Speakers.

Tom Armstrong is the Vice President of Global Advertising at The New York Times. He is responsible for generating revenue from all the Times’s multiplatform products & services & leadership of the sales team across international markets.

Previously, Tom was at Fairfax Media where he was the Chief Revenue Officer, leading a team across Fairfax Media’s publishing brands including: The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age & The Australian Financial Review.

Before joining Fairfax, Tom spent 12 years with Viacom in London in various senior international roles focused on building the digital business for their flagship brands: MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central & Paramount. He held several positions at Discovery Networks & worked for a gaming start-up, Two Way TV, pioneering some of the world’s first interactive TV experiences. 

He lives in Oxfordshire with his wife & four children.

Rachel Arthur is the founder of boom saloon, a global movement to democratise creativity for good via print magazine, community projects and creative studio. Passionate about championing the arts and creative industries, Rachel founded boom saloon via Kickstarter in 2016, achieving 137% of the campaign’s target. Having previously studied fashion and design management, she embarked upon a stint at Conde Nast’s Tatler magazine before moving to a pivotal role as Head of Content at Scotland’s fastest growing fashion tech company. Her role at Creative Edinburgh further ignited her passion for nurturing creative growth across sectors, paving the way to the launch of boom saloon – an innovative reimagining of what the power of print can do. Showcasing talent from a broad range of environments, boom saloon strives to remove the barriers of reputation and status too often associated with artistic endeavours, creating a platform to champion any work of talent, no matter where it comes from. By using creativity to inspire and empower those facing challenges, boom saloon has directly supported over 40 individuals facing challenges including forcible displacement, abuse, homelessness and dementia. Their community of creatives spans the entire world, including previously unpublished photographers in Quito, Ecuador; world famous poets in Toronto, Canada; up and coming talents from Granada, Spain, and many more. Rachel herself is based in Scotland and was named an Industry Expert for Create Hub before twice winning a Rising Star in Media award from FIPP and being named in the Young Women’s Movement’s 30 Under 30. 

Richard Askam spent 30 years working in the Wine Business before he took a career turn in 2010 to launch the first personalised champagne gifts in the UK as an antidote to the commoditisation of the wine market in the UK. Ultimately, this lead him to the doors of Coca-Cola where he created and executed the online ShareaCoke campaign across Europe in 2014. Over the following 2 years, Richard created similarly successful personalised campaigns for the likes of Unilever, Barclays, Vodafone and McVities before becoming a renowned full time speaker, debuting as a TED Talker in 2017 and he has worked extensively across the world for the likes of HP, Xerox, Canon and many more. Richard is a master of conversation, an invaluable skill in a world where businesses have to adapt to the conversation of their customers, and over the last few years has become an accomplished host and MC for business events both online and in person!

Srini is the Managing Director of the 96 year old Vikatan Group, having joined the Vikatan Group it was a print-only Magazine Publisher, in 1990. Under his stewardship, the Vikatan Group today, is a diversified Media house with 7 magazine titles in Tamil boasting a combined readership of over 8 million, 8.8 million MAU’s on the internet, over 720 million minutes viewed by its 20 million followers across social networks every month. He was the driving force behind the Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards that premiered in 2016 and has been a marquee property since. 

A quintessential storyteller, he spearheaded Vikatan’s foray into TV production for over 2 decades, delivering superhit shows in 5 languages including Tamil. He has premiered Vikatan’s first OTT product ‘November Story’ in May 2021 with many more in the pipeline. 

He is now strategizing Vikatan’s foray into NFT’s and the Metaverse. Having evangelized the digital first approach in content creation, curation and publishing at Vikatan Group, he is reengineering Vikatan’s culture by investing heavily in people, processes and workflows while ensuring that the consumer is kept at the heart of everything that Vikatan stands for, while firmly staying entrenched in Vikatan’s timeless value- systems.

Nkiru Balonwu is Founder and Creative Director of The Africa Soft Power Project (ASP), a media and events company focussed on leveraging the continent’s creative and knowledge industries (CKI) to propel Africa forward both domestically and on the world stage. Through its consulting arm, RDF Strategies, ASP provides strategic communication and stakeholder engagement services to clients which include some of the top 10 most successful companies in the world. She is also Founder & Co-Chair of African Women on Board (AWB), an Africa-led-globallyfocussed non-profit organisation that seeks to advance the narratives and improve the realities of women and girls of African heritage around the world. In 2019, she received the Powerlist UK 2020 Black Excellence International award “given to a person based outside of the UK, considered to have distinguished themselves as a change-maker, innovator, inspiration and person of considerable influence” in recognition of her work in this area. Prior to this, Nkiru was CEO of Spinlet Group, the first music streaming and digital distribution platform in Sub Saharan Africa, where she oversaw growth in subscriber numbers to more than 2 million users.

Francisco Pedro Presas Pinto de Balsemão is the CEO of Impresa, the largest media company in Portugal, since March 2016. Previously (October 2012) he acted as Impresa’s COO responsible for Human Resources, Legal Affairs and Sustainability, as well as Company Secretary. He graduated in Law at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Lisbon) and has a Masters Degree in Law (Magister Juris) by Oxford University (UK). He also undertook a General Course in Management at Nova School of Business and Economics (Lisbon), the Advanced Management Program at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Lisbon) and Kellogg School of Management (Chicago), the Orchestrating Winning Performance/Leading the Family Business program at IMD Business School (Lausanne) and Journey to Business Transformation by Esade Business School at Singularity University, NASA Research Park (Silicon Valley).

Francisco began his career in 2003, as an Associate at Linklaters (Lisbon) and later as a Human Resources Consultant in Heidrick & Struggles (Lisbon). He joined Impresa in 2009 as Human Resources Director. Before, in 2007, he was an Assistant Attaché in the Portuguese Mission to the United Nations (New York), having worked in the 3rd Committee (Human Rights). Francisco is the Vice-President of SIC Esperança, an NGO, since 2013. He is member of the Advisory Board of the Forum for Competitiveness, since 2018, member of the Faculty Council at the Law School of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, since 2018 and member of the Quality Council of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, as a representative of employers of graduates of this University (2021-2025). He is also member of St. Julian’s School Association, since 2016 and Mentor of the new Executive Master in Leadership at Nova School of Business & Economics, 2021/2022. He also was Director of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, since November 2017 until November 2021.

Francisco Pedro Balsemão won the Media Personality of the Year Award, in 2019, awarded by the magazine “Meios e Publicidade”.

Bobby Bonett is a digital media leader with experience in building brands, developing content, growing audiences, driving monetization, and scaling teams. He joined the SANDOW Design Group in January 2020. As the Executive Vice President of Digital + Strategic Growth, he develops and oversees digital strategy and execution for SDG’s unique ecosystem of design media and services brands including Luxe Interiors + Design, Interior Design, Metropolis, and ThinkLab. In 2020, Bonett launched DesignTV by SANDOW, a digital video network that amassed more than 10 million views in its first year, and in 2021 he introduced The Agency by SANDOW, a boutique digital agency for the architecture and design industry.

Prior to joining SANDOW Design Group, Bonett was director of global media distribution for the NBA. Before that, he spent six years at SiriusXM working in content development and marketing. Bonett began his career in the news industry at Newsday and Digital First Media.

A frequent speaker and panelist at industry events, Bonett engages SANDOW Design Group’s global digital audience of 12 million+ with exceptional content every day, working with brands on compelling, impactful partnerships.

Alysia Borsa is Chief Business Officer and President of Lifestyle at Dotdash Meredith. She joined the company in 2011 and has held a number of executive roles, including President of Digital, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Data Officer. She was instrumental in several key milestones, including the establishment of the Dotdash Meredith Data Studio, a suite of advertising solutions that help the company leverage its proprietary first-party data and predictive analytics capabilities.

Before joining Dotdash Meredith, Alysia held senior positions in the technology, telecommunications and consulting sectors. She received her MBA from The University of Western Ontario and her HBA (Honours Bachelor of Arts) in business from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Yulia Petrossian Boyle is Vice President at Disney’s DMED Division, responsible for NatGeo Global Media Partnerships, Image Collection, and Content Operations. She leads the strategy for NatGeo’s global media activities in 55 countries and 30 local languages, oversees the transformation of NatGeo iconic Image Collection archive into the best-in-class digital asset management system, and is in charge of NatGeo Media content operations and talent relations.

Yulia has been instrumental in rapid global expansion of the National Geographic media properties, overseeing launches of NG magazines media and books for adults and kids across the globe since 2007.

Forming strategic partnership with world’s leading media companies, Yulia has been successful in conceptualizing and launching many high-revenue, new-format publishing products, including special interest publications, such as NG History, Kids Collectibles, Travel, Adventure, Food NG magazine brand extensions, as well as bi-lingual kids “edutainment” products globally.

Yulia, who is fluent in English, Armenian and Russian, has had a 23-year career in media and international business development. Before joining National Geographic, she worked for Macmillan Publishing, UK, where she launched a joint venture with a local publishing house in Armenia, assisting in the winning World Bank Tender to publish curricula textbooks, expanding Macmillan’s offerings in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. She also worked as a reporter for Ukraine’s largest English-language newspaper, the Kyiv Post, and oversaw the rebranding and launch of a popular women’s weekly targeting Ukraine’s professional women, as its publisher. Boyle has also launched and managed the British Council (BC) operations in Armenia and supervised the first ever Royal Visit to Armenia in the framework of BC’s cultural exchange programs.

In January 2022 Yulia was appointed as the new Chair of FIPP, world’s oldest and largest global media membership association. Yulia has also served on the Board of Nikkei National Geographic Joint Venture since 2014.

Boyle holds a master’s degree in public management and comparative international affairs from Indiana University, Bloomington. She has a bachelor’s degree in English language and U.S./U.K. studies.

Inês Bravo is a Senior Consultant at INNOVATION Media Consulting, specializing in User Experience, Digital Product Strategy, Service Design, Information Architecture, User-Centred Design, Edtech & CMS for digital platforms. 

Her recent projects with INNOVATION includes Arab News (Saudi Arabia), Sistema Verdes Mares (SVM) Brazil, and Grupo Prensa Libre (Guatemala). 

An advocate for digital literacy for all ages, she is actively engaged in developing digital literacy tools focusing on young people.

Michael Brito is the Vice President of Group Subscriptions and Licensing at The Economist. He joined The Economist in 2020 and is responsible for delivering subscription and revenue growth through group/corporate subscriptions and licensing partnerships. His team works globally with organizations to bring The Economist to large and diverse audiences with the aim of helping elevate performance, raise commercial awareness and drive engagement and recognition of employees and customers. Prior to joining The Economist, Michael worked at The New York Times where he  managed global B2B and enterprise subscriptions. He has been in the media industry for over 15 years leading and building B2C and B2B subscription-based businesses.

Ralph Büchi, born in 1957, is a Swiss and a French citizen. In 1981, he graduated with a master degree in business administration at the University of Zurich. 

From 1981 to 1999, he first worked as a business journalist and then as managing director for the business publishing group Handelszeitung in Switzerland. In these years, he further developed the group and, together with two partners, acquired the majority of the company through a management buy-out. In 1999, the group Handelszeitung was sold to Axel Springer SE. 

Subsequently, Ralph Büchi further expanded the business of Axel Springer in Switzerland with the acquisition of Jean Frey AG and parts of the Ringier portfolio in 2007. In 2008, he was appointed President International of AxelSpringer SE. From 2012 to 2014, Ralph Büchi was a member of the Executive Board of Axel Springer SE and in charge of the whole international business. 

In 2015, he returned to Switzerland, but remained responsible for the international publishing business of Axel Springer. Parallelly, he established the new Swiss joint venture with the Swiss publisher Ringier AG, which he led as CEO from the start in 2016 until March 2020. 

In 2017, Ralph Büchi changed from Axel Springer to the position of COO and deputy CEO to the Group Executive Board of the internationally operating Ringier-Group, in charge of their publishing business, including the Swiss joint venture with Axel Springer, until March 2020. 

Ralph Büchi was also Chairman from 2017 to 2019 and currently is a Member of the Board of the London-based FIPP (The Network for Global Media). Since May 2021 he further is a member of the European Advisory Board of Samsung. 

Since April 2019 he is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer SE.

Ciara Byrne is the Director of New Business Innovation at Condé Nast. She is responsible for developing international businesses for Condé Nast brands across 23 markets around the world. Using a design thinking lead process their team develops businesses from conception through to implementation across direct to consumer and B2B models. Ciara is driving the metaverse and NFT strategy for Condé Nast globally across all brands working with all teams around the world. She sits on the World Economic Forum metaverse council. 

Before joining Conde Nast, Ciara spent five years at Google working across the AdWords, YouTube and Doubleclick teams in Dublin and London. 

Ciara is passionate about gender equality and devoted to supporting women in leadership, both inside and outside Condé Nast, resulting in Condé Nast joining the 30% Club and becoming a mentor in the program. Ciara co-founded Congress London, which is a professional development and mentoring network for women in London.

Ciara sits on the World Economic Forums Global Future Council on Journalism, Media and Sports. Ciara sits on the board of Congress London.

Angie Byun is the principal of AB World, LLC – a global consultancy representing leading U.S., Asian and international media, entertainment and luxury companies seeking to monetize their IP on new digital and social media platforms, expand their influence and reach new consumers through strategic cross-border business opportunities.  Several of her current and past clients have included: BDG and W Media Group, TIME and TIME for Kids, Penske Media, Condé Nast, Panda Express and SuperOrdinary.

Prior to starting AB WORLD, Angie was at Condé Nast for 13 years and held various executive level roles in new business development, sales and international licensing for brands like VOGUE, GQ, WIRED, and GOLF DIGEST – successfully launching and managing new editions, digital products, experiences, global advertising buys and over 100+ brand extensions in 30+ markets worldwide.

As one of the most senior Asian American businesswomen in media, she is also actively involved in DEI initiatives and has a strong track record of leading diverse teams and bringing emerging brands and multicultural talent into the forefront of the media, entertainment, luxury and sports industry.

Catarina Carvalho is a journalist and the Co-founder of Mensagem de Lisboa, an hyperlocal new media focused in Lisboa, cities and urban matters. She has been the executive director of Diário de Notícias where she led the digital transition of a traditional centenary newspaper. Before that she was the publisher of Global Media magazine department and she held newsroom positions at Expresso, Sábado, Diário Económico and Visão. She is on the board of World Editors Forum (Wan-Ifra), is a PHD student and was a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute in Oxford.

Daniela Cerrato has been the Mass Market Brand Manager of Mondadori Media since January 2020, managing the Mondadori Media brands in the Women’s area, Food and Health with a strong digital component such as Giallo Zafferano, Mypersonaltrainer, Nostro Figlio, among others, and recently launched the Gen Z social magazine The Wom targeted to younger women.

She joined Mondadori Group in 2010, as Director of the Digital Mass Market Business Unit, dealing with the development of Donnamoderna.com, Cosmopolitan.it, SalePepe.it and Starbene.it. Her curriculum is “digital native”, thanks to a thesis on “Internet and teleworking”; written in 1993 at the Department of Urban Sociology of the State University of Milan and the experience gained in the ‘90s in the first Internet start-ups in New York City; in 1997 she founded her own start up ThinkCyber pioneering the first video streaming experiences for Italian Television (RAI Zoom) or the first online fashion shows for Modaonline from NYC catwalks. In 1996 she started up the Italian chapter of the Webgrrls Association, an organization born in NY to reduce the gender gap in the use of the Internet. 

Returning to Italy in 2000, after an experience in the start-up of the Fiat-Ifil Group, Ciaoweb, she joined Matrix S.p.a (Telecom Italia Group) as Content Director of the Virgilio.it portal experimenting with user generated content platforms and the first social networks. She also ran a weekly tv segment for Italian television La7 newscast, called la “La Rete”.

Joey earned a Master’s Degree in business administration from Harvard University in 2009. In 2011, he became General Manager of Sanrio China. He then returned to Taiwan and co-founded The News Lens in 2013, one of the fastest-growing digital media groups in Asia that focuses on facts and also offers diverse perspectives of news and voices. Joey has written several books and is also a columnist for Business Weekly.

Nerissa is GM at Media24’s Lifestyle portfolio including the weeklies, glossies and agriculture brands. Media24 has multitude of exciting projects which allow them to reach users across multi-media platforms. At Lifestyle, they are dedicated to continuously reinvent their publishing model to position their brands for the future – leading the charge to enhance their quest for reader engagement as they scale their portfolio of diverse revenue. 

Nerissa’s responsibilities include profit and loss leadership, developing strategy and implementation, driving sales teams and new business development.

She completed her MBA at the University Stellenbosch Business School in 2013, have a BPhil Honours in Journalism and BConsumer Science degrees (cum laude).

Chloe Combi’s debut nonfiction title Generation Z: Their Voices, Their Lives (Random House 2015) is a shocking, illuminating, heart breaking and sometimes hilarious journey through the lives of the teenagers born between 1994 and 2005 as told in their own voices.

Chloe has continued her work with Generation Z and Generation A, emerging as one of the foremost experts on young people, having interviewed thousands. Her critically acclaimed podcast aired in 2021, You Don’t Know Me (Podimo/Mermade), and was given 5* in The Times with podcasts of the week in the Guardian, iPaper, Financial Times, Telegraph, The Week, Sunday Post – with particular praise given to her incisive and skilled interview technique.

Chloe writes for a number of publications including the Times, Guardian, Vice and the TES, and has a regular column with The Telegraph on the lives of Generation Z.

Chloe has spoken around the world about her work and advises some brands, companies and governments. Her areas of expertise are Generation Z, Generation A, young people’s relationships to institutions, education, technology, social media, self-esteem, relationships, identity and the future. Her approach is both to identify trends and also prepare for them, with a focus on big ideas and solutions rather than the problems. A skilled and charismatic communicator, Chloe can bring enormous value to events, corporate affairs and audiences interested in a rapidly changing world.

Felix is COO of Zephr, the leading Subscription Experience Platform. Previously Head of Strategy at Signal A.I., Felix has worked with senior leadership teams at Freuds, Brunswick, Warner Bros, BFI, Save the Children, Mars Inc, Skype, and numerous start-ups, defining overall strategic direction and the subsequent articulation of their vision.

Andrea is an experienced business leader and strategic adviser who has spent over 20 years driving transformation at the forefront of B2C media. Andrea has held executive board positions at IPC Media, Time Inc. UK, TI Media and Future plc, leading strategy, M&A and running significant business units. She played a key role in the sale of Time Inc. UK to private equity in 2018. Developed Marie Claire, Decanter, Wallpaper and Country Life digitally, internationally and into recurring subscription and membership models.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine is a graduate of the ESCP Europe (1988), the Multimedia Institute (1992) and Harvard Business School (2000). He has built his career in France and internationally in the media world.

First, Executive Director of Le Figaro, in 1995 he is a member of the founding team of the Emap Group in France, becoming a few years later Chief Executive Officer and then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Emap France. In 2000, he joins the Executive Board of Emap plc. and concomitantly, from 2000 to 2005, serves as Chairman of EMW, the Emap/Wanadoo digital subsidiary. 

In 2006, he is appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Editions Mondadori France and one year later becomes General Manager of all digital business for the Mondadori group. 

In 2009, Arnaud de Puyfontaine joins the US media group Hearst, serving successively as Chief Executive

Officer of its UK subsidiary, Executive Vice President of Hearst Magazines International and Managing Director for Western Europe.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine joins Vivendi in January 2014, as Senior Executive Vice President in charge of its media and content operations. Since June 24, 2014, he has been Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine is Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur and was awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire).

Elizabeth has been an executive at public and private media companies for over 20 years.  At Future she leads both the B2B brands and the ECommerce business across the group. She also oversees transformation projects on behalf of the company.  

Throughout her career, Elizabeth has focused on community-led media and marketing, both B2B and B2C.   She is passionate about delivering high-quality content to high-quality audiences.   One of Elizabeth’s primary focus areas is to drive forward Future’s highly successful ECommerce business model as the company continues to expand into new verticals and new territories.  

Elizabeth previously worked at the FTSE 250 company Hyve Group plc as Group Managing Director where she oversaw the largest division of in-person and digital trade shows and virtual events.  Earlier she was Chief Operating Officer of the private equity-backed information services company Stylus Media Group.  She has a B.A. from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard.  She is an American based in London and has four children.

Natalia Gamero del Castillo is Managing Director of Condé Nast Europe. Appointed in December 2020, into a newly-created role, she oversees all of the company’s European operations, which includes the U.K, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Gamero del Castillo has held a number of senior positions at Condé Nast during her nearly 20 years with the company, including Managing Director of Conde Nast Spain or, previously, Digital managing director. In this role, she led the market through its digital transformation and promoted editorial innovation to expand audience reach. Prior to joining Condé Nast, Gamero del Castillo held various editorial roles, such as editor at El Cultural de El Mundo, the prestigious supplement for El Mundo national newspaper. She also worked for VIA DIGITAL, one of the first TV platforms in Spain. Gamero del Castillo received her Bachelor Degree in Law from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and her PDG (General Management Program) from IESE Business School.

More details to follow.

As  Executive Editor, Germany, Florian is shaping and implementing POLITICO’s expansion strategy for Europe’s biggest country. He also is a member of the senior newsroom leadership team. Until last summer, Florian was the author of Brussels Playbook, the publication’s flagship morning briefing for all things Brussels and EU, for more than three years.

Prior to joining POLITICO as a managing editor in 2015, Florian was EU correspondent for Die Welt, covering EU politics and policies from Brussels where he arrived at the peak of the euro crisis in 2011. Florian spent three years in Die Welt’s Berlin newsroom as an editor and previously worked as Italy correspondent for the Financial Times Deutschland.

Minette is  a 45-year-old general manager with a background in journalism and 20-years experience in leadership roles at newspaper and magazine operations. She has been privileged to manage a diverse portfolio of titles across newspapers and magazines including mass and niche brands aimed at numerous target audiences. She is currently the General Manager for Community News and Lifestyle at Media24.​

​She thrives on working in an innovative environment where the constant reinvention of the business is pivotal. Over the years she has developed and implemented key strategies to deliver on the diversification of traditional revenue streams and business models.​

​She is driven by a passion for story-telling and believes that the challenges facing our traditional media landscape offers exciting avenues to continue telling stories in new ways on a multitude of innovative platforms. 

Denis is the CEO at Glide Publishing Platform. An experienced CEO and CTO with more than two decades of experience in UK print and digital publishing, including leading technology at News UK, Northern & Shell, and Which?. He has led multiple digital transformations at major publishers, and now leads Glide, a SaaS content management platform aimed at publishers.

Jess has over 20 years content production experience working for a number of national and international publishers and media companies. Her expertise ranges from creating and developing conference programmes to social media, blogs and targeted email campaigns to increase and drive engagement for business audiences. More recently, she has been involved in assisting publishers on developing new revenue streams through licensing and content-driven solutions and opportunities.

Having held various positions in his 12-year stint at the BBC, James Hewes was part of the team that sold the business to private equity in November 2011. He was then Publishing Director for Top Gear, Good Food, Easy Cook and Lonely Planet Magazine and a Director of BBC Haymarket Exhibitions.
He spent five years in Dubai, running Gulf News Publishing and responsible for more than 30 product areas. He launched the group’s first consumer brand in Arabic – wheels Arabic.
Appointed President & CEO of FIPP in September 2017, he joined from The Art Newspaper, having been Interim CEO since December 2016.

He is also a member of the Advisory Board at Dojoko, an education-focused start-up and a member of Oxford Brookes University’s Journalism Advisory Board.

Day speakers

Erica Holborn is Chief Executive Officer of SANDOW Design Group, the leading resource for inspirational and informational design content and unparalleled brand-building solutions.

Holborn joined SANDOW as Chief Strategy Officer in 2013, and was subsequently named President in 2016 to oversee its robust portfolio of luxury and design assets under founder, Adam Sandow. In 2020, Holborn was named CEO of the newly formed SANDOW Design Group, a powerful ecosystem of design media and services brands, including Luxe Interiors + Design, Interior Design, and Metropolis. Under her leadership, the company launched research and strategy firm, ThinkLab; DesignTV by SANDOW; and content services brands, The Agency by SANDOW – a full-scale digital marketing agency, The Studio by SANDOW – a video production studio, and SURROUND – a podcast network and production studio. In 2020, Holborn introduced SANDOW Design Group’s role as a key supporter and strategic partner to NYCxDESIGN, a not-for-profit organization committed to empowering and promoting the city’s diverse creative community. 

SANDOW Design Group produces more than 150 different publications each year, hosts 350+ design events annually, and has over 13 million social media followers across its portfolio of brands.

Prior to SANDOW, Holborn was President and Chief Operating Officer of TrialGraphix, a national litigation consulting firm that specializes in discovery management, trial and jury consulting, litigation technologies, and courtroom presentation services for trial attorneys, law firms, and corporate counsel at Fortune 500 companies.

Miranda Holt is from the BBC’s 50:50 Equality Project. This initiative started in BBC News in 2017 to increase the representation of women on air. Since then it has been taken up by 730 teams across the BBC. Miranda is the External Partners Lead and manages over 130 companies, including broadcasters, newspapers, magazines, journalism schools and businesses around the world who have signed up. As an Assistant Editor at Political Programmes in BBC News, she was involved with the 50:50 project from early on increasing the number of women from the world of politics on air. She has produced many political television programmes, covering the Brexit Referendum and several General Elections. She commissioned digital films for under-served audiences. She has many years’ experience of managing teams and recruiting journalists from diverse backgrounds. Recently she was an output editor on Network Radio news programmes,  World at One and PM programmes.

More details to follow.

Aled has over 11 years’ experience in the media overseeing strategy, product, new venture creation and editorial.  Previously he was head of membership strategy and business development at Condé Nast. Aled led on innovation and launched subscription business and industry publication Vogue Business. He is also a trustee and director of DeliverAid, a charitable organisation started during the global pandemic.

Susan Jurevics joined Audible as VP and General Manager in 2019 and became Head of International in 2020. As Head of International at Audible, Jurevics is responsible for Audible’s business outside the United States. She is also the executive sponsor of employee impact group Women@ Audible. Jurevics is a veteran media and consumer brand executive with over 20 years of experience across leading brands such as Pottermore, Sony, Shiseido and Nickelodeon. Most recently, Susan served as Global President of bareMinerals for Shiseido. Prior to this role, Susan was based in London as CEO of J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore. She held numerous roles at Sony over the course of her 13-year tenure, pioneering Sony’s cross-company entertainment marketing function. 

Professor Lucy Kueng is an expert on strategy, innovation and leadership and focuses on successful responses to the challenges of digitalization. She is Senior Visiting Research Associate at the Reuters Institute, Oxford University and Non-Executive Board Member of the NZZ Media Group and formerly of Swiss PSM broadcaster SRG and VIZRT, the media tech provider. Lucy advises leading companies worldwide industry on digital transformation strategy and implementation. She keynotes frequently at international conferences and is the author of numerous books including Hearts and Minds: Harnessing Leadership, Culture and Talent to Really Go Digital, Going Digital, Innovators in Digital News, Strategic Management in the Media, and Inside the BBC and CNN. She holds a PhD and Habilitation from the University of St Gallen and an MBA from City Business School/Ashridge. 

More details to follow.

Jacquie is a content strategy and media executive specializing in delivering multi-platform content solutions across social, digital, video, print, SEO, research and e-commerce. With 25+ years of experience, she’s a branded content and revenue generation expert who drives engagement and results, and cultivates C-level relationships. She works closely with SJC’s largest clients to create innovative cross-platform content solutions that deliver on revenue goals. As VP Group Publisher at SJC Media and TC Media she oversaw a portfolio of consumer media brands including FASHION, ELLE Canada, Canadian Living, and Style at Home. She held the roles of VP Content Solutions and VP Client Solutions at Rogers Media. A recognized leader in marketing solutions and media innovation, Jacquie Chairs The Content Council (New York) and is a Board Member for the National Media Awards Foundation (Canada). A frequent speaker across North America and Europe, having created award-winning programs for a wide range of top-tier clients. SJC Media is Canada’s largest English language Publisher, publishing media brands that include Chatelaine, Maclean’s, Toronto Life, FASHION, Canadian Business and Today’s Parent.

Erica Lovett is a diversity & inclusion executive, strategist and thought leader. She joined Cartier North America in September of 2020 as the company’s first Head of Diversity & Inclusion. Erica is responsible for overseeing all aspects of DE&I within and outside of the luxury Maison. Prior to joining Cartier, Erica served as the Director of Inclusion & Diversity at Condé Nast.

Erica has been recognized by the US National Diversity Council as one of the Top 50 leaders in Entertainment and The Root 100’s Most Influential African Americans. She sits on the Board of Cartier Philanthropy and the Associate Board of Oliver Scholars. Erica is passionate about environmental conservation and is an avid supporter of the US National Parks.

Erica holds a B.A. in History from Connecticut College.

Alastair is responsible for all commercial activities related to Audio at the FT. Since taking on this responsibility in 2018, he has worked across the organisation to develop, set and implement the company’s approach to this rapidly changing medium. In particular, he works closely with senior colleagues in the FT newsroom to develop new shows and other content initiatives that seek to grow the FT’s audio audience in line with the company’s strategic plan. He is ultimately responsible for all audio revenue at the FT, working in conjunction with our advertising sales and subscription acquisition teams to ensure audio delivers an increasing contribution to the company’s business performance. He also manages the FT’s relationships with its key audio partners particularly those with Acast, Apple and Spotify. Alastair joined the FT in 2004 and since then has held roles and responsibilities across digital advertising, branded content, commercial partnerships and business development working in London, New York and Singapore.

Lisa MacLeod is a Principal and Publishing Lead at FT Strategies. Her recent projects include a 9-month subscription programme with 8 European publishers, and a digital revenue launch project. Lisa has more than 25 years experience in print to digital convergence and transition programmes, most notably working for 12 years at the Financial Times in London where she headed up newsroom operations, was Head of Operations for FT.com, an Assistant Editor and Managing Editor.

She contributes to Women in News as a trainer, consultant and advisor on digital transformation in newsrooms across the globe, and has led digital transformation at two of Africa’s largest media companies: Tiso Blackstar (now Arena Holdings) in South Africa, and Naspers’s 24.com.

She was Vice-President of the World Association of News Publishers, is a long-standing board member of the World Editors Forum, Leader-in-Residence at the University  of Lancashire, and a mentor on the Journalism Innovation and Leadership Programme.

Nothing gets past Nikolay, and in his position at PressReader (http://about.pressreader.com), that’s a good thing. His attention to detail and knowledge of the tech, travel, and publishing industries have helped turn PressReader into a profitable global business.

Since 2003, Nikolay has led the expansion of the world’s largest all-you-can-consume global digital content platform (www.pressreader.com) − providing mobile access to over 7,000 newspapers and magazines to consumers and travel brands looking for new ways to build meaningful relationships with real people.

His strategic vision and insightful commentary make him a popular speaker at industry events, where he shares how consumer-focused businesses can capitalize on innovative opportunities that others don’t see. 

Nikolay is the Editor-in-Chief of The Insider magazine, Industry Partner of World Travel & Tourism Council (http://wttc.org), and also serves on the Management Board of FIPP (http://fipp.com), the network for global media.

Dave has worked at Newsweek since 1988 and has over 30 years of combined publishing, circulation and distribution experience. He has been responsible for managing the international edition of the publication including revenue growth, newsstand sales, subscription copies and cost management. Operating across an international spectrum, Dave has strived to deliver on the business objectives of providing a circulation platform for advertising revenue growth whilst nurturing print revenue streams.  He has also been involved in digital and event-led initiatives.

Having commenced his career in production as a press operator in 1986, Ian has  been fortunate enough to work in all avenues of the printing industry. 

Over the past 35 years, the industry has dramatically altered. From Linotype to Apple Mac, negatives to the CTP revolution and the advances of closed loop colour reproduction on press. He is fortunate to have worked globally with leading print groups offering gravure, web offset, sheetfed and digital printing solutions to publishers and B2C clients alike.  How we move forward now as an industry greatly intrigues Ian.

James’ first career was 15 years building high performance technology teams for startups, tech giants and the banking world. From there, he moved into startups, joining the founding team of Mind the Product. He’s spent the last twelve years growing the firm into one of the most recognised and respected brands in the Product Management space, with conferences in five cities, meetups in over 200, and an enviable blue chip client list.  The firm was acquired by Pendo in February 2022, where James remains heavily involved as an Evangelist for the Product Management discipline and especially Product-Led growth.

Douglas is a leading expert in tech and publishing media. He analyses supplier strategies and forecasts consumption, revenue and marketing expenditure. He is a former director of Fish4, the online advertising portal, and was director of sales development and market insights at the HMV Group. Douglas holds a degree from Stirling University.

John McGovern is CEO & Owner of Grimes, McGovern & Associates (GMA), a Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory firm specializing in media, events, information services and related markets.

GMA is a market leader in M&A Advisory, handling 1500+ transactions since its inception in 1959 and currently managing 20+ transactions per year, including such high- profile event deals as representing MJ Biz’s in their sale to Emerald X in early 2022. 

Recent transactions include the sale of:

• MJ Biz to Emerald EX
• UK-based SMI Group to SAE
• UK-based Vinelake LTD’s IOT Event Platform to Cambridge Innovation Institute
• UK-based Ultima Media Auto Events business in 10 countries including China, Russia, India and Brazil to Suddeutcher VMI
• Kestrel Health’s online event platform Woundcon to HMP Communications
• Quartz to G/O Media
• Creative Age Communications beauty magazines to Allured Media.
• Culture magazine to private investors
• The Running Event and running magazines to Diversified Communications.
• Today’s Bride and Mode Accessories to Newcom Media

John brings nearly 40 years of corporate development & strategy in the global media, events and online services industries, holding positions such as Senior VP of Thomson Financial, Senior VP at the Fair Disclosure Financial Network (sold to Warburg Pincus) and various positions early in his career at Dow Jones/Factiva.

Headquartered in New York City, with offices in Atlanta, California, Florida, Philadelphia and South America, Grimes, McGovern & Associates continues the tradition of nearly 60 years of W.B. Grimes’ industry expertise advising B2B and B2C media, information services and event companies.

Sajeeda Merali joined the PPA as CEO in 2021, with an agenda to transform the way the PPA represents and supports its 250+ UK multi-media business members, consumer magazine publishers, business-to-business data and information providers, customer magazine publishers and smaller independents.

A strategic leader with 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry, Sajeeda has held senior positions with both B2B and consumer-facing organisations, with extensive experience in change management and strategy development. 

She joined the PPA from the New Statesman Media Group, where she was Chief Revenue Officer responsible for identifying high-value digital opportunities and launching commercial strategy for new brands in highly competitive markets. 

Prior to that, she was the commercial leader of the Insider Publishing Division at Euromoney PLC and has held senior positions at Incisive Media, where she was influential in driving cultural and strategic change.

Sajeeda is on the board of the Advertising Association, PLS, FIPP, CAP, PAMCo and ABC.

In 2018 she won the WACL Futures Award and continues to be an active member, as well as co-founder of the Amal network, which champions Muslim women in the workplace.

She lives in North West London with her husband and two teenage children. When not immersed in the world of media, she is passionate about cooking newfound recipes for family and friends; East African inspired coconut chicken curry is a particularly popular dish. Saj is also a keen badminton enthusiast who is still hoping the sport will one day lose its geeky image.

Follow her on Twitter using @sajmerali  @ppa_live and @magneticmedia

George is the Subscriptions Strategy Lead at FT Strategies and has worked with several European publishers. He previously spent four years guiding the FT’s data strategy as it balances revenue and risk. He founded and led a cross-departmental FT team focused on the future of marketing & advertising in the context of restrictions on online tracking. George also holds an MBA from IE Business School.

Carolyn Morgan has launched, acquired, grown and sold media businesses across print, digital and live events. 

She was formerly an Exec Director at EMAP, specialising in marketing, events, digital development and strategy. Carolyn was a co-founder of the Specialist Media Show, which she sold to SIIA in 2013.   

Carolyn has wide experience of niche publishing businesses and advises many independent media owners on digital strategy through her consulting business, Speciall Media. She regularly curates and chairs conferences on digital media strategy. She moderates an online community of 190 media leaders, the Speciall Media Group on Guild.

Carolyn is a Non-Exec Director for Thomas Telford, the commercial and publishing division of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and also Executive Grapevine International, an independent niche B2B media business. 

Brian Morrissey is the founder of The Rebooting, a publication focused on the methods of building sustainable media businesses. Until October 2020, he was the president and editor-in-chief of Digiday Media, a vertical media company that has titles covering media and marketing (Digiday), fashion and beauty (Glossy) and retail (Modern Retail). At Digiday, he was responsible for all editorial across the brands, memberships, product, events programming and design. Prior to joining Digiday in 2011, he was digital editor at Adweek for six years. He’s spent two decades in digital media.

Michelle is an accomplished media executive with a diverse publishing background and is known for growing brands, identifying new revenue streams, and fostering deep relationships in the media community. Prior to joining Wright’s Media as their Chief Revenue Officer, Myers was President of the Women’s Choice Award where she leveraged her experience in accolades and brand licensing to develop omnichannel retail programs and content strategies for their brand partners. Prior to The Women’s Choice Award, Michelle held the role of Chief Revenue Officer at Brides Magazine (Condé Nast). At Condé she was honored with the first ever Business Transformation Award for spearheading the brand to greater profitability through breakthrough ideas such as brand licensing and new ways to monetize social media. Myers also held Vice President & Publisher roles at Lucky Magazine, People StyleWatch and Star Magazine and was Associate Publisher of Allure and Shape.

Anant Nath is the Editor of The Caravan and the Executive Publisher of Delhi Press, India’s leading magazine publishing house. He started the magazine Caravan in 2010 shaping it as a publication dedicated to long form narrative journalism. Today it is amongst the most respected publications from South Asia, known for its bold investigative reportage on politics and business as well as its nuanced coverage of arts and literature. As the Executive Publisher of Delhi Press, he is leading the publishing efforts for the group’s general interest, women’s, children’s, and special interest magazines and websites. Delhi Press publishes 30 magazines across 9 languages, which along with the digital assets have a total monthly reach of over 40 million readers. He did his undergraduate in Economics from Hansraj College, University of Delhi, an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow, and an MA in Political Science from Columbia University, New York.

Will Page is the author of  ‘Tarzan Economics: Eight Principles in Pivoting through Disruption’, published by Simon & Schuster in the UK and Little Brown and Company in the US. He was formerly Chief Economist of Spotify and PRS for Music, where he pioneered Rockonomics. At PRS he published work on Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ and saved BBC 6Music. At Spotify he helped redefine catalogue, uncovered the anatomy of a hit and articulated the global value of music copyright. A passionate communicator, Will’s work is regularly featured in Billboard, The Economist and the Financial Times, His lockdown collaboration with Twitch’s Rockonomics examines how live streaming will coexist with live music. More recently, he published Malbeconomics; taking stock of the twentieth anniversary of the 9.99 price point. He is a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and a fellow at the Royal Society of the Arts.

More details to follow.

Nick is responsible for international growth of Dow Jones consumer brands through enterprise partners
outside of the United States. His team works with partners in all major markets outside the US, helping
them acquire, inform, engage and retain customers and employees through licensing and distribution of
the company’s award-winning consumer brands, content, and membership products. He joined Dow
Jones in August 2014, prior to which he held various roles at News UK, another News Corp company,
and the FT in both London and the Middle East. He is based in London.

Guida Marques Pinto is Público’s Digital Innovation Director since March 2020 holding the mission to develop and manage strategic projects in line with the digital transformation of the newspaper. Público is a Portuguese case study regarding business innovation being a leader in digital subscriptions. In addition, Guida is also Board Director at INMA (International News Media Association) helping to set up and promote media and tech innovation initiatives that shape and reinvent media companies in Europe. Prior to that she had spent seven years in digital innovation and e-commerce projects at Global Media Group – after years working in research and consultancy in retail and construction in Portugal, China, Spain and UK. Guida holds an MBA from Imperial College Business School where she was Business Plan Award Finalist, in 2010. 

In 1996, Reed co-founded Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips, the TMT specialist firm in NYC, and has been an investment banker for over 30 years during which time he has completed over 225 M&A transactions with companies such as ABRY Partners, Conde Nast, Deloitte, Dow Jones, Capgemini, EAB, The Economist, The New York Times Company, Shamrock Holdings, Time Inc., Televisa, TPG Growth and WPP.

Reed was President and Chairman of Oaklins International, the leading middle-market global investment banking organization, ranked #1 worldwide by Mergermarket for middle-market M&A transactions, from 2019-2021. Oaklins has 850 investment bankers in 45 countries.

He is the author of QuickValue: Discover Your Value and Empower Your Business in Three Easy Steps, which was published by McGraw Hill in December 2021.

Reed is frequently called on to comment on media and technology M&A by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NBC Nightly News, the Financial Times, the New York Post and Bloomberg TV. He was awarded “Media Deal of the Year” by Mergers & Acquisitions in 2007.

Earlier in his career he was Associate Publisher of The New Republic. As an entrepreneur, he participated in two startups backed by venture capital, Fathers Magazine where he was Founder/CEO and The Washington Weekly where he was Vice President.

He holds an A.B. from Duke University.

Simon is the Product Director at the Daily Mail. He has launched various iterations of the Mail’s paid-for subscription products over the past 9 years. Previous to this he launched the Sunday Times’ first subscription-based website and apps — where the concept of bringing editorial, product and development teams to work together was pioneered.

Nils Riise is General Manager, Nordics, at Piano, the digital experience platform that empowers every team to understand and influence customer behavior. With a background in martech focused on programmatic, personalization and subscription management, Nils leads Piano’s operation in the Nordics countries, responsible for the company’s continued growth in the region. He is a regular speaker in the media community and has presented to the International News Media Association (INMA), Biroul Roman de Audit Transmedia (BRAT), Kristiania University College and more. Nils holds a degree in international marketing from BI Norwegian Business School and lives in Oslo, Norway with his dog and girlfriend.

More details to follow.

Amer Safir is the Chief Editor & Manager, and Secretary of the Management Committee of The Review of Religions, a 120-year-old magazine dedicated to demonstrating the relevance of religion, spirituality and the existence of God in the modern world, in particular from an Islamic logical and scientific standpoint. After completing his MA in Literatures of Modernity, Modernism and Post Colonialism from Royal Holloway, University of London, Amer joined The Review of Religions as Assistant Editor in 2009. In 2012 he was appointed as Chief Editor and Secretary of the Management Committee. In his role Amer oversees the day to day operations of the English edition on all platforms and has helped, with The Review of Religions’ excellent team, to navigate the magazine from a print-only edition to a multi-platform organisation over the last decade. The magazine has a dynamic social media approach, rapidly growing website and YouTube channel as well as a strong events and exhibitions strategy. Amer is also responsible for the management of the international editions of the magazine where in the last six years The Review of Religions has launched editions in German from Frankfurt, Spanish from Guatemala and French from France. Across all language editions and respective platforms, including especially online, video and social media, The Review of Religions’ reach has extended beyond 10 million. The last decade has seen a focus on taking an iconic legacy brand that has always featured brilliant content and inserting a modern, digital footprint and multi-platform foundation and structure.

Juan Señor is the President of INNOVATION Media Consulting Group in London – one the world’s leading news media consultancies.

He has worked with and advised hundreds of media companies on every continent directing transformative projects. He also serves on the advisory board of several media groups. 

He is also a former Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. 

He has been listed as one of ‘The World’s Leading Innovators’ in Journalism and Media’ by Journalism UK. Mr. Señor is a highly-sought commentator on the media industry, speaking at global forums and quoted frequently in leading publications such as The Economist and The Financial Times.  

He is co-editor of two annuals books; Innovation in News Media and Innovation in Media, written on behalf of WAN-IFRA and the FIPP respectively. Altogether he has edited 32 books. 

He worked for seven years as a war and conflict reporter for PBS’s NewsHour. He then became a presenter for EBN-Wall Street Journal TV and CNBC Europe. And he served as London correspondent of International Herald Tribune Television then owned by The New York Times and The Washington Post. 

His work has been nominated for an EMMY and his television programme, Media Report, was voted by viewers as Europe’s Best Business Programme. 

He continues to work as a live event and television host and presenter. He has hosted the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for 14 years, Reinvention Festival for a decade, and dozens of public speaking engagements every year as a keynote speaker or moderator. 

In addition to his passion for the media business, he is a campaigner for disabilities via means of fundraising expeditions to the ends of the earth. 

 He has skied unsupported to the North Pole, crossed the Western Sahara, trekked the Amazon, and organised the first-ever expedition to the South Pole of a team with physical disabilities.

A Spanish national, he was born and raised in Barcelona and educated in Europe and New York. He is conversant in six languages.

With over 30 years of experience across sales & marketing domain in the multimedia and publishing industry, Mr. Manoj Sharma currently is spearheading Publishing and Experiential businesses of the India Today Group in the capacity of CEO. He is responsible for the overall growth and profitability of the division. Mr. Sharma has been associated with some of the most respected media groups in the past such as Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited and CNBC-TV 18 Ltd. Beginning from 1990 as an advertisement executive with the India Today Group, Sharma has worn many hats like Group Business Head, Associate Publisher, Director-Impact, Publishing Director & COO in the company until his promotion as the CEO in 2020. He has been the institutional force behind creating and driving key events such as India Today Conclave, India Today State of States, India Today Woman’s Awards, Mindrocks (youth summit) and Business Today Mindrush (CEO Summit & awards), Business Today Pro-Am Golf, amongst other experiential initiatives.

David joined ZINIO in 2008 and now heads its Customer Success Team based in Barcelona, managing relationships with over 1,000 magazine publishers worldwide, acquiring new relationships and overseeing the launch of projects. Prior to ZINIO he worked for the British Council in France and then for The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations in Japan. He graduated from the University of York in 2004.

Owned media and martech enthusiast with extensive industry experience as entrepreneur and manager for national & international publishers and content marketing agencies.  

Since 2019 heading cross-divisional new business unit FUNKE ONE GmbH as Managing Director. Closing strategic gaps in FUNKE’s portfolio, identifying new business opportunities and creating innovative revenue streams. FUNKE ONE developed and launched digital and print consumer media brand imtest.de, award winning magazines and Amazon best selling bookazines. Leveraging FUNKEs reach in existing audiences with new products FUNE ONE succeeds to engage also with new audiences.

2018 – 2019 General Manager New Business & Partnerships for martech software agency DIU. DIU develops, implements & runs innovative custom software and standard solutions for brand & marketing automation, ranks among the top 50 German digital agencies

2014 – 2018 Managing Partner with full-service content agency ALPHABETA. The agency focuses on owned media products in print &  digital and marketing automation, ranks among the top 20 privately-owned content agencies in Germany.

2012 – 2014 Director Publishing & Publisher Sales, Member of the Board, rtv media group. Bertelsmann subsidiary rtv media group publishes Europe’s largest supplements for newspapers & top ranking web portals offering digital tv content and gaming services.

2010 – 2012 Freelance media & martech professional supporting brands, companies and institutions in development of kpi driven owned media products, reaching new target groups or raising organizational synergies

2001 – 2010 Bauer Media Group: Starting as Management Trainee, then Corporate Project Manager International, Publishing Manager C/EE and Asia, CEO Bauer Slovakia, 

Holds MBA in Media Management from Hamburg Media School.

Michael Silberman is SVP Strategy at Piano, the digital experience platform that empowers every team to understand and influence customer behavior. He leads Piano’s Strategic Services organization, which provides consulting to Piano customers to help them define, launch and optimize their digital businesses.

In this role, Michael brings his extensive experience in media to bear on behalf of Piano’s customers, helping them accelerate their digital growth by 10X what clients achieve on their own. Clients his team has worked with have also been recognized by industry awards programs from INMA, Digiday, AdExchanger and more.

Prior to joining Piano, Michael was General Manager, Digital Media at New York Media, overseeing product, technology, design, consumer marketing and business development. During his time at New York, he quadrupled digital revenue and grew audience more than tenfold, launched Vulture and The Cut as standalone sites and helped transform the company from a regional magazine to a national network of digital brands.

Michael previously led digital editorial and product development at Rodale, and started his digital media career at MSNBC.com as one of the top editors, helping to launch and grow the site into one of the leading news sites of the web 1.0 era. Pre-digital (yes, there was such a thing) he was a producer at CBS News.

Fashion and design expert Daniela was born in sunny Pompei. After getting a degree in international economics and trade at the University of Naples, she moved north to Milan and began sharpening her communication skills in the fashion industry. Her first job, in 2000, was in periodicals marketing at Rusconi. The following year she joined Mondadori, where she was able to indulge her love of magazines by working mostly for women’s glossies such as Grazia, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Flair and Confidenze. In 2005 she contributed to Grazia’s rebranding while attending an evening master’s course in Business Administration at Bocconi University. In 2007, as Brand Manager for Grazia, she boosted the magazine’s international rollout; today, it is available in 23 countries worldwide. She moved to China for six months in 2009 as part of the team overseeing the Seec-Mondadori joint venture, then returned to Italy in 2010 and landed a Publisher role in the group’s Furnishings, Architecture and Design division. Ever curious and eager to take on new challenges, in 2013 she moved to Florence to assume the role of Head of Communications for Salvatore Ferragamo Parfums. Nearly five years later, she returned to Mondadori, this time as Managing Director for International Business and International Fashion & Design Brand Manager.

As CEO of Hearst UK Katie Vanneck-Smith has overall management responsibility for leading the UK arm of the premium content and experience business. She has a wealth of experience innovating in the media industry, having worked for large-scale corporations and more recently launching a successful startup.

Katie joined Hearst in 2022 from Tortoise Media, a global media outlet that she co-founded in 2018. Prior to that, as President and Chief Customer Officer of Dow Jones, Katie helped build and lead The Wall Street Journal’s successful online membership-based business.

Katie has also held senior roles at The Telegraph Media Group and The Times. As CMO at The Times, Katie led the architecture of the newspaper’s early move to paid digital subscriptions and was responsible for creating the UK’s first news membership brand, Times+. Katie also oversaw the company’s events programmes, including both The Wall Street Journal CEO Council and The Times CEO Summit.

Arvid Tchivzhel is Managing Director at  Mather Economics. He brings over twelve years of experience translating data and analytics into action. Arvid is also the resident subject-matter expert on digital media and technology. He is a trusted partner, having advised hundreds of respected global brands with digital transformation strategy and implementation.

Passionate about Relationship Management and Business Development, in Google Angelica is responsible for building executive relationships with the News Ecosystem including Regional and Global Media Associations in Europe, Middle East and Africa with a focus on product development, training & research and innovation funding through the Google News Initiative.

Angelica has a long proven history of operating in very fast paced environments cross functionally leading and coordinating sales, marketing, product and strategy teams in multiple countries. 

With a 20 years long experience in the tech industry in Google she covered multiple roles as Digital Media Consultant, Sales, Project and Partnership Lead.

More details to follow.

Linda Weg is the Director of Operations at C-Suite Quarterly (CSQ). She oversees product and services, content management, and technology solutions. She builds brand loyalty and a dedicated audience by providing innovative digital solutions that meet the needs of CSQ’s content creators and subscribers in the ever-evolving business landscape. Linda has extensive experience creating digital and in-person community experiences from her work with CSQ, a national business publication and platform, and ProVisors, one of the top professional networking groups in the U.S.

Martha L Williams is a digital media industry author, speaker and consultant. She runs World Newsmedia Network, a data and AI disruption consultancy and research business. She was a research associate at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute from 2012 to 2014, focusing her research on digital media disruption and data and artificial intelligence for media. She founded and has organised the Data and AI for Media conference ten times since 2013 –the first and only data and AI conference for media companies, drawing business and journalism executives from every continent. The conference has been held in London, New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong in collaboration with partners Open Society Foundations, Microsoft, Google and Thomson Reuters. Since the age of Covid, she has developed a series of data, digital subscriptions, product development and digital advertising webinars for high-profile tech companies.

Williams is a prolific author of digital media industry strategic reports on a variety of topics: disruptive innovation, digital advertising, subscriptions, social media, e-commerce, content, privacy, usership trends and strategy. Three of her most recent publications is “Growing First-Party Data,” “Video Strategy for Magazine Media” and “Paywalls: How to start your subscription strategy” for FIPP, the worldwide magazine media association. 

Williams has travelled the globe to speak at media conferences about the research she publishes. She also organizes study tours for media executives to learn how the most innovative media companies are handling the challenges of digital media’s disruptive innovations. She was a founding board member of Global Editors Network in Paris, and a former director of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. 

Many of you will remember John as the co-author and co-presenter of FIPP’s annual “Innovations in Media World Report” from 2010 to 2021.

After 35 years as a writer, editor, and media executive, John has consulted for the last 14 years with media companies around the world as part of an Innovation Media Consulting team or the Katahdin consulting firm. He has helped those companies transform from unprofitable, depressed, endangered print-centric operations into profitable, energized, multimedia, multi-platform, 24-7 content- and revenue-generation operations. 

John’s recent projects include: a multi-title Norwegian B2B publisher, a pan-Asian consumer magazine group, two major American B2B media companies, two South African media groups, an Italian multi-newspaper group, an Indian multi-magazine publisher, a Czech multimedia publisher, and two American consumer magazines.

Outside of media, John runs a global jazz blog (GlobalRhythms.net). He also started and still runs a self-esteem-building soccer program for girls ages 2-6, graduating 5,000 girls since 1996 (hotshotssoccer.org). He is a long-board surfer, gardener, and was “Mother Ginger” in the “Nutcracker” in Boston for 22 years.

Jonathan (“Jonny”) Wright was named president of Hearst Magazines International in November 2021.

Based in New York, he has oversight of the global strategy and commercial and editorial operations across Hearst Magazines’ international portfolio, which is made up of seven wholly owned companies, seven joint ventures and 43 licensees across 40 countries.

Prior to joining Hearst Magazines, Wright was based in Hong Kong, where he served for three years as global managing director and group publisher of Dow Jones. During this time, he was responsible for defining and implementing growth strategies for The Wall Street Journaland Dow Jones. Previously, he was based in London, serving six years as the publisher of Financial News and WSJ Pro, before being named publisher of WSJ EMEA, a role he held from 2012 through 2015.

Wright first joined Dow Jones in 2010 as an advertising sales director for Dow Jones’ Financial News before being named The Wall Street Journal’s circulation director in Europe in 2013. Earlier in his career, he was publisher and group sales director at Euromoney Institutional Investor, based in New York.

A graduate of Bangor University, Wright has served as a member on several boards, including FIPP and News Corp’s VCCircle.

More details to follow.