Natan Edelsburg

Muck Rack

Chief Partnerships Officer

Bjorn Trowery

Meta

Consumer Communications & Brand PR

Jon Meakin

Clarity PR

President, North America

Jon has 25 years’ public relations and communications experience, encompassing consumer, corporate, business-to-business and crisis and issues management.  He is currently President, North America at Clarity PR, responsible for the strategic direction and growth of Clarity's North American business.

Previously, Jon ran Grayling’s global Strategic Services team, which encompassed research, insights and evaluation; creative and content solutions through the agency’s GMint offer; and Grayling’s proprietary online reputation management tool, GCore. He also overseed the firm’s global marketing efforts and consults on key international clients.

Jon’s career has seen him develop and run successful international campaigns for clients including PayPal and Shell, and UK programs for clients in food and drink, travel and tourism, publishing, property and other sectors.

Jon is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK and has previously judged several PR industry awards, including the CIPR Excellence Awards, PRCA Awards, the PRWeek Awards and the Romanian PR Awards. British born, Jon is currently resident in San Francisco.

Allison Polly

PepsiCo

Head of Content Development

As the Head of Content Development at Creators League Studio, Ally oversees all content activities, scripted and unscripted, branded and original, across the PepsiCo portfolio including Pepsi, Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Tropicana, Quaker, Doritos, Lays and new products. She is also responsible for distribution strategies for select content, including strategic partnerships with top Hollywood studios. As a part of the new content model she has brought award winning talent to the organization to create documentary and scripted films, episodic series, music videos and digital content. Her current projects include a documentary feature with Steven Cantor and Robert Rodriguez with brand Gatorade; a scripted narrative feature with Cinetic based on the documentary short CLS made with David Darg; and a Pepsi Black commercial with the Mundo Sisters and Alexander Wang.
Ally was an EP on an award-winning series of documentary short films for Gatorade with David Darg, the Zimbalists, and Kirk Fraser. The films were selected to 15 top film festivals including the TriBeCa Film Festival and TIFF Kids, and were distributed on ESPN, Amazon Prime, and El Rey Network.
Throughout her award-winning career, Ally ran branded content for Bedrocket, a Ken Lerer venture company; launched the first digital entertainment studio, FILMAKA; was VP/Talent at a think-tank within Limited Brands that created the $1B brand PINK for Victoria’s Secret, and SVP/Creative Manager at McCann Erickson Worldwide.
Ally is a graduate of Brown University and is a member of The Academy of Television Arts and Science.

Gary Davis

McAfee

Vice President, Global Consumer Marketing

Gary Davis is the worldwide marketing lead for McAfee’s Consumer, Mobile and Small Business (CMSB) organization. In this role, he oversees the strategies and plans that drive brand/product consideration, preference, and demand globally. Gary is primarily responsible for optimizing the CMSB business for success and ensuring marketing superiority for the Company’s portfolio of products around the world. He closely follows technology and marketing topics to understand how they intersect and influence the behaviors of consumers. Gary is also considered an online security expert frequently discussing security threats and trends.

Gary has appeared on multiple business and consumer lifestyle broadcast outlets, including CBS News, CNBC, FOX News, Bloomberg, WSJ MoneyBeat and several Bay Area television stations; and quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Money Magazine, CNN, Forbes, TIME Magazine, LA Times, Huffington Post, MSNBC, PC Magazine, CNET, and PC World. He is a sought-after speaker discussing contemporary marketing techniques and activities. Prior to joining McAfee, he held senior leadership positions for more than 15 years in technology companies. Gary served on the board of directors of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA).

Judith Harrison

Weber Shandwick

Senior Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion

Judith Harrison is senior vice president, Diversity & Inclusion at Weber Shandwick. She drives programs designed to build a multicultural workforce that leverages diverse perspectives to create breakthrough solutions for clients in an inspiring, collaborative, high-performance workplace. Judith develops strategic plans, drives the sharing of best practices globally, partners with diversity leadership development and professional organizations to increase awareness of Weber Shandwick’s commitment to diversity, and leads innovative initiatives to build a strong talent pipeline while strengthening employee engagement in embedding diversity & inclusion into the agency’s culture and work.

In addition to human resources and recruiting experience, Judith’s background includes communications positions and projects at Burson-Marsteller, Ernst & Young, CBS, Media General, Random House, and the Italian Trade Commission.

Since joining Weber Shandwick in 2006, Judith has guided the firm to recognition as a champion of diversity and inclusion, with honors including the PRWeek/PR Council Diversity Distinction in PR Awards in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, and the 2016 PR News Diversity Heroes Award as an Organization of the Year.       

Judith has been listed in Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. She was awarded the 2011 STAR Award by New York Women’s Agenda, was named as one of Savoy’s Top Influential Women in Corporate America in 2012 and 2014, and was honored with the 2016 PR News Diversity Heroes Award as an Individual of the Year.

Judith served the PR Council as chair of its HR Roundtable for three years. She is president of the PRSA Foundation, and president-elect of New York Women in Communications. Judith also serves on the 4A’s Diversity Steering Committee, as well as on the advisory boards of ColorComm and the Ron Brown Scholar Program.

Jacqueline Strayer

Columbia University and NYU

Consultant and faculty member at

Jacqueline Strayer is a faculty member in graduate programs at NYU and Columbia, serves as the Academic Community of Practice Leader in marketing at NYU and is a consultant to a wide range of organizations on a range of marketing and public relations topics. Previously, she served as the Chief Communications Officer for three global publicly traded companies. A published author, she writes about contemporary issues impacting public relations and marketing practices and notably created the first communication and training program in the United States to address sexual harassment in the workplace.  Active in the arts, she has served on boards in public television, the performing arts and independent film and film festivals. An experienced film interviewer she has interviewed thousands of people from throughout the world, including Heads of State, Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer prize recipients, Hall of Famers, and Emmy, Tony, Oscar and Peabody recipients. She is currently writing her first book. You can reach her at jfs2002@nyu.edu.

Emma Daly

Human Rights Watch

Communications Director

Emma Daly is the Communications Director at Human Rights Watch, overseeing all media communication coming from the organization, a position she has held since July 2007. Prior to that, she worked as Press Director after joining HRW in November 2005. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Daly spent 18 years as a journalist, mostly as a foreign correspondent, working for the New York Times, the Independent, Newsweek, the Observer and Reuters, among others. She has contributed to several books including "Secrets of the Press - the Penguin Book of Journalism" and "Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know." A native of the UK, Daly graduated from the University of East Anglia with a BA in Philosophy and Literature.

Mark Weiner

Author, "PR Technology, Data and Insights"

Chief Insights Officer, PublicRelay

Mark Weiner helps PublicRelay clients make better data-informed communications and business decisions. Mark's newest book, "PR Technology, Data and Insights" was named one of the top three PR books for 2022 and among the top 40 PR books of all time by Bookauthority.org. His first book, "Unleashing The Power of PR," is ranked at #11. Mark was named to PR Week's "Dashboard 25," the 25 most influential people in communications technology.

He serves as a member of The Arthur Page Society, a Trustee of The Museum of Public Relations and a Director of The Institute for Public Relations (IPR), for which he is the immediate past chair of the Measurement Commission. Mark is the 2018 recipient of the Jack Felton Medal awarded by the IPR for lifetime achievement in communications research. He sits on the Advisory Council at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

PublicRelay delivers communications analytics and advisory services which fuel the world's most admired organizations with the interpretive analysis, actionable insights and strategic guidance they need to set objectives, develop strategies and tactics, and stay on track over time, versus competitors and in light of best practice.

Mark has held leadership positions in the communications research field since 1986. Before joining Cognito in 2021, Mark was the CEO of PRIME Research which was acquired by Cision in 2018, Mark led Ketchum's Global Research practice before which he was SVP at Cision and CEO of Delahaye, the PR research firm he founded as Medialink Research in 1994. As a member of Medialink's executive board, Mark helped to lead its 1999 initial public offering on the NASDAQ.

In addition to his latest book, Mark authored "Unleashing the Power of PR" published by John Wiley in 2005. Bookauthority.org named it one of the top 25 PR books in history. He writes for international trade media and speaks often at such conferences as The Conference Board, PRSA, AMEC, IABC, The Arthur Page Society and more. Mark has presented to audiences in Australia, Canada, Peru, Greece, Denmark, Slovenia, Sweden, Brazil, The Ukraine, and the UK. He sits on the editorial advisory boards of Ragan PR Daily, PR Journal, PR News and PRSA's The Strategist. In 2022, Mark was named among PR Week's Dashboard 25, the most influential people in public relations. In 2013, he was inducted into The PR News Hall of Fame.

His career began at the New York Times News Service and Tribune Media.

Nicole Moreo

Ketchum

SVP- Senior Vice President, Analytics

Nicole Moreo has a proven track record of looking beyond metrics and developing analytics programs that have a direct impact on strategy and business outcomes for her clients. Nicole’s expertise and focus lies in being able to tell a holistic data story for all Ketchum clients. To do this, she looks at a clients’ data across the paid, owned and earned spectrum. She integrates data points from traditional media, social media, web analytics, search engine optimization, primary research, digital ads and CRM to identify the trends and insights that lead to smart and sophisticated strategies.

Prior to joining Ketchum, Nicole built the Analytics practice at Peppercomm, a digital communications agency based in New York with offices in San Francisco and London. Nicole oversaw a team of data scientists, analysts and researchers that worked to connect strategy, tactics, audience and results for clients across a variety of industries. Using the latest ideas in digital, statistical, analytical and market research, Nicole is known for finding the answer of “what does success mean to you”.

Nicole is Vice-Chair of AMEC North America and was named as one of the top 25 innovators in America by the Holmes Reports in 2016. She attended Washington and Lee University with a focus in Economics.

Lars Silberbaur

Viacom

SVP of MTV Digital Studios

Lars is based in New York where, in 2018, he joined Viacom as Senior Vice President to spearhead the transformation of the traditional entertainment company to become a cutting-edge digital studio.

Previously, Lars led the innovative toy company LEGO through a fast-paced digital transformation that positioned the company as the undisputed digital leader in the industry.

Before his international career, Lars was a longterm executive at the 3,000-person-strong Danish Broadcasting Corporation, driving their digital strategy and innovation.

Lars is a highly sought-after speaker who has delivered keynotes at some of the largest and most impactful digital events in the world. Cannes Lions (voted 3rd-best speaker out of 800), Oracle Open World (15,000 people in the audience), Websummit, RISE and many others.

Lars has also shared his knowledge and perspective at many internal events for global companies, including behemoth global brands such as Coca-Cola, Facebook and Levi Strauss.

John Yembrick

NASA

Director Of Social Media

John Yembrick is NASA’s chief of digital communications and Strategy and has the privilege to share the most powerful content in the universe. He has over 20 years of experience in communications, and in his current position overseeing video, still imagery, social media and the agency’s website, he has one single goal: Make people care about space exploration. John is driven by the belief that NASA’s inspiring content can connect with everyone on the planet if presented the right way.

Traci Otey Blunt

NFL

SVP, Corporate Communications

A nationally recognized and award-winning communications and public affairs strategist, Traci Otey Blunt is known as a politically savvy and fearless communicator and architect of positive, proactive, strategic messaging for even the most challenging of situations and issues facing organizations across both the public and private sector.
Serving as a loyal and trusted communications advisor to prominent political figures and senior corporate executives—Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Presidential elections and Robert (Bob) L. Johnson, the well-known American entrepreneur, media magnate, and investor—Traci has been the mastermind behind award-winning media relations, public affairs, executive visibility, and government relations campaigns for corporate, political, and nonprofit organizations for the past 20-plus years.
Traci joined the National Football League as SVP, Corporate Communications in October 2018, where she will lead communications strategies across key areas within the NFL, including current affairs, business operations, NFL Media, government affairs, health and safety and social responsibility.
Prior to joining the NFL, in 2017, Traci was appointed by Bob Johnson as president of RLJ Entertainment’s Urban Movie Channel (UMC) where she leveraged her experience in building brands and leading consumer campaigns to launch and grow the first-ever subscription video on demand (SVOD) channel dedicated to showcasing Black film and television. At the behest of Bob Johnson whom she had met through her work on the Clinton campaign, Traci first went to work for RLJ Companies in 2008, as EVP in charge of corporate communications and public affairs for the multiple diversified companies in the RLJ portfolio, including RLJ Entertainment.
In the fast-paced world of politics and government, Traci has served as a media specialist on Capitol Hill, with the District of Columbia government, and in mayoral, state legislative, gubernatorial, and presidential campaigns. She was national deputy communications director and national director of African-American media to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, served as a communications director during the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and was communications director for the Tennessee-coordinated campaign during the Gore-Lieberman 2000 presidential campaign.
Early in her career, Traci also worked at two leading public relations agencies – Porter Novelli as a senior public affairs specialist and Ogilvy Public Relations as VP in the agency’s multicultural and public affairs practice groups.
Honored with multiple national awards for her communications and public relations prowess, Traci was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business from The Network Journal and was honored with the Circle Award from ColorComm and Hall of Femme from PR Week. Traci has also been featured in national media articles, such as Mocha Market magazine’s “Women in Charge, On Fire and Changing the World: National Advisor to Presidential Contender and Business Tycoon.”
Traci is a current board member of Capitol Hill Day School, is on the board of ColorComm, and is a member of the International Black Film Festival of Nashville. Traci earned her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Tennessee State University where she has since been recognized with university’s Women of Legend & Merit honor.

Sharon Fenster

PRSA-NY

Immediate Past-President

Sharon Fenster is a brand and marketing strategist who never loses sight of the human element. It is her affinity for people and their choices that has fueled her successful career working with multimillion-dollar brands and startups. But her concern for the human condition goes even further. 

Sharon is a powerful advocate for greater diversity & inclusion in the communications field. In her former role as President-elect of the New York City Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA-NY), her vision for the Chapter was introduced in a multi-faceted diversity and inclusion initiative. In 2018, now President of PRSA-NY, she worked tirelessly to move the PR industry forward--providing full access and support to a more diverse and inclusive workforce where communications professional could finally reach their potential. Today, Sharon is Immediate-Past President of PRSA-NY and she continues her work towards greater diversity and inclusion in the field of PR as Chair of PRSA-NY’s Diversity Committee.   Wearing her CEO of Fenster Communications hat, one of her central tenets is diversity & inclusion certification. Right now, she is busy collaborating with academia and agencies in developing a series of workshops that offer continuing education credits upon completion of a workshop series addressing implicit bias in the workplace. Her ultimate goal is to have these seminars become a requirement for all PR professionals in the nation. But that's not all. Sharon is actively engaged in advocating for the full release of diversity data by PR organizations of every kind. Her stance is simply this--what gets measured gets done.

 

Felix Danczak

Signal A.I.

Head of Strategy

Felix is Head of Strategy at Signal A.I., a leading media intelligence SaaS provider. Over his career he has worked with leadership teams at Freuds, Brunswick, Warner Bros, BFI, Save the Children, Mars Inc, Skype, and numerous start-ups, advising and building overall strategic direction and the subsequent articulation of their vision. 

Teresa Wells

Tenth&Grey

Founder and Senior Principle

Teresa Wells is currently a senior principle at Tenth&Grey, a global crisis communications and branding firm representing CEO's, heads of state and global leaders with offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Prior to founding Tenth&Grey, Wells also served as a global media strategist at the social venture capital fund, Acumen after years of serving as the Chief Media Strategist at the Rockefeller Foundation where she oversaw the Foundation's global media strategy and bared primary responsibility for shaping local, national, and worldwide news coverage of its work in print, electronic, and online media.

An experienced communications specialist, she served previously as Deputy National Director of Communications for former North Carolina Senator, John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign.

Prior to that, she was Traveling Press Secretary to New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine.

Wells also worked on the presidential campaigns of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley as a key interface with local and national reporters.

She has consulted on statewide political campaigns in Wisconsin, Virginia, and Missouri and began her political career in the Washington D.C. office of New Jersey Congressman Donald Payne.

Wells earned a B.A. in Economics from Brown University. She currently sits on the board of the New York Urban League and the Creative Visions Foundation.

She resides in London.

Eric Philips

Edelman

Senior Vice President, Crisis & Risk Management Advisory

Eric Phillips is a senior vice president in the firm’s crisis & risk management advisory practice. He comes to Edelman after serving as press secretary for City Hall and New York City Mayor de Blasio. As New York City government’s top spokesperson, Phillips managed the city’s communications surrounding public safety and health emergencies, international events, and daily mayoral announcements across the Administration’s agenda.

Prior to serving in the de Blasio Administration, Phillips served as a vice president at SKDKnickerbocker, where he advised some of the firm’s most high-profile healthcare, political, education and not-for-profit clients. Phillips has provided counsel to prosecutors, lawmakers and political campaigns in local, state and federal races. Prior to joining SKDKnickerbocker, Phillips served as communications director for the Nassau County District Attorney’s office, as U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice’s top policy and strategy aide, and as a legislative aide in the Wisconsin statehouse.

Phillips holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree from Northwestern University. He lives in Manhattan.

Francesca Trainor Alt

Edelman

Executive Vice President, Group Head, Crisis & Risk Management Advisory

Francesca Trainor Alt leads Edelman’s New York Crisis & Risk Management Advisory group, advising businesses, governments and institutions on addressing reputation as a strategic business issue.

Prior to Edelman, Francesca spent 12 years at McKinsey & Company where she established and led the global reputation risk function that advised McKinsey and clients on effectively protecting reputations and building resilience. She developed a holistic approach and leading practices for strategic reputation risk management, encompassing both protection and value creation. She directed cross-functional and multi-office teams globally and nationally across wide-ranging industries and critical business issues e.g., cyber-attacks, data fraud/theft, matters of ethics and integrity, fiscal crises in key economies, interstate conflict, legal action and investigations, major natural catastrophes, mismanagement, product and service risk and spread of infectious diseases.

Francesca also spent 10 years at Hill & Knowlton in the U.S. and Asia as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on significant crises, litigation and corporate communications challenges. She annually directed 100+ teams globally and nationally across wide-ranging business issues and industries e.g., consumer, financial services, global energy & materials, healthcare systems & services, travel/transport/logistics and telecom/media/technology.

She is a member of several professional and non-profit associations, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Brooklyn Children's Theatre, and leanin.org. Francesca received her Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science and Communications from the University of Sydney.