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SPEAKERS
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Vice President, BurrellesLuce
During a career spanning almost 20 years, Johna Burke has worked both as a public relations practitioner and a provider of services that are vital to the work of communication professionals. For 11 years starting in 1989, she worked for U-Haul International, ultimately becoming head of public and investor relations. Burke joined BurrellesLuce in 2000 and serves as a vice president of the company, the largest media monitoring and measurement firm in the United States. Burke is a highly rated speaker who is often invited to talk about best practices in public relations, and her commentaries on the subject have appeared in PR print and web outlets. She is chair of the Southern Region of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
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Manager of Emerging Media, Southwest Airlines 
Paula Berg is the Manager of Emerging Media for Southwest Airlines, the nation’s leading low-fare air carrier and the largest domestic airline in terms of Customers carried. Over the last two years, Paula has managed and developed the Company’s corporate blog, “Nuts About Southwest.” Since its’ launch in April 2006, “Nuts” has experienced tremendous success - building a community for its loyal Customer base, serving as a virtual focus group, and influencing several business decisions. In 2007, “Nuts” was named Best Blog by PR News and has been recognized in major publications ranging from Wired Magazine to The Wall Street Journal. In addition to managing the Company blog, Paula leads Southwest’s online communication and social media efforts. Prior to her work in social media, Paula was a spokesperson and Public Relations Specialist with emphasis on strategic communication, media relations, and reputation management. Paula also supervised on-location production for three seasons of Airline!, Southwest’s reality series for the A&E Television Network, which filmed Southwest’s daily operations in four cities. After brief stints selling beer on Phish tour and working for the Colorado and United States Senates, Paula woke up and smelled the jet fuel and began her career at Southwest Airlines in 2001. Paula is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned a bachelors degree in communication and a minor in political science.
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Assistant Vice President, Brainerd
Bill Douglass has an extensive background in corporate and financial communications, as well as media relations. Prior to joining Brainerd he served as Deputy Director, Financial/Corporate Communications at the Investor Relations Group, and earlier with P&F Communications. His areas of expertise include biotechnology, technology and the entertainment industry. Earlier in his career, Mr. Douglass was an administrator with a non-profit group, ORBIS, serving on-board the organization’s DC-10 aircraft, “the world’s only flying eye hospital,” in over twenty countries. A lifelong traveler, he has worked in or visited fifty-five countries. Mr. Douglass holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian Studies from the University of Houston. Notably, he won the first Shell Economist Writing Prize, with an essay on “The World In 2050,” besting over 3,000 entries from seventy-five countries to win the $20,000 first prize in a contest co-sponsored by the Economist magazine and Royal Dutch/Shell.
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Founder and CMO, dna13
Chris Johnson has over 19 years experience in both the technology and communications industries. Chris is dedicated to overseeing and managing the strategic direction of dna13 and its software products. He has worked extensively in corporate communications and public relations for Fortune 1000 companies. Prior to founding dna13, Chris managed a successful technology consulting firm and has played senior management roles in both software and technology organizations.
His previous experience includes corporate strategy and communications for Canada’s largest telecommunication firm; Bell Canada. Chris has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communications from Carleton University’s School of Journalism.
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Social Media Strategist, Converseon
Paull Young is Social Media Strategist at the award-winning social media consultancy Converseon, leading accounts for clients such as Showtime, Newell Rubbermaid, Telstra and Graco Children's Products (one of Mashable's '10 smartest big brands in social media').
Converseon provides the listening/engagement technologies, organizational consulting and engagement services designed to help brands fully leverage the value of social media across the enterprise.
Since moving to the US two years ago his clients have received awards from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Society for New Communications Research, PR News, PRSA and the Webbies. Paull is the author of one of the more recognized PR/Marketing blogs Young PR , which ranks in B&T Magazines top 10 Australian marketing blogs. Paull is frequently quoted on social media issues in the media and his work has been featured in a number of PR, marketing and social media books and resources. He has spoken at a range of conferences including Internet Retailer, PRSA T3 and the Society for New Communications Research NewComm Forum.
You can follow Paull on Twitter @paullyoung.
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Vice President- Digital Media
As head of Levick’s digital media team, Dallas Lawrence develops Internet strategies that reach key audiences and minimize attacks on Websites, in the blogosphere, and on social networks.
Before joining Levick, he was VP for Communications and New Media for the National Association of Manufacturers, where he leveraged emerging technologies to advance the agenda of the association’s 11,000 members.
Mr. Lawrence also served five years as a trusted member of President Bush’s communications team, representing the White House, the Defense Department, and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq during some of the most challenging crises of the current administration.
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Vice President – Digital Public Affairs, Edelman 
Monte Lutz is Vice President of Edelman’s Digital Public Affairs Practice, where he crafts social media and online advocacy campaigns for corporate, association and non-profit clients. Mr. Lutz is a social media pioneer who created his first political blog in 1998. Prior to joining Edelman, Mr. Lutz was an executive speechwriter, produced Congressional events for the Public Forum Institute and worked for various news organizations, including CBS News and C-SPAN. He has developed award-winning traditional and online crisis communications campaigns for Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies and not-for-profits. Mr. Lutz has an MBA from the University of Florida.
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PR Coordinator, Morton’s The Steakhouse
Catherine Merritt has been with Morton’s The Steakhouse since 2007. Prior to joining Morton’s, she did in-house public relations and marketing support for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), the Illinois state agency that owns and operates McCormick Place Convention Center and Navy Pier. She has also worked as an event organizer for the Emmy®-nominated PBS series, Antiques Roadshow during the show’s 11th season. Catherine was working as a senior account executive at a boutique PR agency in Chicago’s West Loop before she came on board at Morton’s.
With 81-worldwide Morton’s locations there are always unique, trend-setting, and exciting events taking place at the restaurants. Catherine constantly works with Morton’s 42-local PR firms providing support in generating significant media coverage on both a local and national level. Catherine is also in the midst of coordinating Morton’s 41-city media tour for the upcoming release of Morton’s second cookbook, Morton’s The Cookbook: 100 Steakhouse Recipes for Every Kitchen. In 2008, Catherine organized Morton’s PR Conference which flew in a representative from each of Morton’s local PR firms with a major emphasis on PR as it relates to online and social media. Enhancing Morton’s presence via Web 2.0 initiatives is another area Catherine is very committed to.
Although managing 42-worldwide PR firms might be a daunting task for some, Catherine attributes her outgoing personality and positive attitude to her success. Catherine jokes, “My first words were, ‘Hi there’ when I was only nine-months-old, so it was pretty clear from the start that my future would be in communications.”
When she’s not working to promote Morton’s or attending an event at one of the seven Chicagoland locations, Catherine enjoys spending time with her husband and their dog in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago, where they live.
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SVP Sunao, Moxie Interactive
Daina Middleton is the senior vice president of Sunao, at Moxie Interactive. Sunao, a Japanese word for the “untrapped mind” is a division comprised of four departments within Moxie: Participant Insight, Emerging Trends, Marketing Analytics, and Market Innovation. The Sunao Department is instrumental in delivering on Moxie’s goal to foster effective, innovative conversations between brands and participants.
Prior to joining the team at Moxie, Daina was the global director of advertising and interactive marketing for Hewlett-Packard’s $28 billion Imaging and Printing Group. The team’s mission was to provide leadership, drive integration, and establish standards globally in both traditional advertising and Interactive marketing, including SEM & SEO, social media, video, website development & cross media effectiveness and measurement. Daina spent 16 years at HP in key marketing communications positions across most of the core segments in the company’s printer businesses.
Digital and interactive have been at the heart of her positions for a number of years. In 1995, Daina worked on the first cross-printer chooser tool for HP and explored the meaning of the coming unknown phenomenon called the “internet” and its impact on marketing. What keeps her motivated at work is the exciting transformation happening where brands need to enable continuous conversations with their customers. Daina currently sits on the Standards Board for the Social Media Advertising Consortium (SMAC), and the OVAB (Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau) Board of Directors.
Beyond work, Daina lives on a horse ranch with her family in Idaho. She has three children, ranging in age from 15 to 22, and raises Iberian horses.
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CEO of TopRank Online Marketing
Lee Odden is CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing and public relations firm providing organizations such as McKesson and PRSA.org with search and social media consulting services. Odden is a contributor to “Online Marketing Heroes”, published by Wiley, writes for Mashable and the award winning toprankblog.com. He’s been cited by The Economist and Fortune and is a sought after speaker for conferences including SES, Pubcon, Blogworld, OMMA, DMA Annual and PRSA International. Odden serves as chair of the DMA Social Media Council, is on the advisory board for Search Engine Strategies and a past MIMA board member.
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Kellie leads a 4 person community team for SEGA of America. Her team is responsible for creating and executing community and social media strategies to support SEGA’s games, including console titles, virtual arcade titles, and online role playing games. Her team manages forums, blogs, podcasts, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, YouTube pages, Flickr feeds, outreach to fansites, contests, and more.
In her previous role, Kellie was the Online Community Manager for PCWorld.com and Macworld.com. In this role, she was responsible for setting the community-building strategies, managing the relationships with community software vendors, and interacting with the community members on both sites. She also managed all member created content on both sites, including blogs and blog comments, product reviews, and wiki knowledge base. She was responsible for all interactive features of both sites, including polls and user contests. She managed the PC World “Letters to the Editor” inbox and edited the “PCW Forum” section of PC World magazine each month. In addition, she wrote a community-focused column on PC World, wrote an IDG-internal blog focused on community and social networking, and contributed to the Today @ PC World blog on social networking and user generated content news.
Prior to joining PC World & Macworld, Kellie was a Senior Producer & Online Community Manager with LiveWorld, Inc for 7 years. At LiveWorld, she built and managed some of the web’s largest branded communities, including HBO, A&E, History Channel, QVC and Discovery Channel.
Kellie holds an MBA in Marketing (with Graduate Honors) from Regis University.
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Vice President, Communications
Mark Phillips came to the United Service Organizations following a career of service in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard. He served in assignments throughout the United States and Europe, and on operational deployments in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Bosnia, Croatia, and the United Kingdom.
As a public affairs officer, Mark built a strong portfolio of effective communication supporting combat, disaster, and humanitarian relief operations; education, research, development, and acquisition programs; and high-profile diplomatic, legal, and environmental issues. He creatively integrated diverse communication capabilities (such as public affairs, legislative liaison, recruiting, and marketing); harnessed the power of emerging communication technologies; used cross-functional team approaches to effectively manage communication programs; incorporated formative research and evaluative assessments to make communication programs more effective; and streamlined communication planning to achieve strategic communication effects.
As a doctoral candidate (University of Maryland’s Department of Communication) and an accredited public relations practitioner (APR from the Public Relations Society of America), he brings a unique blend of communication theory and research with rich field experience in public affairs and operations management. In addition to his doctoral studies, Mark also earned a B.A. in art from the University of Southern Mississippi, a Master of Public Administration from Troy State University, and graduated from the Air Force’s Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, Squadron Officer School, the Defense Information School, and other military education and training courses.
Having been on the receiving end of USO programs during many deployments and assignments, Mark understands how much this support means to America’s service members and their families. Why did Mark join the USO team? Because serving with the USO is a way for him to provide meaningful, direct support to those who put their lives on the line for America every day.
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Director of Product Management, Vocus
Kye Strance is responsible for the overall product strategy and roadmap of Vocus’ on-demand public relations software. Additionally, he heads the company’s industry research, providing both analysis of the competitive landscape and identifying strategic opportunities for the company. Strance moderates Vocus’ monthly webinar series designed to offer PR professionals techniques on the latest industry trends.
Prior to joining Vocus, Strance was with Sharp Ideas where he was responsible for helping establish the organization’s new IT division including the development and design of multimedia, database and computer based training programs.
Strance holds a B.S. in Economics from George Mason University.
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Marketing Director, Public Relations & Corporate Communications, Dow Jones & Company 
Diane Thieke is responsible for the strategic marketing of Dow Jones’s solutions for public relations and corporate communications. With more than 24 years in the digital media industry, Diane is responsible for connecting communicators with the information, conversations, and tools they need to help them identify hot issues, create and measure communications strategies, and keep executives informed. She speaks frequently about social media and media measurement.
In her previous position as Executive Director of Global Public Relations & Strategic Communications for Dow Jones, Ms. Thieke was responsible for defining global strategic messaging and communications strategy for the Enterprise Media Group. She also directed corporate-wide public relations initiatives and outreach campaigns focused on customers and key stakeholders. Prior to this, Ms. Thieke held management positions in business development, product development and editorial at Dow Jones.
Ms. Thieke is a member of the Public Relations Society of America. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and English writing from Rider University, New Jersey (USA) and holds a Master’s degree in Communications Management from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, New York (USA).
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Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Coast Guard Chief of Media Relations
Lieutenant Commander O’Neil has more than 24-years of combined active-duty service from the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Air Force during which he has gained 21 years of public affairs experience.
Lieutenant Commander O’Neil enlisted in the Air Force in 1983 and served as a security specialist performing flightline and enroute security, base law enforcement, emergency services and air base ground defense duties. In 1985 he became a unit public affairs representative for his squadron, beginning his public affairs career. In 1989 he was recognized as the 21st Air Force Unit Public Affairs Representative of the Year. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant in 1986 and left the Air Force in 1989.
During his break in service, Lieutenant Commander O’Neil graduated second in his class from the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officer’s Academy at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and concurrently served as a police officer in the boroughs of Tyrone, Hopewell and Bellwood until he enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1991.
Lieutenant Commander O’Neil was assigned to Coast Guard Station New York, Governors Island, where he served as the unit collateral-duty public affairs officer, leading seaman, boarding team member, boat-crewmember and emergency medical technician. In 1992 he completed the Basic Journalism Course at the Defense Information School, Fort Benjamin-Harrison, Ind. He returned to Governors Island serving at the Atlantic Area Public Affairs Office until being accepted for Officer Candidate School in 1995.
Upon completion of OCS Lieutenant Commander O’Neil was assigned to MSO Morgan City, Louisiana, where he earned five marine safety qualifications including federal-on-scene-coordinator’s representative, pollution investigator and three investigation’s qualifications. He transferred to MSO St. Louis in 1998 serving as the Eighth District Drug and Alcohol Program Inspector, followed by Senior Investigating Officer, Chief of Homeland Security Planning, and Assistant Chief of Marine Inspections, earning two inspection qualifications. Throughout these tours of duty, Lieutenant Commander O’Neil continued to serve as a unit collateral-duty public affairs officer, rejuvenating unit programs and gaining national media coverage of marine safety activities.
Lieutenant Commander O’Neil served as the Public Affairs Officer for the 7th Coast Guard District, headquartered in Miami, Florida, from 2005-2008. He coordinated media relations, internal information and community relations efforts for the busiest Coast Guard district in an area that included nine designated media markets, two of which were in the top twenty. He managed a staff of eight active-duty and five reserve petty officers, plus one Coast Guard civilian employee. The District Seven public affairs staff earned the 2006 Commander Jim Simpson Award for Excellence in Public Affairs and did so again for 2007.
Lieutenant Commander O’Neil currently serves as the Chief of Media Relations for the U.S. Coast Guard, assigned to Coast Guard Headquarters (CG-09222) in Washington, DC. He is responsible for developing and implementing policy and doctrine for all Coast Guard media relations activities. He supports two area and nine district public affairs officers and their staffs, and directly supervises a staff of four. He serves as a national, Coast Guard spokesperson and provides strategic and tactical media relations support to headquarters units and directorates.
Lieutenant Commander O’Neil graduated with distinction from Boston University’s College of Communication in 2005, earning a Master’s in Public Relations. In the same year he graduated with honors from the Public Affairs Officer Qualification Course at Defense Information School, Fort Meade, Md. He returned to Fort Meade in 2006 to complete the Intermediate Public Affairs Officer Course. Lieutenant Commander O’Neil completed his undergraduate studies in 2000 through Charter Oak State College, New Britain, Conn., earning a Bachelor of Science (with honors) in Communication. He also holds an Associate’s in Criminal Justice from the University of Phoenix.
Among Lieutenant Commander O’Neil’s awards are the Meritorious Service Medal, Coast Guard Commendation Medal (with gold star), Air Force Commendation Medal, Coast Guard Achievement Medal (with 3 gold stars), Commandant’s Letter of Commendation (with two gold stars), Meritorious Team Award (with silver star and gold star), Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal (with bronze star), the Coast Guard Basic Training Honor Graduate Ribbon and the Marine Safety Professionals Pin.
He is married to his wife of 17 years, April O’Neil. His daughter, Christina, lives with her spouse in St. Louis, Missouri.
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CEO
The CEO Show
Robert Reiss is Host of The CEO Show. Among the fastest growing radio shows in America, Reiss interviews the nation’s top CEOs who have reinvented industry through exceptional customer experience models. The show started in Greenwich CT. in April 2007 on WGCH and is now broadcast 78 times a week out of 52 markets from Boston to San Diego, Anchorage to West Palm Beach, with 600,000 listeners a week -- 51% of whom are top management. Starting September 2009, Reiss will have a column on the CEO Network at Forbes.com featuring transcripts of his interviews.
Reiss has been cited by The Harvard Business Review as an “expert in executive communications”, and he is currently the Emcee and Chairman for The Conference Board’s Annual Chief Marketing Officer Conference, where for the first time, social media will be used to promote the conference.
Prior to The CEO Show, Reiss was a management consultant at the intersection of strategy and the customer, where he coined the term “Customer Experience Organization”.
Reiss co-authored Golf & the Art of Customer Service, a business fable linking best practices in customer service to golf principles; the book is currently being made into a film. He is a trustee of Kingsbrook Medical Center where he was a recipient of The Distinguished Trustee Award, 2008, by the United Hospital Fund. Reiss is also a Director for Griffin Health Services Corporation (Fortune Magazine’s # 1 Best small Company to Work for in America, 2006).
Formerly, Reiss was Chairman of the Board of Interlude Inc. and was President of American Society for Training & Development in New York City and Executive Vice President for The Outsourcing Institute. Reiss began his career in public relations, working for Ruder, Finn & Rotman.
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SVP Sunao
Moxie Interactive
Daina Middleton is the senior vice president of Sunao, at Moxie Interactive. Sunao, a Japanese word for the “untrapped mind” is a division comprised of four departments within Moxie: Participant Insight, Emerging Trends, Marketing Analytics, and Market Innovation. The Sunao Department is instrumental in delivering on Moxie’s goal to foster effective, innovative conversations between brands and participants.
Prior to joining the team at Moxie, Daina was the global director of advertising and interactive marketing for Hewlett-Packard’s $28 billion Imaging and Printing Group. The team’s mission was to provide leadership, drive integration, and establish standards globally in both traditional advertising and Interactive marketing, including SEM & SEO, social media, video, website development & cross media effectiveness and measurement. Daina spent 16 years at HP in key marketing communications positions across most of the core segments in the company’s printer businesses.
Digital and interactive have been at the heart of her positions for a number of years. In 1995, Daina worked on the first cross-printer chooser tool for HP and explored the meaning of the coming unknown phenomenon called the “internet” and its impact on marketing. What keeps her motivated at work is the exciting transformation happening where brands need to enable continuous conversations with their customers. Daina currently sits on the Standards Board for the Social Media Advertising Consortium (SMAC), and the OVAB (Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau) Board of Directors.
Beyond work, Daina lives on a horse ranch with her family in Idaho. She has three children, ranging in age from 15 to 22, and raises Iberian horses.
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President
Forum Media
With 15 years of experience working with major corporations to help them solve their corporate reputation and public policy issues, Jeff Sindone brings to Forum Strategies and Communications a unique perspective on how new media and traditional broadcast techniques can help companies address their communication needs. Joining in July of 2007, Jeff is charged with planning and executing multimedia strategies using cutting-edge media concepts and new media tools, to help clients solve their mission-critical communications challenges.
Previously, Jeff was with Medialink Worldwide. He joined in 1993 to refine the company’s station relations and media monitoring capabilities. During his time there, Jeff capitalized on his media relations and production experience to launch award-winning crisis video, on-line and multimedia projects, as well as multi-point video conferences and telecasts for multinational corporations. His clients included Altria, Anheuser-Busch, ExxonMobil, General Mills, General Motors and Philips Electronics North America.
Jeff began his career in TV News operations with the Fox News organization in Washington, D.C., where he held numerous editorial positions from field production, to working on the assignment desk.
A graduate of George Washington University, Jeff is married with two small children.
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Manager, Client Services
CISION US, INC.
As manager of client services at Cision, the leading global provider of media research, distribution, monitoring and analysis services to the public relations industry, Nicole Duhoski oversees the U.S. client support group. Nicole serves as a member of Cision’s social media team, and has played an integral role in the strategic planning and development of Cision’s social media initiatives. As one of the social media team members who monitors Twitter (@nduhoski), Nicole interacts with clients, prospective clients and the public relations community. She is also a contributing blogger for CisionBlog and co-presents Cision’s Twitter best practice webinars.
Nicole joined Cision in 2005. Prior to Cision, Nicole worked in government relations, community relations and consumer marketing. Nicole holds a BA in Social Relations and Policy as well as in Communication from Michigan State University. Nicole specialized in public relations and studied mass media at the University of London.
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Chief Digital Strategist
Burson-Marsteller
Erin Byrne is Burson-Marsteller's Chief Digital Strategist and as such oversees our global digital strategy, client work, product and service development and Internet-related policies and procedures. She has a long background in new media, having worked on web initiatives since 1993 for diversified clients encompassing online strategy and research, marketing communications, design/development, viral marketing and interactive advertising. She works with clients to help develop their overall digital strategy and to ensure that digital is appropriately represented within a client's overall marketing and communications mix.
Erin's broad range of digital experience encompasses branding, consumer marketing, business-to-business communications, public education, and online crisis management. One of Erin's most notable client engagements has included managing the interactive program for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's "New Color of Money" program. The award-winning program features a comprehensive digital strategy including a campaign Web site that was produced in 23 languages, interactive learning tools, e-mail marketing, search, and originated with a rich-media online advertising campaign. Burson-Marsteller was honored with Yahoo's Big Idea Purple Chair Award for excellence in integrated marketing based on the New Color of Money program.
Additionally, Erin continually advises clients on how to utilize digital communications in regards to online public relations. This includes online reputation management, consumer-generated media, search marketing, and other social communications. In today's environment of real-time branding, Erin works with clients to help them understand the issues and opportunities of digital communications. She has helped dozens of clients use the Internet to manage crisis situations, and has led numerous award winning online marketing programs. She is a frequent speaker at client and industry events, and contributed to development of Burson-Marsteller's Digital Bootcamp training program that has been delivered to agency professionals around the world and is now available for client use.
In addition to managing the agency's global capability, serves as managing director of Burson-Marsteller's internal advertising and interactive agency, Marsteller, and leads the U.S. staff of strategists, designers and programmers. Prior to joining Burson-Marsteller, Erin worked as an independent marketing communications and interactive development consultant for leading companies in the New York City area.
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PR & Marketing Consultant, Former VP of Consumer Lifestyle, SHIFT Communications
Oversees all consumer-related accounts within SHIFT's west coast Consumer Lifestyle Practice. Ranging from Oakley’s wearable technology initiative to UGOBE’s Life Form, Pleo, Julie leads the team’s strategic activities. She is responsible for the management of the practice regionally and the various accounts under her umbrella.
Prior to joining SHIFT Communications, Julie worked at Edelman managing both consumer technology and semiconductor accounts including Buongiorno (mobile content), Synopsys (electronic design automation) and PMC-Sierra (storage semiconductors). Julie also worked at Weber Shandwick supporting a variety of high-tech clients, including Agilent Technologies, LynuxWorks and Covad Communications. Julie started her PR career at the Benjamin Group supporting clients like Peet’s Coffee and the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitor’s Bureau.
Prior to her career in PR, Julie worked in the Global Advanced Technology practice at Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm. In this position, she assisted the managing director in planning global events, including "Leadership in the Digital Age," a technology symposium at the world renowned Pebble Beach golf resort.
Education: Bachelors in public relations from San Jose State University. While a student, Julie won PR Week's prestigious PR Student of the Year honor. In addition, Julie held various positions on the board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, including programs director.
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Vice President, Demand Programs
IBM North America
Matt Preschern is the Vice President, Demand Programs, IBM North America, based in Somers, New York.
In his current role, Matt leads IBM’s Smarter Planet demand generation efforts in the US and Canada. Matt manages a diverse team of 200+ IBM Marketing professionals and agency teams who are focused on executing high-quality and effective Marketing campaigns via the IBM Marketing program framework. Matt’s team drives 360/end-to-end demand generation activities, including a mix of brand-led events and roadshows, direct marketing, e-mail, interactive and increasingly Web 2.0 activities, such as search, syndication or social networking activities. He also helps IBM sellers in progressing and closing key opportunities through industry events and sponsorship marketing efforts.
Prior to his current assignment, Matt was the Vice President, Communications, Mid-market.
Matt helped design and execute mid-market specific Marketing campaigns and led the mid-market media, press and analyst relations efforts. He explored and implemented new and innovative approaches to interact and collaborate with clients and influencers. This included Innovation roundtables, “Jams” or on-line collaborative discussion forums, webcasts with IBM Research and sales advisory councils.
Matt also held the position of Vice President, Marketing, On Demand Business where he led the Marketing strategy efforts. Matt helped raise IBM’s visibility as thought-leader and worked closely with leading IT-analyst firms, such as Gartner or IDC, to help shape and articulate the next phase of the IT-industry.
Matt has been with IBM for 11+years and began his IBM career as a Strategy and Change Consultant in IBM Global Services. He specialized in assisting IBM business units develop and articulate customer-centric marketing strategies.
Prior to joining IBM, Matt had been a Senior Market Analyst with United Parcel Service (for 5+ years) in Atlanta, GA. He worked extensively in new market development, service offering repositioning and technology optimization efforts in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Born and educated in Linz, Austria, Matt came to the US in 1991 and received his MBA from Emory University in 1992. He now lives with his wife and two sons in Mount Kisco, New York.
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President & CEO
DS Simon Productions Inc
Douglas Simon is President & CEO of D S Simon Productions Inc, which he founded in 1986. He also authors an award winning video blog at http://www.vlogviews.com. D S Simon Productions specializes in Satellite Media Tours, Internet Media Tours, B-Roll production and distribution, Corporate and Web Video, Video Players, Ground Tours, Co-Ops and Radio. The company is headquartered in New York with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago.
The company has won more than 30 industry awards in the last two years for clients including American College of Physicians, Issac Mizrahi/Liz Claiborne, Kaiser Permanente, Macy’s, March of Dimes, Parade Magazine and Verizon.
Simon was a three-time Past-President of the Publicity Club of New York and former Vice President of the New York Chapter of PRSA as well as a Director Delegate to the National Conference. He began his broadcast career at NBC Sports where he served as Talent Assistant to Bob Costas on the award-winning “NFL Live!” program.
He can be reached via e-mail at dougs@dssimon.com or www.twitter.com/DSSimon.
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Social Media Practice Lead, North America
Text 100
Joseph leads Text 100’s social media practice in North America with an emphasis on helping client organizations align their communications strategies with digital media and emerging forms of peer to peer interaction to engage key stakeholders. During his tenure at Text 100, Joseph has consulted on digital communications for a diverse range of clients from MTV to IBM including its channel partner, consumer experience and venture capital groups. His teams launched IBM’s groundbreaking efforts in virtual worlds and helped introduce consumer audiences to the company’s future vision of the Web, social networking and business in these environments. Prior to Text 100, Joseph managed analyst relations programs for venture-backed telecommunications startups, working with industry influencers to position them for funding and acquisition.
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