Speakers

Shelly Lazarus 

Shelly Lazarus, Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, has been rising through the ranks of account service since her beginning at Ogilvy & Mather. Shelly has held positions of increasing responsibility in the management of the company, including President of O&M Direct North America, Ogilvy & Mather New York, Ogilvy North America, Chief Operating Officer and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. She is currently Chairman of the worldwide company. Under Shelly’s leadership, David Ogilvy’s essential mission of building great brands has remained the centerpiece of the company’s philosophy, extending across regions and marketing disciplines, and attracting some of the world’s largest and most respected brands including American Express, BP, Coca-Cola, IBM, Motorola and Unilever among many others. Shelly has been a frequent industry honoree and has appeared in Fortune magazine’s annual ranking of America’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business for 10 years since the list’s inception in 1998. She was also the first woman to receive Columbia Business School’s Distinguished Leader in Business Award. Most recently, Shelly is the recipient of the 2009 Advertising Educational Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Robb High 

Robb has helped 325+ marcom firms of all sizes, from 8 to 800 employees and all disciplines—advertising, PR, promotion, media, design, interactive, research, multicultural and direct/CRM improve their new business win-rates. In his career, Robb has been involved with winning over 146 new clients representing $1+ billion in billings. Prior to starting Robb High Associates, Robb was CMO at Young & Rubicam Group where he led new business initiatives for Y&R, Mediaedge, Burson-Marsteller, Landor, Wunderman, Sudler and Bravo. In addition to his new business development practice, Robb is an agency search consultant and has watched dozens of marcom firms compete. He also does client satisfaction audits for which he has conducted interviews with 650+ executives at 170+ client companies and heard what they like about their marcom partners. And what they don't.

Tiffany Warren 

Tiffany R. Warren oversees all diversity efforts for Omnicom Group including the Omnicom Diversity Development Advisory Council, the Omnicom Medgar Evers Associate Program and the Omnicom Diversity Initiatives Group. Formerly of Arnold Worldwide, she managed diversity initiatives for the Arnold network of offices. In 2005, Tiffany founded ADCOLOR® and the ADCOLOR® Awards. ADCOLOR® is a first of its kind cross-industry initiative meant to serve as a catalyst for the next generation of diversity programs by combining the energy of the advertising, marketing and media industries to identify current issues and opportunities around diversity. Before joining Arnold, Tiffany became the youngest Manager of Diversity Programs at the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York City. Tiffany is a featured blogger on Advertising Age’s The Big Tent, which is devoted to the discussion of diversity in advertising, marketing and media-hiring practices, multicultural marketing, the role of “minority” shops and going beyond race and culture in diversity discussions.

Ivan Carter 

Ivan Carter joined Comcast SportsNet in April as the host of the new-look Washington Post Live. Prior to, Ivan spent more than four years working at The Washington Post and was a frequent contributor to Comcast SportsNet on many programs. Originally from Minneapolis, Ivan’s first job was as a high school sports reporter at the Kansas City Star, where he later covered the Kansas City Chiefs. Combining a wealth of knowledge and experience, Ivan has a passion for the worlds of sports, politics and pop culture…and how they collide.

Dan Steinberg 

Dan Steinberg writes and manages his widely popular “DC Sports Bog” on WashingtonPost.com and is often a guest on Washington Post Live. Dan began his career as a high school sports writer for The Washington Post. He says he “purged all sports allegiances from my soul the moment I began working for The Washington Post,” but loves the stories that surround the games and events. At The Washington Post, he has two favorite moments: watching the NCAA selection show with John Feinstein, Eric Prisbell and pizza, and being invited to a Northern Italy Olympic dinner at the home of Roberta Donna's mother.

Doug Fruehling 

Doug Fruehling was named Editor of the Washington Business Journal in February 2009. Doug, who joined the paper in 1996, also served as Managing Editor and Editor of the newspaper’s commercial real estate magazine, OnSite. He also served as Managing Editor for nearly three years at Roll Call. Doug began his career as Reporter at the Peoria Journal Star in Peoria, Illinois.

Scott Gold 

Scott Gold is Principal, Consumer Engagement Director at RP3 Agency in Bethesda, MD, where he is responsible for developing consumer insights, strategy and business-building ideas for clients including MASN, Honest Tea, Long and Foster, Stanley Martin Homes, FBR and more. Scott started asking “why?” at age 2 and hasn’t stopped yet. For the past 20 years, he has applied his insatiable curiosity and passion for branding to everything from start-ups to global brands such as CareerBuilder and Snapple, at agencies including Hill Holliday, Krishenbaum Bond & Partners and DiMassimo Goldstein. At RP3, he looks forward to evolving the role of planning to better reach and engage today's empowered consumer and enable every marketing dollar to work better and faster.

Louis Sawyer 

Louis Sawyer, Chief Strategy Officer with Brunner is fondly known by his colleagues as the professor—Louis is passionate about branding. His track record for helping clients build brands while driving sales has made him a much sought-after branding expert. He has more than 25 years of experience orchestrating research, developing strategic plans and implementing brand positioning. His clients have included Coca-Cola, Cub Cadet, Dow Chemical, James Hardie Siding Products and Ritz Carlton Hotels among others.

Jack Dayan 

Jack’s got a natural inquisitiveness and intuition for human motivation. That makes him perfect for brand planning. Jack has been a strategic force at Arnold for over five years, using all imaginable kinds of information—including qualitative, quantitative, secondary research and good-old fashioned intuition—to guide clients to fundamental strategic ideas and incorporate those ideas into every facet of the work. At Arnold, Jack has worked on Amtrak, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, JEA, Choice Hotels International, Trex, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Jack Daniels and STIHL. Prior to joining Arnold, Jack was a part of the planning team at Mullen where he worked on Four Seasons, Stanley Tools, GM Card and Project Safe Neighborhoods—a project to reduce gun crime among inner-city kids.

Missy Lieber 

Missy Lieber is Partner/Vice President Chief Media Officer with White+Partners. With over 19 years of advocacy, consumer and B2B media experience, Missy leads White+Partner’s media department in the strategic planning and buying for all accounts. Missy has created successful media campaigns for such accounts as the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, CDW-G, Verizon Wireless, the Washington Nationals, Hewlett Packard, Leukemia Society of America, Amtrak and the Washington National Opera. One of Missy’s greatest passions is crafting compelling media strategies and campaigns that blend conventional communications channels with the unexpected, in order to connect with target audiences. Missy and her team were responsible for creating the Effie award-winning media and co-op campaign for Virginia Tourism, as well as the highly successful recent convention campaigns for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

Martha Wilcox 

Martha Wilcox, Executive Vice President at Williams Whittle, heads up the USO account at the agency. Wilcox has more than 30 years in advertising experience. From Los Angeles agencies to Williams Whittle here in Alexandria, she has provided marketing leadership in just about every industry.

Dave Marinaccio 

LM&O co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Dave Marinaccio launched his career at J. Walter Thompson in 1977 designing ads for Gillette, Jovan, Oscar Mayer, 7-UP and Warner Lambert. Since then, Dave has worked in the creative departments of Foote Cone & Belding, DMB&B and DDB Needham on accounts such as Pizza Hut, Sunkist, American Dairy Association, McDonald’s, GTE Spacenet and COMSAT. Dave joined Bozell Worldwide, Inc. in 1990 as Creative Director of the Washington, D.C. office. There he developed successful recruitment and image advertising for the National Guard, Precision Tune, ServiceMaster, MCI, Time-Life Books and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. As a principal of LM&O, Dave has supervised the creative direction for Chevy Chase Bank, Consumer Information Center, Metro, Virginia Railway Express, the National Guard, Embassy of France, Hyatt Regency Reston Hotel, Verizon Federal, Big Brothers/Big Sisters National Capital Area and College Parents of America.

Stuart Elliott 

Stuart Elliott has been the advertising columnist of The New York Times since May 1991, writing the weekday advertising report as well as other news articles and features. He also writes a weekly e-mail newsletter, In Advertising, for The New York Times on the Web and previously produced radio reports and podcasts for the Times on advertising and marketing topics. Mr. Elliott has covered advertising, marketing and media topics for two decades; in addition to The Times, he has written on those subjects for USA TODAY, Advertising Age, The Detroit Free Press and The Times-Union in Rochester, NY. Mr. Elliott has freelanced for many publications, including Campaign, Texas Monthly and Working Woman; speaks around the country; moderates panels, and has appeared on television programs like “Nightline,” “Biography,” “20/20,” “The News with Brian Williams” and specials on networks including The History Channel, Showtime and VH1.

Mike Linton 

Mike Linton has been in marketing and general management for nearly 30 years. Mike 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, CRM, call centers, the Best Buy 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 is currently consulting and writing for Forbes.com. He is also on the Board of Directors of Peet’s Coffee & Tea and the Allen Edmonds Shoe Company and serves on the advisory boards of several venture-backed companies. Mike is a charter member of the Marketing-50 and was elected to the Retail Advertising Hall of Fame in 2008. His numerous industry awards include 2004 Marketer of the Year by Promotion Magazine, One of the Most Influential 30 Marketers in 2003, 2004 and 2005 by Ad Age, two Effies, as well as countless notable speaking engagements.

Liz Dolan 

Liz Dolan was named Chief Marketing Officer for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in January 2009. A celebrated marketing and branding expert, Liz oversees all marketing and branding for the new network, including the creation of OWN’s brand identity and bringing the OWN mission to life through integrated programming and business initiatives. Liz will steer the development of all efforts supporting the on-air launch. Additionally, she is responsible for all on-air, print, radio and online marketing messaging. Liz’s skills in branding and integrated marketing were gained through a decade of experience at NIKE, Inc., where she held titles of Corporate Vice President and Director of Global Marketing. While at NIKE, she was named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Sports (Sporting News) and Woman of the Year (Sports Industry) twice. Following her work at NIKE, Liz started her own marketing consultancy focused on nurturing brands that serve women. Her first project was marketing of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, helping transform the event into the most successful women’s sporting event in history. In 2001, Liz and her four sisters began the talk radio show, Satellite Sisters, which went on to become the most successful radio talk show for women.

Tim Ruder 

Tim Ruder is an online marketing consultant and veteran interactive marketer who works with both new media and traditional media organizations to grow audiences and develop advertising sales stories around those audiences. He has extensive experience in internet advertising, search engine marketing, traditional advertising, site metrics, research, communications, product management, business development and advertising sales. A seasoned internet business professional, Ruder’s background includes 13 years with Washington Post Newsweek Interactive (WPNI). At WPNI he worked on the various websites of The Washington Post Company including WashingtonPost.com, Newsweek.com, Slate and Arthur Frommers Budget Travel. Under Ruder’s leadership, WashingtonPost.com achieved the highest reach of any local site in its market and claimed multiple industry awards recognizing excellence.

Claire Alexander 

As Vice President, Digital Strategy & Operations of Discovery Communications, Inc. Claire Alexander drives the development and implementation of long-term digital strategies and potential business opportunities for Discovery’s media and entertainment family of brands. Claire moved into this corporate role from Planet Green, where she was a key member of the team that launched the first-ever 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network. As Vice President of Operations and Interactive Media, Claire was responsible for the network’s business operations, as well as business development, non-profit partnerships, and the strategy and execution of Planet Green’s multi-platform extensions, which include green market leaders TreeHugger.com and Planet Green.com. Prior to Planet Green, Claire led the acquisition of TreeHugger.com and served as Vice President, Digital Strategy and Implementation in the Office of the Founder and Chairman. In that role she drove the creation of Discovery's social media strategy and developed company-wide new media governance procedures.

Chris McGill 

Chris McGill is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mixx. He is formerly the General Manager of several of Yahoo!’s content businesses including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Education and Yahooligans! (Yahoo!’s portal for kids and teens). At Yahoo!, Chris led business strategy, consumer marketing, business and product development as well as overall P&L responsibility. Under his leadership, Yahoo! News grew to be the #1 online news site in terms of global reach. More recently Chris was the Vice President of Strategy at USA TODAY.

Mark Whitaker 

Mark Whitaker is Washington DC Bureau Chief and Senior Vice President for NBC News. Whitaker oversees all bureau management, administration and editorial guidance, as well as serving as an occasional on-air analyst. His day-to-day responsibilities also include executive supervision of “Meet the Press,” as well as of all of NBC News’ network election and political coverage. Prior to joining NBC in 2007, Whitaker served as Editor at Newsweek from 1998-2006, becoming the first African-American top editor of a national newsmagazine. During his tenure, the newsweekly published its best-selling issues of all time, had years of record profitability, and received more editorial awards than at any other time in its history. In 2005 Mediaweek named Whitaker and Greg Osberg, Newsweek’s worldwide publisher, the magazine industry’s “Executive Team of the Year.” Whitaker also oversaw the growth of Newsweek’s web site, which is affiliated with NBC News’ MSNBC.com.

Chuck Todd 

Chuck Todd, NBC News’ Political Director, also serves as NBC News’ on-air political analyst for “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “Today,” “Meet the Press” and MSNBC. In addition to his on-air analysis, Todd is responsible for all aspects of NBC News’ political coverage, including maintaining contact with the political parties and campaigns and serving as the point person for political news and information. He is also the editor of “First Read,” NBC’s must-read guide to political news and trends in and around Washington, DC and writes analysis for MSNBC.com. In December 2005, Todd was featured as one of “Washingtonian’s ‘Best Of’” journalists. In March 2001, George magazine named him one of the 50 most influential people in politics.

David Gregory 

David Gregory, moderator of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” is a regular contributor for “Today” and serves as a back-up anchor for the broadcast. He is also a regular contributor and analyst on MSNBC, and lends his voice and reporting to all NBC News broadcasts including coverage of special events. Gregory first joined NBC News serving as White House Correspondent during the presidency of George W. Bush, reporting extensively on the 9-11 attacks as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gregory has also covered three presidential campaigns in 2000, 2004 and 2008. Earning a reputation for being one of the toughest questioners of President Bush and his press secretaries, Washingtonian Magazine named Gregory one of Washington’s 50 best and most influential journalists, labeling him the “firebrand in the front row.”

Nick Moore 

Nick Moore, Executive VP and Chief Creative Officer of Wunderman New York took creative charge of the agency in September 2006 quickly transforming it into a conceptually-driven, multi-channel creative powerhouse. Embracing today’s media landscape of real-time data, co-creation with consumers and almost limitless channel combinations, Nick is pioneering exciting new ways to develop lasting conversations between brands and consumers. Nick is responsible for leading every aspect of the creative process for New York’s diverse global client base, which includes Microsoft, MSN, Hewlett-Packard, Citibank, Diageo, AstraZeneca and Land Rover. Wunderman has won over 30 industry awards in less than 2 years under Nick’s creative leadership.

Richard M. Coad 

Richard Coad, Executive Creative Director, MDB Communications is a nationally recognized creative leader with experience taking brands to the next level. It is his goal to distinguish brands through inventive, fresh thinking. Prior to joining MDB Communications, he was Executive Creative Director for the Publicis Groupe in Chicago where he was the creative inspiration behind the character “Jared” for the Subway Restaurant chain, an advertising initiative that resulted in a 40 percent increase in sales the first week of the campaign, went viral the second and ultimately served as the catalyst that doubled the chain’s size in three years. His responsibilities also included branding efforts for The Principal Financial Group, ATA Airlines, OfficeMax and Whirlpool. Richard has served in a similar capacity for Saatchi & Saatchi, Hal Riney & Partners, Bozell and Young & Rubicam. His work has brought insight, humor and emotion to Gallo Wines, General Mills Cheerios, John Deere, Nuveen Investments, The Chicago Tribune, and other well known brands.

Ernie Mosteller 

Ernie Mosteller has been a copywriter, creative director, nationally-known commercial director, agency owner and now leads the creative department at Brunner Digital’s DC office as VP, Emerging New Media. The thousands of print, out-of-home, radio, direct-mail, television, Internet, guerrilla, white-paper and not-yet-categorized advertising and marketing pieces he has created as a writer, art director and/or creative director, have moved and created brands, won almost every award in an industry known for having way too many awards, and most of all, sold a ton of stuff.  His eBook, “Use A Stick: A Dose of Common Sense for Advertising” (www.useastick.com) and his blog (erniemosteller.typepad.com), continue to be downloaded, read, referenced and linked by thought leaders in the advertising, marketing and online world on a daily basis.

Mick Sutter 

Mick serves as Vice President and Creative Director of Arnold DC. Mick began his advertising career as a receptionist at a high-tech, business-to-government agency in Herndon, Virginia. Several downsizings, start-ups, shut-downs and freelancings later, he eventually caught on at Arnold as a junior writer. Over the past 12 years he’s had the good fortune to work with clients like McDonald’s, Hyatt, The American Red Cross, DeWalt, The Washington Post, BBC America, Choice Hotels and USA TODAY. Mick’s work has been recognized by The One Show, Communication Arts, Art Directors Club, the O’Toole’s, Addys, Athenas and New York Festivals. He’s also been a finalist at the Radio Mercury Awards, Clios and Cannes. Mick currently serves as Creative Director on Amtrak, The Islands Of The Bahamas and Colonial Williamsburg.

Jeff Weingarten 

Jeff Weingarten, President of Interface Media Group, is a nationally recognized digital artist who has been designing captivating visual effects for television shows, films, exhibits and commercials for over twenty years. As Creative Director, Jeff directed both professional and non-professional talent in addition to compositing the short subject videos. Early in 2005, Jeff led IMG’s partnership with thinkfilm, inc. to create eight one-hour documentaries for the Science Channel titled “The 100 Greatest Scientific Discoveries.” Jeff has been with Interface Media Group since 1989. During this time, he has helped advance IMG to the forefront of an industry which involves constant change, adaptation, and implementation of new technologies. Jeff’s work has earned him a number of prestigious ITS International Monitor awards as well as numerous other honors including the ITVA Silver Reel, the CINE Golden Eagle, the Silver Quasar, the Golden Triangle Award of Merit and most recently, a Washington Film & Video Council Peer Award.

Alex Stevens 

Alex Stevens, President, Blue Pixel Productions is an award-winning production executive and producer of television and interactive television content. Alex’s past experience includes: Discovery Channel’s Digital Networks and Advanced Television group, Gospel Music Channel, HBO, National Geographic, Spike TV, iO: Interactive Optimum, ITV service from Cablevision; Mixed Signals Technologies, as well as creating groundbreaking interactive programming for Showtime, E!, Warner Brothers, Fremantle North America and other major content partners.

Tim Gordon 

Tim Gordon’s career as a filmmaker has spanned over 15 years, during which time he has been involved with projects ranging from feature films to television commercials. Tim started his career in San Francisco as a lighting technician on films such as The Rock, Jack and Grand Avenue. After moving to the East Coast, Tim worked on films like Deep Impact, Contact, Sum of All Fears, Enemy of the State and Arlington Road, among others. During this time, Tim also worked as a Director of Photography shooting numerous commercial, music video and narrative projects. In 1999, Tim co-wrote, co-directed, and shot the short film Furious Seasons, for which he won many awards for cinematography. More recently, Tim has served as DP on TV shows for HBO, Discovery Channel, Fox Sports and National Geographic Channel. In the last few years, Tim has spent most of his time as Producer/Director/DP on commercials for clients like the Washington Wizards, SONY, Washington Capitals, Verizon and many more.