Speakers

Geoff Allan

Managing Director, Partners For Growth

Jason Allen

Social Reputation Consultant, External Affairs, CSAA

Jason manages social media for CSAA Insurance Group, which includes steering the corporate content strategy. His role centers on amplifying CSAA IG’s digital presence and extending the reach of both earned and owned media. He also leads the army of social media brand advocates who voluntarily share curated CSAA IG content on their personal social media channels. When he's not at work, Jason spends quality time with his beautiful wife and two children, often watching basketball games. (Go Warriors!)

Richard Bagnall

Co-Managing Partner & CEO of Europe & Americas, CARMA

Ethan Bauley

Head of Narrative Intelligence and Senior Principal, Myriant

Steven Behm

Practice Lead, Crisis Communications and Corporate Reputation, Real Chemistry

Rohit Bhargava

Founder, Non-Obvious Company

Rohit Bhargava is on a mission to inspire more non-obvious thinking in the world. He is the 3-time Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of eight books and is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original speakers on trends, innovation and marketing in the world. Rohit has been invited to deliver sold-out keynotes and workshops in 32 countries around the world to change the way teams and leaders think at the World Bank, NASA, Intel, LinkedIn, MetLife, Under Armour, Univision, Disney and hundreds of other well-known organizations. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur and founding two companies, he previously spent 15 years as a marketing strategist at Ogilvy and Leo Burnett where he advised global brands on marketing and storytelling strategy. Outside his speaking and consulting, Rohit has taught persuasive speaking and global marketing as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, is frequently quoted in the global media and writes a monthly column on trends for GQ magazine in Brazil. Rohit lives in the Washington DC area with his wife and is a proud dad of two boys. He loves the Olympics (he’s been to five!) and actively hates cauliflower. 

Brakkton Booker

Political Correspondent, Politico

Reporter based in Washington, D.C. covering federal social safety net programs and breaking news around the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. He also regularly deploys to cover natural disasters as well as monitors trends in regional politics, particularly on issues of guns and race. Booker has previously worked at NPR and WAMU and is a proud Howard University alum. In his free time, he enjoys golfing and is an expert lover of fine whiskey.

Dale Bornstein

CEO, M Booth

M Booth CEO Dale Bornstein is a passionate and accomplished integrated marketer with over 30 years of experience building brands, leading transformational change and driving business growth. Celebrating her 10th year as CEO of M Booth, Dale’s leadership has led to a breathtaking 294% growth, from $16M when she joined to $63M today.

Dale’s unchanging North Star is people-first. She believes that people who live inspiring lives do inspiring work. This philosophy is at the core of M Booth’s employee-centric culture, where staff are encouraged to pursue their passions and apply that inspiration to driving client success. She is a tireless culture-bearer fostering a creative, entrepreneurial, fun and rewarding work environment that has been recognized multiple times as one of the industry’s “Best Places to Work” and “Best Mid-Sized Agencies.”

In her first decade at M Booth, Dale has led the firm’s drive to integration and expansion, building a formidable leadership team, deepening and creating new capabilities, and recruiting best-in-class talent. This led to the agency’s most successful period of client acquisition, revenue growth and industry recognition as a Global Agency of the Decade (Provoke Media). Dale is currently spearheading the firm’s expansion to the Booth Group, which now includes M Booth Health, formerly Health Unlimited and acquired in 2019. M Booth Health grew more than 30% last year, and today the Booth Group is $85M in revenue.

Dale took the reins of M Booth after a 27-year career at Ketchum, where she rose from assistant account executive to senior partner/director of global practices. In that role, she was responsible for driving strategic growth of the brand, food, technology, corporate and healthcare practices, and building the firm’s global media and creative networks. Dale was the first woman to head Ketchum’s New York office, a role she held for six years including leading the organization through 9/11 and the recession of 2001/2002 successfully.

In the last 5-6 years, M Booth has won over 70 industry awards for its clients and the agency and Dale have earned numerous leadership honors. In 2023, she received the Outstanding Individual Achievement SABRE from PRovoke Media, which recognizes leaders who have made a lasting impact on public relations. She was named to the Innovator 25 list, inducted into PRWeek’s Hall of Femme, named to the top 50 Power List five times over the last seven years, and honored by the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations for her commitment to mentoring. She was also named an Outstanding Alumni by her college at Cornell (CALS) and earned the Department of Communication's Outstanding Service Award.

Dale serves on the global board of directors for Dress for Success, a global non-profit that empowers women to achieve economic independence, and also served on the board of the PR Council, an industry association representing more than 100 agencies. She’s a founding member of the Strategic Advisory Board for the Department of Communications at Cornell University, and has served on the board since its inception in 2005. She is also a member of the Page Society and the industry’s Diversity Action Alliance. Combining her passions for mentorship and figure skating, Dale is an avid supporter of Figure Skating in Harlem, a non-profit that is “the only organization in the world for girls of color that combines the power of education with access to the artistic discipline of figure skating to build champions in life"

Martha Boudreau

EVP, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, AARP

Julian Boulding

President, thenetworkone

Julian began his career in advertising sales, before working in independent agencies in London. He then joined the DMB&B Group, now part of Publicis, where he spent fourteen years in a succession of senior roles. While with DMB&B, he lived and worked in UK, Europe, USA and Latin America, where he spent 3 years as Regional Client Service Director for Salles DMB&B in Brazil.’ During this time, he directed global advertising campaigns for companies like Procter & Gamble, M&M Mars, Avon and Philips Electronics, rising to be President, International for DMB&B’s sister network, NW Ayer.

In 2003, Julian left the world of traditional agency networks, to co-found thenetworkone.

John Bradbury

Partner, Managing Director – Corporate Affairs & Reputation, Ketchum

As the Managing Director of Ketchum’s corporate affairs and reputation group, John leads the agency’s issues and crisis management, financial communications, employee engagement and purpose specialty teams. As a senior counselor, he provides strategic issues management, litigation communications and crisis counsel to a wide array of clients around the world. He has worked on behalf of multi-national companies, developing and executing programs to manage issues and negative perceptions that threaten clients’ brands and corporate reputations. Conversely, he works with clients to define, build, and enhance their corporate reputations via comprehensive strategic communications approaches. He has counseled clients in numerous global and market-specific crisis situations, including product recalls, aviation events, workplace safety situations, data breaches, labor actions, activist and NGO campaigns, financial distress and bankruptcy proceedings, investigative media and regulatory inquiries. In addition, he has expertise in litigation communications, including national product liability and class action litigation, intellectual property rights and other high-profile litigation assignments.

Neil Brennan

Vice President, Meltwater

Neil currently leads the Influencer Marketing Centre of Excellence at Meltwater, under the umbrella of Klear. A founding member of Meltwater Australia in 2006, Neil launched and led customer centric teams across Australia, USA, UK, Singapore and Japan.

Recently he directed the integration of two acquisitions made by Meltwater. The first (Sysomos), acquired in 2018 is a social listening & community management platform. The second (Klear), acquired in 2021 is an end-to-end influencer management platform.

Candace Bushnell

Journalist and author, Sex and the City

From Sex and the City through ten successive novels, Bushnell has revealed a gift for tapping into the zeitgeist of any New York minute. With each book, she has deepened her range, but with a light touch that makes her complex literary accomplishments look easy. The Guardian Newspaper sums up Bushnell’s work this way: “She caustically addresses the conditions of materialism, cramped urban life, and metropolitan speed, where fame and wealth are all around, but never in one’s grasp . . . . Bushnell is courageous in bringing this to the fore, and she is blessed with an Austen-like mastery in doing so. She cuts through the lies that women tell themselves about the surface equality of Western society. As such, she has much more in common with Edith Wharton, Dorothy Parker and early Bret Easton Ellis.”

Bushnell (b. Dec. 1, 1958) grew up in Glastonbury, Ct, and moved to New York City at age 19. She attended Rice University and New York University, and began her professional career at 19 when she wrote a children’s book for Simon & Schuster. Throughout her twenties, Bushnell developed her trademark style as a freelancer, writing darkly humorous pieces about women, relationships and dating for Mademoiselle, Self Magazine, and Esquire.

In 1990, she wrote a column that would become a precursor for Sex and the City, called The Human Cartoon, a fictional serial published in Hamptons Magazine.

She began writing for the New York Observer in 1993; in November of 1994 she created the column Sex and the City, which ran in the New York Observer for two years. The column was bought as a book in 1995, and sold to HBO as a series in 1996. Bushnell hosted a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio, called Sex, Success, and Sensibility, which aired from October 2006 to October 2008. She wrote and created a web series, The Broadroom, starring Jennie Garth, which launched in September 2009.

Through her books and television series, Bushnell’s work has influenced and defined two generations of women. She is the winner of the 2006 Matrix Award for books (other winners include Joan Didion and Amy Tan), and a recipient of the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. She currently divides her time between New York City and Sag Harbor, New York.

Carol Carrubba

Principal, Highwire PR

Carol Carrubba, principal at Highwire, is a business leader and communications expert with a deep focus on and passion for technology. For clients, Carol specializes in category design, strategic messaging, executive speaker coaching and thought leadership for midsized to Fortune 50 technology companies like AWS, Splunk, Intel, Western Digital, IBM and many others. Carol partnered with companies like Gitlab, Digital Ocean, Qualtrics and others through their IPO processes from developing corporate narratives and establishing their business-as-usual to C-suite speaker training and listing day media and digital activations. For the Highwire team, Carol oversees People and Culture with the highest priority on diversity, inclusion and belonging. Highwire is committed to finding and elevating all voices as we nurture the next generation of communications leaders. 

Carol graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in English followed by Peace Corps service in Mali, West Africa for more than two years. Carol held leadership positions at Porter Novelli, Fleishman Hillard and Schwartz (now MSL) before building Highwire PR.

Matias Cartajena

Founder & CEO, Simplicity

Matias Cartajena founded Simplicity in 2012 and, as CEO, has led the company’s growth and diversification, including its expansion to the US since June 2021. He has run Simplicity with a purpose-driven philosophy, where persons and happiness are at the center. In 2014, Simplicity was the first Chilean communications agency certified as a B Corp and internationally awarded for Best Governance and Changemakers.

He holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and has more than 20 years’ experience in media and communications, including serving as general manager at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Chile and a journalist.

Throughout his career, he has advised more than 200 companies from different industries and countries in Latin America and the US. He’s an expert in corporate, financial and legal communication as well as crisis management.

Brianne Chai-Onn

Senior Partner, Finn Partners

Brianne Chai-Onn, Senior Partner, FINN, has more than 15 years of experience working on sustainable development, agriculture, climate change, public health, and wide range of issues at the intersection of sustainability and social impact. She has helped international organizations, start-ups, corporations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations develop and implement strategic communications programs that increase visibility, engage new audiences, and propel their work in an impactful way. She has attended multiple UN Climate Change Summits and has worked across the board with clients on nature-based solutions as well as sustainable tech. She is passionate about finding new ways to scale solutions and mobilize action.

Julie Colehour

Partner, C+C

Julie Colehour is a partner at C+C, a 100+ person social issues communications agency with offices in Seattle, Portland and Boston, and staff in 16 states. C+C's Mission: Do Good Work.

Julie is a leading social marketer who has spent her 33-year career working to motivate people to alter their behaviors for social good working on causes ranging from energy efficiency to COVID, wildfires, waste prevention, opioids and distracted driving. Most recently, Julie supported the Washington State Department of Health with their COVID response to increase adoption of COVID preventative behaviors and vaccination. She also helped support the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® program for the past 25 years, including co-leading the original national launch plan that led to a 41 percent national awareness of the ENERGY STAR® label in just three years.

Julie serves on the boards of the PR Council, the Pacific Northwest Social Marketing Association and PROI Worldwide, where she is co-chair for the Americas region.

Stephanie Crockett

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mower

AnnaMaria DeSalva

CEO, Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Corey duBrowa

CEO, BCW

In addition to serving as CEO of BCW, one of the world’s largest communications agencies with more than 4,000 people globally, Corey also oversees AxiCom, a specialist technology PR agency; Direct Impact, a grassroots and advocacy agency; GCI Health, a global healthcare integrated communications agency; HZ, an integrated creative agency; and Prime Policy Group, a public affairs and public policy consultancy. He is also a member of the WPP Executive Committee.

Before joining BCW in August of 2023, Corey served for five years as Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs at Google and Alphabet. Prior to that he was Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer at Salesforce, and previously spent seven years at Starbucks as Senior Vice President of Global Communications. He has extensive agency experience from his time at Waggener Edstrom and Ketchum Public Relations, having begun his career in employee communications at Nike.

His multiple industry awards over the past 25 years include six SABREs, four PRWeek Global Awards and three PRSA Silver Anvils, and he has been inducted into the PR News Hall of Fame. He currently serves on the University of Oregon Foundation’s Board of Trustees and the PR Museum’s Board of Trustees. He was a trustee of the Arthur W. Page Society for five years and a founding member of the USC Annenberg School’s Board of Advisors. Corey was a music journalist for two decades, with more than a thousand bylines in publications ranging from Rolling Stone to GQ.

Jenn Duggan

President, Canada – Ontario & West, Citizen Relations

As Citizen Relation's President of Canada (Ontario & West), Jenn drives the agency's vision and strategy and leads a large and highly integrated team. In her 20+ year agency career, Jenn has led multiple integrated campaigns for large global brands across a variety of categories including CPG, consumer health, retail, lifestyle and not-for-profit. In 2023 alone her campaigns won at The Clios, The Webbys, the North American Sabres and the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. What Jenn values most is championing the well-being and personal growth of her team; her leadership is focused on fostering connection and collaboration. She inspires and empowers every Citizen to seize their potential and take on opportunities and challenges without the fear of failure. Jenn is known to bring some Ted Lasso-isms to her leadership style - taking the time to get to know her "players", be "a goldfish" and keep the power of believing at the core.

Richard Edelman

CEO, Edelman

Ashley Etienne

Senior advisor, Powell Tate, Former senior advisor to Presidents Obama and Biden, and Vice President Harris

Widely recognized as the “queen of the war room” and “Obama’s bad-news fixer,” Ashley Etienne is among the nation’s most accomplished communications strategist who possess an unparalleled experience and insights into the White House, Congress, and the policies driving the national agenda. She has served as a trusted senior advisor to our nation’s most powerful leaders: Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

For more than 15 years, Etienne has specialized in facilitating high-stakes communications strategies to address the most pressing policy, economic, and social issues facing the nation. Her mastery of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, expansive media relationships and access to power-players across industries and advocacy make her an asset in mission critical settings.

Ashley most recently served as Deputy Assistant to President Biden and Communications Director for Vice President Harris. Before returning to the White House, she served on the Presidential Transition Team as the Director of Communications for Vice President Elect Kamala Harris and as Senior Advisor for Strategic Planning for Biden for President in 2020.

From 2017 to 2020, Ashley served as Communications Director and Senior Advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman and person of color to hold the position. There she led the integrated communications and legal strategy for the first impeachment and trial of President Trump and the communication strategy that resulted in the historic 2018 midterm victory for House Democrats and reelection of Pelosi as Speaker. 

Etienne was appointed Special Assistant to President Obama and Communications Director for the U.S. Cabinet in 2014 and led strategic communications for the President’s signature My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

Prior to joining the Obama White House, Etienne held several positions in Congress including Deputy Communications Director for Leader Pelosi and Communications Director for the Oversight Committee under Ranking Member Elijah Cummings.

Etienne joined The Weber Shandwick Collective in 2022 as a senior advisor where she counsels top executives on navigating disruption in politics, business, and society. She is a CBS News Political Contributor and served as a Spring 2022 Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. Etienne holds a Master of Arts in Political Communications from John Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Sam Houston State University.

Jade Floyd

Senior Vice President of Communications & Public Affairs, Global Strategy Group

Jade Floyd previously she served as Vice President of Communications at the Case Foundation led by digital pioneers Jean and Steve Case (co-founder AOL), and Revolution Venture Capital. She has led executive positioning, expanded new media opportunities, and worked with hundreds of media outlets, securing stories in the New York Times, Fortune, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes, Tech Crunch, CNBC and more.

Jade has more than 15 years of communications experience leading strategic communications, reputation management, strategic partnerships, and community engagement initiatives for Fortune 500 companies and social impact organizations. Jade is a recipient of the Washington Business Journal “40 Under 40” and Huffington Post “IGNITEGood Millennial Impact Challenge Award.” She currently, and has previously, served on the board and in advisory roles to Sitar Arts Center, the Communications Network, DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, Black Girl Ventures, Project Create and 1455 Literary Arts. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio and received her master’s in Applied Politics from the University of Akron.

Tanya Fraser

SVP - Brand, Creative & Advertising Strategy, US Cards at Citi

Tanya Fraser leads advertising for Citi’s credit card business. Her previous roles at Citi have run the gamut, including retail bank client segment strategy, experiential, social media, and content execution. Prior to Citi, Tanya worked on digital communications at the Gates Foundation and in digital marketing on the agency side in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Georgia State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In her spare time, she relishes in spontaneous travel, science podcasts and hiking hidden trails.

Kasey Gillette

Senior Director for Sustainability and Political Affairs, Bayer

Kasey Gillette is Senior Director for Sustainability and Political Affairs for Bayer.  She leads federal policy work to advance climate change, water, biodiversity, and other environmental goals.  She also oversees Bayer’s direct political advocacy, including the employee PAC, grassroots advocacy, and GOTV efforts.  Kasey has worked at Bayer for nine years and prior to that spent 15 years on Capitol Hill working for several Democratic members, most recently with former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  She managed agriculture policy for the Senate Democratic Caucus along with conservation issues and gun safety.  Kasey grew up in central Florida in an active-duty military family and graduated from the University of South Florida. 

Julie Ginches

Co-Founder & Partner, Purpose WorldWide

Julie Ginches is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Purpose Worldwide, a marketing and public relations consultancy that specializes in providing the talent and programs needed by organizations committed to purpose driven growth. Ginches is an EIR for Progress Partners and also best known as a B2B CMO and well known and highly respected member of the C Suite. With over four decades of experience, she has a proven track record for creating strategies that take a company from inception to high profile liquidity events.

Since founding Purpose WorldWide in 2020, she has led strategic efforts on behalf of more than 50 companies ranging from startups to publicly traded multinationals, including complete company, product repositioning campaigns and high profile launches.  Purpose educates the industry on Return on Purpose by growth metrics and is active across industry organizations including  co-chairing of the Purpose Council at ANA.

Jonathan Greenblatt

CEO and National Director, Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

Jonathan Greenblatt is CEO of ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), the world's leading anti-hate organization with a distinguished record of fighting antisemitism and advocating for just and fair treatment to all. Jonathan joined ADL in 2015 after serving in the White House as special assistant to President Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. He joined the government after a distinguished career in business as a successful social entrepreneur and corporate executive: he cofounded Ethos Brands, the company that launched Ethos Water (acquired by Starbucks, 2005), founded All for Good (acquired by Points of Light, 2011), and served as a senior executive at realtor.com (acquired by News Corp, 2014).

Since becoming CEO, Jonathan has modernized ADL while refocusing it on the mission it has had since its founding in 1913: to fight the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all. Under Jonathan, ADL has modernized its operations, innovated its approaches to counter antisemitism from all sides and enhanced its efforts to combat extremism in all forms. 

Jonathan’s first book was published in 2022.  It Could Happen Here: Why America is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable—And How We Can Stop It, is a bracing primer on how we—as individuals, as organizations, and as a society—can strike back against antisemitism and hate.

Gail Heimann

CEO, The Weber Shandwick Collective

Gail Heimann is Chief Executive Officer of Weber Shandwick and oversees The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC), the leading earned-first network – a strategic communications and consulting powerhouse built for “the era of earned.”

TWSC is fueled by a breadth and depth of sector and service expertise across 12 brands with offices in 6 continents. Its wide range of proficiency spans from organizational transformation to public affairs to digital transformation. Gail is dedicated to continuing to build a global organization differentiated by the power of its specialist expertise, its commitment and willingness to innovate and its culture of collaboration. 

As CEO, Gail elevates and accelerates the kind of big picture, convention-breaking thinking that drives action – love, loyalty, awe, advocacy – and earns enduring change. At her core, she’s an idea maker and future shaper with a relentless drive to discover the new and the next. Throughout her storied career, Gail has helped to build brands and burnish reputations for a significant percentage of the Fortune 500 and has worked on iconic brands and campaigns across every sector. 

Gail was a catalyst in Weber Shandwick being named as the only PR agency to the prestigious Ad Age Agency A-List in 2014, 2015 and 2020, and featured as an A-List “Standout” Agency in 2017 and 2018. Ad Age also named Weber Shandwick to its Best Places to Work list in 2019. Weber Shandwick was also honored as PRWeek’s Global Agency of the Year four years in a row (2015 to 2018) and was awarded PRWeek’s Purpose Agency of the Year in 2020 and 2021. Additional accolades include PRovoke‘s Global Agency of the Year in 2015, 2017 and 2019 – and PRovoke Global Agency of the Decade in 2020.

Under Gail’s leadership, Weber Shandwick has won 150+ Cannes Lions in partnership with leading brands around the world. Gail has served on five juries at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: President of the Public Relations jury in 2012 and 2021; a member of the inaugural jury for the Glass Lions, which celebrate work that breaks through gender bias and stereotypes, in 2014; a member of the Cannes Lions Titanium jury in 2018 and a member of the Young Lions jury in 2022.

In 2020, Gail was named the PR Agency Head winner in Campaign’s inaugural U.S. Agency of the Year awards. In 2019, she was honored twice by PRWeek as U.S. Agency Professional of the Year and Global Agency Professional of the Year. In 2016, she was inducted into PRWeek’s inaugural Hall of Femme (now Women of Distinction), recognizing female trailblazers in communications. And in 2015, Gail was named to PRovoke’s North America Innovator 25 list, which celebrates individuals who accelerate innovation and push boundaries within the public relations industry. Earlier in her career, Gail was named an Ad Age Woman to Watch. 

Gail sits on the Board of Directors for the Susan G. Komen organization, The LAGRANT Foundation and Ad Council.  

Gail and her husband have two daughters and live in New York City.

Paul Holmes

Founder & Chair, PRovoke Media

Paul Holmes, founder and chair of PRovoke Media, has been writing about public relations for more than 25 years. Paul began his career in local newspapers in the north of England and also worked for a newspaper group in South London before joining PR Week as news editor in 1985.

In 1987 he moved to New York to launch the short-lived US edition of that publication, and after that project came to an inglorious end worked with Adweek and Adweek’s Marketing Week for a year.

In 1989, he launched his own company, initially publishing Inside PR, and later Reputation Management magazine, both focused on providing analysis of critical trends and issues in the public relations industry. He created the annual Public Relations Agency Report Card, which included profiles of the leading PR firms in the US, and the Creativity in Public Relations Awards, which grew to become the largest in North America.

Early in 2000, Holmes launched The Holmes Group, which provides knowledge and insight to public relations professionals across a variety of platforms, including a website, an e-newsletter, events, printed reports, research and consulting assignments, and the SABRE Awards competition. The group’s flagship title, PRovoke Media (p/k/a The Holmes Report), covers the public relations business in the Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and the Asia-Pacific region. In 2011, Paul was inducted into the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Jillian Janaczek

Global CEO, Porter Novelli

Pam Jenkins

Chief Public Affairs Officer, The Weber Shandwick Collective

Bill Jewell

Chief Information Officer, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Bill Jewell, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s chief information officer, leads the organization’s technology and information security programs. In this role, Jewell focuses on building, securing, and maintaining technology platforms and services that enable the Chamber to thrive.

Previously, Jewell served as chief information security officer and vice president of technology at the College Board. There he built and led an information security program designed to protect the data of over 100 million students, parents, and educators. Jewell oversaw security engineering and operations, architecture and policy, vulnerability management, application security, and cyber defense. He was also responsible for infrastructure engineering, workforce technologies, and corporate systems, including financial, customer relations, and human resources management applications. Earlier, he led the College Board’s data management and governance teams.

Before joining the College Board, Jewell was senior vice president and chief technology officer for National Geographic’s JASON Project, a middle school curriculum program dedicated to inspiring students to pursue STEM careers. At JASON, he and his team won six CODiE awards for the digital products and services they created.

Jewell earned his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Arts with distinction from Georgetown University, and a CISO Certificate from the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon. He graduated magna cum laude with a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Sydney Kitson

Chairman & CEO, Kitson & Partners

Syd Kitson is Chairman/CEO of Kitson & Partners, a Florida-based real estate company specializing in the creation and development of environmentally responsible, sustainable master-planned communities and commercial properties. Kitson is a graduate of Wake Forest University, with a notable career in the National Football League. Upon retirement, he began his career in real estate, founding Kitson & Partners in 1999. In 2006, Kitson completed the historic purchase of Babcock Ranch in Southwest Florida, encompassing an area five times the size of the island of Manhattan, with over 80% of the original land purchase set aside in the largest single land preservation agreement in the state’s history. Syd has served on multiple civic, education and non-profit boards. He is past Chair of the Florida Council of 100, served as Chair of the Board of Governors for the State University System of Florida in 2020 and 2021, and was elected the 2016-2017 Chair of the Florida Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

Melanie Klausner

EVP, Havas Red

A veteran in the public relations industry, Melanie specializes in results-oriented strategies that maximize brand visibility, special events and media relations. Since 2017, she has provided leadership and counsel to corporate, cause and consumer clients from Havas PR’s New York office with an emphasis in corporate reputation, issues management, health and wellness, food and beverage, lifestyle and sustainability and leading dynamic programs and award-winning campaigns. During her career, she has worked with top-tier and emerging brands brands including Rioja Wines from Spain, New York State’s Taste NY program, Iovate Brands – Ultra Lean,  Hydroxycut and MuscleTech, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the W Hotel, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Sunfare –personalized healthy meal delivery, Natura Brasil, Wellness in the Schools, HealthCommunities.com and Socko Energy.

Melanie has a forte for developing targeted, results-oriented strategies and creative public relations tactics that bring fresh perspectives to clients and influence media and customers. She has secured client coverage in national outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg TV, Reuters, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Wine & Spirit, Wine Spectator, Beverage Media, Nation’s Restaurant News and Tasting Panel.

George Kypraios

CEO, Yefira

Brad Laporte

CEO, WinCup

Brad is one of the top plastics engineers in North America where he has leveraged his skills in Lean Manufacturing and operational excellence to drive multiple corporate transformations. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of WinCup. Previously, Brad was VP of Operations at Larson Juhl (A Berkshire Hathaway Company), Okabashi Brands as VP of Manufacturing, and spent two decades as a leader at Guardian Industries, a tier 1 automotive supplier.  In September 2020, Brad helped position WinCup for sale to Atar Capital, who’s core principles is a commitment to investing in companies that work toward protecting the environment.

Stephanie Lett-Dawkins

Account Supervisor, Citizen Relations

Jean Linis-Dinco

Data Governance Specialist , VPS

Mark Listes

CEO, Pendulum

Gabriella Lunceford

2023 PRep School fellow, Howard University

Marco Margheri

Head of US Relations of Eni, Chairman of Eni New Energies US Inc.

Marco Margheri oversees relations with US Authorities, US-based IFIs, and multilateral processes of interest for the company. 

Marco is also serving as Board Member for the Atlantic Council, a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and Chair for Italy of the WEC – World Energy Council.

Prior to joining Eni, he was Italy’s Edison Executive Vice-President for Sustainability, Institutions & Regulation overseeing activities in Rome and Brussels, and held positions with GE Oil & Gas and Cohn Wolfe. 

Marco is also a visiting professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, a member of the Italian press and an Honorary Member of the Milano per la Scala Foundation in Milan.

Diana Marszalek

Senior Reporter, PRovoke Media

Michael Maslansky

CEO, maslansky + partners

Since writing The Language of Trust in 2010, Michael has become one of the leading experts on reputation and crisis communication in the world. He has served as a senior advisor to Wells Fargo, Kaiser Permanente, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Bank of America, PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer, among others, and has helped industry associations in financial services, energy, and personal care navigate major industry transformations and crises.

Rebecca Mayo

Joint Managing Director, Lansons, London & New York

Rebecca Mayo is a partner and managing director at Lansons, a communications and reputation management consultancy, which is 100% owned by one third of its people. She sits on executive committee and leads the consultancy’s international services, including in her role as the Lansons New York chair.

Lansons is a pioneer in its home market and its values have consistently shaped the strategic advice and creative ideas it delivers to clients, who are navigating a world that expects more. Rebecca is an award-winning consultant with decades of experience advising clients from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She works with senior leadership teams on a wide range of business issues, from complex corporate, issues and change communications through to market-leading brand building and purpose-led campaigns.

In addition to her roles at Lansons, Rebecca also sits on the PROI Worldwide Board and is the co-chair of the PROI EMEA Region. 

Susan Mcpherson

Author, The Lost Art of Connecting

Susan McPherson is a serial connector, angel investor, and corporate responsibility expert. She is the founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, a communications consultancy focused on the intersection of brands and social impact. She is the author of The Lost Art of Connecting (McGraw-Hill). Susan has 30+ years of experience in marketing, public relations, and sustainability communications, speaking regularly at industry events including Massachusetts Conference for Women, BSR, DLD, Worth Women and Techonomy, and contributing to the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Forbes. She has appeared on NPR, CNN, USA Today, The New Yorker, New York Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.

Susan is the recipient of Forbes magazine’s 50 over 50—Impact 2021 award and Worth Media’s Worthy100 award. She has also won numerous accolades for her voice on social media platforms from Fortune Magazine, Fast Company and Elle Magazine. She serves on the boards of USA for UNHCR, The 19th News, and serves on the advisory boards of The List, Apolitical Foundation, Just Capital and Alltruists. Additionally, she is a member of the MIT Solve Women and Technology Leadership Group and serves as an adviser to several nonprofits including She’s The First and The OpEd Project. Susan is a Vital Voices global corporate ambassador and a member of the New York Women’s Forum and Extraordinary Women on Boards. She resides in Brooklyn.

Rodell Mollineau

Partner & Co-Founder, ROKK Solutions

Philip Nardone

President & CEO, PAN Communications

Phil founded PAN Communications over 25 years ago and has since overseen the firm to five offices internationally, with a growing virtual community. Most recently, Phil has led PAN through two acquisitions, both of which kept his number one vision in mind: to create a firm with shared values, exceptional work ethic and employees as passionate for their craft as he is. His enthusiasm for people management and desire to drive transformation in the industry has helped shape the next-gen PR professional for years to come.

Phil’s depth of experience has led him to several industry recognitions, including PR News’ “50 Game Changers of PR,” PR News’ “PR Trainer/Educator of the Year” for his work as an adjunct professor at his alma mater, Syracuse University, and PR Club’s John J. Molloy Crystal Bell Lifetime Achievement Award. Most recently, Phil was inducted into PR Daily’s Hall of Fame in their 2020 Communicator of the Year Awards.

Phil is an active member of the PR community, including the PR Council Board of Directors, Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications Board of Directors and the Newhouse DEI Committee, focused around bringing diversity and inclusion to the industry. He has spoken at several industry-leading events, including PRovoke and PRSA International. You can learn more about the topics he is passionate about in recent podcasts with PRWeek (Investing in the Future of People), PRovoke and PR Council.

Natasha O’Dell Archer, J.D.

EVP and global head of DE&I, Golin

Jeremiah Owyang

General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures , CEO of Converge Councils

Jeremiah Owyang's career mission is to connect companies to their customers using new technologies. A respected figure in the tech industry for over a decade, Jeremiah is renowned for his ability to identify and explain emerging technology trends. As a General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures, he leads the investments of the AI fund into early-stage startups. He's also the CEO and founder of Converge Councils, a company dedicated to helping corporate executives navigate the world of AI Business.

Based in Silicon Valley, Jeremiah is deeply connected to the tech scene. He has founded multiple companies, including innovation consortiums for the world's largest companies, research firms, and more. His insights have been quoted in the New York Times, and he was a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal's Tech Accelerator column. TIME has recognized him as one of the "Best Twitter feeds" to follow.

Jeremiah’s speaking engagements have spanned prestigious events and organizations, including SXSW, Dreamforce, Oracle Open World, Swiss Economic Forum, and at corporate HQs including Nestle, BMW, Coke, Walmart, Visa, Wells Fargo, Airbnb, Pfizer, J&J, Whole Foods, and more. He operates from a backyard Airstream in Silicon Valley, a unique workspace that has been featured in USA Today.

Whether the topic is AI, the AI industry, the technology stack, or how AI can benefit humanity, Jeremiah brings a wealth of knowledge and an engaging style to every presentation.

Outside of work, Jeremiah is a family man and has completed over a dozen obstacle course races, and is a Jazz pianist.

Lindsay Page

SVP, Strategy, Citizen Relations

Lindsay leads strategy development for top-tier Canadian and global brands. Fueled by curiosity, her work helps brands put people first and impact culture. She has led strategies - from brand to communications or social purpose - for Molson, PepsiCo, TELUS, Unilever, HP, Loblaws and Coca-Cola and won Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, Agency of the Year designations, and more. Lindsay holds degrees in Commerce from the University of Windsor, and Media & Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Maja Pawinska Sims

Associate Editor, PRovoke Media

Maja Pawinska Sims has been the EMEA editor of PRovoke Media since January 2018. She has been writing about public relations and communications for 22 years, first as features editor of PRWeek and then as a freelance writer and editor for PR agencies and their clients around the world, including three years as Weber Shandwick’s EMEA editor. She was named Journalist of the Year at the Global Women in Marketing Awards in 2019, where the judges noted: “Maja proves how empathy can drive brilliant editorial thinking. She is clearly an absolute expert in her field and proves that you can challenge an industry while also championing it.”

Andy Pharoah

Vice President of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability, Mars, Incorporated

Andy Pharoah joined the Mars Leadership Team in 2016 and serves as the Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Sustainability.  

In his role, Pharoah leads the company’s communications, government relations, stakeholder engagement and corporate brand. His responsibilities include management team and Board of Directors effectiveness. Pharoah also stewards Mars, Incorporated’s ambitious sustainability objectives and the programs in place to make the company’s operations Sustainable in a Generation.

Prior to his current role, Pharoah served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Sustainability & Strategy for Wrigley, a segment of Mars, Incorporated.

His responsibilities encompassed all aspects of Corporate Affairs, leadership of Global Sustainability, and leadership of the strategy process.  He originally joined Wrigley in 2008 as European Corporate Affairs Director.

A native Londoner, Pharoah began his career in U.K. politics. He then spent 13 years with the international communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton, where he worked with a wide range of companies, governments and NGOs as Head of the Corporate Practice for Europe, Middle East and Africa. 

Pharoah holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from the University of Leicester. He has been living in the US for a well-over a decade and has finally begun to understand and enjoy baseball. He is an Executive Committee Member of the Washington National Opera and a Board Member of both the Asia Society and British-American Business Council

Nataliya Popovych

Founder & President, One Philosophy

Marc Rogers

Partner, Corporate + Transactions, Davis+Gilbert LLP

When companies pursue transformative next steps for their business, they know Marc Rogers is invested in their success. In every M&A or debt financing transaction he handles, Marc focuses on getting his clients closer to their overarching business goals with solutions tailored to their unique growth strategies.

Along with staying up to date on industry trends that affect his clients, Marc provides useful insight into economic and government developments that may impact a transaction or the way in which clients operate their businesses. He understands their objectives, how they run their business, where they want to go strategically and how each transaction fits into their big picture.

Marc works with businesses of every size and in every stage of the growth cycle. Clients value his ability to explain complex deal terms in plain English and help them stay focused on the issues that really matter. His pragmatic and practical advice keeps deals moving forward to close. Marc also represents the management stakeholders and senior executives of privately held companies in connection with strategic M&A transactions involving their companies.

In his many long-term client relationships, Marc is a loyal and trusted advisor who keeps his client’s long-term goals and ultimate legacy at the forefront. When selling their company, clients rely on his counsel to ensure a smooth path to closing, mitigate post-closing risks and negotiate transaction terms that protect client interests while balancing the operational and financial needs of the company to promote its long-term success.

Kim Sample

President, PR Council

Carmen San Segundo Gamez

Global Marketing and Communications Director for ESG and CSR, IBM

Carmen is a passionate communicator from Spain, currently based in the United States and having lived in 7 cities. She has a high-level multidisciplinary experience, including education in communications, business and marketing. Carmen has developed her career both in the agency and in the corporate fields, working in a variety of industries such as technology, pharmaceutical, government and consumer goods, among others. She was responsible for developing and implementing pan-regional communication strategies throughout Latin America at IBM. Currently, she is leading Marketing & Communications for ESG and Corporate Social Responsibility globally at IBM. In 2022, Carmen was recognized as Women to Watch by PRWeek and she served as judge for the Shorty Impact and PRWeek Purpose awards and MIT-Solve Gender Equity in STEM challenge in 2023.

John Saunders

President & CEO, FleishmanHillard

John Saunders has been FleishmanHillard’s President and Chief Executive Officer since November 2015 – only the fourth individual to hold that title in the history of a firm approaching eight decades.

From 2011, he was Regional President for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He was previously Regional President for Continental Europe and Eurasia, having been named as Regional Director for Europe in 2004. Before assuming his regional leadership positions, John was Managing Director at FleishmanHillard Saunders. He founded that business in 1990 and grew it into Ireland’s largest public relations consultancy and one of FleishmanHillard’s most successful international offices before selling it to Omnicom in 2001.

John is a member of a range of professional bodies, including the Arthur W. Page Society and The Seminar, and is regularly invited to share a perspective on communications-related topics at engagements around the world. He is also a Trustee of the world-renowned Missouri Botanical Garden and serves on the Board of Greater St. Louis, Inc.

He has received numerous accolades, including a 2023 Individual Achievement SABRE from PRovoke and was named the 16^th inductee to the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Brad Schwartzberg

Partner/Co-Chair, Corporate + Transactions, Davis+Gilbert LLP

Brad J. Schwartzberg is co-chair of the Corporate Practice Group of Davis+Gilbert LLP. Brad’s practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, minority and majority investments, commercial financings, and incentive compensation arrangements. He is a business-minded attorney who believes that understanding your operational and economic objectives as well as your legal posture is crucial to achieving the best outcome. 

Over the past 30 years, Brad has successfully closed hundreds of transactions (on both the buy and sell sides). He knows how to creatively solve problems and efficiently bring transactions over the finish line. Given the sheer volume of deals Brad has handled, there is rarely an issue he hasn’t seen.

Stakeholders, founders and chief executive officers regularly seek his counsel in developing their long-term goals. Whether the goal is to prepare for an ultimate sale or to facilitate growth through a strategic M&A initiative, Brad helps clients develop, implement and execute their M&A strategies.

Brad often says that “economics drive behavior,” and he is intimately familiar with earn-out and incentive-based arrangements. He draws on his strong mathematical background and understanding of market conditions to develop realistic pricing targets and deal structures that create value. Brad’s clients appreciate his ability to explain complicated deal terms in a straightforward and understandable manner.

Just as Brad helps companies achieve their M&A goals, he also helps employers attract and retain the best talent in a highly competitive landscape. He designs compensation arrangements that incentivize executives to increase productivity and reach revenue and profitability targets. He also counsels executives in negotiating compensation and departure packages.

Brad counts many international marketing communication, media and technology companies among his long-term clients. He possesses strong Japanese language skills that were gained while he was earning a master’s degree in Japanese from Sophia University in Japan.

Emma Smith

CEO and Founder, Sandpiper

Arun Sudhaman

CEO/Editor-in-Chief, PRovoke Media

Arun Sudhaman is CEO and editor-in-chief at PRovoke Media.

In this role Arun oversees PRovoke Media's global content offering, including its analysis and insight into reputation, public relations and communications trends and issues. Since joining PRovoke Media in 2010, Arun has comprehensively redefined the title’s content platform, which includes its digital presence and new products such as the Influence 100 compendium of key global influencers, the Global PR Agency Rankings, the Global Creative Index, and the PRovoke Media podcast. He also led the rebrand of the Holmes Report to PRovoke Media in 2020.

Arun has also played a pivotal role expanding PRovoke Media's coverage into Asia-Pacific and other emerging markets, and has helped steer the company’s international events programme, particularly the Global Public Relations Summit — which has featured such luminaries as Sir Martin Sorrell, P&G’s Marc Pritchard, Chuck Porter and IBM’s Jon Iwata. 

He brings to the position more than a decade’s experience as a journalist and digital content specialist, most of which has been spent analysing the media, marketing and communications industries. His career has encompassed coverage and analysis of reputation and leadership issues in numerous countries across the world, including the US and UK, Russia, China, India and South Africa. 

Prior to joining the Holmes Report, Arun spent more than seven years with Haymarket Media in Hong Kong, Singapore and London. He joined Haymarket title PRWeek UK in January 2009, after covering Asia’s media and marketing landscape at sister Haymarket title Campaign Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Before Haymarket, Arun spent one year at public relations firm Weber Shandwick during its tumultuous mergers with Weber and BSMG. During his career as a journalist he has appeared on BBC News and has also contributed to The Guardian and the South China Morning Post, where he began his career as a business reporter.

In 2015, Arun became the youngest-ever inductee into the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Fiorenzo Tagliabue

Group CEO, SEC Newgate

Fiorenzo Tagliabue founded SEC back in 1989 and continues at the fore front of the development of the Group, which has turned into one of the top 25 global PR consultancy. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of SEC Newgate Group. He also holds other executive roles in several boards of the Group’s subsidiaries.

Fiorenzo Tagliabue played a pivotal role in the internationalization of SEC SpA that he steered across several crucial stage from 2013 onward, including the listing at the London Stock Exchange (AIM Segment) in July 26th 2016, the merging with PORTA plc that brought to the formation of SEC Newgate on 4 September 2019, the engagement of Three Hills Capital Partners as financial partner (and the consequent delisting) and one of its minority shareholders and finally the engagement of Investcorp for a majority in the Group.

In 2023, he was awarded the PRovoke’s Outstanding Individual Achievement for transforming one of Italy’s most prominent independent agencies into SEC Newgate, one of the 25 largest public relations agencies in the world.

Prior to founding SEC, Mr. Tagliabue was founder of the weekly publication “il Sabato” which he edited until 1987. He served as Managing director of NEI Spa, the company that edits the daily newspaper Avvenire (1983-1989) and as general secretary of the Vatican Television Centre (1986-1989).

Nick Thompson

CEO, The Atlantic

Nicholas Thompson has occupied the most prestigious positions in the world of tech writing and journalism—staking out a bold, optimistic vision for what our future will look like. Nicholas currently serves as CEO of The Atlantic, leading the team to National Magazine Award wins for unprecedented coverage of the Covid-19 Pandemic, new perspectives on 9/11, the rise of global autocratic power; the case to return the national parks to Native American tribes; and the hypocrisy behind high-class education in America. His years of experience covering tech makes him a leading analytical voice in the field, where he uncovers how each new development in the world of tech will impact us all.

How will the world’s dominant tech corporations—Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft—interact with citizens, help write policy, and redefine privacy and security? How will artificial intelligence and robotics change our devices, the way we work, earn a living, fight wars, solve problems—our very selves? No matter the subject—design, culture, media, tech, ethics, or our digital future—he’s more than ready to break the news with big ideas and fearless takes.

As the Editor-in-Chief of WIRED, Nicholas broke massive stories about Facebook’s hidden flaws, cyber-warfare, the Robert Mueller investigation, and numerous other topics. His ground-breaking investigative reporting on Facebook was a finalist for a 2020 Loeb Award, and he oversaw work that won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award, and has even led to Oscar-winning films.

At The New Yorker, Nicholas served as editor of the magazine’s digital platforms, breaking new ground with stories about his friendship with Joseph Stalin’s daughter, how our lives are forever changed by the consumer drone industry, and arson amid the election cycle. His work at The New Yorker is defined by his fearless leadership and unwavering commitment to quality stories: The main strategy for growing audience is to publish more, better stories. The stories we’re prouder of, the stories we put more effort into, attract more readers.

He’s also the author of the critically acclaimed biography The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War—a fascinating double biography that follows two rivals and friends from the beginning of the Cold War to its end. The New York Times said that the book was “brimming with fascinating revelations about the men and the harrowing events they steered through.”

Nicholas is a former Senior Editor at Legal Affairs and a former contributor at CBS. With a massive and vigilant following on social media, he’s one of LinkedIn’s most-followed individuals. He earned the 21st Century Leader Award from The National Committee on American Foreign Policy, was a Future Tense Fellow at the New America Foundation and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Nicholas is also an accomplished runner and is currently the American record holder for men over age 45 in the 50k. He is also ranked in the top ten marathoners in the world for his age group. He can show you how the lessons he’s learned from running are also applicable to business, and every other field. The discipline and grit put into this solo sport is undeniably influential on productivity, creativity and purpose. To Nicholas, running is not a matter of physical talent, but a matter of mental strength.

Michael Turner

Founder Turner Global Solutions, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow, former Head of Communications U.S. Embassy Beijing

Gloria Vanderham

CEO, Bliss Bio Health

Melissa Waggener Zorkin

Global CEO and Founder, WE Communications

Jeff Werner

Vice President of Corporate and Government Affairs, Panasonic Corporation of North America

Jeff Werner is Vice President of Corporate and Government Affairs at Panasonic Corporation of North America. In this role, Jeff leads Panasonic’s strategic direction in navigating the legislative and regulatory processes at all levels of government in North America. He is responsible for the company’s government and public affairs office in Washington, D.C., as well as the environmental and product safety compliance units at headquarters in Newark, N.J. Since joining Panasonic in 2017, Jeff works to advance the company’s strategy to foster the century-old mission of contributing to society through its products and solutions, and its commitment as a government and community partner. Jeff’s experience in international relations and government affairs helps position Panasonic for growth strengthening our relationships with governments in the U.S. and abroad. Prior to Panasonic, Jeff served as general manager for international and public policy for Daimler, managing the company’s international government affairs for U.S., Mexico and Canada. He also served as executive director of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue’s (TABD) U.S. Office. Jeff currently serves on the boards of the Panasonic Foundation and the Global Business Alliance, and on the advisory board of the Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC). He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA from Hobart College.

Kandace Williamson

Account Director, The Romans

Megan R. Wilson

, POLITICO