Heidi Murkoff
Author, What to Expect When You're Expecting
Founder, What To Expect Franchise

Heidi Murkoff, author of What to Expect When You're Expecting and the creator of the world's most popular and trusted pregnancy and parenting brand. WTE delivers empowering information - along with support and reassurance - to millions of expectant and new parents. Its mission: to help every parent know what to expect, every step of the way. The brand includes the What to Expect series of books which have sold over 40 million copies worldwide and is published in more than 30 languages; their online companion, WhatToExpect.com; and the WTE Pregnancy Tracker iPhone app -- now ranked #1 by Apple in the health category. She's also the co-founder of the What to Expect Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income families have healthy pregnancies, deliveries, and babies. She lives with her husband, Erik, and their two children, Emma and Wyatt, in Southern California.

Stacy DeBroff
Founder & CEO
Mom Central Consulting

Stacy DeBroff is founder and CEO of Mom Central Consulting, the leading marketing to Moms agency, founded in 2006, which specializes in viral marketing and social media campaigns to activate the Mom consumer. In the last year, Mom Central Consulting has partnered with over 200 national brands, Fortune 500 companies, PR firms, and venture-backed start-ups to build brand awareness and activate Moms to significant retail purchases and online participation. Stacy’s expert marketing advice and insights have been featured in such publications as USA Today, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as TV shows from CNN’s American Morning and Headline News to Fox News and Bloomberg News.

Prior to this, Stacy, heralded as a “parenting guru” by the Wall Street Journal, authored four best-selling parenting books (Simon & Schuster) and launched Mom Central, Inc. (www.MomCentral.com), a company devoted to providing savvy advice to simplify and enrich the lives of busy Moms and their families. Stacy appears as a regular parenting expert on national TV shows, including NBC’s Today Show, CNN, The View, The Tyra Banks Show, the CBS Early Show, The Daily Buzz, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and the Rachael Ray Show. Stacy also serves as a corporate spokesperson, trendspotting for the media on behalf of over 50 national brands.

In the 1990’s, Stacy founded and ran, as an attorney, the Public Interest Office at Harvard Law School. Stacy lives with her husband, Ron, and happily engages in imperfect parenting of their two teens, Kyle and Brooks, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Emily Bader
Partner
Zócalo Group

Emily E. Bader, Partner at Zócalo Group, builds WOM strategies for some of the world's top consumer brands. In developing creative, high-impact, online and offline word of mouth marketing and social media programs, she ensures that brands connect with audiences and incite action that leads to more than just an "impression" or "hit" but the far more critical "recommendation."

Prior to joining Zócalo Group, Emily served as senior vice president and group manager at Ketchum where she led the Midwest Food and Nutrition Practice. With her specialty in this area, she successfully harnessed the on and off-line dialogue among culinary and health-and-wellness influencers to drive product awareness, trial, sustained loyalty, and brand evangelism.

In addition to her marketing and communications interests, Emily and her husband owned and operated S3 Kitchen, a critically acclaimed fast-casual café in Oak Park, IL. Emily has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Northwestern University.

Laura Salant
Director of Research
About.com

Laura Salant possesses more than 20 years experience in strategic planning and research, specializing in producing actionable insights that build revenue. She spent much of that time at Scientific American and Knapp Communications, where she headed strategic planning, research and b2b brand messaging for all digital and print products. As a consultant, she designed and conducted qualitative and quantitative research studies across digital, broadcast, cable and print media, as well as for CPG, financial and technology clients.

She is a graduate of Rutgers University where she earned a B.A. in English and minored in Psychology. Laura joined About.com in May, 2010.

Tim Sullivan
President
School Family Media, Inc.

A recognized leader in all aspects of parent involvement in education, Tim Sullivan's unique perspective on school-business partnerships comes from a variety of angles - first as a teacher and administrator at a NYC high school, then as a senior manager for a school fundraising company. In 1999, Tim founded PTO Today, the company that has evolved into School Family Media, Inc. - which today delivers parent-focused publishing and brand-sponsored school-family involvement programs to millions of parents with school-age kids every year.

Tim has helped concept and launch (often while also playing a public/spokesperson role) impactful, school-connected programs for dozens of Mom brands, including Kellogg's, Nestlé, Target and Procter & Gamble. His expertise on parent involvement in schools, PTOs, PTAs and connecting with moms through schools has made him a frequent guest/expert in national print, broadcast and web discussions of these key issues. Tim is also a father of 4 and - yes - the PTO president at his children's grade school.

Most recently, Tim founded (launched in 2010) a new national non-profit: Schools Serve - the National School Food Drive, which will soon be the largest coordinated food drive in the United States.

Bryan Gernert
CEO
Resonate Networks

Bryan Gernert has consistently led innovative companies through periods of significant transformation and growth. As the CEO of Resonate Networks, Bryan recognized the opportunity to build a company that will transform how marketer's purchase online advertising.

Resonate enables marketers to buy advertising based on their audience's values . Bryan is leveraging this capability to extend the success of Resonate's revolutionary approach from the political and advocacy categories to make significant in-roads on Madison Avenue.

Prior to Resonate, Bryan served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Americas for Cybertrust. He was on the executive team that completed the Cybertrust sale to Verizon.

Previously, at Digex, Incorporated, Bryan helped Digex raise over $1.3 billion and was part of the team that sold Digex to WorldCom in a $5.7 billion transaction. Bryan has also held management positions with Evergreen Information Technologies and RCI.

Miriam Arond
Director
Good Housekeeping Research Institute

As Director of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute (GHRI), home of the Good Housekeeping Seal and the Green Good Housekeeping Seal, Miriam Arond oversees a staff of engineers, chemists, nutritionists, textile experts, and scientists who test thousands of consumer products each year. GHRI product reviews are featured in Good Housekeeping magazine, on goodhousekeeping.com, and in Good Housekeeping's annual Best Toy Awards, Anti-Aging Awards and V.I.P. (Very Innovative Products) Awards. Miriam heads up GHRI's advocacy initiatives and investigations focused on alerting consumers to dangerous and deceptive products. She plays an active role in GHRI's Inside the Institute blog and TV segments.

Miriam was previously Editor in Chief of Child magazine, a lifestyle publication for parents that, during her tenure, won over 40 awards for editorial and design excellence. Before that she was Editor in Chief of American Health magazine. Miriam is co-author of The First Year of Marriage: What to Expect, What to Accept, and What You Can Change, a groundbreaking book based on a nationwide study of newlyweds, and wrote the introductions to the books Feeling Safe: Talking to Children About War and Terrorism and A Mother's Circle.

Miriam has been a frequent guest on television and radio, including The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, Good Morning America, and CNN American Morning. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the March of Dimes, the Professional Advisory Board of the Child Development Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, American Society of Magazine Editors, and the Author's Guild. Miriam earned her graduate degree in journalism from New York University and her bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Carley Roney
Editor in Chief
TheBump.com

Carley Roney is editor in chief and co-founder of The Knot Inc., the premier media company devoted to weddings, pregnancy and everything in between. Part of The Knot Inc., TheBump.com is a website for expectant and first-time parents that offers comprehensive stage-by-stage advice, a thriving online community, checklists, local resources, and an online shop. The Bump brand serves moms in 20 U.S. cities with a purse-size pregnancy guide and connects moms everywhere with Facebook app, Mommyhood, and iPhone apps, Pregnancy 411 and Baby 411.

As "top mom," Carley oversees content development and overall site direction on TheBump.com. Carley has personally endured three pregnancies, toddler milestones, and temper tantrums all while building her career as a successful new media entrepreneur. She has poured both media savvy and hard-won mommy wisdom into TheBump.com and is excited to create the first brand exclusively devoted to first time parents and the marketers who want to reach them.

The nation's hippest lifestage expert, Carley makes regular appearances on national television, including CNN, Live! With Regis & Kelly, Today, and CBS The Early Show, as well as interviews with top publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the Associated Press, where she shares trends, tips, and tricks for planning life with a new baby. With over a dozen books in print, her latest book, The Baby Bump, is a modern guide to pregnancy set to hit bookstores in Fall 2010. Carley lives with her husband and three children in Brooklyn, NY.

Zanny Oltman
Vice President, Marketing Partnerships
Destination Maternity Corporation

Zanny Oltman oversees all marketing partnerships for Philadelphia-based Destination Maternity Corp., the world's largest maternity apparel retailer, including the brands A Pea In the Pod, Motherhood Maternity and Destination Maternity. Zanny is responsible for all marketing opportunities created for companies serving expectant mothers and new families. She leads all data licensing initiatives, sampling programs, in-store signage campaigns, e-marketing, web sponsorship, and in-store and online-subscription based programs. Tailored to each partner's needs, these programs connect with Destination Maternity customers searching for the best products and services for them and their families.

With close to 20 years of experience in lifestyle marketing, Zanny has created programs which leverage traditional media, online environments, and retail space. She graduated from the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College with a B.S. in Television Production and received an MBA with a major in Marketing from Drexel University. Zanny lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and three children.

Stephen Reily
Founder
VibrantNation.com

Stephen Reily, entrepreneur, marketing expert and active blogger, founded VibrantNation.com, the leading online community for Baby Boomer women, after researching the lack of media geared toward women 50+ and spending years listening to women themselves identify their interests and needs.

As a marketing professional, Stephen built IMC Licensing, a brand-licensing agency, and is responsible for overseeing licensing strategy and relationships with IMC's clients, which have included Kraft Foods and S.C. Johnson. He blogs regularly on Baby Boomers for MediaPost and has published articles in BRANDWEEK and on brandchannel.com, among others, and has been a featured speaker at leading industry events including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), National Retail Federation (NRF), Book Expo America, the Educational Travel Conference (ETC), and What's Next Boomer Summit. He is the co-author (with Carol Orsborn, Ph.D.) of Vibrant Nation: What Boomer Women 50 Plus Know, Think, Do & Buy, the definitive guide for marketers trying to reach this important demographic.

Stephen graduated from Yale College, summa cum laude, and from Stanford Law School, after which he clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife and three children.

Rose Cameron
Chief Strategy Officer
Euro RSCG Chicago

As Chief Strategy Officer at Euro RSCG Chicago, Rose Cameron provides business strategy and planning expertise for the agency's entire portfolio of brands. Rose also is responsible for the strategy and planning function of Euro RSCG Discovery, the agency's data and analytics unit.

Rose has spent nearly 20 years reinvigorating brands and uncovering insights that help clients build their businesses. She has worked on some of the world's most prestigious brands including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft and AT&T, and is known for her ability to deliver strategic expertise across all forms of media communications.

Previously Rose served as chief planner at Leo Burnett. She also was the lead architect and spokesperson of the agency's Global Man Study, which involved marshalling insights from 15 countries on the state of modern masculinity.

Rose has honed her skills in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States at some of the top marketing communications agencies in the world - Ogilvy, Wunderman/Y&R, Mullen, and TBWA Chiat/Day.

Missy Maher
EVP, Consumer Brands & Director of Mom Foresight
Edelman

Missy Maher, Executive Vice President and Director of Mom Foresight, offers a deep knowledge of how to market to the modern family "mom" in today's complex world. She currently provides strategic oversight to clients including Pull-Ups, Huggies, Kraft Singles, and Velveeta. She helps connect brands to moms by creating conversations, building awareness and offering solutions to address challenges of everyday life. Missy is also closely connected to a taskforce of 30+ Edel-moms who provide a steering light; keep on top of what's now and what's working and help course correct if needed.

In addition, Missy provides counsel and creative thought leadership to Butterball Turkey and the American Egg Board. She works closely with marketing partners to integrate marketing disciplines and has directed creative ideation sessions. And, has more than 15 years of public relations experience.

Prior to re-joining Edelman, Missy served as a vice president in the Media Practice Group at Golin/Harris International, where she specialized in national and local media strategy and placement for a variety of consumer, food and business clients. In addition, she coordinated PR efforts for W Hotels and LaBatt USA.

Missy graduated from The University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with an emphasis in business marketing and English. She has her very own focus group at home with her four.yes four.children (a perfectly matched set) of girls and boys: Mimi (8), Lizie (6), Micky (4) and Brody (9).

Carla Molette-Ogden, Ph.D.
Senior Account Planner
Eric Mower and Associates

Carla Molette-Ogden became a new mom in 2004 and 2008. And just like with her two children, she knows that every brand she works with is special. From Red Lobster to the U.S. Marine Corps., every brand has different needs, interacts differently with customers, and competes differently amongst competitors.

Interestingly, she made this observation long before she ever had kids. A naturally curious person, with a Ph.D. in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis, and more than 10 years experience in account planning, Carla’s specialty is understanding complex situations, and mining for data that will help the brand connect with the consumer in a more meaningful way. In fact, she’s so accustomed to mining for data, she freely admits that once her daughter starts writing a diary, she plans to read it. But that’s to be expected from a Mom Account Planner.

Other interesting things to know about Carla: graduated from Spelman College, fluent in Spanish, former university professor (not Spanish), owns a Ragdoll cat, and married for 18 years to the same man.

Jennifer Moore
SVP, Content & Marketing
ModernMom.com

Jennifer Moore is SVP of Content and Marketing on ModernMom.com. With a PhD in Developmental Psychology, an MA in School Psychology, and a MEd in Educational Psychology, Jennifer has published articles in dozens of well-known academic journals, spoken at 100s of conferences and has over 10 years experience managing child and parenting content on the web. She is a mother of two.

Tracy Roy Hankin
Group Vice President, Consumer Markets
WebMD

Tracy Hankin is Group Vice President, Consumer Markets, for WebMD, the most recognized brand of health information. Tracy is responsible for leading WebMD’s new business solutions for east coast consumer products clients and their affiliated agencies.

Tracy joined the organization in 2004 and under her leadership, the company’s Consumer Market’s sales has grown significantly. Her account teams are focused on delivering value to brand managers and their agency partners, creating promotional solutions that help clients reach their target consumers, caregivers, physicians and other healthcare professionals. Her sales teams develop fully integrated solutions that leverage WebMD’s consumer properties: WebMD.com, WebMD mobile, WebMD The Magazine, and WebMD’s healthcare professional properties: Medscape.com, eMedicine.com and theheart.org.

Prior to joining WebMD, Tracy spent over six years at The Boston Consulting Group focused in the consumer products and healthcare sectors. Before working at The Boston Consulting Group, Tracy was a consultant with the healthcare consulting firm, APM, and a financial analyst for the investment banking division of the Bank of New York.

Tracy holds a B.A. degree in economics from Colby College and a M.B.A. from The Wharton School.

Jennifer Babbit Bodner
EVP/Modern Family Expert
Edelman

Jennifer Babbit Bodner is an Executive Vice President and co-lead on the Modern Family taskforce. Her focus on consumer insights has led Jennifer to spend time researching and better understanding the evolution of the family model. Looking at the impact of technology, changing demographics, and other societal shifts, she helps make predictions about the family of the future that help brands adapt new strategies and communications.

Jennifer’s previous client work includes strategic counsel for Graco, Aprica, Claritin and Snuggle – all brands with a focus on “the mom.” Through targeted programming, these iconic brands have broken down that segmentation down into targeted niche audiences to truly move the needle.

She is currently responsible for overseeing the eBay account team on a global scale. Her role in the partnership with eBay includes strategic counsel, integrating programming across all stakeholders, and globalizing messaging, programming, and the brand overall.

She has a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and currently resides with her modern family in Atlanta.

Sandy Gingerich
Senior Partner, Director of Client Services
Eric Mower and Associates

Sandy Gingerich is a senior partner and director of Eric Mower and Associates’ NewMomology - marketing to new moms - practice. As a mom expert, she provides strategic advice and research-based insights to clients, helping them better connect with the ever-growing Millennial mom market. Sandy is a true shopper marketing strategist, and has developed best practices for reaching moms instore through her work with top retailers like Walmart, Target, Kmart and Toys R’ Us. In her distinguished 18-year career at EMA, an integrated marketing communications agency with specialized expertise in shopper marketing, consumer advertising, and digital/direct/relationship marketing, Sandy has served dozens of blue-chip brands including Fisher-Price, Mattel, Kohler, BlueCross BlueShield, HSBC and Lactalis Deli. She's recently kicked off a nationwide tour, sharing the results of her group's in-depth study of the millennial mom. Sandy also gets first hand insight into consumers, brands, and the challenges that retailers face from behind the counter at the Marilla Country Store, a unique gift shop she owns with her husband Paul.

Monique da Silva
EVP, Head of North America Healthcare
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

A 22-year veteran of public relations and marketing, Monique da Silva works with healthcare companies to develop strategic and innovative communications programs that deliver unparalleled results.

With deep experience in the area of women's health, Monique has worked on marketing programs targeted to women in the areas of maternal and infant health, reproductive health, neurological health, cardiac health and bone health. She provides strategic and creative counsel to clients and works closely with the account teams to ensure strategic alignment and superior implementation.

In addition to leading award-winning global and national programs in pharmaceutical and medical technology PR, she has deep experience leveraging traditional and non-traditional channels to reach physicians, hospital-based decision makers, policy makers, advocacy partners and patients.

Prior to joining Ogilvy PR, Monique served as global healthcare director at MS&L Worldwide where she partnered with key offices in Europe and Asia to build their healthcare business and capabilities. Previously, she worked on the client side in marketing departments focused on mail order and direct marketing to women and families.

Diane Ridgway-Cross
Managing Partner
Frank About Women

Diane Ridgway-Cross is Managing Partner of Mullen Advertising’s Frank About Women practice, one of the first and leading agencies to focus on the women’s and mom’s markets. Mullen was recently named to Advertising Age’s coveted “A-List” and named by Fast Company as one of 2010’s most progressive marketing and advertising companies.

In her role, Diane ensures that the agency’s brand planning teams are steeped in what’s on women’s and moms’ minds today; she works with creative teams to ensure that their work is defying stereotypes and delivering what matters most to women; and she collaborates with media teams to ensure plans are at the forefront of how, when and where brands and women are connecting. She has played leadership roles helping clients such as T.J.Maxx, Kimberly-Clark, Kumon Learning, Playskool Toys and Nestle drive their businesses among women and moms.

Diane regularly speaks at conferences on the topic of marketing to women and was the winner of the Best Speaker Award at the M2Moms® conference. She’s the proud mother of son, Charlie and daughter, Annie Kate.

Stephen Paljieg
Senior Director, Corporate Growth and Innovation
Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Stephen Paljieg is a Senior Director, Corporate Growth and Innovation, with the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. He is a 20+ year veteran of the consumer goods business and successful architect for new business growth. With a long history in both Marketing and Research and Development, Steve is a strong believer in 360 degree innovation… finding and creating new innovative sparks by combining capabilities, blurring the traditional interfaces of disciplines, etc…

John Ross
CEO
Shopper Sciences
EVP
Mediabrands

A retail veteran and Mediabrands EVP, John Ross is the CEO of Shopper Sciences. Utilizing a range of tools from across Mediabrands, and relying heavily on the Emerging Media Lab, Shopper Sciences has the ability to pinpoint the media sources that move a shopper from indecision to decision, evaluate the barriers to purchase at different points within the purchase cycle. The agency will use influence research to reveal points where the shopping process fails to meet consumers’ needs.

Formerly VP of Advertising and Marketing at Home Depot, Inc., John oversaw one of the largest expansions of any American brand. During his 12 year tenure, the company grew from a regional retailer to become one of the best know brands in all of retail and the second largest retailer in the United States. He led the company's first foray into E-Commerce, its international expansion, including entry into Mexico and China, and the growth of the Home Depot Incentives division.

Jim Lecinski
Author, Chief ZMOT Evangelist & Managing Director of U.S. Sales
Google

Jim Lecinski, Managing Director of U.S. Sales for Google, Inc., leads Google's advertising business nationally focusing on major marketers and media agency partners in the Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare, Restaurant, B2B and Local Markets industry verticals.

Based in Google's Chicago office, Jim brings his 20 years of integrated marketing and online/offline advertising experience to help clients address their challenges with branding and creative strategy; consumer insights; marketing plan development; lead generation; measurement, data analysis and optimization. He is a frequent guest speaker at industry events, conferences and universities including the ANA, AMA, BMA, Northwestern University and the University of Virginia.

Jim has previously held leadership positions at ad agencies DDB, marchFirst, Young & Rubicam, and EuroRSCG.

Liz Hawks
SVP and Founding Co-Chair of FH Moms
Fleishman-Hillard

A mother of two boys, Liz Hawks is a Senior Vice President and the Founding Co-Chair of FH Moms, Fleishman-Hillard’s global practice group specializing in marketing to moms. In this role, she counsels clients to strategically dialogue with moms in ways that translate to better acquisition and retention of the lucrative “mom market.” Her FH Moms practice group was awarded “Practice of the Year” for 2009 by the firm’s executives and chairs of its 29 other practices.

Currently, Liz partners with leading consumer brands to design national product launches, awareness and education programs, cause marketing initiatives, contests and promotions, word of mouth programs, celebrity seeding, consumer advocacy and ambassadorship, digital assets and media coverage – both traditional and social. She was part of the PR team that launched Hallmark’s “Cards with Sound,” a program awarded the prestigious Silver Anvil in 2007. In addition, she managed the launch of Hallmark’s “Journeys” card line, including a digital media component that was awarded a Gold Quill from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in 2008. Spanning industries, Liz has worked with various national clients while at Fleishman-Hillard, including Hallmark Cards, Midwest Dairy Council, Helzberg Diamonds, Silpada Designs, Bayer Animal Health, Quintiles, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Teva Neuroscience and H&R Block. Before joining Fleishman-Hillard, she held positions with Habitat ReStore, an arm of Habitat for Humanity, AmeriCorps VISTA, the U.S. government’s domestic service organization, KDFW-TV (FOX) and the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE).

Liz holds a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from the University of Kansas. She received a bachelor’s degree with departmental distinction in the communication arts from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Tex., with an emphasis in broadcast media, and minors in psychology and Spanish.

Kim Kasenow
Manager, Consumer Marketing Operations
Mead Johnson Nutrition

Kim Kasenow leads database marketing efforts as Consumer Marketing Operations manager at Mead Johnson Nutrition, the maker of Enfamil® products. Through innovative promotional strategies, Kim creates meaningful interactions between new moms and the Enfamil franchise. She helped create the award winning Enfamil Family Beginnings® program and has been instrumental in developing memorable creative, robust analytics, and profitable member acquisition initiatives for this program.

With 20 years of experience marketing to moms, Kim has developed an expertise in engaging the mom-to-be and new mom audience. At Mead Johnson, she has held various marketing, brand management and global strategy roles. She graduated from Indiana State University with a B.S. in Marketing and received an MBA from Kent State University.

Walter Rosenthal
Consumer Marketing Director
The Parenting Group

Walter Rosenthal oversees the print and digital consumer marketing efforts for The Parenting Group, which includes Parenting Early Years, Parenting School Years, Babytalk and Babytalk Pregnancy Planner magazines. This portfolio enables use of a stage-based marketing strategy to acquire and retain moms from early pregnancy through her kid’s school-age years. Walter helped develop a rewards program that was instrumental in retaining subscribers as well as many successful direct-to-consumer partnerships with large brands and retailers.

With over 15 years of publishing experience, Walter has created profitable and award-winning strategies that effectively helps moms connect with the content she wants and expert advice she seeks. Prior to joining The Parenting Group, Walter held key management positions at Condé Nast Publications and Time Inc., where he worked on a number of women’s and mom-focused magazines, including Vogue, Allure and the launch of InStyle and Cookie, an upscale parenting magazine. He graduated from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Marketing and received an MBA in Finance from Pace University. Walter resides in New Jersey with his wife and two boys.

Meg Way Edgin
Director, Digital Strategy and Planning
Kimberly-Clark Corporation

As Director of Digital Strategy and Planning within the Digital and Relationship Center of Excellence at Kimberly-Clark, Meg Way Edgin leads a team responsible for the development of best practice, innovation and strategy in the Digital, Social, Mobile and CRM space supporting all brands such as Huggies, Pull-ups, UbyKotex and Kleenex.

Meg brings more than 15 years experience in strategic planning for clients such as Volkswagen both US and Global, KFC, Tesco, Dominick’s, MilkPEP, The Co-operative, Bank of America, Toyota/Lexus, Neutrogena, and Nestle-Purina. She has held various planning and strategy roles for leading agencies over the course of her career including; Fallon, BBDO, and Rapp Los Angeles and Edinburgh.

Meg earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Psychology from Purdue University, and a Masters of Science in Advertising from University of Illinois. She is a newlywed and a science fiction and fantasy geek.

Geetha Murali
Senior Development Manager
Room to Read

Geetha Murali is the Senior Development Manager leading Room to Read's Corporations and Foundations team and supporting corporate partnerships in the U.S., as well as the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Tokyo and India. Geetha has had over 10 years experience across the corporate and non-profit sectors. 

She has worked with pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Chiron as well with educational technology programs like the Digital Equalizer Program (American India Foundation) and Adobe Youth Voices (Adobe Systems Incorporated). During her time with the American India Foundation, she was responsible for several corporate partnerships with technology companies that supported the growth of the Digital Equalizer program into 13 states across India.

More recently, she was also Marketing Director for a technology company in the mobile web and social marketing space that launched at DEMO Fall 2008. Geetha received her M.S. in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.A. and Ph.D. in South Asian Politics from the University of California at Berkeley. She has also held an Adjunct Faculty position at Mills College.

Sarah Lattimer
President
Lattimer Communications

Sarah is President and CEO of Lattimer Communications, a full-service advertising and public relations agency with a focus on the African-American, particularly female, and Latino segments.

Throughout her career as a marketing, advertising and sales professional, Sarah has spearheaded highly successful, integrated, multicultural marketing campaigns. Under her guidance, Lattimer Communications recently completed a national, groundbreaking study, "A Profile of Today's Black Woman" that received national attention from The Wall Street Journal, Target Market News and Yahoo Finance, among others, because it was the first study of its kind to identify six unique personas of African-American women.

A native New Yorker, Sarah began her career at McCann-Erickson and has worked at J. Walter Thompson, N.W. Ayer and Lockhart & Pettus where she was Vice President/Management Supervisor overseeing the Dark and Lovely Hair Care business. She also served as Vice President of Chase Manhattan Bank where she was responsible for the sales and marketing efforts of the branch system.

Sarah was named one of the 100 Most Influential African-American Women in Atlanta by the Atlanta Business League. Rolling Out magazine also recently named her one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women in Atlanta.

Lisa Girolimetti
Senior Marketing Manager
ViaCord

Lisa Girolimetti joined ViaCord’s consumer marketing team in 2008. ViaCord, a newborn stem cell banking company based in Cambridge, MA, is part of PerkinElmer, a global leader focused on improving the health and safety of people and the environment. ViaCord offers expecting parents the opportunity to save stem cells found in umbilical cord blood and tissue for future medical use.

With 15 years of direct to consumer marketing experience, Lisa’s primary focus is digital marketing including online advertising, social media, and mobile. She takes identifying and prioritizing customers' needs so seriously that she became a first time Destination Maternity shopper and ViaCord customer last year. Plans are currently underway to better understand the repeat purchasing cycle… #2 is due in December.

Lauren Weinberg
VP of Strategic Insights and Research
Yahoo!

Lauren Weinberg currently serves as Yahoo!'s Vice President of Strategic Insights and Research where she oversees global research in areas such as Consumer Insights, Ad Sales Research and Ad Effectiveness; additionally, she is responsible for bringing these insights to the marketplace. In her previous role as Vice President of Digital Insights and Research at MTV Networks, she served as the primary contact for syndicated and primary research, supervised MTV Network's proprietary online community of 15,000 members and oversaw the Digital Ad Sales Research team. Prior to joining MTV Networks, Lauren spent three years at Advertising.com as Director of Research and worked at Nielsen NetRatings and comScore Media Metrix as a Media Analyst. Lauren received her B.A. at Emory University.

Jim Multari
Vice President, Marketing & Research
PBS KIDS Sprout

Jim Multari is Vice President, Marketing & Research for Sprout, the first 24-hour preschool destination available on TV, on demand and online for kids ages 2-5 and their parents and caregivers. A marketing professional with over 10 years experience, Jim is responsible for driving strategy for consumer, affiliate, and ad sales marketing to build awareness, distribution, viewership and loyalty for the Sprout brand.

Previously, Jim managed all marketing, programming and ad sales research for Sprout. He collaborated with all internal business units and was a key contributor to numerous initiatives related to custom studies and new methodologies. Sprout’s research on kids’ usage of video on demand (VOD), alternative media viewership metrics, and creative concept testing has been a key driver of network strategy and has won multiple industry awards, including a silver David Ogilvy Award (the Advertising Research Foundation’s award for excellence in advertising research) and the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) Research Case Study Award.

Prior to joining Sprout, Jim led the marketing and communications efforts for Research for Better Schools (RBS), an educational research nonprofit located in Center City Philadelphia. Jim also has over seven years of supplier-side market research, consulting, and communication experience, working for GfK, Harris Interactive, WirthlinWorldwide, and TeleSpectrum Worldwide.

Jim received a B.A. in Communications and Psychology from Marymount University and an M.B.A. from Saint Joseph’s University’s (SJU) Haub School of Business. Jim serves on SJU’s Center for Consumer Research Thought Leaders Advisory Panel and is also a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor. Jim lives in Philadelphia with his wife Emily and daughter, Bridget.

Laurie Klein
Vice President
The Family Room

Laurie Klein is recognized as an industry leader and regularly travels the country to discuss kid marketing challenges and provide kid marketing and product development seminars to some of the leading companies in the kid industry. She’s been with The Family Room since its inception in 1994 and has overseen the creation of new kid products and marketing programs for clients such as Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, 3M, Nabisco, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg, ConAgra, Minute Maid, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, The Partnership For A Drug-Free America and more. She was also instrumental in the development of The Global Kids Study which was conducted in 12 countries around the world. Laurie has also authored several articles for Brandweek regarding kid marketing and has often been interviewed for several publications regarding kid products and marketing (e.g., Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Progressive Grocer, Brandweek, Youth Markets Alert, Supermarket News and others). Recently, she was a guest speaker at Yale University’s School of Management.

Laurie is a graduate of Southern Methodist University where she earned her degrees in Bachelor of Science and Business Administration. In her free time, Laurie enjoys spending time with her husband and some of the coolest kids she knows - her two boys, Peter and Karl.

John Coyle
Senior Director of Customer Strategy & Marketing
U.S. Cellular®

John Coyle spent his “first career” as an athlete, competing in ten world championships between two sports (cycling and speedskating) and winning a silver medal in the Winter Olympic Games. In recent years he’s also served on the NBC broadcast team at the last two winter Olympics.

Getting his first “real” job at age 29, John joined Diamond Management Consultants and provided strategy and innovation support to key clients including Goldman Sachs, Enron and U.S. Cellular. Following Diamond, John joined his favorite client, U.S. Cellular® to lead customer strategy.

Over the last 4 years, John has served as the lead on a multi-year customer experience strategy program at U.S. Cellular®, studying behavioral economics, consumer psychology and sociological trends to create a program to meeting both stated and latent consumer needs in wireless.

From this work, the “Belief Project” value proposition was launched October 1st, 2010. Noted by industry transforming changes including the industry’s only phone replacement program, overage caps and overage forgiveness, the program’s primary innovation comes in the form of eliminating contracts (and penalties) for loyal customers and replacing them with a rewards program for those who spend more and stay longer. This groundbreaking work has led to Frost & Sullivan’s 2010 “Customer Value Enhancement of the Year” award, JD Powers 2011 “Customer Service Champion” award, and being named the #1 wireless carrier in the country according to the 2011 Consumer Reports’ annual report on wireless.

John is a competitive cyclist, traveler, photographer and writer, full of “occasionally useful” cocktail chatter about the nature of happiness. See johnkcoyle.wordpress.com. John is originally from Detroit, Michigan, and has a B.S. in Product Design from Stanford University, and an MBA in Marketing & Organizational Behavior from Kellogg.

Miriam Muléy
Author
The 85% Niche
VP
the vox collective

Miriam Muléy maintains a vibrant business as marketing guru, diversity expert, and business writer/speaker. She is head of brand strategy and communication for the vox collective, one of the nation’s leading Hispanic agencies, and focuses her efforts on marketing to help companies increase market share among diverse audiences, women and women of color—a group that controls 85% or more of all purchase decisions. Miriam’s goal is to dispel the perception that women are a niche, monolithic audience. Her recently published book, The 85% Niche: The Power of Women of All Colors—Latina, Black, and Asian (Paramount Books) provides a monumental body of work on the power of women.

Miriam, Puerto Rican by ancestry, holds an M.B.A. in Marketing from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Psychology from Marymount Manhattan College. She has 25 years of executive marketing and sales experience in Fortune 100 companies, such as General Motors Corporation where she was responsible for the Women’s market, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, GLBT and Youth markets; she was a General Manager at Avon Products, Inc. and EVP of Marketing for Carson, a division of L’Oreál.

Miriam sits on several boards, including Women at NBCU, the National Association of Women Business Owners, and Madrinas, a 501( c ) 3 organization designed to empower and mentor Latinas in the workplace.

Teri Lucie Thompson
Co-author
Turning Into Mom
CMO & VP, Marketing and Media
Purdue University

Teri Lucie Thompson is Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President for Marketing and Media at Purdue University. She previously served as vice president of marketing for Safeco, and held a number of marketing leadership roles at State Farm Insurance, where she spearheaded the company's efforts in marketing to women. An early adopter of non-traditional marketing, Teri has been a pioneer in segmented marketing, receiving national recognition as an innovative marketer, earning a 2010 Stevie award as Marketing Executive of the Year and finalist for the 2011 International Brand Master and 2011 CMO of the Year awards.

Michal Clements
Co-author
Turning Into Mom
Sr. Principal
The Cambridge Group

Michal Clements is a Sr. Principal at The Cambridge Group. Michal develops winning growth strategies and detailed go to market plans for some of the world’s outstanding organizations including McDonald’s, Gatorade, Abbott, Barilla, Tylenol, Clorox, Key Bank, Eagle Ottawa, Quaker and the Baker Demonstration School. Michal’s work developing growth strategy, positioning, innovation and brand equity guidelines spans both business-to-business and business-to consumer brands. Michal is also the proud parent of two young adults.

George Carey
Founder & CEO
The Family Room (Formerly Just Kid Inc.)

George Carey founded The Family Room -- a strategic research and new product development agency -- in 1994. The agency is focused exclusively on the kid and family market and has grown over the last decade to be an industry leader. In fact, The Family Room is the leading creator of new kid and family products and can claim more product in-market successes than any other agency.

George’s client experience runs the gamut from kid and family food and beverage, to toys, entertainment and youth public health. In addition to working with numerous packaged goods manufacturers such as Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, ConAgra, General Mills, Subway, Johnson & Johnson, Frito-Lay, Tyson and others, he has also been involved in the development and execution of numerous social marketing campaigns and research initiatives for a wide variety of foundations and government agencies. This includes the Schwab Foundation, the Center for Disease Control and the White House Office of Drug Control Policy. George has also participated in numerous child marketing advisory boards including the White House anti-drug initiative, a one billion-dollar paid media campaign intended to reduce drug consumption among American kids.

George has also been instrumental in conceiving and designing all of The Family Room’s quantitative research such as the Global Kids Study (the first quantitative research study conducted on kids in twelve countries around the world), The Kid-Trition Study (which provides the kid perspective on nutrition and healthy eating), Family Dynamics (which highlights exactly how brand decisions are made today within the family) and our recent Brand Compass Study (which decodes the particular drivers for 215 food brand and provides an individual brand compass with the combined family perspective for each).

George is well known in the kid and family industry and has spoken extensively at various conferences pertaining to the hottest topics facing the kid and family market and has frequently appeared on numerous national news programs such as Good Morning America and Nightly News With Tom Brokaw. He has been quoted in a variety of news publications regarding kid and family marketing including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times and has also been quoted in numerous magazines and trade journals.

In addition to fully understanding kid marketing dynamics, he has a deep understanding and experience of the parental dynamics based on his experience with his two favorite kid consumers -- his two young daughters, ages 13 and 11.

Pattie Hallock
SVP - Global Consumer Marketing
MSLGROUP, New York

Pattie Hallock is a senior vice president in the Global Consumer Marketing Practice of MSLGROUP. Her current responsibilities include directing public relations activities for Procter & Gamble's Family Care Brands (Bounty, Charmin and Puffs), Citibank and Family Dollar retail stores.

Since joining MSL in December of 1995, she has worked on a variety of high-profile accounts including Nabisco, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, Philips Personal Care Products, Nike, Washington Mutual, Absolut Vodka and Samsonite. Pattie has more than 15 years of experience in all aspects of consumer marketing and crisis communications. Her specialties include new product launches, word-of-mouth/grassroots activities, and consumer engagement, honed by years of work with such clients as Nike, Norelco, Western Union and Best Buy.

Whether targeting broadly defined consumer audiences or niche ethnic groups, Pattie has successfully designed and spearheaded initiatives to deliver product messaging and motivate consumers to action and engagement with the brands she represents.

Prior to joining MSL, Pattie was an account executive with Trent & Company, a boutique health and fitness PR agency, where she represented such fitness notables as Denise Austin, Cathy Smith and Tony Little. Pattie earned a B.A. in communications and economics from American University.

Kerry O'Connell
Senior Strategic Planner
Ogilvy & Mather

Kerry O'Connell is a Strategic Contact Planner at Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, where she helps enrich collective brand building efforts by fully leveraging the interrelationship between the consumer, the brand and contact touchpoints in the consumers online and offline world. Over the past four years at Ogilvy, her role in Planning has continued to morph and change and she now plays a prominent role in Brand building for new business and Big IdeaL projects. She has worked on a wide variety of brands including Kimberly-Clark, Dove, Truvia (which she helped win a bronze effie), the aba and Cardinal health. Recently she was a contributing author to the “tech fast forward” thought leadership project and also led the Ogilvy quant and ethnographic research for the project.

Kim Knox Beckius
Guide to New England Travel
About.com

Kim Knox Beckius is a Connecticut-based travel writer whose passion for New England inspires everything she does, whether it's riding a giant, inflatable lobster in her wedding gown; naming her daughter so she shares initials with L.L. Bean; or sending free fall leaves in the mail to autumn lovers around the world. For more than 13 years, she has taken Internet users on virtual tours, offered candid reviews, and provided lively weekly commentary on travel and events in the Northeast as About.com's Guide to New England Travel. The author of seven books, Kim is frequently called on by the media to discuss New England travel and events. As an About.com Guide, Kim cherishes the opportunities she has to inspire travelers to plan memorable family outings in the region.

Catherine Holecko
Guide to Family Fitness
About.com

Eighteen years of journalism, nine years of motherhood, and seven years of living in a chilly climate have all helped Catherine Holecko find many ways to fit in family fitness. As a writer and editor specializing in parenting, Catherine developed a special interest in kids' health. Now with her own two children, she encourages activity to promote physical and emotional well-being. In addition to being an About.com Guide, Catherine is an on-air commentator for the BAM! Radio Network.

Julie Saliba
Senior Director of Kids Innovation
PepsiCo

Julie Saliba leads development of new nutritious food and beverage product experiences for kids for PepsiCo’s Global Nutrition Group. Prior to this role, she has held a variety of marketing roles at Frito-Lay and Quaker across brand equity, innovation, kids marketing, women’s marketing, and portfolio marketing. She is passionate about new methods for consumer understanding, brand engagement, and developing full experiences from desire to disposal. Her favorite quote on innovation is that “a visionary develops ideas, an innovator gets them to market” and she enjoys the challenges of integrating consumer vision with business demands. Julie received her MBA at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and BS at Vanderbilt University. She enjoys everything that the great city of Chicago has to offer, as well as traveling to new places.

Darren Metzger
National Brand Manager
National Geographic Kids

Darren Metzger is the national brand manager for National Geographic Kids, the award-winning kids brand focused on inspiring kids and their families to explore the world. Darren oversees the advertising and marketing efforts across print, online and interactive platforms.

Since joining the company in 2006, Darren has successfully launched four top-rated television series, including Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies, Toot & Puddle, Iggy Arbuckle and Are We There Yet? World Adventure both domestically and abroad. During his tenure, National Geographic Kids Entertainment has won or been nominated for over 22 industry trade awards. Darren has been responsible for attracting top-tier advertising partners to support National Geographic Kids marketing initiatives and building long-term promotional relationships.

Darren has more than 17 years of experience and a proven track record building successful entertainment brands. During his seven years at Nickelodeon, he helped launch its international channel and feature film and licensing businesses. He also turned children's properties such as "Rugrats," "Blue's Clues," "Jimmy Neutron," and "Spongebob Squarepants" into hit global franchises.

Darren worked previously at Home & Garden Television/Scripps Networks as director of ad sales marketing where he created targeted lifestyle marketing programs and promotions for advertisers.

Darren received his B.A. in Psychology and American Government from Georgetown University. He is a published writer on comic books, Japanese animation, toys, and collectables. He serves on the board of the Stamford Museum & Nature Center.

Kelly Day
EVP and General Manager, Digital Media and Commerce
Discovery Communications

Kelly Day serves as Executive Vice President and General Manager for Discovery’s Digital Media and Commerce division, overseeing the company’s U.S. websites, Digital Operations and Programming, E-Commerce operations, Licensing and Home Entertainment. She is responsible for the development and implementation of long-term strategies and initiatives to drive the growth of the businesses. In addition, she works in partnership with Discovery’s US Networks to create innovative offerings that leverage the company’s television assets to increase product sales, digital traffic and engagement, and other business objectives.

Prior to assuming operational responsibility for Digital Media in March 2009, Kelly served in several roles within Discovery Commerce, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, where she directed the operations for the division. She played a leading role in transitioning Discovery Commerce from an internal operation to a lower risk, royalty-based model by outsourcing its entire interactive commerce business.

During her tenure with Discovery Commerce, Kelly, and her team built a world-class e-commerce site that earned accolades from the industry, loyalty from its customers and, most important, has consistently delivered record-breaking growth and bottom-line value for Discovery.

Kelly joined Discovery in April 2005 as Vice President of E-Commerce, overseeing Discoverystore.com. Within her first year with Discovery, Kelly deployed a strategy that positioned the site as a leader in the e-commerce space, highlighted by improved usability, a better customer experience, and a significant increase in revenue and profitability.

Based in large part on her success with Discoverystore.com, in October 2006 Kelly was promoted to Senior Vice President of Discovery Interactive, a new unit within Discovery Commerce that consolidated Discovery’s e-commerce operations with Discovery Communications’ online content group.

Prior to joining Discovery, Kelly was Vice President of E-Commerce at The Knot, the leading wedding media company. From 1996 to 2003, she held a variety of E-Commerce positions at AOL, most recently as Executive Director of AOL Shopping, with responsibility for developing new products for AOL's Shopping portal site.

She is based at Discovery Communications’ global headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

Tracy Roy Hankin
Group Vice President, Consumer Markets
WebMD

Tracy Hankin is Group Vice President, Consumer Markets, for WebMD, the most recognized brand of health information. Tracy is responsible for leading WebMD’s new business solutions for east coast consumer products clients and their affiliated agencies.

Tracy joined the organization in 2004 and under her leadership, the company’s Consumer Market’s sales has grown significantly. Her account teams are focused on delivering value to brand managers and their agency partners, creating promotional solutions that help clients reach their target consumers, caregivers, physicians and other healthcare professionals. Her sales teams develop fully integrated solutions that leverage WebMD’s consumer properties: WebMD.com, WebMD mobile, WebMD The Magazine, and WebMD’s healthcare professional properties: Medscape.com, eMedicine.com and theheart.org.

Prior to joining WebMD, Tracy spent over six years at The Boston Consulting Group focused in the consumer products and healthcare sectors. Before working at The Boston Consulting Group, Tracy was a consultant with the healthcare consulting firm, APM, and a financial analyst for the investment banking division of the Bank of New York.

Tracy holds a B.A. degree in economics from Colby College and a M.B.A. from The Wharton School.