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SPEAKERS
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Southwest Airlines
Communications Analyst
Ashley Pettit serves as Communications Analyst for Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest airline in terms of domestic Customers boarded. In addition to handling the Company’s media outreach and results on a daily basis, Ashley specializes in researching and illustrating the airline’s goals and objectives. On a daily basis, Ashley gives concrete evidence of how Communications is contributing to the bottom line. Ashley consistently works to keep the Communication Team and Company Leaders’ on the right track when it comes to messaging.
Ashley not only distributes and measures the news, she also creates it. She intimately understands the reach of the media and has been the author of several successful story placements creating positive buzz for Southwest Airlines. She has the ability to manage these projects from start to finish – writing the news, distributing the news, measuring the news, and illustrating the end results.
A Dallas native, Ashley hails from University of Oklahoma where she received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Marketing.
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Vice President, Digital Communications
Weber Shandwick
Colin leads the firm’s digital communications practice in Washington, D.C. He has spent the past decade developing effective digital campaigns for associations, nonprofits, corporations and government agencies.
Colin directs digital strategy for clients such as Best Buy, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Entertainment Software Association and MasterCard Foundation . As the strategic digital lead for Best Buy, Colin oversees the creation of an engaging online strategy that includes an interactive Web site and social media presence for @15 – their signature corporate social responsibility initiative that gives teens a voice on today’s important issues.
Before joining Weber Shandwick, Colin worked with the interactive firm Virilion Inc. where he led large multidisciplinary teams for clients such as the Strong American Schools’ ED in 08 Campaign, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Human Rights Campaign and the It’s Our Net coalition.
His work leading the redesign for the Human Rights Campaign was a Webby Award Honoree and the campaign for Strong American Schools won four awards including an ADDY and a W3 for branding.
Earlier in his career, Colin helped start the non-profit organization Technology Works for Good (now a part of the national NPower network) where he advised organizations on how to use technology to fulfill their missions. He began his career at the Advocacy Institute where he worked on and advocacy training program with U.S. and international organizations.
Moffett has a master’s degree in Government from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont.
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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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Founder
Virilion Inc
Shabbir has seen digital campaigns and techniques evolve since before the Internet was commonly used as a communications tool. As Founder of Virilion, Shabbir's role has evolved as well, now working with clients to develop the best strategy to attract attention for their causes, rebuff their critics, and give voice to their supporters online.
Shabbir is well known for his ability to explain technology in terms that non-technological people can clearly understand. He has been a popular speaker to groups of trade associations, nonprofits, and communications and public affairs professionals. With diverse audiences from the California Farm Bureau Federation to the USENIX Security Symposium, Shabbir is comfortable with audiences of every technological sophistication.
Prior to starting Virilion in 1997, Shabbir served as Vice President for Information Security at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Shabbir also established and led the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW). VTW broke ground as a Net-based grassroots organization, organizing voters and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation into a never-before seen coalition defending free speech on the Internet.
Shabbir blogs about the changes digital media has on public relations at www.truthypr.com. He lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife and son, where he dreams of growing up to be a professional poker player someday.”
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Author of Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit From Their Success
Donna Fenn is the author of Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit From Their Success (McGraw-Hill, Sept. 2009). Upstarts deconstructs the DNA of a new generation of young entrepreneurs, analyzes their success strategies, and provides a important glimpse into the entrepreneurial landscape of the future. Fenn also wrote Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become A Leader of the Pack. Alpha Dogs profiles eight extraordinarily successful small companies in very ordinary industries-- a bike shop, an auction company, a chain of ice cream parlors, a sock manufacturer, a grocery store, a commercial bakery, a motorcycle dealership, and an alliance of public relations firms – to illustrate how business success isn’t necessarily about what you do but how you do it.
Fenn has more than twenty years experience writing about entrepreneurship and small business trends. She is a contributing editor at Inc. magazine, an expert on Business.com, a featured expert on SBTV.com, and a blogger on Inc.com. Her work has appeared in Inc., The New York Times, Newsweek, The Associated Press, The Washington Monthly, Working Woman, Working Mother, Family Money, CFO, Corporate Finance, Pink, Parents, and New England Monthly.
In 2001, Fenn was a co-recipient of the Women’s Economic Round Table Entrepreneurship Prize, sponsored by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. From 1988 to 1992, she lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she was a correspondent for The Associated Press and covered a variety of issues including business, culture, the economy and the Gulf War. She now lives in Pelham, NY with her husband and three dogs. She is also the proud mom of two GenYers – a junior at Tulane University and a freshman at Cornell University.
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PRESIDENT and CEO of CommCore Consulting Group
Andrew Gilman has been a communication strategist and crisis counselor for more than twenty years. Co-author of the best-selling book Get To The Point (Bantam 1990), Andrew is also a lawyer and award-winning journalist. He frequently is called upon to help senior executives prepare for media interviews, new business presentations, board meetings, testimony before Congressional committees and regulatory agencies, expert witnessing in lawsuits, appearances on TV and radio, road shows, analyst presentations, and investor meetings. Andrew also develops and directs the CommCore training and consulting services. His copyrighted training innovations include the Two-Minute Talking Memo, Art of the Sound Bite and Message Mapping for media interviews.
As a crisis communications expert, Andrew’s experience includes providing advice to the Government of Canada for SARS Health communications, Lockheed/Martin for both the Challenger and Columbia accidents, the University of Virginia Medical Center in the baby-switching incident and Johnson & Johnson during Tylenol I. Andrew conducts crisis simulations for automotive and pharmaceutical companies and industry associations, where he teaches participants how to take control of news events instead of just reacting to the next fact. Andrew created CommCore’s industry leading software product Crisis Plan wRiter, a program that helps clients create a data base and respond in crisis situations.
As a journalist, Andrew has experience as a reporter for trade and consumer publications, as well as a radio reporter and host. On radio, Andrew was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio’s award-winning programs “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.” His articles have appeared in The New York Times, National Law Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Risk Management Newsletter and the Washington Business Journal.
Andrew is admitted to the Bar in New York State and Federal Courts. He has lectured at Wharton School of Business, Harvard Business School Club of New York, American Bar Association, China External Trade Development Council in Taiwan, American Association of Advertising Agencies, New School of Social Research, American Society of Association Executives, Cable Telecommunications Industry Association and D.C. Bar Association. He is a member of the Board of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. He holds two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Masters of Science in Education. His law degree is from Fordham University.
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Account Director
Cone
Mindy Gomes Casseres is an account director at Cone and has worked with clients on corporate responsibility strategy, communications and development of signature cause programs. Current and past clients include Starbucks, The Campbell Soup Company, CVS Caremark, National Wildlife Federation, Mattel, The Home Depot, eBay and Toyota. In addition to client work, Gomes-Casseres helps Cone develop new research studies and methodologies in the field of corporate responsibility.
Gomes Casseres began her career as a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Washington DC and later worked for the USDA Forest Service. She also developed an economic assessment and rural development strategy for a Native Alaskan Tlingit tribe and assisted the Massachusetts Chapter of the Nature Conservancy with the creation of its three-year strategic plan.
Gomes Casseres received her B.A. from Bowdoin College and her M.B.A. and M.S. through the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. A highlight of her business school career includes co-authorship of a chapter in C.K. Prahalad’s book The Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and son.
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Marketing Director
Dow Jones Solutions for Public Relations & Corporate Communications
Dow Jones & Company Enterprise Media Group
Diane Thieke is responsible for the strategic marketing of Dow Jones’s solutions for public relations and corporate communications. Over her more than 24 years as a public relations and communications professional, Ms. Thieke has been a leader in the integration of social media initiatives into public relations strategies, and in developing and advancing media measurement strategies.
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. Ms. Thieke has also held management positions in Marketing, 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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Social Media Manager
American Red Cross
Wendy Harman is a professional listener, an online communities explorer, hopelessly addicted Tweeter, and a nonprofit lifer (so far). She carries out these activities each day at the American Red Cross in Washington, DC, where she’s been employed as a social media manager since late 2006. Prior to joining the American Red Cross, she fell in love with intellectual property at law school and then worked for musicians’ rights at the Future of Music Coalition and Lawyers for the Arts. She was along for the ride when musicians were among the first to bypass traditional gatekeepers using social media tools, and she’s been trying to keep up and do good ever since.
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Director of Customer Insights, Peppercom
Sam Ford is Director of Customer Insights at Peppercom Strategic Communications, where he helps lead the agency’s PepperDigital division. Ford works with agency teams and clients on communicating with key audiences in the social media space and developing strategy behind digital initiatives. His digital client work and consulting spans from consumer products and entertainment properties to public utilities to insurance companies. He is also a research affiliate with MIT’s Convergence Culture Consortium, a group he helped launch and formerly managed which partners with major brands and media companies to look at the changing communication landscape. He is currently co-authoring a book on the way content is shared online called Spreadable Media. He holds a Master’s degree from and has taught courses for MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, focusing on ongoing research about how fans of entertainment properties communicate with one another and the companies that produce the content they follow in a digital age.
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Sandra Saias
Executive Vice President, Strategy + Planning, Ogilvy
Sandra brings extensive 360-degree consumer marketing and brand-building background to Ogilvy PR. Sandra has represented clients in many categories, including consumer electronics and technology, retail, personal care, packaged goods, food, toys and games, automotive, financial relations.
Currently, Sandra functions across offices and practices and across the Ogilvy Group companies and marketing disciplines to increase PR's role among clients. In this position, Sandra builds cross-company PR business via 360-degree communications solutions to current business and business development. Sandra acts as the strategic liaison and resource for all Ogilvy companies and is called upon for a communications point of view on new and existing opportunities.
In addition, Sandra is the strategic and creative lead on Quaker and Tropicana, two of the agency’s largest consumer accounts. Sandra provides council on various accounts including, Sam’s Club, Brazil Ministry of Tourism, Playmobil and others.
Prior to joining Ogilvy PR, Sandra spent eleven years at Edelman as creative director and co-head of the Lifestyle Unit where she managed a number of clients including Microsoft, Expedia, Dove, Cranium, Wyndham Hotels, Mutual of Omaha, among others.
Sandra holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge. She spent a year in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she earned a degree (Diplome des Etudes Superieurs) in Political Science and French, while working as a reporter at Le Provencal newspaper in Marseilles.
Fluent in English, Spanish and French, Sandra grew up in Santiago, Chile. She now resides in Chicago with her husband and three children.
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Ashley Pettit
Colin Moffett
Johna Burke
Shabbir Safdar
Diane Thieke
Sam Ford
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