  Mike Allen
Chief Political Correspondent
Politico |
Mike Allen joined Politico from Time magazine where he was the White House correspondent. Prior to that, he spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore, and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Virginia, for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb, and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, California, and has a BA from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism. |
 Lloyd Armbrust II
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Seeing Interactive |
Lloyd Armbrust is a founder and chief executive officer of Seeing Interactive, a newspaper technology vendor. Previously, Armbrust worked in the newspaper industry for nine years in every role imaginable—from accounting, to content writing and editing, to sales, to Web development, Armbrust knows the world of print from the inside out. He has won multiple national awards from the Inland Press association and the Associated Press for his Web strategies at daily newspapers in the Midwest. Armbrust also holds a bachelor of arts degree in English, which has almost nothing to do with his current role at Seeing Interactive. |
 Tim Armstrong
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
AOL |
As chairman and chief executive officer, Tim Armstrong is responsible for setting strategy and overseeing the businesses and day-to-day operations of AOL. In December 2009, he took the company public with a listing on the NYSE. Armstrong joined AOL in April 2009 from Google, where he was president of the Americas operations, overseeing North American and Latin American advertising sales and marketing. Armstrong was a member of Google's operating committee, the company's executive team. Prior to Google, Armstrong was vice president of sales and strategic partnerships for Snowball.com, and director of integrated sales and marketing at Starwave's and Disney's ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures. Armstrong cofounded a newspaper based in Boston, Mass. and later joined IDG, where he launched its first consumer Internet magazine, I-Way. Armstrong is on the boards of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Advertising Council, and the Advertising Research Foundation and is a trustee of the Paley Center for Media. |
 Kristofs Blaus
Cofounder
GoMap Riga |
Kristofs Blaus is a European entrepreneur managing various innovative businesses in the Baltics. Since 2007 his companies have successfully worked with teaching-aid software for mobile phones, advanced marketing solutions, payment-systems, and advanced IT services for clients from Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. He is founder and CEO of Creative Mobile Ltd.; Education Mobile Ltd.; Technology Mobile Ltd.; Politics Mobile Ltd.; and the founder of the Society Technologies Foundation. Blaus is recognized as one of the most successful innovative entrepreneurs in Latvia by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, EIROPE INNOVA, and various other business institutions. He is also a 2010 Knight News Challenge winner and winner of various business competitions, including Cup of Ideas 2007 (www.idejukauss.lv), Innovation Plan Competition 2007 (by www.db.lv), and Business Plan Competition 2006 (by www.db.lv). He often lectures and presents to young entrepreneurs, teachers, young leaders, and business students across the Baltic region. |
 Nick Brien
Chief Executive Officer
McCann Worldgroup |
Nick Brien is chief executive officer of McCann Worldgroup, one of the world’s largest global marketing communications companies, a post he assumed in April 2010. Previously, he was CEO for two years of another Interpublic company, Mediabrands, one of the industry’s premier media management companies. With nearly three decades of global experience across advertising, media, and marketing services, Brien is committed to transforming the marketing communications agency model to collaboratively deliver to clients marketing solutions that have greatest possible business impact. As CEO of McCann Worldgroup, he heads a multi-disciplinary organization that spans over 120 countries and is comprised of eight high-profile companies entrusted with many of the world’s most famous brands: McCann Erickson (the world’s largest advertising agency network); MRM Worldwide (digital marketing/CRM); Momentum (event marketing/promotion); McCann Healthcare (professional/dtc communications); EXP (global production); UM (media management); Weber Shandwick (public relations); and FutureBrand (consulting/design). In his earlier Mediabrands role, Brien had overall management responsibility for the company’s independent media agencies. |
 Don Browne
President
Telemundo Communications Group, Inc. |
A broadcast television veteran, Don Browne oversees all functions of the Telemundo television network and its sixteen owned and operated stations, including the programming division, Telemundo Studios, and news and sports. In addition, he is responsible for Telemundo International and Telemundo Cable, as well as Telemundo’s Digital Media initiatives and the network’s advertising and marketing efforts. Browne was named president of Telemundo in April 2005 and has transformed Telemundo’s core business from an acquisition business model to an original programming business model, producing more than 1000 hours of original prime-time productions a year out of Telemundo Studios’ production centers in Colombia and Miami, Florida, quickly establishing it as the world’s second largest provider of Spanish-language content. Thanks to Browne’s commitment to original productions, Telemundo has carved a unique competitive position in the market, syndicating its programming properties to over 100 countries in more than thirty-five different languages and distributing its content in a variety of emerging digital media platforms. In 2008, Browne’s extensive contributions to the broadcasting industry and Spanish-language television were recognized by Broadcasting & Cable, where he was inducted into the prestigious Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, an industry honor that is bestowed on the pioneers, the innovators, and the stars of the electronic arts. |
 David Carr
Columnist
The New York Times |
David Carr writes a column for the Monday Business section of the New York Times that focuses on media issues including print, digital, film, radio, and television. He also works as a general assignment reporter in the Culture section of the New York Times covering all aspects of popular culture. For the past twenty-five years, Carr has been writing about media as it intersects with business, culture, and government. Carr began working at the Times in 2002 covering the magazine publishing industry for the Business section. Prior to arriving at the Times, he was a contributing writer for The Atlantic Monthly and New York Magazine, writing articles that ranged from homeland security issues to the movie industry. In 2000, he was the media writer for Inside.com, a Web news site focusing on the business of entertainment and publishing. Prior to arriving in New York, Carr served as editor of the Washington City Paper, an alternative weekly in Washington DC for five years. |
 Anna Carugati
Group Editorial Director, WSN INC.
Editor, World Screen |
Anna Carugati oversees WSN INC.'s English-language publications, including World Screen, TV Europe, TV Kids, TV Real, TV Formats and TV Asia Pacific. She has been a reporter throughout her professional life, having worked at CBS in Chicago and Mediaset in Italy, as well as for trade journals such as The Hollywood Reporter and Electronic Media. Fluent in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, Carugati is also the recipient of an Emmy award for journalism, a DuPont-Columbia honorable mention and an Associated Press award for editorial excellence. She has been with WSN INC. since 1996. |
 Wendy Clark
Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing Communications and Capabilities
The Coca-Cola Company |
Wendy Clark joined The Coca-Cola Company in September 2008 as senior vice president, integrated marketing communications and capabilities. In her role, Clark oversees global design, marketing communications, media, sponsorships, interactive marketing, and marketing of the company’s Live Positively sustainability platform. Under Clark’s guidance, her team has achieved a great deal during her time at the company, including the successful global launch of the Coca-Cola “Open Happiness” campaign, now deployed in markets representing 100% of Coca-Cola’s volume. Her team is levering the power and impact of holistic design, working to align and focus our ad agencies under a new value-based compensation model and driving great adoption and understanding of digital media with a “fans-first” mentality. Clark’s efforts were recognized in November 2007, upon her induction into the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) “Advertising Hall of Achievement.” In addition, AdAge magazine cited Clark as “one of the most important women in marketing” in its “Women to Watch” 2007 issue. Clark is a board member of the Association of National Advertisers, on the advisory board of Canoe Ventures, and is a board director for The Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation. |
 Jim Cramer
Host, Mad Money
CNBC |
Jim Cramer is host of CNBC's Mad Money, featuring lively guest interviews, viewer calls, and, most importantly, the unmatched, fiery opinions of Cramer himself. He serves as the viewer's personal guide through the confusing jungle of Wall Street investing, navigating through both opportunities and pitfalls with one goal in mind—to help them make money. Cramer is markets commentator for TheStreet.com, a multimedia provider of financial commentary, analysis, and news, which Cramer cofounded and of which is he is the largest shareholder. He also writes a column for TheStreet.com. He graduated from Harvard College where he was president and editor in chief of the prestigious daily The Harvard Crimson. After graduation he became a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat and later for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner where he covered stories ranging from homicides to sporting events. Cramer is a former hedge fund manager and founder/owner and senior partner of Cramer Berkowitz. In October 2009, he published his latest book, Jim Cramer's Getting Back to Even. Cramer is also the author of Stay Mad For Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich; Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich; Jim Cramer's RealMoney; Confessions of a Street Addict; and You Got Screwed. |
 Henrique de Castro
Vice President, Global Media and Platforms
Google |
As vice president of media and platforms for Google, Henrique de Castro is responsible for the company’s YouTube, display, and platforms businesses worldwide. He joined Google in 2006 from Dell where he ran its enterprise business in Western Europe. Prior to Dell, he worked for McKinsey & Company and in the private equity and advertising industries. He holds an MBA from IMD, and a master's in business administration and economics. |
 Nonny de la Peña
Cofounder
Stroome.com |
Nonny de la Peña is the cofounder of Stroome.com and a senior research fellow in immersive journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. With Stroome.com and while at USC, she is pushing boundaries for entrepreneurial and technologically innovative journalistic endeavors. A graduate of Harvard University, she is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with twenty years of journalism experience including as a correspondent for Newsweek magazine and as a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times magazine, Premiere magazine, and others. Her films have screened on national television and at theatres in more than fifty cities around the globe, garnering praise from critics like A.O. Scott who called her work “a brave and necessary act of truth-telling.” Combining knowledge from her master’s degree in online communities and her lengthy career as a reporter, de la Peña created Stroome to provide a collaborative visual journalism remix site for the Web. She is also exploring 3D and virtual environments for news, nonfiction, and documentary narratives. |
 David Fischer
Vice President of Advertising and Global Operations
Facebook |
David Fischer joined Facebook as vice president of advertising and global operations in April 2010. In that role, he is responsible for Facebook’s rapidly growing worldwide advertising business and manages the sales and marketing teams. In addition, he oversees operations for the company’s developer and user operations teams. Prior to joining Facebook, Fischer was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google. Starting in 2002, he built and directed Google’s online sales channel, which represents the majority of Google’s customers worldwide, and helped build Google’s online advertising network into the largest in the world. Fischer previously served as deputy chief of staff of the US Treasury Department where he served as an advisor to the secretary of the treasury and worked on a variety of economic policy issues within the federal government. Prior to that, Fischer was an associate editor at US News & World Report, where he covered economics and business from Washington, DC. He served as a consultant to the Russian government on the implementation of its privatization program in the early 1990s. He serves on the boards of the SEEP Network, a global nonprofit dedicated to microfinance and enterprise development. |
 Greg Foster
Member, Board of Directors, StatSheet
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Chrysalis Ventures |
Greg Foster serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Chrysalis Ventures. In addition to his role on StatSheet’s board of directors, he also serves as a board member for The Onion and PlayOn Sports and serves on the advisory board of Vertical Acuity, SolidFire, and Clearleap. He is also the founder and CEO of BrightWhistle, a new start-up in Atlanta. Foster has a diverse entrepreneurial and executive background in media and technology. Most recently, he served as a partner at Noro-Moseley Partners, an Atlanta-based venture capital firm, with a concentration on early-stage digital media companies. Previously, he has been a member of the management teams of three successful start-ups, serving as senior vice president of corporate development and vice president and general manager of the Madrid office for Atlanta-based iXL; vice president of business and corporate development for Silverpop Systems; and founder and CEO of Southern Direct. Foster joined Turner Broadcasting after Southern Direct was acquired by Turner where he served as vice president of corporate development, overseeing M&A and investment opportunities for all of Turner’s brands including CNN, TNT, TBS, TCM, Cartoon Network, TruTV, and Adult Swim. Foster holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, magna cum laude, from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard Business School. |
 Chrystia Freeland
Global Editor-at-Large
Reuters |
Chrystia Freeland serves as a key figure on Reuters Insider, a new financial video service, and as Reuters principal on-air pundit for other external broadcast partners. Freeland also serves as senior contributor to Reuters.com where she will begin writing a weekly column that focuses on critical issues taking place at the intersection of business and politics. Freeland also plays a leading role in Reuters Summits and in Thomson Reuters Global Newsmaker series. Previously, Freeland served as the US managing editor of the Financial Times where she led the editorial development of the paper’s US edition and of US news on FT.com. During this time, the FT’s US print edition became the single largest edition of the FT. From 1999 to 2001, Freeland served for two years as deputy editor of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. Freeland began her career working as a stringer in Ukraine, writing for the FT, The Washington Post and The Economist. Freeland is the author of Sale of a Century: the inside story of the second Russian revolution (2000), which details Russia’s journey from communism to capitalism. Her profile of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which appeared in the FT Magazine, won a Business Journalist of the Year Award in 2004. |
 Tom Grasty
Cofounder
Stroome |
Tom Grasty is an entrepreneurial digital and media strategist with a diverse professional background across the entertainment, advertising, public relations, and Internet industries. With a strong background in strategic partnership affiliation and content monetization across traditional and new media platforms, Grasty has overseen the development of over 100 hours of film, television, documentary, and digital properties. Most recently, Grasty cofounded Stroome.com, a collaborative video editing and publishing platform designed to simplify the production of video news. A recipient of a 2010 Knight News Challenge grant, he was recently named an “Innovator to Watch” by the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation. |
