Great Minds

Emilio “Mimi” Castillo is an American saxophone player and composer, best known as the founder of the band Tower of Power.

Sarah Kate Ellis is an American media executive, journalist, and author, most widely known for launching and turning around media brands within magazines such as New York, InStyle, Real Simple, and Vogue. She is now president and CEO of GLAAD.

Chuck joined the Crispin Agency in 1988 as creative director and partner, after a long career as an award-winning freelance copywriter. The agency was renamed Crispin & Porter, and within three years, it doubled in size and was named one of the top 15 creative shops in the country. Under his leadership, CP+B has become one of the most awarded agencies in the world and was honored as Agency of...

Top marketing strategy and branding expert Alicia Tillman is responsible for the creation and acceleration of SAPs marketing and brand recognition on a global scale. The Chief Marketing Officer at SAP, Alicia Tillman has continued building the brand around how SAP is helping the world run better and improving people’s lives. 

Darlene Love is widely recognized as one of the most distinctive and powerful voices ever in popular music. She received worldwide attention in 1962 for her hit single “He’s a Rebel”. She has performed with and backed up artists such as Sam Cooke, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, Aretha Franklin and The Rolling Stones.

Christena J. Pyle is the executive director of Time’s Up Advertising. Previously, she served as director of diversity and inclusion at Omnicom and director of Adcolor.

Steve Cropper is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and has backed artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor, also acting as producer on many of these records. He later gained fame as a member of the Blues Brothers band. Rolling Stone lists him...

Crazy Legs Conti is a top-ranked  competitive eater with Major League Eating. He holds world records in buffet food, French cut string beans, and corn on the cob. He has eaten his way out of an eight-foot box of popcorn, The Popcorn Sarcophagus, earning him the moniker the Houdini of Cuisini. He has eaten 459 oysters on David Letterman and consumed cannoli on “The Sopranos.” He is the subject of t...

Joanna Louise Coles is a British-born media executive, producer, editor, and author. The inspiration for the hit TV show The Bold Type, she currently has a development deal across the ABC Studios Disney platforms. She served as the first ever Chief Content Officer for Hearst Magazines globally in 2016. She has won numerous awards for journalism and leadership, including, when she was editor-in-chi...

Hugh Nanton Romney Jr., known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and countercultural beliefs. Romney has founded or co-founded several organizations, including the activist commune, the Hog Farm, and later, as Wavy Gravy, Camp Winnarainbow and the Seva Foundation. He was also the official clown of The...

Lisa Gilbert is currently CMO at IBM Japan. Lisa has also served as Vice President of Marketing responsible for IBM’s Growth Markets based in Shanghai, China. Lisa led a team of professionals managing marketing from strategy through to execution for all of IBM’s Enterprise and SMB clients. She also led the marketing strategy for IBM’s Geo Expansion initiative where the company opened over 140 new...

Giles Martin is an English record producer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist. His studio recordings, stage shows, TV and film works have been critically acclaimed and commercially successful around the globe. He is the son of Beatles producer George Martin, Head of Audio and Sound for UMG, Sound Experience Leader at Sonos and was the Music Director for 2019 film Rocketman.

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.