Frank A. Bennack Jr. is executive vice chairman of Hearst, one of the nation’s largest private companies engaged in a broad range of publishing, broadcasting, cable networking and diversified media and business-to-business information activities. He is also chairman of the company’s executive committee, a director of Hearst and a trustee of the Hearst Family Trust, established under the will of William Randolph Hearst. In addition, he sits on a number of corporate committees and the Hearst Foundations board, where he has served for nearly half a century. 

Bennack served as Hearst’s CEO for more than 28 years. He directed the company through an unprecedented period of growth from when he began his first tenure as CEO in 1979 through June 2013, when he stepped down—increasing revenues 14 times and growing earnings more than 30 times, through investments, acquisitions and startups. Today, Hearst comprises some 360-plus businesses and 25,000 employees. 

Under his leadership, the company launched three leading cable networks with its partner ABC (now the Walt Disney Company), A&E, HISTORY and Lifetime and invested in the ESPN family of networks, now in 190 countries and territories. On Bennack’s watch, Hearst marched toward diversification and global expansion, including its purchase of global ratings agency Fitch Group. Bennack was also instrumental in the decision to create what today is Hearst Television,Inc., one of the nation’s largest non-network-owned television station groups, which operates 33 television stations. During his tenure, Hearst launched such magazines as Country Living, Food Network Magazine, HGTV Magazine, Marie Claire and O, The Oprah Magazine.

His influence on corporate boards of directors—many lasting decades—has impacted the worlds of finance, at J.P. Morgan Chase and its predecessor companies Chemical Bank, Manufacturers Hanover and Chase; retail, as an outside director of Allied Stores, which became a part of the modern-day Federated/Macy’s Inc. and was the parent company of Brooks Brothers, Jordan Marsh, Stern’s and Le Bon Marché; and pharmaceuticals, as a director of Wyeth, formerly American Home Products, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2009. 

Bennack is currently a director of Ralph Lauren Corporation. He is chairman of Hearst Magazines UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hearst. Bennack is also a governor and chairman emeritus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and its Healthcare System, a managing director of the Metropolitan Opera of New York, chairman emeritus of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and chairman of the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television & Radio). He was the 1992–93 chairman of the Newspaper Association of America (formerly the American Newspaper Publishers Association). 

Campbell Brown is the Founder and CEO of Remark, the pioneering platform connecting verified experts directly to AI systems to deliver real-time, authoritative insights at scale. 

At Meta, Brown served as Vice President of Global Media Partnerships, where she structured and negotiated over $100 million in content deals with major publishers and launched Facebook News across 50+ countries. Her experience managing the complex relationships between tech platforms and content creators—including navigating copyright, attribution, and monetization challenges—directly informs Remark's approach to the AI content ecosystem. 

Before Meta, Brown built her career as an Emmy Award-winning journalist, anchoring a prime-time show on CNN and serving as NBC's White House correspondent and Weekend Today host. Brown also founded The Seventy Four, which became a leading education news platform, demonstrating her ability to build media properties from the ground up. She currently advises Tollbit, a startup addressing AI content monetization challenges. 

Brown sits on the board of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and the Board of Governors at the Paley Center for Media. 

Dylan Byers is a founding partner and senior correspondent at Puck, a news media startup that covers Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington, and has fast established itself as a must-read in C-suites across the country. His private email, In The Room, takes readers behind the scenes of the American media industry and breaks news on the most consequential changes at the nation's leading media, tech and entertainment firms. Before Puck, Dylan served as the senior media reporter at NBC News, where he authored the Byers Market newsletter and hosted the Byers Market podcast. He has also worked at CNN, where he served as the senior media reporter and authored the Pacific newsletter, and Politico, where he authored the "On Media" blog. He has interviewed several notable business leaders, on stage and on his podcast, including Sheryl Sandberg, Eddy Cue, Barry Diller, Howard Schultz, Adam Mosseri, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, Maverick Carter, Wyclef Jean, Steve Wozniack, and Susan Wojcicki. Dylan is based in Los Angeles, and travels regularly to New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Seattle. Previous speaking engagements include SXSW, Cannes Lions, Collision, and the Global Financial Leadership Conference. 

Barry Diller is the Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and the Chairman and Senior Executive of Expedia Group. From 1995 to late 2010, Mr. Diller served as the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of IAC. Since December 1992, beginning with QVC, he has served as chief executive for a number of predecessor companies engaged in media and interactivity prior to the formation of IAC. From October 1984 to April 1992, Mr. Diller served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox, Inc. and was responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company in addition to Fox's motion picture operations. 

Before joining Fox, Mr. Diller served for 10 years as the Chairman and Chief Executive of Paramount Pictures Corporation. In March 1983, in addition to Paramount, he became President of the conglomerate's newly formed Entertainment and Communications Group, which included Simon & Schuster, Inc., Madison Square Garden Corporation and SEGA Enterprises, Inc. Prior to joining Paramount, Mr. Diller served as Vice President of Prime Time Television for ABC Entertainment. He has also served as Producer on numerous Broadway shows, including The Music Man, The Lehman Trilogy, West Side Story, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Humans. Through his foundation, Mr. Diller created Little Island, a park and performance center in the Hudson River and has supported various organizations including The High Line, Motion Picture & Television Fund, UCLA Foundation and Culture Shed. He is a signatory of The Giving Pledge. 

He serves on the board of MGM Resorts International. 

Mike Fries is Chficer of Liberty Global, a world leader in converged broadband, video and mobile communications and an active investor in cutting-edge infrastructure, content and technology ventures. Liberty Global delivers next-generation products through advanced fiber and 5G networks, providing over 85 million connections across Europe and the UK. Its businesses operate under some of the best-known consumer brands, including Virgin Media-O2 in the UK, VodafoneZiggo in The Netherlands, Telenet in Belgium, Sunrise in Switzerland, Virgin Media in Ireland and UPC in Slovakia. The joint ventures in the UK and the Netherlands generate combined annual revenue of over $18 billion, while remaining operations generate consolidated revenue of more than $7 billion. Through its substantial scale and commitment to innovation, Liberty Global is building Tomorrow’s Connections Today, investing in the infrastructure and platforms that empower customers and deploying the advanced technologies that nations and economies need to thrive.

As a member of the management team that founded the Company over 30 years ago, Fries launched the company’s international expansion, and has served in various strategic and operating capacities since that time. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company in 2005 and serves as a member of its two-person Executive Committee along with Chairman, Dr. John C. Malone.

Fries is also Executive Chairman of Liberty Latin America (LLA), a leading communications company with operations in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and other parts of Latin America that serves 12 million broadband, video, voice and mobile subscribers and generates $4.5 billion of annual revenue. LLA was split off from Liberty Global to focus purely on organic and strategic growth in the region. Fries also serves on the corporate boards of Grupo Televisa and Lionsgate Entertainment.

Fries is an engaged industry and community leader. He serves as board member for Cable Labs, is a trustee & finance committee member of The Paley Center for Media and an ICT Governor of the World Economic Forum. He is Honorary Co-Chair for the Biennial of the Americas and is Trustee Emeritus and former Chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Recognition for his achievements includes EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications and inductions into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and the Cable Hall of Fame, which recognize pioneers and leaders in the media, communications and cable industries. Mike holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, where he is a Trustee Emeritus, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University, where he is a member of the Board of Overseers for the Business School.

As EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Nicole Graham leads Nike, Jordan and Converse storytelling to inspire consumers and shape the brands for distinction through the passion and emotion of sport. Nicole is a visionary leader experienced at building iconic brands. She re-joined Nike as the CMO in 2023 and has a proven track record of creating world-class marketing for Nike that has energized global sports moments from the Olympics and Paralympics to World Cup and the NBA Finals to the Super Bowl. In 2020, Nicole co-founded Adopt, a creative agency that partners with athletes, start-ups and top consumer companies. Prior to that, she spent 18 years at Nike, honing her expertise in all facets of marketing across global, geo, and key cities.

Sarah Guo is the Founder and a Partner at Conviction, an AI-native venture capital firm founded in 2022. Prior, she was a General Partner at Greylock. She has been an early investor and partner to 50+ companies including Figma, Harvey, Sierra, HeyGen, Mistral, Cognition, Stackblitz and more. Sarah is from Wisconsin, has four degrees from University of Pennsylvania, and lives in the Bay Area with her husband and three kids. She co-hosts the AI podcast "No Priors" with Elad Gil. 

Stephen Hadley is a principal of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC (RHGM), an international strategic consulting firm founded with Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Anja Manuel. RHGM assists senior executives of major corporations in overcoming the challenges to doing business successfully in major emerging markets like China, India, Brazil, Turkey, and the Middle East.

Mr. Hadley served for four years as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 2005 to 2009. In that capacity he was the principal White House foreign policy advisor to then President George W. Bush, directed the National Security Council staff, and ran the interagency national security policy development and execution process.  From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Hadley was the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, serving under then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. In addition to covering the full range of national security issues, Mr. Hadley had special responsibilities in several areas including a U.S./Russia political dialogue, the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and developing a strategic relationship with India.

From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Hadley was both a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner (now part of Goodwin Proctor) and a principal in The Scowcroft Group (a strategic consulting firm headed by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft). In his law practice, Mr. Hadley was administrative partner of the firm. He represented a range of corporate clients in transactional and international matters – including export controls, foreign investment in U.S. national security companies, and the national security responsibilities of U.S. information technology companies. In his consulting practice, Mr. Hadley represented U.S. corporate clients investing and doing business overseas.

From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Hadley served as the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy under then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. Mr. Hadley represented the Defense Department on arms control and defense matters, including negotiations with the Soviet Union and then Russia, security issues involving NATO and Western Europe, and export and technology control matters.

Prior to this position, Mr. Hadley alternated between government service and law practice with Shea & Gardner. He was counsel to the Tower Commission in 1987, as it investigated U.S. arms sales to Iran, and served on the National Security Council staff under President Ford from 1974 to 1977.

During his professional career, Mr. Hadley has served on a number of corporate, nonprofit, and advisory boards. He is currently an Executive Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at the Atlantic Council, a member of the Board of Directors of The Council on Foreign Relations, a member of Yale University’s Kissinger Papers Advisory Board, a member of the Board of Managers of the John Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, and a Trustee of the International Crisis Group. Other positions have included past service as a member of the Department of Defense Policy Board, a member of the National Security Advisory Panel to the Director of Central Intelligence, former Board Chair and Board Director of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), and a member of the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

Mr. Hadley graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University in 1969. In 1972, he received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School, where he was Note and Comment Editor of the Yale Law Journal.  From 1972 to 1975 he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.

He is the editor of the book Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama.

As Co-CEO, Mellody is responsible for management, strategic planning and growth for all areas of Ariel. Additionally, she chairs the board of Ariel Investments’ publicly traded mutual funds. Prior to being named Co-CEO, Mellody spent nearly two decades as Ariel’s President. In 2025, she founded Project Level® to change the game in women’s sports. Mellody co-founded Ariel Alternatives, LLC in 2021 and its inaugural private equity fund, Project Black®. Beyond Ariel, she serves as a director of JPMorgan Chase and is the former chair of Starbucks Corporation. Mellody was a long-standing board member of the Estée Lauder Companies and chairman of the board of DreamWorks Animation until the company’s sale in 2016. 

She is a well-recognized financial literacy advocate. Mellody wrote a New York Times bestselling children’s book, Priceless Facts about Money, to demystify money for young readers. Mellody’s community outreach includes her role as chairman of After School Matters, a Chicago non-profit that provides area teens with high-quality after-school and summer programs. She is also co-chair of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and a board member of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Mellody is a member of the Executive Committee of the Investment Company Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the LA28 Olympic Games and past chair of the Economic Club of Chicago. 

She earned her AB from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. In 2019, Mellody was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award, the university’s highest honor presented annually to a Princeton graduate whose career embodies a commitment to national service. She has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Howard University, Johns Hopkins University, St. Mary’s College and the University of Southern California. In 2015, Time magazine named her one of the “100 Most Influential People” in the world. 

Jeffrey is an entrepreneur and entertainment industry executive who has reshaped the media landscape throughout his career.  Today, he is a Founding Partner at WndrCo, an investment company focused on supporting founders who are building category-defining companies.  Jeffrey works closely with WndrCo portfolio companies Aura, Airtable, Alembic, Netomi, and Writer on their enterprise GTM strategy. 

Prior to WndrCo, Jeffrey co-founded DreamWorks, serving as CEO of DreamWorks Animation, which he grew into the world’s largest animation studio.  Before founding DreamWorks, Jeffrey was Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios and previously served as President of Production at Paramount Studios. 

Jeffrey is a donor and board member to many civic organizations, including University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, California Institute of the Arts, and is on the Board of Directors for Olympics LA28.  Among his many awards and recognitions, he has received the Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival, the Motion Picture Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the National Medal of Arts, and the TIME100 Impact Award. 

YouTube Creator and Host, Challenge Accepted

Michelle Khare (5M+ subscribers) lives life to the extreme by taking on intense physical and mental challenges in her docuseries, Challenge Accepted. With a mission to highlight diverse communities, Michelle brings compassion to each project and community she becomes a part of. With disarming wit and emotional openness, Michelle draws out stories from those reluctant to be on camera while bravely sharing her own struggles. Lauded for her emotional awareness, exceptional interviewing, and raw storytelling, Michelle showcases that with enough hard work, dedication, and failure — anything is possible. 

Chairman, Liberty Media, Liberty Global, Liberty Broadband, and GCI Liberty; Chair Emeritus, Warner Bros. Discovery

Dr. John C. Malone is Chairman of the Board of Liberty Media Corporation, Liberty Broadband Corporation, GCI Liberty, Inc. and Liberty Global plc. From 1996 to March 1999, when Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) merged with AT&T Corp., he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TCI. Previous to that, from 1973 to 1996, Dr. Malone served as President and Chief Executive Officer of TCI. Additionally, Dr. Malone is Chair Emeritus of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., a director emeritus of Liberty Latin America Ltd., and Chairman Emeritus of the Board for Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.

Born in 1941 in Milford, Connecticut, Dr. Malone was a Phi Beta Kappa and merit scholar at Yale University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Economics in 1963. He also received a Master of Science in Industrial Management from Johns Hopkins in 1964 and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Operations Research from Johns Hopkins in 1967. He has received two Honorary Degrees for Doctorate of Human Letters; the first from Denver University in 1992 and the second from Johns Hopkins University in 2012.

Dr. Malone began his career in 1963 at Bell Telephone Laboratories/AT&T in economic planning and research and development. In 1968, he joined McKinsey & Company and in 1970 he became Group Vice President at General Instrument Corporation (GI). He was later named President of Jerrold Electronics, a GI subsidiary.

He served as Director of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) from 1974 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1993. During the 1977-1978 term, Dr. Malone was the NCTA's Treasurer.

In 1983, Dr. Malone received the NCTA Vanguard Award, one of the highest honors in the cable television industry. He has received many other awards and honors which include: TVC Magazine Man of the Year Award - 1981; Wall Street Transcript's Gold Award for the cable industry's best Chief Executive Officer - 1982, 1985, 1986 and 1987; Wall Street Transcript’s Silver Award in 1984 and 1989; Women In Cable's Betsy Magness Fellowship Honoree; University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center Award of Merit for Distinguished Entrepreneurship; American Jewish Committee Sherrill C. Corwin Human Relations Award; Communications Technology Magazine Service and Technology Award; Bronze Award - 1993 Financial World CEO of the Year Competition; The Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1994 and in 2004 the Hopkins Medal, the school’s highest award. He is also recognized as a Yale Sterling Fellow (Harkness Circle) and in May of 2016 he was awarded the Steven J. Ross Humanitarian Award. In October of 2016, Dr. Malone was honored by the Television Academy with the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award. On January 9, 2017 he received the Citizen of the West award which is an honor bestowed upon him through the National Western Association in Colorado. 

Former diplomat, author, and advisor on foreign policy, Anja Manuel is Co-Founder and Principal along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, a strategic consulting firm that helps US companies navigate international markets.  

Anja is the author of the critically acclaimed This Brave New World: India, China, and the United States, published by Simon and Schuster, and numerous articles and papers. 

She is the Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum, a premier bipartisan forum on foreign policy in the United States. 

From 2005 to 2007, she served as an official at the U.S. Department of State, as Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, responsible for Asia policy.   

Earlier in her career, Anja was an attorney at WilmerHale, working on Supreme Court and international cases and representing clients before the US Congress, Supreme Court, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and the SEC.  She began her career as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers in London.   

A cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Stanford University, Anja also lectured and was a research affiliate at Stanford University from 2009 - 2019, and 2024-now, teaching courses on US Foreign Policy in Asia and Technology Policy.  

Anja is a frequent speaker on foreign policy and technology policy, is a commentator for TV and radio (NBC/MSNBC, Bloomberg News, Fox Business, BBC, NPR, etc.), and writes for publications ranging from the Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and Fortune, among others. 

Anja currently serves on the corporate boards of Ripple Labs Inc. and Hims & Hers Health, Inc. and the Applied Materials Secure Innovation Advisory Board. Additionally, she is a former member of the Defense Policy Board for the U.S. Department of Defense  

She has serves/d on the boards/advisory boards of National Committee on US-China Relations, CARE.org, Center for a New American Security, Flexport Inc., Synapse Inc., and the boards of the Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc., American Ditchley Foundation, and formerly Governor Brown’s California Export Council. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Anja lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children. 

Crystal McCrary is an award-winning filmmaker, television producer, author, and entrepreneur. She began her career practicing entertainment law with the New York City firm Paul Weiss before leaving to pursue a full-time career in writing, producing, and directing. Since that time, she has published two New York Times best-selling novels Homecourt Advantage and Gotham Diaries and written the critically acclaimed non-fiction book Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing the World. She also produced the independent film Dirty Laundry. For six seasons, Ms. McCrary served as executive producer for the NAACP Image Award nominated BET series Leading Women and Leading Men. Ms. McCrary also created, produced, and directed the Nickelodeon Sports series Little Ballers and Little Ballers Indiana. Additionally, Ms. McCrary directed seven short films on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In 2022 she directed a short film about the life and career of Kenneth Frazier, former CEO of Merck. Most recently she co-founded Get To Yes, a full-service production company creating scripted and non-scripted content at the intersection of culture, sports and the socio-political landscape. Current Get To Yes projects include documentaries on the Olympian Allyson Felix, The Drug in Our Pocket and Fatherless No More.  To commemorate Ariel Investments 40th Anniversary, she directed a documentary on the journey of John W. Rogers Jr. and Mellody Hobson in building the first Black-owned mutual fund firm in the country.    

In 2023, Ms. McCrary along with her son Cole Anthony launched the youth sports tech platform GameUp which is a resource for families to help navigate the highly fragmented youth sports landscape.   

Ms. McCrary has appeared on numerous networks from CNN to MSNBC as a cultural, legal, and political pundit as well as co-hosted ABC’s The View. She currently sits on the Board of The Paley Center for Media. Ms. McCrary has received honors and distinctions including being honored by The Children’s Defense Fund, Precious Dreams Foundation, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, and Urban Tech for her contributions to youth and the arts. She was also named to Crain’s 40 under 40 Young Professionals list. 

Ms. McCrary lives in New York City with her husband, financier Raymond J. McGuire and their son Leo. Their two older children are Ella and Cole Anthony. Ella is a senior at Harvard College, and Cole plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Ms. McCrary received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her Juris Doctor from American University and New York University. 

Neal Mohan is the Chief Executive Officer of YouTube, the world's largest video sharing service. He is responsible for the company's overall strategy, product innovation, strategic partnerships across the creative industries, and global operations. His focus is on empowering creators, fostering community, and driving the future of video. 

Prior to becoming CEO in 2023, he served as YouTube's Chief Product Officer, responsible for the company’s successful forays into streaming, Shorts, subscriptions and podcasting; growing contributions to the creator economy, and scaled Trust & Safety efforts.  

Before joining YouTube, Neal was a pioneer in digital advertising, first leading product development and strategy at DoubleClick, then overseeing its acquisition and integration with Google. He went on to become Senior Vice President of Display and Video Advertising at Google, transforming the company from a new entrant to a global leader in advertising technology.  

Neal serves on the Board of Directors of Starbucks. He also serves on the Advisory Council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Board of Trustees of The Paley Center for Media, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Neal lives in the Bay Area with his wife and kids. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. 

Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) is the Head of Instagram, where he is responsible for overseeing the engineering, product, and business teams, shaping the app experience. He is also responsible for leading the Threads team as the company’s newest app. A designer by training, Adam enjoys the challenge of marrying sharp design thinking with thoughtful product strategy to create experiences that bring people together. 

Adam has been at Meta for over fifteen years. He started at Meta as a designer for Facebook's mobile app before moving to product management, where he led the Facebook News Feed product and engineering teams, and served as the Head of Facebook News Feed.  

Adam began his career founding a design consultancy focused on graphic, interaction, and exhibition design before joining TokBox as the company’s first designer. Adam holds a BA from the Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Study at NYU, where he studied Information Design and Media. 

Born and raised in New York, Adam lives in the Bay Area with his wife and three sons. 

Bob Pittman is the Chairman, CEO and cofounder of iHeartMedia, Inc., the leading audio company in America, with the largest audience in broadcast radio, streaming radio, podcasting and national live music events.  Pittman is a media innovator who has been at the forefront of change in the media business for his entire career – from pioneering the cable revolution as the leader of the team that created MTV and as CEO of MTV Networks, to leading the mass market adoption of the internet as COO of America Online (AOL) at a time when AOL had half of all internet traffic in the U.S., to leading the audio revolution at iHeartMedia. Pittman also led transformations as the CEO of Six Flags Theme Parks, Time Warner Enterprises and Century 21 Real Estate and as COO of AOL Time Warner, and was the cofounder of Casa Dragones Tequila. 

 Pittman has been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame, the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and the Cable Hall of Fame and received AdWeek’s first ‘Media Visionary’ award and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award, among many other honors. He’s also a committed philanthropist, and has served as Chairman of both the New York poverty-fighting Robin Hood Foundation and the New York Public Theater. 

Michael D. Ratner is the CEO & Founder of OBB Media, the next-gen entertainment studio driving pop culture through innovative storytelling across film, television, digital, branded content, live experiences, and more. Ratner is also the Co-Founder of rhode skin and has guided the company since its formation alongside Hailey Bieber. In his dual role as Co-Executive Chairman, Ratner has run the Board of Directors from inception through its acquisition, most recently spearheading the $1 billion exit to e.l.f. Beauty.

Since founding OBB in 2016, Ratner has led the company through explosive growth, building a bicoastal, vertically integrated content studio known for both its award-winning entertainment and its unique ability to launch and grow brands through storytelling. Ratner has established himself as a creative and strategic force at the intersection of content and commerce, with a variety of formats and a multi-platform approach. Recent work includes a groundbreaking partnership with IShowSpeed and DICK’S that spans a primetime commercial, premium docu-series, and live event; the three-day sports festival, Fanatics Fest NYC; and the creation of Hailey Bieber’s YouTube channel, which served as a natural launchpad for rhode skin, the most disruptive powerhouse in beauty. 

Ratner’s directing and producing work has received a Grammy nomination for Justin Bieber: Our World; amassed more than 2 billion views with Kevin Hart’s Cold as Balls; gone #1 globally and driven legislative reform with Demi Lovato’s Child Star documentary (Hulu); and won Peabody and Emmy awards with Mountain Queen (Netflix). Ratner is also behind the critically acclaimed and chart-topping Sabrina Carpenter’s A Nonsense Christmas special (Netflix), Spotify’s Billions Club series starring the biggest artists in the world, and Kids Are Growing Up: A Story about a Kid Named LAROI (Amazon), and more. 

Ratner’s entrepreneurial approach has landed him on Goldman Sachs’ Top 100 Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs (2023 & 2024), The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Gen: 35 Rising Hollywood Executives Under 35 (2024), Variety’s New Leader Creatives (2018), and Forbes 30 Under 30 (2019). He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Tisch (MFA). 

Ryan Roslansky is the CEO of LinkedIn, the world’s largest and most powerful network of professionals. Ryan joined the company in May 2009 and has since held leadership roles in every part of LinkedIn’s business. As the CEO, Ryan has more than doubled LinkedIn’s business to north of $17 billion in annual revenue, while growing the platform to record levels of engagement, with over 1 billion members, 67 million companies, 140 thousand schools and 41 thousand skills. 

In addition to leading LinkedIn, Ryan serves as Executive Vice President of Microsoft Office and is a member of Satya Nadella’s senior leadership team at Microsoft. Through these roles, Ryan aims to help LinkedIn, Microsoft, and the global labor market transition into an AI-powered future. 

Prior to becoming CEO in June 2020, Ryan held the role of global head of product where he oversaw all teams responsible for building and creating the next generation of LinkedIn products and experiences. He set the company’s product strategy and oversaw product development, user experience, business development, and customer operations. 

Ryan also serves on the board of directors for Intuit and on the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center for Media. He is the host of a successful video series, podcast and newsletter called The Path where he interviews notable CEOs and leaders about their career journeys.

Faiza Saeed is the Presiding Partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. She has spent her career at Cravath, advising on M&A, corporate governance and crisis management, with a focus in the media, entertainment, and biotech sectors. She serves as a Trustee of The Paley Center, NewYork-Presbyterian, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, and on the Boards of Directors of the Partnership for New York City and The Paley Foundation. She is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and The Economic Club of New York. Ms. Saeed is a recipient of the Paley Center’s highest honor, The Paley Honors Award, the Foreign Policy Association’s highest honor, the Foreign Policy Association Medal, the American Jewish Committee’s Judge Learned Hand Award and the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Judge Simon Rifkind Award, and she was named one of the Asia Society’s Game Changers of 2019. Earlier in her career she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and her B.A. in Economics and Molecular Biology with Highest Distinction from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Hiroki Totoki is President and CEO of Sony Group Corporation. Totoki began his distinguished career at Sony in 1987 and advanced through key leadership roles across the company’s diverse portfolio. In 2001, he co-founded Sony Bank, one of Japan’s first internet banks. He then took on leadership positions at Sony Communication Network Inc. (So-net), the company’s internet service and entertainment arm in 2005. Totoki later held key roles within Sony’s Corporate Planning, Finance and Strategy divisions, and became President and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications in 2014.  He was appointed Sony’s CFO in 2018 and subsequently served as President, COO and CFO. In 2025, Totoki was named Director, Representative Corporate Executive Officer, President and CEO of Sony Group Corporation, marking a pivotal step in his sustained stewardship of the company’s evolution.  As President and CEO, he is leading Sony’s strategic emphasis on entertainment and intellectual property, aligning the company’s long-term “Creative Entertainment Vision” with its solid foundation in technology.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur and serves as the Chairman of VaynerX,  the CEO of VaynerMedia, and the CEO and Creator of VeeFriends. Gary is considered one of the leading global minds on what’s next in culture, business, and the internet. 

Known as “GaryVee,” he is described as one of the most forward thinkers in business. He acutely recognizes trends and patterns early to help others understand how shifts in consumer attention impact the realities of the business world today. Gary’s approach sits at the intersection of business and pop culture. He keenly understands how to bring brand relevance to the forefront. He is a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Snapchat, Coinbase, and Uber. 

Gary is an entrepreneur at heart – he builds businesses. Today, he helps Fortune 1000 brands leverage consumer attention through his full-service advertising agency, VaynerMedia, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Amsterdam, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, Delhi, and Kuala Lumpur. VaynerMedia is part of the VaynerX holding company, which also includes Eva Nosidam Productions, Gallery Media Group, The Sasha Group, VaynerSpeakers, VaynerCommerce, and Tingley Lane Trading. Gary is the Co-Founder of VaynerSports, VCR Group, VaynerWatt, ArtOfficial, Resy, and Empathy Wines. He guided Resy and Empathy to successful exits — which he later sold to American Express and Constellation Brands, respectively. He also owns a Major League Pickleball team called the 5s, is part owner of a Big3 basketball team, and is an investor in the revival of the SlamBall League. 

In 2021, Gary created VeeFriends, an entertainment company that has become a rising powerhouse in modern entertainment and collectibles. Often described as Pokemon meets Sesame Street, the company leverages stories, games, events, collectibles, and technology to scale its character universe. Vaynerchuk also has negotiated partnerships with brand powerhouses such as Crocs, Fanatics, Macy’s/Toys “R” Us, Mattel’s UNO, Mattel’s Masters of the Universe, Moonbug Entertainment, Reebok, Squishmallows, Topps, and more. 

Gary is also the founder and creator of VeeCon – a contemporary super conference that converges business and pop culture with innovation and technology. He is a six-time New York Times bestselling author, with titles including Crush It!, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, Twelve and a Half, and Day Trading Attention. In addition to running multiple businesses, Gary documents his daily life as a CEO through his social media channels, which have more than 45 million followers and garner more than 300 million monthly impressions/views across all platforms. His podcast, “The GaryVee Audio Experience,” ranks among the top podcasts globally. 

Gary serves on the board of MikMak, Bojangles Restaurants, Global Citizen Forum, The Paley Center, and Pencils of Promise. He is also a longtime Well Member of charity: water. 

Gary’s life ambition is to buy the New York Jets. 

Joshua Xu is the co-founder and CEO of HeyGen, the one-stop AI video creation suite that enables businesses and creative professionals to generate videos 10x faster, localize them into 175+ languages, and personalize them at scale. HeyGen’s growing array of video, audio, avatar, and post-production capabilities provides nearly 100K customers across marketing, corporate communications, social media, education, and more with the tools to create higher-quality videos more frequently. As CEO, Joshua leads the development of HeyGen’s suite of intuitive, human-centric video production capabilities, with the aim of saving time, relieving bandwidth, and improving content quality for video-makers and their teams. Before founding HeyGen, Joshua was an early Snap employee leading significant innovations in advertising technology, recommendation systems, and AI-driven camera technology.

Strauss Zelnick founded ZMC in 2001.  Mr. Zelnick has a long history of leading media and communications enterprises and is deeply involved in originating investments, advising executives and guiding the strategic and operational initiatives across all portfolio company investments.  Mr. Zelnick currently represents ZMC on the board of World Choice Investments. He serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Previously, Mr. Zelnick was on the boards of Cast & Crew Entertainment Services, L.L.C., Alloy, Inc., Education Networks of America, Inc, and Naylor L.L.C.  He also served as Chairman and CEO of Columbia Music Entertainment, Chairman of ITN Networks, Chairman of Direct Holdings Worldwide and OTX. 
 
Prior to forming ZMC, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment, at that time one of the world’s largest music and entertainment companies with more than 200 record labels and operations in 54 countries. 
 
Before joining BMG Entertainment, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Dynamics, a producer and distributor of interactive entertainment software. Prior to that, he spent four years as President and Chief Operating Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he managed all aspects of Fox Inc.’s worldwide motion picture production and distribution business. Previously, Mr. Zelnick spent three years at Vestron Inc., two as the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Zelnick also served as Vice President of International Television Sales at Columbia Pictures. 
 
Mr. Zelnick holds a BA from Wesleyan University, as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School.