Even in today’s interconnected, digital world, physical location still means everything and matters more than ever. David R. Bell, an authority on digital strategy and unified commerce, explains why.

A graduate of Stanford University and chaired marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, David is an award-winning teacher and researcher. His studies focus on how we use the Internet and related technologies to search, shop and sell – a subject he delves deep into in his best-selling book – “Location is (Still) Everything” (New Harvest, July 2014), which was translated and published in Brazil (2016) and China (2017). His peer-reviewed academic articles are published in all major field journals and have been recognized with awards from The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), the American Marketing Association (AMA), and Marketing Science Institute (MSI).

David speaks frequently and internationally on business model innovation in the digital economy and was an early investor in several iconic new economy companies including Bonobos (acquired by Walmart), Diapers.com (acquired by Amazon), Harry’s, Jet.com (acquired by Walmart), and Warby Parker, among many others. David is President of Idea Farm Ventures, a New York City-based venture studio, created to catalyze the next generation of outstanding consumer lifestyle brands.

A New Zealand citizen and US Permanent Resident, David received his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Brian Berger is the founder and CEO of menswear basics brand, Mack Weldon. With over a decade of success in the digital world, Brian created Mack Weldon in 2012, a men’s specialty line consisting of underwear, socks and t-shirts with a focus on design, performance and functionality. Mack Weldon has grown to become one of the leaders within the industry.

Brian served in several leadership positions within consumer internet and media companies including Comcast, WebMD and Excite@Home.

Brian graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Colorado and continued his education at Columbia University where he received a Masters in Business Administration. Brian lives in NYC with his wife and three sons.

Rachel is a passionate entrepreneur with an eye for beautiful interiors and design.

Prior to founding SNOWE, Rachel worked in real estate investment banking at BGC Partners, advising hotel and lifestyle clients on strategic opportunities and capital raising. She also managed a boutique co-working space subsidiary of SL Green, Manhattan’s top real estate investment trust. It was her interest and penchant for design and fashion finds that led her to co-found her first company, Haat Couture, a retail concept selling luxury-quality, affordable Indian formal wear in the U.S.

Rachel began SNOWE with co-founder Andres Modak after moving back to New York City from grad school. Both were unhappy with the disposable quality of mass-produced homewares that were available and believed that there was a gap to be filled between mass-market quality and high-end luxury, which ultimately drove them to launch SNOWE.

Rachel holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

As COO and Cofounder, Tom Cortese is responsible for managing and driving the overall Peloton product and member experience. He oversees product design and development, manages global supply chain, and ensures the operational success of member support and member engagement programs – all with an eye toward creating an unparalleled Peloton experience across all touchpoints. Prior to Peloton, Tom was at  IAC/InterActiveCorp where he most recently served as Co-founder and CEO of the award winning Proust.com. Tom holds a BA in Philosophy from The George Washington University, and spends his free time pushing his sons in their running stroller, training for triathlons with his wife, and racing up the leaderboard on his Peloton Bike.

Mike Duboe is Head of Growth at Stitch Fix. His org at Stitch Fix covers all performance marketing channels, including Paid Social, SEM, SEO, Display, Digital Video, TV, Radio/Podcast, Direct Mail, Partnerships/Affiliate, and Mobile App Growth. Prior to Stitch Fix, Mike ran growth at Tilt – a social payments platform that was acquired by Airbnb, and began his career as a consultant at Bain & Company. He also serves as a growth advisor to a number of consumer startups. Mike has his BS/MS in Industrial Engineering from University of Michigan, and an MBA from Stanford.

Nick Fairbairn is Senior Vice President of Marketing at Le Tote, leading the marketing team. Nick oversees brand & communications, media strategy & customer acquisition as well as revenue & forecast management. While building a team and infrastructure in his first 12 months on the job, Nick and team scaled over 100% at 10% more efficiency while increasing the value of members by over 30%. Before joining Le Tote, Nick served as Vice President of Brand Marketing at Dollar Shave Club as well as Director of Acquisition Marketing at Dollar Shave Club prior to that. In his time at Dollar Shave, Nick helped drive the company’s growth through strategic messaging and go-to-market strategies for new and existing products. He championed a customer first approach, managing the balance between brand and response. He helped the team deliver more than a 500% increase in new subscribers and over 100% increase in revenues, playing a pivotal role in the company’s $1B acquisition.

Before joining Dollar Shave Club, Nick ran the Acquisition Marketing group at Provide Commerce/FTD Companies, the umbrella brand for ProFlowers, Shari’s Berries, FTD.com and other eEommerce gifting sites. There he led a team of 25+ marketers driving cross channel media strategy and execution and was responsible for over $600MM in revenue. Nick began his career agency-side holding a variety of roles including Entrepreneur & Founding Partner, Account Director, Managing Director and Media Director.  His diverse client roster included Google, Microsoft, eBay, Peet’s Coffee, Cost Plus World Market, Disney, Visa and many others. Nick has an MBA from Pepperdine University and lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife and two little boys.

Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Erin Fujimoto studied finance at Arizona State University before beginning her career as a financial adviser at JP Morgan. After listening to her husband’s relentless frustrations with ill-fitting undershirts, Fujimoto and Tom Patterson founded Tommy John in 2008 with the goal of bringing more comfortable and innovative solutions to market. Together they’ve spent the last 10 years reimagining the fabric, fit, and function of men’s underwear and apparel before successfully introducing their debut women’s collection in 2018.

Michaela Giovengo is the Director of Direct Response Media at Hulu where she is responsible for all short-form Direct Response advertising revenue.  Since joining Hulu in 2012, Michaela has been instrumental in the development and growth of the Hulu Direct Response unit, which has resulted in double-digit revenue growth year-over-year.

Prior to joining Hulu, Michaela spent over six years at NBCUniversal as an Account Executive across a number of the networks properties including USA, Oxygen, Bravo and SyFy.

Michaela was born and raised in Chicago, IL and holds a Bachelor degree in Marketing from Fordham University. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and their two children, Siena & Luke.

Steven Gutentag is the co-founder and CEO of Keeps, a full-service healthcare company that combines virtual diagnosis and FDA-approved treatments to create access to preventative medicine and care for millions of men. Steve started his career working as a management consultant at BCG. He then co-founded Get Maid, an on-demand home cleaning service, which sold to Homejoy. Via a Homejoy acqui-hire, Steve then worked at Google on the Search Ads Product Management team, responsible for launching a new type of ad unit for the local services industry, which sits on the search results page today. He holds a B.S. in Marketing and Finance from NYU Stern School of Business.

Emily Heyward is Co-founder and Chief Strategist at Red Antler, the leading brand company for startups. Founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, Red Antler is a multidisciplinary team of strategists, designers, and marketers. Working closely with founders, Emily has led branding efforts for top companies such as Casper, Allbirds, and Birchbox. After beginning her career in advertising, she started Red Antler in order to directly apply consumer insights and brand positioning to business growth. Emily lives in Brooklyn with her wife and dog.

Born and raised in New York, Jesse Horwitz has always had a strong grasp of economics and finance. He studied both fields at Columbia University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa/Magna Cum Laude. During his time at Columbia, he also developed an interest in Film Studies, although following an internship with Sony Picture’s Television Division, he quickly learned that a life in Hollywood was not for him.

Horwitz ultimately decided to take a different path, and spent a year at Harvard Law School, where he met his husband, Mark Severs and secured an internship with Bridgewater Associates. It was at Bridgewater that Jesse met his future business partner, Benjamin Cogan. Horwitz moved on from Harvard to work full time for Bridgewater and then founded Gadfly, a systematic trading firm with Michael Naber, a colleague from Bridgewater.

Horwitz joined the investment team for Columbia University’s endowment in 2013, where he spent the last few years investing across the alternatives landscape – private equity, venture capital, hedge funds and real estate. During his time at Columbia, he built a strong network across the investor community, including Two River, a life sciences merchant bank that invested in and brought together the round for Hubble.

Now Horwitz is Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Hubble, a direct-to-consumer, subscription contact lens company, where Horwitz focuses his efforts on fundraising, business development and regulation compliance. Since launching in November 2016, Hubble has become one of the fastest growing, direct-to-consumer e-commerce companies in the U.S. Horwitz and Cogan earned a spot on Forbes’ prestigious “30 Under 30” list in 2016 and Hubble recently extended its footprint into Canada, the UK and the Netherlands in the past year.

Selena Kalvaria is the VP of Brand Marketing at Away, a global lifestyle brand designing thoughtful objects to make traveling more seamless. In her role, Selena drives the strategy for Away’s brand marketing team, overseeing how the Away brand comes to life and interacts with its community across social media, partnerships, experiential, and more.

After graduating from Princeton University, Selena started her career working on Wall Street before leaving to pursue her passion for understanding the drivers of culture, consumer choice, and brand love. Prior to Away, she worked at Diageo, where she built and led several marketing initiatives for Baileys and Smirnoff Ice brands. Later, she joined Anheuser-Busch as Senior Director of the company’s flavored malt beverage portfolio.

Selena received a B.A. in art and archaeology and a certification in finance from Princeton University, and she received an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives and works in Manhattan.

Richard is a co-founder and Partner of Triangle Capital and has been an investment banker for over 35 years. Richard has a great deal of experience advising clients in merchandising businesses, particularly in the Retail & Consumer sector. Richard is an often-quoted expert on the retail and merchandising industries. He is a Contributor to Forbes.com where he writes a regular blog about trends in retail and consumer product businesses. He also appears regularly in print and other media as well as industry panels and speaking programs.

Before co-founding Triangle, Richard was a Managing Director at a boutique investment banking firm called Financo, Inc. While at Financo, Richard was responsible for a majority of the firm’s apparel industry transactions. Prior to joining Financo, Richard was a Partner and First Vice President at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. At Drexel, Richard was responsible for a group of 14 professionals doing middle-market mergers and acquisitions around the world.

Richard is the co-author of three books on finance and computer programming. He is formerly an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Business at the graduate program of the Stern School of Business at New York University. Richard received a BS in Accounting from New York University and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Harvard University. Richard is married and lives in New York.

James Ledbetter is the editor of Inc. magazine and Inc.com. Prior to that position he was the founder and editor of The Big Money, Slate’s business and finance site, and the Opinion Editor for Reuters. He has also been deputy managing editor of CNN Money and senior editor at TIME.

Ledbetter is the author or editor of six books, most recently One Nation Under Gold. His writing on business, media and politics has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Quartz, Rolling Stone, The Nation, The American Prospect, The New Republic, Mother Jones, VIBE, and dozens of other publications. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.

Hernan Lopez is Founder & CEO of Wondery, A Network Of Storytellers. Wondery became the fastest network to join the Top 10 ranker by Podtrac, propelled by immersive hit shows like Dirty John, American History Tellers, Business Wars, Hollywood & Crime and American Innovations. Prior to founding Wondery, Hernan was President & CEO of Fox International Channels, a $3bn division of Fox. Hernan has been a speaker at Cannes Lions, SXSW, Promax and Natpe, and his articles have been published by Ad Age and Fast Company. He holds an MBA from University Of Miami and lives in Los Angeles.

Dave Morgan is the CEO and Founder of Simulmedia, a New York City-based television advertising company. A lifelong entrepreneur, Morgan focuses today on helping advertisers improve the outcomes of what is often their biggest line item: TV advertising. Dave previously founded TACODA, Inc., an online advertising company that pioneered online behavioral marketing and which was acquired by AOL in 2007. He also founded Real Media, Inc., one of the world’s first ad serving and online ad network companies and a predecessor to 24/7 Real Media, which was later sold to WPP.

In the early 1990s, Morgan served as General Counsel and Director of New Media Ventures at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

Morgan is a Political Science graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and holds a J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law. He serves on the Advertising Research Foundation and was a long-time member of the executive committee and board of directors of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Dave, his wife, writer Lorea Canales, and their two daughters live in Manhattan.

Peter Naylor is the SVP and Head of Advertising Sales at Hulu where he oversees the company’s advertising sales and sales operations functions. Prior to Hulu, Naylor was an EVP of Digital Media Sales for NBCUniversal (NBCU) where, during his tenure, he ran digital advertising sales for NBCU’s entertainment, news and sports digital properties.

Prior to his time at NBCU, Naylor served as the SVP of Sales for the iVillage Properties, which was acquired by NBCU in May 2006. Before joining iVillage, he served as Vice President of Sales for Terra Lycos. He started his internet sales career at Wired Digital.

In the advertising community, Naylor is a member of the Ad Council Board of Directors and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Board of Directors, in which he served as the Chairman in 2012 and was named the founding chairman for the IAB’s Video Center of Excellence in 2014.  Naylor also serves as a member of the NATPE NXTGN Advisory Board. He previously served as Treasurer for the Online Publishers’ Association from 2010 to 2013 and sat on the board for over ten years.

In 2016, Naylor was recognized by Adweek as one of the 50 Most Indispensable Executives in Marketing. He is the recipient of the 2015 ASPY Industry Luminary Award and the 2014 ad: tech Industry Achievement Award.

Yoav Naveh is currently SVP, People Operations at Taboola. He previously served as Vice President of Video at Taboola, following its acquisition of outstream video SSP ConvertMedia, which he co-founded and served as CEO. After successfully integrating video into Taboola’s offering, he is now responsible for supporting Taboola’s growth through recruitment, analytics and organizational development. Prior to founding ConvertMedia, Yoav spent twelve years building predictive systems for online advertising and internet security startups.

Tom Patterson was born and raised in South Dakota. He studied at Arizona State University, eventually becoming a successful Medical Device Salesperson. In 2008, after years on the road as an unsatisfied consumer in need of more fitted and functional base layers, he founded Tommy John. He initially developed an innovative collection of undergarments made of propriety materials – patented stay tucked undershirts, non-bunching underwear and socks that never fall down. Now Tommy John is recognized as an exciting menswear brand, ever expanding, and leading the way in terms of fabric, fit and functionality.

Rishi Prabhu is the co-founder of Bespoke Post. Together with friend and business school classmate Steve Szaronos, Rishi launched Bespoke Post in 2011. In the seven years since, the duo has built Bespoke Post to be the leading men’s lifestyle subscription and e-commerce service, delivering goods and guidance to nearly half a million customers across the U.S. and Canada.

On the heels of completing his MBA at Kellogg School of Management, Rishi and Steve were accepted into the Entrepreneur’s Roundtable Accelerator program and saw an opportunity in the e-commerce market for a subscription service for men.

They noticed that men were more conscious of and interested in self-improvement than ever. Yet there wasn’t a single one-stop shop out there for them to elevate their daily lives – a place that not only sold quality products at a fair price, but also taught new and better ways of living. And so, Bespoke Post was born.

The goal: to help the modern man discover, enjoy, and make the most of new and interesting goods. The kind of stuff that’ll make him feel sharper, cooler, and more confident each and every day.

A veteran of the consulting field, Rishi began his career at McKinsey, with subsequent stops at Groupon and Google.

Rishi received his Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science and mathematics, as well as a master’s degree in computer science, from New York University. He received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Leigh Radford, is the Vice President of P&G Ventures – an agile and entrepreneurial group of individuals, who identify New Brands, Partnerships and Business Models designed to fuel future growth.  Leigh has over 20+ years of experience within P&G. She is an experienced business leader who has led the strategic and creative development of brands across multiple categories, including Skin Care Personal Cleansing, Health Care, and Oral Care. Leigh has a talent for taking small ideas with promise and turning them into proven global brand success. Brands under her leadership have delivered significant and sustained business growth (i.e. Olay became the #1 Global Skincare Brand, and Vicks achieved $1 Billion+ status).

Leigh’s passion for growing businesses, delighting consumers, and proven track record, resulted in her dream job, leading the P&G Ventures group. Within P&G Ventures she leads some of the world’s most innovative thinkers, scientists and entrepreneurs.

Leigh received her B.A. in Advertising/Business Administration from University of Florida and M.B.A from Kellogg Graduate School of Management,

Northwestern University, M.B.A., 1991.

If you ask anybody about Katie, they’ll tell you she’s a mover and a shaker. And that’s pretty evident if you take a look at everything she’s contributed to Marketing Architects over the years.

Katie and her team engage in deep business conversations with potential clients, discussing how they can blow through their business obstacles and start thinking about the untapped potential of television, radio and other media channels. Katie’s desire for new clients to succeed is evident – she doesn’t celebrate a win unless she’s celebrating it with her clients.

During her tenure, Katie has been involved with some of Marketing Architects’ most formative victories. She was a key player in building the largest, most efficient and profitable radio network in the country, and she helped build the HurryCane^® into one of the top-selling mobility devices in the country. Today, she’s leading the charge to deliver billion-dollar ideas through accountable advertising for top-shelf brands.

So how does Katie cultivate new business relationships while taking care of her loving family of four? Easy. She asks herself each night, “Did I just exist or did I make a difference today?”

Tina Sharkey is an entrepreneur and investor, passionate about building movements with soul and social-minded businesses at scale. Most recently, she co-founded Brandless, a new kind of company, a community that puts people first and makes better products at a fairer price: $3. Previously, Tina was a venture partner at Sherpa. She has served as the Chairman and Global President of BabyCenter, a Johnson and Johnson company where she was also a leader in the global consumer group. Tina led Networks and Community at AOL, and co-founded iVillage, where she coined the term social media. Tina currently sits on the Board of Directors of Brandless, ipsy and Brit + Co, and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Nick loves to build, and scale, disruptive, consumer brands. As COO, Nick focuses on scaling our organization and delivering the day to day operations across performance and brand marketing, development, design, product management and customer experience teams. Prior to Leesa, Nick has built stand out sales, marketing, development and operational teams in ecommerce and the services and travel industries. Nick joined Leesa from cove, a co-working company, where he was COO. Previously, Nick was a VP at Amazon-backed marketplace, LivingSocial, where he led the restaurants, travel and health & beauty divisions. Earlier in his career Nick ran consumer travel brands including the global yacht business – The Moorings & Sunsail – leading a team of 1,200 operating in 45 countries. Nick was also the co-founder of an online travel startup, The First Resort. Nick holds an MBA from Europe’s leading business school, IMD in Switzerland, and is a qualified accountant. Nick’s focus on speed and growth extends outside of work, where he loves leading an active life with his family, be that on the soccer pitch, tennis court, at sea or on the ski slopes.

Poppy is a strategic storyteller who has spent her career helping build creative businesses and creating brand marketing for some of the world’s most disruptive companies. A rare Los Angeles native, Poppy has spent much of her life at the intersection of culture, entertainment and technology, working in technology startups and marketing agencies across Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Poppy led brand strategy for companies including Netflix, Twitter, Pepsi, and Samsung. Her work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, One Show, AICP, D&AD, DigiDay, Webbys and Clios as well as being featured in the New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. Poppy was also co-chair of IPG’s women in leadership group, helping to mentor and bring more women leaders into advertising agencies with programming and resources.

Poppy is currently the Head of Brand Marketing and Strategy at Glossier, where she leads all of the brand strategy and marketing initiatives.

Annie Walters, Vice President of Retail at Equinox, oversees all facets of the Shop at Equinox. With more than 16 years tenure in the luxury retail industry, Annie has deep experience with driving sales growth and market share expansion for multi-unit corporations including Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue. Annie leads the Equinox retail team in executing its vision to provide a luxury service experience that transcends fitness and apparel to maximize all facets of the high-performance lifestyle.

Prior to joining Equinox, Annie was Vice President of Store Merchandise at Saks Fifth Avenue where she developed long-range merchandise strategies at the store and category level to drive growth of 41 locations. She also spearheaded phasing plans and executed new store opening set-up for all new and renovated stores.

Annie held various leadership roles with Saks Fifth Avenue from 2007-2017 and prior to that was the Merchandise Planner for Women’s Ready to Wear at Bergdorf Goodman, where she was responsible for seasonal plans for all of Women’s RTW. She began her luxury retail career at Neiman Marcus right after graduating from Boston University in 2001.

Jeff Weiser is the Chief Marketing Officer at Shopify and joined the company in February 2018. Prior to joining Shopify, he served as Chief Marketing Officer at Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE). Prior to that, Jeff held multiple senior level positions with Beachbody LLC (creators of P90X and Shakeology), and Strategy and Analytics roles at SGN (Social Gaming Network), MySpace and Yahoo! Jeff holds a B.A. in English from Yale University and an M.B.A from Columbia Business School.

Ellie Wheeler is a Partner at Greycroft and is based in the firm’s New York office.

Prior to joining Greycroft, Ellie worked in a similar role evaluating investment opportunities at Lowercase Capital. Ellie also worked at Cisco in Corporate Development doing acquisitions, investments, and strategy within the unified communications, enterprise software, mobile, and video sectors. While at Cisco, she was involved in multiple acquisitions and investments, including PostPath, Jabber, Xobni, and Tandberg. She began her career in growth capital private equity at Summit Partners in Boston.

Ellie graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a BA in Psychology and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Marshall Williams, CEO of Ad Results Media, specializes in influencer audio/digital in which products or services are recommended by credible, influential audio personalities. Ad Results Media is the largest purchaser of podcast advertising in the world, leveraging strong relationships within podcasting, AM-FM radio, network radio and satellite radio to connect advertisers with the world’s most high-profile news, sports and entertainment creators.

Born and raised in New York, Jesse Horwitz has always had a strong grasp of economics and finance. He studied both fields at Columbia University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa/Magna Cum Laude. During his time at Columbia, he also developed an interest in Film Studies, although following an internship with Sony Picture’s Television Division, he quickly learned that a life in Hollywood was not for him.

Horwitz ultimately decided to take a different path, and spent a year at Harvard Law School, where he met his husband, Mark Severs and secured an internship with Bridgewater Associates. It was at Bridgewater that Jesse met his future business partner, Benjamin Cogan. Horwitz moved on from Harvard to work full time for Bridgewater and then founded Gadfly, a systematic trading firm with Michael Naber, a colleague from Bridgewater.

Horwitz joined the investment team for Columbia University’s endowment in 2013, where he spent the last few years investing across the alternatives landscape – private equity, venture capital, hedge funds and real estate. During his time at Columbia, he built a strong network across the investor community, including Two River, a life sciences merchant bank that invested in and brought together the round for Hubble.

Now Horwitz is Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Hubble, a direct-to-consumer, subscription contact lens company, where Horwitz focuses his efforts on fundraising, business development and regulation compliance. Since launching in November 2016, Hubble has become one of the fastest growing, direct-to-consumer e-commerce companies in the U.S. Horwitz and Cogan earned a spot on Forbes’ prestigious “30 Under 30” list in 2016 and Hubble recently extended its footprint into Canada, the UK and the Netherlands in the past year.

Jen Rubio is the Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Away, a global travel brand designing thoughtful objects for modern travel. Since Away launched in 2016, the company has sold more than 200,000 suitcases, raised more than $31 million, and launched several new products and experiences that are inspiring more people to travel the world. The innovative direct-to-consumer startup has redefined its category and is working to make everything about the travel experience more seamless. In 2015, Jen was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing and Advertising. She lives and works in New York.