IC2013 NYC Speakers

PARTICIPANTS
[A - L] [M-Z]
PARTNERS SPEAKERS

undefinedOla Ahlvarsson

Chairman
Result

Ola Ahlvarsson is a Swedish entrepreneur based out of Stockholm. Since the midnineties he has been at the cutting edge of digital entrepreneurship as an entrepreneur, investor, thought leader, and advisor. He has a deep understanding of how business can embrace digital opportunities and technology. Apart from being a founder of over twenty companies, Ahlvarsson has been a part of launching and managing leading internet companies like Xing, FON, Spray, Boxman, Letsbuyit, SIME, and many more. He is a member of the board of the World Economic Forums Technology Pioneer program (where he was elected young global leader) and course director of Stockholm School of Economics Riga’s Executive MBA program. He has been an advisor on innovation and internationalization to leading global organizations like Google, Ericsson, Telenor, and Microsoft. In 2005 he authored a book called Mission Possible. He is the founder and main shareholder of international expansion and innovations advisors called Result and a Swedish media house called Keynote Media Group owning portals, magazines, events, and online ventures. Ahlvarsson holds an MBA from the University of Stockholm, has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, and is also the course director for the Executive MBA program E-Strategy at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.

undefinedConrad Albert

Executive Board Member
ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG

Conrad Albert is a member of the executive board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG since October 2011. He is general counsel of ProSiebenSat.1 Group since 2006 and responsible across the group for legal, distribution, and regulatory affairs. He is in charge of all legal matters, media policy, regulation, and lobbying as well as the retransmission business and the distribution of ProSiebenSat.1 Group’s TV and video content. Albert worked at Euvia Media Group until it was acquired by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG in 2005. As head of legal and business affairs he was responsible for legal matters as well as transmission and media policy for the TV channels "9Live" and "sonnenklar TV." He was also member of the executive board of directors of 9Live. Prior to this, he headed the corporate office as well as the human resources department and was spokesperson for HOT Networks AG in Munich. Albert began his career as an attorney. He then transferred to VIAG Intercom (now O2). He is a member of the advisory board of VG Media GmbH, a collecting society for the monetization of copyrights of German TV, Radio, and Telecommunication enterprises.

undefinedTim Armstrong

Chairman and CEO
AOL

Tim Armstrong has served as Chairman and CEO of AOL since 2009. In December of 2009, Armstrong took the company public on the New York Stock Exchange. AOL currently serves over 200 million consumers a month and is one of the world's biggest consumer brands in the world. Prior to joining AOL, Armstrong served as president of Google's Americas operations and served on the company's operating committee. Prior to Google, Armstrong served as an executive of multiple internet and media companies, including Snowball, Disney's ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures, and Paul Allen's Starwave Corporation. Armstrong has also started or cofounded multiple companies during his career including Associated Content (sold to Yahoo) and Patch (sold to AOL). He is a graduate of Connecticut College.

undefinedEmily Bell

Professor of Professional Practice & Director
Tow Center for Digital Journalism

Emily Bell was director of digital content for Britain's Guardian News and Media from 2006 to 2010. Prior, Bell was editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited from 2001 to 2006. Under Bell, the Guardian received numerous awards, including the Webby Award for a newspaper website in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009, and British Press Awards for Website of the Year in 2006, 2008, and 2009. Bell first joined The Observer newspaper, which became part of Guardian News and Media, in 1990, as a business reporter specializing in media business, marketing, and technology. Bell is a leading media commentator in the U.K., writing about broadcasting and media policy issues. She is a 1987 graduate of Christ Church, Oxford University, where she earned a Master's Degree in Jurisprudence.

undefinedDemian M. Bellumio

CEO
Senzari, Inc.

Demian M. Bellumio is currently the chief operating officer of Senzari, Inc., a Miami and San Francisco–based startup focusing on developing graph computing technologies for the media space. Previously, Bellumio was the founder and president of Hoodiny Entertainment Group, LLC, which developed the Cyloop Music Network to power a variety of strategic partners, including MSN Music. At Hoodiny, he led a talented team of engineers and creative professionals, setting the technology and strategic vision that made the company a pioneer in the international digital music space. Bellumio was responsible for raising over $20 million in debt and equity financing and engineering the strategic sale of the business. Prior to founding Hoodiny, he was the vice president of corporate finance and development at Terremark Worldwide, Inc., a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services in the US, Latin America, and Europe. While at Terremark, he executed over $200 million in financing transactions, including a $45 million secondary offering, an $80 million senior debt financing, and an $86 million convertible note financing. Bellumio was also responsible for developing and managing and coordinating all investor relations activities. Additionally, he is a founding member and shareholder of BroadSpan Capital, Ltd., an investment banking firm that specializes in Latin America and the US Hispanic market, with offices in Miami and Rio de Janeiro. Demian began his career in banking at Barclays Capital, the investment-banking arm of Barclays Bank PLC.

undefinedAndy Bird

Chairman
Walt Disney International

As chairman of Walt Disney International Andy Bird is responsible for Disney’s businesses outside of the United States. Reporting to Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger, Bird and his global team develop and implement strategies to increase Disney brand affinity and awareness in key international markets, introduce new customers and guests to Disney’s unique storytelling legacy and iconic characters, and invest in and maximize opportunities in emerging markets. Since joining The Walt Disney Company in 2004, Bird has greatly expanded Disney’s presence around the world. During his tenure, Disney has: acquired UTV, one of India’s premier media and entertainment companies reaching almost 250 million consumers through film, television, and interactive media; launched free-to-air Disney Channels in Russia, Turkey, and Spain; launched Dlife, Japan’s first foreign-owned and free-to-air channel targeting women and families; increased local production, particularly for television content; and reorganized and integrated Disney’s international structure and leadership ranks. Prior to joining Disney, Bird spent nearly a decade with Time Warner, joining in 1994 as senior vice president and general manager of Turner Entertainment Networks Limited. He rose to president of TBS International in 2000, and became responsible for all TBS broadcasting outside of the continental U.S. Between 1989 and 1994, Bird held a number of positions in radio and television in Europe, including helping to start a music channel, producing and directing a popular London-based morning TV program, and producing a Saturday morning children's TV show. In 1992, he was tapped by Unique Broadcasting, the largest independent radio production company in the United Kingdom, to start up and operate Unique Television. Bird began his career with Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, England, as a breakfast show producer, later working at Virgin Broadcasting Co. A native of the United Kingdom, Bird is a Commander of the British Empire. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English language and literature from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1985. 

undefinedJohanna Blakley

Managing Director and Director of Research
Norman Lear Center

Johanna Blakley Ph.D., is the managing director and director of research at the Norman Lear Center, a research and public policy institute that explores the convergence of entertainment, commerce, and society. Based at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School, Blakley performs research on a wide variety of topics, including global entertainment, cultural diplomacy, entertainment education, digital media, and intellectual property law. She has two talks on TED.com: Social Media & the End of Gender and Lessons from Fashion’s Free Culture. In partnership with the Gates Foundation and the Knight Foundation, Blakley recently launched a new research initiative at USC: the Media Impact Project collects and analyzes information from multiple institutions to provide thought leadership on the best ways to measure engagement with media and evaluate social impact. The project builds upon Blakley’s experience in entertainment education (including her stint at Vivendi Universal Games) and her recent efforts to develop more sophisticated instruments to measure the impact of feature films and documentaries on the attitudes, knowledge and behavior of viewers. Blakley also teaches a course on transmedia storytelling in USC’s Master in Professional Writing Program and she is on the advisory board of Women@Paley at The Paley Center for Media.

undefinedJulia Boorstin

Reporter
CNBC Media and Entertainment

Julia Boorstin joined CNBC in May 2006 as a general assignment reporter. Later that year, she became CNBC's media and entertainment reporter working from CNBC's Los Angeles Bureau. Boorstin covers media with a special focus on the intersection of media and technology. In addition, Boorstin reported a documentary on the future of television for the network, Stay Tuned… The Future of TV. Boorstin joined CNBC from Fortune Magazine, where she was a business writer and reporter since 2000, covering a wide range of stories on everything from media companies to retail and business trends. During her time at Fortune, Boorstin was also a contributor to "Street Life," a live market wrap-up segment on CNN Headline News. In 2003, 2004, and 2006, The Journalist and Financial Reporting Newsletter named Boorstin to the "TJFR 30 under 30" list of the most promising business journalists under thirty years old. Boorstin has also worked for the State Department's delegation to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and for vice president Gore's domestic policy office. She graduated with honors from Princeton University with a B.A. in history. She was also an editor of The Daily Princetonian. She invites followers on twitter at @jboorstin.

undefinedJulie Brill

Commissioner
Federal Trade Commission

Julie Brill was sworn in as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 6, 2010, to a term that expires on September 25, 2016. Since joining the Commission, Brill has worked actively on issues most affecting today’s consumers, including protecting consumers’ privacy, encouraging appropriate advertising substantiation, guarding consumers from financial fraud, and maintaining competition in industries involving high tech and health care. Before she became a commissioner, Brill was the senior deputy attorney general and chief of consumer protection and antitrust for the North Carolina Department of Justice, a position she held from February 2009 to April 2010. Commissioner Brill has also been a lecturer-in-law at Columbia University’s School of Law. Prior to her move to the North Carolina Department of Justice, Commissioner Brill was an assistant attorney general for consumer protection and antitrust for the state of Vermont for over twenty years, from 1988 to 2009. Commissioner Brill has received several national awards for her work protecting consumers. She has testified before Congress, published numerous articles, and served on many national expert panels focused on consumer protection issues such as pharmaceuticals, privacy, credit reporting, data security breaches, and tobacco. Commissioner Brill has also served as a vice chair of the Consumer Protection Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association. Prior to her career in law enforcement, Commissioner Brill was an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York from 1987 to 1988. She clerked for Vermont Federal District Court Judge Franklin S. Billings, Jr., from 1985 to 1986. Commissioner Brill graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, and from New York University School of Law, where she had a Root-Tilden Scholarship for her commitment to public service. Commissioner Brill is married to Mark Miller, and has two sons.

undefinedKenneth Cukier

Data Editor
The Economist

Kenneth Cukier has fulfilled several vital roles for The Economist. Cukier is currently the head data editor, but has also served as the Tokyo correspondent and the technology correspondent in London; Cukier’s work focuses on technological innovation, intellectual property, and internet governance. He is the coauthor of Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (2013), which was a translated into sixteen different languages and was a New York Times Bestseller. Cukier has also served as the technology editor in Hong Kong for The Wall Street Journal Asia and was a regular commentator on CNBC Asia. Previously, Cukier was the European editor of Red Herring and worked for The International Herald Tribune in Paris. From 2002 to 2004 Cukier was a research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, working on the Internet and international relations. Cukier’s writings have also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Prospect, The Financial Times, and Foreign Affairs, among others. He has been a frequent commentator on business and technology matters for CBS, CNN, NPR, the BBC, and others. Cukier serves on the board of directors for International Bridges to Justice, a Geneva-based NGO promoting legal rights in developing countries. Additionally, he serves on the board of advisors for the Daniel Pearl Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

undefinedTom Doctoroff

CEO
JWT Asia Pacific

Tom Doctoroff, born and bred in America’s Detroit and educated in Chicago, somehow took a detour to Hong Kong in 1994, then to Shanghai in 1998, and never quite made it back to the States. In the meantime, he has become one of Asia’s most respected and well-connected marketing professionals. His unique combination of pan-Asian work, plus more than a decade experience in China, has made him a leading expert in the cross-border management of brand architecture and brand building. He started his advertising career at Leo Burnett in Chicago but jumped ship to JWT (Chicago). In 1994, he moved to Hong Kong as regional business director for clients such as Pepsi, Philip Morris/Kraft, and Citibank. In 1998, he landed in China as the managing director of JWT Shanghai. In 2002, he was appointed Northeast Asia area director (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea) and Greater China CEO, and in 2008, also assumed leadership of JWT Japan. Doctoroff completed his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has authored two best-selling books on Chinese consumers: Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer and What Chinese Want which was published in 2012. Doctoroff, who was selected to be an Official Torchbearer for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, lives in Shanghai and speaks fluent Mandarin.

undefinedNathan Eagle

Cofounder & CEO
Jana

Nathan Eagle is the cofounder and CEO of Jana, a company that helps global brands connect directly with people in emerging growth markets via mobile phones. Jana rewards consumers with mobile airtime in return for taking market research surveys and trying out new products. Jana’s mobile airtime rewards platform has been integrated into the back-end systems of hundreds of mobile operators, enabling the instant monetary compensation of billions of consumers in seventy local currencies. Today Jana is helping global clients in over fifty countries, including P&G, Google, Unilever, Danone, General Mills, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, the World Bank, and the United Nations. In addition to being CEO of Jana, Eagle is an adjunct assistant professor at Harvard University. His research involves engineering computational tools designed to explore how the petabytes of data generated about human movements, financial transactions, and communication patterns can be used for social good. In 2012, Wired named Eagle one of the “50 people who will change the world” and the Market Research Society awarded him the President’s Medal. Eagle has been elected to MIT’s TR35, a group of the world’s top innovators under 35, and currently serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Data Driven Development. In recognition of his work with the World Bank on mobile crowdsourcing, Eagle was awarded the prestigious Kiel Global Economy Prize alongside Nobel Laureates Daniel Kahneman and Martti Ahtisaari. Eagle holds a BS and two MS degrees from Stanford’s School of Engineering; his PhD from the MIT Media Laboratory founded the field of “Reality Mining” and was declared one of the “10 technologies most likely to change the way we live.” Often sought after for his expert commentary, Eagle is regularly featured in publications including the BBC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, and CNN.

undefinedJohn Enser

Partner
Olswang

John Enser is a partner at Olswang, one of Europe's leading law firms, which is focused on the TMT space. John has been advising companies at the cutting edge of media for over twenty years, since the early days of PayTV in Europe, when PayTV was the disruptive new entrant. Enser’s practice spans transactional work and regulatory advice for clients in all parts of the value chain, ranging in size from global players such as Viacom International Media Networks to start-ups such as Zeebox. John studied at Pembroke College, Oxford University, and he is a regular public speaker. He contributes to the 1709 Blog, named for the year in which the first copyright law, the Statute of Anne, was passed.

undefinedMatthew Erramouspe

Partner
O'Melveny & Myers

Matthew Erramouspe is a partner in O’Melveny’s Century City office and a member of the entertainment, sports, and media practice. He advises clients in all business and legal aspects related to the financing, production, distribution, and other financial and administrative subsidizing of content and live events. Erramouspe’s practice focuses on structuring strategic investments, financing, and cofinancing arrangements, as well as negotiating strategic production and distribution arrangements in the United States and abroad. He also advises clients on strategic acquisitions and sales of entertainment and media companies and assets. Erramouspe represents motion picture studios, production companies, distributors, investors, sponsors, investment banks, private equity funds, and hedge funds. Some of his clients include Elliott Management, The Weinstein Company, and Seacrest Global Group. He has spoken at a several conferences and has been named by Variety as a top “Dealmaker.” He also serves on Law360’s media and entertainment editorial advisory board. Erramouspe graduated from University of California at Los Angeles, where he served as the editor for the UCLA Law Review in 1996.

undefinedJanet Goldsmith

Independent Advisor
The Paley Center for Media

Janet Goldsmith is an advisor to leading media companies on strategic business, content, brand, and advertising issues including digital transition and rights strategies. One of the architects of multichannel television in the UK, she has brought that early industry innovation to her life’s work, combining strategic and commercial expertise with strong creative management, and for a number of years she’s specialized in launching and restructuring cable networks, both for start-up independent companies and multinational corporations. Goldsmith has been the joint managing director of UK based advisory firm, Mediatique; managing director of Universal Studio’s digital television businesses in the UK; and a senior manager and consultant for a range of leading international media companies, including Carlton Communications, ITV, and Kinnevik (now Modern Times Group). Now based in New York, she is currently completing an eighteen-month contract for the Paley Center for Media, overseeing a strategic review of the institution and its operations.

undefinedRichard Greenfield

Managing Director, Media and Technology Analyst
BTIG

Rich Greenfield is managing director and media and technology analyst at BTIG since 2010 and is the cocreator of the BTIG Research blog (www.btigresearch.com). Prior to BTIG, Greenfield was a managing director and media analyst, covering media and cable/satellite industries at Pali Capital. Prior to that, he spent four years at Fulcrum Global Partners as a media analyst. Greenfield started his career at Goldman Sachs & Co. in 1995, where he spent eight years covering entertainment, cable system, and leisure industries. Greenfield lives in NYC with his wife and three daughters. Twitter: @RichBTIG

undefinedElísabet Grétarsdóttir

Head of Marketing
Arion

Elísabet Grétarsdóttir is a marketing professional whose success is driven by a deep understanding of human motivation and sociology. Joining CCP Games in 2006 as marketing director, she was the architect of EVE Online’s global marketing strategy. With her expertise in converting marketing information into an accurate assessment of human terrain, she helped propel EVE Online into an international phenomenon, posting revenue growth of over three-hundred percent and establishing the product as one of the most enduring massively multiplayer online games in history. After guiding years of product milestones and achievements, she brought her expertise to Arion, the largest bank in Iceland. As the head of marketing, she draws on her experience growing online communities and applies it to the world of finance, where she is challenged with converting customer data into “human” strategies that motivate acquisition and retention. When she is not busy challenging the nature of financial institutions, she is preparing her young daughter and son to challenge tomorrow’s boundaries of innovation.

undefinedDr. Kristian Hammond

Chief Technology Officer
Narrative Science Inc.

Dr. Kristian Hammond Ph.D. serves as the chief technology officer for Narrative Science Inc., scientific advisor for Media River Inc. (formerly, Intellext Inc.), and is chief scientist for Verb. Hammond is also a cofounder for both Media River Inc. and Verb. Dr. Hammond founded the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University at Chicago where he also served as the laboratory director. Under his direction, the laboratory flourished as a center for innovative artificial intelligence research for more than a decade. While at the University of Chicago, Dr. Hammond began to shape a vision of frictionless information systems. Hammond moved to Northwestern University in 1998 as a professor of computer science and journalism. Dr. Hammond started Recommender, Inc., and continued to work closely with the company until eventually selling to Attenza, Inc. in 2001. Also in 2001, Hammond founded Northwestern University's DevLab, an incubation program whose purpose is to turn research prototypes, such as Watson, into complete and robust products. While many of Hammond’s technologies have been deployed, including on display at Chicago's Second City, Watson is the first of the info lab systems to be fully commercialized. Hammond has consulted for Anderson Consulting, McKinsey, Boeing Aerospace, and Lockheed, to name a few. He is a past chair of the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces and the Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Dr. Hammond has been an invited speaker at a wide range of venues including the Conference of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, the Joint International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Carnegie Mellon, MIT's Media Lab, Ford Motor Company, Boeing, McKinsey, and Microsoft. Research articles on Dr. Hammond's work have appeared in The New York Times, The International Daily Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. Dr. Hammond directs Northwestern's InfoLab and DevLab, serves on Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's Council of Technology Advisors. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Yale University in 1986.

undefinedMark Hansen

Professor of Journalism
Director, David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation

Mark Hansen joined Columbia Journalism School in July of 2012, after a decade of shuttling between the West and East Coasts. In Los Angeles, Hansen held appointments in the Department of Statistics, the Department of Design Media Arts, and the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCLA, forming a triangulation of data, art, and technology, Hansen was also co-PI for the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, an NSF science and technology center devoted to the study of sensor networks. While in New York, Hansen was a long-standing visiting researcher at the New York Times’s R&D Lab and a consultant with HBO Sports. Hansen works with data in an essentially journalistic practice, crafting stories through algorithm, computation, and visualization. In addition to his technical work, Hansen also has an active art practice involving the presentation of data for the public. His work with Ben Rubin at EAR Studio has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the London Science Museum, the Cartier Foundation in Paris, and in the lobby of the New York Times building in Manhattan. Hansen holds a Ph.D. and MA in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley and a BS in applied math from the University of California, Davis.

undefinedSteve Hasker

President, Global Product Leadership
Nielsen

Steve Hasker is president, global product leadership, and is responsible for Nielsen’s product portfolio across Watch and Buy. Prior to this role, he served as president, global media products and advertiser solutions, where he led Nielsen’s TV and digital audience measurement, advertising effectiveness and social media solutions. Hasker joined Nielsen in 2009 from McKinsey & Company, where he was a partner in McKinsey’s Global Media, Entertainment and Information practice. In this role, Hasker was responsible for serving clients on issues of strategy, growth, innovation in television, syndicated information, filmed entertainment, sports, and digital advertising. Hasker lectures regularly at Columbia University and his research into the influence of social networks on consumer behavior in media has been published in the Harvard Business Review. His writings on digital and online business models and marketing have been featured in the McKinsey Quarterly. Additionally, Hasker is a board member of the International Radio and Television Society, and the Center for Communications and a member of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants. He holds an undergraduate economics degree from the University of Melbourne and has an MBA and a master’s in international affairs both with honors from Columbia University.

undefinedColson Hillier

Vice President, Precision Marketing
Verizon Wireless

Colson Hillier is vice president of Precision Marketing. Precision Marketing was formed as a new line of business within Verizon Wireless focused on the delivery of analytics, advertising and mobile commerce solutions. Colson’s team is responsible for identifying innovative means of leveraging aggregate and anonymous insights from mobile location and usage data, developing platforms to deliver contextual marketing and supporting payments and redemptions at checkout. The team seeks opportunities to differentiate Verizon’s unique assets in the market including the network, sales, support, billing, and customer reach to develop solutions for customers and business partners. Hillier joined Bell Atlantic in 1998. He has held roles in new business ventures, performance assurance, product line management, marketing, and strategy providing a strong cross discipline foundation for his current work. Prior to joining the company, Hillier was a manager with Circuit City's financial subsidiary where he managed database marketing and new product development. Hillier earned a Bachelor's degree in finance and marketing from the University of Richmond and a Masters of Business Administration from the College of William and Mary. Hillier and his wife, Melissa, live with their two sons in Long Valley, New Jersey.

undefinedChris Hughes

Publisher & Editor in Chief
The New Republic

Chris Hughes started his career in his Harvard dorm room where he cofounded Facebook along with roommates Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz. Obsessed with consumer technology from a young age, Hughes was responsible for user experience and product development for Facebook in the early years of the social web. In 2007, he became director of online organizing for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, creating a social network that empowered Obama supporters to create tens of thousands of grassroots groups and events, and to give over $500 million online. As publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, Hughes is transitioning a nearly one-hundred-year-old media company to the digital age, while holding on to its uncompromising focus on quality journalism about politics and culture. Integrated across mobile, tablet, web, and print, The New Republic is setting the standard for how mid-sized, traditional media brands can transition to the participatory web. Hughes is also an independent investor in technology and media companies, a trustee of the Knight Foundation, and a board member of GiveDirectly. He has been named a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum and one of Forbes’s 30 under 30 in the media category. Hughes graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 2006 with a degree in History and Literature.

undefinedPeter Kafka

Senior Editor
All Things Digital

Peter Kafka is the senior editor for “All Things Digital,” covering media and technology. He joined the site in October 2008 and in 2012 and produced the first “D: Dive into Media” conference. Before joining “All Things Digital,” Kafka was the managing editor for “Silicon Alley Insider in New York”; Kafka was the site's first hire, where he focused on enterprise, beat-reporting, and breaking news. Previously, Kafka spent ten years as a reporter and editor for Forbes Magazine and Forbes.com, specializing in media and technology coverage. At Forbes, Kafka launched two tech columns and represented Forbes on industry panels and TV appearances for CNN, BBC, and CNBC. Kafka was a staff reporter with City Business in Minneapolis from 1995–97. Previously, he severed as a stringer with the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel in Madison, WI. Kafka holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

undefinedYnon Kreiz

Executive Chairman
Maker Studios

Ynon Kreiz is the executive chairman of Maker Studios, a next-generation talent first media company. He is a seasoned media executive who has built and led global entertainment companies including Endemol and Fox Kids Europe. He brings over fifteen years of executive leadership in broadcast and TV production to Maker as well as a deep understanding of engaging new audiences, forming strategic partnerships, working with talent and creating innovative programming. Kreiz joined the Maker board as chairman in May 2012 and was appointed executive chairman in May 2013. Before joining Maker, he was chairman and CEO of the Endemol group, the world's largest independent production company. Under his management, Endemol produced more than ten thousand hours of programming per year for over three hundred broadcasters worldwide and became one of the world’s largest independent distributors of English speaking programming. Before Endemol, he was a general partner at Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe). Kreiz also cofounded Fox Kids Europe N.V. where he was chairman and CEO. Under his leadership, Fox Kids Europe became one of the fastest growing pay-TV channels in Europe and the Middle East, broadcasting in fifty-six countries in seventeen languages. Fox Kids Europe was listed on the Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam in 1999 and the majority shareholding was sold to the Walt Disney Company in 2001. Kreiz is a graduate of the Tel Aviv University and holds a BA in Economics and Management as well an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

undefinedScott Kurnit

Founder & CEO
Keep.com and TheSwizzle.com

Scott Kurnit is the founder and CEO of Keep.com and TheSwizzle.com. Keep is a leader in the new field of crowd-sourced social commerce and Swizzle enables users to manage commercial email overload by easily unsubscribing, aggregating desired brands into a daily digest, and adding up to 1,400 brands to their digests with one click. Kurnit also founded and served as chairman and CEO of About, Inc. as it grew to a public market value of $1.7 billion and was the fifth largest of all Web properties. About invented or popularized important Internet staples such as blogging, content SEO, and contextual pay-per-click advertising. He sold About US to Primedia in 2001 for $724 million. About was then owned by the New York Times Company and was purchased by IAC in 2012. Kurnit has founded four companies, all of which continue operating today. He holds four patents, led the team that embedded the first Web browser into an online service, started the first Pay Per View cable network, and co-led the team that implemented the first use of national caller ID. He was also the youngest program director in the PBS system and served as program director for Qube, the world’s first fully interactive cable system. He was president of Showtime Event Television when it generated the largest one night gross in the entertainment business and aired the first rock concert (broadcast in seventy countries) from the former Soviet Union. Kurnit serves on the boards of Keep Holdings, Appssavvy, Brightcove, The Paley Center for Media, The Mianus Gorge, and Stein Eriksen Lodge. He has been a filmmaker, TV director, station program manager, marketer, and CEO. He has worked at the highest levels of Warner, Viacom, News Corp., PBS, IBM, and MCI companies.

undefinedMegan Liberman

Editor in Chief
Yahoo! News

Megan Liberman is the editor in chief of Yahoo! News. Currently, Liberman is working on an expansion of news and technology, including broadening and deepening the political and national affairs enterprise reporting, building a new technology online magazine, developing a social news desk, and developing original news and technology video programming. Before coming to Yahoo! in September, she spent nearly thirteen years as an editor at the New York Times. Recently, she was the deputy news editor, editing and managing Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog, anchoring all of the Times’s 2012 political and elections programming and developing and supervising a portfolio of other blogs. Prior, Liberman was the deputy editor of the New York Times Magazine. Liberman received her Bachelor’s degrees from Barnard College and a Master’s degree from the Columbia Journalism School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

undefinedOliver Luckett

Founder and CEO
theAudience

Prior to theAudience, Oliver cofounded DigiSynd, a social media outlet that was ultimately acquired by the Walt Disney Company. Luckett served at Disney as cohead of innovation, overseeing Disney brands in social. Additional companies that Luckett founded or held senior positions: Revver, Inc., a video sharing service of which he was co-founder and senior vice president of network development; iBlast, where he was co-founder and chief technology officer; Anschutz Digital Media, where he was vice president of network development; Qwest Communications, a fiber optic network of which he was chief IP services architect; and Revilopark, a consulting firm. Luckett also was heavily involved in the 2004 presidential election through his Internet efforts with Norman Lear’s nonpartisan “Declare Yourself” campaign, which achieved more than one million online voter registrations through partnerships with Yahoo!, Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp, and Friendster. Luckett served as executive producer for Transcendent Man, a documentary which follows the life of scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil. Luckett is a Vanderbilt University alumni and is a frequent guest lecturer at graduate schools and global industry conferences. Luckett is an avid art collector.

undefinedJoe Marchese

Chief Executive Officer
true[X] media

Joe Marchese is the founder and chief executive officer of true[X] media, which has created the commercial-break for interactive media. Part media and advertising executive, all entrepreneur, Marchese’s passion is innovating media businesses…and running, politics, sports, his dog, and his wife (in no particular order, of course). Known as a pioneer with an extensive expertise in engagement advertising, he has evolved true[X] media from an idea to the market-leading advertising company it is today. true[X] works with the world’s largest publishers, content creators, agencies, and brands to solve the problem of adverting in an on-demand and interactive world. Along the way, he has raised over $44 Million in capital from top venture capital firms such as Redpoint and Norwest Ventures. As svp marketing and digital at the cable network Fuse, Marchese lead the channel’s development as a cable leader in multi-platform content, and spearheaded original partnerships with Twitter and YouTube that changed the way the network approached content creation and syndication. Always forward thinking and provocative, Marchese believes that interactive storytelling will save advertising, and is focused on perfecting what he calls "the commercial break for new media." He speaks frequently at conferences and in the press on trends and issues that affect the new media and advertising landscape, and has been featured in MediaPost, AdAge, AdWeek among numerous others.

undefinedHilary Mason

Data Scientist in Residence
Accel

Hilary Mason is a data scientist in residence at Accel, scientist emeritus at bitly, cofounder of HackNY, cohost of DataGotham, and member of NYCResistor. After four years as chief scientist at bitly, she now holds the title scientist emeritus, advising an amazing team that studies attention on the internet in realtime, doing a mix of research, exploration, and engineering. She cofounded HackNY, a nonprofit that helps talented engineering students find their way into the startup community of creative technologists in New York City. Mason is an enthusiastic member of the larger conspiracy to evolve the emerging discipline of data science. She is a native New Yorker and loves this city and the technology community here. Mason advises a few organizations that she adores, including Mortar, knod.es, collective[i], and DataKind. She is a mentor to Betaspring, the Providence, Rhode Island–based startup accelerator, and TechStars New York. Mason is also a member of Mayor Bloomberg’s Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, which has been a fascinating way to learn how government and industry can work together. Honors include the TechFellows Engineering Leadership award, the Forbes “40 under 40 Ones to Watch” list, and Crain’s New York “40 under 40” list. Mason has appeared in Glamour, Fast Company, Scientific American, and more, which has made her mother very happy.

undefinedDuncan McCall

CEO and Cofounder
Place IQ

Currently CEO and cofounder of PlaceIQ, at the intersection of advertising, location, and big data, Duncan has a passion and background in early stage companies. Prior to PlaceIQ, Duncan founded and led a venture backed consumer Internet business with the goal of enabling and empowering users of location aware devices, which built upon time spent working on RFID and universal positioning startups. Before that Duncan led the operations of a rapidly growing retail organization, and also built and led IS Solutions INC, a premier Silicon Valley–based System Integrator. Outside of the startup environment Duncan has also made an impact for one of the world’s largest organizations in working for ExxonMobil, in the UK and Asia.

undefinedHeidi Messer

Cofounder and Chairman
Collective[i]

Heidi Messer is cofounder and chairman of Collective[i], the first network using data and technology to provide business users with enterprise-wide analyses developed and curated by the world’s leading data scientists. Collective[i] answers essential questions about marketing, sales, services, and support through proprietary algorithms and technology delivering answers to business users directly and on demand. Prior to Collective[i], Messer, along with her brother, Stephen Messer, founded, built, and managed LinkShare Corporation, which provided technology and a global network for publishing and commerce sites to partner, until its sale in 2005 to Rakuten for $425m. Messer received her B.A. from Brown University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. She received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude again. Messer is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship, digital marketing, technology, analytics, business intelligence, and the future of the internet. She has been cited in various publications including, Inc. Magazine, The Nikkei, Women’s Wear Daily, Chief Executive Magazine, and The New York Times. Ms. Messer has also appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News, Rock Center with Brian Williams, CBS’s Morning News, and The Fox Morning Show. Messer has received several honors, including her selection as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs in 2012. Ms. Messer serves on advisory boards for Dell Computers, NBC Universal, and American Express OPEN.

undefinedHany Nada

Partner
GGV Capital

Hany Nada is a founding partner of GGV Capital, an expansion stage venture capital firm that invests in the US and China. He has worked as a long-term partner with more than 150 companies in the US and China over the past decade to build businesses that can succeed in today's global marketplace and has become a trusted resource to digital media, music and gaming company CEOs and management teams on global market development, customer introductions, and M&A/IPO guidance across US and Asian markets. He made his first investment in China in 2001 and counts Alibaba, BandPage, Houzz, Glu Mobile, Pandora Media, PlayHaven, SoundCloud, Youku/Tudou, and YY.com among the firm's portfolio companies. Before entering the venture capital business, Hany spent ten years on Wall Street as a top-ranked research analyst at Piper Jaffray focusing on Internet software and infrastructure. Hany is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he earned a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in political science.

undefinedRob Norman

Chief Digital Officer
GroupM Global

Rob Norman is chief digital officer of GroupM Worldwide. GroupM is the largest purchaser of advertising media in the world and is a division of WPP and the parent company of Maxus, MEC, Mindshare, Xaxis, M80, IEG, Catalyst, and Quisma. On a global basis, GroupM invests in excess of $80 billion on behalf of its clients. Norman sets digital strategy for the Group and leads a community of over three thousand digital specialists around the world. In addition to his core responsibilities, he is a director of WPP Digital and Wild Tangent and a non-executive director of BBC Global News Ltd. He is also on the board of the Center for the Digital Future at USC, a member of the Facebook Client Council, and an advisor to Greycroft and GGV, both venture capital funds.

undefinedTorfi Frans Olafsson

Creative Director
EVE Online

Torfi Frans Olafsson has been with CCP Games since 1999, in multiple roles such as lead artist, senior producer, and then creative director of the award-winning massively multiplayer game EVE Online. He is now creative director of EVE Universe IP development. Previously, he was a 3D artist with virtual reality developer OZ.com. Prior, he was the webmaster for Bjork.com at One Little Indian Records, London. Olafsson has a background in video post-production, and has directed several music videos and short films. He has collaborated with contemporary artists bringing their art into the digital realm. Most recently he developed the exhibit for EVE Online when it was acquired into the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, directed a trailer named “Origins” for EVE Online, and is working on adapting true stories from EVE Online into a live action television series.

undefinedTommy Palm

Games Guru
King

With over two decades of experience as a game designer and entrepreneur, Tommy Palm has earned the title “games guru” at leading casual social games company King. He works in the forefront of the company’s prevalent cross-platform games initiatives taking games from social to mobile. Tommy started programming games for Commodore 64 back in 1986 as a hobby until 1999, when he founded Jadestone. Since then he has been working as concept creator and game designer on more than ten game titles including Championship Manager Online, World in War, Karlsson på Taket (mobile), Dirk Dagger, and Kodo. During more than ten years developing mobile games, his team has been awarded nine international awards and numerous nominations—most recently the prominent IMGA and IGF Mobile awards. In 2009 Jadestone’s mobile department spawned off into Fabrication Games, where Tommy was president. The company went on to be acquired by King in early 2012. Tommy is a regular collegiate lecturer and frequently contributes articles on trends in social and mobile games. He has also spoken at prominent events including GDC San Francisco, GDC Online, GDC Europe, Game Connection, E3, and Cannes Film Festival, among others.

undefinedJonah Peretti

Cofounder & CEO
BuzzFeed

Jonah Peretti is cofounder and CEO of BuzzFeed, the first true social news organization that provides a pioneering mix of breaking news, entertainment, and shareable content. Peretti, known for creating viral hits, tracking online social behavior, and building technology to amplify buzz is also a cofounder of The Huffington Post. He has been called a "viral marketing hotdog" by the New York Times, "the poster boy of guerilla media" by AlterNet, and a "computer-whiz" by The New Yorker. Fast Company named him one of the “New Faces of Social Media” and named BuzzFeed as one of the “50 Most Innovative Companies” in 2012. Business Insider listed him as one of the “11 Rising Tech Stars to Watch in 2012.” Peretti is a graduate of the MIT Media Lab and has taught at NYU and the Parsons School of Design. His work has been covered by Time, The Economist, Fortune, and Business Insider, and he has appeared as a guest on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and CNN. In 2012, Peretti hired Ben Smith of POLITICO to lead as editor-in-chief. BuzzFeed reaches over sixty million monthly unique visitors and gets the majority of its traffic from social sources like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.

undefinedHans Rosling

Professor of International Health
Karolinska Institutet

Hans Rosling is professor of international health at Karolinska Institutet, the medical university in Stockholm, Sweden. When working as a young doctor in Mozambique he discovered a previously unrecognized paralytic disease that his research team named Konzo. His twenty years of research on global health concerned the character of the links between economy and health in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He has been adviser to WHO and UNICEF, cofounded Médecines sans Frontiers in Sweden, and started new courses and published a textbook on global health. He is a member of the International Group of the Swedish Academy of Science and the Global Agenda Network of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. He cofounded the Gapminder Foundation (www.gapminder.org) with his son and daughter-in-law. Gapminder promotes a fact based worldview by converting international statistics into moving, interactive, understandable, and enjoyable graphics. This was first done by developing the Trendalyzer software that Google acquired in 2007. Using animations of global trends, Rosling lectures about past and contemporary economic, social, and environmental changes in the world and produces thematic videos using the same technique.

undefinedDeb Roy

Associate Professor, MIT
Chief Media Scientist, Twitter

Deb Roy is a tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is Twitter's chief media scientist. He conducts research at the MIT Media Lab on language, games, and social dynamics at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. In 2008 he cofounded and was the founding CEO of Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics company, which MIT Technology Review named as one of the fifty most innovative companies of 2012. Bluefin was acquired by Twitter in 2013. An author of over one hundred academic papers in machine learning, cognitive modeling, and human-machine interaction, his TED talk, Birth of a Word, has been viewed over 2.5 million times. A native of Canada, Roy received a Bachelor of Applied Science (computer engineering) from the University of Waterloo and a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. He is @dkroy on Twitter.

undefinedGeoffrey Sands

Director, Head of Global Media, Entertainment and Information Practice, North America
McKinsey & Company

Geoffrey Sands is a director of McKinsey & Company and heads its Global Media, Entertainment and Information Practice in North America. He advises senior executives on a wide range of strategic and operational issues. Geoff is a trustee of the Paley Center. He also serves on the board of directors of the Sundance Institute and Thirteen/WNET and is chairman of the board of The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Since 2004, he has been the industry advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Media & Entertainment Governors’ Meetings.

undefinedEric E. Schmidt

Executive Chairman
Google

Since joining Google in 2001, Eric Schmidt has helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. As executive chairman, he is responsible for the external matters of Google: building partnerships and broader business relationships, government outreach, and technology thought leadership, as well as advising the CEO and senior leadership on business and policy issues. From 2001–11, he served as Google’s chief executive officer, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation. Prior to joining Google, Schmidt was the chairman and CEO of Novell and chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Previously, he served on the research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories, and Zilog. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University as well as a master’s degree and PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council in the UK. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007. He also chairs the board of the New America Foundation, and since 2008 has been a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

undefinedRonnie Screwvala

Managing Director
The Walt Disney Company India

Ronnie Screwvala is a first generation entrepreneur who started his journey by launching the first organized cable TV venture in Mumbai, in June of 1981. Within a few years the network had subscribed thousands of households in the area. Screwvala introduced Indians to cable TV in 1981 and daily soap operas in 1994. He was rated by Fortune as one of “Asia’s 25 most powerful,” by Esquire amongst the “75 most influential people of the 21st century,” and was called the “Jack Warner of India” by Newsweek. From this started the second leg of his journey into the media and entertainment business with the birth of UTV. Under his able leadership, UTV spanned from TV production into film production and distribution, set up a broadcast network of specialized channels, forayed into interactive and gaming content, and then went on to establish UTV as India’s first global media and entertainment conglomerate. At the helm of the UTV brand, he was instrumental in the corporatization of the Indian Film Industry, establishing closer ties with Hollywood. In his new role as managing director of The Walt Disney Company India, Screwvala is driving the strategy and growth for Walt Disney Company in one of its most important global growth markets. In India, The Walt Disney Company spans television, broadcasting, movies, consumer products and licensing, interactive, digital, and games through multiple brands including Disney, UTV, bindass, Marvel, Indiagames, Pixar, and ABC.

undefinedNate Silver

Statistician, Author & Founder
FiveThirtyEight

Nate Silver is a leading statistician and best-selling author known for his unique brand of creativity, journalism, and statistical analysis. He is the founder of the award-winning website FiveThirtyEight.com. The site was recently acquired by ESPN and will be expanding its coverage to include topics such as sports, economics, culture, science, and technology, among others. FiveThirtyEight will also continue to provide data-driven coverage of politics, including forecasts of the 2014 and 2016 elections. Silver has established himself as today's leading statistician through his innovative analyses of political polling. He first gained national attention during the 2008 presidential election, when he correctly predicted the results of the presidential election in forty-nine of fifty states, along with all thirty-five US Senate races. In 2012, FiveThirtyEight predicted the election outcome in all fifty states. FiveThirtyEight has made Silver the public face of statistical analysis and political forecasting. His most recent book, The Signal and The Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't, is a New York Times bestseller. Before he came to politics, Silver established his credentials as an analyst of baseball statistics. He developed a widely acclaimed system called PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm), which predicts player performance, career development, and seasonal winners and losers. He is a coauthor of a series of books on baseball statistics, which include Mind Game, Baseball Between the Numbers, and It Ain't Over 'til It's Over. He has written for ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, Slate, Baseball Prospectus, Newsweek, The New York Post, and The Los Angeles Times. Silver has earned a series of accolades. Most recently, Fast Company chose him as No. 1 on their list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business 2013.” He was among TIME's “100 Most Influential People of 2009” and Rolling Stone's “100 Agents of Change.” In 2012 and 2013, FiveThirtyEight won Webby Awards as the "Best Political Blog."

undefinedJohn Skipper

President, ESPN, Inc.
Cochairman, Disney Media Networks

In his fourteen years with the company prior to becoming ESPN president and cochairman, Disney Media Networks on January 1, 2012, John Skipper was a key architect of ESPN’s explosive growth. Prior to this, Skipper, 57, had been ESPN’s executive vice president, content, and executive vice president, advertising sales & ESPN Enterprises. Skipper’s ability to meld creative and business success was demonstrated early when he joined ESPN in June 1997 as senior vice president and general manager of ESPN The Magazine. During its inaugural year, the magazine earned more than twenty awards, including "Best New Magazine" honors from both Advertising Age and AdWeek magazines, as well as a 1999 National Magazine Award for design. In January 2000, he added the same title for ESPN.com and in January 2003 was promoted to executive vice president. Skipper’s early vision on how content should be presented on digital platforms continues to pay dividends today. With ESPN.com in 2000, he began the shift to broadband from dial-up well before broadband was widely available; launched a pay section, ESPN Insider, with richer content that continues to grow, and completely revamped the site’s approach to advertising. More recently, he envisioned and launched what is now ESPN3, a television network delivering four thousand live events annually on the web and through mobile devices; helped lead the creation of the Watch ESPN authenticated app which has been downloaded more than four million times, and led the evolution of ESPN The Magazine’s content to include print and digital platforms. Near the end of his first year as ESPN president, in December 2012, Skipper was named the most influential person in sports by Sports Business Journal. In March 2013, he ranked #4 in the Sports Illustrated “Power 50.” Skipper has frequently appeared on several media and cable industry “most influential” lists, including Sports Business Journal, CableFAX Magazine, Business Week, and The Sporting News. Before joining ESPN The Magazine, Skipper served nearly three years as senior vice president of The Disney Publishing Group and previously was vice president of Disney Magazine publishing. Prior to joining The Disney Publishing Group, Skipper held the title of president and publishing director at Spin magazine. Earlier he spent ten years with Straight Arrow Publishing including eight years with Rolling Stone. Skipper holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English Literature from the University of North Carolina and Columbia University, respectively. He is married with two sons.

undefinedRick Smolan

CEO
Against All Odds Productions

Rick Smolan, a former Time, Life, and National Geographic photographer, is best known as the creator of the "Day in the Life" book series. Today Smolan is the CEO of Against All Odds Productions which orchestrates massive global photography projects that combine creative storytelling with state-of-the-art technology. With editorially independent underwriting from Fortune 500 companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, American Express, and dozens of other corporations, Smolan engages teams of leading journalists and photographers (plus hundreds of thousands of members of the general public) to focus on emerging topics such as the global water crisis, the effect of the Internet on civilization, or how the human race is learning to heal itself. Smolan and his team produce bestselling-illustrated books, TV specials, apps, and exhibits. "From Alice to Ocean: Alone Across the Outback" and "Passage to Vietnam" proved the storytelling powers of interactive CD-ROMs, "24 Hours in Cyberspace" took a snapshot of the infant Internet, "One Digital Day" explored the impact of the microprocessor on civilization. "AMERICA 24/7", a NY Times bestseller, enabled thousands of Americans to create a national family album during one ordinary week, and was featured as one of Oprah Winfrey's "Favorite Things." Many of Smolan's books have appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists and his projects have been featured on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Fortune, and similar publications around the world. Smolan is a frequent speaker at TED, The Davos World Economic Forum, The Ford Foundation, The Wired Health Conference, TEDMED, Techonomy, DLD in Munich, IdeaCity in Canada, INK in India, The Strata Conference, etc. His TED talk "Natasha's Story: An American Homecoming" has been watched by more than a million people. In the fall of 2012 Smolan released "The Human Face of Big Data" focusing on how the planet is developing a nervous system via our new ability to collect, analyze, triangulate, and visualize vast amounts of data in real time. The project resulted in a large format book, an engaging iPad app, and a TV special. In December 2012 the book was delivered simultaneously to 10,000 world leaders, Fortune 500 CEO's, heads of media companies, Oscar winners, Pulitzer Prize Winners, Olympic winners etc., in 50 countries. In April 2013 the project's companion iPad app won the coveted WEBBY Award for best educational iPad app. In June 2013 Apple featured the App on the front page of 42 of its App stores worldwide. In April 2014 the Oscar Winning Producers of The Kings Speech are releasing TRACKS, a feature film based on Smolan's National Geographic story about Robyn Davidsons 2000 mile trek across the Australian outback. In the movie, Robyn will be portrayed by Mia Wasikowska (Stoker, The Kids are Alright, Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp). Smolan will be portrayed by Adam Driver, the star of the hit TV series Girls. Fortune magazine describes Against All Odds as "One of the 25 Coolest Companies in America."

undefinedAndrew Ross Sorkin

Author; Coanchor,
Squawk Box, CNBC

Andrew Ross Sorkin is coanchor of Squawk Box, CNBC's signature morning program. Sorkin is also a financial columnist for The New York Times and the editor-at-large of DealBook, a news site he founded, published by the Times. Sorkin is also the author of the best-selling book, Too Big to Fail: The inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves, which chronicles the events of the 2008 financial crisis. The book won the 2010 Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book, and was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize and the 2010 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. The book was adapted as a movie by HBO Films in 2011. Sorkin was a coproducer of the film, which was nominated for eleven Emmy Awards. Sorkin has also broken news on many major mergers and acquisitions, including Chase's acquisition of JPMorgan and Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of Compaq. He also led the Times's coverage of Vodafone's $183 billion hostile bid for Mannesmann, resulting in the world's largest takeover ever. He won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2004 for breaking the news of IBM's historic sale of its PC business to Lenovo, and Sorkin was a finalist in the commentary category for his “DealBook” column. He has won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for breaking news in 2005 and again in 2006. In 2007, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader. In 2008 and 2009, Vanity Fair named him to its "Next Establishment" list. He was also named to the "Directorship 100," a list of the most influential people on the nation's board of directors. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Follow Andrew Ross Sorkin on Twitter @andrewrsorkin.

undefinedSree Sreenivasan

Chief Digital Officer
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sree Sreenivasan is the newly appointed first chief digital officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the Met, Sreenivasan leads a world-class team concerning digital and social media. Sreenivasan joined the Metropolitan Museum of Art after spending twenty years at Columbia University as a faculty member for the Columbia School of Journalism. Sreenivasan was also the first chief digital officer at Columbia. Although Sreenivasan is the chief digital officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he will continue to teach a digital media course at Columbia each semester. Sreenivasan has been a leading commentator on tech and media issues for nearly a decade. In 2009, Sreenivasan was named one of AdAge's twenty-five media people to follow on Twitter, and in 2010, he was named one of Poynter Institute’s thirty-five most influential people in social media. Sreenivasan was a founding member of DNAinfo.com, a Manhattan news site, which the Business Insider recognized as one of the “hottest startups” in 2010. He has appeared on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, and CNBS to name a few. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, instagram, and on the web.

undefinedSteve Stoute

Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Translation

A powerful innovator in brand marketing, Steve Stoute has made a career out of identifying and activating a new generation of consumers to help Fortune 500 companies thrive in the world of popular culture. Stoute is the founder and CEO of the marketing firm Translation whose client roster includes iconic brands such as McDonald’s Corporation, Anheuser-Busch InBev, State Farm, Target, Coca-Cola, and Lady Gaga. In 2013, Advertising Age recognized Stoute as their “Executive of the Year.” Much of Translation's work is based on Stoute’s philosophy of the changing landscape of American culture and how consumers are moving towards a shared mental complexion. Building on this concept, Stoute authored the acclaimed 2011 book The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy, in which he teaches corporate America how to understand and reach today’s young adult market—what he describes as “The Tan Generation”—while staying true to their core brand without compromising authenticity.

undefinedBob Tedeschi

Columnist
The New York Times

Bob Tedeschi is a columnist for The New York Times and has written for the publication since 1998, when he began writing a weekly e-commerce column that ran for a decade in the business section. Tedeschi has also been a columnist for the “Travel,” “Home,” “Real-Estate,” “Personal Technology,” and “Sunday Regional” sections, and his stories have appeared in multiple other sections, as well as on “Page One.” Tedeschi also launched the “Phone Smart” column on mobile technology in 2008, and in 2010, he launched the “App Smart” column on mobile software. Tedeschi has also dabbled in software development, as codeveloper of Bobo Explores Light, an educational iPad app for children, which was one of three iPad titles last year to win a prestigious Apple Design Award at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Tedeschi is currently standing in as one of the guest “State of the Art” columnists for the Times's “Personal Technology” section, where he continues to contribute on a range of topics.

undefinedNancy Tellem

President
Xbox Entertainment Studios, Microsoft

Nancy Tellem was named president, Xbox Entertainment Studios, in September 2012. In her role, Tellem is overseeing the launch of a newly created production studio in Santa Monica that is developing interactive and linear content for Xbox and other devices. In addition to running the production studio, she is spearheading the company’s efforts to turn Xbox into a destination where consumers can enjoy all their entertainment in one place. Prior to joining Microsoft, Tellem had been a CBS executive since 1997, most recently as senior adviser to CEO Leslie Moonves, where she explored business and strategic opportunities — domestic and international — involving content partnerships, new production models, emerging media and technologies. As president of the CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, Tellem supervised programming, development, production, business affairs, and operations. Before joining CBS, Tellem was executive vice president of business and financial affairs for Warner Bros. Television and was part of the team that launched the landmark programs Friends and ER. In 2006, Tellem was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame for her contributions to the electronic arts. In 2008, Forbes ranked her 32nd on its list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” and Entertainment Weekly named her the third-smartest person in TV for quickly restoring CBS’s entire primetime lineup after the 100-day writers’ strike. That same year, the National Association of Television Program Executives awarded Tellem a Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award in recognition of her “extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in the process of creating TV programming.” Tellem holds several board and advisory positions for digital and media-related companies including All3Media, Bedrocket Media Ventures, Interlude, Shopkick, Stardoll Media, and [212]Media. Tellem earned her BA from the University of California Berkeley, and received her J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of Law. Tellem is married to sports agent Arn Tellem, vice chairman, Wasserman Media Group, and has three children.

undefinedPelle Törnberg

Advisor
Ericsson

Pelle Törnberg has over thirty-five years of experience in the media and telecommunication industry, including start-ups, turnarounds, and public companies. He has successfully built, listed, and led profitable international media businesses such as the Modern Times Group and Metro International (the world’s largest international newspaper). Törnberg has served as chairman of MTG and of P4 and was profiled as one of the “25 Stars of Europe” by Business Week. He established, expanded, and grew the world’s largest subtitling and dubbing company, SDI. Törnberg is a board member for Bromberg (a Scandinavian book publishing company), Cellcomb AB (a Swedish clean-tech company), HBO Nordic, and he is a chairman for www.bygghemma.se, Scandinavia’s leading e-commerce for home improvement. Törnberg also serves as an advisor to the National Research Institute of Soft Power (China), Ericsson AB, and Stella Advisors (a London based boutique/investment bank focusing on the European TMT sector). Törnberg has also worked in the Modern Times Group (from 1992 to 2009) as director, chairman, and CEO. Modern Times Group is an international entertainment broadcasting group with operations in more than thirty countries. MTG is the largest free-to-air and pay-TV operator in Scandinavia. Törnberg career started in Swedish Public Service in 1979, in radio as a news editor, head of programming, and later, in TV, as editor of the two highest-rated entertainment shows.

undefinedChris Weasler

Director of Global Connectivity
Facebook

Chris Weasler leads the strategy, operations, and partnerships for Internet.org, the Facebook led alliance focused on driving affordable Internet adoption globally. Previously, Weasler managed Facebook's partnerships with mobile operators. Prior to Facebook, he was VP of business development at LightSquared and VP of global development and roaming at Sprint Nextel. During his career he has consulted with startups and wireless operators, and also provided consultation to the FCC on a host of roaming and spectrum issues. Early in his career, at Palm he helped launch the first wireless PDA, and at OmniSky, Weasler led the product and business development for its wireless portal. He has an undergraduate degree from Marquette University and an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School.

undefinedAmy Webb

Founder & CEO, Webbmedia Group
Cofounder, Spark Camp

Amy Webb is a digital media futurist and the founder of Webbmedia Group, a digital strategy agency that spots near-term emerging technology trends and develops innovative ideas for media organizations, Fortune 100 and 500 companies, large nonprofits, and government agencies. Recently, her team worked with American Express to reimagine the future of credit cards on mobile phones and Time Inc to develop content strategies for screenless computing. She is the cofounder of Spark Camp, a community of media and technology innovators dedicated to solving tough challenges in society. Webb is the bestselling author of Data, A Love Story (Penguin/ Dutton 2013) and is a contributor to Slate and Harvard Business Review. She holds many professional affiliations and collaborates with a number of institutions. Webb is a delegate on the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, a lecturer at Columbia University, a member of the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Libraries, and a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Interactive Media Peer Group – Emmy award judge). She is on the board of directors for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and serves on a number of startup and advisory boards, including the SXSW Accelerator, Temple University’s School of Media and Communication, the International Center for Journalists, TheLi.st, AdGlue, and Knod.es. Forbes named Webb one of the “Women Changing The World,” while the Columbia Journalism Review included her on its “20 Women To Watch in Media” list.

undefinedAnnie Wegelius

Entrepreneur and Senior Advisor
SVT

Before joining SVT, as director of programs, in May 2007, Wegelius had already been an entrepreneur for the television and media industry for twenty-five years. She was one of the founding teams of TV3, Scandinavia’s first commercial broadcaster, where she was the channel’s first program director. She then founded and headed her own production company, Wegelius TV, which grew to become one of the leading independent producers in the Nordic region. After selling the company to Bonniers, Wegelius went on to create one of Europe’s first e-learning companies, Kworld, which operated the first privately owned digital terrestrial broadcast channel in Sweden. She founded the Swedish Television Academy Awards and the annual Swedish TV Industry conference, Kristallen. Wegelius acted as its chairperson until her appointment at SVT. At SVT Wegelius, with the director of news and sports, headed the Commissioning Board, creating the content strategy and were responsible for commissioning all the content for five broadcast channels and Sweden’s leading online video site. Under her leadership, SVT has had the biggest increase in market share of all European public broadcasters. Wegelius has been an integral part in the modernization of Swedish public service television, and she continues to play an important role as an advisor in areas of creative development strategies and the collaboration with the independent production industry. Wegelius has also been a board member at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm for a number of years, as well as acting on several boards of incubators focusing on new media. She currently serves on the board of the leading e-retailer in the Nordic region.