Great Minds

David Freeman is the Co-Founder and Co-Head of the Digital Media department at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Prior to joining CAA, Freeman served as General Manager of MATTER, Edelman Sports and Entertainment Marketing. In 2003, he co-founded MATTER to forge and develop marketing partnerships for brands, entertainment companies, and content creators.

Maryam Banikarim shows organizations how to shift mindsets and build themselves through the lens of purpose. Known as a fearless force for change with a track record of creating and leading successful brands such as Hyatt, Gannett, NBCUniversal, and Univision, she demonstrates how to define your purpose, differentiate your brand, make the case for change, rally the troops internally and share it w...

Andrea is a business leader, feminist, activist, professor, dancer, flutist, board member, mother and wife. She was CMO at Interbrand, part of the Omnicom Group for 16 years – and now the first ever Chief Client and Marketing Officer at VaynerMedia. She is responsible for scaling VaynerMedia’s full service agency business globally. She is in charge of its client teams, thought leadership, new busi...

Werner Herzog was born in Munich on September 5, 1942. He grew up in a remote mountain village in Bavaria and studied History and German Literature in Munich and Pittsburgh. He made his first film in 1961 at the age of 19. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than seventy feature- and documentary films.

Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy in the UK, an attractively vague job title. He works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour – these are the very small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make – for instance tripling the sales rate of a call centre by adding just a few sentences to the s...

Ken Auletta began contributing to The New Yorker in 1977 and has written the Annals of Communications since 1993. He is the author of twelve books, including “The Underclass” and five Times national best-sellers: “Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way,” and “Googled: The End of the World As We Know It.” He has profiled the leading figures and companies of the information age, includ...

Lubomira Rochet is a French-Bulgarian national, economist by training and graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Sciences Po Paris and College of Europe in Bruges. She began her career in 2003 at Capgemini as Director of Strategy and Development for the Sogeti entity. In 2008, she joined Microsoft to manage its relationships with start-ups and the innovation ecosystem. In 2010, she became Deput...

Susie Essman is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, and television producer. She is best known for her role as Susie Greene on Curb Your Enthusiasm and the voice of Mittens in Bolt. She’s travelled around the world performing for the past three decades. Essman told The New York Times that by the third season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, she couldn’t “walk down the street anymore without pe...

Frank Abagnale’s transformation from one of the world’s most notorious con men to a highly sought-after international cyber security consultant is truly fascinating. He is one of the world’s foremost authorities on fraud and identity theft. Mr. Abagnale’s life was depicted on the big screen by Leonardo Di Caprio in the classic film “Catch Me If You Can.” He now travels the world sharing lessons he...

Sir Martin Sorrell was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. When Sir Martin left in April 2018, WPP had a market capitalization of over £16 billion, revenues of over £15 billion, profits of approximately £2 billion and over 200,000 people in 113 countries. Now Sir Martin Sorrell is Execut...

Ndaba Mandela is Nelson Mandela’s Grandson. He is passionate about the Mandela legacy and motivating young people to get involved in community development. He is passionate about Africa, its people and is concerned about its future. Although the continent faces many problems, there are many positive things that the global community does not know about Africa and Mandela wants to capture these and...

Mark Boyd is the Co-Founder of Gravity Road, an agency bringing together the best of the advertising, communication and entertainment sectors in new ways. Mark joined from Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) where he was Creative Director/Head of Content and Partner.