Kristin Schoenstein has been a Program Director with Worldwide Business Research since 2010 and has been producing events since 2004. She currently specializes in the retail and eCommerce sector where she heads up the Future Stores portfolio and eTail East. She also successfully launched and grew WBR’s customer experience portfolio. In her role, she is responsible for market research, content creation and speaker faculty management for each event. Prior to WBR, she produced events in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector, and got her start organizing educational programming for physicians. In her free time, Kristin heads out to the East end of Long Island where she enjoys fishing, boating and days at the beach with her husband and two daughters.

Rajeev is successful Business and Information Technology Executive with a solid track record of delivering business value and results with a unique blend of business acumen, building high performing teams, visionary architectures and solutions. Rajeev Rai is currently Chief Technology Officer driving Digital Transformation and Innovation Labs at Neiman Marcus driving cutting edge seamless, personalized, social, mobile, interactive Customer Experiences.

Passionate about building engaging customer experiences in the digital economy via constantly learning & evolving architectures, driving operational efficiencies to reduce costs. Leadership style with bias towards high quality consistent outcomes, agility, innovation, continuous learning & iterating, taking calculated risk with unproven technology and building sustainable processes without red-tape.

Career spanning 21 years, marked by 14 years in leadership and executive roles at Best Buy, Accenture, Cap Gemini & Ernst & Young, Neiman Marcus overseeing highly visible global initiatives across Retail, Pharma, Consumer Products & Hi-Tech industries. Prior to joining Neiman Marcus, he was Sr. Director IT - of Digital Commerce & Omni-Channel Order Management capabilities at Best Buy. Rajeev is a management graduate from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India with specialization in Information Systems.

Brent is responsible for ensuring that Dillard’s continues to scale and innovate its technologies to deliver the best shopping experience to its customers regardless their channel and to provide the most insightful tools for his internal business stakeholders to operate their business. He has worked around many business and technology functions including automated replenishment, eCommerce/Digital and Master Data and Analytics. Prior to Dillard’s, he enjoyed a 13 year tenure at Thoughtworks where he helped organizations evaluate, implement and grow solutions based on leading edge technologies. As one of the pioneers of the Agile development methodology, Brent is known for his ability to help organizations embrace agility, strengthen outcomes, and create actionable frameworks for measurable success. His forte lies in the transformation required to establish IT and business innovation as a strategic differentiator within the consumer retail industry.

As the Chief Marketing Officer for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Amit’s responsibilities include management of the Company’s 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.

A dynamic, strategic leader with a proven track record of delivering results for online businesses, Carrie Bienkowski’s role as Chief Marketing Officer of Peapod.com, the nation’s leading online grocery service, gives her the enviable role of showing Americans how they can shop smarter, save time and money, and find the foods they want in order to eat better each and every day.

A seasoned blue chip brand strategist with expertise in e-commerce and retail, Bienkowski most recently served as the Head of Buyer Experience for eBay’s Fashion vertical in the European markets. Earlier in her career, Bienkowski spent nearly a decade at Procter & Gamble, where she served as European marketing director for one of the company’s billion dollar brands. Later, at C&E Advisory in London, Bienkowski counseled businesses and brands including L’Oreal, Sky Media, Boots Pharmacy and Vodafone.

Bienkowski received her degree in finance and business economics from the University of Notre Dame. She resides in Chicago with her family where she relies on weekly deliveries from Peapod to supply everything she needs for mealtime and more. Her favorite mobile feature on the PeapodMobile app is the ‘Order Genius’ button because, well, it’s genius.

Emily joined the Keds team in 2015 as chief marketing officer of the iconic footwear brand. She is responsible for driving the strategic development and execution of Keds’ global marketing initiatives including retail development, omni-channel marketing, digital, PR and content. Emily was recently recognized on the Adweek 50 List and as a “CMO Rising Star” at the 2015 CMO Awards for her marketing leadership.

Prior to joining Keds, Emily led the e-commerce and omni-channel marketing teams at Rebecca Minkoff, with a focus on consumer marketing.  She was a leader in the creation of the brand’s innovative NYC flagship “store of the future” and architect of the company’s digital strategies and new online experience. Additionally, Emily’s career history includes over ten years of experience leading global brand teams at worldwide agencies (Ogilvy, Digitas and Arnold) as well as marketing leadership roles with the Estee Lauder Co. and Unilever.  

Emily frequently lectures at Columbia University (where she holds her MBA) and The Stern School for Business (NYU), and has spoken at numerous industry events such as Shop.org, NRF, Google Retail Summit, and SXSW. She holds a BA from Wake Forest University, and lives in Boston with her husband and two children.

Amy Webb knows what’s coming. The futurist, author and founder of the Future Today Institute, she identifies emerging trends maps how they’ll transform the future of business, international relations, culture and the world. A recent Wall Street Journal profile described her methodology, which combines data-driven research with “aggressive computation.” Webb’s forecasting tools are taught in universities, and her Future Today Institute team advises Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies, large nonprofits, universities and startups worldwide. Her futures forecasting work has been featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, CNN, NPR, and more. She was recently named to the 2017 Thinkers50 Radar list of management thinkers most likely to shape the future.

An engaging and energetic speaker, Webb customizes every presentation for each audience using original research and insights specific for the organization, industry or conference. Attendees typically receive a digital folder full of resources, tools and actionable ideas following the presentation. Webb’s popular TED talk, based on her bestselling memoir “Data, A Love Story,” has been viewed more than 5 million times and translated into 32 languages. It has been the featured in-flight entertainment on Delta flights and in Marriott hotel rooms.

She is the author of three books, including “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream” (PublicAffairs, December 2016) which explains how leaders and organizations can predict and manage technological change. It was selected as one of Fast Company’s Best Books of 2016, was an Amazon’s best book of December 2016 and was a #1 Bestseller. Signals has been translated into a number of languages.

Scot defines the term ‘social entrepreneur’ and has made it his life’s work to balance profitable business ventures with making the world a better place.

In 2005, he collaborated with The Mark Wahlberg Foundation and The Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester, Massachusetts to create Camp Northbound. Held at a premier camp facility in Maine, Camp Northbound, now in its twelfth year, is a residential camp for youth growing up in the inner cities of Boston.

Following the success of Camp Northbound, Scot set out to build and run a similar program for kids growing up in New York City’s most violent and turbulent communities, which led him to create a nonprofit org, and its signature program, Camp Power. In nine years, this volunteer-based organization has served thousands of kids, providing year-round life-changing experiences, positive role models and college scholarships for these very deserving children.

Scot and Jacq founded STATE after seeing kids at Camp Power carrying their belongings in ripped garbage/shopping bags, and wanted to do more. They adapted the one for one model to serve American children in need - for every STATE Bag sold, one fully stocked backpack is hand-delivered to an American child at its signature, inspirational bag drop events. 

A graduate of The University of Vermont and Boston native, Scot currently resides in Brooklyn and is a proud father of two who will always #GiveBackPack!

Drew Green is a seasoned entrepreneur and expert in managing fast-paced, high-growth companies. A visionary leader, Drew joined INDOCHINO in 2015 and, within months, set the made to measure menswear retailer on a path to success. His focus, dedication and decisiveness has led to the company achieving record growth, expanding its retail showrooms in North America, and dramatically increasing its product assortment to become the undisputed leader in made-to-measure menswear. Prior to INDOCHINO, Green spent his career connecting online audiences with retailers through advertising technology and e-commerce and marketplace platforms, helping create billions of dollars in shareholder value. 

Michael Wystrach is the CEO and co-founder of Freshly, a healthy meal delivery service offering nutrient-packed dishes with restaurant-quality taste. Wystrach brings over ten years of experience in the food industry, as well as backgrounds in finance, real estate, and multiple startups. As CEO, Wystrach leads the charge at Freshly to deliver great tasting meals directly to its customer’s doorsteps, while significantly reducing the environmental impact of the food industry.

Freshly was built on Wystrach’s personal mission to find convenient and healthy meal options for his fast-paced life. Wystrach discovered that through technology, he could disrupt the $1.3 trillion food industry by delivering food directly to customers. This allows Freshly to provide nutritious meals while reducing the food waste caused by the outdated grocery supply chain. All meals are delivered fresh, not frozen, and dishes are designed with no gluten, no refined sugars, no antibiotics, and no artificial additives.

Prior to founding Freshly, Wystrach honed his natural entrepreneurial skills by working in every stage of business, from launching startups to equity sales with Wall Street trading companies. Wystrach’s hands-on experience in the business world, paired with a strong work ethic inspired by growing up on his family ranch, have provided him with the skill set to lead the operations, finances and growth of Freshly.

Andy is the Founder & CEO of The Purple Carrot, a meal kit delivery service that makes it fun and easy for consumers to prepare and eat healthy, great-tasting plant-based meals at home. Previously, Andy created HealthTalker, the first word-of-mouth marketing company for the healthcare industry, in February 2007, and was acquired in July 2012. Prior to HealthTalker, Andy spent more than a dozen years in the pharmaceutical sector in a variety of roles, including sales, marketing, strategy and management. Andy earned his MBA from The Stern School of Business at New York University, and his undergraduate degree from Emory University. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and their 4 children.

A retail veteran, with over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry, Cheryl Kaplan began her career in the buying department at Filene’s and Levi’s. There, she honed her skills in merchandising, assortment planning, analysis.

In 1999, Cheryl joined Nickelodeon-backed start-up Red Rocket as Merchandise Manager where she managed the strategy, sourcing, site content and online merchandising for toys, apparel, accessories, giftware, music, movies and books. At Red Rocket, she pioneered the movement for commercial brands to embrace the digital marketplace and create online experiences to match changing consumer behavior. The following year she was introduced to Ben Fischman at Smart Bargains where she initially joined as a Buyer and eventually became the VP of Customer Experience. For the next seven years, Cheryl oversaw the brand’s creative, user experience, production, and merchandise programming.

It was in 2007, Cheryl took on the role of EVP and Chief Member Advocate of Rue La La. Cheryl worked closely with Ben Fischman to develop the overall brand strategy and creative experience. For over six years, she was charged with implementing a seamless customer experience, including merchandising, programming, product, mobile, customer service, brand and creative.

Following the sale of Rue La La, Cheryl once again joined Ben Fischman to launch M.Gemi, a brand reinventing the luxury market by bringing the highest quality, hand crafted, Italian made footwear directly to consumers at uncommon prices. As President of M.Gemi, Cheryl oversees creative and brand management, technology, client experience, merchandising, planning and programming. Under her stewardship, M.Gemi has seen rapid growth in the nearly 2 years since launch- swiftly moving to the forefront of the new luxury market and setting a new standard for the direct to consumer movement.

Cheryl, a former New Yorker, currently resides in Boston with her husband, her twin boys and her Labradoodle.

Marshall Porter serves as the President of Spring. 

Previously, he was SVP and GM of International at Gilt Groupe, an online retailer based in the United States, where he was responsible for the growth of the international business including consumer cross-border shipping and international partnerships. He previously served as the Vice President of Business Development at Gilt Groupe, where he built and managed Gilt Groupe’s business development team, devised business development strategies, and forged long-term relationships that benefitted Gilt and its partners, including Starbucks, Volkswagen, Target, Virgin America, Klout, and many more. 

Marshall joined Gilt with extensive experience in mobile and eCommerce, having previously led the mobile business at Digital Fountain that was acquired by Qualcomm and before that at Handango, where he was primarily responsible for key global partnerships, development strategies, driving key infrastructure initiatives, launching new business units, and global partnerships. 

Marshall graduated Phi Beta Kappa from TCU and holds a masters degree in Management, Economics, and International Relations from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Manish Chandra is the Founder and CEO of Poshmark and drives the vision, strategy, and growth for the company. Under Manish’s leadership, the company has grown to become the largest mobile marketplace for fashion in the U.S. With Poshmark, Manish has applied his 20+ years experience building and scaling companies to build a new class of fashion marketplace where the deep connections between users fuels massive engagement and growth. Prior to Poshmark, Manish founded Kaboodle, the first social shopping company, which was acquired by Hearst Corporation in 2007. Before Kaboodle, he held executive positions at Versant (NASDAQ: VSNT), Versata (IPO 2000, acquired by Trilogy), and Sybase (IPO 1991, acquired by SAP). Manish received a BTech from IIT Kanpur, MS from UT Austin, and an MBA from Haas School of Business.

Lydia Gilbert is a Co-Founder of Dia&Co, the premier digital-first retailer dedicated to serving women who wear sizes 14 and up. Two years ago, Lydia and her co-founder Nadia Boujarwah were inspired to start Dia&Co by the belief that all women should have equal opportunity to express themselves through style. Since its founding, Dia&Co has attracted over a million users, with its dedicated and diverse customer base crossing all 50 states and more than 80% of ZIP codes. Dia&Co has been named one of New York City’s 15 hottest startups by Business Insider and featured on CNBC’s inaugural Upstart 25 list. Lydia holds a BA in History from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to founding Dia&Co, Lydia was a Director at the Clinton Global Initiative and most recently an account executive at Google.

Jen Rubio is the co-founder of Away, a travel brand designing thoughtful objects for modern travel. Before starting Away, Jen worked as the Head of Social Media at billion-dollar eyewear upstart, Warby Parker, where she spearheaded the brand’s early content and partnership efforts and later as the Global Head of Innovation at AllSaints. In 2015, Jen was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing and Advertising. She lives and works in New York.

Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Cody Hawken is a technology consultant and the Chief Technical Officer for 1xRUN.com. As the world's leading publisher of art prints and fine art editions, 1xRUN focuses on curating art from both the established leaders and the rising stars of the contemporary art movement. To date, 1xRUN has published over 1,600 fine art editions, curated and crafted in the heart of Detroit. With a loyal fan base of collectors and an ever-growing reach in the art world, 1xRUN continues to evolve and influence how people buy art in the online marketplace. Prior to his involvement at 1xRUN, Cody spent 7 years building and running a grassroots technology contracting company. With a focus on developing a wide range of web and technology solutions for Fortune 500 companies, Cody spearheaded projects ranging from in-vehicle communication/entertainment systems, to websites, kiosks, and innovative technology mashups for trade-shows and global events, with everything in between.

Naadam Co-Founder & CEO Matt Scanlan’s “Millennial Capitalism” is changing the 1,000 year old cashmere industry and is leading the way for sustainable sourcing across any category. Naadam is a brand specializing in rare cashmere sourced responsibly and sustainably from nomadic Mongolian herders. Scanlan left a background in venture capital to found the business by purchasing 40 tons of cashmere with millions in cash packed in plastic bags in the middle of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. His goal: create a higher quality cashmere product at an affordable price. Naadam is all about supply chain sustainability. They support herders' livestock through microeconomic development, thereby gaining first access to the world’s finest fibers. To Matt this isn’t charity - it is smart business. The business model works cyclically, circulating a percentage of profits to preserve herders livestock through annual vaccination programs.

CEO and Founder Tara Foley launched Follain in 2013 to lead a movement for clean personal care products- because no one should sacrifice health for beauty. While on her personal journey to uncover the cleanest, most efficacious products for face and body, Foley realized there was no destination to shop the products she was looking for. Today, Follain serves as the retailer changing beauty for good. Under Tara's leadership, products are passionately vetted and selected from more than 70 brands from around the world with the highest standards to lead the movement towards a cleaner personal care industry. Follain stores can be found in Boston, Nantucket, NYC and Washington D.C. while shoppers from around the country can shop directly at www.shopfollain.com and be paired with products that are most effective for their skin type and concerns via the first of its kind Matchmaker Quiz.

Mitch loves to build meaningful relationships with customers and the places, services and products they use. As Head of Design at Leesa, Mitch is responsible for delivering cohesive brand experiences that span the physical and digital realms, including but not limited to: branded environments, industrial design, web, mobile and desktop software. With more than 10 years of experience under his belt, Mitch has been able to work within a wide spectrum of industries and with some of the world's leading brands, including Proctor and Gamble, Nike, Coca-Cola, HP, GE, Dell, Intel and AT&T to bring to market authentic solutions that inspire consumers. Prior to helping start Leesa, Mitch was the Creative Director of frog’s Austin studio, where he was responsible for establishing frog’s retail practice. And prior to frog, he helped establish the Industrial and Environmental Design practices at Ziba Design.

Shawna Hausman is EVP of Ecommerce & Digital Marketing at MISSION (mission.com) - an athletic gear and apparel company that focuses on high-tech, thermoregulation solutions that help professional athletes and active consumers control temperature and unlock performance. Over the years, Shawna has worked at a variety of other top retail brands, including giggle, West Elm, American Eagle, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Old Navy. Shawna has a passion for tapping into new and emerging technologies in order to improve digital marketing efficiency and enhance the overall brand experience online.

Nick Fairbairn is Senior Vice President of Marketing at Le Tote leading the marketing team. Nick oversees brand & communications, media strategy & customer acquisition as well as revenue & forecast management. Before joining Le Tote, Nick served as Vice President of Brand Marketing at Dollar Shave Club as well as Director of Acquisition Marketing at Dollar Shave Club prior to that. In his time at Dollar Shave, Nick helped drive the company’s growth through strategic messaging and go-to-market strategies for new and existing products. He championed a customer first approach, managing the balance between brand and response. He helped the team deliver more than a 500% increase in new subscribers and over 100% increase in revenues, playing a pivotal role in the company’s $1B acquisition.

Before joining Dollar Shave Club, Nick ran the Acquisition Marketing group at Provide Commerce/FTD Companies, the umbrella brand for ProFlowers, Shari’s Berries, FTD.com and other ecommerce gifting sites. There he led a team of 25+ marketers driving cross channel media strategy and execution and was responsible for over $600MM in revenue. Nick began his career agency-side holding a variety of roles including Entrepreneur & Founding Partner, Account Director, Managing Director and Media Director. His diverse client roster included Google, Microsoft, eBay, Peet’s Coffee, Cost Plus World Market, Disney, Visa and many others. Nick has an MBA from Pepperdine University and lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife and two little boys.

Myles Burke is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Nine Line Apparel. Since his introduction in 2012, Myles has been heavily involved with the creation and continued development of Nine Line's website and a majority of their product offerings. Originally from Auburn, MA and graduate of SCAD, he and his wife Shannon currently reside in Savannah, Georgia. Outside of overseeing day-to-day operations, his current responsibilities include leveraging data to increase website conversions, overseeing marketing initiatives and brand development. Due to the overall efforts of his team, Nine Line was ranked #31 of the fastest growing companies in the United States for 2016.

Linda Voracek is the Group Vice President of Merchandising at Sally Beauty, a division of Sally Beauty Holdings. Voracek is an accomplished leader with many years of experience in the retail industry. She began her retail career at Fairway Foods and has enjoyed positions of progressing responsibility at companies including Holiday Companies, Daymon Associates, Marketing Management, Shurfine International, Kmart, also lead the merchandising team at Longs Drug Stores prior to joining Sally Beauty in 2009.

In her current role, Voracek leads the Merchandising Team in developing and delivering innovative product strategies for the Sally Beauty brand's 3,000 stores and sallybeauty.com. Managing a comprehensive assortment strategy through collaborative relationships, while leveraging strong supply chain and profitability objectives are the focus of her team; all leading to an engaging shopping experience for the beauty consumer.

Voracek is a member of National Association of Professional Woman, National Retail Federation, Dallas Retail Executive Association, Professional Beauty Association, Cosmetic Executive Woman Organization, Network of Executive Woman, and Woman in Retail Leadership. Voracek holds her undergraduate degree from the University of North Texas and is currently studying for her MBA at Indiana University Kelley School of Business. She and her husband, Scott, reside in Corinth, Texas.

Bob Sherwin (VP Direct Marketing) joined Wayfair in 2013 to run Wayfair's Acquisition Marketing programs, and now leads Wayfair's B2C and B2B direct marketing efforts in North America. Prior to Wayfair, Bob was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co, a strategy consultancy, where he advised a number of clients at Fortune 100 companies. He began his career at IBM's Business Consultant Services, where he worked with Federal agencies to improve data infrastructure and operational efficiency by leveraging big data analytics. Bob holds a B.B.A in Finance and Economics from The College of William and Mary, an M.E.M from Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering, and an M.B.A. from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Bob is a proud husband and father of two.

Mike is an accomplished senior eCommerce leader, with over 15 years of proven success in driving growth through profitable customer acquisition, personalized user experience, and data-driven marketing. Currently he leads Lands’ End eCommerce through the use of all available digital channels and by supporting unified omni user experience. In addition, Mike provides leadership in areas of digital transformation, Big Data Center of Excellence, and innovation. Mike received his MBA from New York University, and his Ph.D from UW-Madison.

Mark is a leader in the customer experience and product design world. He currently heads Panera Bread’s Digital Experience Design Group. His mission is to deliver speed and joy to every customer in every interaction. Previously, as Head of Experience Design for SapientNitro’s Boston office, Mark lead, inspired and managed 30+ members of the experience design studio setting the vision for clients such as CVS, L.L. Bean, Keurig, The Boston Globe, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Voya, TIAA Cref, The Hartford and Staples. Mark’s focus for the staff of world-class experience designers is on creating human-centered, compelling experiences that influence behaviors and add value to people’s lives. He is uniquely positioned for his role given his deep roots and expertise in both design and strategy. As an additional outlet for his passion around design thinking, Mark writes, instructs and speaks on customer engagement.

Scott Steever brings 25 years of retail and ecommerce experience to his current role as Head of Ecommerce for ABC Carpet and Home.  In his current role he is responsible for ecommerce operations, digital marketing, customer service, ecommerce technology and the photo studio.  ABC Carpet & Home is an iconic lifestyle retail brand recognized throughout the world for quality home furnishings, carpets, accessories, and gifts.

He previously held the role of Sr, Director of Ecommerce Operations for Michael Kors and Sr. Director of Strategic Initiatives for Vera Bradley where he led the launch of ecommerce and social media in Japan. Scott started his retail career at McAlpin’s department store and has over the years worked for the Gap, Filene’s basement, LakeWest Group and the Vitamin Shoppe.

Scott received a BA in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA from the University of Maryland – Robert A Smith School of Business.  He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Courtney Graybill is Vice President, Digital Strategy & Innovation, Product Owner at David’s Bridal. David’s Bridal is the largest and most successful retailer of wedding, bridal and other special occasion dresses, shoes and accessories with over 300 stores in the US, Canada, and the UK. Courtney is responsible for driving the digital experience across devices and channels through innovation, data-driven decision making, and omni-channel initiatives, where her focus has been on attracting and retaining customers, and removing friction points for the customer, both online and in-store.

Prior to David’s Bridal, Courtney worked as a strategy/management consultant at Booz & Co where her experience included channel strategy, DTC marketing/go-to-market strategy and implementation, and supply chain and operational transformations. She also spent eight years at Merck & Co. with experience leading manufacturing operations, new product launches, technology transfer, and supply chain management. Courtney received her MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from Wharton as a Palmer Scholar, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Ingrid is a digital native, equal parts creative and analytical in her approach. She brings over 10 years of experience in digital and e-commerce, working on large-scale projects for MAC, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Tommy Hilfiger, John Varvatos and MILLY. After 6 years in e-commerce, she moved to the agency side and oversaw the relaunch of Pepsi’s (PXP) Loyalty Program and website, with a focus on innovative web and app development and experiential rewards. She now uses her digital marketing, social media strategy and e-commerce expertise as the Vice President of Marketing & E-Commerce at Sam Edelman. Ingrid lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and two cats, Leo and Jellybean.

Nina Alexander-Hurst is the VP of Customer Experience and SWAT (Service With Accessorizing Talent) at BaubleBar. Nina's innovative thinking and creative solutions are driving forces behind the SWAT Stylist program, where the brand uses new technologies to take the friction out of online shopping and build long-lasting customer relationships. Nina's work has been recognized within the industry, having received the Customer Engagement Award from Retail TouchPoints in 2014, and the Retail Innovator Award in 2015. Nina was also named one of Brand Innovators’ "Women to Watch" in 2016

Nicole focuses on investments in consumer technology with particular interest in brands, commerce, social media, video, fintech and marketplaces.

Nicole started working with brands over 10 years ago and has specialized in consumer behavior, the retail landscape both in the U.S. and Europe and taking brands to the public market. Prior to Lightspeed, she worked on branding and marketing at Nutmeg, a London based Fintech startup focused on online wealth management for millennials. Earlier, Nicole spent eight years covering consumer, eCommerce and brands at Morgan Stanley on the equity sales and research side. She worked on the IPOs for Facebook, Groupon and Pandora.

Nicole has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BSc in Math and Economics from York University, England. A little known fact about me is: I used to run 100m sprint for England but now take more passion in sailing and skiing. Read Nicole’s thoughts on consumer technology on her blog (www.medium.com/@Nicquinn) and follow her on Snapchat (@niksquinn).

Natalie is Managing Director and Head of Simon Ventures, where she specializes in evaluating next gen commerce as well as the retail technologies that power or optimize those consumer experiences. A few of her investments include FabFitFun, MeUndies, Grailed, Dirty Lemon Beverages. MM Lafleur and Sproutling (acquired by Mattel). She was most recently named to Global Corporate Venturing's List of Rising Stars for 2016 and to Powerlist 100 for 2017. Prior to Simon Ventures, Natalie was an executive at The Blackstone Group where she was involved with the firm's seeding platform for investing in early stage alternative asset management businesses.

Simon Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Simon Property Group (SPG), an S&P 100 company as well as the largest publicly traded real estate investment trust in the S&P 500. CB Insights most recently recognized Simon Ventures as one of the 10 most active investors in retail technology.Simon Ventures can serve as a unique investment partner to founders by leveraging Simon's operational platform and access to market distribution channels to impact the slope and velocity of their success while supporting their continued creative and shareholder control. This service proposition resonates with founders who are looking for a partner that can strategically amplify their abilities to create value and capitalize on unfair market advantage.

Specialties: early stage venture capital, tech-enabled commerce, retail technology, network effects, marketplace dynamics, retail distribution expansion, brand building.

Brendan Witcher is vice president, principal analyst at Forrester. He is a leading expert on eCommerce business, consumer behavior, and technology trends in the digital engagement space. He is also a noted authority on technology developments that affect both online and offline commerce industries, as well as vendors that help facilitate delivery of today's leading strategies and tactics in digital excellence.

Chris Vitale brings 15 years of eCommerce and retail experience to Pep Boys. He previously held the role of Director of I.T., eCommerce at Pep before moving into the Vice President of Digital Operations and eCommerce role. He has overseen the execution of projects in support of all online and eComm initiatives for pepboys.com and the company intranet. In recent years Pep has successfully implemented Pick-up in Store, Ship to Home, Mobile, a redesign of the online appointment flow, integrated with Marketplaces, refined the system architecture and infrastructure while driving significant double-digit, year over year growth. In his current role, his teams are responsible for the overall strategy, operations, performance and revenue of digital operations for www.pepboys.com.

Dan Fagan is VP, CRM & Media at Destination XL Group, Inc. DXL is the largest omni-channel specialty retailer of big & tall men's apparel. The retailer operates under five brands: Destination XL® (DXL®), Casual Male XL®, Rochester Clothing, ShoesXL® and LivingXL® with over 350 retail stores nationwide. He holds a Marketing degree from the University of Notre Dame. Dan has over 20 years of retail marketing experience, previously holding positions at Information Resources, Hammacher Schlemmer and Talbots.

Adam is VP of Marketing at Bob' Discount Furniture, a Bain Capital company. At Bob’s, Adam oversees all media, digital, analytics and marketing efforts for the rapidly growing retailer. He has been busy building a data and analytic driven approach to marketing and media. Previous to this role, Adam served as the Chief Media Officer of Havas Media, North America with oversight and responsibility for all of the agency’s investment teams and integrated product offerings. Adam helped to lead the evolution of Havas’ media services offerings to better reflect the digital, social and mobile needs of the agency’s clients including the perpetually changing media landscape and the affects it has on consumer behavior. Adam was instrumental in the design of the agency structure to meet these needs.

Prior to being named Chief Media Officer, Kasper held positions of increasing authority at Havas including Executive Vice President Strategic investments and Senior Vice President, Director Digital Media. Adam lives with his family in Needham, MA. He is an avid skier, fisherman and chef.

Ryan oversees strategy, development, and operations of the digital technology space for KGM. This includes Keurig.com/.ca, our digital marketing ecosystem, mobile and IoT development, and consumer care applications. He plays a key role driving the company’s entire digital agenda.

Before joining Keurig, Ryan worked at SapientNitro for 8 years. In his last role, he served as Vice President and led Digital Marketing and Commerce platform strategy across a range of industries including sports & entertainment, travel, retail, CPG and hospitality. Ryan also led the firm’s global partnership with Adobe.

Ryan's career spans more than 20 years in the digital agency, management consulting, and technology implementation, as well as an eCommerce start-up. He has had the privilege of serving a broad range of clients over his consulting career including CVS/Caremark, L'Oreal, Victoria's Secret, TJX, General Motors, Ford, PayPal, Verizon, AT&T, Pfizer, NASCAR, Panera Bread and many others. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an International Relations Bachelor’s Degree from American University. Ryan is based in our Burlington, Massachusetts headquarters.

Jamie Dooley is the head of Direct to Consumer & E-Commerce for Dorel Juvenile Group, the largest manufacturer of juvenile & baby products in the US, with brands that include Safety 1st, Maxi-Cosi, Quinny, Disney Baby, Eddie Bauer, and Tiny Love Prior to Dorel, he held leadership roles in E-commerce strategy and merchandising with BabiesRUs.com, Dunkin’ Brands (DunkinDonuts.com), and Wayfair. Jamie’s 20+ years of retail experience also includes having served as a Buyer for Target Corporation and Staples, Inc. He received a BS in Business from Northeastern University, and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Bob is the Vice President of Consumer Engagement for Dorel Juvenile, a division of Dorel Industries (TSE: DII.B) a $2.7B global conglomerate of consumer brands such as Cannondale, Schwinn, Safety1st, Maxi-Cosi and 20+ others operating in 25 countries worldwide. He has held Vice President positions heading up eCommerce, digital, D2C, call center, omnichannel, digital advertising, digital marketing and corporate strategy at both Fortune 500 companies and internet start-ups across his 23+ year career. Recently, at Chitika, a Mobile advertising, Real-Time Bidding and CPC Network, he was Head of Network. At FreeCause, one of the leading technology developers of Loyalty software for the airline, retail and social media sectors, he participated in the acquisition by Rakuten, a $14B media company in Japan and experienced life as a senior manager at a Japanese-run global business. He specializes in ecommerce and digital transformations. He has been associated with companies like Amazon, Walmart, Google, ebay, Home Depot, Staples, Sony and Priceline. He has served as the Chief Marketing Officer of WorkshopLive.com in the music industry, a Director at Cambridge Interactive in the gaming space in Europe and managed national retail accounts at ValueClick's highly successful Commission Junction division. He has a B.S. in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and is currently enrolled in the MBA program at Bentley University.

Marc Rashba is currently the Vice President of Digital Partnerships & Development for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Previously Marc was the Vice President of Marketing for Sony overseeing the company’s customer marketing group for RVOD, digital and physical accounts working on reward winning programs at Amazon, Target and Walmart. Additionally, Marc led the division’s marketing efforts around TV releases, including Breaking Bad, House of Cards & Outlander. During that time, Marc developed a new product line and a new technology that were awarded patents which he shares with Sony. Prior to Sony, Marc spent a number of years in the music industry at EMI Music Group in a variety of strategic roles, but loved his time working with Brett Michaels and the band Poison the most. Marc also held a number of other entertainment roles with Bagdasarian Productions, Amblin Entertainment and others. He lives in Oak Park, CA with his wife and three children.

Established industry leader with over 20 years experience in delivering transformational eCommerce and technology solutions. Her industry experience in B2C and B2B eCommerce, Direct Marketing, Consumer Products (CPG), Retail, Insurance, Manufacturing, and Broadcasting with companies like General Electric, Nutrisystem, Turner Broadcasting and QVC where she has had a track record of success in driving meaningful and sustained results in competitive and challenging markets.

Christine is a performance-driven leader with sharp focus on business case analysis, strategy development, implementation management and results analysis. Her functional experience includes: marketing, operations, ecommerce, finance, PMO, IT, and supply chain. Strengths include: Project Management, Product Management, Social Media, Interaction Design, Customer Acquisition/Retention (LTV), Digital Channel Management (e.g. SEO, local SEO, SEM, paid search, content marketing, email), Business Analysis, Process Improvement, and Data Analytics and Optimization to increase revenue, build brand, and drive efficiencies.

Christine most recently working with a dynamic heath and beauty retailer to expand the digital footprint and drive omni-channel emphasis through brick and mortar partners of prestige makeup brands. Christine has extensive experience enabling regional start up retailers to grow and expand both online and omni-channel presence working closely to align brand vision with some of the largest retail vendors such as Nike, adidas, Puma, Timberland, etc. Christine’s prior background also includes leading project management, product management, social media and user experience for Nutrisystem.com, America’s number one home delivery weight loss company. Under her leadership, the company launched a sales funnel optimization redesign, implemented a full social and mobile strategy, and expanded into a multitude of channels.

Christine has an undergraduate degree from University of Georgia and holds numerous professional and technical certifications including project management and six sigma.

Scott Drayer is the Vice President - Marketing at Paul Fredrick, a private label men’s apparel direct marketer located in Fleetwood, Pa. Scott is responsible for the strategic development of Paul Fredrick’s brand growth initiatives via ecommerce, direct mail and direct response advertising. He has been with the company for 13 years, upon his graduation from Penn State University with a B.S. in Marketing.

Mark Chou is VP, Growth Marketing and E-Commerce at Away, a brand designing thoughtful objects for modern travel. Prior to joining Away, he led marketing and strategic partnerships at ONA and served as Managing Director of the New York Fashion Tech Lab. Before joining the Lab, Mark worked in e-commerce strategy at Ralph Lauren, early stage investing at the New York City Investment Fund, and investment banking at The Blackstone Group. He lives in New York City with his wife, Mara.

Elizabeth is one of SCOUT’s veteran employees and has built her career around the colorful brand. After interning with SCOUT, she officially joined the team in 2011 as the Retail Business Manager. Her first mission was to build the almost non-existent direct-to-consumer online business – and that she did! In the last six years, SCOUT’s ecommerce division has grown over 200%, and counting. To do this, she implemented a partnership with Magento and led the initiative to redesign the website.

As Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Kate is tasked with the mission to “build and execute a plan to maximize the value of the SCOUT brand.” Kate joined the team in 2012 to focus on the wholesale business that has since tripled in sales. As the company has grown, Kate’s role has expanded to encompass wholesale and retail sales plus marketing, managing 50% of the SCOUT staff. She is involved in all aspects of the business and her varying projects include forecasting sales and budgeting, creating marketing content, working with key accounts on merchandising strategy, planning internal staff engagements and coordinating lifestyle shoots. Under the guidance of cofounders Ben and Deb Johns, Kate has led the SCOUT brand to become a vibrant, forward-thinking business.

As a young entrepreneur, 29 year old Kate comes with 10 years of experience in the small business world. At 20, she started her own vintage clothing website while in school. Recognizing the need to learn in other small business environments she moved from retail into wholesale. She previously worked as Director of Wholesale for MIJA Jewelry before transitioning to SCOUT.

Hillary is a marketing buff spearheading Brayola’s marketing operations, from social media to emails, owns more bras than shoes (and has A LOT of shoes!). She brings tech and intimates experience to Brayola and has experience working with some of the top leading intimates brands, software companies and agencies in the industry.

Founded in 2013, Brayola was created as the first online personal bra shop to help women discover their next favorite bra—without having a fit. Brayola uses data points based on your own preferences combined with feedback from women around the world, we curate a collection of bras that caters specifically to your size, style and shape. All you have to do is tell us your current bra’s brand, style and size—and we take care of the rest! No more trying on countless styles just to go home empty handed. Instead, simply log onto your personal Brayola bra shop to see the top brands and styles that will work best for you. It’s bra shopping made simple (and fun, too)!

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.

Charlie Ninegar is the Vice President of Sales at Spy Optic, a 24 year old independent eyewear brand from San Diego, Ca. He began his career as a specialty retailer before moving on to build a successful independent sales agency in Southern California. Seven years ago, Charlie took on a Sales Management role at SPY and has moved up through the organization to his current position as Vice President of Sales. Charlie has nearly two decades of experience building successful brands and businesses, as well as over a decade of experience specific to the eyewear industry. He has helped SPY foster a culture of analytical data based decision making, and has helped SPY take massive steps forward in the area of marketplace enforcement and brand protection. Charlie is a proud husband, father of two young girls and loves to surf. He lives with his family in Cardiff by the Sea, Ca.

In her current role as Assistant Vice President of Digital Marketing & eCommerce at L’Oreal, Alexandra is focused on direct to customer new venture creation. In her career at L’Oreal, Alexandra has managed internationally-recognized digital marketing campaigns for brands such as Giorgio Armani Beauty and Lancôme that have been cited in Forbes, Luxury Daily, Mobile Marketer and Strategy Magazine.

Alexandra is passionate about the possibilities that technology will bring to bridge the online and in store experiences in the future, creating a more seamless omnichannel experience for customers. Despite changes in technology, she is a firm believer that the basic tenant of great shopping experiences will never change, and that is putting the customer first in in every decision that you make. 

Alexandra holds a B.A in Cultural Studies from McGill University, and currently lives in New York.

Josh Himwich is the Sr. Director of Product at Walmart, and has spent the last decade in digital. His eCommerce career started in 2007 as employee #4 at Quidsi, where his teams built Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com and a host of other vertical specialist sites. In 2010, Amazon bought Quidsi for $550MM. Josh is now at Walmart where his teams lead the product strategy and execution of both the Web and App experiences.

As the Head of Product Management for Dell.com, Harsh leads vision, strategy and execution of next generation digital and commerce capabilities for Dell.com across the globe. His team partners with internal and external customers to drive discovery and implementation of strategic programs that span from Learn, Shop and Purchase experiences to Omni-channel Loyalty, Personalization and Targeting platforms. Harsh loves building highly data driven teams that define and deliver on their key KPIs while keeping customer at the center of everything they do.

As Sr Director of Analytics at Vistaprint, Ilona Sobkowiak leads global analytics teams in delivering meaningful insights and actionable recommendations across eCommerce merchandising, product, pricing, and customer care. She is passionate about transforming the end-to-end site experience, enabling small businesses to simply and intuitively find and customize the products they need to market their business. Additionally, Ilona is experienced in advertising spend optimization, having created an innovative attribution model, and unlocking potential for growth across media channels. Ilona holds a BS in Math and Computer Science from Fairfield University and an MBA in Business Economics from Bentley University.

Ashley Serotta is Living Proof’s Senior Director of Digital Marketing and eCommerce, leading sales, development, email, paid digital media, affiliates, paid search and analytics. For 20 years, her focus has been on the intersection of social, content and eCommerce. Prior to Living Proof, she launched TripAdvisor's Cities I’ve Visited, a top 10 Facebook app. She has also overseen eCommerce programs at both agencies and retailers, including Razorfish, Isobar, Newbury Comics and Tweeter.

John Yesko is a veteran user experience and creative professional with a background in interaction design, information architecture, and visual design. He is currently Senior Director of Customer Experience at Walgreens Digital in Chicago, focused on the experience on company websites, in-store interfaces, and mobile applications. He manages a 50+ team of professionals across the end-to-end digital design continuum - user research, user experience design, visual design, and content/production. John previously led user experience for several top agencies and consulting firms.

Linh Peters has been the Senior Director of Loyalty Marketing and Strategy at Ulta Beauty since 2016. Linh has responsibility for a loyalty portfolio that includes the Ultamate Rewards program, Gift Cards and the Ultamate Rewards credit card. Prior to joining Ulta Beauty, Linh served as the Vice President of Marketing at SpartanNash, an $8B grocery retailer and wholesaler in Grand Rapids, MI.

Prior to 2010, Linh served in various marketing and strategy roles at Target and Best Buy. At Target Corp. Linh oversaw strategy and marketing for the REDcard program in the U.S. and Canada. While at Best Buy, Inc. she held several marketing and strategy roles in the U.S. and China. Overall she has more than 18 years of experience that includes public relations, loyalty and CRM, product marketing, new product development, insights and analytics, digital, and branding. She holds a B.A. degree in Advertising and Public Relations and an M.B.A. degree in Marketing and Strategy from the University of Minnesota.

Craig Kapilow is the Senior Director of Integrated Marketing at Rue La La, a leader in e-commerce sales and innovation connecting world-class brands with the next-generation shopper. In his role, Craig oversees Rue La La’s digital marketing, in-box insert and voucher businesses – with his eye always on fresh and inventive methods for integration. Craig has close to seven years of experience with the Rue La La brand and over 14 years of experience intersecting content and commerce. Prior to joining Rue La La, Craig spent several years at start-ups in Boston, and was one of the original founders of DigBoston, where he served as the first music editor. In addition, Craig is a nationally published journalist contributing to two books, Adidas Rockers and the Time Out Boston Guide. Craig lives in Newton, MA with his wife and two children and is an amateur cook in his spare time.

Dan Marques is a data-driven eCommerce marketer and entrepreneur. Dan is currently Sr. Director of eCommerce & Online Marketing for Talbots. He previously led eCommerce Marketing in the US for adidas Group. Dan also was co-founder and VP of Marketing & Analytics at eCommerce jewelry retailer Gemvara and spent a year at Babson College as the Manager of Entrepreneur Development helping launch and grow new ventures. Dan started his career at Vistaprint managing SEO and SEM efforts.

With over 17 years of internet design, development and marketing experience, Drew Sirico joined the Edible team in January of 2014. He manages all Digital Marketing activity including Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, SMS Text Campaigns, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and acts as the primary liaison to the media agency of record for sourced DM activities such as SEM/Paid Search, Programmatic Display and Affiliate Marketing. 

After splitting his four years of college between Quinnipiac University and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, he joined SCM Microsystems in 2000 as a Corporate Webmaster. He would later lead Web Design and Development teams at Q-Tran Inc. and Pexagon Technology, Inc., both headquartered in Connecticut. He spent 8 years at the latter, growing into an Internet Sales & Marketing Direction role on route to General Manager before ultimately joining the EAI family. 

Edible Arrangements International, Inc. isn’t just a leader in artfully crafted fruit gifts but also an innovator in the Digital Marketing space. From a complex Omni-channel Marketing strategy that includes robust Loyalty and Email Marketing Programs to a Social Media presence that boasts followership nearing 1,000,000, EAI is committed to leveraging emerging technology in the digital space to help it’s foundation of 1,200 retail locations flourish. 

Paul is the Director of Digital Innovation at Dunkin’ Brands. Since joining the Dunkin’ team in 2012 he has been involved in Dunkin’s US Digital and Loyalty growth helping launch the DD Mobile App, the DD Perks Loyalty Program and On-The-Go Mobile Ordering. Paul currently oversees Digital Innovation including, web, mobile, digital payments as well as digital product and pilot program development.

Chris is Director of Engineering groups at Dell that build and deliver technology initiatives that drive exceptional business results around next generation digital and commerce capabilities. Strong passion leading teams to find ways to engage customers through software, applying lean methods and reducing friction for employees. Enjoy making broken things work, and passionate about delivering capabilities efficiently to create the space for innovation. Productive people are happy, not the other way around.

Mosheh is the Director of Digital Marketing at Blinds.com, the world’s largest online window covering retailer, acquired by The Home Depot, Inc (NYSE: HD) in 2014. Passionate about data-driven marketing and living at the left-brain, right-brain intersection, Mosheh is equally at home in the worlds of ROI or CMYK. He currently oversees all of the company’s digital acquisition and retention channels across a portfolio of brands. Since 2008, he has advised over a dozen firms - from startups to hedge-funds, non-profits to a top-5 international bank - in the areas of branding, marketing, product development and strategic planning. In 2011 Mosheh founded eGiftShare, a social gifting platform, which later merged with Kurrenci a virtual currency startup, where he served as VP of Product & Marketing. Mosheh graduated with honors from CUNY Brooklyn College, with a B.S. in Business Management & Finance.

Jess is a Director of Marketing for Wayfair, responsible for Display, Social, Content and App marketing. Her team’s goal is to find new customers and introduce them to the brand for the first time and engage Wayfair’s existing customer base to drive incremental sales. Jess came to Wayfair from NYC where she ran the West Coast set of accounts for an online advertising and data products start-up. Prior to that, she was a manager in the Tech, Media and Telecom practice at McKinsey & Company.

Sapna Parikh, an e-commerce & digital innovation entrepreneur, is the Director of Representative Ecommerce and Digital Strategy at Avon.  As the head of the Avon Representative digital experience, Sapna is transforming the traditional “Avon Lady” model into a digitally empowered Social Selling experience relying upon innovations in mobile, data analytics, and social expansion.

Sapna previously was the Founder & President of StyleBell, an e-commerce and content company providing consumers, hair salons, hair stylists, and licensed beauty professionals the one-click access to high-end beauty products. At Stylebell, Sapna oversaw Innovation, Marketing, Financial, Merchandising, Fulfillment, Customer Service, and Supply Chain Management to drive the business forward. She established and developed manufacturer relationships with many exclusive brands for the site in addition to Digital Marketing and Partnerships. Simultaneously, Sapna was the Founder & President of Maijan beauty products. Sapna led product development & expansion including overall vision and product design, sourcing, and fulfillment as well as marketing responsibilities.  Maijan has been mentioned in numerous magazines including Lucky, Instyle Redbook and Woman’s Day.

Sapna previously worked with leading retail and media companies including Bloomingdales, Folica, and American Express to establish their core digital infrastructure. Sapna prides her work on understanding the full gamut of operational know-how combining digital innovation, marketing, technology, creative, merchandising, and supply chain management thus creating a dynamic customer experience. Sapna is a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business.

Lee manages a global-distributed team that focus on maximizing return on investment through data-driven approaches to digital product development and optimization. His team uses A/B testing and personalization combined with a lean and agile approach to continually grow Marriott's $17 billion digital channels. He has spent over 15 years in digital, starting his career as a designer before moving onto engineering, analytics and marketing. Lee previously worked at Black & Decker and several agencies around Baltimore-Washington before joining Marriott in 2010. He's received degrees from Virginia Tech and Johns Hopkins University.

Kylie Beals is a Senior Marketing Director of Digital and CRM for Clarks, a 192-year old global brand that manufactures stylish shoes that are a pleasure to wear. In her role, Kylie oversees consumer relationship management and direct response acquisition and retention marketing channels for Clarksusa.com, including PPC, email, affiliate, remarketing and display. Prior to joining Clarks, Kylie held account roles at digital agencies such as Commission Junction and iProspect. She drove success for a slew of advertisers from the very large to the small across myriad verticals, but fell head over heels for retail. Today, Kylie considers herself lucky to be able to not just stand behind her product, but stand (comfortably) in her product at Clarks.

Amanda i has been with Pep Boys for four years and currently serves as the Director of eCommerce and Online Operations. At Pep Boys, Amanda has overseen the redesign of pepboys.com as well as the launch of many exciting site enhancements. Amanda oversees all of eCommerce and Digital Operations including mobile and app, customer service, logistics, user experience, and content. She has more than ten years in the eCommerce industry and has previously worked at David's Bridal and Boathouse Sports.

Marta Dalton is the Director of eCommerce at Coca-Cola, where she leads the B2B e-commerce business in North America. She got her start in e-commerce in 2004 in Tokyo and enjoys the mix of technology, marketing and operations that make up the world of e-commerce. Prior to her current role, she has led the IT side of the house in developing & launching new eCommerce platforms and the business side in creating new marketing strategies, merchandising programs, and customer support organizations.

Debbie Johnsen is currently Digital Marketing Director for The Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. She has worked on both the client and agency side in digital marketing for travel, arts and entertainment brands since 2000. She is also Adjunct Faculty at N.Y.U., and teaches E-Commerce Marketing in the School of Professional Studies Integrated Marketing Master’s degree program.

After 10 years at Safeway and Albertsons which represents 13 Retail Divisions and eCommerce with approx. $60b in revenue, John has led Digital Product Management developing award winning accessible apps for Grocery Delivery (Hub Silver Award in Marketing Excellence) and recognized for success in Inclusive design as 2017 eTail Innovator of the Year for Safeway eCommerce. John is currently working to lead corporate adoption of best practices in Inclusive Design and thought.

Rachel has over 15 years of experience leading marketing teams and campaigns that drive consumer engagement, brand height, traffic and conversion.

 

Currently Rachel is Director, Corporate Marketing for Planet Fitness where she leads all marketing for their owned and operated clubs in the US and Canada.  She is responsible for the strategy and execution of integrated marketing plans inclusive of traditional media, digital and experiential that drive customer acquisition.

Prior to Planet Fitness Rachel worked 6 years for Timberland leading marketing and consumer communications for their corporate owned brick and mortar stores and ecommerce channel.  Prior to Timberland, Rachel spent time in various marketing roles at Stride Rite starting as a Marketing Specialist and leaving as Director of Marketing leading creative and all marketing activities for 9 of their children’s brands.  Rachel has led various groups including brand, PR, CRM, visual and digital for retail, wholesale and franchise channels.

 

Rachel received her degree in business from the University of Massachusetts.

Janine has worked on both the agency side (CBC in Boston and The VIA Agency in Portland, ME) as well as the brand side (7 years in footwear, including Converse, Timberland and Keds), but feels most at home when she can eat, sleep, and breathe a brand. That’s why Stonewall Kitchen was the perfect fit. Not only can she immerse herself in the company and brand, but she can literally eat it.

A graduate of Assumption College in Worcester, MA, Janine has been with Stonewall Kitchen for six years and manages marketing and creative as well as the DTC team, including catalog, ecomm and Amazon.

Janine grew up in Tewksbury, MA, enjoyed a stint in Tortola – a British Virgin Island, and now resides in Scarborough, Maine with her husband – Liam, two children – Jack and Lily, her dog, two cats, and a parrot (yes that’s right, a Blue Fronted Amazon). She charges $5 admission to her house, which she deems similar to a petting zoo.

She loves to be outside, is most happy when she is laughing and has an affinity for eating so also has to spend a few hours in the gym each week too.

Mike brings over 17 years of experience managing all facets of e-commerce related businesses across many different industries. In addition to leadership on the e-commerce side, he also possesses several years of IT management experience allowing him to look at opportunities through multiple lenses. His specialty is in finding creative solutions to power customer acquisition strategies to architect growth for businesses. Mike's been able to bring innovative marketing strategies to the financial, entertainment and consumer goods industries.

Kelsey is the head of retention marketing at ELOQUII, a trend-driven plus-size apparel startup that designs and sells fast fashion sizes 14-28 on ELOQUII.com, where she oversees the email and SMS/Text strategy and performance, customer lifecycle engagement and customer loyalty programs. She has over 6 years’ experience in digital marketing and specializes in email. Prior to ELOQUII, Kelsey worked for an Amazon subsidiary, Quidsi, where she led up retention marketing for Diapers.com. Before venturing into the diaper business, she worked on Quidsi’s cross-site marketing team as well as Wag.com.

As Product Marketing Director at Instagram, Susan Buckner Rose oversees the business strategy, go-to-market activation and operations for Instagram’s business platform. Susan is responsible for all solutions for businesses including brand and media monetization, performance marketing and business presence. Prior to Instagram, Susan was a Product Marketing Manager at Facebook, leading the development of creative and delivery products for brand marketers. In this role, she also worked on product solutions for performance marketers to drive conversions both on their websites and in mobile apps. Before joining Facebook, Susan was an analyst in Lehman Brothers’ private equity division. Working on leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capitalizations across industries, Susan evaluated, structured and monitored investments for Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking Partners. Susan has a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia, an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She is also a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Native Advertising Task Force.

Ben Running is Director of the Innovation Lab at Jet.com where the team focuses on the next generation of e-commerce technologies like AI-powered experiences, VR and AR, IoT, and innovation culture. Prior to the Innovation Lab, he led the Jet product design team. Jet.com was founded in April 2014, launched live in July 2015, and was acquired by Walmart in September 2016 for $3.3 B, marking the largest U.S. e-commerce acquisition to date. Prior to Jet.com, Ben was Director of Design at BuzzFeed where he created BuzzFeed Quizzes, as well as numerous other well-known features. He’s on a quest to visit all of America’s National Parks in his spare time.

Shrenik Sadalgi is a polyglot developer and technology plumber. He drives engineering and software development on Wayfair Next to help create next generation experiences in AR and VR. Before joining Wayfair Next, he spearheaded the modernization of Wayfair's mobile web experience as a part of the Client Technologies team at Wayfair. Prior to joining Wayfair, he helped build Horizon Mobile out of the CTO's office at VMware, helped create a pointer-based, interactive media system for TV at Hillcrest Labs, and an AR experience allowing users to collaborate and casually create music in a shared physical space called ARmonica that was exhibited at UIST 2010. Shrenik holds a Masters in Computer Science from Columbia University where he was a recipient of the MSTA fellowship.

In his role as Director of Digital Marketing for BuildDirect, Tyler delivers insights that unlock demand potential, ideas that ignite conversion and results that accelerate business growth. He is a dynamic, creative and influential leader responsible for a team who manages digital marketing efforts across paid search, email, display, and SEO as well as partnerships & loyalty.

Charis is a senior product manager on the technology team at Rue La La. A tech veteran, she has over a decade of experience in machine learning, Big Data, new product introduction, file and hardware storage, and software development. At Microsoft, Charis was recognized as an inspiring technical leader, and was chosen for a competitive women's leadership program. Previously, she worked at EMC and SAP. Some of her accomplishments include launching a competition platform to gamify machine learning in under 2 months as a new Microsoft employee, streamlining the software patch process cycle for SAP Sourcing from six weeks to same day, creating the “best run Safe Launch program" a senior colleague said he’d ever seen for EMC’s XtremIO, and several end-to-end new product introductions at EMC, including XtremCache, XtremSF, and ScaleIO. Charis is passionate about fixing customers’ problems using design thinking. 

Chip Reno is a Marketing Data Scientist who built an analytics platform that links all of T-Mobile’s offline data to web and digital marketing activities. He uses omni-channel analytics, attribution modeling, and propensity scoring for website personalization and targeting. By night Chip is a musician for the electronic band Gumshen.

Darren is an entrepreneurial and innovative digital product management & eCommerce leader with 8+ years of experience building and shipping successful products across both digital and integrated retail channels at companies including Lovesac, General Assembly & Bark & Co. He has two dogs and a cat, all of whom he admires for living every day without the internet.

Vivienne is currently the E-Commerce Manager at Frette, the leader in luxury linens since 1860. She is responsible for e-commerce, and digital and omni-channel marketing in North America. Prior to joining Frette, Vivienne thrived in fashion, from overseeing e-commerce at a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winning label to co-founding a direct-to-consumer fashion jewelry brand that earned features in the New York Times, Refinery29, InStyle, and more.

Greg’s digital pedigree is that he is as old as ‘digital-dirt’, having his first ‘interactive’ job leading digital for the ad agency Young & Rubicam in 1993. Since then, there have been nice successes, including an IPO and more. But also a bunch of failures, some good idea’s badly done or just bad ideas to start. He currently serves as CEO for the Global trade-group the Mobile Marketing Association, which operates in 12 counties with 800 member companies, and serving mostly major marketers, such as P&G, Allstate, Coca Cola, Walmart, T-Mobile, 1800 Flowers and others. MMA was a total reboot and is now 3x in revenue when he started.

Townsend is a versatile journalist with more than a decade of experience spanning pro sports, financial markets, public companies, business trends and policy. He's currently a reporter for Bloomberg News with a focus on retail, brands and the Trump administration. Some of his biggest scoops and most well-read stories include details on Apple's mobile wallet, the twenty-something who crushed a company's stock, FedEx CEO pushing his own tax reform plan, the nasty legal battle over Cabbage Patch Kids, Nike's bungling of a Chuck Taylor makeover, a profile of a dying U.S. mall and multiple exclusives on the American Apparel saga. 

Tiffany Yannetta is the shopping director at Racked, where she oversees everything from trend-driven market stories to personal essays about the experience of shopping. She's a graduate of Hunter College and is based in New York City.

Mr. Rogers writes for Forbes about Thought Leaders changing the business landscape (www.forbes.com/site/brucerogers) and is responsible for Forbes Media's Insights division and CMO Practice. Forbes Insights is a strategic thought leadership practice engaged by blue-chip companies like IBM, KPMG, Google, EY, Deloitte, Cisco and others. The Forbes CMO practice comprises content, thought-leadership and events for senior marketers incorporating the Forbes CMO Network (www.forbes.com/cmo-network) and events like the Forbes CMO Summit. He is the co-author of the recently published 127-page report “Publish or Perish—A CMO Roadmap for Managing, Systematizing and Optimizing the Marketing Content Supply Chain” (www.cmo-practice.forbes.com/advice). He is also the co-author of three books, “Profitable Brilliance,” “In the Line of Money” and “I Win You Whatever,” all of which are available on Amazon http://amzn.to/2gR9JGl

Tom leads MaxPoint’s efforts to deliver strategic growth for the company’s largest client partners. He is responsible for the development and deployment of data intelligence products for application across shopper experience initiatives, long-term customer engagement, and media strategy.  Before joining MaxPoint, he held senior management roles at an industry-leading behavioral targeting company and within some of the biggest ad agencies in the US.  Tom earned his BA from the University of Notre Dame.

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.

Myles is the CEO of global content production company CreativeDrive, located throughout the U.S., Latin America, and Asia, helping clients produce smarter, more relevant content by building end-to-end efficiency into the creative process. Peacock joins CreativeDrive from Omnicom Group's global implementation and production agency, where he was President, Americas, Global Brand Leader and original Worldwide COO and Co-Founder. He has accumulated over 20 years marketing communications experience whilst living and working in Asia, Europe and North America.

Oren is Co-Founder and CEO of cClearly. Prior to founding CClearly, Oren was Co-Founder and CEO of DoubleVerify, which created the ad verification category. Oren grew DoubleVerify to become a global leader with over 100 employees, $46m of venture capital and hundreds of customers, including 6 of the top 10 online marketers. Oren led adoption of ad verification in the industry to become a must have for every major marketer and led acceptance and promotion by major advertiser, ad agency and publisher trade organizations. Oren received the distinguished 2012 Technology Pioneers Award by World Economic Forum in Davos and is an inventor of multiple patents in the digital marketing space.

Skye Spear is the Vice President of Partnerships at Signifyd, a company focused on helping merchants realize their full potential by removing fraud as an obstacle to business growth. Skye helps extend Signifyd's reach by creating and fostering relationships with strategic partners in the eCommerce space. Prior to joining Signifyd, Skye held positions at Silver Tail Systems and RSA Security ranging from engineering to sales and marketing.

Paul J. Walsh is the Senior Vice President, Platform Strategy & Innovation for Visa Inc., responsible for leading Visa’s open platform initiative that launched in 2016. In this role, Walsh oversees the platform that provides open access to Visa technology, products and services and allows developers at merchants, financial institutions, technology companies and startups to build unique commerce experiences.

Walsh joins Visa with over 20 years of technology experience, most recently as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Omniscient Technology Group. At Omniscient Technology Group, Paul provided leadership and guidance to Fortune 1000 companies enabling them to transform business and consumer experiences to become relationship-focused digital journeys powered by simple and innovative business processes and technology solutions. 

Prior to Omniscient, Walsh served as the Global CIO at Dell Inc. and was responsible for leading a team of 10,000 people, stewarding a budget of $1.2B and managing an efficient and innovative global team delivering new levels of convenience for internal and external customers. In this role, Walsh was accountable for Dell’s online properties and grew the business from $11B, to $15.70B in 2015 web sales, with one billion visitors per year.  

Preceding his appointment at Dell, Walsh was the Vice President and General Manager of the Online Business Unit at Sears Holdings Corporation. In that role, Walsh galvanized a team that grew profitably and enabled Sears stagnating digital/online to grow by 25 percent and its omnichannel business to grow by 35 percent in the first year, through delivering an extremely profitable e-commerce platform and transforming business and consumer experiences to relationship-focused digital journeys. 

Before joining Sears Holdings Corporation, Walsh worked at Amazon where he helped define and deliver its e-commerce platform, was director of Product Management and Development at Quest Software and spent eight years at Microsoft in operational positions including platform strategy, product planning and enterprise management.

Pini Yakuel is founder and CEO of Optimove, provider of the industry’s leading Customer Marketing Cloud. Pini’s extensive experience in analytics-driven customer marketing, business consulting and sales, along with his innovative approaches to entrepreneurship and business-building, have earned him recognition as a thought leader. Pini has led Optimove to become a market leader, with more than 200 brands, including 1-800-Flowers, Adore Me, Lucky Vitamin and eBags, using his company’s software and services to orchestrate and automate highly-effective personalized CRM.

Shane is the Managing Director - East Coast at SourceKnowledge, a leading ad tech company in Montreal, Canada. Shane’s main role is managing accounts for various Fortune 500 companies and ensuring that all clients maximize their performance potential through data driven campaigns. He works closely with brands, agencies, app publishers, ecommerce and SaaS companies in order to integrate them into the full-stack marketing platform, Engage©, which gives marketers the tools they need to identify, recapture, convert and measure their audiences.

As Regional Vice President of Sales for the Americas, Nicole Hutzul is responsible for sales revenue, and overseeing high-level accounts — overseeing the growth of Emarsys direct sales, SDR, BDR, sales support and solutions teams in North and South America. With more than 15 years of experience in media sales, online advertising sales and SaaS sales and sales leadership, her teams focus on client success in these regions.

Prior to Emarsys, Nicole held various executive level positions.  At Adobe, she was Assistant Vice President of Commercial Enterprise Sales at Adobe where she managed a sales team focused on generating new revenue for Adobe Campaign solution to commercial enterprise accounts in the central and western U.S. and Canada. Before that, Nicole was at ExactTarget where she successfully increased ROI for Canadian enterprise clients in financial services, retail and travel verticals as well as Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform adoption and omni-channel engagement.

Nicole has built a reputation as an accomplished and experienced digital sales and marketing executive — creating and growing media companies.  Her proven sales talent has provided transformative results with today’s innovative digital marketing technology platforms. 

Troy brings more than 20 years of experience building product and development strategies for growing technology companies. He has been instrumental in the product strategy and business development efforts at several SaaS platform companies including Bloomfire, PeopleAdmin, MessageOne and EnvoyWorldwide. His experience delivering industry-leading solutions has traversed the globe in many enterprise, higher education and government client environments.

As VP of Product, Troy is responsible for the company’s product strategy and long-term planning of new capabilities that drive increasing value for both Edgecase and their clients. In his role, Troy will oversee platform and product design, product marketing and contribute on go-to-market efforts. Troy holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration and Management from Westfield State University.

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 various clients all over the world since 2004. He moved to Raleigh, NC, in early 2006 and joined ROI Revolution shortly thereafter. In his time at ROI, Denis has overseen tens of millions of dollars in PPC ad spend, specifically for retailers, and he understands where and how to look in order to improve results accordingly.

As Vice President of Strategy, Meera develops new growth initiatives in sales, product and customer development. Combining her deep understanding of business challenges across retail, travel, technology and financial services companies with her expertise in personalization, Meera drives game-changing strategies with measurable results. Prior to Evergage, Meera spent 13 years focused on customer development and building client service organizations. Meera graduated from Cooper Union with a BS in Engineering.

25 years of technical, consulting and leadership experience in enterprise architecture planning, commerce strategy, product evaluation/selection, software development and technology implementation/support. Currently responsible for Sapient’s Global Customer Engagement Platform Practice which includes sales, strategy, oversight, planning and reviews for numerous commerce strategy and implementation engagements. Has led many strategy and implementation projects with Fortune 500 clients including Target, Barnes and Noble College Booksellers, Sprint, JCPenney and PetSmart. 

Amir Shub is the General Manager for Smartly.io Americas. Amir brings years of experience in leading technology companies and identifying growth strategies, working closely with brands and partners, including in the e-commerce sector. Prior to joining Smartly.io, Amir served as Chief Product Officer at Wyng and as SVP Head of Business Transformation at LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN). 

Gary is Vice President Worldwide at YourAmigo, the world leader in Artificial Intelligence organic search marketing services which finds gaps where YourAmigo’s  clients are not receiving non-brand traffic and revenue.   Operating in 32 countries, YourAmigo's Big Data service and machine learning technology supplements their client’s SEO teams by finding thousands of new ultra long-tail search phrases every day which attract many new customers who are very early in their buying cycle.    YourAmigo’s scalable Big Data service provides an overall incremental revenue increase for clients between 5% to 25% above the client's current total online revenue.

Laurent Vincent is a Sr. Sales Engineer who partners with businesses to unleash the value of data, turning an underestimated asset into significant net new revenue. Prior working for GoodData, he held similar positions in Europe and helped a number of retail corporations -including some of the French most famous luxury brands- to better leverage the power of data and analytics in order to gain a competitive advantage. He graduated with honors from Paris-Sorbonne University with a Master in International Business and earned a Certificate in Big Data from MIT Professional Education.

Jason has almost 20 years of digital and direct marketing experience with tenure on both the client and agency sides. He currently leads the Sales & Solution Consulting practice at Precision Dialogue, with a focus on delivering maximum ROMI by leveraging strategy, information, insights, and hyper-relevant interactions. Jason has also led teams in client services, driving both marketing strategy and execution for companies in retail, healthcare, hospitality, and financial services. On the client side, Jason managed interactive and direct marketing teams, developing winning strategies and execution for new customer acquisition, relationship optimization, customer cross-sell/up-sell, and retention.

Cory Munchbach is the senior vice president of strategy at BlueConic, the world's simplest and most accessible customer data platform, empowering every marketer to find success with a CDP. Prior to joining BlueConic, Cory was an analyst on the customer insights practice at Forrester Research, covering the intersection of marketing strategy and technology and an expert in the marketing technology landscape. She worked with user and vendor clients globally and was quoted frequently in industry-leading publications such as Forbes, AdAge, MediaPost, MarketingWeek, and AdExchanger. Cory is a Boston College alum and proud Boston native.

In 1997, Scott Smigler founded Exclusive Concepts, Inc. (EXCLUSIVE), an ecommerce marketing agency that helps online retailers grow revenue exponentially. He later founded GrowByData, which helps online retailers manage and enrich their product data. His companies are trusted by thousands of growing retailers and Fortune 500 companies alike, and have made the INC 5000 six years in a row. Scott speaks regularly at leading industry conferences including eTail, IRCE, and Search Engine Strategies.

James founded Good Growth and is co-author of the book ‘Leading Digital Strategy’.  James is responsible for ensuring all clients grow their businesses through working with Good Growth.  James has expertise across Digital Strategy, CRM and CRO and has had the privilege of working with some of the largest and most successful UK and global brands.  He holds a finance and management first degree and went to the University of Cambridge to complete a postgraduate course in management.

Bill (@wewiv) is head of partnerships, Midwest region, where he is responsible for client and agency partnerships from the Midwest to the West Coast. Before Pinterest, Bill held multiple leadership roles at Demand Media, most recently as vice president of national sales, where he was responsible for branded advertising sales, including paid media and content solutions for brands. Prior to Demand Media, Bill spent more than five years at Yahoo. Bill is currently pinning cars, retro album covers and his next pair of sneakers.

Dan is responsible for all global marketing functions at Instart Logic.  He is a seasoned marketing and operating executive and has driven more than $4 billion in IPO and M&A transactions, and counting. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA.

Mukund leads the Marketing team and is responsible for all go-to-market and marketing functions including brand & corporate marketing, demand generation, product marketing & sales enablement. He has over 15+ years of experience in senior marketing positions in high-growth companies such as Krux, DataXu, Tremor Video and Yahoo!. Mukund holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of International Management, and a Master’s in Management Studies from BITS, Pilani, India.

Antoine Blondeau is co-founder and co-chairman of Sentient. A seasoned entrepreneur and investor, Antoine has 25 years of experience in the technology industry, having held senior leadership positions at Good Technology, Salesforce.com and Sybase.

Antoine’s career highlights include leading Dejima as CEO, the company that powered DARPA’s foundational CALO project that later evolved into Apple’s Siri. Antoine was also chief operating officer of Zi Corporation, whose smart text input software was embedded in hundreds of millions of devices.

Antoine is an investor, board member and advisor in a number of companies in California, New York, Greater China and Japan, and is the author or co-author of 5 patents. Antoine holds a MBA from the Paris Graduate School of Management (ESCP) and has studied at the faculties of Economics and Commerce of Chuo University in Tokyo.