Speakers

Guy Kawasaki is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. He is also a columnist for the Open Forum of American Express.  Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. 

Mr. Kawasaki is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.  His newest best-selling book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, was released in March 2011.

Guy Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Of his time with Apple Computer Inc., Mr. Kawasaki says, “When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing.  For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against worldwide domination by IBM.  I also met my wife Beth at Apple during this timeframe-Apple has been very good to me.  Around 1987, my job with Apple was done.  Macintosh had plenty of software by then, so I left to start a Macintosh database company called ACIUS.  It published a product called 4th Dimension.  I did this for two years and then left to pursue my bliss of writing, speaking, and consulting.”

Bill Taylor is a writer, speaker, and entrepreneur who has shaped the global conversation about the best ways to compete, innovate, and succeed. As cofounder and founding editor of Fast Company, Bill launched a magazine that won countless awards and earned a passionate following among executives and entrepreneurs around the world. His latest book, Practically Radical, was an immediate Wall Street Journal bestseller and was a number-one bestseller on the Inc./800-CEO-READ hardcover business list. His previous book, Mavericks at Work, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and was named a “Business Book of the Year” by The Economist and the Financial Times. 

Bill’s writes weekly management blogs for Harvard Business Review and BNET.com. He is an adjunct lecturer at Babson College and the coauthor of three other books on strategy, leadership, and innovation.

A graduate of Princeton University and the MIT Sloan School of Management, Bill lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

Ivy Ross is currently the Chief Merchandising Officer for Art.com and, previously, was the creative catalyst for Gap Inc. She creates immersive sessions for all brands, to explore new possibilities using proven techniques from her 30 years experience in a variety of consumer goods companies.

Previously, she held many executive positions ranging from head of product design and development to CMO and presidencies with several companies, including Calvin Klein, Swatch, Coach and Mattel, Old Navy and Gap. Both Fast Company and Business Week have chosen Ivy to represent the new face of leadership.

As an innovative entrepreneur and thinker, Ivy creates unique collaborative environments with her teams. To maximize her collaborators’ creative potential, Ivy draws upon her personal studies in a diverse range of fields, including sound vibration, quantum physics, Play, psychology and living systems. Many of her methodologies, most notably Project Platypus, have been adopted not only by Mattel but also Procter and Gamble, where she serves as a member of its design board.

Ivy has been a contributing author to numerous books, including The Change Champions Field Guide and Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organizational Change. She has also been referenced in Ten Faces of Innovation, Rules of Thumb, and Unstuck among other books. In addition to writing, Ivy was the keynote speaker at the Nokia World Design Conference and Fortune Magazine’s Women Conference.

A renowned artist, Ross’ innovative metal work in jewelry is in the permanent collections of 12 international museums, including the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., the Victorian Albert Museum in London and the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City. A winner of the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts grant, Ross has also received the Women in Design Award and Diamond International Award for her creative designs.

Barry Libert has spent the last 10 years investing in and founding social media and open innovation companies.  His latest venture, OpenMatters, helps senior leaders understand, cope with, and fully leverage the power of social media.  He co-Founded Mzinga, a leading provider of social software, services, and analytics in 2001. He is also an investor and Director at Innocentive, the leader in Open Innovation for Companies and Governments.  In addition, he is a board member of the The SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania that focuses on the impact of open and social networks on our society.

To date, he has published five books on the business value of social networks and human interactions. Social Nation, his latest book, examines how businesses can harness the power of social media to attract customers, motivate employees and grow revenue. He also co-authored the critically acclaimed book, We Are Smarter Than Me, which highlights the power of open innovation, as well as Barack, Inc. that explores the power of Open and Citizen led government. He has also recently published a popular e-book entitled The Revolution Will Be Tweeted.

A highly sought-after expert, Libert has been published in Newsweek, Smart Money, Barron's, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and he has appeared on CNN, CNBC, FNN and NPR. 

Prior to co-founding Mzinga in the summer of 2001, he was a partner at Arthur Andersen and John Hancock. He began his career with McKinsey & Company, is a graduate of Tufts University, and holds an MBA from Columbia University. He currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons.

Antony Young is based in New York and heads Mindshare North America, part of a global media and marketing services network with billings in excess of $27.8 billion. 

Antony has spent sixteen years at Publicis Groupe in a number of key executive management roles in Asia/Pacific, Europe and the US. 

Antony has been responsible for developing strategy and executing media campaigns for some of the most influential global brands which include Sony, Coca-Cola, T-Mobile, L’Oréal, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Toyota.

He recently authored Brand Media Strategy [Palgrave MacMillan], the first book in the US to be published on communications planning.  It shares his insights on developing media strategies in a Google and Facebook era.  

Some past career achievements include launching one of the first media agency networks in China, which became the #1 in that market in terms of billings. He was also a founding partner and CEO of independent digital marketing start up AdXplorer in Asia.  Prior to transferring to the U.S. he was CEO of their UK agency.

In 2010, Antony was a winner of the 4A’s Transformer competition, presenting his industry transforming idea at the 4A’s media and leadership conference.  

Antony currently writes a column on media strategy for Advertising Age. 

Josh Linkner is a New York Times best-selling author and change agent for business innovation. He’s on a mission to make the world a more creative planet.

Josh is the Founder, Chairman and former CEO of the largest interactive promotion agency in the world, ePrize.  Over the last 12 years, ePrize hired over 1,800 professionals and provides digital marketing services for 74 of the top 100 brands.  Josh led the firm from inception to being ranked the #1 fastest growing and #3 overall promotion agency by PROMO Magazine.

Josh led ePrize’s expansion into new industries including travel, automotive, financial services, consumer packaged goods, retail, and entertainment. Josh contributed to ePrize’s geographic expansion, opening offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta and London. Additionally, Josh led the firm through two rounds of financing and two recapitalizations, securing over $43 Million of investment.

As an early Internet marketing visionary, Josh founded and built one of the first web marketing agencies, GlobalLink New Media, in 1995. The firm grew to be recognized as a “Top 100 Interactive Agency” by Advertising Age Magazine in both 1997 and 1998. In early 1999 Josh successfully negotiated and managed all aspects of the sale of GlobalLink New Media to a publicly-traded firm.

Josh served as Senior Vice President for Rare Medium Group, a 1,100 person web-consulting and venture capital firm. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of two other successful technology companies.

Josh is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall St. Journal, and Washington Post best-selling author of two books.  His most recent book, Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity (Jossey-Bass/Wiley), helps organizations and individuals jumpstart their imagination and build creative organizations.

Recently, Josh launched his fifth company, the venture capital firm Detroit Venture Partners.  Along with business partners Dan Gilbert and Brian Hermelin, Josh is actively investing in early-stage technology companies looking to help rebuild the Detroit region through entrepreneurship.

Josh is a frequent source-for-comment among business, technology and marketing media. He has been featured in hundreds of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, AdAge, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and AdWeek, and is a frequent keynote speaker at industry events and conferences. Josh has won multiple business, technology, and design awards including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, The Inc. 500 (six years in a row), Crain’s Detroit Business 40 under 40, Fast Company’s Fast 50, the Detroit Executive of the Year, and the Automation Alley CEO of the Year.

Josh earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising from the University of Florida. Josh is an accomplished and well-respected jazz musician, regularly performing in jazz clubs throughout the United States and Canada.

Mark Jeffery is the author of Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know.  He is also a Managing Partner of Agile Insights LLC and the Director of Technology Initiatives in the Center for Research on Technology and Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management. 

His consulting practice focuses on enterprise performance management, unlocking business value from marketing and IT, and customer relationship management (CRM) strategy and execution. Mark has an active research program at Kellogg and has recently surveyed 252 Fortune 1000 firms on strategic marketing performance management, capturing $53 billion of marketing spend. He has also previously surveyed 179 Fortune 1000 firms and 44 Federal Government agencies on IT management best practices, capturing $70 billion of IT spend. 

Mark directs multiple Kellogg executive programs including Managing Customer Relationships for Profit and Driving Strategic Value from IT. He also teaches the Kellogg executive MBA course Strategic Data Driven Marketing, and in custom executive programs at organizations including Microsoft, DuPont, Sony, Nissan, Phillips, and the CIA. He has also designed and delivered best practice workshops to Blue Cross Blue Shield Association executive leadership team and the US. Department of Veterans Affairs managers. In 2008 Mark launched the Kellogg Technology Network, an intense knowledge sharing forum for CIO/CTO and VP level executives. 

He has more than 30 publications in scientific and technology journals, and three book chapters including the chapter on return on investment analysis in the Handbook of Technology Management. Mark has also developed 22 original case studies distributed through Harvard Case Publishing. His most recent academic research publications are on the value of flexibility and using real options for enterprise risk management. 

He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Drexel University (1991) and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management (2001). 

Tony Schwartz is President and CEO of The Energy Project, a company that helps individuals and organizations fuel energy, engagement, focus and productivity by harnessing the science of high performance. 

Tony’s most recent book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance, was published in May 2010 and became an immediate New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. His previous book, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy Not Time, co- authored with Jim Loehr, spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into 28 languages.

Tony is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. His most recent article, "The Paradox of Productivity: How Sony Pictures Gets More Out of Employees By Demanding Less," was published in May, 2010. Tony is one of HBR’s most popular bloggers and also blogs regularly on the Huffington Post and on Oprah.com.

Tony began his career as a journalist. He has been a reporter for the New York Times, an editor at Newsweek, a staff writer at New York and Esquire, and a columnist for Fast Company. He also co-authored the #1 worldwide bestseller The Art of the Deal with Donald Trump, and wrote What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America.

Tony has delivered keynotes to audiences around the world and has worked with leaders at dozens of organizations including Google, Sony, Ford, Barclays Capital, Pfizer and Ernst and Young, as well as the Los Angeles Police Department, the Cleveland Clinic and the National Security Agency.

Simon Mainwaring understands that brands are facing two powerful challenges: a struggling economy and new social media technology that is reinventing business models, profit centers and the business leaders of the future.

Having worked on dozens of Fortune 500 brands for many of the world’s top advertising and digital agencies for almost 20 years, Simon is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on branding and social media. 

A respected author, influential blogger and international speaker, Simon offers executives, brands and non-profit leaders critical insights into how to capitalize on social media to build brand communities, profits and positive impact. He is a master at distilling complex ideas down into simple, memorable communications, and at engaging an audience on a powerful, emotional level. His unique combination of spontaneity, disarming humor, and seriousness of purpose ensures that each engagement leaves his audiences enlightened, inspired and wanting more.

Simon’s book, We First, is set for release in summer of 2011.

Chad Dick is a partner at eatbigfish, a specialized consultancy with a unique focus and expertise in ‘Challenger Brands.’

Chad joined eatbigfish in 2007, after a progressive 15-year career in marketing, innovation and general management working on various Challenger Brands and innovation opportunities at PepsiCo, Campbell’s Soup, Nestle and General Mills.  Prior to joining eatbigfish, he worked with eatbigfish on the ‘client side’ for 5 years.  While at eatbigfish, Chad has led work with a wide variety of clients who have sought to adopt the mindset and successful practices of a Challenger, including Nestle, PepsiCo, Kraft/Cadbury, Hewlett Packard, Callaway Golf, New Balance, Crayola, SAB Miller, Molson Coors, Jim Beam, Bayer, Novartis, Red Bull, Cargill, Reckitt Benkiser, Schick Wilkinson and Del Monte.

Chad points out that eatbigfish does not view itself as a traditional consultancy in the conventional sense of the term.  Instead, they see themselves as ‘Catalysts’ who help their clients by facilitating them in reaching their own solutions, and thereby encouraging a movement of people, brands and companies toward a ‘Challenger’ mindset and in succeeding by ‘doing more with less.’  Their work covers all aspects of the brand and business development cycle, from Strategy & Planning to Insight & Idea Generation to Marketing & Activation to Development & Execution and to Organization Mindset, Culture and Behavior.  They have published two books on the subject: Eating the Big Fish and The Pirate Inside.

Chad earned an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School, an MA in International Studies and French from the Lauder Institute at The University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Engineering and BA in French from Dartmouth College.  He is a regular speaker on the subjects of adopting a Challenger Strategy and Mindset, and How Challengers Practice Innovation.

Adrian Gostick is the author of several bestselling books on corporate culture, including the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers The Carrot Principle and The Orange Revolution. He also wrote the bestsellers The Integrity Advantage and The 24-Carrot Manager. His research on employee engagement has been called a “must read for modern-day managers” by Larry King of CNN, “fascinating,” by Fortune magazine and “admirable and startling” by the Wall Street Journal.

Adrian’s books have been translated into 20 languages and are sold in more than 50 countries around the world. As a leadership expert, he has appeared on numerous national television programs including NBC’s Today Show and has been quoted in dozens of business publications and magazines.

Adrian earned a master’s degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University, where he is a guest lecturer on organizational culture.

Gaurav Bhalla is an innovation, strategy, and marketing professional with 30+ years of global experience as a corporate executive, business consultant, entrepreneur, and educator.  He has held Innovation, Strategy, and Brand Marketing positions at companies like Nestle and Richardson Vicks, has consulted with large Fortune 500 clients in the Pharmaceuticals, Technology, and Finance sectors, and has taught executive MBA courses in business schools at Duke University and at the University of Maryland.

In 2010, his article “Rethinking Marketing” was published in HBR, and his book Collaboration and Co-Creation: New Platforms for Marketing and Innovation was published by Springer.  He is currently the CEO of Knowledge Kinetics (www.knowledgekinetics.com), a customer value innovation company; a subject on which he blogs frequently at www.gauravbhalla.com.

Thomas Lockwood is recognized as a thought leader in the area of integrating design and innovation into business. This involves expertise in design methods, leadership, operations and building internal design organizations. He is one of the few people in the world with a PhD in design management.

Lockwood is presently the President and member of the Board of Directors of the Design Management Institute, DMI, which is a non-profit educational organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to entering the public sector he directed design at StorageTek and Sun Microsystems.

Passionate about the many values of design and innovative thinking he is the co- author of three books; Design Thinking, Corporate Creativity and Building Design Strategy. A frequent design award juror and keynote speaker, he has lectured or led brand and design workshops in over 20 countries.

Lockwood is a visiting professor at the graduate school of Pratt Institute in New York City. He earned a PhD and MBA from the University of Westminster, London, and bachelor degrees in visual design and marketing from Eastern Michigan University. His doctoral research explored models of integrated design management within large multinational corporations, in order to improve design innovation for business, relevancy for the user, and visual coherency for the brand.