Speaker Bios
Andy Waldeck
Partner, Innosight LLC
Speaker Session: Managing Innovation
Andy has worked on client engagements in the networking, media and healthcare industries. Prior to joining Innosight, Andy spent over six years in investment banking at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin. As a Managing Director, Andy was responsible for advising and financing a wide range of innovative companies in the high tech and business services industries. Most recently, Andy was a Vice President at GrandBanks Capital, an early stage IT-focused venture capital fund. In total, Andy has completed over 50 financial and strategic transactions totaling over $5B in transaction value. Andy received a B.A. in Business Economics from Brown University and a M.B.A with Distinction from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he was a Tuck Scholar.
Mort Greenberg
VP Sales, NBC Universal
Speaker Session: Lessons in Innovation
Over the past 15 years Mort has sold online, print and TV advertising. Currently Mort is the VP Sales for NBC Universal’s Local Integrated Media group, and works with NBC’s O&O TV Stations, reaching 27% of all US HHs. Working with both online and TV sellers, Mort’s charge is to package, sell, and optimize available web, mobile, video, and DM platforms. Prior to NBCU, Mort was the second US employee and VP Sales for Metacafe, an online video broadcaster that created and launched some of the first branded entertainment experiences in its space. Before Metacafe, Mort worked for IAC/InterActiveCorp following their acquisition of Ask Jeeves in various sales, client services and operations roles, touching search, media and direct marketing product sets.
Peter Ockerbloom
Vice President of Display Advertising, Boston Globe/Boston.com
Speaker Session: Lessons in Innovation
Peter Ockerbloom is Vice President of Display Advertising for The Boston Globe and Boston.com, a position he has held for the past year and a half. Prior to becoming Vice President, Peter was Director of Retail Advertising for The Boston Globe. He has held positions with increasing degrees of responsibility across virtually all categories of advertising during his 14 years at Boston Globe Media. Before joining the Globe, Peter worked in the software industry for a company called Bitstream. He currently serves on the NAA Display Federation Board as well as on the advisory board of a small online start up in the non-profit sector.
Deborah Smiddy
Corporate Director of Advertising, E. W. Scripps
Speaker Session: Lessons in Innovation
Deborah Smiddy has been with Scripps for 36 years holding various appointments including outside retail sales rep, classified manager, publisher and currently is the corporate director of advertising responsible for print and interactive revenue. She welcomes change and innovation and loves the newspaper industry.
Richard Huff
Senior Analyst, Microsoft Advertiser & Publisher Solutions
Speaker Session: The Importance of Data & Analytics
As a Senior Analyst in Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Platform (APSP) Group, Richard continues his years of internet pioneering and innovation. It was while working in the network engineering field during 1993 that Richard realized the internet’s potential. “It was one of the most amazing technologies I had ever been introduced to,” said Richard in reflection. Richard built Pacific Rim Network to become one of the largest and most successful internet service providers in Western Washington before selling the company in late 1996 to Verio [NASDAQ: VRIO]. As President and CEO of Media Access Internet Solutions between 1997 and 2001, Richard increasingly turned his energy and technical expertise toward web business strategies. Today, he manages the direction of Microsoft’s APSP Publisher Analytics Custom Solutions Group and is actively involved in setting the vision for the company’s digital publisher partnerships.
Sam Bloom
General Manager, Interactive, Camelot Communications, LTD
Speaker Session: The Importance of Data & Analytics
Sam Bloom overseas Camelot Communications’ Interactive Marketing Practice, developing and executing strategies and media plans for clients that include Southwest Airlines, Blockbuster, Compass Bank, MetroPCS, STA Travel, Longhorn Steakhouse, The Dallas Morning News, Branson CVB and Gold’s Gym. Prior to Camelot, Sam served as Vice President, Business Development at Blockbuster where he was responsible for building the business plan for Blockbuster’s DVDby- Mail service as well as supporting Blockbuster’s emerging brands and new retail concepts. Prior to joining Blockbuster, Bloom was the Principal and CEO of Bloomin Partners, a Dallas-based business development consulting firm. He has also served as Vice President of Business Development for iChoose, Inc., a consumer e-commerce service, and as Director of Business Development for AudioNet/Broadcast.com/Yahoo!. Bloom received his MBA from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of Virginia.
Kyung Kim
Group Director, Digital, OMD
Speaker Session: The Importance of Data & Analytics
Kyung Kim started in media as an Assistant Media Buyer for a local Chicago retail chain. In 2000, he was hired as a Marketing Manager for a Macronet Group, a start-up OEM computer component retailer. In that position, he grew revenues by 500% over 2 years. Kyung joined OMD in the fall of 2003 to work on Dell Consumer online account and in early 2004 was appointed Associate Director of Online Media for Dell Small Business. In March of 2006, he was named Group Director of Online Media for State Farm, the account he manages today.
Hee Kyu Kim
Associate Media Director, Media Services Carat Boston
Speaker Session: The Importance of Data & Analytics
Hee Kyu is directly responsible for the client’s overall digital media strategies and planning operations. She has been in the interactive space for almost 9 years now starting at HookMedia and Media Contacts back in 1999. In 2004 she made the move to Carat Fusion, Boston and has been there for the past 3.5 years. Currently, Hee Kyu has been overseeing the digital strategy for Wachovia and Cablevision, which are both local advertisers. Hee Kyu holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing & Advertising from The University of Vermont and is active in the BIMA community.
Paul Bremer
EVP, Sales, Internet Broadcasting Systems
Speaker Session: Creating a Successful Video Program
Bremer has led the national and strategic sales across Internet Broadcasting’s network of TV station web sites, NBCOlympics.com, and NBC’s WeatherPlus.com, since joining the company in 2003. Based in New York City, he oversees sales teams in Chicago, Minneapolis, LA, San Francisco, Denver and Atlanta. With the NBCOlympics.com site for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, he established relationships with many blue chip advertisers leading to recordbreaking revenue and first-time profitability for the site. Bremer is a veteran of online advertising sales with more than a decade of experience. Before joining Internet Broadcasting he worked in various executive and sales positions with WebMD, Lycos and The Wall Street Journal. Bremer has a B.S. in History and Diplomacy from Georgetown University.
Adam Gordon
Chief Revenue Officer, WorldNow
Speaker Session: Creating a Successful Video Program
As an early interactive visionary, Adam has held positions at About.com, Women.com, Internet Broadcasting and the TV Food Network. At Women.com, he wrote their largest strategic alliances with P&G, Kraft and Visa. Adam holds the record of being Women.com’s highest grossing sales executive (before the iVillage merger). Adam ran Midwest and East Coast sales for About.com creating campaigns from blue chip clients such as General Motors, ONDCP & J&J. In 2002, Adam started the National Sales division for Internet Broadcasting creating the first brand of TV station web sites to break into the national interactive marketplace. He currently is the Chief Revenue Officer overseeing all facets of their national and regional advertising business. Adam is a passionate entertainment buff and holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Maryland. He resides in East Hills, NY, with his wife and three children, one dog and one guinea pig.
Tom Kelly
Vice President, Majors and National, Orange County Register (2006 – Present)
Speaker Session: Creating a Successful Video Program
Tom Kelly is responsible for Majors and National business for The Orange County Register, including newspaper, online, magazine and direct mail business. Prior to joining The Orange County Register, Tom worked for 17 years at The Los Angeles Times. He started his newspaper career as a regional territory Account Executive, eventually working as Vice President of Display Advertising during his last five years with the Times. Tom resides in Manhattan Beach, California, with his wife, Sherry.
Michael Organ
Director of Internet Advertising, Obama for America
Speaker Session: Creating a Successful Video Program
Michael Organ is Director of Internet Advertising at Obama for America - Barack Obama’s campaign for President. In that role, Organ is responsible for all of the campaign’s online paid media, for purposes such as email-subscriber acquisition, voter registration, “Get Out The Vote” advertising, and persuasion advertising. Organ is also Executive Director of Charity Guide, a non-profit organization which promotes volunteerism via the web at CharityGuide.org.
Scot McLernon
President, Upstream Group, Inc.
Speaker Session: Defining the Competition
Scot McLernon entered the interactive media and advertising business in 1995 marketing banners and interactive “booths” for the web’s first online/offline tradeshow, “Web Innovation”. Since that time, his sales team leadership and advertising solutions have received accolades throughout his career at CBS MarketWatch and CBS Interactive. He’s been branded as an industry pioneer and above all, is known for generating enthusiasm and record results from each employee under his leadership. In 2007, McLernon joined Doug Weaver and Upstream Group to enter a new phase of his career: sales training and mentoring, something he has unofficially been doing for the last 15 years as a sales leader. McLernon and Weaver help shape future digital sales leaders with customized workshops and Habitat, a traveling digital campus.
Jerry Courtney
Group Manager, Corporate Multi-Media, Target Corporation
Speaker Session: Defining the Competition
Jerry Courtney is Group Manager of Multi-Media at Target. In this role, he is responsible for the management of Target’s media investment, driving integration and innovation along the way. Previously, Jerry was VP/Director of Interactive & Digital Media at GSD&M in Austin, TX. He started his career at Campbell Mithun Esty in Minneapolis. Jerry enjoys life with his wife, LeAnn, his two children, Jackson and Addison, and his dog, Razzle. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois. Jerry takes pleasure in hacking up a good golf course and watching his beloved Cubs and Bears.
Ted Moon
Director, Digital Media, Sprint Nextel Corporation
Speaker Session: Defining the Competition
Mr. Moon joined Nextel in September 1999 initially to manage all direct marketing efforts for Nextel. However, it was an experiment with online marketing upon his arrival that launched a new direction and quickly changed his focus. For the last two years, he has focused exclusively on online marketing, driving leads to various sales channels as well as spearheading the online branding efforts for Nextel. Since the merger uniting Sprint with Nextel, Ted has added Media Innovations in addition to his online media responsibilities for the new company. Mr. Moon received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1989 and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame in 1993.
Steven Ustaris
Group Media Director, Carat
Speaker Session: Defining the Competition
Steven is responsible for the management of the Carat’s digital media services group in the Boston office. His service line focuses on the effective activation of client communication platforms within the digital media channel. This includes target audience analysis (consumption and receptivity), digital media strategy development, emerging media evaluation and analysis, and of course, media planning, buying, execution, analysis and optimization practice. Steve’s work experience includes a portfolio of clients across industries such as telecom, consumer electronics, enterprise solutions, sports apparel, and finance. He has been a panelist and/or moderator for various discussion groups covering various topics in the digital advertising space. He is part of the executive committee of BIMA (Boston Interactive Media Association) and was a nominee for the 2006 Mediaweek Media All-Star Award.
Sam Wehrs
VP, Digital Activation Director, Starcom
Speaker Session: Defining the Competition
Sam has had the opportunity to manage a number of brands (Walgreens, Discover Card, American Signature Furniture, Kraft) and direct-response endeavors (Dell, US Marine Corps, Bank of America) on both the agency and client side. Having spent the majority of his professional career in Chicago, Sam has lived in Charlotte, NC (Bank of America) and emerged with his love of the Green Bay Packers intact.
Martha Stone
Director, Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project, World Association of Newspapers
Speaker Session: Redefining Who You Are & Why You Exist
Martha L Stone is a newspaper industry author, speaker and consultant. She is the Director of the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project for the World Association of Newspapers in Paris. SFN is a partnership with newspaper industry partners Atex, Telenor, MAN, UPM and PubliGroupe, and produces seven strategic reports for publishers each year. In the capacity of SFN Director, she has led media conferences, study tours, and projects around the world, and runs the SFN Consultancy, which has provided training and advisory services to some of the world’s most prominent media companies. Stone is a pioneer in digital media and has produced a variety of industry reports on digital news, workflow, multimedia company organizational structure and mostly, digital revenue making, during her career.
David Grayson
Director of Interactive Sales, Cox Television
Speaker Session: Redefining Who you Are & Why you Exist
David F. Grayson is Cox Television’s Director of Interactive Sales. He previously held the position of Director of Business Development. Cox Television includes fifteen television stations and three television sales representation firms. Cox Enterprises also is a leader in broadband communications/cable, newspaper publishing and automobile auctions. Grayson joined WSB-TV in 1989 as and Account Executive where he was the Number One New Business Account Executive for four years in a row. In 1994 was named the WSB-TV Account Executive of the Year. That same year, he was promoted to Sales Manager. In the fifteen years between 1974 and 1989, David worked on the agency side of the business. His experience includes working with McCann-Erickson, NW Ayer, Miller-Reid as well as Luckie & Forney.
Chris Krug
General Manager & Executive Editor, Northwest News Group of Greater Chicago
Speaker Session: Redefining Who you Are & Why you Exist
Chris Krug was named General Manager & Executive Editor of NWNG in January. He oversees operations of the Northwest Herald, the weekly Lake County Journals, the bilingual weekly El Conquistador, and affiliated web sites. He previously served as VP/Editorial of NWNG. Krug was named Suburban Newspaper of America’s Daily Editor of the Year in January. In December, Presstime magazine honored him as one of its “20 Under 40” for 2007. Under his guidance, NWNG has won more than 200 awards since 2003. The company’s flagship site, NWHerald.com, has been nominated for four EPpy awards and twice has been a finalist for the Knight News Innovation Award. Krug is 40 and lives in Cary, Ill., with his wife Ena and their daughters, Kira, 9, and Naomi, 1.
Zackary Lewis
CEO, Liquid Compass
Speaker Session: Redefining Who you Are & Why you Exist
Zackary Lewis is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Compass, a leading streaming solutions provider and content delivery network to the radio industry. Over the past six years, Liquid Compass has grown into a multi-million dollar company offering innovative streaming and web solutions for the radio industry, and launching over 1,000 radio stations online in the United States. Zackary is frequently asked to speak and moderate panel discussions on topics pertaining to streaming technologies, monetization tools and trends for the radio industry as well as to students in higher education to discuss entrepreneurship, marketing and general business. Zackary attributes his success, in part to his diverse background with the United States Marine Corps and vibrant entrepreneurial spirit.
Steve Yelvington
VP of Content and Strategy, Morris DigitalWorks
Speaker Session: Redefining Who you Are & Why you Exist
A longtime newspaper journalist, Steve Yelvington was founding editor of Star Tribune Online (later rebranded startribune.com) in Minneapolis in 1994 and built it into one of the top-ranked newspaper sites in the world. As Executive Editor and Network Content Director for Cox Interactive Media, he supervised a nationwide network of city sites. At Morris Communications, he led site design and development operations that yielded more Digital Edge and Eppy awards than those of any other newspaper company. Editor and Publisher magazine presented him with the 2001 Eppy Award for Individual Achievement and the Newspaper Association of America presented him with the 2007 Online Innovator Award. He now concentrates on long-term vision, strategy, and innovation for Morris Digital Works. Yelvington has been a featured speaker at online news gatherings throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Russia, and China.
Shar VanBoskirk
Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.
Speaker Session: The Future of Media
Shar serves as an expert on how businesses can leverage interactive marketing channels and technologies to drive sales and deepen customer relationships. Her focus is specifically on crafting efficient, effective interactive programs, organizing for interactive marketing, marketing planning and budgets as well as program strategies for email marketing, online advertising, search engine marketing, ad serving and targeting. Shar is a popular speaker and widely quoted across print, radio and video outlets. Prior to her return to Forrester in 2004, Shar worked for Carlson Marketing Group and the marketing boutique, Tidewatch Partners.
