloyd Lorenzsonn currently serves as the DEWALT Global Brand Leader and North America Brand Director for Stanley Black & Decker. A native of Venezuela, he started his career in Venezuela with Procter & Gamble, where he launched the Olay Brand in the region prior to his move the global headquarters where he continued leadership roles on the global Olay franchise and the North America Oral Care portfolio. Subsequently, he joined Georgia-Pacific and held a series of roles including launching new category/product portfolios, leading the Vanity Fair® and Mardi Gras® napkins portfolio and leading Consumer Experience and Marketing Transformation efforts- establishing industry leading capabilities in data activation, brand building and new media platforms. His background in Chemical Engineering allows him to quickly connect with R&D and analytics partners, while his passion for Brand Building and Pop culture makes him a natural fit with Insights, Marketing and Agency partners alike. On a personal level, he shares a passion for cooking, travel and political analysis with his husband Neil.
Lori Gross
Microsoft
General Manager, Brand
Lori Gross began her career on the advertising side of branding, Lori most recently was General Manager at Landor, a global leader in brand consulting and design. At Landor, Lori led the Chicago office to unprecedented growth with a highly collaborative and innovative team.
Lori has a diverse background in CPG, healthcare, technology, non-profit and corporate branding. She is a skilled team builder who values collaboration, experimentation and shared goals. She has created strong teams that together have delivered best-in-class global brand building for companies such as Procter & Gamble, Kraft Heinz, Kimberly-Clark and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
An imaginative strategist, Lori has led work in consumer insights, research, strategy, architecture, naming, brand identity, brand voice, sonic identity, innovation, portfolio optimization, global brand building, brand storytelling, design thinking, integrated marketing and brand transformation. Lori is a graduate of Kent State University and in her free time, she loves sports, wine and travel. And perhaps most importantly, Lori is positive, energetic and believes in having fun at work!
Louis Aversano
Cigna
Chief Brand Officer
Lou Aversano enthusiastically joined Cigna in March of 2021 as Global Chief Brand Officer and is already on a mission partnering with leaders across the enterprise to shine a light on all the incredible things we do to improve the well-being of every person, business and community whose health needs we are entrusted to serve. In simple terms, Lou is here to unleash Cigna’s essentiality in helping to make the world healthier.
Lou caught the healthcare bug just ten short months ago. when he was drafted to help establish a leadership platform for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) that improves the industry’s standing among consumers. Lou loved the category so much so that it compelled him to join Cigna full time. In Lou’s new role he leads a team responsible for our brand strategy, market insights, customer experience, external and internal agency work as well as our media and sponsorship engagements.
Over the course of his 30+ year career in the marketing industry, Lou has helped many of the world’s most successful enterprises – American Express, AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, IBM, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever to name a few – realize their growth ambitions by creating platforms maximizing their business, societal and brand ambitions. One of Lou’s proudest accomplishments is working arm-in-arm with the team that introduced the most heralded enterprise brand platform of this millennium – IBM’s Smarter Planet. This work fused an aggressive business strategy with a bold brand purpose and demonstrated how technology can improve the planet’s most critical systems. The agenda helped IBM realize exponential market and share growth while catapulting its brand to the #2 position on Interbrand’s coveted “Most Valuable Brand” ranking.
Before joining Cigna, Lou spent twenty-six years at Ogilvy leading their largest client, largest office and largest market. During his tenure he delivered significant revenue growth, profitability, and market impact by embracing diversity and applying creativity for business advantage. Lou’s leadership beliefs, and therefore style, come from a place of compassion, performance, service and outcome. Along the way, Lou has discovered that leaders can accomplish much by establishing a clear vision and path, but the greatest, most authentic leaders are those who readily admit their vulnerabilities and embrace their imperfections. Lou is still a work in progress on perfecting this learning.
Lou lives in New York City with his partner of five years and spends as much time with his three kids, aging in range from 25 to 18, as he is allowed by them. In his spare time, Lou enjoys trying to stay fit, traveling, cooking and lends his professional skills to the leadership boards of the Ad Council, American Red Cross, Out Leadership, and Boston University where Lou earned his bachelor’s degree.
Marco Merkx
Ikea
Global Customer Engagement Leader
Over 25 years of experience in marketing management and strategy, e-commerce , digital marketing and customer relationship management both in operational and in strategical management roles for mainly fashion, food and lifestyle consumer brands and retailers. On national and international level, in organizations varying from start-ups to multinational corporates.
My professional purpose is to support companies with transformation, innovation and development of organization design, technology and customer engagement. Always based on customer data and insights, leading to tangible results and growth. Specifically realizing customer centricity, digital transformation and omni channel proposition development are my fields of expertise. For this, my commercial and technical know-how are as much of value and importance as are my creativity and my sensitivity towards the human, cultural and organizational aspects.
Currently I am working for Inter IKEA Systems (the IKEA Franchisor and as such the owner and developer of the IKEA concept, range and brand) as Global CRM/customer engagement & Loyalty Leader. In this role I work together with my colleague’s to develop our “Meeting the Customer Strategy” and specifically our customer engagement approach as part of our goal to reach more of the many people.
Marie Chan
GSK
Global Head of Marketing Capability
Marie leads capability building at GSK Consumer Healthcare to unlock transformational growth of people and the business.
Prior to her role at GSK, Marie worked in brand and marketing strategy consulting, spending time at Kantar Consulting, Siegel+Gale and Vivaldi, where she worked with organizations to uncover consumer truths, define brand strategy, purpose and positioning, embed marketing capability, and build enterprise-wide brand advocacy to unleash their brands’ full potential.
Marie started her career managing and building iconic global brands at Unilever and The Campbell Soup Company. She lives with her family in Redding, Connecticut. When you meet her, ask her about Toby, her Italian truffle hunting dog.
MarkBreene
Copalli Rum
CEO
Mark has spent the last 25 years working in the alcoholic beverage industry in a variety of large, medium and small organizations in different markets around the world. He joined Copalli Spirits as CEO in January 2021 and is charged with leading the brands growth across the USA and Europe. In the past he has led iconic drinks brands like Smirnoff, Ketel One Vodka, Captain Morgan Rum, Remy Martin Cognac, Cointreau, and Macallan Whisky. He is a marketer by background and specializes in developing luxury and craft brands. He spent eight years working for Remy Cointreau, first as the Chief Marketing Officer for Remy Cointreau North America, then latterly he spent 2 ½ years as CEO of Westland Distillery, a producer of American single malt whiskey, after it was purchased by Remy Cointreau. Mark was responsible for the global P&L for the brand, all aspects of the manufacturing operation, the brand image and the go-to-market strategy.
Prior to joining Remy Cointreau, Mark worked for Diageo PLC for 12 years, initially in the UK serving in various roles within Europe, before relocating to America in 2001for a global marketing role which later led to several positions within Diageo’s US business, running various categories including Rum, Vodka, and Tequila. Mark first learned his marketing skills at Unilever in the UK where he worked for three years.
Mark was born in Ireland, and educated in England where he attended Nottingham Trent University, and later attained his MBA from Brunel University. He now lives in Connecticut with his wife and two sons
Mark Wakefield
Ferrero North America
SVP Marketing
Mark is SVP Marketing of Premium Chocolate at Ferrero, North America. He joined Ferrero in 2007 as Marketing Director in Canada after many years with Unilever where he held progressive roles in Marketing and Sales. During his time at Unilever, Mark was instrumental in developing OMO Dirt is Good and was the driving force behind Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty.
After joining Ferrero and successfully doubling the Ferrero brands including Tic Tac, Nutella, Kinder and Ferrero Rocher in Canada, Mark spent seven years at Ferrero Luxembourg leading Ferrero Rocher across six international regions. During the past 2 years, Mark led the development of Nutella and iconic American favorites like Butterfinger, Crunch and Baby Ruth. Recently, Mark has returned to lead the Premium Chocolate portfolio at Ferrero North America including Fannie May and the iconic Ferrero Rocher brand.
Martín Bellocq
Ualá
CMO
Martín Bellocq is Chief Marketing Officer at Ualá. He lived in Spain between 2005 and 2012 where he obtained a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Barcelona. In addition, he has a Master's Degree in Finance from the University of San Andrés. Before joining Ualá in September 2017, he worked 5 years at Google Argentina in different commercial roles. He also worked at American Express and Deloitte.
Meghan Johnson
Mondelez International
Global Head of Agency Ecosystem
Meghan Johnson is an experienced marketing professional, who has a track record of driving business growth for both brands and agencies by connecting the right minds to architect the right solutions to deliver results. Meghan is unique in her ability to design strategy, develop process, and execute with excellence against the business agenda.
In her current role as the Global Agency Ecosystem lead, Meghan is responsible for unlocking the potential of MDLZ global partnerships across creative, media and production, influencing over $1.3BN in spend. In the 18 months since joining MDLZ, she has implemented major strategic initiatives to reengineer the MDLZ marketing ecosystem, incentivizing media, creative, production, and tech partners to deliver better ROI and creative excellence. Her work at MDLZ has included the implementation of global creative partnerships across all BUs and global brands, defining the D&I partnership approach for MDLZ marketing, and leading the comprehensive restructuring of MDLZ production partnerships and capabilities, reshaping how MDLZ markets and brands plan, invest & measure to deliver growth.
Prior to joining MDLZ, Meghan worked at Publicis Groupe as a digital strategist and business development leader. In her business development role, she led multi-market pitches to convert market leading and high-growth brands including Brown-Forman, Bel Group, Coca-Cola, Daimler, Samsung and Snapchat, living and working with teams in-market across every region.
After being based in London for many years, Meghan is now back in the US with her husband, Ryan, and their puppy, Merlin.
Michael Cho
Colgate-Palmolive
Head of Consumer Innovation Centre
Michael HH Cho is dynamic, passionate, and innovative. He has 17 years’ successful experience working with major international organisations and world-beating brands; and extensive leadership abilities at a strategic level. He is intrapreneurial thought Leader, Strategic and Inspirational Manager who successfully builds and manages high-performing direct and matrix multi-function teams that optimise NPD impact and maximise revenue and profit.
In his current position as The Head of Innovation for Colgate China, he delivers the future vision for China in partnership with Global and Regional Leaders and Directors. In this role, he led the creation of the Innovation Centre for the China market delivering 3 platforms to support and inspire the market. Also continuing the success of Miracle Repair, the very first oral care toothpaste with a beauty angle that ignited the company’s oral-ceutical focus; this hero product is now the #1 selling product in Colgate China and accounts for 20% of the overall eCommerce Gross Market Value into its year 2. He also instructed the revamp of the whitening portfolio with Enzyme, and omnichannel content creation.
Prior to this role he was at L’oreal as the Head of category for the DMI China. In this role he focused on creating an integrated, engaging and consistent consumer brand experience by taking the lead on marketing mix strategies (IMC/360/Digital/Retail), and equity building. He defined global brand development strategy for the category, consistent with the brand’s sense of purpose; the global strategic directions and the 3-year marketing plan : brand portfolio, strategic innovations and growth of pillar-products.
At P&G as Senior Design Manager his core focus was on transforming innovations processes for the new digital environment for APAC Premium market and managed to accumulate 16 ‘Power of You’ awards. In a previous position as Senior Manager for Design Singapore, he managed the Asian Insights & Design Innovation Lab to help Singapore enterprises sharpen their existing competitive edge by developing an Asian cultural affinity.
He is skilled across many areas including E2E Innovation, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Insights Analysis and Creative Art Direction.
Mijke van Ballegooijen
Guidion
CCO
Mijke is a commercial leader with +15 years experience in driving change focusing on customer experience and operational excellence. She is passionate about attracting and developing talents and mobilizing diverse teams towards a common goal. She is driven by customers, sustainable profitability and clear results. For Mijke the magic happens when commercial opportunities, operational challenges, and (digital) service design come together. She always strives to define new propositions that are build around the needs of people.
Mijke held various commercial and operational management positions within Air France KLM, in The Netherlands and internationally. In her last position, together with a team she set up the KLM Customer Experience department. She also has experience in the non-profit sector, which taught her to consider the organization's social responsibility in every business proposition. Currently, she is supervisory board member for the Dutch Cancer Society.
After 13 years working in the airline industry, it was time to broaden her horizon. In January 2020 she took the position of COO at Guidion, a B2B technical services organisation, active in The Netherlands and Germany. Within Guidion, she is now responsible for the commercial, digital, service design and data teams. The market for technical service operations in and around the house has a strong focus on technical capabilities and costs. However, there is a huge opportunity to expand that focus and create added value for customers.
Molly Miao
Shein
CMO
Mylena Pierremont
Connected Circles
CEO
My life took me on a global professional journey, spanning three continents and eight countries, with the latestchapter being Amsterdam. Across these years, I had the privilege to develop renowned international brands of10.000+ employees such as P&G, Coty, and Philips, and drive meaningful innovations in beauty, durable goods,and services and lately Tech. I lead in business by combining emotional intelligence with numbers, thanks to my background in mathematics,econometrics, and financial strategy. By devoting my knowledge to innovation, digitization, and purposefulvisions, I was able to have a positive impact on healthy and profitable businesses. The key is to be obsessed withconsumer or end-user insights.
Driven by the increasing significance of social networks in our society, I founded Connected Circles. As our dailysocial apps are actively shaping our future, leaders need to be part of online conversations. But merely beingpresent online and broadcasting is not enough. If leaders want to develop lasting relations, they need to usetechnology wisely and engage authentically with their stakeholders. This is where Connected Circles steps in toguide leaders into becoming relevant and engaging figures online, taking all stakeholders into account. Over thepast two years, we contributed our expertise to 200+ leadership projects across four continents, our work havingbeen seen more than 11 million times.
Working within multiple industries is essential to me. In the past decade, I got involved in numerous boards andorganizations focused on consumer goods, services, and private equity. As a result of having vast experience andconnections across fields, I see the bigger picture and manage to think one step ahead.
As a C-level executive and a woman, I believe in empowering female leadership, and as Co-chair of WomanCorporate Directors and President of La French Tech Europe, encouraging entrepreneurs to build successfulbusinesses is on top of my list.
Natasha Maharaj
Distell
Marketing Director
I am a seasoned marketer with over 15 yrs of South African and global marketing experience, having worked for multinationals such as Unilever, Nestle and PepsiCo Simba and in her latest tenure, Distell. My career path has taken me from South Africa to Switzerland and Singapore and exposed me to a range of cultures and markets in Asia, Latin America and Europe. My experience has ranged from Brand Management, Innovation, Sales, as well as Marketing & Commercial Leadership
A strong strategist, I have spent many years generating profitable growth through innovation and the development of portfolios anchored on consumer preferences and brand purpose
In my current role in the Marketing Department of Distell Southern Africa (3yrs) I work on both short and long-term marketing and innovation strategy development and execution. I lead the balance between customer and consumer orientation in the commercial leadership team, strategy formulation and investment decisions across consumers segments and the Southern Africa portfolio, as well as the relevant brand custodianship.
Nicola Buck
BP
SVP Customer Value Proposition
As SVP for BP’s Customer Value Proposition and Experience, Nicola is responsible for driving customer centricity across bp’s marketing businesses. She is responsible for defining who bp’s customers are, underpinning the data and insights and developing and owning the overall customer experience associated with bp’s portfolio of brands. Her team operates cross businesses and cross geographies to drive global customer strategies and focus on providing deep, global expertise to support markets and regions with local implementation to set bp apart from its competitors and remove duplication from business silos.
Prior to her current role, Nicola served as VP Marketing for BP Fuels, North America, where she was responsible for managing the BP, Amoco, ampm and ARCO brands, and how they are presented to customers and consumers in the United States.
Nicola joined BP in June 2004 and was responsible for fuels marketing and offer development and launching the BP Ultimate brand. Since then, she has worked in a variety of global brand roles, responsible for fuels, Wild Bean Cafe and retail.
Graduating from the University of Nottingham, Nicola began her career at Boots the Chemists Ltd., working in various public relations, marketing and retail roles in the U.K. and around the world.
Nicola speaks German and Russian and has a passion for travel. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and her two children.
Nina Rahmatallah
WPP
SVP Client Experience
When Nina is not busy conquering the British Dressage circuit with her two horses Nina lead client experience for WPP. Nina started her career in the world of planning, leading brand & innovation strategy for clients ranging from GHD (the hair straightening phenomenon) to The Church of England! BBH has been a career highlight with many award winning campaigns, an IPA effectiveness award and the accolade of being the youngest woman ever to be made Partner under her belt. From there she went client side as managing director of mature start-up (and fastest growing cosmetics brand of all time according to the FT) Illamasqua, before joining Added Value (a WPP and Kantar owned organisation) in 2013. From here Nina has been instrumental in the transformation of Added Value into Kantar Consulting, bringing five organisations together as one, and most recently leading the development of a one Kantar approach as Chief Client Officer of Kantar in the UK.
When not working and riding Nina is also a coach focused on helping address the tension between profitability and heart in business and is supported at home by her partner Luke and boxer dog Ruby.
Paloma Azulay
Restaurant Brands Intl Burger King
Global Chief Brand Officer
Paloma is a passionate and creative global marketer with 18 years of international experience in multiple iconic food and beverage brands. Paloma strength is the combined ability to drive business growth and emotionally inspire the organization, agencies and investors.
At Restaurant Brands International Paloma spent the last 3,5 years between Toronto and Miami as Global Chief Brand Officer and other marketing leadership roles, driving the global repositioning of Popeyes and Tim Hortons setting up the core fundamentals for growth, from brand creative, product innovation and visual strategy besides award winning campaigns that drove short term sales and brand health uplift. At The Coca-Cola Company, Paloma spent 14 years between Rio de Janeiro and Vienna leading global and regional campaigns and establishing the brand strategy for new beverage categories.
In 2018, Paloma was awarded "Women to Watch" by Ad Age in Europe and in 2021 an honoree of Adweek CMO Awards and CMO to Watch from Business Insider.Daughter of a recognized Brazilian art educator for children, Paloma grew up in between sketches and toys made out recycled materials which impacted her love for creativity, innovation and storytelling. Mother of two boys, Paloma champions D&I in the workplace and the development of a creative culture inside companies.
Pamela Forbus
Pernod-Ricard North America
SVP, Chief Marketing Officer
Pam Forbus joined Pernod Ricard USA in July 2020 as Chief Marketing Officer, overseeing U.S. marketing and innovation for 24 leading spirits, wine and champagne brands in the company’s premium portfolio, including Absolut, Jameson, Malibu, The Glenlivet, Perrier-Jouët, GH Mumm and many others.
Since joining Pernod Ricard, Pam implemented a new commercial marketing system, called “media to shelf” marketing, to drive consumer/shopper centric brand and business building. She responded to U.S. consumers’ desire for convenient access to trusted, premium brands, which intensified during the pandemic, by dialing up investments in media, innovation and e-commerce.
Pam joined Pernod Ricard from The Walt Disney Studios, where she was SVP of Consumer Experience, Data Science and Insights. She led a centralized team responsible for consumer insights, market research, marketing and media analytics, business intelligence, consumer data strategy and the Studio's CRM and loyalty marketing platform. Prior to Disney, she spent nearly two decades at PepsiCo and Frito-Lay, shaping the brands’ global analytics, and consumer and shopper insights. Pam earned her bachelor’s degree from Saginaw Valley State University.
Patricia Malvar
The Wella Company
Former SVP, Global OPI
Patricia is a passionate and result-driven senior C-suite marketing professional with strong leadership skills and digital expertise. Over 25 years of experience in business strategy development, branding, innovation management for mass and prestige brands across beauty, food and home care categories. Areas of expertise are:
Brand & Commercial Management Leadership in designing and executing brand mixes including product & packaging design, integrated brand communication and go-to-market activation through to P&L management
Strategic business transformation Skilled in translating market, consumer and shopper insight into category/brand vision plans and holistic business strategy
Cross-functional team leadership Extensive experience in leading, coaching and bringing to high performance cross-functional/multi-cultural teams across geographies
Paula Alexander
The Clorox Company
Sr. Director, Sustainability
Paula leads the Sustainability Center Commercial Team and responsible for sustainable brand building and integration, ensuring every brand at Clorox is sustainable. Her source-to-disposal regenerative approach and culture building focus ensure that the company prioritizes social and environmental impact in all business functions at all levels.
She has served on the Burt’s Bees Leadership Team since 2012 and has played an important role in influencing the company’s 2030 sustainability strategy. Paula has served in leadership roles in Brand Development, Marketing and Human Insights. Serving as President of The Burt’s Bees Foundation, she drives the foundation mission to protect biodiversity and reconnect people to nature.
Paula began her career in consumer-packaged goods at Unilever on the Snuggle, Lever 2000 and Suave brands. She was global brand manager on Dove during the Campaign for Real Beauty launch that over a decade later is still influencing the beauty industry and building self-esteem among women and girls.
Paula holds a BBA from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is a frequent sustainability marketing speaker at leading US business schools and industry conferences. Paula was named a Triangle Business Journal 2018 C-Suite Award Winner and received the 2013 Duke Fuqua Leader of Consequence Award. She is an Advisory Board member of both the Duke Center for Energy, Development & the Global Environment and Credo ESG Solutions.
Peter Seymour
Mondelez International
VP Marketing, Europe
Appointed VP Marketing and Strategy, MEU in October 2019, Peter Seymour leads the marketing and corporate strategy in the Company’s European Business.
With 20 year experience in Mondelez, Peter has a wealth of business experience in marketing, sales and management roles. Prior to his current role, he was the Director of Marketing for the European Chocolate business leading the equity and innovation on the Cadbury, Milka and Cote D’Or brands. Prior to this he led the UK, Ireland and Nordics coffee business driving the transformation of the Kenco brand and the Development of “On Demand” coffee with Tassimo. Previously, he led the Coffee business across the Central European Markets.
Peter is a UK national and previous worked in the consumer decorating products company Polycell. He earned his MBA from Manchester Business School and an undergraduate degree from London University.
Petra Zinkweg
FrieslandCampina
Commercial Transformation Director
As Director Commercial Transformation I have the opportunity to lead the program to accelerate our business & personal growth of our commercial teams around the world. My goal is to support better and affordable nutrition for the world, provide a good living for our farmers and support our people to develop.
The program is an integrated approach based on FrieslandCampina's commercial model , integrated ways of working and data driven decision making whilst building the competencies of our people .
FrieslandCampina is far more than a dairy-based beverage, a piece of cheese, or a set of ingredients. Our purpose is to nourish by nature, providing better nutrition for the world we live in and a good living for farmers, now and for generations to come. FrieslandCampina is a responsible business that always seeks to do what is truly good for the company and for society. Every single day we make a genuine difference in the lives of millions of people.
Pinar Mavituna
Shell
GM Global Mobility Products
As General Manager Global Mobility Products business, I am responsible for Shell’s Mobility products and solutions including E-mobility, Nature-Based Solutions and low carbon fuels for 30 million+ customers daily across 46,000 retail sites over 80 countries. This makes Shell the number one Mobility retailer in the world, selling over 200 Billion litres of fuel annually.
Extensive marketing, sales and strategy experience across B2B and B2C industries.
Business transformation. Change management. Portfolio management. Energy mobility. Business strategy. Strategic marketing. Strategic planning. Operations optimization. Building high-performing teams. Mentoring, Coaching.
Global working experience, with roles based in both mature and growth markets across Europe, North America, Africa, Australia and Asia.
Strong leadership skills with demonstrated ability to lead diverse teams to drive change in challenging environments.
Preston Ley
WD-40
VP Strategy - eCommerce & Emerging Markets
In his position as VP for WD-40 Company, Preston is responsible for designing, developing, and coordinating WD-40 Company’s eCommerce strategy across EIMEA, the Americas and Asia Pacific regions to accelerate the organisations growth, building internal capability and talent across diverse geographic regions. Additional aspects to Preston’s role are the development of WD-40 Company’s go to market strategies for emerging markets to achieve accelerated brand awareness, revenue growth, and EBITDA attainment.
Preston is committed to building highly effective, diverse teams and has a strong track record of developing and enabling individuals to liberate their greatness to be the best they can be.
Preston has an MA in Leadership from Henley Business School, a BA in Business and Finance and studied General Management at Cranfield School of Management.
Qaiser Bachani
Mondelez International
Global Head of Digital COE and Experience
Qaiser is an industry veteran and comes with 20+ years of strong and varied emerging & developed markets experience. In his current role as Global Head of Digital COE and Europe CX Director, Qaiser is leading the team to drive Mondelēz’s digital enterprise strategy as well as leadership of Europe BU media investments.
Prior to joining Mondelēz, Qaiser was at Bayer Consumer Healthcare where he was the global lead on the Precision Marketing initiative as well the Global Head of Media, Digital & Measurement based out of Switzerland. Qaiser was also a key member of the team in charge of the Global Digital Transformation agenda. Qaiser has also spent 5+ years with GSK Consumer Healthcare in Asia Pacific where he was driving GSK’s Global Digital agenda with specific focus on Performance Marketing and Ad Tech.
Prior to moving to client side, Qaiser spent nearly 13 years working with world class Media Agencies across Asia. His notable assignments have been with media agencies such as Mindshare, Mediacom, Initiative Media and Starcom MediaVest Group China where he was the Comms Planning & Operations lead for agency’s biggest client, Procter & Gamble. In addition to China and Singapore, Qaiser has worked in markets such as Middle East, Malaysia and Pakistan.
Rashmi Mukherjee
Experience Reimagine & Future of Work, Digital Workplace
Director
Rebecca Wallace
WPP
EVP Corporate Strategy
Rebecca has led corporate strategy and the executive office at WPP since early 2019. Prior to that, she worked for eight years in strategy consulting at Bain & Company across four countries, focusing on growth strategy and commercial acceleration, particularly in the tech, media and telecom space as well as in consumer products. She also spent time in the digital and distribution strategy team at the BBC.
Originally from California, she now lives in London.
Rene Lassauzet,
Nestlé
Head of Brand Communications
Rene relocated from Nestle Switzerland to Glendale, California to join Nestle USA (NUSA), where he became Brand Communications Manager, and then Head of Brand Communications in August 2018. In August of 2019 he took oversight of NUSA’s internal Digital Agency (The LEAD), leading integration of its Brand Communications and internal creative teams, and setting the overall strategy to unlock opportunities that foster greater collaboration across the two teams and external agencies to maximize the impact of its creative and advertising content across all Brands at NUSA.
Rene has been with Nestle for 17 years. Fun fact? His degree is actually in Industrial Engineering and he joined Nestle in Mexico in 2004 in Logistics. He held that position for 1.5 years and was later promoted to a role in Supply Chain, in which he purchased process equipment for Nestle’s factories.
These experiences gave him understanding and visibility into different value streams within Nestle and supported is transition to the Generating-Demand side of the Company, in Consumer Insight, where after a few years and as the head of the Brand Building the Nestle Way (BBNW) Consumer Knowledge Team, he partnered with the Communications Team to lead the implementation of BBNW framework across Nestlé Mexico’s brands.
Rene’s successes in Mexico prepared him to become Consumer Insight Manager for the NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto Global Business Unit (GBU) in Switzerland, where he successfully expanded the impact of the Consumer Insight function within the GBU and across markets, and made a significant contribution to the growth of the business by sitting on the GBU’s Steering Committee to ensure all strategies and initiatives were consumer-centric..
Robert Tas
1-800-Flowers.com, Inc.
CGO
As Chief Growth Officer, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., Robert is responsible for unlocking new pathways for growth across the company’s family of brands. In this role, he identifies and leads growth initiatives across the organization, including enterprise go-to-market strategies, loyalty programs, and consumer engagement and multi-branded customer strategies.
Robert has over 30 years of experience and a proven track record for igniting revenue growth leveraging digital and marketing strategies. Before joining 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. in February 2020, Robert was a Partner at McKinsey & Co., responsible for leading the marketing performance service line globally and working with large consumer brands to enhance their marketing strategies. Prior to that, he was the Chief Marketing Officer at Pegasystems and also served as the Managing Director, Head of Digital Marketing at JP Morgan Chase & Co, where he led the worldwide Digital Marketing Group and orchestrated a digital transformation across the bank.
Robert formerly served on the boards for the Association of National Advertisers and the Ad Council.
Rupen Desai
Dole Sunshine Co.
Global CMO
Rupen is the Global CMO at Dole, a company that believes everyone should have equal access to good nutrition, delivered in a positive and sustainable manner.
He co-founded TS/28 to partner organizations thrive in the conscience economy; is a member of the global creative council at Bayer and a former board member at Female Founders, a not-for-profit dedicated to the pursuit of gender equality in entrepreneurship and leadership.
Prior to Dole, he was Edelman’s Vice-Chairman across Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. During this time, he also led Edelman’s Women’s leadership network. He began his career with Mullen Lowe, where he spent two decades, leading the Asia-Pacific region for the last six.
He is a strong advocate of the responsibility purposeful business and creativity have, towards the interdependence between people, the planet and prosperity.
Ryno Holm
Distell
head: Growth Platforms - Digital
Ryno has 15+ years of practical experience in driving major transformations with the key aim of achieving superior sustainable business growth. Strategy and Digital- focussed underpinned with strong M&A and analytics capability.
Ryno held various positions across the value chain with significant experience identifying and creating value across multiple industries which include Industrial Products, Agriculture, TMT, Retail, and FMCG with a special focus on the food and beverage industry. Ryno previously was part of the Deloitte Strategy, Business Design and M&A team before joining Distell and led major Carve-outs, Digital and Analytics programmes as well as operating model design.
Ryno has a passion for the future and how we can leverage technology to enable both innovative and future-confident strategies that are focussed on the consumer and delivers measurable value.
Sachin Kapur
Coupang
Sr. Director Growth Marketing
Sachin Kupur is an entrepreneur & marketer who has spent more than 15 years in building consumer tech brands across Southeast Asia & India. In his current role, he leads Growth Marketing @ Coupang, the most loved shopping app in South Korea.
He specializes in building programmatic and scalable marketing programs across digital and traditional media. Before joining Coupang, he co-founded Nearbuy.com, Indian’s largest hyperlocal discovery platform. And was the CMO at Groupon, leading marketing for India, Indonesia, Thailand & Philippines. His passion is to leverage a deep understanding of data and consumer insights to create compelling marketing programs that help scale businesses profitably & build brands that have an impact on society.
Sally J Owen
BAT
Global Digital Lead, Corporate Brand
Sally Owen is a digital marketing native who breaks the mould. With a 15-year background in transforming enterprises to deliver improved consumer experiences, her work has spanned the FMCG, Automotive, Luxury Retail, Telecommunications and Oil & Gas sectors.
Known as a creative thinker, she has a proven track record in the ever-changing world of digital marketing. After working at IBM iX, where she helped lead Unilever’s digital transformation and was honoured with multiple awards including a 3 Effie award for Business Effectiveness and a Cannes Lion finalist, she moved to BAT. At BAT she has established a social infrastructure for BAT’s new category brands, in one of the most heavily regulated markets and most recently has led the digital transformation and implementation of the company’s A Better Tomorrow™ global purpose.
Driven, passionate and results-focused, with a grace-under-pressure approach, she was a judge of the Creative Pool Agency of the Year 2019 and Young Lions 2019 awards and her areas of expertise include, but aren’t limited to, Social Media, Branding, Digital Marketing, Digital Transformation and Digital Strategy.
Sam Needham
Silicon Valley Bank
Head of Marketing Innovation
Sam Needham is a marketing and digital product leader with nearly 20 years' experience known for solving complex problems, empowering exceptional teams, and leveraging data and technology to transform the client experience and drive growth.
Currently the Head of Marketing Innovation at Silicon Valley Bank, Sam is responsible for building marketing capabilities through data and analytics, UX design, and marketing technology & operations. Her passion for supporting SVB’s mission to increase the probability of its clients’ success has fueled her leading numerous digital transformation initiatives – including championing new ways to drive customer acquisition and conversion, shaping the future of SVB.com’s user experience, modernizing marketing technology and data orchestration, and driving marketing ROI through data-informed decision making.
Throughout her career as an intrapreneur and entrepreneur, Sam has deployed new technology and human centered design informed by differentiated customer experiences to drive growth and business value. Prior to SVB, Sam led diverse teams at Brink’s, Dell OEM, PwC Advisory, Upland Software, and others implementing company first innovations from first intranets and e-cards to b2b social selling and chat. She also co-founded Tripeezy, a travel startup, and founded a digital agency, Webalicious Designs, whose work focused on helping solopreneurs and SMBs build digital presences that generated returns for its clients.
Sam is energized by improving peoples’ lives and is driven to inspire others to be their best. She was the first Lesbians Who Tech Austin Director, early co-organizer of Hackout - the world’s largest LGBTQ themed Entrepreneurship weekend presented by Startout, and previously served on the planning committee of ATX Hack for Change. She also participated in the White House LGBTQ Tech + Innovation Summit during Obama’s administration.
A native Texan and current resident of Austin, Sam earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Business with Honors from Southern Methodist University. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, and visiting as many new places around the world as possible.
Seher Poyrazoglu Yavuz
Shell
CMO, Turkey
Seher is a commercial leader with +18 years experience in world class companies like Unilever,Coca-Cola and Shell. She has deep professional FCMG and Retail industry experience in key account management, marketing and sales strategy, P&L management, category and product management, consumer and shopper insight and brand positioning.
Seher started her career in Unilever as Key Account Specialist responsible for Carrefour Account Between 2005-2016. She worked for Coca-Cola both in sales and marketing departments. Between 2005-2007 she worked as Key Account Executive responsible for International Accounts. Between 2007-2016 Seher took various senior roles in marketing based in Turkey and Azerbaijan. Before Shell, Seher was working as Coca-Cola Marketing Director responsible for Azerbaijan. Since 2016 Seher has been working as Royal Dutch Shell Turkey CMO. She Rewarded as one of the 50 The Most Effective CMO Leaders in Turkey in 2019 & 2020 by Fortune &Data Expert.
She has 2 boys. Her hobbies are writing tales, travelling, art.
Shaunte Mears Watkins
Clif Bar & Company
CCO
Mrs. Mears-Watkins is a seasoned business leader with deep expertise in general management, consumer marketing, sales, strategy, and corporate turnarounds. She carries a broad perspective of consumer goods and retail across the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Shaunte has been the Chief Commercial Officer of Clif Bar & Company since 2021, with responsibility for global consumer marketing, consumer sales and foodservice. Her responsibilities include the management of 80 Brand Management and Sales employees around the world.
Before joining Clif Bar & Company, Mrs. Mears-Watkins served as the Vice President of Strategy and Chief of Staff to the CEO of The Clorox Company, a $6.7B global household products company. In the year she held that role, Shaunte managed tier one strategy development and communications to the Clorox Board of Directors. Prior to that role, Shaunte held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility at The Clorox Company for over a decade across the Marketing, Sales and General Management disciplines.
Mrs. Mears-Watkins began her career in Account Sales at the Procter & Gamble Distributing Company.
Shaunte holds community involvement in great esteem and invests her time as a mentor and volunteer consultant to individuals and non-profits striving for their next phase of growth.
She holds and MBA from the Harvard Business School as well as undergraduate degrees in Economics and English from Stanford University. In her spare time, she also loves to spend time testing new recipes in her kitchen as well as becoming a stronger runner.
Shereen Daniels
HR Rewired
Managing Director
An advocate for anti-racism in business + Managing Director of anti-racism and racial equity advisory firm HR rewired, Shereen is a proactive champion for Black colleagues in the workplace and partners with organisations who are serious about transformational change.
On a global mission to unlock over one million conversations about race by 2025, her story has been featured in Forbes and with over 50,000 followers she’s recognised as one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices for 2020 and she was voted the winner of HR Most Influential Thinker 2021.
Shereen also hosts Advancing Racial Equity 4.0 (the podcast), is the Founder of Advancing Racial Equity: Moving Beyond The Conversations (the conference) and via HR rewired TV, is a vlogger to the tune of over 200+ videos and 30+ live broadcasts giving advice and insights about the Black experience and what leaders and individuals can do differently to affect change.
Simone Lumsden
Rogers Communications, Inc.
CMO
Simone Lumsden is the Chief Marketing Officer at Rogers Communications. She is accountable for brand stewardship of the Rogers brands and the in-market activation of the business units’ innovations. Simone is also championing a cross functional initiative to bring modernized marketing practices to Rogers by leveraging big data, machine learning and automation, and robust Mar-Tech/Ad-Tech architecture.
Simone has held marketing and customer focused roles for almost 30 years. She started her career in packaged goods, and then transitioned into telecommunications. She has worked in 3 different telcos, and this is her second time at Rogers.
Sinem Kaynak
Unilever
CGO of Elida Beauty
Sinem is Vice President of Portfolio Transformation at Unilever’s Beauty and Personal Care Division and the Chief Growth Officer of newly founded Elida Beauty business unit. Elida Beauty’s vision is to “re-found” and breathe new life into some iconic beauty brands in Unilever’s portfolio, making them more relevant for today’s consumers and marketing ecosystem.
Sinem joined Unilever as a management trainee in Turkey after receiving her BA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from University of Pennsylvania in 2005. She progressed in her marketing career working in local and regional roles across Unilever’s Foods and Home Care Divisions in Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Europe. She also held global strategy roles in the London headquarters of the company. Prior to her current role at Elida Beauty, Sinem worked as the Strategy Director to Unilever’s Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, where she co-led the company’s global Digital Transformation reboot with the CDMO.
Sinem is committed to unlocking the potential of brands and people. She is a passionate advocate of Equity, Diversity and inclusion, and an active member of Unilever’s ED&I community. She regularly dedicates time to mentoring and supporting women progress in their careers.
Steve Challouma
Birds Eye
General Manager UK & Ireland
Steve is the General Manager of Birds Eye UK & Ireland, the leading branded business in Frozen Foods, encompassing the Birds Eye, Aunt Bessie’s and Goodfella’s brands. He has spent almost 25 years in the Frozen Food industry in a range of commercial roles spanning sales, category management and marketing. He was previously Marketing Director, where he led the brand team that turned around the Birds Eye brand, delivering four consecutive years of growth and winning the coveted Grocer Gold award in 2019 for Brand of the Year.
Steve is a passionate advocate for Frozen Food and has a long history at Birds Eye, starting his career as a Unilever graduate trainee in 1996 in Sales, before moving into Marketing in 2002. Highlights include the revitalisation of Captain Birds Eye as a brand icon after a 10-year hiatus - and working on the acquisitions and integration of the Goodfella’s and Aunt Bessie’s brands.
Subash Balar,
ITC Limited
VP Marketing
Over 20 years of experience in Marketing and Sales. Experienced Vice President Marketing with a demonstrated history of working in the consumer goods industry. With a forte in New Product Development, have developed and launched over 150 new products in various Personal Grooming and Care Categories like Personal Wash, Hair care, Skincare and Fragrances.
Have also designed, launched and nurtured multiple Green Field New Brands
I have been instrumental in developing the ecommerce business for the Personal Care Business
Skilled in New Business Identification and Development, Business Building, Portfolio Management, Consumer Insighting, Brand Management, New Product Development / Innovation, Market and Channel Development and Developing Export Business
Professional degrees: B.Tech and PGDM in Marketing.
Currently, I head the Personal Wash & Fragrances Business and Exports Business as the Vice President at ITC Limited. I also the Chair of the Marketing Sub-Committee, Eastern Region, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Beyond work, I’m extremely passionate about painting.
Susan Houben
SodaStream
Head of Marketing Benelux
Susan is a Strategic Commercial Marketeer with 16 years experience at 3 top tier FMCG Food companies: Unilever 10y, Kraft Heinz 2y and Heineken-Vrumona 4y and 6 years management team/board experience, leading high performing teams >25FTE.
Present Head of Marketing and Consumer Centricity at Sodastream Benelux, PepsiCo.
SodaStream, best known for the consumer home carbonation machine, is revolutionizing the beverage industry, empowering people to enjoy making sparkling drinks at home while saving the world from single-use plastic waste.
Susan is qualified Register Marketeer: an official personal title and registered European quality mark for leading top marketeers.
A strategic thinker, envisioning and shaping the future, setting an ambitious dot on the horizon, I dare to dream big! But as important, realistically outline the current reality and translate a vision into a clear and compelling path forward with real actions.
Knows how to develop strong, global consumer and corporate brands and use storytelling, shaping communication into a narrative with the power to inspire, engage, and move people to action, change attitudes and behaviors.
Has the natural ability to quickly grasp complex issues, connect the dots and bring clarity of thought in expression: I am a strong communicator and can make the complicated simple, pragmatic, focused and disciplined.
A few personal keywords: Dutch. Mother. Amateur chef. Runner. Lover of the UK.
Integrity. Ambitious. Devoted. Impact. Resilient. Analytical. Trust.
Tanya Perkins
Tembo Health
COO
Tanya Perkins is passionate about making sure that the people, processes and technology are in place so that teams can work effectively. To those ends, her experience includes directing operations for the Federal Reserve's Treasury Desk, designing and implementing strategy for startups and large organizations, and serving as a product manager in the development of process management and applications. Additionally, Tanya advises early stage entrepreneurs and has founded companies and nonprofits, including one that has been independently running for the better part of two decades. Tanya is currently the COO of Tembo Health, a telemedicine startup. In her free time, she helps college students start socially-minded ventures as an Advisory Board member of The Resolution Project and volunteers through the Daughters of the American Revolution. Tanya's education includes an MBA/MPP from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and an AB from Harvard University
Tatiana Lemos
Oritain
CMO
Tatiana likes people - individuals and collectives - and is interested in how they work and make decisions. Understanding true needs (manifested and latent), Tatiana dives into creating solutions to improve the general state of things. She is a curious early adopter, which got her working in very diverse businesses and cultures throughout her career, mostly creating her own job descriptions, which also requires a good amount of courage.
It was this courage that catapulted her out of the country twice and helped her stand by the decision to have a child on her own whilst still very young.
She was part of big corporations like Unilever, building brands like Dove and Omo, but the world of startups gained important ground in the past 10 years, to the point of taking her to the Nestlé Global Innovation Accelerator in Switzerland and making her an investor and smart money for retail, personal care and clean energy businesses. One thing led to the other, and last September she left Nestlé to join a science & data global startup working with forensic science that verifies product origin - the next level of traceability that can be used to connect products to ethical practices and ESG subjects around their sourcing. She is currently passionately structuring the Marketing function.
Tobias Collée
Beiersdorf
Global VP, Nivea Brand
I spent most of my professional life in Marketing and Business Management positions and complemented my profile with a General Management position. Typewise I'm more of a change agent than a sustainer, a passionate and creative soul, I enjoy teamwork and believe in the success of the brave and the bold. In my view successful leadership is driven by empathy, motivation and inspiration.
20 years of experience in FMCG at Carlsberg, Unilever and Beiersdorf * strong analytics * ingenious thinker * positive team-player * effective decision-maker * long-range planner * future-orientated * interested in seeing the possibilities beyond the present
Todd Kaplan
PepsiCo
VP of Marketing - Colas / Pepsi
Todd is the Vice President of Marketing at Pepsi where he is responsible for leading PepsiCo’s flagship brand. In this role, he oversees all brand creative, communications and commercial execution across Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar, while building a long-term strategy and new product innovation for the brand overall.
Since Fall 2018, Kaplan has brought a challenger mindset and culture-forward perspective that has been foundational to turning around and re-energizing the Pepsi brand. Under his leadership, the Pepsi brand has delivered twelve consecutive quarters of positive sales growth (and counting), along with significant increases in brand equity and all-time highs in creative effectiveness. Whether establishing that Pepsi is “More Than OK” with superstars like Cardi B, or reimagining the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show with stars like JLo and Shakira and the Weeknd, or pushing the limits of innovation with new products ranging from “Peepsi” to Nitro Pepsi, Kaplan has infused a new unapologetic energy into the brand and has further cemented its role in pop culture. During his tenure, the Pepsi brand achieved its first positive sales growth in over 10 years, with positive sales growth across every one of its sublines, including high, double-digit growth in its Pepsi Zero Sugar product.
Kaplan has spent the past 15 years at PepsiCo, where he has consistently brought his creativity, strategic thinking, and passion to each of his roles. Most recently, he oversaw PepsiCo’s multi-billion-dollar U.S. Water Business where he transformed the company’s water portfolio by creating and launching two of the biggest innovations in PepsiCo history - LIFEWTR (premium water) and BUBLY (sparkling water). These products delivered close to $500MM in sales in their first two years alone and quickly helped PepsiCo become the #1 driver of growth in the U.S. water category. Over the years, Kaplan has worked across a variety of businesses at PepsiCo, from leading marketing for Mountain Dew, to overseeing Pepsi’s NFL and MLB sponsorships, to creating disruptive new beverage innovation products for PepsiCo’s foodservice division. Prior to joining PepsiCo, he worked for Millsport LLC, a sports marketing consultancy, where he oversaw the VISA International business.
Tracy Stallard
ABInBev
Global VP, draftLine& Experiential
Tracy is a builder. Throughout her 10 years with Anheuser Busch InBev she has built new teams, capabilities, and approaches to brand development. During her career she has evolved the Consumer Connections discipline (media, experiential, and content) to bring a digital first approach to marketing. She believes that better consumer understanding enabled by data and culture ultimately unlocks innovative ways to connect with people and build brands with true utility. Tracy previously lead US Media for AB InBev for five consecutive Super Bowls and countless Clydesdale moments. In 2018 she founded draftLine, AB InBev’s internal agency, and currently serves as the global head of its 11 offices around the world. Her passion to build and create began early, having graduated from the University of California, Berkeley earning a degree in Civil Engineering.
Victoria Sjardin
Kraft Heinz
VP Marketing Excellence, International
I believe unforgettable ads, iconic packaging shapes, irreplaceable product tastes, signature scents, exceptional brand experiences and doing good in the world whilst doing good business, have the power to build global brands that people love and value in their lives. I’ve learned that great brands are built by truly understanding people, building and leading great teams, having the courage of your convictions and never settling for ‘good enough’.
A highly motivated self-starter, with 17 years of consumer marketing experience. Passionate about driving strategic and sustainable growth of brands, with a proven track record of global market success. Strong consumer insight focus and outstanding mix development expertise for both developed and developing markets. Substantial experience of delivering complex projects through global project management and strategic influencing skills. Excellent leadership and communication skills, with experience of building and leading large culturally diverse teams and agency relationships.
Vikrant Mudaliar
Dream Sports
CMO
Vikrantis the Chief Marketing Officer for Dream Sports. One of the leading names in Indian marketing, Vikrant Mudaliar has been with Dream Sports since 2018 as the Chief Marketing Officer.
Vikrant is tasked with leading Dream11’s exponential user growth and has made Dream11 a household name in India. He has successfully launched multiple integrated marketing campaigns for Dream Sports brands and led partnerships for Dream11 with various sports leagues.
In the past, Vikrant has led some of the best-known brands in the country for almost 2 decades. Prior to joining Dream Sports, Vikrant was with Yatra.com, where he led marketing activities across all of its business lines. Vikrant has vast experience in varied aspects of marketing, sales, and strategy functions across diverse sectors including e-commerce, media & entertainment, automobiles, and consumer goods.
Before Yatra, he was the Vice President – Brand Marketing at Tata Sky, where he was instrumental in making the brand a category leader. He has also been associated with Lenskart, General Motors, Jumbo Electronics, and PepsiCo.
Vikrant completed his MBA from École des Ponts Business School and Bachelors in Business Studies from Delhi University.
Yann Soenen
Pernod Ricard China
VP Marketing
Yann, 48, was born in the west of France in Brittany. His ancestors were Dutch beer brewers who immigrated to France at the beginning of the 19th century and transmitted him a respect for tradition and know-how, the taste of hedonism, a sense of conviviality and most of all a passion for intercultural discoveries.
With the will to live these values throughout his professional career, Yann graduated first in International Business Management from French and Dutch business schools, before getting specialized in the wines business at Bordeaux University in 1997.
Right after his studies in 1997, he started at LVMH in the sales department of Moët-Hennessy in France. Then, Yann joined the Remy-Cointreau group, first in the marketing team in Japan during two years before becoming International brand manager for Rémy-Martin Cognacs. From this period, Yann has nurtured a passion for Asian cultures and luxury wines and spirits.
In 2007, Yann started the MBA of HEC in Paris and CEIBS in Shanghai and joined right after early 2009 the Pernod Ricard Group as Asia-Pacific Regional Director for Champagne. He was promoted as Perrier-Jouët Global Brand Director in 2013.
Soon after, Yann pursued his career at Pernod Ricard as Marketing Director in Singapore in 2014 and in Japan from 2015 to 2020.
Since 2020, Yann has been the Vice President of Marketing at Pernod Ricard China, one of the biggest business unit of Pernod Ricard globally, a growth engine for the group to achieve its leadership ambition.
Outside working, Yann is the father of two kids and when he finds some free time, he enjoys running (he ran the marathon twice), playing tennis and golfing with friends. He is also passionate about travels and wines.
Yukela Williams
HP Inc, Corporate Strategic Initiatives
Yukela Williams is a brand management strategist who draws from an array of experiences and interests to build integrated plans, implement scalable initiatives and lead messaging for some of the world’s best-known brands, particularly during times of business transformation.
I take a systematic approach to creative problem-solving while working across functions, levels and time zones. To accomplish this, my leadership style develops highly effective teams and inspires a culture of collaboration. My portfolio consists of key roles during a number of “firsts” and case study moments that include brand-building activations, revenue generating global launches, organizational design, issues management, C-level changes, scaling for hypergrowth and M&A processes.
With a passion for understanding the target, experimenting and relentlessly pursuing scalable impact, I’ve recently focused on programmatic operations, digital transformation, content and growth strategy within the consumer tech space. And having spent half of my career at one of the world’s top consumer goods companies, I know what it takes to build a lasting brand, evolve with stakeholders, grow responsibly and develop trusted partnerships.
Zach Kitschke
Canva
CMO
Zach is the CMO for Canva, an online design and publishing tool which makes graphic design simple for everyone. Since launching in 2013, Canva has grown to over 60 million users each month across 190 countries, with more than 7 billion designs created. Today Canva is growing from strength to strength, with over 2000 team members across 4 offices in Sydney, Manila, Austin and Beijing, working together on a mission to empower everyone to create beautiful designs.
Zach joined Canva in 2013 and has worked across a variety of roles touching on product management, communications and human resources before establishing and growing the company’s global marketing function. Zach oversees Canva’s international brand and growth efforts, working with teams ranging from product marketing to PR and communications, affiliate and performance marketing, content marketing, SEO, brand
