Mayur Gupta

Mayur is the chief marketing officer at Freshly. His mission is to build a household lifestyle brand at the intersections of health and wellness, brilliant taste, and convenience. He is leading the vision and strategy to establish a data-inspired ecosystem that delivers valuable personalized experiences at every point in a customer’s journey, directly impacting their health and wellness goals.

Prior to that, Mayur was the global VP for growth and marketing at Spotify. He was responsible for driving growth by leveraging data-driven always-on experiences; testing new business models, partnerships, and engagement strategies; and establishing marketing capabilities for fans, artists, and B2B brand partners.

Carl Loredo

Carl joined the Wendy’s marketing team in January 2016 as VP of brand marketing with responsibilities for brand strategy and product development. In summer 2017, he was given the additional responsibilities of creative development and advertising, media buying and social programming for the brand.

Prior to joining Wendy’s, Carl was a vice president at The Marketing Arm in Dallas, where he was responsible for developing strategic plans, communications, digital programming, and customer shopper marketing activation for some of the world’s best-known consumer products, including: Lay’s, Bud Light, Dannon and L'Oréal. He was also the multicultural agency practice lead, responsible for positioning, opportunity assessment, new business, and agency team leadership on businesses like AT&T.

Erica Hudson

Erica is a supervisor, client engagement, on Team Wendy’s. Working on the Wendy’s team for the past two years, Erica has helped lead the team around some of our biggest social activations. She has the important role of being the point of contact between clients, partners and a social creative team that will often pitch ideas that might seem maybe just a little bit crazy at first glance. When Erica isn’t working with the team on Wendy’s campaigns or social activations, you can probably find her watching a cooking show or traveling to the closest Beyoncé concert.

Matt Keck

Matt is the associate director of conversation design for Team Wendy’s, which is the fancy corporate way of saying “the voice behind all those sassy tweets.” He has been on the Wendy’s team for six years, and has been a major part of everything from Nuggs for Carter to We Beefin’ to our recent Fortnite activation. He is always looking for the next big crazy thing that can make the brand stand out in the constantly changing digital world.

Jeremy Cline

Jeremy is the senior analyst, strategy and insights on the Wendy’s team. He has taken a traditional data role and transformed it into a creative one by activating alongside our creative teams to create data-driven work. Jeremy is an advocate for effectiveness and an Effie Academy graduate and Effie Award winner. If you didn't get a chance to say "hi" at the conference, maybe you can catch his band on tour.

Ian Davidson

Ian serves as the executive director of strategy and insights for VMLY&R’s many clients across North America. He leads a team of fearless planners, researchers, and strategists that infuse cultural trends, audience mindset, and brand authenticity into every brief, approach, and presentation. He brings 16 years of experience working with clients like Gatorade, Electrolux, Sherwin-Williams and United Rentals, among others. He believes that brands exist to solve human problems versus simply selling products or services. That we must give people credit for the lives they live. That our goal should never be to understand our audience, but to like them. His work has been recognized with Cannes Lions, Effies and Clios, but he’s not just in it for awards. He’s in it for the grit. The process. The love of finding a human story and making something beautiful out of it.

Prior to joining VMLY&R in 2013, Davidson founded the insights and planning practice at C3, a Kansas City-based agency that specializes in the youth and family consumer segment. He's a graduate of Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Advertising.

Shantell Martin

Shantell is a cultural facilitator, forging new connections between fine art, education, design, philosophy and technology — exploring themes such as intersectionality, identity and play.

A fashion and design icon in her own right, Shantell has collaborated with iconic brands, such as Nike, Vitra, Max Mara, Tiffany & Co., and in 2018, Puma launched a global capsule collection featuring her drawings. Shantell has collaborated with legendary artists, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning performance artist Kendrick Lamar and acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler. In late 2018, she was asked to collaborate with the prestigious New York City Ballet, where she created large-scale drawings in the performance hall and foyer of the Lincoln Center for the company’s celebrated Art Series.

Daniel Kraft, MD

Daniel has more than 25 years of experience in clinical practice. Following degrees from Brown University and the medical school at Stanford, Daniel was board certified in both internal medicine and pediatrics. He has publications in multiple scientific journals, as well as medical device, immunology and stem cell-related patents through faculty positions with Stanford University School of Medicine.

Daniel is also the inventor of the MarrowMiner, an FDA-approved device for the minimally invasive harvest of bone marrow. He also founded RegenMed Systems, a company developing technologies to enable adult stem cell-based regenerative therapies. Daniel is an avid pilot and has served in the Massachusetts and California Air National Guard as an officer and flight surgeon with F-15 and F-16 fighter squadrons. He has conducted research on aerospace medicine, which was published with NASA, with whom he was a finalist for astronaut selection.

Debbi Vandeven

Debbi is the global chief creative officer of VMLY&R. She was recently honored on Adweek’s Creative 100 and Business Insider’s “The 30 most creative people in advertising 2016” list. She has served on international award show juries, including for the ANDY Awards, Art Directors Club Annual Awards (2018 jury chair), Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (2018 entertainment jury president), Clio Awards (2016 digital jury chair) and One Show Interactive.

Debbi was part of the founding group of female agency leaders who launched TIME’S UP/ADVERTISING. She was named one of “Ad Age’s Women to Watch 2014” and is a strong supporter of initiatives advancing women in creative leadership. This mindset contributed to VML being named one of the two first-ever 3% certified agencies in 2017.

Suba Nadarajah

Subashini (Suba) Nadarajah is the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at VMLY&R. In this role, Nadarajah cultivates independent employee networks and programs, along with wider industry support systems, in collaboration with organizations such as NAAAP, Mid-America GLCC, and GLAAD. She also leads in-agency advocacy, identifying and advancing best practices, education, and employee engagement programs that promote progressive environments where all talent can thrive.

Nadarajah has been an influential thought leader on the role of design and creativity in promoting equality. She previously served as the director of design for VMLY&R, leading design and branding for client teams. Her experience spans senior design roles on major brands such as Walmart, McDonald’s, Sprint and Bayer, and she has earned recognition from The One Show, Art Directors Club and Addy Awards for her work.

Regina Hopper

Through a career spanning work in the fields of transportation, telecommunications, energy, media, communications and law, Regina has become known as a leader in national and state advocacy initiatives. She has been named a top CEO by CEO Update and The Hilland, a Johnson Fellow at the University of Arkansas, and most recently the prestigious Gayle Pettus Pontz legal award.

As a former chairwoman of the Miss America Organization Board of Trustees and member of the Miss America Board of Directors, she rejoined the organization in January 2018 to assist in instituting new governance and management best practices, serving as the organization’s volunteer president and CEO.

Sam Barbera

Samantha is the founder, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for BEGINNERS, an LA-based femme-electropop powerhouse with punk rock spirit and catchy dance anthems. BEGINNERS have received prominent coverage in Rolling Stone, The Guardian and Interview Magazine. They’ve toured with Walk The Moon and racked up over 15 million combined streams on Spotify, all while remaining fiercely independent. BEGINNERS have had songs featured in branding campaigns for New Balance, Acura, Taco Bell, Ray-Ban, Miller Lite, McDonald’s, Skullcandy, YouTube, Spotify and House Beer. They’ve also landed multiple high-profile film and TV placements in “The Happytime Murders,” “Disobedience,” “Riverdale,” “New Girl,” “Lucifer” and “Shameless,” as well as in promos for both the ABC and Starz networks.

Austin Kleon

Austin is the New York Times best-selling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age: “Steal Like An Artist,” “Show Your Work!” and “Keep Going.” He’s also the author of “Newspaper Blackout,” a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker. New York magazine called his work “brilliant,” The Atlantic called him “positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet,” and The New Yorker said his poems “resurrect the newspaper when everybody else is declaring it dead.”

In previous lives, he worked as a librarian, a web designer and an advertising copywriter. He grew up in the cornfields of Ohio, but now he lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and sons.

Amy Winger

As chief strategy officer, Amy looks after a multidiscipline strategy group of data fiends, insight hunters, and strategic masterminds who are in relentless pursuit of the truth about humanity and culture.

In her 20-year career with the agency, she’s worked with brands ranging from cereal to software. She is a passionate advocate for the art of strategy and is actively involved with the 4A’s and Effie programs that award strategic excellence and effectiveness. You can find her facilitating workshops and whiteboard sessions around the world.

Beth Ann Kaminkow

Beth Ann is the global chief executive officer of Geometry. Having been in the industry for over two decades, Beth Ann has touched every aspect of marketing communications and brings both client and agency-side perspectives to her work. She is a strong advocate of insights-inspired marketing programs and was a pioneer in strategic-planning research methodologies. She continues to drive innovation in this space.

Beth Ann began her career in product development and innovation at Hasbro. She was then a founding member of a successful startup purchased by Omnicom, and led global agency TracyLocke as the first female CEO in its 100-year history, as well as served as global chief marketing officer of Westfield Corp. She most recently served as the CEO for Kantar Consulting Americas.

Clara Luo

As director of business development at BAV Group and member of BAV Group’s leadership team, Clara Luo oversees business strategy and growth, one of the industry’s most respected global brand consultancies. In partnership with senior leadership, Clara is responsible for executing initiatives that build on BAV Group’s business vision and operational excellence.

Clara brings deep marketing expertise across categories such as professional services and the financial services sector. She has worked as a marketing consultant for eight of the top 20 U.S. national banks. Clara began her career with the Bank of New York Mellon where she managed the global innovation program and corporate communications. She holds a BS in business administration with a double concentration in marketing and finance from Boston University Questrom School of Business.

Jason Xenopoulos

Jason is a creative entrepreneur whose media ventures have spanned all areas of the industry, from film and television to music, advertising and the internet. He currently holds the positions of CEO for VMLY&R New York and chief creative officer for North America.

In 2010, Jason co-founded NATIVE, which rapidly grew to be Africa’s leading digital marketing agency and part of the VML network. Over seven years, under Jason’s creative leadership, NATIVE VML won a host of local and international awards. At the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, NATIVE VML won campaign Gold, Silver, and Bronze Lions, catapulting the agency into the top three performing South African agencies at the festival. NATIVE VML also dominated the 2016 IAB Awards being named “Agency of the Year” for the second time.

Jeff Geheb

As the leader of VMLY&R’s global consulting and technology department, Jeff is responsible for the capabilities that drive the creation of world-class consumer engagement platforms. His responsibilities include the strategic direction for marketing technology, the adoption of new digital innovation, and the governance of VMLY&R’s global technology network.

Jeff works directly with VMLY&R’s largest clients to align their business needs to the most innovative and purposeful technology solutions. He also plays an instrumental role in developing VMLY&R’s overall strategic capabilities. Jeff works across global capability and office leadership to develop new and emerging practices related to commerce, data-driven marketing, and product innovation.

Andrew Hogan

Andrew is a senior analyst serving customer experience professionals. He focuses on experience design — specifically user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design for websites, apps, messaging, and digital-physical interactions. He researches the future of experience design, identifies trends and patterns, analyzes best practices, and examines which experience design services firms and agencies are best suited to help, and how. Andrew holds a BBA in marketing from Texas State University.

Michael Stich

Michael leads VMLY&R’s advisory organization. Focused on expanding the promise of a world-class, end-to-end agency, VMLY&R advisory helps CMOs and their peers find growth and accelerate change across their organizations. Michael and his team advise top marketing clients across industries in areas such as landscape assessments, growth strategies, capability building, change leadership, and martech planning.

Michael also serves as a frequent speaker and writer on a variety of digital marketing topics, including ecommerce, mobile, digital shopper, search, analytics, user experiences, and startups. He was recognized as the COO winner of the C-Suite Awards by the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Jon Bird

Jon heads VMLY&R’s global retail and commerce practice, working at the intersection of digital and retail for some of the world’s best brands. Prior to this role, Jon was executive director, retail and shopper marketing, for VML and preceding that, he led Labstore, Y&R’s worldwide retail network.

Before relocating to the U.S. in 2014, Jon was based in Australia and was a founding partner and ultimately executive chairman of IdeaWorks, which became the region’s foremost specialist retail marketing agency. Jon is a regular and passionate commentator on all things retail, contributing to Forbes and speaking at events and conferences all over the world, from Sydney to Santiago.

Katie Hunt

Katie is the co-founder and chief revenue officer of what is said to be the “most interesting store in the world.” She began her career as the third employee of Warby Parker, served as the chief brand officer for Hinge, where she led the charge for its relaunch and rebrand, and has worked extensively with startups in branding, product development, marketing, operations and fundraising.

Past clients include AB InBev, Soludos, The Arrivals, and Onomie. Additionally, Katie is a co-founder of The Fund, which is a VC fund made up of over 80 New York founders and operators that invests and mentors early-stage companies in NYC.

Ben Kaufman

Ben is the CMO of BuzzFeed, leading a team to grow BuzzFeed’s brands and seek new opportunities to help monetize different areas of business. He also oversees the BuzzFeed Media Lab, a group that creates new media formats and character-based IP like The Good Advice Cupcake. In addition to his role at BuzzFeed, Ben is also the CEO and co-founder of CAMP, a new national retail chain of family experience stores launched in 2018 and headquartered in New York City.

Prior to BuzzFeed, Ben founded Apple accessory company mophie and social invention platform Quirky. Ben has always been obsessed with speeding up design, manufacturing and marketing processes.

Butch Spyridon

Butch has served as the head of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp (NCVC) since 1991. During Butch’s tenure, the NCVC has been involved with development initiatives, which include the Tennessee Titans, Bridgestone Arena, Music City July 4th, New Year’s Eve in Nashville, the Music City Center, Music City Walk of Fame, and the city’s first-ever branding initiative. In addition, the NCVC has produced two award-winning documentary films, winning a Silver Lion Awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Combined with the NCVC ongoing sales and marketing initiatives, Nashville hotel demand has grown faster than any other top 30 U.S. city since 2013, and Nashville was named a top destination in the world by multiple publications for six consecutive years.

Jon Cook

Jon became global chief executive officer of VMLY&R on Sept. 26, 2018. The new agency — combining leading brands VML and Y&R — created a global marketing force with 7,000 employees. On Oct. 24, 2018, the Sudler U.S. network — one of the industry’s most respected healthcare practices — became part of VMLY&R.

Prior to leading VMLY&R, Jon served as VML global CEO since 2011. He helped lead VML to Ad Age’s A-List honors — which recognizes the industry’s top 10 most influential and impactful agencies — each of the past three years (2016-2018). VML was named Entertainment Agency of the Year the past two years at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and was recognized as a leader by Forrester and Gartner.

Yusuf Chuku

With more than 20 years in the communication business, Yusuf is the current global chief strategy officer for VMLY&R. He has worked across most flavors of planning and strategy — making him one of the few genuine hybrid strategists. This experience makes him adept at not just understanding what's driving people and culture but, importantly, what those insights mean for brands and business.

He's won a few awards along the way, including a gold at the IPA Awards, a few Effies, a Jay Chiat or two and marketing effectiveness awards. He's a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was previously a non-executive board member of Ofsted.

Mohammad Rasoulipour

Mohammad Rasoulipour is senior experience designer for the customer experience department at VMLY&R. He has a background in engineering and industrial design and has designed digital platforms for brands such as Ford, Gatorade, Dell, and the Government of Saudi Arabia. His passion is to find purposeful projects empowered by cool new technology.

Beth Wade

As chief marketing officer & global network lead, Beth is responsible for facilitating the growth of the VMLY&R brand and marketing strategy across the VMLY&R global network. Beth has been an integral part of the expansion of VMLY&R and is responsible for the ongoing evolution of the network. As a part of the executive leadership team, she drives consistency in brand strategy, leads a dynamic and connected culture, ensures client service team connectivity, as well as discipline integration between the VMLY&R network offices.

Beth has been with VML for 15 years with her previous role being Chief Client Officer. As Chief Client Officer, she worked alongside each department lead on agency service offering evolution, company growth and achieving impressive results on the behalf of our client base. Outside of her time at VMLY&R, Beth spends her free time with her husband and her daughter who is an aspiring artist.