North America

Kelly Andersen is the Marketing Director at Wealth Continuum Group, a financial services firm based in Wilton, CT.  She recently took the agency through a complete rebranding from start to finish.  Kelly also works with individuals and teams in her company to create unique brand stories that correlate to their niche markets.    Her true passion is to educate the advisers in her firm on Social Networking and Social Selling - believing that this is the future of their industry.

Kelly does freelance marketing on the side where she assists small business owners to create an effective story that can be implemented through their unique marketing channels.  She has also worked with several industries that include non-profit organizations, legal firms and herbal markets.  Kelly enjoys creating a vision for the brand and then working on putting that vision into action. 

Kelly most recently accepted a position as an Adjunct Professor at Sacred Heart University teaching entrepreneurship and marketing to undergraduate students.  

Jessica Bray is a Corporate Vice President at New York Life where she is responsible for the strategic evolution of New York Life’s brand positioning, expression, and execution across all touchpoints. This includes managing several of New York Life’s external agency partners.

Jessica joined New York Life in 2009 working on the company’s Field Communications and Product Development teams before joining the Brand Marketing team. She received a B.S. in Communication Studies cum laude from New York University and resides in Hoboken, NJ with her husband, Adam. They enjoy spending their free time with family, friends, and traveling the globe.

Daniel is a creative director and branding specialist with over 17 years’ experience in the field. His work has been seen internationally across broadcast, advertising and experiential platforms including film and experiential creative for Ford at Imagination as well as digital content CD on the London 2012 Paralympic Ceremonies.
His work at DixonBaxi with clients such as Premier League, Eurosport, MTV Media and Sony has helped them successfully engage audiences across the globe.

David Ferreira is the City of Mississauga’s Brand Manager, and led the City’s branding project that began in 2013. Along with brand promotion and reputation management, David also holds responsibilities for market research, citizen engagement, and business planning. He holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and has worked at the City of Mississauga since 2008. David is passionate about developing authentic, research driven marketing solutions and promoting Mississauga’s brand story to the world.

Claire Graves is a dual French-American citizen residing in Brooklyn, New York, with a B.A. from Middlebury College. She is the acting Director of Marketing at Off-Broadway’s award-winning Atlantic Theater Company, where she develops and executes marketing strategies for seasonal membership campaigns and eight annual productions, all the while championing the company’s brand identity, recently redesigned by Pentagram. Claire began her arts marketing career as the Marketing Assistant, Associate then Manager at Ars Nova, New York City’s premier development hub for emerging comedy, music and theater artists, with special attention to where those intersect in non-traditional ways. During that time, Claire promoted more than 350 live performances, from one-night variety shows to multiple-week runs of fully-staged plays, musicals and hybrid fantasias. She most notably developed the marketing strategy for the world premiere production of the 12-time Tony-nominated Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Following her time at Ars Nova, Claire served as the Project Manager at Thackway McCord, a niche business-to-business branding firm aimed at strategic and visual identity development for companies at defining moments. There, she was head account manager, directing project life cycles from conception to launch, coordinating and leading ideation sessions and liaising between brand strategy, creative and web development teams to deliver on client needs. Claire has a deep love and appreciation for the arts, and believes in the power of great storytelling.

Preston is a former early Yelp employee, previously worked for Yahoo!, IAC (Expedia, Ticketmaster, Match.com, Evite), Apple and currently is Co-Founder of Mile Square Labs, working with domestic and international startups on sales operations and growth objectives. He joined Yelp in 2008 as hire #82, opening & expanding the first NY office, bringing the company through IPO, while significantly growing Yelp revenue as VP of Brand Solutions. Preston has a B.A. from the University of Vermont and is an active advisor & board director with several international accelerators, VCs, start-ups and a blockchain/ICO companies. Preston is also a former investor in TaskRabbit (acquired by IKEA).

Steve Keller is CEO of iV, an audio consultancy dedicated to exploring the power of sound to shape consumer perceptions and influence behaviour. He blends art and science into award-winning audio branding strategies and content for a long list of global agencies and brands. Recognized as a leader in the field of sonic branding, Steve shares his insights and research at international conferences, professional organizations, and universities around the world. In addition to his degree in psychology, Steve has over 25 years of experience in the music and advertising industries. Forever the student, he is the 2017 recipient of the iHeartMedia Scholarship for Leadership in Audio Innovation, and is currently completing an Executive MBA through the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

Beginning July 1, L.J. Mitchell is the Director of Development at The Calhoun School in New York City, a progressive co-educational, independent, college preparatory day school that serves 730 students from 2 years 8 months through 12th grade.  

In this role, he serves on the school's leadership team and oversees fundraising, special events, alumni engagement, and stewardship of the Calhoun community.  L.J. also works with advancement professionals across the country in his role as a consultant and workshop instructor with Independent School Management.

Wajma is marketing manager at Dow Jones, where she spearheads marketing campaigns for flagship brands including The Wall Street Journal and Barron's. She also leads the strategy for the technology section on WSJ.com. Wajma has created and executed cross-platform campaigns to help drive subscriptions, engagement and retention among consumers. 

Prior to Dow Jones, Wajma was living in the Middle East, where she co-founded MOBY Group, a fast-growing media network which operates a range of award-winning television and radio stations. At MOBY, she led the strategy, positioning, branding and promotions for various channels and shows in the region. She is Aussie-raised, internationally trained and has a passion for technology and entrepreneurship.

Dan currently serves as the Head of Global Marketing at Harri, a global labor management platform that providing hospitality businesses with tools and strategic insights necessary to make real-time impact on talent retention, revenue growth, profit margin, and risk mitigation.

Impassioned by creating meaningful change through technology and progressive strategies, Dan has served in numerous leadership positions across Marketing and Sales organizations during his career.  Having played those roles, his diverse experience has allowed his efforts to build formulaic and predictable revenue outcomes, leading to successful exits, for B2B software companies to be the cornerstone of his success.

Wendy Opsahl, PhD, is a Senior Principal at Atlas Research, a management consulting firm based in Washington, DC. Dr. Opsahl helps government and health care clients improve performance and meet objectives by providing communications, branding, creative, and technical assistance services. With more than 17 years of experience, she focuses on issues such as health care, health services research, patient safety, mental health, rural health, and homelessness.

She is an advisory committee member for AcademyHealth’s Translation and Dissemination Institute and serves as an advisor to multiple nonprofits and start-up businesses.

Amanda is the CEO of 100 Women in Finance. She leads a small team and manages over 350 volunteers globally, overseeing the operations of the organisation, which now has over 13,000 members in 20 locations.

Amanda is chairman of the board of The HALO Trust and serves on the advisory board of the Oxford Alumni Association of NY. She is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Amanda graduated from Oxford University in 1987. She earned an MBA from La Salle University, Philadelphia, in 1998, and received the Academic Award for MBA student of the year as well as the Beta Gamma Sigma designation.

Karen is responsible for Brand and Customer Experience across Amazon devices and services—including Echo, Alexa, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Kindle. Her scope includes brand strategy and packaging, in-house creative, channel marketing, customer insights, and business analytics.

Prior to Amazon, Karen was SVP of Marketing at Pearson charged with building a customer-centered brand with accountability for brand, customer insights, social impact, campaigns, creative, and online channels. While at Pearson, Karen and her team were recognized with a Cannes Lion Grand Prix and D&AD Wood Pencil for their social impact movement Project Literacy and with five Transform awards - including Best Overall Visual Identity for brand transformation.

Nic Strahl is a highly regarded marketing and branding professional - best known for her ability to integrate new and established media into comprehensive strategies, and for her thoughtful approach to visual brand presentation. Over the past 10 years, she has leveraged her multimedia marketing experience to expand the reach of brands at the local, national and international level. A born and bred New Yorker, she has worked and traveled in North America, Europe, India, Russia and Israel.

Dennis Thomas is Senior Director, Global Brand at SAP, managing all aspects of design and visual experience for the past 8 years. Prior to that he has spent over 25 years with Brand Identity agencies such as Siegel + Gale, Wolff-Olins, and The Brand Union. He brings brands to life through a process both strategically driven and simultaneously visually rich and innovative, assuring consistent expression and alignment across all touchpoints in all media.

He has designed and implemented programs for Caterpillar, Pfizer, American Express, DuPont, the Ford Foundation, HP, U.S. Air Force, American Express, Harley-Davidson, 3M, Dell and Caterpillar.

All things visual, particularly how images infiltrate and affect our experience and culture every day, continue to fascinate Dennis.

At Meals on Wheels America Susan led both a comprehensive rebranding effort for the national organization and its state and local programs across the country. Additionally, she drove the creation, launch and management of the Meals on Wheels Ad Council volunteer recruitment campaign under the theme “America, Let’s Do LunchTM.”

Prior, Susan was Founding Partner at Forge Branding where she worked in brands that include Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Audubon Society and more. Before that, Susan was Director of Advertising for Northwest Airlines and headed up national advertising for Walt Disney World.

Alexander Wodrich founded the audio branding agency why do birds in 2010. Located in Berlin they employ 15 people working in music-production, brand consulting, graphic and motion-design. Their clients include such brands as Siemens, Hyundai, German Rail or GORE-TEX. The agency is considered to be the most creative and awarded sound studio in Germany. Alexander has a degree in business and has also been a successful musician for the most part of his life. Before founding why do birds, he was a member of the MetaDesign Berlin management board, responsible for the audio branding and motion graphics departments.