Kelly Lewis Brezoczky has enjoyed a successful career in senior management, marketing and operations in both large corporate and start up environments.  Known as a consumer health innovator and mature health and wellness advocate, she has extensive global experience in both consumer and medical products.

Kelly began her career at Procter & Gamble, rising to Marketing Director. She developed global marketing models for brands such as Always and Oil of Olay, and helped lead P&G China to its first $500M revenue in the 1990’s. She then founded and led a Consumer Health consulting firm, developing commercialization and marketing strategies for new healthcare, pharmaceutical and medical device technologies. This led her to launching Butterfly Health, where she was Founder, CEO, and CMO.  She and her husband and two former P&G colleagues invented Butterfly Body Liners, the visionary hygiene product for the 20 million active adults who experience accidental bowel leakage (ABL). Butterfly launched in 2012 with a national rollout to major retailers, and had the highest online consumer satisfaction ratings among all health and beauty products in 2014.  It won both an Edison Award and the Nonwovens Industry Visionary New Product award.

Kelly studied International Studies and was selected as a North Carolina Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has published peer-reviewed papers in the International Journal of Clinical Practice and provides guest lectures and mentors Fellows at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.  She greatly enjoys the outdoors and spent a year mountain climbing around the world.  She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three daughters.

From 2013-2018, Gary was the CMO of Facebook, responsible for the company’s brand, consumer, and product marketing.  Prior to joining Facebook, from 2010-13, he served in various roles at Google, including CMO of Motorola upon its acquisition by Google, and VP, Consumer Marketing.

During his tenure at Google, he led marketing efforts for search, maps, commerce, Chrome, Google+, Google.org, and the Google brand overall. Prior to joining Google, Gary was CEO at Plastic Jungle, a gift card startup, where he joined from their board of directors. Before that, Gary worked at eBay from 2002-08 in roles as vice president of Consumer Marketing, general manager of eBay Canada, global marketing head of PayPal, and CMO of eBay North America.

Earlier in his career, Gary worked for six years at Pepsi, where he launched Aquafina, Pepsi’s joint venture with Starbucks and was director of Brand Pepsi. He also spent two years at IBM running worldwide brand strategy and was an engagement manager at McKinsey.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 from Brown University and a Masters in Management in 1989 from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

He serves on the boards of Etsy, Inc (NASDAQ: Etsy) and Petco, as well as an advisor to several early stage companies.

Gary is married and has twin boys.

Rick’s career in general management and marketing has spanned multiple countries and across a diverse set of industries such as CPG, Retail, Healthcare and Financial Services. He started his career in brand management with companies like Unilever, Lipton and Gillette. He also worked for the Braun Company in Germany as part of their international Business Management Group which oversaw the global launch of new product innovation.

Brown spent the last 5 years with H&R Block as President of their Canadian operations, where he had full P&L responsibilities and led the growth of tax and financial services for this $300 million company, plus built a proprietary digital tax software platform and e-commerce business.

Prior to this Rick was Chief Marketing Office and SVP, Sales and Business Development for a healthcare service company in the US called Smile Brands, a market leader in the dental care sector with $500 million in revenue, serving 2+ million patients annually. He played a major role in navigating the company through an IPO process and the ultimate sale of the company in 2011.

Rick spent 12 years working in the QSR industry. He served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Burger King, leading all global strategy and programs. He worked with the management team to successfully turn around the business and position it for sale, which was completed in 2004. He started out with PepsiCo Restaurants International in various roles both in Canada, as National Director of Marketing and in the US as Vice President of Marketing responsible for regional/local investment and management of the franchise community.

Brown has a Master of Business Administration degree from the Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He also earned a Bachelor of Commerce Degree where he majored in Marketing and Finance, also from the University of Concordia.

Rick is a dual citizen of both Canada and the US. He is married with 2 daughters and currently resides in Southern California.

Alan Gellman, founder of Convivo Leadership, is an executive coach who works with leaders and their teams. His mission is to help successful people succeed more, increasing long-term joy and impact for themselves, their teams and their organizations. He has coached C-level executives as well as those at the VP and director level. He has also coached startups, non-profit leaders and a Pulitzer Prize-winning best-selling author.

His 30 year career in marketing and general management spanned multiple industries including financial services, insurance, health care and consumer packaged goods. He held senior roles in enterprises ranging in size from Wells Fargo to a startup where he built a new brand identity and which he helped significantly scale during his tenure. When he was Chief Marketing Officer at Esurance, Business Insider named him one of the 50 Most Innovative CMOs in the World, and his team won the Super Bowl “Hashtag Bowl,” according to Forbes.

He serves on the North American Advisory Board of the CMO Council; is a Fellow on the Future of Money Project at the Center for the Digital Future, part of the USC Annenberg School of Communications; and serves on the Board of Directors of Pact, An Adoption Alliance. He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Rochester’s Simon School.

Alan has a passion and talent for developing people to be their best. He is married with two children in the San Francisco Bay area and loves cycling and hiking in the Bay area hills.

Knight was Chief Marketing Officer for Taco Bell from 1999 to 2001.

Kip began his career at Burke Marketing Research and has worked in 65 countries during his 37-year career. He spent 10 years in brand management at Procter & Gamble and 10 years in PepsiCo’s international restaurant division, where he served as General Manager of North Latin America and the first head of marketing for KFC International.

Knight worked at eBay, the world’s largest e-commerce site. He was vice-president of marketing for eBay, North America. He was also responsible for managing eBay Canada, the leading e-commerce site in Canada. He was the first head of International Marketing and served as Regional Vice President for eBay International for Latin America, Australia and Taiwan.

Knight joined H&R Block in 2012 and served as president of U.S. Retail Operations. In addition, he served as president of H&R Block International.

He currently serves as an Independent Director for 5.11 Tactical, the global category leader in the tactical clothing category.

Knight is the founder of the U.S. Marketing Communication College (USMCC), a pro bono organization which works with the State Department to train diplomats on marketing strategy and implementation. Kip has worked with the National Security Council and State Department since 2008 in developing CVE strategies and training, including ways to deal with the emergence and growth of “fake news”.

Knight earned his Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Louisiana State University (recognized as one of LSU’s Alumni of the Year in 2007) and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Cincinnati. He has two sons. He and his wife Peggy live in San Juan Capistrano, California.

Marise Kumar has significant general management experience and is known for building business strategies with a strong consumer core. Her focus at C2B Strategies is driving growth for mid size retailers and supporting non-profit organizations as they bring community projects to life.

Prior to founding her current company (C2B Strategies), she worked at Best Buy as the Chief Customer Experience Officer & CMO for the International Division and with Lowe’s Corporation as SVP Strategy & Modeling for the US Home Improvement business.

Her diverse career covers general management, marketing and product development in emerging and developed markets, across packaged goods and durables, in both manufacturing and retail organizations. The common thread has been understanding the customer and working across the leadership team to bring about change the consumer can see and employees can get behind.

In addition to Best Buy and Lowe’s, Marise has worked with major corporations such as Whirlpool where she was in charge of running consumer businesses in North America and with Colgate Palmolive where she launched brands in India and Malaysia.

Marise holds a BA in Economics and Statistics from Elphinstone College in Mumbai and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta) where she completed her MBA in Marketing and Finance.

Jennifer Leuer is a senior operating executive with 20 years of experience, focusing on launching, scaling and fixing businesses. Jennifer has led both direct-to-consumer and B2B marketing organizations, and is passionate about driving business strategy rooted in market and customer insights.

She has held a variety of roles during her two tenures with Experian, most recently as President of Experian Partner Solutions, which provides a spectrum services that enable partners across multiple verticals to acquire, engage and retain customers. Prior to that, Jennifer spent nearly three years as a General Manager at Auction.com, where she led the consumer-to-consumer residential and commercial real estate groups. Jennifer has also served as General Manager of Experian’s ProtectMyID, Senior Vice President of Experian Consumer Services Product and Membership Retention, and led roles dedicated to strategy, marketing and business risk management. Her early career began in the newspaper publishing industry as a reporter.

Jennifer earned her MBA from University of California Irvine Paul Merage School of Business and her BA in Communications from California State University, Fullerton. She is also a graduate of the College of Executive Coaching’s Intensive Coach Training Program.

Jennifer serves on the Board of Directors for BigRentz, the nation’s largest equipment rental network. Her non-profit service includes board roles with OCTANe and OneOC. She has two sons and lives with her family in Southern California.

Chief Marketing Officer, Farmers Group, Inc.

Mike Linton has been in marketing and general management for over 30 years. After graduating from Bowling Green State University and Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, he began his career in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble in 1980. He went on to Progressive Insurance, James River Paper Company and Remington in various Marketing and General Management positions. In 1999, Mike moved to Best Buy where he became its first ever Chief Marketing Officer responsible for all marketing, brand management, research, customer relationship management, call centers, the internal advertising agency and public and investor relations. In late 2006 he moved to eBay, first in general management as the Senior Vice President of eBay Motors, Canada, Half.com and eBay Stores and then as the CMO. He left eBay in early 2009 and consulted for a number of companies while writing for Forbes.com. In 2010, he joined a Silicon Valley start-up, and was recruited to Farmers Insurance in October 2011 as its Chief Marketing Officer. His responsibilities include marketing, research, internal and external communications, the customer experience function and the company’s digital and mobile efforts.

Linton is on the Board of Directors of The Wine Group and Medical Solutions and advises a number of early stage companies. He previously served as a Director of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Capella Education, support.com and the Allen Edmonds Shoe Company (private equity). During his board service he has chaired both the Compensation and Nominating & Governance Committees.

Mike was named by Promotion Magazine as a Marketer of the Year in 2004 and by Ad Age as one of the most influential 30 marketers in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He was named one of the 50 Most Innovative CMO’s in the World and Think L.A. Client of the year in 2017, has won 4 Effies and has been a speaker at numerous conferences. He is a charter member of the Marketing-50, was elected to the Retail Advertising Hall of Fame in 2008, rang the opening bell at the NYSE and has been featured in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, the Boyden Leadership Series, Wine & Spirits, Advertising Age and Promo Magazine. Mike’s hobbies include biking, travel, wine, and reading. He and his wife Deb live in Northern California and have two grown children and two Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

Ed’s combination of experiences in business is unique. Twenty-four years in brand management with some of the most iconic companies in the business world, thirty years in innovation leadership and over twenty years in executive search. He understands the intersection of these three critical elements – strategy, innovation and people.

Starting with Procter & Gamble brand management right out of undergrad, Ed has held brand management roles at P&G, Vlasic Foods/Campbell’s Soup, and IBM with responsibility for new products in each role. He has increased his involvement with
innovation and new products throughout his career and continues to train, coach and
mentor companies in this area. He augmented this line experience with twenty years as a principal and/or partner in two executive search firms specializing in bringing commercial leadership into both large and small companies. From Fortune 500 to private equity funded businesses in a wide range of industries, Ed has identified the critical success factors required to work in leadership and innovation roles.

While there are a handful of highly effective systems for driving innovation from idea to marketplace success, Ed’s research interest has also been in understanding the essential relationships between people on an innovation team and the chemistry that results. For example, working with his partners at Sycamore and Company, Ed drove development of an assessment tool to help identify the ideal candidates for senior operational roles when working with and for entrepreneurial “genius founders.” This is often the most critical transition a new business can face.

Ed has been the Chairman of the Global Board of the 38,000 member P&G Alumni Network since 2003. He also leads a group of senior executives who make up the U.S. Marketing Communication College, teaching U.S. government departments and agencies the key principles of effective communications. Ed has two daughters and he and his wife Julie live in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

EDUCATION
BA – Advertising, Michigan State University, 1973

Julia Fitzgerald is a Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Executive with 20+ years of proven experience, specializing in strategic work that reinvents brands and drives growth. Julia has led marketing successes driving financials with Thermos, Sylvan Learning, Sears, Kmart, Vtech, Hallmark, Azek and Timbertech, always choosing brands that seek dynamic, creative marketing pivots.

Fitzgerald’s experience spans CPG, retail, franchising and B2B business models. She attributes her success to a knack for developing high-performing teams and leading brand-positioning that connects with consumers. Through integrated marketing, she’s consistently driven growth in top line revenue, market share, and EBITDA, as well as creating unique, memorable campaigns. She’s also proven herself a force in the digital arena, driving e-commerce and omni-channel campaigns as the Chief Digital Engagement Officer at Sears Holdings. She launches high-conversion sites, CRM programs, content strategies, and AR/VR applications to drive leads, loyalty and e-commerce.

Julia earned a BA in Spanish and a BS in International Business at The Ohio State University and her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.

Bob has played a key role in building two media firms that are ranked in the top 50 worldwide. Most recently, he was involved in building an 800-person firm, W2O Group, which is centered on algorithms, machine-learning and innovative media models that lead to insights-driven marketing communications
campaigns. He has served as Chief Technology Officer, President and Vice-Chairman.

Prior to W2O Group, Bob worked as VP of Communities and Conversations at Dell to develop the Fortune 500’s first global social media function—an industry-leading approach to the use of social media, as highlighted in the best seller, GroundSwell. Before Dell, Bob was Head of Global Corporate Communications and Head of
Global Pharma Communications at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland, where he served on the Pharma Executive Committee and he held the role of Vice President of Media and Public Affairs for Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi).

He is an author, frequent speaker and blogger on digital marketing, as well as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University and The University of Texas McCombs School, where he is teaching a new course on digital media models. He is a Visiting Scholar at The University of Southern California, where he has designed a new graduate-level class that is focused on emerging analytics and digital models. Bob is also a guest lecturer at the U.S. State Department’s Marketing College with a focus on digital media and how to counter disinformation and extremism. He works in a digital media capacity as a contractor for OTI/USAID and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

He has written two digital media books (PreCommerce and Storytizing) based on key learning’s from the firm’s work with innovative companies and individuals. Bob’s third book, Countering Hate, explores how bias, hate and extremism forms and how we can counter it. His fourth book, Crafting Persuasion, was written with Kip Knight & Ed Tazzia about their learning’s in teaching companies and diplomats how to tell their story effectively. Bob is currently working on his first novel (a technology thriller).

Bob currently serves on the board of Vetted.org (vice-chair), as an advisor for several media software companies and as CEO of the MedicAlert Foundation. Bob resides in Austin, Texas.

Zwiers began her career at Procter & Gamble in 1980 in brand management. In her decade of working in CPG, she also worked at Tambrands, Inc. (formerly Tampax Inc.) and Heinz Pet Products.

In 1990, she joined Mattel and rose to Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for the Barbie® brand. She was responsible for a brand representing 80% Mattel’s profits and led her team to reach its highest peak ever in financial performance. She ultimately became General Manager of the Girls Toys division for Mattel.

She founded her consulting firm, Funosophy, Inc., in 2000 with 60+ independent contractors. Her company had over 200 clients, from start-ups to large multi-nationals, including Disney, Hasbro, Leapfrog and other leading companies. Her clients appreciated Nancy’s strategic thought leadership and her ability to help them significantly grow their businesses.

In 2015, Nancy joined Spin Master, Inc. to become EVP/CMO at Spin Master, the world’s fourth largest toy and children’s entertainment company, and makers of Paw Patrol® and Hatchimals® brands. She led the company’s eight global business units and helped drive +80% growth during her 3+ years.

Helping people learn and grow is Nancy’s purpose and passion. As Executive Board member of Women in Toys, Licensing, and Entertainment, she has been Co-Chair of the Empowerment Committee (and Empowerment Day, established in partnership with Walmart). As an industry thought leader and female role mode, Zwiers has received numerous awards and accolades, including Entrepreneur of the Year, Inventor of the Year, and the prestigious 2018 Mentorship Award. Zwiers has served on the Toy Association Board of Directors and has volunteered as a CASA mentor as well as a faculty member for the US Marketing Communication College serving the U.S. State Department.

Nancy earned a BS in Marketing at the University of Ilinois at Urbana-Champagne and worked on a Masters in Organizational Psychology at Columbia University in NYC.