A pioneer of multicultural digital marketing with over 26 years of experience, Jose Villa has a unique professional background that combines digital technology and advertising with economics, market research and strategy consulting. He founded Sensis in 1998 as one of the first digital agencies focused on the Hispanic market. Under his leadership, he has grown Sensis into the largest independent multicultural agency in the U.S.

Jose’s thought-provoking analyses of advertising at the intersection of technology and culture are published regularly on Axios, PR Week, Digiday, MediaPost and numerous industry trade publications. A thought leader in cross-cultural and modern marketing, Jose has co-authored multiple studies into the Hispanic market including the “Hispanic Millennial Project”, the “We are Gen Z” Report, the “Boomer Cultures Report” and the recently published “New Hispanic Immigrant” Report.

Luis Miguel Messianu has played a respectable and influential role in the most important developments in the U.S. multicultural market during an advertising career that spans three decades. Born to Romanian parents and raised in Mexico City, he has worked in both the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic markets. His professional trajectory is defined by a conscious effort to help pioneer the melding of marketing niches into a nuanced and evolving market. His award-winning work for multinationals such as McDonald’s, State Farm Insurance, Clorox, MolsonCoors, Sprint, Pepsi, among others, is a testament to that effort.

Luis Miguel is an innovator, a mentor, and an example followed by many distinguished professionals in the multicultural marketing community. He had the foresight to target this vast and untapped market. In 1994 he started his own Hispanic agency, winning soon after the McDonald’s and State Farm Insurance accounts.

Twenty nine years and numerous award-winning campaigns later, both clients still trusted their multicultural strategy to Luis Miguel’s previous creative shop, called alma. alma is a modern culture marketing agency known for highly effective, award-winning segment-led creative campaigns, with a broad roster of clients, including McDonald’s, MolsonCoors, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo, CVS Health, Google, State Farm and others. Under his watch the agency fueled exceptional business growth through creativity, earning 35 Cannes Lions and 27 Effie Awards, as well as numerous Radio Mercury, One Show, Clio, ANA, and New York Festival Awards. alma was named to Ad Age’s prestigious A-List seven times and earned “Agency of the Year ” titles from El Ojo, El Sol, and FIAP. In 2015, ADCOLOR named Luis Miguel Legend Honoree in celebration of his achievements in diversity through his career, and in 2016 he was selected as juror for the Radio Category at the Cannes Lions Advertising festival, he was invited back in 2022 as a juror for the Sustainable Development Goals category.

In 2019 he was inducted into the Hispanic Marketing Council Advertising Hall of Fame, one of the highest recognitions in the multicultural industry. He has always been passionate about mentoring and educating a new generation of Multicultural advertising professionals, and has been a member of the Miami Ad School Board and faculty since the school’s inception. He is a professor at the School of Communications at the University of Miami. Luis Miguel was also one of the founders of the US Hispanic Creative Circle more than two decades ago, was elected its first President. He completed with honors his Executive MBA at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

From February 2022 to July 2023, he was DDB’s Global Chief Creative Officer for the McDonald’s account. Messianu oversaw the creative output of the McDonald’s brand across 46 markets, where the DDB network is responsible for the account. He split his time between his role as Founder and Chairman of alma and the global position within DDB for McDonald’s. In June 2023 he left DDB and alma, the agency he founded,and launched a Multicultural Creative Content Consultancy under the name “Included” going back full circle as a creative entrepreneur who really loves to build cultures and companies from scratch. Soon after he engaged in conversations with Pete Lerma and Richard Edelman, who wanted to partner with him, which in turn are now giving birth to MEL. This new Latino Earned Media enterprise will allow him to recommit to his personal and professional mission of helping dignify and elevate the presence of Latinos in the U.S.

Marla Kaplowitz joined the 4As in 2017 after 30 years of experience in advertising and media agencies to focus on her passion for the industry and the agency community. Prior to joining the 4As, she served as CEO of MEC NA from 2011 to 2017.

Sol Trujillo is a global business executive who has uniquely served as CEO of three large market-cap global companies in the three different corridors of the world: the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. He has a proven track record of transformation and innovation leadership across diverse world cultures and has driven unprecedented growth in the companies he has led in the communications, media, and technology spaces. Sol currently chairs the Trujillo Group, LLC, which invests in private companies domestically and internationally. Sol is the chair and co-founder of the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC), where U.S. Latino business leaders are working to create an accurate understanding of U.S. Latinos and their critical importance to the United States based on factual analysis of real data and research. Sol is the co-founder of L’ATTITUDE, a national new mainstream economy business event and national policy discussion platform. He has appeared in leading publications and programs where he is recognized for his expertise in technology, business, and the economy.

Sol also has the distinction of having served on the boards of globally branded companies, including PepsiCo, Bank of America, EDS, Orange, Telstra, Gannett, US West, Target, Soufun (China), and WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency holding company. He is currently on the boards of Western Union, a global financial services company; Encantos, an award-winning edtech company; and Cano Health, ranked as the fastest-growing primary care provider in America. Sol served as a trade policy advisor to the Clinton and Bush administrations. He has received numerous global awards for leadership, technology, innovation, and management development and was recently named one of the 100 most influential Latinos in the world by BloombergLinea.

Finally, Sol is also the chairman and founding partner of New Cadence Productions, a U.S. television and film content creation studio for the new mainstream audience. He is a senior advisor to Bain & Company Management Consulting and serves on the board of advisors of the Stanford School of Medicine Center on Longevity. Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Mr. Trujillo holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and an MBA (Finance) from the University of Wyoming, with honorary doctorates from the University of Wyoming, the University of Colorado, Whittier College, and Miami Dade College.

Soo Kim is the Chairman of Bally’s Corporation and has served as an independent Director since 2016. He is the founding partner of investment firm Standard General and is the firm’s Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Kim has been investing in special situations strategies since 1997, starting at Bankers Trust Company, as a Principal at Och-Ziff Capital Management, and a Partner at Cyrus Capital Management. Mr. Kim is currently a Director of Intralot SA (GA:INLOT).  He is a Director of Pursuit (fka Coalition for Queens), Vice Chairman and Director of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Director and former President of the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association. In addition to this, Mr. Kim is a former member of the Board of Directors of Greektown Superholdings and Media General, Inc., and the Board of Managers of ALST Casino Holdco.

Rajeev Ranjan recently joined Nielsen to lead their Advertising Ecosystem Data Platform, Identity and Clean Rooms functions. In his role, Rajeev is responsible for defining Nielsen’s data strategy for emerging measurement challenges and working across Product, Tech, Data Solutions, Data Science, Partnerships and Customer Success to ensure that Nielsen’s data assets and measurement solutions meet the needs of the continuously evolving media industry. Rajeev also leads the assessment of Nielsen’s data and product capabilities, and the development and improvement of key capabilities such as identity, clean rooms and complex integrations.

Rajeev has over 20 years of expertise in the advertising industry, with a strong track record of driving product innovation in data and analytics, and fostering collaboration between engineering and business teams. Rajeev spearheaded the development of Publicis Media’s enterprise data platform and infrastructure supporting media planning, buying and advanced analytics. Most recently, Rajeev served as SVP of Data Engineering at Publicis, leading the team that built the Publicis Lakehouse platform, aimed at accelerating AI-powered innovation and streamlining operational costs for agencies. His unique blend of technical and business knowledge provides the insight and experience to enhance and evolve organizational data strategy.

Catherine Salazar is VP, Global Agency Lead at The Trade Desk with over 20 years’ experience in building advertising strategy, collaborating with brands and working at tech platforms stewarding relationships with media and creative agencies. Her former roles include time at TikTok, Facebook, Microsoft and Pandora. Catherine is a graduate of New York University, is an avid marathoner and currently resides in upstate NY with her husband and two dogs, Mariah and Phil Collins.

Stephanie Eaddy is the Multicultural Marketing lead for the North American Operating Unit at The Coca-Cola Company where she develops marketing strategies and programming to authentically connect with a growing diverse consumer population. In her role, she builds capabilities across the marketing department to foster deeper understanding across a variety of cultures, enabling better marketing in a multicultural world. She brings a well-rounded strategy and communications background to the role, having worked on some of the most integrated and complex programs at The Coca-Cola Company during her tenure. As the Global Coca-Cola Brand Director, she drove growth through recruitment programs that leverage gaming and music passion points.

Prior, she defined the Global Beverage Growth Strategy as the Global Growth Director on the McDonald’s Customer Team. Stephanie built her marketing career as a digital marketing expert, working on groundbreaking new mediums and established demand generation platforms and practices ahead of their time in the telecommunications space.

Stephanie is a mother and wife who enjoys experiencing new cultures through travel and food, and can be found enjoying the outdoors or taking in the arts as often as possible.

Miguel Gurwitz is an Emmy Award-winning sports commentator and one of Telemundo Deportes’ leading on-air personalities. He currently serves as host and play-by-play reporter for Telemundo Deportes’ coverage of NFL Sunday Night Football, and co-host of “La Liga Premier Extra” and “Fútbol Estelar Chivas Extra,” the pre- and post-match studio show for Telemundo’s coverage of Premier League and Liga MX’s Chivas de Guadalajara respectively. In addition, Gurwitz also serves as studio analyst for Telemundo’s coverage of other major sporting events including the FIFA World Cup, Copa America, Premier League and the Olympic Games.

In 2022, Gurwitz’ made his official fútbol to football crossover as he went on to deliver coverage of both sports, highlighted by Thanksgiving Day when he provided play-by-play of Patriot-Vikings from Doha, after providing pre- and post-game coverage for all four FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ matches earlier in the day switching from fútbol to football to bookend the day resulting in over 18 hours of announcing games.

This past year marked a significant milestone for Gurwitz as he established himself as the lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL’s Sunday Night Football on Telemundo. In tandem with this achievement, Gurwitz assumed the hosting duties for “Fútbol Estelar Chivas Extra,” the pre-and post-match studio show accompanying Telemundo’s coverage of Liga MX’s Chivas de Guadalajara, and in the network’s leading late-night weekend sports show “Zona Mixta.” Furthermore, in a remarkable display of versatility,
from mid-July to mid-August, Gurwitz played a pivotal role in leading Telemundo Deportes’ broadcast of the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Prior to joining Telemundo Deportes, Gurwitz spent more than 18 years at Televisa Deportes where he served as host and analyst for a wide variety of programs, as well as a correspondent and sideline commentator covering the Mexico National team for 15 years. He also served as analyst and reporter for Liga MX, UEFA Champions League, Copa Libertadores and other important soccer events. In addition to his role on television, Gurwitz was the co-host of the radio show “Pasión” for over 15 years and
also collaborated with several national newspapers.

Throughout his career, Gurwitz has covered some of the most popular sporting events including the FIFA World Cup™ since 1998, the Summer Olympics since 2000, the Winter Olympics since 2002, Copa América since 2004, eight Gold Cups, three editions of FIFA Confederations Cup, the Indy Lights, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby, pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments and the Goodwill Games, among many others.

You can follow Miguel Gurwitz on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Lianne Sinclair is responsible for Corporate and Brand advertising for AT&T, the nation’s largest advertiser. She is driven not by the investment behind her work, but by the impact it has. To date, this has resulted in twenty-three Effies, fourteen Cannes Lions, and two Jay Chiat awards.

The strategies she has developed, and the creativity she has nurtured, have delivered work that the world has noticed for brands like Wrigley, Jack Daniel’s, Vaseline, British Airways and Ritz Carlton, as well as AT&T.

Prior to AT&T her experience includes time at The Martin Agency, where she learned what the real heart of America is, BBH, where she learned to Zig when others Zag, and BBDO where she had the creative firepower to realize her ambitions and honed her leadership skills as Managing Director of the Chicago agency.

Lianne can work and chew gum.

She is an accomplished interior designer, seasoned traveler, and mother to a future show jumping champion, her daughter Sarah, and Dawgs linebacker, her son Jack.

Shiv Singh is a recognized leader in building impactful global brands, driving customer acquisition and retention, and delivering strong financial results through innovative marketing and growth strategies. With a career spanning iconic companies such as PepsiCo, Visa, Expedia Group, and LendingTree, Shiv has honed his expertise in both B2B and B2C markets. Most recently, as Chief Marketing & Customer Experience Officer at LendingTree, he led a 150-member team and oversaw a $700 million media budget, achieving transformational outcomes in brand development, customer experience, performance marketing, and digital platforms.

Shiv is the co-founder of AI Trailblazers, a thought leadership platform dedicated to advancing the responsible and transformative use of artificial intelligence in business. As an author, his thought leadership is evident in his three books, including the recently launched Marketing with AI for Dummies (October 2024). His writing combines practical insights with visionary thinking, making complex concepts accessible and actionable.

Beyond his operator roles, Shiv serves as a board member for United Rentals Inc., a Fortune 300 company with $15 billion in annual revenue and 27,000 employees. He is also an investor, advisor, and sought-after speaker, with a particular focus on the intersection of artificial intelligence and marketing. Shiv’s accomplishments have earned him recognition on Business Insider’s “CMOs to Watch” list, inclusion in Forbes’ “CMO Next List: 50 Game-Changers,” an honoree spot in Ad Age’s “Media Maven” list, and twice being named a Top 50 Marketer by Adweek. He has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement and named among the 100 Asian American Board Members by the National Association of Corporate Directors. Through his diverse experiences and forward-thinking approach, Shiv Singh continues to inspire organizations and individuals to embrace innovation and achieve extraordinary results.

Molly Battin is The Home Depot’s SVP and Chief Marketing Officer. In this role, she is responsible for The Home Depot’s branding, marketing strategy, personalization efforts and the company’s retail media network, Retail Media+.

Molly joined The Home Depot in 2022 and prior to joining the company has held executive leadership roles across prolific brands like, Coca-Cola, Warner Media and Delta Airlines. During her time at Delta, she led global corporate brand strategy and brand management across the company. Her oversight included the global company’s cross-functional marketing strategy and channels.

Molly is a Fellow of the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Betsy Magness Leadership Institute and was named the 2018 WICT Southeast Woman of the Year. She’s currently on the advisory board for Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2018, and a member of the Agape advisory board. Outside of work, Molly is a proud wife and mother of three children, an avid runner and a triathlete. Molly earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Ricardo Aspiazu leads brand creative and design strategy at Verizon. Before joining the company he spent over 15 years in advertising both in Ecuador, his home country, and in the USA. He worked with some of the best agencies like DDB, JWT and Dentsu. Problem solving, creating and disrupting for small and global brands like Heineken, Johnson & Johnson and Burger King. This journey is how Ricardo got to work with Verizon and crossed over to help them build their creative organization in 2017. At Verizon, his role spans from creative strategy to brand design, naming and identity, content creation and in-house & external agency ecosystem management. He is also the creative liaison to Verizon’s most valued partners like Apple, Samsung, Google, Disney and the NFL; developing award-winning co-branded brand and product activations. He holds degrees from Loyola University New Orleans, Universidad de Barcelona and Baruch College CUNY. Ricardo lives in NYC with his husband Robert and his four-legged daughter Pepa.

Esperanza Teasdale began her extensive career at PepsiCo as a Brand Manager, and over the past 20 years, has demonstrated excellence in a range of roles driving business results across brands including Pepsi, Propel, Aquafina and Lipton to name a few. Before joining the HBU, she led the shopper marketing agenda for 7-Eleven and Circle K where she successfully led Joint Business Planning, delivered innovative shopper marketing solutions, and accelerated business results. She is a proud founder of the PepsiCo Demand Accelerator, where she helped build the shopper marketing capability and drive commercial results with retailers. Under the leadership of Esperanza, PepsiCo’s core brands have accelerated revenue growth while transforming the marketing experience.

Under her leadership, in 2021, PepsiCo announced Juntos Crecemos (Together We Grow), a $50 million platform aimed at strengthening Hispanic-owned businesses, specifically restaurants, bodegas and carnicerías (meat markets), addressing foundational business challenges, and supporting business growth over the next five years. Juntos Crecemos is part of PepsiCo’s Racial Equality Journey Hispanic Initiative, a $172 million set of commitments launched in October of 2020 to uplift Hispanic communities and businesses, and increase representation at all levels within PepsiCo.

Esperanza has a legacy of growing talent, and is recognized as a leader in driving Diversity and Engagement. She is the executive sponsor of the Adelante employee resource group for PBNA. Before launching her marketing career, Esperanza worked as an Industrial Engineer at Bestfoods and early marketing career at Unilever.

Esperanza was born in Long Island, NY and is a first-generation Ecuadorian/Colombian daughter to Pablo and Esperanza Escobar. She is married to Jeff Teasdale and has two children.  She enjoys yoga, traveling and spending time with family. She is a graduate of Rutgers University, College of Engineering and The University of Connecticut, MBA.

She is a board member for two non-profits that are focused on youth leadership development and senior adult wellbeing: Kids Helping Kids and The Stamford Senior Center. She is also a member of the Stamford Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Committee.

Esperanza was recently a guest writer for AdAge and receive multiple industry and internal awards for her work.  She was honored with a 2022 ‘Female Frontier’ award by Campaign US in their Championing Change category, a program that celebrates female leaders and rising stars breaking boundaries in a historically male-dominated industry. In 2021, she was also named to People en Español’s ‘25 Most Powerful Women’ Poderosas list.

Katherine Freeley is the Head of Media Center of Excellence for Boehringer. Katherine’s key responsibility is to oversee traditional and digital media investment in the U.S. and optimize working media budgets to drive growth for Boehringer’s brands. She is focused on positioning media investments as the strategic top-line growth driver.

Before joining Boehringer, Katherine held a position of the Global Head of Media Operations for Novartis Pharmaceuticals and the Global Integrated Marketing Operations Lead for Colgate-Palmolive. Prior to Colgate-Palmolive, she spent 10 years working for the leading Media agencies: Mindshare, Draft FCB, Publicis, Grey and JWT.

Katherine holds a Doctor of Management degree from University of Maryland Global Campus, and MBA from The New York Institute of Technology.