MEET THE LEADERS

Ryan Stern still remembers the moment over 13 years ago that sparked Collectively. She and her co-founder, Alexa, kept hearing the same odd request from big advertisers: they didn’t want to buy ads anymore—they wanted to buy content directly from creators. “We think there’s something here. Let’s just go for it.” That instinct became the foundation of an agency, and the payoff came fast: the day Collectively sold its first $1 million program, a milestone Stern still lights up describing.

Mathew Micheli built his company on a simple idea: social platforms would become central to how brands connect with audiences. “We had this foresight where people would eventually start consuming more and more content on social.” That early conviction helped transform a single creator partnership into a global influencer marketing business.

For Nicholas Spiro, the popularity of YouTubers isn’t a curiosity, it’s a sign of how profoundly the creator economy has reshaped ambition. “The creator space is so interesting because you are helping someone live their dream,” he says. The appeal of the work, for him, is bigger than any single campaign: it’s the chance to support people building careers in a field that barely existed a decade ago.

Mike Peralta isn’t interested in framing AI as an existential threat to publishing. He’d rather flip the power dynamic. “AI is nothing but a hallucination without our content.” The models reshaping how audiences discover information depend entirely on the publishers feeding them.

When Kelsey Robinson diagnoses marketing’s biggest problem, she starts with a misunderstanding at the top. Robinson has studied the relationship between CEOs and CMOs and found a striking gap: “70% of [CEOs] believe that two of the top KPIs for marketing to deliver on are revenue and margin.” Only 35% of CMOs have those metrics on their list.

Most people think of Mastercard as a credit card company. Nili Klenoff, Executive VP of Commerce Media and Innovation, is quick to correct the record. Mastercard’s network sees 175 billion transactions and turns those signals into something brands have long chased: proof that their advertising drives sales. 

Matt McNally has spent three decades in pharmaceutical advertising and leads Publicis Health’s health and wellness business worldwide. Recognizing that the velocity of data, technology, and AI can feel as intimidating as it is exciting, he says what grounds him is the stakes. “You have to have the courage to stand up, to be bold, to have a new idea.” 

Guy Griggs spends his days at the intersection of journalism and brand-building. He is used to “news” being treated as a narrow, joyless category. “Everybody thinks that news is myopically politics, war, and natural disasters, and it is not,” he says. “It is the cultural lifeblood of society.” That reframing sits at the center of how he’s thinking about CNN’s next chapter. 

Juanjo Duran tells ADWEEK the two things he knew early on in his career: he loved technology, and he loved building relationships. What he didn’t expect was how that pairing would fuel a 15‑year career shaping how billions of people access entertainment.

Vassili Samolis didn’t just join DoorDash to build ad products—he joined to build something more human. Growing up in a small town in Greece, he saw firsthand what it meant to be part of a tight-knit community. That perspective still shapes how he thinks about technology today. “We serve people,” Samolis says—an idea that underpins everything from product development to the future of advertising for DoorDash.

Chris Riedy has a problem with the way promotions have always worked. “If you’re running promotions kind of with a blindfold on, how do you know if it is subsidizing a behavior that would have happened anyways?” It’s a foundational question the industry has largely avoided.

Will Swayne, President of Media and Integrated Solutions at Dentsu and CEO of Media for North America, has built his career on one guiding principle: integration drives impact. His mission is to bring together media, data, technology, and creative to deliver solutions that move at the pace of consumers, not the industry.

Abbey Klaassen, U.S. CEO of Dentsu Creative and Global Brand President, didn’t start her career in advertising. For 13 years, she was a journalist, and those skills now shape her leadership philosophy. “I learned as a journalist how to be curious… how to listen and ask great questions,” she says.

Wood has spent her career at the intersection of data, analytics, and marketing technology. But what drew her to Treasure Data was finding technology that works. In an industry cluttered with customer data platforms that require lengthy implementations and inevitable compromises, Wood recognized something different at Treasure Data: a solution that delivers on its promises without the usual friction.

As Chief Product Officer at Treasure Data, Rafa Flores has spent 20 years across big tech as a self-described “fixer and builder.” As big tech races to monetize AI, Flores believes vendors should focus on thought leadership first. “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,” he emphasizes, acknowledging that AI evolves daily and no one, regardless of their title or technical background, can claim mastery.

Robin Wheeler, Chief Revenue Officer at Fetch, has spent years in social and digital advertising. What motivated her move to Fetch was the desire to change the advertising industry from an “interruption” in people’s lives to a source of joy. “What I love about Fetch is the entire premise of our platform is to bring joy to the consumer, and the brands are the purveyors of that joy.”

Walter Geer III, Chief Creative Officer and Head of Innovation at VML, believes leadership is about creating ripples that outlast any campaign or job title. “Your salary, how big your house is, the car you drive, means absolutely nothing,” he says. “What matters is what we are doing to actually drop a pebble into a pond and create a ripple effect.”

Kristin “KJ” Jones, SVP of Integrated Media Strategy and Client Development at Rise, is on a mission to prove that transparency isn’t just possible in media, it’s a differentiator. “There’s a myth in the industry that you can’t be transparent,” she says. “There is definitely a way you can be transparent in everything you do—from how you staff the team, to the fees, to the products, to the media you’re buying.”

As CEO of OMD Worldwide, George Manas oversees strategy, operations, and client relationships across 100 markets and a team of 13,000. “I don’t know if you ever feel fully ready for a big role,” he admitted. “Feeling a little uncomfortable is often when you’re making the right career decisions because you’re being stretched and tested.”

Claudia Calori leads marketing for Personal Health at Philips, bringing more than 25 years of brand marketing experience. Leading an all-women management team, Calori’s leadership style emphasizes empathy and courage. “Courage sometimes requires saying, ‘I don’t know, but let’s figure it out together.’”

For Erwin Castellanos, readiness isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about having the resilience to figure them out. “I didn’t know I was ready for this job when I took it,” he admits. “But I knew I could do the work.” Now, as general manager of Adobe Advertising, Castellanos is leading the charge to unite martech and adtech, helping brands simplify complexity and drive performance at scale.

The life of a startup founder is a constant cycle of highs and lows, and Jeremy Fain knows that rhythm well. “There are days where you just think, it’s over, we’ve lost,” says the co-founder and CEO of Cognitiv. “And then the next day, you’ll get a huge win and be on top of the world.”

Liz Roche is on a mission to prove retail media isn’t just about moving units, it’s about building brands. As VP of Media and Measurement at Albertsons Media Collective, she’s shaping how advertisers connect with millions of loyal shoppers while bringing new energy to the in-store experience.

For Michael Scott, it all comes down to impact. As vice president of ad sales and operations for Samsung Ads in North America, Scott has spent nearly a decade building a business around exactly that: empowering marketers to make meaningful impressions through connected television, mobile, and data-driven media.

As CEO of Teton Ridge, Deirdre Lester is helping reimagine the Western lifestyle category for the modern media age. With a background in sports, digital, and entertainment, Lester was brought in to unify a historically fragmented industry and she’s doing it with speed, strategy, and a deep respect for heritage. “The frontier is not behind us,” she told ADWEEK in a recent episode of Leadership Voices. “It’s what’s next.”

Jay Richman leads product and technology for Amazon Ads, where he’s guiding the development of AI-powered creative tools that help advertisers design and scale campaigns across Amazon’s vast media ecosystem. From image generation to short-form video production, his team is reshaping how brands bring their stories to life. He believes this is a defining moment for the intersection of creativity and technology.

Gary Vaynerchuk pulls no punches in this candid conversation, in which he calls out the ad industry for being stuck in the past and lays out why VaynerX was built to move fast and drive results for clients. From building VeeFriends into a cross-platform IP to redefining what creativity means today, Vaynerchuk highlights the urgency of staying culturally relevant and reflects on the leadership qualities he values most—compassion, accountability, and courage under pressure. “Fear is not a motivator,” he says. “We want leaders who step up when it’s hard.”

While many measurement firms focus on reach or final sales, EDO zeroes in on the often-overlooked middle of the funnel. President and CEO Kevin Krim explains how measuring the middle helps brands understand what drives performance in TV advertising. As linear and streaming TV converge, and more media is bought and sold programmatically, Krim is focused on giving advertisers sharper tools to make smart, data-informed choices.

The recent rise of artificial intelligence means that anyone who has been in the workforce for a while likely started out in another field—and Cognitiv president Eric Danetz is no exception, as his roots are in television and media. Danetz’s first job was behind the scenes at Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.
He called it a “psychological opportunity” to see how the iconic hosts brought positive energy to the audience. He joined deep learning advertising platform Cognitiv in September 2024 after serving as global chief business officer at AccuWeather and, more recently, global head of revenue at Reuters.

Jordan Shlachter is the Head of Gaming Business Success at Activision Blizzard Media, which connects brands and players with fan-first integrated advertising experiences. He’s worked at a variety of A-list companies across several sectors: publishing (Time), digital and social media (Yahoo, Twitter, Pinterest), and advertising/ad tech (Nielsen, SAY Media, Universal McCann, PHD).

Calling Carla Hassan a seasoned veteran would be selling her short, as she has spent close to three decades in senior marketing roles. She was at Kellogg for seven years and nearly 13 years at PepsiCo, followed by almost a year and a half at Toys “R” Us, before moving into the finance sector. After a little over three years with Citi, she joined JPMorganChase as chief marketing officer in October 2021.

Rare is the leading business publication that doesn’t have Jessica Sibley’s thumbprints on it. She has worked at Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The Week, and spent time at Condé Nast’s Teen Vogue and The New Yorker, before landing the top post at Time in November 2022.

Shelley Zalis founded The Female Quotient, a media and experience company focused on advancing gender equality in the workplace, in July 2015. Starting companies is in her DNA, as she also founded research firm OTX in 2000 and led it for 15 years, including the last five following its acquisition by Ipsos.

Bing Chen started at Google as a product marketing manager in 2009. He moved over to YouTube the following year, where he ascended to global head of creator development and management. In June 2014, Chen left the Google universe to join AU Holdings—a holding company that invests in multicultural creators, companies, and communities— as managing director in June 2014. From there Chen went on to found Gold House in May 2019, which he described as “a family of companies devoted to harnessing the global majority, the Asia-Pacific diaspora, 5 billion of the 8 billion people around the world.”

Ross Martin began his career in the entertainment space as a story editor for Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule. He went on to launch production company Plant Film in 2002, before spending 13 years in several executive posts at Viacom, including as EVP of marketing. In July 2017 he launched brand strategy and innovation firm Blackbird before returning to entertainment, spending five-plus years as an executive producer for Netflix. Now he’s back on the agency side as the owner of independent agency Known, launched in February 2020.