Matt Britton

Matt Britton is known throughout the advertising industry as an expert in social media marketing with a unique & deep domain expertise in the Millennial generation.

Matt currently serves as founder and CEO of New York-based MRY (formerly Mr Youth)—a world leading social media and youth marketing agency. Since founding the agency in 2002, MRY has worked with some of the world’s leading brands—including P&G, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, & Visa —to help them connect with today’s rapidly evolving and highly elusive consumer.

Matt, 40, has grown MRY from a one-man startup to a company with over 600 employees worldwide.

Matt often speaks at conferences and trade shows on trends and issues that affect the landscape of Millennial marketing. He has been featured on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, CNBC’s Power Lunch, Mashable, Forbes, Fortune, The Financial Times, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Jeff Fromm

Jeff is President of FutureCast, a millennial marketing consultancy, contributing writer for Forbes, PSFK & American City Business Journals. He frequently speaks about millennial consumer and marketing trends to leading professional organizations as well as public and private company events.

Jeff is the co-author of “Marketing to Millennials; Reach The Largest & Most Influential Generation of Consumers Ever” (2013) and his new book “Marketing to Millennials as New Parents” is forthcoming (Q2 2015).

Jeff has 25+ years of hands-on experience with brands, including SONIC, Hallmark, Build-A-Bear Workshop, KC Masterpiece, Sprint, Whole Foods, Warsteiner Beer and Payless. Jeff holds a degree in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and studied at The London School of Economics.

Joshua Caplan

Josh Caplan is a social entrepreneur forever unhappy with the status quo. After a stint in the real estate investment space, he founded Tea of the People with the mission of pushing the tea industry in a healthier, more socially conscious direction.

Josh has piecesof paper from Concordia University, McGill University and Stanford University. Josh is a Fellow at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Carnegie New Leader at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and an Emerging Leader in Environmental and Energy Policy at the Atlantic Council.

Anna Tauzin

In her role, Anna serves to connect restaurant operator members of the National Restaurant Association with new technology and marketing concepts. This includes directing the Association’s new innovation outreach programs and building relationships with Silicon Valley and startup companies, venture capitalists, and curious restaurateurs. She is working to build new events and connection points between these somewhat disparate groups. Do not be surprised if she emails you in the future about pitch sessions, demo days, information-sharing salons, and the Restaurant Innovation Summit.

Additionally, Anna is the fulfillment lead for business and financial partners, including Heartland Payment Systems.

Previously, Anna was the web and social media editor for J-Lab, a nonprofit journalism research center and startup incubator.

Anna serves on the advisory board for SXSW Interactive, SXSW V2V, and the DC State Fair. She is active in the user experience and food+tech communities and is a volunteer sous chef for Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit working to end homelessness in Washington, D.C.

She has a master of arts in journalism from American University and a bachelor of arts in mass communication from Texas State University.

Dave Borstein

David Borstein is the Alcohol Beverage manager for Twitter Inc.  Based on the East Coast, David is responsible for building and cultivating strategic solutions for Twitter’s top Alcohol partners nationally.

Prior to Twitter, David was the Vice President of Sales for Vox Media (owners of SB Nation and The Verge).  At Vox, David built and executed the overall monetization strategy for the company. David has worked in the online space for over 14 years and resides in New York with his

Rebecca Zogbi

Rebecca Zogbi is Vice President, Global Consumer and Business Insights for Dunkin’ Brands. She is responsible for strategic insights for both Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins and provides guidance to drive franchisee profitability and brand growth both in the United States and internationally. With her strong business acumen and extensive knowledge of the consumer and competitive landscape, Rebecca has worked to create winning strategies for Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins in new and existing markets around the world.

Rebecca joined the Dunkin’ Brands’ Insights team with initial responsibility for driving consumer insights for the Dunkin’ Donuts U.S. business. She expanded the scope of the department from a narrow focus on research into a broader role by building needed processes and providing strategic counsel to more areas of the business, like product development, marketing and operations. As Rebecca grew the Consumer and Business Insights function, she served in roles of increasing responsibility at Dunkin’ Brands including expanded responsibilities for both the Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins U.S. and International businesses. Under Rebecca’s leadership, strategic insights have become a fabric of the culture at Dunkin’ Brands, and a critical business driver for both brands.

Prior to Dunkin’ Brands, Rebecca was with AC Nielsen Corporation in Greece, with responsibility for custom research for clients in a wide variety of industries such as Consumer Packaged Goods, Services, and Pharmaceuticals. She also worked for MEMRB (Middle East Market Research Bureau), which was subsequently acquired by Nielsen, managing client analytics in Europe and the Middle East. She began her career at Information Resources, Inc., analyzing consumer data to support competitive strategies for Fortune Global 500 companies.

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Dave Dillon

Dave Dillon is Chairman of the Board of Directors for The Kroger Co., based in Cincinnati. The company employs 375,000 associates who serve customers in more than 3,500 supermarkets, convenience and jewelry stores under two dozen names. Kroger also operates 37 U.S. food processing plants.

Dave served in a variety of leadership roles after joining the Dillons Company in 1976 with its King Soopers division in Denver. During his career, he served in various leadership positions with Fry’s Food Stores and the Dillon Companies before being named president of Dillon Companies in 1986. He was appointed executive vice president of Kroger in 1990, and he was elected president and chief operating officer of the company in 1995. Dave was named CEO of Kroger in 2003. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2004. Dave retired as CEO at the end of 2013 and will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors through the end of 2014.

Dave earned a bachelor’s degree in Business at the University of Kansas and a law degree at Southern Methodist University.

Kevin McGinnis

Kevin McGinnis is vice president of Product Development & Technology for Pinsight Media+, a division of Sprint.  In his role, he manages all aspects of development, technology planning and operations for the emerging market focus of Pinsight Media.  In the 2+ years prior to his current role, Kevin led the Product Platforms and Services organization at Sprint and throughout his career at Sprint performed in a multitude of functions and various stages of new and emerging businesses – long distance, Internet, wireless and wire line.  This range of experience has established Kevin as a thought leader in the wireless industry. Kevin has been the driving force behind much of the corporate involvement in the entrepreneurial community in Kansas City and the region.

In 2014, under Kevin’s leadership, Sprint opened the Sprint Accelerator in Kansas City – home to the Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator powered by Techstars, a three-month, immersive, mentor-driven program for 10 selected startups.  Under Kevin’s leadership, Sprint has engaged in numerous programs geared towards engaging the entrepreneurial ecosystem and driving innovation.

Neeli Bendapudi

Neeli Bendapudi is the Dean and H.D. Price Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Kansas School of Business.

She holds a doctorate in marketing from the University of Kansas. Prior to returning to her alma mater, Bendapudi was a professor at Texas A&M and, most recently, The Ohio State University, where she was founding director of the Fisher College of Business Initiative for Managing Services, which was created to address the increasing importance of services issues in today’s competitive global economy.

Dean Bendapudi specializes in the study of consumer behavior in service contexts.

Her research deals with customers’ willingness and ability to maintain long-term relationships with firms and with the brands and employees that represent them.

Her studies have appeared in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing and Harvard Business Review, among many others.

Caroline Fletcher

Caroline Fletcher is a Research Director and Head of The Sound Research
Toronto. With over 10 years of experience, Caroline has conducted research
internationally across multiple categories for some of the world’s biggest
brands.

Before joining The Sound in 2011, Caroline was responsible for leading
all consumer facing research at Rogers Communications and MuchMusic & MTV. An
accomplished presenter, Caroline is excited to return to Share.Like.Buy in 2015
as a keynote speaker!

Zena Weist

Zena an integrated marketing strategist with over 20 years of B2C and B2B leadership with such companies as Sprint, Hallmark, H&R Block, Edelman and Embarq. She has led award winning teams in online brand management, integrated marketing communications, social media strategy, and project management.

Zena recently joined Level Five, a Kansas City-based digital strategy, software design and development consultancy, as strategy director.

Her digital strategy work has been featured in seven business books and The Harvard Business Review. She received her undergraduate in Journalism with an emphasis in Advertising from University of Kansas and her MBA in Direct Marketing from UMKC.

Andy Tretiak

Andy Tretiak is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Sporting Club, overseeing marketing and brand strategy for Sporting Kansas City, Sporting Park and Sporting Innovations. Upon joining Sporting Club in 2010, he led the rebrand of the Kansas City Wizards to Sporting KC and was instrumental in the development of the award-winning fan experience at Sporting Park. He serves on the executive leadership teams of both Sporting KC and Sporting Innovations.

Prior to joining Sporting KC, Tretiak spent 16 years on the agency side including stints with Barkley and Three Wide Marketing. He led advertising and sports marketing efforts for clients such as Coca-Cola, Sonic Drive-In, Rent-A-Center, 24 Hour Fitness, Blue Bunny and CITGO Petroleum.

Steph Wissink

Steph Wissink is a managing director, senior research analyst and co-director of investment research. She joined Piper Jaffray in May 2002 and has served in various capacities within Investment Research including working as an associate analyst on the consumer team for eight years. As a senior analyst, Wissink focuses on consumer goods companies, authoring reports on demographics, distribution and brand portfolio diversification.

She also spearheads the firm’s bi-annual Taking Stock With Teens consumer insights project in addition to other millennial-focused research. Wissink was named the top ranked analyst in Leisure Goods in 2014 by Starmine. Wissink combines her interest in marketing and generational psychology with her professional experience by serving on the National Advisory Board for DECA and the board of directors for Minneapolis-based mentoring non-profit One2One.

James Schwartz

Jim Schwartz is chairman, CEO and President of NPC International, the world’s largest Pizza Hut franchise operation with about 1,250 Pizza Hut units 145 Wendy’s units.

Jim started his career with Ernst & Young in 1984, in the firms audit practice.  In 1991, Jim joined NPC International holding various positions including its Chief Financial Officer until being promoted to President in 1995 and Chief Executive Officer in 2005.  Since 1995, Jim has overseen the company’s growth from $300 million to now over $1 billion in annual revenue and over $100 million in EBITDA and a strong track record of consistent same store sales growth.

Jim  serves on the Franchisee Holders Board of Directors (as it’s chairman in 2009 and 2014), advertising committee and Purchasing Co-op Board of Directors.

In 2004, he was inducted into the Pizza Hut Franchise Hall of Fame.  Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013.

Katie McCurry

Katie McCurry is a Digital Strategist and leads the development and implementation of social media, digital advertising and web analytics strategy for Marketing Communications at the University of Kansas. During her time at KU, she has helped run successful admissions and first-year experience campaigns focused on engaging and converting prospective and current students through digital advertising. With a love of GIFs she says her favorite part of the job is engaging with high school seniors who are “so” excited to come to “the Hill.”

Prior to joining KU, Katie was the Business Director at AgLocal, a startup using e-commerce, online community, and unique content to deliver the internet’s first brand of meat. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Textile Design and Art History at the University of Kansas and is happy to be back at her alma mater. Rock Chalk.

Christy Borrowman

Christy is the Worldwide Digital Lead for Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a $2.3 billion global division of Colgate-Palmolive. She grew up in digital on the agency side of advertising with extensive experience developing strategic marketing plans and implementing technical processes across brands across complex regions. Most recently she was based in the Czech Republic, focused on digital advancement and consistency for the Hill’s brands across Europe, Africa, Asia Minor and Russia. She is excited to help Hollywood shorthand digital key concepts, social media, SEO, paid media, mobile and beyond.