Speakers

Issa Rae is celebrated for her humor and innovative storytelling, gaining initial recognition with her web series and New York Times best-seller, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.  Issa created and starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series Insecure, earning multiple Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominations. On the big screen, she has starred in notable films like The Photograph and The Lovebirds. In 2020, Issa launched HOORAE, a media company committed to diverse storytelling across film, TV, music, and talent management. She expanded her production portfolio with WarnerMedia-backed projects like Emmy-award nominated A Black Lady Sketch Show and fan favorite series, Rap SH*T. Committed to her South LA roots, Issa co-owns ventures like Hilltop Cafe + Kitchen and Sienna Naturals, while supporting community initiatives like Destination Crenshaw. 

Kya Sainsbury-Carter leads the Microsoft Advertising Sales & Marketing team, serving advertisers and publishers with an omnichannel, multiformat, global advertising offering. With employees around the globe, the team empowers monetization for Microsoft, key partners and the open web. This scale has helped propel advertising across Microsoft to more than $18 billion in annual gross revenue. Kya has been with Microsoft for more than 17 years, all in the advertising business. She has held leadership roles across Sales, Strategy, Operations and Partner Management, as well as across all channels and customer segments. She has built her brand on bridging from strategy to execution, synthesizing the complex into the actionable, high impact collaboration and servant leadership.

Jen Kattula leads Global Marketing for Microsoft Advertising. She is responsible for driving growth and greater share of mind and wallet, amplifying the portfolio of solutions as a strategic must-buy, and creating meaningful experiences with the MSA brand. Jen was with Microsoft in the early days of Search and returns after nearly two decades in cutting-edge leadership roles, including Polygon Labs (a blockchain protocol) and Meta, where she spent 12 years leading business Marketing for Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Emerging Platforms. Jen’s passion is storytelling at the intersection of innovative tech and the accelerated pace of change in human culture. She leads with humanity, a growth mindset, and makes it a priority to have fun while driving impact.

Dr. Iyer runs Microsoft Advertising’s engineering organization, managing a multi-billion dollar marketplace globally. Her team develops AI-driven product features, machine learning & auction algorithms, and very large-scale distributed infrastructure for a global advertising ecosystem. She actively supports the Microsoft AI community and is on the Technical Advisory Board for Microsoft Research (India). She is also on the Microsoft Bay Area Board of Directors, focused on the growth & development of the Microsoft Silicon Valley community.

Mustafa Suleyman is the CEO of Microsoft AI, a division of Microsoft focused on advancing consumer AI products. The division includes products and associated teams including Copilot, Bing, Ads, MSN and Edge, alongside the core AI team, amongst others. Microsoft AI is working to bring the benefits of AI to every person and organization on the planet, safely and responsibly. Before joining Microsoft, Mustafa was co-founder and CEO of the start-up Inflection AI, where he worked on building a personal AI for everyone. Prior to that he was co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, and VP, AI Products and Policy at Google.  He is the author of the international bestseller, The Coming Wave. Mustafa dropped out of Oxford University aged 19 to found a Muslim youth helpline.

Mustafa Suleyman will be joining this session remotely.

Amanda Richman is a trusted leader in the advertising and media industry, renowned for accelerating digital growth at global networks including WPP, Publicis, Interpublic and Time Warner. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ms. Richman served as North America CEO of Mindshare, leading an agency-wide transformation around a new vision for growth, integrated operating model, and connected data and commerce capabilities. Before this, she served as Wavemaker US CEO, where she led the merger of two GroupM companies into a modern media agency, winning $1B in media billings. Currently, Ms. Richman serves on several boards, including Executive-in-Residence at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), MMA Global, Progress Partners, and Reisenbach Philanthropies. Her commitment to empowering women in digital marketing has earned numerous industry honors, including New York Women in Communications 'Matrix Award', UJA’s ‘Industry Titan Award’, and Campaign’s ‘Female Frontiers Award’.

Weiqing Tu is the Corporate Vice President overseeing MSN. This team creates Microsoft’s personalized content feed which showcases high-quality content from thousands of the world’s most reputable brands. MSN tailors this feed for users across News, Weather, Sports, Finance, Shopping, Gaming, and thousands of niche interests.

With over 20+ years at the company, Weiqing has worked on some of Microsoft’s most loved and influential products including Windows, Windows Server, and Microsoft Intune. Prior to her current role, she led the development of several Microsoft Advertising platforms and sales applications. Throughout her roles she has motivated teams to embrace AI and focus on customer obsession resulting in empowering advertisers from fortune 500 companies to SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses) to create and optimize their campaigns and ad spend across channels.

Weiqing’s leadership and insights have helped accelerate MSN’s growth to 100+ million daily users with over 7 billion pieces of content deeply consumed each month.

Pranav Yadav is a global thought leader and innovator committed to improving our understanding of the subconscious and its role in driving the human condition. Pranav helps governments, non-for-profits and businesses decode the drivers of motivation, create behaviour change, connect with consumers, inform strategy, build brands, and develop new products. 

He is also an active investor and serves on advisory boards of several organizations incubating cutting-edge technologies. He is the founder and CEO of Neuro-Insight US, a pioneer and leader in the field of neuromarketing, and has prior experience working at Red Associates, and Goldman Sachs. 

He is a Forbes 30 Under 30, an Under 30 All Star Alum, Ad Age 40 Under 40, an AMA 4 under 40, Ad People of the Year awardee, Adweek's Young Influential, a Great Mind Award winner and has a passion for philosophy and Urdu and Punjabi poetry.

Steve Clayton is the Vice President of Communications Strategy at Microsoft. With over 25 years of experience at Microsoft, Steve has worked closely with the CEO and senior leadership team to shape communication around major acquisitions, CEO change, Public Affairs, and company culture. In his current role, Steve leads the newly formed Microsoft Communications Strategy Team, focusing on reinventing how Microsoft operates their communications business using AI. Prior to this role, Steve led Global Public Affairs for Microsoft and was the company’s Chief Storyteller.

Jonathan Stringfield is VP Global Revenue & Business Planning at Microsoft Advertising, where he oversees cross-functional readiness across Microsoft Advertising’s multi-format marketing solutions crossing channels, segments, and geographies around the world. Previously, Jonathan was VP, Global Business Research & Marketing at Activision Blizzard where he led the global team responsible for creating impactful in-game advertising experiences, supplying studio teams with evidence-based insights to drive innovation, delivering industry-leading research and measurement solutions while driving best-in-class marketing activations.

Prior to this Jonathan was Director, Marketing Insights and Analytics at Twitter where he was responsible for all measurement and ad effectiveness research for the US advertising business. He was an early member of Facebook’s measurement solutions research team and began his career leading demographic research for Nielsen’s TV and media research services. Jonathan is the author of Get In The Game: How to Level Up Your Business with Gaming, Esports, and Emerging Technologies and is a regularly published contributor/speaker who has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and AdWeek. He holds a PhD in Quantitative Sociology and was named in The AdWeek’s Top 50 in 2023, honoring executives who are innovating, collaborating and driving results.

Divya Kumar is the GM for Copilot and AI Marketing at Microsoft, leading product, and go-to-market strategy. She has brought multiple innovative, customer-focused web experiences to the market during her 11+ years at Microsoft, including leading the launch of Microsoft Edge and more recently AI-powered Bing Chat and Microsoft Copilot. When she is not working, Divya loves to travel, spend quality time with loved ones, including her dog, and capture those moments with her camera. 

Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA Global, is a transformational leader in marketing with a career spanning three decades. He has pioneered industry-shaping innovations, including Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) and Viewability standards, and authored the acclaimed book, What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds. Under his leadership, MMA Global and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), achieved 5x and 7x revenue growth, respectively. Greg is also a successful angel investor with $5.5 billion in exits and a 1450% return on personal equity. He resides in Brooklyn and Bridgehampton, NY, with his wife, twin daughters, and son.

Dr. Paul Farrow is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Advertising, driving innovations in privacy-centric advertising technologies, including the Ad Selection API and Azure's Confidential Computing. He focuses on balancing user privacy with effective marketing solutions, advancing the future of digital advertising.

Seth Patton is a General Manager of product marketing at Microsoft, responsible for leading teams that turn technology into businesses, by growing customers and creating fans. He is currently responsible for Microsoft 365 Copilot product marketing worldwide. Prior to this, Seth lead Microsoft Customer and Employee Experience Solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics Sales, Marketing and Service, and Microsoft Viva. Seth has also led product marketing for content management and collaboration solutions including SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, and Outlook. Before that, Seth was Senior Director of Product Management for Microsoft Project, where he led the worldwide business and marketing organization.

Jordi Ribas, Ph.D., is Corporate Vice President of Search & AI at Microsoft, leading the product, engineering and growth teams for all of Bing worldwide including experiences, maps and platform. Dr. Ribas and team were responsible for the launch of Bing Chat, Copilot and Copilot Pro which were foundational for the new Gen AI era of Copilots at Microsoft. Dr. Ribas's team continues to contribute advanced search grounding (RAG) and Responsible AI technology to Copilot, and their innovations are being leveraged across the company in products and services in Azure, Office and Windows.

With extensive experience in AI, performance, and full-stack development, Sarvesh drives innovation as Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft. Over the years, he has played a pivotal role in delivering delightful user experiences across a variety of consumer products, including Bing, Edge, Skype, Copilot, and Clarity. Sarvesh is deeply passionate about using AI to transform data into actionable insights, making it easier to connect with users in the agentic world. He is committed to building intuitive, user-centric products that not only meet the needs of today’s users but also delight them.

For over 28 years at Microsoft, Fabrice Canel has been leading teams dedicated to web discovery and indexing to power Bing, Microsoft's search engine. His ambitious mission is to maintain an always up-to-date and comprehensive index, providing an optimal search and AI experience to millions of users. As a pioneer in his field, Fabrice and his team benefits from AI to tackle the immense challenges of managing the billions of new web pages published each day. He drives the establishment and evolution of various industry standards for Microsoft. His passion for solving complex problems and adding value to the digital ecosystem makes him a key player in today's technological landscape.

Lynne leads the Microsoft Advertising (MSA) Global Partnerships and Retail Media organization and has been with Microsoft for 17 years. Her diverse career in advertising has included leading business strategy, expanding into global markets, and leading high performing sales teams with deep field experience in the U.S., Europe, and APAC regions. Her global journey and experience with various sales models have given Lynne a deep understanding of clients of all shapes and sizes, with different product and service needs. Prior to joining Microsoft, Lynne led corporate communications at AT&T and customer experience and communications at Expedia. In addition to driving innovation and growth with partners, retailers, and brands, Lynne is a lifelong learner who earned her MA and PhD in Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and BA in Sociology at Kenyon College. Across all her experience building and evolving teams, Lynne is intentional about putting people and culture first, demonstrating Peter Drucker’s maxim that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” A longtime advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, Lynne serves as Microsoft’s AI Psychological Safety Executive Sponsor.

Susan Credle’s creative career in advertising has been focused on a quest to lift people up and infuse the industry with diversity and best-in-class creative. Upon arriving at FCB in 2016 as Global Chief Creative Officer, Susan, along with her C-Suite partners Carter Murray and Nigel Jones, reignited the creative fire within the network by creating a culture of generosity and a single-minded focus that led to strong creative outcomes. She believes that great creative is an economic multiplier for talent, agencies, and clients. During her tenure as Global CCO, FCB North America was named the Cannes Lions North America Agency of The Year from 2019 through 2024. FCB was honored with the coveted title of Global Network of The Year at Cannes in 2020/21. FCB New York took the stage as Agency of the Year at the Clio Awards in 2023 and brought home Emmy Awards in 2023 and 2024.  The network was also ranked the #1 Creative Agency for Effectiveness in the WARC Effective 100 in 2023, listed on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Agencies in 2022, named Adweek’s 2020 Global Agency of the Year, and ranked the #1 Global Network on The Good Report in 2020. In 2024, Credle took on the role of Interpublic Global Creative Advisor where she brings thirty years of creative experience to the table to ensure that creativity remains an important and respected economic multiplier in the marketing and advertising industry.

Nick Law is Accenture Song’s Creative Chairperson and lead of our Creative Strategic Priority. He is one of the world’s most innovative and versatile creative leaders, who believes all technology needs creativity to make it human, and all creativity needs technology to make it real. Prior to Accenture, Nick was VP, Marcom Integration at Apple - where he was one of three leading the global design and marketing group, Chief Creative Officer Publicis Groupe, President Publicis – helping to drive a unified creative visions across the Groupe’s Brands, and Vice Chairman, Global Chief Creative Officer at R/GA – where, during his 17-year tenure, he led it to be one of the most awarded agencies in the world. Nick’s career in design, advertising and digital media has spanned 30 years and four continents, working with the brightest and best across multiple creative disciplines. He has twice been named in the Creativity 50, a list of the world’s most influential creative people. A native of Sydney, Australia, he now lives in Brooklyn.

Liz Danzico (she/her) leads a team at Microsoft dedicated to exploring and experimenting with how search and AI can enhance people's everyday work and lives. As vice president of design at Microsoft AI Design & Research, she oversees teams focused on search, AI, discovery experiences, and UX writing. Previously, Liz served as senior vice president of Digital and vice president of Design at NPR, overseeing design, product, and engineering, and led the Public Radio Incubation Lab, bringing transformative ideas to life in public media. She is the Founding Chair of the graduate program in Interaction Design at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Ask her about vizslas.

Richard Hartell is the CEO of EssenceMediacom U.S., bringing a legacy of agency and client leadership to drive breakthroughs for EssenceMediacom’s clients. He has more than 25 years of experience leading global media agencies and powerhouse brands across multiple regions, verticals, and categories. Richard most recently led the Google account for WPP across media, creative and digital experiences, stewarding and nurturing our longstanding relationship with one of the most recognizable brands on the planet. 

Richard has successfully led teams across strategy, planning, content, data, and technology, developing global products and workflows and creating profitable growth for clients working in both the US and UK, locally and globally. 

Outside of the office, Hartell has worked closely with the Junior Diabetes Research Fund and is an avid runner and vinyl collector. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and three children.

David "Shingy" Shing, a Creative Omnivore and visionary futurist, pioneers the frontier of human-technological engagement with his philosophy: "From Imagination to Implementation of Ideas, Iconography, Instinct." This globally acclaimed thought leader has transformed icons like LVMH, Chanel, and Nike with his strategic forecasts, captivating audiences from TED to Cannes Lions with insights on humanizing technology. Shingy's boundless creativity and design mastery establish him as a preeminent authority in crafting iconic identities. His razor-sharp instinct, visual artistry, and verbal eloquence make him an indispensable advisor, orchestrating transformative think tanks for global leaders and nurturing cultural trailblazers. Championing mindful technological engagement, Shingy's visionary leadership shapes a more enlightened digital future, turning bold ideas into tangible realities that redefine our world.

Mark D’Arcy is a globally renowned creative leader with over 30 years of experience in advertising, media, and technology. He was the first Chief Creative Officer of Time Warner and later served as Chief Creative Officer at Facebook, where he spent a decade helping businesses embrace the creative potential of social media. Most recently, he helped lead AI-driven innovation at The Brandtech Group, including the development and launch of Pencil Pro. Now an investor and advisor, he works across a portfolio of companies and serves on the board of Closer Ltd, a New York and London-based creative collective. He splits his time between Manhattan and Hudson, NY.

Megan Cunningham, Founder & Executive Chairman, Magnet Megan Cunningham is an award winning author, producer/director, entrepreneur and media executive. She runs Magnet Media, a global storytelling studio. Magnet’s mission is to tell stories that matter so that we live in a more empathetic world. As a studio, they use strategy, storytelling and data to drive measurable outcomes for fast-moving brands, startups and organizations. Clients include: JPM Chase, Microsoft, CitiGroup, IBM, Airbnb, Goldman Sachs, Citadel, CHIEF, Google, Adobe, Amazon, Index Exchange, Greenhouse, Politico, Axios, Blackrock, YouTube, MIT and more. As an industry leader, Megan’s been profiled in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, CNN Business and Forbes. She’s spoken at The World Economic Forum, The Sundance Film Festival, The Tribeca Film Institute, The Wharton School of Business, The NYU Stern School of Business, CES, NAB, SxSW. She is one of the 2024 LinkedIn Top Voices in thought leadership and was recognized by Cynopsis as a Top Women in Digital. She is also the author of The Art of the Documentary, in its 2nd edition.

As Global Vice President & Head of Generative AI at Coca-Cola, Pratik leads the development of high impact, scalable platforms that leverage Gen AI technology to enhance the consumer and brand experience across the entire brand and category portfolio. Prior to this, he has held several leadership roles across brands in The Cola-Cola Company including Global Head of Creative Strategy and Integrated Content for the Coca-Cola TM. With over 25 years of experience in creative marketing, design, media, and communication, Pratik has a proven track record of delivering impactful and award-winning campaigns for some of the world's most iconic brands.

Ashley Banks is the Executive Vice President of Commercial at Group Black with a long track record of building and motivating successful sales teams. Ashley was the Vice President of Sales for Tech & Telco and the Brand Revenue Lead at Pitch, Teen Vogue & Them under the global media company, Conde Nast.  Banks was also the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce Lead at Conde Nast where she led and fostered Conde Nast’s Commercial D&I Taskforce. Prior to her roles at Conde Nast, she functioned in various sales capacities for high-profile organizations such as Say Media and CBS Interactive. Ashley is passionate about getting more Black Women and women of color into revenue roles and believes it’s a path to closing the generational wealth gap. She is an alumna of Vanderbilt University and currently resides in New Rochelle, New York with her husband, son and dog.

Dr. Elaine Rodrigo is a transformational leader in AI, data and insights, currently serving as the Chief Insights & Analytics Officer at Reckitt.

An advocate for AI, Sustainability & DEI in shaping the future of business. Elaine is dedicated to creating sustainable growth by harnessing the power of data & AI,  to unlock deep insights and drive strategic decision-making.

With more than 26 years of experience, Elaine has transformed insights functions across large FMCG companies such as Reckitt, Danone, and Mondelez. She currently sits on the Board of Stravito, an AI-driven SaaS start-up that made the list of Europe’s fastest growing companies

Elaine is an Executive-in-Residence at Oxford University’s Said Business School, where she shares her time & expertise with students in the Exec MBA & AI postgraduate programme. Elaine has a PhD in Marketing from Monash University, Australia, where she is also a Senior Fellow.

Passionate about empowering women in leadership and fostering a people-first culture, Elaine’s personal purpose is to “inspire & enable every woman to be the best version of herself”.  Elaine sits on the Board of Women In Research (WIRe) & is an active member of both the Allbright & Chief professional women’s networks

Jasmine Ezz is the Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of trivago N.V. Since rejoining trivago in 2023, she has led a transformative brand overhaul, launching AI-powered advertising campaigns and redefining the company’s visual identity to enhance its global presence. Previously, she co-founded an events digitalization platform and a social venture bringing renewable energy to remote settlements in Egypt. During her earlier tenure at trivago, she scaled global media buying operations across 50+ markets. Known for blending creativity with data-driven strategies, Jasmine drives impactful solutions that resonate and scale in competitive industries.