eTail West 2017 (past event)
February 27 - March 02, 2017
1.888.482.6012
Speakers
Speaker
Lori Hawthorne has ten years experience as a corporate event director and now works as a Divisional Director, spearheading the eTail portfolio of conferences. She creates targeted networking and educational conferences that foster innovation, address unique business challenges and advance careers. Her core focus is the successful production and execution of some of Worldwide Business Research’s highest grossing portfolio of events that service Fortune 1000 companies, specifically in the retail, finance, B2B and ecommerce space. Her responsibilities include event strategy development and execution, launch event creation, forecasting and budget management, content creation, sponsorship and marketing campaign development. When she’s not supporting her team of conference producers, you can probably find her in her kitchen, baking for her family.
Greg Ashton is a Senior Director at Worldwide Business Research, a company that develops annual B2B conferences to educate, support and connect the leadership of the world's core industries. Since 2012, Greg has been passionately leading and growing WBR’s flagship brands, including eTail West, eTail Europe & Mobile Shopping. When he is not helping businesses get their digital priorities straight, Greg can be found on the nearest golf course or pool table. Now living and working in Manhattan, Greg travels back home to the UK as often as possible.
A creative project manager and detail-oriented professional, Megan specializes in eCommerce and omni-channel market research to build robust conferences. From program writing to onsite execution, she enjoys collaborating with speakers for their insightful presentations and meeting as many attendees as possible. Often asked how she keeps up her infectious energy up onsite, Megan credits yoga, jamming to Beyoncé, and entertaining her newborn son (with her husband Snapchatting it all).
Jerry Hum is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Touch of Modern, the curated, online shopping destination for men to discover unexpected products, fashion brands and accessories to elevate their lifestyle. Jerry plays a key role in determining which products, brands and designers are featured on Touch of Modern. Trained in architecture and with a strong background in design, Jerry applies a systematic approach to curation, evaluating each proposed item against a strict set of criteria to meet customer demand and brand standards.
Frederic (Fred) D. Argir was appointed Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for Barnes & Noble, Inc., in July 2015. Mr. Argir oversees the E-Commerce and NOOK businesses, which are part of Retail.
Mr. Argir joined the Company from Toys “R” Us, Inc., where he served as Chief Digital Officer since 2012, overseeing digital businesses in 13 countries. He is an accomplished e-Commerce/Omni-Channel leader who brings a deep understanding of Retail, e-Commerce, Information Technology and Supply Chain, with a proven track record for driving organizations to high levels of performance and profitability.
Prior to Toys “R” Us, Mr. Argir was Chief Information Officer at The Sports Authority, Inc., where he led the organization through a formal web redesign, incrementally increasing page conversion through a focus on improved usability and experience. He also served as a consultant to Best Buy, Inc., where he collaborated on productivity and strategic technology investments. Mr. Argir also spent five years at Target Corporation as Vice President of Supply Chain Development. Additionally, he served on the Board of the Global Commerce Initiative.
Mr. Argir lives in Greenwood Lake, NY, with his wife and 5 children, and is actively involved in non-profit organizations that benefit children.
Ivy Chin, Divisional SVP of Digital, leads Omni-channel strategy and business for thePetSmart.com site.
Prior to joining PetSmart, Ms. Chin served as the senior vice president of e-commerce for Belk. Under her leadership and guidance, the Belk.com site was recognized by Internet Retailer as the fastest growing e-Retailer three years in a row. She was also vice chair of the Omni-channel Task Force team at Belk charged to drive digital transformation. Prior to her time at Belk, she worked with QVC, Inc. as the vice president for QVC.comwhere she began her online career more than 20 years ago.
Michael Hughes is an experienced entrepreneur with a track record that extends over 25 years in both e-commerce and offline direct selling. It’s Michael’s commitment to excellence in craftsmanship and to a superior customer experience that has driven PlushBeds to become one of America’s largest online retailers of natural latex mattresses that are as affordable as they are indulgent. In 2011, Michael founded the Natural Latex Company, a 50,000sf manufacturing facility in Moorpark, CA which has become one of America’s largest providers of certified organic latex. Prior to PlushBeds, Michael was a Senior Vice President with a subsidiary of Citigroup.
Julie Fredrickson is the Co-founder and CEO of Stowaway Cosmetics. With a background in e-commerce and digital marketing, Julie has worked with clients including Ann Taylor, Gap, Equinox, Nike, and Coach. As an established entrepreneur—Julie's first company, Coutorture Media, was a pioneer in the fashion blogging and affiliate marketing space. Before Stowaway Cosmetics, Julie found herself constantly hoarding sample-sized cosmetics, the perfect fit for her gym bag or carry-on for last-minute getaways. The samples were usually difficult to find, impossible to purchase regularly, and rarely the items she wanted. This led Julie to the realization that the market for smaller makeup wasn't being met by existing brands. An inveterate optimizer, Julie is always looking for new ways to make her life easier to maintain and uses her knowledge to help Stowaway's customers face that same problem. She believes beauty should fit into your life, instead of making your life fit your beauty products.
Amy’s career has spanned the investment, consumer goods, and nonprofit humanitarian worlds, including leadership roles as General Partner at venture capital firm Maveron, Chief Asset Gathering Officer at E*Trade, and chair of the board of Glide Foundation as well a board member of the UCONN foundation and Common Sense Media. Among Amy's citations is the Israel Fellows Award, presented by the San Francisco–based Jewish Community Federation and an active member of YPO. She is currently the founder and CEO of Madison Reed (named after her daughter), a fast growing hair color brand known for superior expert service, leading technologies, and luxurious hair color and hair care formulas free from Ammonia, PPD, resorcinol, parabens, phthalates, titanium dioxide, and gluten and enriched with keratin, ginseng root extract, and argan, baobab, and mongongo oils.
Randy Adams is a serial entrepreneur who has founded 6 venture-backed startups in the last 25 years in Silicon Valley. He founded the first ecommerce site, the Internet Shopping Network, helped the secure the intial venture funding for Yahoo, and the led the design the team for Acrobat and PDF formats (to name a of his accomplishments). He’s providing an insider’s look at how entrepreneurship has evolved in the digital world, and how to carry that entrepreneurial spirit into your every day.
In 2011, Ken reunited with his best friend, Gautam, to cofound NatureBox and launched the company in January 2012. Shortly after, he sold W Media and joined NatureBox full time, initially overseeing customer acquisition with a current focus on employee happiness and company culture.
Diane Loviglio is the Co-Founder & CEO of Boon + Gable. Boon + Gable's vision is to make shopping less time intensive and more enjoyable. They bring clothes from brick and mortar retailers and send a personal stylist to your home. Just give them an hour, pay for what you keep and forget about the rest.
Boon + Gable was born from her frustration as a shopper who wanted to ditch the hectic & stressful in-store shopping experience and create a solution for dressing her best and saving time. Before founding Boon + Gable, Diane worked as Mozilla’s first qualitative User Experience Researcher and co-founded the first conference to focus on tech failures, FailCon, when failure was still a taboo topic. Her expertise in sustainable design originally led Diane to the Bay Area, where she designed a public green roof featured in National Geographic. But since architecture moved too slowly for Diane, she started Wattbot, an online recommendation service that helped homeowners save money on their energy bills. She received her Bachelor of Humanities and Arts in Architecture and Anthropology from Carnegie Mellon University and when not being a CEO she can often be found in her favorite pair of AG jeans and playing with her 18 month old daughter.
Peter is co-founder, a member of the board of directors, and executive vice president of eBags.com, the leading online retailer of luggage, handbags, backpacks, and business cases. eBags.com, which launched March 1999 and features over 95,000 products from 950 brands, has sold 28 million bags and features over 3.4 million customer reviews. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Retail Federation and is former chairman of NRF’s Shop.org, the leading online retail trade association. Peter is past chairman of the Travel Goods Association and received the TGA Award in 2009 for outstanding achievement within the travel goods industry. He was named 2003 Colorado Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association. He received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon.
Nizzi is helping Zazzle's marketplace ecosystem to reach new heights. From hardcore video gamers to crafty DIY enthusiasts and style aficionados, Nizzi has engaged passionate communities in a variety of forms throughout her career. She had held leadership roles at Refinery29, Atari and Etsy as well as executive roles agency-side across diverse sectors including politics, tech and the nonprofit world. A graduate of Emerson College, Nizzi has her BA in Communication Studies and her MA in Integrated Marketing Communications.
Aaron has worked in eCommerce for 15 years with customer focused brands such as Williams-Sonoma, Inc., Zappos, Coastal.com and Betabrand. He is a proven leader with oversight of Marketing, eCommerce, PR, Social Media and Business Development. He received his BBA from University of Wisconsin – Madison with a double major of Marketing and Management & Human Resources. He ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain only five weeks before his wedding day, and luckily, he made it out alive. He is an endurance athlete, though he’s not sure why he puts himself through the pain. Aaron is a proud .0000001% owner of the World Champion Green Bay Packers.
Traci Inglis is a Marketing professional with experience working with retail brands including Express, Hot Topic, Torrid, JustFab, Shoedazzle and Fabletics. She has proven success in designing winning marketing campaigns to grow customer bases, drive sales, and bring valuable customer insights to retail organizations. Traci is currently the Chief Marketing Officer for the Fast Fashion Division of TechStyle Fashion Group. Founded in 2010, TechStyle is a lifestyle fashion company that offers an engaging and personalized shopping experience to more than 4 million VIP Members across JustFab, Fabletics, ShoeDazzle, and FabKids. Six years since launching, TechStyle has become the fastest-growing fashion company by incorporating technology and data into its entire business cycle.
Yona Shtern is the Head of E-Commerce and Omni-Channel at Sears Canada – the leading omni-channel destination for major appliances, mattresses, furniture, home goods and fashion in Canada – with catalog, e-commerce and retail stores from coast to coast. Prior to joining Sears he was co-founder and CEO and President of Beyond the Rack. The company was recognized as Consumer Brand of the Year in Canada by Strategy for 2014 and the fastest growing e-tailer in North America by Internet Retailer Magazine in 2011. Prior to co-founding Beyond the Rack, Yona was President of Gosh Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer of Ice.com, and CMO of Microcell Telecommunications where he launched the popular Fido wireless brand in Canada (for which he won Consumer & Wireless Brand of the Year awards). He was also Vice President of Direct and Database Marketing at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and Director of Direct Marketing at Avon Products. He has received numerous awards for his advertising, product launch, and marketing strategies and was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 by Start-Up Canada. He began his career with a BA in English Literature from McGill University.
Formerly head of e-commerce at Lucky Brand, CEO of The Line and head of e-commerce for Schiff Nutrition – the largest acquisition of a VMS company in the history of Wall Street – Charlie brings a mix of entrepreneurial and institutional knowledge with success in both fields. With a focus on analytical and creation of structures to empower creativity driven by energy and objectivity, expect similar focuses in any presentation.
@charliecole and @tumitravel
@charliecole and @tumitravel
Chau Banks is Executive Vice President, CIO and Channel Integration at New York & Company, a leading specialty manufacturer and retailer of women's fashion apparel and accessories. Chau is responsible for providing strategic direction for the technology organization and also the integration of business channels that reach all customer touch points. Chau has also held leadership positions at leading global retailers including COACH, Abercrombie & Fitch, and LBrands. She also worked at Capgemini and Ernst & Young as a Management Consultant, providing clients the ability to link technology with business goals in order to accelerate operational efficiencies and achieve growth. Chau received a Women2Watch Retail Innovation award in 2016 for her role in changing the way retailers do business and creating seamless customer experiences on and offline.
Eduardo Frias is Chief Information Officer for Beachbody, LLC. Frias is responsible for the company's overall technology strategy and execution. He oversees both project execution, including large multiyear programs, as well as everyday operational support, and focuses on the impact of technology decisions on long-term cost, benefits, and risks.
Prior to joining Beachbody, Frias served as Chief Information Officer for Stella & Dot, where he led the company's technology organization while fundamentally transforming the overall organization and culture, and developed and maintained annual strategies and plans in support of company objectives.
Previously, Frias was Senior Vice President, Engineering for ideeli and beforehand, Vice President, Global Services Information Technology for Johnson & Johnson.
Dan Frailey is Chief Revenue Officer of RuMe, Inc., one of Denver Business Journal's Fastest Growing Private Companies. He oversees sales efforts including Digital. Dan has formerly been a Regional Manager for Groupon, Inc., a management consultant for Roland Berger, GmbH, and an options trader for hedgefund Susquehanna International Group. He attended the University of Notre Dame, majoring in Physics and Economics, and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
As Senior Vice President, Online, Mobile & Social Media for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Amit’s responsibilities include management of the Company’s online marketing as well as leading the strategic direction and tactical growth of mobile and social commerce. He also leads the innovation group for the company across the portfolio of floral and gourmet food brands. Amit also manages Company relationships with key online, mobile and social partners. Amit’s innovative work in digital marketing and mobile commerce has been quoted widely in publications like the New York Times and Ad Week. Under his guidance, 1-800-Flowers.com continues to be a leader across the spectrum of online, mobile and social experiences and has been recognized with numerous industry awards.
Andrea (Gulli) Moore is a Digital and Omni-Channel Executive Consultant with 15+ years’ experience in Fashion Retail and Consumer Brands. Experienced in conceptualizing, launching and growing online and omni-channel businesses proficiently and profitably. Extensive experience in strategy; online and offline marketing; sales planning and forecasting; web re-platform and redesign; project management; talent assessment and team building; as well as operations and production aspects of online businesses. Also significant experience in launching and expanding customer loyalty programs from a concept to implementation to optimization, as well as catalog/CRM functions. Experience in large, publicly traded companies, as well as small, entrepreneurial, private-equity backed organizations. Work with Board and C-Suite executives as well as digital and online team members. FIT Adjunct Professor; Astia.org Startup Mentor.
Laura Joukovski (LJ) is SVP of Media & Analytics at TechStyle, where she oversees a global customer acquisition budget of $120M across TechStyle’s portfolio of brands, including JustFab, ShoeDazzle, Fabletics and Fabkids. Over the past four years she has helped to build and scale the TechStyle brands in a variety of roles, including launching the Fabletics brand in 2014, leading the Analytics team to fuel data-driven decisions across brands and geographic regions, launching PS – Personal Styling a new shopping experience for JustFab VIPs, and taking on the global Media + Acquisition teams to build and scale a world-class internal media buying agency servicing TechStyle’s brands.
Prior to joining TechStyle, LJ was on the founding team of FabKids as COO/CFO. FabKids was acquired by TechStyle (formerly JustFab, Inc.) in January 2013. LJ’s start-up experience also includes scaling Tea Collection, a high-end children’s apparel brand in San Francisco, where she served as COO/CFO from early stages to a profitable, multi-channel venture. She’s worked in larger companies also, both as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and in house with Levi Strauss & Co.
LJ loves tackling tough business challenges and has a strong record of growth hacking by digging in and deeply understanding the numbers and the key drivers for profitable growth. She’s skilled at partnering with stakeholders at all levels to get results.
As Vice President of Marketing at Ritani, Mark Keeney is responsible for overseeing the strategy and execution for all marketing teams and channels. Prior to Ritani, Mark spent over 9 years at Rhapsody heading up the Marketing and helping transform the way we consume music. Mark has over 19 years of B2C experience in the digital space and has experienced the shifts in technology and consumer behaviors first hand. When not driving new customer acquisitions, he can be found exploring Washington’s beaches with his wife and two active boys.
Zubair Murtaza is Vice President of eCommerce Product Management & Customer Experience for Staples. He is obsessed with transforming eCommerce toward a services experience. He wants Staples to be the “Assistant” to the Office Manager, offering services from auto replenishment of supplies, to procuring anything needed, to installing coffee makers and furniture, to services from office cleaning to facilities repair. Zubair came to Staples from Microsoft, where he developed and grew six technology businesses, including transforming Microsoft SMB from transactional to subscription solutions, Microsoft Learning from physical products to services, and Microsoft servers toward the Azure business model. Zubair was previously a Software Engineer, and holds two Engineering Master’s Degrees and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
As Vice President of Technology at Vistaprint, Erin DeCesare leads a team of global engineers that deliver the online experience for Vistaprint’s 16 million customers. Her areas of responsibility include digital marketing, user experience, commerce and business intelligence. Currently, Erin is leading an effort to re-architect Vistaprint’s customer experience platform. This has involved leveraging best in class marketing applications that are powered by an underlying core of commerce web services and a big data technology stack.
Prior to joining Vistaprint, Erin spent over 10 years working in the financial services industry leading large-scale package software implementations. She has extensive experience working on transitioning development teams to agile methodologies and is experimenting with how to better connect engineering efforts to the needs of the customer.
Erin holds a B.A. in Biology from Boston University and an MBA from Northeastern University
Peter is Vice President of Digital Direct to Customer at T-Mobile, serving as the principal business owner for online discovery, marketing and sales. Prior to this role, Peter has served T-Mobile as VP Operations Management, Chief of Staff to the CEO and COO, and in an earlier stint, as Director of T-Mobile’s Corporate Strategy & Analysis group. In these roles, Peter has helped relaunch T-Mobile’s Challenger Strategy after the AT&T deal breakup, drove T-Mobile’s channel and distribution strategy, next generation network investment valuation, handset reverse logistics, and helped launch products like the Certified Open Box program and Walmart Family Mobile. Peter joined T-Mobile from Amazon.com, where he led ecommerce for the Kindle device category (US .com sales), with additional responsibility for worldwide Kindle market planning. Peter draws on 20+ years of industry and consulting experience in ecommerce and operations management and enjoys innovating in the high tech space – from launching the world’s first open source production webserver on the IBM S390 mainframe to the early prototypes of the Kindle Fire.
Jeff is responsible for all aspects of marketing at MyBinding.com, a niche office products retailer based in Hillsboro, Ore. After helping to launch the MyBinding site in 2003, Jeff contributed to the company’s growth from a small direct sales organization into a national brand. In 2014 Jeff led the company through a replatform from a customized cart platform onto Magento Enterprise. The project resulted in immediate growth for the organization.
Angela Caltagirone is the VP of Digital & Database Marketing at Williams-Sonoma Inc. leading a large team of marketing professionals who partner with each of Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s seven brands (Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBTeen, west elm, & Mark and Graham) to manage all digital channels and the ~60 million customer database, also critical to catalog circulation strategies and personalizing the customer experience. Angela has over 20 years of multifaceted, industry-leading experience in Direct Marketing including retention & acquisition, database development & management, multi-channel customer growth, strategy, & analytics. In the last 15 years Angela has led strategic initiatives developing industry leading expertise in digital marketing - email, paid search & PLAs, natural search, affiliate and content programs, online display, and emerging social media. Angela has extensive experience in initiating and spearheading the implementation of cross-functional, innovative marketing initiatives.
Zachary Belinsky hat been VP of VillageHatShop.com for over 3 years. Zachary has found success through focusing on classic core competencies. That is, providing the right product at the right price and providing an superior customer service. He believes tech partners should augment and not replace these basic merchant principals.
Ujjwal is obsessed with influencing and devising the optimal customer journey. Having successfully grown eCommerce companies many-fold & managed marketing budgets over $10 million, he strives to keep building fast-growing marketing driven organizations.
He is currently VP Marketing at Charming Charlie, where he oversees the overall marketing strategy including the Acquisition, CRM, Customer Insight and PR functions. Ujjwal’s focus is finding new avenues for growth, and optimizing and extending the customer lifetime value. From when a customer first experiences Charming Charlie to getting more lapsed customers back, he loves to emphasize behavioral change at every step of the customer lifecycle.
He is currently VP Marketing at Charming Charlie, where he oversees the overall marketing strategy including the Acquisition, CRM, Customer Insight and PR functions. Ujjwal’s focus is finding new avenues for growth, and optimizing and extending the customer lifetime value. From when a customer first experiences Charming Charlie to getting more lapsed customers back, he loves to emphasize behavioral change at every step of the customer lifecycle.
Liz Greenberg is the Vice President of Ecommerce at The Moret Group, a New York City-based international manufacturer of licensed apparel and accessories. She oversees the company’s proprietary ecommerce sites, including 2(X)IST and Danskin. Prior to joining Moret, Liz launched ecommerce for heritage footwear company G.H. Bass, under the ownership of PVH. Before Bass, Liz was Director of Ecommerce at Diesel, overseeing all ecommerce strategy, marketing and operations for the US division.
Matt is a fourth-generation retail executive, startup veteran, and former attorney. He currently is Vice President & General Manager of Home across Walmart.com, Hayneedle, and Jet. Most recently, Matt served as Vice President & General Manager of Home and Hardlines for Walmart.com. Prior to Walmart he was Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Bezar.com (acquired by AHAlife), General Manager of Home & Kitchen at Quirky, Executive Vice President and General Manager at Fab.com, and practiced complex commercial litigation at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. Matt holds a BBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Chris Woodard is Senior Director, Retention and Loyalty at leading online grocer, FreshDirect where he leads integrated marketing strategies with a focus on loyalty and retention. With over 20 years of data driven, customer centric marketing experience, Chris has been a digital strategy and marketing advisor/consultant to startups including Plated, Coupang, and Centric Digital. Chris has also held marketing leadership roles at startups Noom (CMO) and BuyWithMe (VP Customer Engagement & Operations) and has extensive customer engagement experience at industry-leading brands WeightWatchers.com & Barnes&Noble.com.
Twitter: @Chris_Woodard
Twitter: @Chris_Woodard
Paul Miller is responsible for Grainger’s Global eCommerce experience as well as overall innovation development and leadership of the company’s customer information strategy and execution, including the quality, maintenance and analytics of customer data. Mr. Miller joined Grainger in December 2010 as Vice President, eCommerce, with responsibility for ensuring a superior online and mobile experience for Grainger’s U.S. customers.
Mr. Miller has an extensive leadership background in eCommerce and Direct Marketing. Prior to joining Grainger, he led a start-up division of a venture-backed company that services property insurance carriers. Previously, Mr. Miller was Senior Vice President, Direct Commerce for Sears Holding Corporation and Vice President of eCommerce for Williams-Sonoma Inc., leading internet and catalog activities.
Mr. Miller has an extensive leadership background in eCommerce and Direct Marketing. Prior to joining Grainger, he led a start-up division of a venture-backed company that services property insurance carriers. Previously, Mr. Miller was Senior Vice President, Direct Commerce for Sears Holding Corporation and Vice President of eCommerce for Williams-Sonoma Inc., leading internet and catalog activities.
Eric Adams is the VP of Operations at Dollar Shave Club where he oversees the company’s supply chain including inventory procurement, fulfillment & shipping, credit card processing, and international operations. Eric joined DSC at the start of 2013 and was also responsible for Finance and Accounting in the company’s early days. Prior to joining the company, Eric worked in Finance as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, as well as in Operations for a family-owned commercial bakery based in New Jersey. Eric has a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and daughter.
Beth Monda is responsible for leading and executing the ecommerce vision and operations for Teleflora.com, the world’s leading floral service provider. In her current role, Monda oversees Teleflora’s online and offline marketing strategy, partnership management, UX, merchandising, analytics and site operations. Among her many achievements since joining the company in 2015 is spearheading the rollout of Teleflora’s new industry leading ecommerce platform, in partnership with Oracle. Formerly, Monda held a variety of senior executive roles specializing in marketing, ecommerce and CRM at some of the top global fashion brands including BCBGMaxAzria, Lucky Brand Jeans and Coach, Inc. She has an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at NYU and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College in Vermont.
Jose Nino is a multichannel, Google certified, senior level e-commerce and digital marketing executive with over 15 years of experience in the startup, development and management of results oriented e-commerce marketing, technology and operations. A Brand Innovators "40 under 40", he has presented at numerous domestic and international industry conferences.
He is currently Vice President of E-Commerce, Marketing for Perry Ellis International and is responsible for several facets of the organization's domestic and international e-commerce strategy, including P&L responsibility, for its direct to consumer e-commerce brands (Perry Ellis, Original Penguin, Cubavera, Callaway Golf Apparel). His strategic oversight and leadership also extends to wholesale e-commerce marketing strategies, as well as the company's digital, omni-channel strategy, over a dozen brands.
He is currently Vice President of E-Commerce, Marketing for Perry Ellis International and is responsible for several facets of the organization's domestic and international e-commerce strategy, including P&L responsibility, for its direct to consumer e-commerce brands (Perry Ellis, Original Penguin, Cubavera, Callaway Golf Apparel). His strategic oversight and leadership also extends to wholesale e-commerce marketing strategies, as well as the company's digital, omni-channel strategy, over a dozen brands.
Patti Clauss has been helping companies evaluate talent and hire for over 25 years. Patti began her career in the staffing industry consulting with businesses on their immediate and future needs. After many years of being the top in her field in Seattle for a leading search firm, she was hired away by one of her clients, Eddie Bauer. After hundreds of successful hires of executives, designers, and merchants over several years with the company, she eventually moved to San Francisco to join Williams Sonoma Inc and their host of brands.
At Williams Sonoma Inc. Patti was brought in to support the Pottery Barn brands, with over a decade of time with the company she has hired executives and support staff for all facets of the overall business. She now heads up their entire Executive search globally. She is a contributor in the recently released book “Students in High Gear”, a member of the executive “TAG” group within the NRF and has served as Board of Advisors at SCAD, Atlanta campus.
Patti has a BA in English with a minor in Philosophy.
Time Man of the Year…2 time Olympic Ice Dancing Champion...Pulitzer Prize winning author. Bert has known none of these accolades, but what he does know are mattresses and how to market them. A 25 year industry veteran, Bert guides the digital marketing efforts of the MFRM Family of Brands, America’s largest mattress retailer with over 3500 locations. During his tenure at MFRM, Bert has overseen the move towards better aligning digital marketing efforts with the customer journey as well as spearheading the drive to tie the online consideration path to offline conversion.
Chelsea Mueller has overseen eight full website redesigns, four re-platforming projects, three international expansions, and wants everyone to optimize for mobile shopping. We aren't in a mobile-only world, but we absolutely are in a mobile-first omnichannel phase. She strives to keep Cheaper Than Dirt, a top discount sporting goods retailer, focused on 1:1 customer experience.
Chelsea has managed and created targeted marketing content professionally for 14+ years. She specializes in multi-platform ecommerce optimization and personalization with emphasis on email marketing, branding and organic practices to drive both online sales and KPI.
Chelsea has managed and created targeted marketing content professionally for 14+ years. She specializes in multi-platform ecommerce optimization and personalization with emphasis on email marketing, branding and organic practices to drive both online sales and KPI.
Eric Miller is the Email & Affiliate Marketing Manager for Cabela’s, the World’s Foremost Outfitter, a multibillion-dollar outdoor OMNI channel retailer. He oversees all aspects of the Email and Affiliate programs. Drawing on ten years’ of experience he focuses on building long-term sustainable programs while maintaining the best possible experience for subscribers. Outside of work he focuses on family time and getting outside as much as possible skiing, mountain biking, hiking, and running.
Anna Veit is currently the head of US eCommerce for Benefit Cosmetics. Anna is responsible for the P&L, online marketing, merchandising, inventory management, forecasting, and customer service for benefitcosmetics.com. Prior to Benefit, Anna was director of eCommerce for The Republic of Tea, helped launch ShippingPass for Walmart.com, and also held roles at the Target Digital Innovation Center, Williams Sonoma, and Bare Escentuals. She has a track record of increasing online sales, positively contributing to digital, traditional and integrated marketing campaigns that drive awareness and revenue, creating mobile strategies, and evaluating new commerce technologies and trends.
Alex is an experienced customer research professional who applies his Social Psychology background and his passion for research, design, and innovation to the software industry. His professional goal is to help teams create remarkable products and services which make people's lives easier and more enjoyable.
Currently Alex is leading UX Research and Web Analytics for the Zappos Family of Companies. In previous positions, he was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like TurboTax (Intuit), State Farm Insurance, and the Active Network. He has over 15 years of relevant experience – 5 years of academic research and over 10 years of customer research in the software industry. Alex received his PhD in Experimental Social Psychology from Clark University. His areas of research include: defining and measuring emotions, individual differences, usability, and consumer segmentation.
Currently Alex is leading UX Research and Web Analytics for the Zappos Family of Companies. In previous positions, he was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like TurboTax (Intuit), State Farm Insurance, and the Active Network. He has over 15 years of relevant experience – 5 years of academic research and over 10 years of customer research in the software industry. Alex received his PhD in Experimental Social Psychology from Clark University. His areas of research include: defining and measuring emotions, individual differences, usability, and consumer segmentation.
As the Head of Product Management for Dell.com, Harsh leadsvision, strategy and execution of next generation digital and commercecapabilities for Dell.com across the globe. His team partners with internal andexternal customers to drive discovery and implementation of strategic programsthat span from Learn, Shop and Purchase experiences to Omni-channel Loyalty,Personalization and Targeting platforms. Harsh loves building highly datadriven teams that define and deliver on their key KPIs while keeping customerat the center of everything they do.
Josh Halpern launched the U.S. Department of Commerce’s eCommerce Innovation Lab, based in Silicon Valley, California in 2016. Mr. Halpern’s role includes leveraging private sector solutions and the International Trade Administration’s global reach to drive U.S. exports of goods and services through ecommerce channels.
From 2011 through 2015, Joshua Halpern led the eCommerce, Retail, Franchise and Logistics portfolios for the U.S. Embassy in China where he and his team provided market-entry consulting for U.S. companies entering China. He speaks regularly at industry conferences across the U.S. and China and has won U.S. State Department and Department of Commerce awards for his innovation in management and public-private ecommerce solutions.
Mr. Halpern is a commissioned and tenured Foreign Service Officer, holds a B.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, an MBA from INSEAD and an EMBA from Tsinghua University, where he served as class President.
Rico Arrastia is the Sr. Director, Wholesale E-commerce of Levi Strauss & Co. In this position he is responsible for growing e-commerce sales within the North American wholesale division. With his team, he is focused on positioning and demand generation of the Levi Strauss & Co. brands on retail partner’s e-commerce channels.
Arrastia is passionate about the e-commerce business and has a track record of consistently delivering strong results throughout his e-commerce career.
Arrastia is passionate about the e-commerce business and has a track record of consistently delivering strong results throughout his e-commerce career.
Mike is an e-commerce executive with over 15 years of experience in technology, marketing, and mobile channel development. His direct-to-consumer career has crossed many product categories including home furnishings, gourmet food gifts, and sports licensed products. Mike's current focus is on behavioral analytics across technology platforms, user device types, and seasonal buying cycles. Mike holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Alanna is the Senior Director of Targeted Marketing for Staples, Inc., a leading multichannel retailer and a partner for businesses large & small. Alanna plays an instrumental role at Staples, directing the email, direct mail, and SMS marketing channels, among others. With more than 10 years in the retail industry Alanna has experience on both the client and vendor sides, having worked at Staples, eBay, e-Dialog, and Williams Sonoma, to name a few.
Stefanie Taylor is currently the Senior Director of Digital Marketing and Ecommerce at Sears Holdings Corporation. Her official scope is delivering $160M in annual sales across three divisions in electronics and smart home technology. In the last ten years, Stefanie has held several positions in marketing and ecommerce at great brands such as Musician's Friend and Justice. Stefanie has a degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee which she is putting to good use by crafting performance evaluations and requests for proposals. She is an eternal optimist who seeks out big challenges so she can laugh at herself and improve her patience and humility.
At Target, I am responsible for defining omni-channel testing and measurement strategy so we can best serve our guest’s evolving expectations. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics and a Master’s in Quantitative Analysis. I have worked in the measurement and data science space for over 18 years solving a wide range of business problems that require deeper statistical rigor to separate causality from the normal everyday variability in the data. As an example, attribution is one such problem where machine learning and model based methods can significantly improve how we credit each lever and prevent double-counting or over and under attributing individual levers.
I am the Reservations Product Owner for Marriott.com. I am responsible for all customer interactions on Marriott.com, once a customer has selected a hotel, but are still shopping for the best room for their travel journey. I am focused on funnel conversion, loyal enrollments, AOV, as well as ancillary sales to enhance a customer’s trip/stay.
Kristin Hangebrauck is a Director of Product Management at Target, responsible for leading teams that connect guests to their account profile and order information throughout their shopping journey. In the last 8 of her 12 years at Target, Kristin has been in a variety of digital roles creating the first mobile gift card in-store payment experience, leading large technology replatforming efforts, and focusing on helping Target’s best guests more easily buy what they need. She has her MBA from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and when not working enjoys Whole30 cooking and being outdoors with her family.
Min Cho is Senior Director of Digital Marketing at Cars.com, leading an in-house consumer acquisition team running search engine marketing, social and display campaigns. In addition to paid campaigns, he is also responsible for the Santa Monica division’s P&L, analytics, operations and general management. Prior to joining Cars.com in 2008, Min led the digital marketing practice for automotive at J.D. Power where he worked closely with automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and third party websites. Min has been quoted in several media outlets such as USA Today and Good Morning America.
Leslie is the Sr. Director of Email, Targeted Direct Marketing and CRM for Walgreens. She is responsible for leading, developing and delivering enterprise wide integrated Omni-Channel direct campaigns. Leslie has spent her career with a focus in direct and loyalty marketing. Prior to joining Walgreens she lead Integrated Marketing at United Airlines, Ulta Beauty and FTD.com. Leslie earned her BA in Marketing from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Isamar is the Director of CRM at ShoeDazzle and brings over 6 years of experience in email and retention marketing. In her current role, Isamar is responsible for the strategy, planning, and execution of marketing initiatives as it applies to customer relationship and experience management. With the use of personalization and dynamic content Isamar is able to strengthen members' loyalty to the brand through the primary use of email marketing.
Rob Elzner is an accomplished eCommerce and marketing operations senior professional with a strong blend of B2B & B2C eCommerce sales, extensive marketing & technology services experience and is used to leading large professional organizations and business development. He has been part of Dell for the past 15 years holding positions as a highly effective project and program manager with history of leading complex yet successful launches and integrations on time and under budget. For the past 7 years he has been responsible for web sales on Dell.com, customer pathing and funnel strategies, site merchandizing and web site conversion optimization, and highly involved in digital marketing efforts. Rob has passion for technology and analytics as it relates to customer shopping and purchase behaviors
Bryan Benavides is a seasoned executive with 14 years of digital marketing experience. Starting in 2002 in customer acquisition and email marketing, Bryan has since helped start and grow organizations in data management, online media buying, and international ecommerce. Currently Bryan heads all digital marketing strategy for Abt Electronics, Inc., the largest single store retailer in the nation.
As Director of Digital Marketing for Cabela's, Andrea Grant oversees the strategic development of existing and new digital innovations in the Cabela’s Denver-based corporate extension office. Prior to joining the World's Foremost Outfitter in 2013, Andrea drove the global loyalty and CRM program at Crocs Inc. Her passion as a customer advocate and background in digital strategy, enhances the customer experience and has garnered national recognition. When not discussing marketing efficiencies and incrementality, Andrea is an avid online shopper (unbeknownst to her husband), enjoys listening to unknown indie bands, and practices yoga on a semi-regular basis.
Mari Corella is the Director of Avon.com, the ecommerce website for New Avon LLC. As the leading social selling beauty company in North America, New Avon has nearly 400,000 independent sales Representatives and a product portfolio of award-winning skincare, cosmetics and personal care products. In her current role she is responsible for transforming Avon.com into a world-class beauty destination that educates and inspires representatives and customers.
Carly Dahlen has spent the last 10 years focused on brand storytelling and customer engagement, via all aspects of the online experience. From navigating the startup publisher world, to running multi-million dollar digital campaigns for top clients at MediaCom, to building out CRM and brand campaigns for Bluefly and JustFab, Carly’s experience spans the breadth of the digital landscape. She is now Director of Customer Acquisition Marketing at Fabletics – a fashion-forward activewear brand, co-founded by Kate Hudson. In her current role, Carly is focused on optimizing the customer acquisition funnel via channel diversification, integrated marketing, and site optimization.
Lara Childers is the Director of Retention Marketing at Zazzle, a marketplace of customizable products. At Zazzle she oversees a variety of fun areas including email, campaigns & promotions, merchandising, loyalty programs, and product marketing. Prior to joining Zazzle, she lived and worked in NYC spearheading the digital marketing and ecommerce efforts for Alexander Wang, Tibi, and UNTUCKit. Lara currently lives in San Francisco and enjoys running, yoga, and wine tasting around the area in the few spare minutes she finds each day.
Darin Hardy is a digital marketing executive with 13 year track record of driving new user acquisition across a broad spectrum of digital channels. In his current role as Director of Acquisition Marketing for Nasty Gal, he oversees all digital customer acquisition and marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Nasty Gal, Darin held the role of Director of Online Marketing at Internet Brands where he oversaw all digital marketing for the Automotive and Legal Services verticals.
Ross Higgins leads Newegg's global design and user experience. He and his team are responsible for defining the way users interact with the U.S. tech-focused e-retailer, and for designing the web, mobile and app user interfaces. A strong advocate for user experience within Newegg, Ross constantly evangelizes a user-centric design that employs modern techniques for data analysis and user testing.
Prior to joining Newegg, Ross was a freelance web designer/developer, an instructor in the Web Design program at the Art Institute of California and a senior front-end web developer at Fox Broadcasting, where he built and managed fox.com and mini sites for the network's TV shows.
Prior to joining Newegg, Ross was a freelance web designer/developer, an instructor in the Web Design program at the Art Institute of California and a senior front-end web developer at Fox Broadcasting, where he built and managed fox.com and mini sites for the network's TV shows.
Kinjal Shah is Director of Digital and Operations Analytics for the Omnichannel group at JCPenney. He is leading a global team of analysts and data scientists who leverage insights generated from online and offline datasets to bring efficiencies across the digital channels, online merchandizing, assortment expansion and multi-channel fulfillment operations. Prior to JCPenney he held analytical leadership positions at Lowe’s, Intuit and Autodesk. He has an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School of business and a Masters’ in Biological systems engineering. He seeks every opportunity to spread critical thinking and analytical mindset from his prior career in scientific research.
Seasoned acquisition and retention expert, specializing primarily in consumer life-cycle email and loyalty programs. Currently with Teleflora. Focused on driving incremental revenue and engagement with innovative marketing strategies for nearly a decade. He has worked within commercial real-estate, fashion, beauty, and now gifting.
Initially in B2C & B2B marketing for shopping mall developer, Gilad Inc. for 5 years, Tommy narrowed his focus and joined Lucky Jeans for 2 years under ecommerce marketing. From there he worked at BCBG Max Azria in the same capacity as Marketing Manager, before moving into the pure-play scene with DermStore as Senior Marketing Manager. As of February 2016, Tommy joined the Teleflora team as Director of Retention & Loyalty.
Initially in B2C & B2B marketing for shopping mall developer, Gilad Inc. for 5 years, Tommy narrowed his focus and joined Lucky Jeans for 2 years under ecommerce marketing. From there he worked at BCBG Max Azria in the same capacity as Marketing Manager, before moving into the pure-play scene with DermStore as Senior Marketing Manager. As of February 2016, Tommy joined the Teleflora team as Director of Retention & Loyalty.
Bob Lyons is a seasoned technology/marketing executive with over 23 years of experience working in the technology field and 19 years of experience working with web-based businesses, focusing in the areas of technology and online marketing. Bob began his technology career in the armed forces working on the automation of supply chain management systems and managing research and development projects utilizing cutting-edge technologies. In the year 2000 Bob began working with SALU, Inc. a company that provided websites and applications for physicians.
In 2011 Walgreen Co. acquired Drugstore.com. A new position was created in the Walgreen’s organization for Bob whereby he was asked to reorganize the search engine optimization team and revamp the strategy for Walgreens.com, Beauty.com, Drugstore as the Director of Online Marketing. In addition to the search engine optimization responsibilities, Bob is a member of the Domain Strategy team responsible for strategic domain acquisitions.
Throughout Bob’s career he has consulted for numerous companies to include startup and mid-sized businesses along with assisting with due diligence activities for venture capital firms in the areas of technology and marketing.
Brita Turner is currently the Director of Ecommerce at Godiva, coming previously from Bed Bath & Beyond, Amazon.com, and IBM Consulting. She has over 10 years of experience in the technology space, with an MBA from University of North Carolina and concentration in Luxury Goods and Corporate Strategy from ESSEC. At Godiva she manages the online landscape including paid media marketing, Godiva’s direct to consumer online business, and several of their wholesale online accounts.
John Donnelly is SEO Manager of Cabela’s, Inc. He oversees the strategy and vision of the organization’s Organic Search program. John joined the Cabela's team in 2013 and has enjoyed being a part of the company’s growing investment in Digital Marketing. John focuses on evangelizing SEO standards across the organization, helping to drive awareness of how other teams and departments can have positive (or negative) impact on the brand’s organic footprint.
Alyssa has been working in the online digital space for the past 7 years, and started her career at a small agency in NYC running PPC campaigns for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. After 4 years of running PPC campaigns for other clients such as Tiffany & Co, Best Western and Hasbro Toys, she moved into a strategic role helping clients to plan out multi-channel campaigns and marketing plans. She currently runs all paid traffic to the RuMe site including PPC, display, retargeting, paid social and native ads.
Jon leads the Social Media team for Cabela’s, the World's Foremost Outfitter and a multibillion-dollar outdoor retailer. In the past year, Cabela’s Social Team built their analytics program from the ground up, designed a social influencer program, launched a national summit showcasing some of the top brands and platforms from across the country, and was recognized by AdWeek as one of the Top 10 Most Engaging Retailers. Jon's pronounced familiarity with the outdoor industry, coupled with his experience consulting for Fortune 100 companies and political campaigns, has served him as an influencer for some of the largest brands and events in the world, including Columbia Sportswear, Super Bowl 46, Backpacker Magazine, and Broadway Across America. He lives in Denver, and in a past life served as an Entertainment TV Host, starred in Walmart commercials, and believes quoting movies should be considered a second language.
Gregory Rice is the Marketing Manager for Newegg Marketplace- the leading e-commerce marketplace platform for consumer electronics, home automation, and everything tech. In his current position he heads up the content creation and strategy for the B2C initiatives, managing multi-channel marketing campaigns to enrich product launches and drive customer engagement. Leading numerous key marketing campaigns for Newegg he has set the precedent for the integration of content and commerce into the company framework. He champions the B2B content strategy, creation, and distribution through a multi-channel approach with a knack for engaging storytelling and creative insight.
Michael Cameron is the marketing manager for Blindsgalore.com a national online retailer of custom window coverings. He oversees all strategic marketing initiatives including online and offline paid and organic traffic acquisition, triggered marketing programs, on-site optimization, social media strategy and marketing analytics. He enjoys using data to find new testing strategies and creating marketing campaigns to make customizing products simple. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from San Diego State University.
Josh Olayos is a Principal Strategic Consultant, thought leader and innovator at RichRelevance. His passion is driving RichRelevance’s clients towards an Omni-Channel Personalization experience, utilizing a customer-centric, test-driven approach towards Personalization. Josh led RichRelevance’s largest and most strategic clients (Office Depot, LL Bean, CDW, Michael Kors and Samsung) to gain a competitive advantage, and exceed financial goals with Omni-Channel Personalization Programs.
Josh brings over 15 years of consulting experience focusing on strategy, testing, optimization and data driven analysis with results that deliver value.
Josh holds a BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. He is a frequent speaker and trainer, helping guide companies through the personalization process.
Josh brings over 15 years of consulting experience focusing on strategy, testing, optimization and data driven analysis with results that deliver value.
Josh holds a BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. He is a frequent speaker and trainer, helping guide companies through the personalization process.
Patrick Holt leads paid search at Crate & Barrel, CB2, and Land of Nod. Previously, Patrick was at Grainger, a top-15 internet retailer. During his five years with the company, he worked across a variety of channels, including PPC, SEO, paid video, social, and display.
Aaron Buchanan is a digital marketing veteran, having served in various capacities for Internet Retailer Top 500 brands for over a decade. In his current role as Digital Personalization Manager at Finish Line, he is charged with developing cross-channel marketing strategy to include delivering personalized experiences through all digital communication channels. He has great passion for leveraging data to facilitate engaging conversations between brands and their customers.
Chris Attadia is the eCommerce Manager at Vega, a manufacturer of plant-based protein powders, bars, supplements, and more. He helped create the eCommerce department at Vega and has rapidly grown the Vega brand online, establishing Vega as a leader in plant-based nutrition. He has a passion for eCommerce and has taken his experience from consumer electronics into the CPG space. Outside of work, Chris enjoys spending time outside cycling, golfing, or playing soccer.
I'm a former game developer and software architect with broad experience shipping entertainment, web, and mobile applications. Now I focus on helping others to create games on iOS and Android (including the Kindle Fire). I write and speak regularly on topics relevant to game programmers and managers, such as web services, A/B testing, analytics, monetization, development frameworks, localization, and optimization.
Specialties: game development, mobile apps, app monetization, cross-platform development, A/B testing, analytics, software architecture and design, SLDC, and programming technologies (including C/C++/Objective-C, Java, Javascript, Ruby, RoR, Android, iOS, Fire OS, etc.)
Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO) for online sheet music publisher and retailer, Musicnotes.com, Bill Aicher brings together over a decade of experience in Internet retail and fifteen years in the online music industry to define and achieve Musicnotes.com’s business goals by providing its customers with an optimal online shopping experience. He achieves these goals with a focus on identifying and acting industry trends, visitor analytics and segmentation, and user experience optimization.
As Vice President of North America at Alibaba Group, Lee leads the company’s North American business. As head of this effort, Lee works closely with all verticals to set the course for how to best utilize Alibaba Group’s family of brands and services.
Prior to joining Alibaba Group, Lee was Global Head of Vertical Strategy at Facebook. He has also held roles with Expedia, eBay, Telstra and Warner Music.
Brian Beck has 20+ years of experience, including more than a decade as a hands-on C-level Ecommerce executive. He has achieved high growth rates in excess of 100% per year and has held full P&L responsibility up to $100 million as the lead digital executive in both early stage and multi-billion dollar enterprises. He is an expert in the areas of omni-channel and Ecommerce strategy, online marketing and customer acquisition, web site experience / merchandising, technology evaluation and selection, and all operational aspects of building online commerce organizations.
Brian is currently an advisor to retailers, manufacturers, and distributors on digital commerce strategy through his role as SVP of Ecommerce and Omni-Channel Strategy at Guidance Solutions. His recent clients include both B2B and B2C industry leaders such as Five Below, Brasseler USA, Charming Charlie, illumina, Big Ass Fans, Johnny Was, Sole Society, Harry & David, Epson, Max Studio, Kevin Jewelers, and many others.
Brian is currently an advisor to retailers, manufacturers, and distributors on digital commerce strategy through his role as SVP of Ecommerce and Omni-Channel Strategy at Guidance Solutions. His recent clients include both B2B and B2C industry leaders such as Five Below, Brasseler USA, Charming Charlie, illumina, Big Ass Fans, Johnny Was, Sole Society, Harry & David, Epson, Max Studio, Kevin Jewelers, and many others.
With more than 20 years of executive leadership experience across public and private companies, James has successfully led the expansion of multiple technology firms in the digital media space. At Magnetic he continues to drive the company’s rapid growth and strategic vision. Having held significant positions with industry leaders The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation Studios, James later became a founding partner and CEO of Sabela Media, which sold to 24/7 Real Media for $70 million following an explosive 18 months of revenue growth. He was also CEO of GiantBear, PVI, and Giant Realm before joining Magnetic in 2011.
Rob seeks to help marketers bring the power of content and context to customer experiences. With a background in digital marketing, market research, and marketing technology strategy, Rob brings his passion for the transformation of marketing to his role as Movable Ink's Vice President of Strategy.Prior to joining Movable Ink, Rob oversaw product and strategy for StrongView Systems, a leading email service provider. Before StrongView, Rob was Principal Analyst for enterprise marketing technologies at Forrester Research.
Meyar Sheik is a seasoned software industry executive with 25 years of experience. Since 2000, Meyar has been a web analytics pioneer working with some of the largest sites on the Internet such as Staples, ESPN, Fox, Sony, Best Buy, Disney, CBS and many other leading brands, in the areas of web analytics, personalization and real-time content optimization. Prior to Certona, Meyar was the CMO and COO of web analytics leader, WebSideStory (now part of Omniture/Adobe). Before joining WebSideStory, Meyar was the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Strategic Alliances for the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) software vendor SuperNova, Inc., Earlier in his career, Meyar held senior sales management positions in Analytics and Security software products companies. Since 2004, Meyar and the Certona team of predictive analytics experts have been focused on applying Certona's innovative, real-time behavioral targeting, optimization and adaptive personalization technologies to generate more revenue and higher conversion rates for online retailers and other multi-channel businesses. Meyar has a BS in Electrical Engineering from New York Institute of Technology and an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Buddy Brewer is the SVP of Products at SOASTA, where he leads roadmap and strategy initiatives for the company’s product line. SOASTA products include mPulse, a data science tool that analyzes how customers move through digital storefronts and where they get hung up, and CloudTest, the world’s largest simulation lab for testing user experiences. Buddy has been helping some of the largest sites on the Web increase revenues by making user experiences faster since 2001. Prior to SOASTA, Buddy cofounded LogNormal, the first company to put measuring real people first in the crowded space of performance monitoring tools. LogNormal was acquired by SOASTA in 2012.
Andy Mantis leads the commercial growth of Checkout Tracking, a new solution that provides thorough information on consumer buying behavior at the market basket level, based on receipts for both online and brick-and-mortar retail purchases. Andy has an extensive track record of successfully creating data-driven strategies to increase customer acquisition and loyalty, working with leading merchants across multiple industries.
Previously, he was Group Head of Business Solutions at MasterCard Advisors Information Services. In this role, he managed all aspects of the P&L for MasterCard’s Merchant Information business. As Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at TravelCLICK Inc, Andy led business intelligence, digital advertising, and reservation services. In over 14 years at American Express, he held a series of senior roles, including management of strategic product and market expansion initiatives for its global merchant business. Andy has also consulted with leading marketing service providers, developing consumer marketing and loyalty solutions.
Andy holds an MBA in Finance and an Advanced Degree in Marketing from New York University, as well as a BA in Economics from Emory University.
Al Lalani is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategist at Social Annex. He’s responsible for the product vision of the customer loyalty and advocate marketing software firm, and leads as an SME in all things e-commerce, retail, and customer engagement.
Prior to starting Social Annex in 2011, Al oversaw e-commerce and online product management at Teleflora, managing several e-commerce services and partners. He has over 10 years of experience on all different facets of e-commerce, from product development to marketing to technical integrations. This variety of experience and technical expertise gives him a unique background upon which to draw when giving his IR Top 500 and Fortune 500 clients advice.
Chuck Davis is an experienced, passionate email technology & business executive with over 25 years in email and eCommerce across the digital marketing ecosystem.
Everyday his team delivers innovative, industry leadership around Email Intelligence & Data Quality. An Expert Roundtable Moderator on Email & CRM Best Practices, Chuck’s humorous style and in-depth experience with sender reputation, email intelligence, deliverability, inbox placement and other hurdles associated with email campaign performance will make for a fun time.
Sunil joined as the VP of Sales to help AppsFlyer accelerate its US footprint. He brings over 14 years of mobile marketing and analytics experience. Previously, he was Head of Mobile Sales at Criteo and AD-X. He started his career at WebSideStory, the first SaaS analytics platform.
John Costello leads the Americas business unit at eClerx Digital, where he takes consolidated responsibility for client engagement and business development.
John has over 20 years’ experience in general management, eCommerce, digital media and marketing. Prior to joining eClerx, John ran his own digital consulting business specializing in eCommerce replatforming. He held client-side executive positions with various companies, including Xplore Technologies Corporation of America, Simpson Digital, Guthy-Renker and senior marketing leadership roles at Gateway Inc., AT&T Inc., Vodafone Group and Dell Inc. John’s diverse background makes him uniquely knowledgeable in CPG, direct response, and continuity marketing, as well as the beauty, skincare, wellness, consumer electronics, computing and wireless telecommunications industries.
As Senior Vice President, Account Management, Diana has more than 10 years of integrated marketing experience. Diana has expertise across the online and offline channels , with a deep focus in email, paid search, display, SEO, content marketing, and site experience. Most importantly, Diana has overseen the integration of programs across these channels and has developed omnichannel initiatives designed around clients’ unique business goals and objectives. She has extensive knowledge of the lead generation, retail, travel and publishing sectors through her work with leading brands including: Brooks Brothers, Philosophy, Crayola, Lionel Racing, Entertainment Benefits Group, and MoneyGram. Previously as a Senior Account Director at Zeta Interactive, an integrated digital marketing agency, Diana set new standards for operational efficiencies, and provided innovative insight and thinking that helped her clients exceed expectations in terms of engagement and ROI.
Former owner of her own digital consulting firm, Diana received her B.A. in Communications from Villanova University.
Former owner of her own digital consulting firm, Diana received her B.A. in Communications from Villanova University.
Fayez is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bluecore, where they are transforming the way eCommerce marketers use data and automation to communicate with customers. Bluecore’s marketing automation software is designed to simplify the process of ingesting terabytes of behavioral data and automatically taking action on precise insights, driving engagement and conversion rates that defy industry standards.
Previously, Fayez was Head of Product at BigDoor where he was responsible for conceiving, executing and iterating on gamified loyalty and rewards programs to increase user retention across the websites of major global brands.
In his downtime you can find Fayez doing yoga or taking the stage for improv shows around New York City.
Previously, Fayez was Head of Product at BigDoor where he was responsible for conceiving, executing and iterating on gamified loyalty and rewards programs to increase user retention across the websites of major global brands.
In his downtime you can find Fayez doing yoga or taking the stage for improv shows around New York City.
Vish Shastry leads Merchant and Partner solution delivery for Visa Digital Solutions, including Visa Checkout and Visa Token Service. Previously, Vish led product strategy for Visa Digital Solutions and was also responsible for Visa Direct and the Visa Developer Platform including Visa’s first publicly facing APIs.
Before joining Visa, Vish led E*TRADE’s developer platform, and was also part of PayPal’s product and corporate strategy teams. He has been a founder at startups in both the financial services and network integration industries.
Vish received his BS, Molecular Biology from Emory University. He proudly hails from North Carolina, is an aficionado of fine barbeque and fried chicken, roots for the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Hornets.
Before joining Visa, Vish led E*TRADE’s developer platform, and was also part of PayPal’s product and corporate strategy teams. He has been a founder at startups in both the financial services and network integration industries.
Vish received his BS, Molecular Biology from Emory University. He proudly hails from North Carolina, is an aficionado of fine barbeque and fried chicken, roots for the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Hornets.
Denis hails from South Africa, where he received his Masters degree in Marketing from the University of Johannesburg. He has been running online marketing campaigns for clients worldwide since 2004. In 2006, he joined ROI Revolution, where he has been instrumental in developing a team that manages 100’s of millions of dollars in annual digital marketing spend. Through his 13+ years of experience, he’s gained a deep understanding of the challenges ecommerce companies face and how to overcome them with proven, data-driven solutions.
Katherine joined Oracle Data Cloud in 2015 where she manages a team that focuses on helping enterprise retailers find their best audience, deliver a relevant message and find out, almost immediately, if it worked. Their mission is to help clients achieve better results, engagement and ROI. Katherine previously was the VP of Sales for the Media Solutions group at IHS (IHS/Markit) a data and information compay. Prior to that, she spent three years as Senior Director of Global Sales and also Director of Retail sales at Yahoo!. Katherine holds a BA from Rutgers.
Carl Miller is the Founder and Managing Director of the Global Retail Insights Network(GRIN), the principal not-for-profit global community for e-commerce professionals. Carl founded the GRIN to help cross border retailers lead and innovate through knowledge and collaboration. He previously led the retail practice at GlobalCollect (anIngenico company), where he worked with top retailers, helping them develop global e-commerce strategies. Carl is studying innovation at the Haas School of Business executive education program,and has been designated as a 'Top of the List E-Commerce Professional' by the San Francisco Business Times for his innovation around B2C services.
About the GRIN: The GRIN is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership organization. The GRIN is driven by one goal: to help global retailers and brands become leaders through collaboration and knowledge. Our member-based organization provides the data and insight needed to help brands benchmark their global performance, and take actionable steps to becoming a leading global player.
Prior to joining Reflektion, Kurt was CMO for Marketwired/Sysomos where he relaunched their brands, as well as, led the successful turnaround of the lead generation and content strategy efforts for both brands. Previously Kurt was the CMO for Monetate, where he helped double revenues for the cloud-based browser technology company. Kurt has also held senior executive positions at leading consumer marketing firms that include Priceline, Time Warner/Synapse Connect, and Walker Digital Companies, where he leveraged his expertise in corporate strategy, product development, customer acquisition and retention, and creative development to increase lead generation, revenue, and market share.
Michael Jaconi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Button, the leading platform powering contextual commerce among today’s leading brands. Jaconi formerly served as the CEO of Rakuten Loyalty and Executive Officer of parent company Rakuten. Michael helped build Rakuten Loyalty from a fledgling state to a multi-million dollar business in less than two years and led Rakuten’s $100M investment in Pinterest, helping secure Rakuten’s place as one of the most innovative and aggressive global internet companies. Prior to his tenure at Rakuten Loyalty, Jaconi co-founded two public affairs companies in Washington, D.C. and served in a variety of capacities within various political campaigns.
Mike Dudas is co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Button, which enables smart connections between mobile services that drive installs, increase engagement and facilitate mobile commerce. Mike is a builder of mobile commerce businesses, having worked at Google, Braintree/Venmo and PayPal to conceive & grow payments, loyalty and ads/offers products from scratch to scale. Mike helped launch Google Wallet and sign anchor partners Walgreens, Subway and CVS. He then helped grow Braintree/Venmo's mobile volume at partners like Uber, Airbnb, OpenTable and HotelTonight to a $4B annual run rate leading to a sale to PayPal. Early in his career, Mike worked in corporate M&A and strategy for Disney and MTV. Mike earned a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg.
Ryan Deutsch is SVP of Global Customer Success at Persado, responsible for advancing adoption and growth among enterprise customers on an international scale. He joined the company from Sears Holding Corporation, a long-time Persado customer, where he led one of the largest and most sophisticated digital direct response programs in North America. A 17-year veteran of the digital marketing space, he most recently served as DVP, Digital Addressable Marketing at Sears, focused on the use of data to personalize digital experiences. Prior, Ryan was VP of Emerging Media at StrongView (formerly StrongMail) and VP of Marketing Automation Solutions for PGi.
As Senior Portfolio Marketing Manager Jodi leads marketing strategy and execution for Watson Marketing, a cognitive solution that helps marketers create and precisely tune their entire customer experience to enhance brand value, deepen customer connections and fuel strategic growth. Jodi has more than 20 years of experience in the software and services industries with expertise in product management, product marketing and marketing communications. Prior to joining IBM, Jodi served in marketing and product management roles at Ariba, Hewlett-Packard and Ceridian.
Diana Smith is the head of product marketing at Segment, a customer data platform that helps retailers collect unify, and act on their data. Diana is an expert in behavior-based engagement marketing and advises clients on the best tools to use for their CRM strategy.
Matt brings over a decade building world-class client teams across Digital Agencies, eCommerce and SaaS organizations to his role as VP of Client Services for Edgecase. His team ensures that Edgecase clients are empowered with the enriched product data and insights necessary to grow and to fuel inspiring shopping experiences.
He has worked extensively with account management, sales, product, and engineering teams to deliver exceptional client experiences for Fortune 500, and IR 500 clients. Prior to Edgecase, Matt led a global Client Services team for Bazaarvoice, where he played an integral part crafting robust client services offerings and in successfully scaling that team to over 130 people worldwide.
Amit Sharma is the founder and CEO of Narvar, the premium post-purchase platform that helps leading brands and retailers build stronger relationships with their customers beyond the ‘buy button’, resulting in greater customer engagement and loyalty. Amit has more than 15 years of experience across supply chain, information technology and business analytics leading several multi-channel initiatives at companies including Apple, Walmart, and Pottery Barn.
Michael Klein is the Director of Industry Strategy for the Adobe Marketing Cloud. He leads a team of subject matter experts who work with Adobe’s global commerce clients to help them develop best-in-class digital marketing strategies. Michael regularly contributes thought leadership to industry events, and is an active member of Shop.org and the Global Retail Marketing Association.
Prior to joining Adobe, Michael spent over 25 years as a Senior Merchant and Marketer for brands such as the LVMH Group (eLuxury.com), William-Sonoma, Harry & David, Discovery Channel Stores, and wine.com.
Prior to joining Adobe, Michael spent over 25 years as a Senior Merchant and Marketer for brands such as the LVMH Group (eLuxury.com), William-Sonoma, Harry & David, Discovery Channel Stores, and wine.com.
Nij (Neeraj) Chawla serves as Chief Product Officer for CognitiveScale. In addition, he is also heading up Market Development of innovative cognitive solutions into a number of industry verticals (Healthcare, Retail) and process horizontals (Service Desk, Procurement). Finally, Nij heads up Enterprise Sales leadership for the company.
Prior to joining CognitiveScale, Nij was Vice President of Products and Client Success at WayBlazer where headed up Product Management, Strategy, and Customer Success and drove cognitive solutions targeted at the Travel & Hospitality industry. Nij has also held senior leadership positions at Oracle most recently heading up the Stores and Commerce businesses for Oracle Retail. Nij led Vision, Strategy, Product Management, and Business Development for two suites of enterprise solutions at Oracle. He has built from scratch, led Engineering Groups across multiple geographic locations for 8 enterprise products at Oracle and grown teams from 0 to 105. He was a key leader in driving early mobile products coming out of Oracle. Nij was instrumental in driving a large complex cross-org Retail Omni-Channel release that cut across ten different groups.
Nij holds an Electrical Engineering (with Computers) degree from the University of Texas at Austin and was a two time Engineering Scholar. Nij can be obsessive about food, loves tennis, college football, and photography.
Prior to joining CognitiveScale, Nij was Vice President of Products and Client Success at WayBlazer where headed up Product Management, Strategy, and Customer Success and drove cognitive solutions targeted at the Travel & Hospitality industry. Nij has also held senior leadership positions at Oracle most recently heading up the Stores and Commerce businesses for Oracle Retail. Nij led Vision, Strategy, Product Management, and Business Development for two suites of enterprise solutions at Oracle. He has built from scratch, led Engineering Groups across multiple geographic locations for 8 enterprise products at Oracle and grown teams from 0 to 105. He was a key leader in driving early mobile products coming out of Oracle. Nij was instrumental in driving a large complex cross-org Retail Omni-Channel release that cut across ten different groups.
Nij holds an Electrical Engineering (with Computers) degree from the University of Texas at Austin and was a two time Engineering Scholar. Nij can be obsessive about food, loves tennis, college football, and photography.
Patrick brings more than 14 years of digital media and marketing experience. Prior to Merkle, Patrick spent 12 years at Razorfish, one of the largest interactive marketing and technology companies in the world. As SVP and GM Media, Patrick was responsible for leading Razorfish’s Media practice -- including paid media, search, social media, emerging media and ad operations. Patrick joined Razorfish in 2000 as an Account Director and held a variety of different roles as the agency grew from an internet start-up into one of the most dominant digital agencies. In 2007, after serving on the management team of the New York office, Patrick moved to Chicago to become General Manager of the Digital Marketing and Media Group. On top of overseeing both the media and creative capabilities, Patrick was responsible for launching the agency’s Social Media practice.
Prior to Razorfish, Hounsell worked at Prism Consulting International in Washington DC. He holds an M.B.A. from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University. Patrick currently serves on the board of directors for AIESEC Canada.
Prior to Razorfish, Hounsell worked at Prism Consulting International in Washington DC. He holds an M.B.A. from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University. Patrick currently serves on the board of directors for AIESEC Canada.
At Unbxd, Monal helps eCommerce companies solve their problems and create growth by providing new and better approaches to decision making. Monal has 15+ years of experience in the software & retail industry and is a seasoned speaker at major eCommerce events like Etail West, Mivacon, Fashion Digital, Etail East etc.
Amanda Wilson is the Vice President of Global Marketing at MobileBridge, the leading provider of mobile engagement automation solutions. Her experience blended across marketing, product and sales drives her passion for helping companies market and sell their products through SaaS technology. She has previously held marketing leadership positions at Qvidian and Acquia.
Arthur Tschopp is an executive director at Listrak. He has more than two decades of retail marketing experience and executive level management skills, with the past 16 years focused on e-commerce and omnichannel marketing solutions. Prior to joining Listrak, Arthur served as marketing manager ecommerce customer engagement for Tilly’s, where he managed multiple channel online marketing campaigns.
A digital marketing entrepreneur, Nick Worth has worked closely with a number of innovative platforms and agencies throughout his career. Currently, he directs Selligent’s go-to-market strategy and sits on the company’s board. As Selligent’s Storyteller-in-Chief, he speaks frequently about the latest marketing trends to audiences around the world. Before joining Selligent, Nick was the Founder and President of Schematic, a global interactive agency that built an international reputation for multi-platform digital services design. After selling his company to WPP, Nick moved from the US to England where he now lives with his family. He and his wife work tirelessly to maintain their son’s appreciation for Americana, in all of its ridiculous and sublime glory. He has degrees from Harvard and Oxford.
Greg Zakowicz has more than 10 years of experience in email, mobile and social media marketing. He regularly provides commerce marketers with in-depth analysis of their marketing programs, including recommendations for improvement, best practice support and implementation guidance and execution. Zakowicz often speaks on webinars and at ecommerce events such as IRCE, Fashion Digital New York, SIA Snow Show and ROI Revolution Summit. He has been published by top retail publications including Multichannel Merchant, Internet Retailer and Total Retail and is a regular contributor to Bronto’s Commerce Marketing blog.
Allon Caidar oversees TVPage’s strategic vision and operations. Prior to TVPage, Allon was co-founder & CEO of Opticomm, a broadcast video systems company that was sold to Emcore. Customers included NBC, Sony, Viacom and ESPN. Prior to Opticomm, Allon was vice president at Hotbar, an Internet media company that reached over 20 million users in less than two years and was later sold. Before Hotbar, Allon was a VC Attorney at Goldfarb, Seligman & Co. in Tel-Aviv, focusing on the Israeli high-tech sector. Allon holds multiple patents surrounding video networking, video commerce, and video syndication.
Liad Agmon is a serial entrepreneur with rich experience as a startup founder and as a Fortune 500 executive. He founded information security vendor Onigma (acquired by McAfee) and social search company Delver (acquired by Sears Holdings). Following Delver’s acquisition, Liad served as a VP of New Services at Sears Holdings and on the board of its Home Electronics and Outlets business units. Liad served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Bessemer Venture Partners and taught at the Entrepreneurship MBA program in Tel-Aviv University and at the Zell Program of IDC Herzliya. He holds a BA Cum Laude from Tel-Aviv University in Computer Sciences and Film Studies.
Sahil is CEO and Co-Founder of Onera with nearly a decade of experience in technology and retail. His focus is on using technology to deliver business solutions, and has worked with large-scale enterprises his entire career. Most recently, he was a Venture Capital investor with Bain Capital Ventures, where he focused on early-stage investments in retail tech, big data and enterprise software. Prior to that, he was a consultant at Bain & Company focusing on digital media, retail and consumer products. He holds a B.S.E in Economics and a B.A.S in Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a graduate from the Jerome Fisher Program of Management and Technology.
As RetailMeNot’s senior vice president of retail and brand solutions, John Theiss leads efforts to deepen its relationships with the largest retailers, brands and advertisers in North America. His responsibilities include managing the company’s sales organization and serving as the voice of the advertiser at the executive level.
Prior to RetailMeNot, John served in a variety of leadership roles in the mobile technology and payments space, most notably with Softcard. He also spent 25 years at American Express, where he led multiple organizations including sales, client management and business development with a focus in the merchant division of the company.
Sheila is responsible for the strategy, development and management of Gigya's North America Channel Partner Program, as well as the company's strategic alliances partners. In this role she works to help retailers securely collect, manage, and leverage customer identities at scale – providing the unified customer view needed to create compelling, personal customer experiences. Sheila has spent 20+ years of her career working with technology companies in all stages of growth from venture-backed start-ups, to high growth, IPO’s and Merger & Acquisitions.
Paul Gulbin is a managing director with CohnReznick Advisory who leads the Firm’s digital services platform as part of the Technology and Digital Advisory Practice. He advises retail companies on how to become more agile, innovative, and customer- and employee-focused by making digital a core part of how they conduct business. Paul specializes in digital and customer engagement, customer experiences design, digital marketing, channel and content management, customer identity management, mobility, and analytics.
Prior to joining CohnReznick, Paul was a North America Digital Practice Leader at Capgemini where he was instrumental in designing and building a global digital center of excellence and operating model for one of the world’s largest life sciences companies. He launched mobility strategy for the world’s largest provider of biopharmaceutical development and commercial outsourcing services. Paul graduated from the Executive Master’s Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.
Sameer Patel joined Kahuna in August 2016 as CEO and board member to help modern marketers and CMOs transform how they engage and sell to digitally native consumers. Kahuna's customers include Dollar Shave Club, HotelTonight, GoPro, Yelp, and other leading consumer brands. Prior to Kahuna, Sameer was GM/SVP at SAP/SuccessFactors where he led the team that was responsible for making SAP a leading provider of customer and employee collaboration solutions, serving over 35 million subscribers. Before SAP, he consulted for leading brands such as The Wrigley Company, Grupo Televisa (Mexico), and BitTorrent on how to transform consumer engagement.
Sameer has keynoted over 50 industry and venture capital/private equity events on how modern organizations and their employees need to connect to their consumers in a digital-first world. Events include CeBIT (Germany), IBMConnect, The Social Business Forum (Milan), SIIA, KMWorld, Defrag, GigaOm Net:Work, and GigaOm Mobile Enterprise Summit, among others. He is also privileged to have been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Harvard Business Review. Sameer writes about organizational transformation on his blog, Pretzel Logic, and can be reached on Twitter @sameerpatel.
Laurie is responsible for increasing revenue growth through existing and new client relationships. She will also lead and shape new commercial and revenue strategy for the company at a global level. Laurie joins Curalate with more than 20 years experience as a sales and marketing leader at various software and media technology companies, most recently Oracle Data Cloud. She joined Oracle as part of the Datalogix acquisition where as an executive team member she headed up sales and solutions across their major brands. Prior to Datalogix, Laurie worked at Mode Media and Satmetrix. When she relocated to the U.S. from the UK, she joined two start¬up companies acquired by IBM, Tivoli and Crossworlds. Laurie was born and educated in England, spent some of her childhood in Asia and met her husband in 1995 during the America’s Cup in San Diego. They currently reside in Miami with their two sons and also have a home in New York.
As CEO, Dan is responsible for driving business growth through innovation and continuously working with leading retailers around the world to grow their bottom-line. Personali helps top-tier retailers increase sales and profitability by capitalizing on the power of behavioral economics. Personali's machine learning based platform enables retailers to perform precision targeting of shoppers with personalized incentives, accelerating sales growth, optimizing profitability, increasing customer loyalty, and helping to deliver seamless shopper experience both offline and online. Dan is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of experience in a range of management, investment and consulting roles in the hi-tech sector, including as a senior partner at the Monitor Group, a leading global consulting and investment firm.
Keren Zimmerman is the co- founder and President NA of Personali. She founded Personali with the vision of using data driven solutions to enable retailers to achieve a range of objectives, specifically increased sales and improved profitability, through the power of behavioral economics. Personali helps top-tier retailers increase sales and profitability by capitalizing on the power of behavioral economics. Personali's machine learning based platform enables retailers to perform precision targeting of shoppers with personalized incentives, accelerating sales growth, optimizing profitability, increasing customer loyalty, and helping to deliver seamless shopper experience both offline and online. Keren is a proven authority in online consumer experience, eCommerce, Web search and client-side applications, with a rich track record driving best-in-class products and solutions, from concept to successful delivery.
Anssi Rusi is Smartly.io’s COO and CFO. His background is in engineering, product management, sales and international operations. He joined the company in January 2014, when Smartly.io was still a free tool used by just a handful of beta customers in Finland. Anssi is known as a tough negotiator and is occasionally referred to as the “bad cop” within the team. He spent a year as a peacekeeper in Kosovo, plays guitar in a rock band and enjoys hockey in his free time.
As CEO, Michael Osborne provides grounded leadership and unwavering focus on building SmarterHQ’s innovation, growth and success. Osborne most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer for Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ: BV) where he helped lead the company to their Initial Public Offering in 2012 after growing the business for nearly seven years, from less than $1 million to more than $130 million in annual sales. In his role, Osborne will report directly to Howard Bates, CEO and Chairman of the company and he will oversee and assist in company development, strategy and growth.
Much of Osborne’s career has been spent in executive leadership roles at Bazaarvoice building the company’s sales team into more than 120 members and assisting in establishing multiple international offices. Prior to his time at Baazarvoice, Osborne spent nearly 5 years at Coremetrics, (Acquired: IBM) where he built and managed the client services team, achieving an impressive near 100% enterprise client renewal rate.
Osborne earned his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Much of Osborne’s career has been spent in executive leadership roles at Bazaarvoice building the company’s sales team into more than 120 members and assisting in establishing multiple international offices. Prior to his time at Baazarvoice, Osborne spent nearly 5 years at Coremetrics, (Acquired: IBM) where he built and managed the client services team, achieving an impressive near 100% enterprise client renewal rate.
Osborne earned his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Cxense’s acquiston of the Ramp Media business where he served as CEO of Ramp.
Prior to Ramp, Tom has held roles including SVP/GM of the Consumer Division at NameMedia, senior vice president and general manager of MIVA Inc.’s North American division, responsible for both MIVA’s U.S. online advertising network as well as the company’s consumer business, and senior operating roles managing Terra Lycos’ global search & publishing divisions.
Tom has also served on the IAB Search Engine Committee and holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to Ramp, Tom has held roles including SVP/GM of the Consumer Division at NameMedia, senior vice president and general manager of MIVA Inc.’s North American division, responsible for both MIVA’s U.S. online advertising network as well as the company’s consumer business, and senior operating roles managing Terra Lycos’ global search & publishing divisions.
Tom has also served on the IAB Search Engine Committee and holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dave Campbell is the VP of Conversion Strategy at BounceX, the leader in cloud-based behavioral marketing and the fastest growing software in America. BounceX’s Behavioral Marketing Cloud™ identifies previously anonymous high-intent visitors, enabling organizations to unlock people-based marketing -- a new revenue channel for marketers. At Bounce Exchange he uncovers systematic failure and develops high-impact strategies for digital properties across a variety of industries, including: publishing, finance, e-commerce and travel. Dave has previously held director level positions in both conversion rate optimization and business development. He’s a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.
Jay Calavas has more than 15 years of proven digital marketing experience, and is responsible for helping promote the global adoption of the Tealium brand and products. Prior to this role, Jay first ran global sales at Tealium, helping grow the company into the market leader for enterprise tag management. After that he orchestrated the global launch of AudienceStream, the first real-time segmentation and action engine designed for marketers. Before Tealium, Jay provided his leadership skills across the digital marketing ecosystem with companies such as ExactTarget, TouchCommerce, Visual Sciences and WebSideStory (now Adobe Systems). Jay studied marketing and finance at James Madison University.
Mike Lee has over 17-year experience leading both product management and marketing teams for global information security vendors. As a product management professional, Mr. Lee has worked with leading global brands including Walmart, Sony, and Bank of America to safeguard their data, employees, and brand. Today, he is responsible for Proofpoint’s Digital Brand Protection solutions, helping organizations protect their brands across social, mobile, web, and email communication channels. Mike holds an B.S in Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jeremy Swift is a founder and the CEO of Cordial, driving the vision of the company’s platform, which enables marketers to understand and optimize customers in real-time across all channels and devices. Before founding Cordial in 2014, Swift was a founding member and the VP of Sales & Strategic Accounts at BlueHornet, where he worked for more than 14 years, growing company sales 20 percent year-over-year. He also oversaw BlueHornet through its sale and integration into Digital River in 2004. Additionally, Swift was a founder and board member of social good platform, Gelper. He has spoken at leading industry events including DMA, OMMA, and Mediapost Email Insider Summit. Swift graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University and lives in San Diego, CA with his wife and four children. He’s an avid runner, golfer, and traveler and is passionate about supporting anti-human trafficking organizations in Africa and Europe.
Yoav Susz leads Optimove’s New York-based business development team, where he is playing a major role in Optimove’s successful expansion into the US market. Yoav specializes in helping retail brands build emotionally-intelligent retention marketing strategies that focus on leveraging each brand’s core identity. In his position, Yoav focuses on building relationships with partners across the Americas. Prior to joining Optimove, Yoav served as a corporate litigator for Israel’s leading law firm, where he represented some of the world’s leading technology companies. Yoav holds an LLB from The Interdisciplinary Center and an MBA from the Stern Business School at NYU.
Sam’s expertise is in cutting edge research for the digital age. He applies his skills set to helping consumer brands and retailers make the best use of their data to drive better business decisions. Sam co-founded Quantio (acquired by 1010data), which was the first research firm to focus on tracking what consumers purchased online. Prior to that he spent the bulk of his career as an analyst and in client development with the NPD Group.
Noah Xu serves as the Head of Staples Mobile App. He oversees Staples mobile app experience across entire Staples B2C and B2B markets, which includes Staples.com - US, Staples.ca - Canada and Staples Business Advantage.
In her role as Editor-in-Chief, Debbie manages the multi-media components of Retail TouchPoints, including a digital newsletter with an audience of more than 40,000 retail executives. She also speaks at industry events as a retail thought leader with more than 20 years of experience covering the retail industry.
Debbie has worked as an editorial manager, writer and editor in various industries. Prior to Retail TouchPoints, she served as the Managing Editor for Retail Information Systems News, Chief Content Editor for Parentgiving.com, and Project Manager/Copy Editor for a Lexis Nexis web site called lexisONE.com. She is an avid runner, with 15 marathons completed to date.
Debbie has worked as an editorial manager, writer and editor in various industries. Prior to Retail TouchPoints, she served as the Managing Editor for Retail Information Systems News, Chief Content Editor for Parentgiving.com, and Project Manager/Copy Editor for a Lexis Nexis web site called lexisONE.com. She is an avid runner, with 15 marathons completed to date.
Amanda de la Motte is currently a Senior Product Manager for Cognitive Scale where she oversees the strategic vision and product execution for the Commerce vertical. She is also responsible for supporting the global enterprise sales team throughout the duration of client engagements.
Prior to joining Cognitive Scale, Amanda spent 13 years playing various roles in the Commerce space. Most recently she was the Product Marketing Director for Orckestra, a cloud-based unified commerce suite, where she defined the entire product portfolio and built the Marketing framework to support it. She found her passion for Product Management in her 4 years at RetailMeNot, during which she directed digital content strategies for channels and owned the product roadmap for all of the company's CRM Marketing portfolio. Before transitioning to the digital world, Amanda spent 8 years in corporate retail merchandising between Neiman Marcus and Golfsmith, where she was an omni-channel Buyer for categories ranging from Women's Contemporary Sportswear to Men's Golf & Tennis Shoes.
Blake Miller, Director of Product Marketing, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, has 20-years of experience working in media and internet industries, primarily in product development, sales and marketing. For the last decade, he has been focused on email marketing and advertising technology, helping brands create 1-to-1 marketing at scale. Prior to joining Salesforce, he previous worked at ESPN and CareerBuilder. He has an MBA from DePaul and BA from Baylor.
DJ has assembled an innovative sales team that is expert at demonstrating the value that BloomReach’s technology brings to the markets it serves. He is a tested sales executive, who ran the Adobe Digital Marketing Enterprise sales team. As a vice president at Adobe, he led the division from an early stage initiative into a $150-million-per-year revenue machine. DJ also headed sales teams at Offermatica, ATG and Verity. He holds a bachelor’s of economics from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Justin Zhu is the CEO and co-founder of Iterable. Justin and his co-founder, Andrew Boni, founded Iterable when they realized many creative marketers were being held back by the technical limitations of marketing solutions. Prior to Iterable, Justin was a Software Engineer at Twitter on the User Growth team.
James has been working in the search industry for ten years starting off in PPC before founding and leading the SEO dept for 7.5yrs. In that time he worked on an array on international eCommerce campaigns, helping many companies get excellent results when launching or expanding their search presence internationally. He now heads up Digital strategy and analytics for Search Laboratory, based out of the New York office.
Gary is Vice President at YourAmigo, the world leader in Artificial Intelligence organic search marketing services. Operating in 31 countries, YourAmigo's Big Data service and Artificial Intelligence technology supplements their client’s SEO teams and agencies by finding thousands of new ultra long tail search phrases every day which deliver new customers who are very early in their buying cycle.
Sarah Strobhar has over a decade of experience in go-to-market strategy, enterprise software sales, and global account management at cutting-edge technology companies where innovative products are transforming legacy industries. She is currently a Strategic Account Executive at Onera, a Silicon Valley-based startup that is applying data science to the retail supply chain. Onera's core product leverages machine learning and Bayesian algorithms to optimize inventory utilization and improve decision making across the omnichannel fulfillment network.
Previously, Sarah worked at Amazon Web Services, where she received her Solutions Architect certification and helped customers migrate their business critical workloads to the world's largest public cloud. Prior to that, she served as Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Computer Generated Solutions, a Manhattan-based managed services provider.
Sarah is passionate about getting girls excited about careers in STEM. She was Chair of the volunteer committee for the Dallas Fort-Worth chapter of Girls Who Code and is a frequent guest lecturer at Make School in San Francisco.
