Introducing the 40 Under 40 Class of 2024

Daren Alli
Financial Operations
CVS Media Exchange (CMX)
Age 33

Alli was a key contributor in housing and scaling the Lowe’s One Roof Media Network throughout 2023 before joining CVS Media Exchange this year. As head of business and financial operations at One Roof, he helped implement financial controls and rigors supporting annual and long-range planning, along with forecasting and month-end P&L management. Alli also negotiated and implemented contracts to elevate external partnerships, along with internal customer relationship management and order management systems in his most recent position. He is currently a member of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) CRO Council and learns from industry leaders across the digital media ecosystem. After beginning his career working at a Big 4 accounting firm and transitioning to the healthcare industry with a focus around business analytics and financial management, he ventured into the retail media space six years ago at Triad. He then moved to Walmart in financial reporting and sales reporting development, and later was the key financial contact for more than 10 retailers before moving to Sam’s Club through business acquisition. There, he set up financial processes and provided the financial modeling and cross-functional support for the launch of a Curbside Sampling program, allowing new item launches and brand recognition to be front and center in the hands of consumers through a new channel experience. He received two “Make A Difference” awards while at Walmart/Sam’s Club for his contributions.

FUN FACT: Alli is an avid golfer who tries to enjoy the beautiful Florida sunshine and play once a weekend. He was able to shoot his first round under 80 and celebrated making a hole-in-one while playing with his father.

Casey Blades
Director of Shopper and Omni-Channel Marketing
Sun Bum
Age 37

Blades was recently promoted to her current post, where she is leading the development of the shopper and omnichannel marketing department from scratch, crafting a KPI-driven playbook based on test-and-learn strategies, and planning for future expansion. Her responsibilities include spearheading the creation and execution of 360-degree brand campaigns, such as designing custom in-store displays, organizing sampling events and managing e-retail media. She is proud of her achievements in orchestrating the company’s first-ever college activations, where Sun Bum will host unique campus events and drive meaningful 1-on-1 moments and brand awareness with its key shoppers. Her work conceptualizing the KPI-driven shopper marketing playbook also helped her reach a significant milestone this year. The playbook led to the company’s highest-ever results in an e-retail campaign, with more than 14 million impressions, $1.3 million in incremental sales, and a final return on ad spend four times higher than any previous campaign. Before joining Sun Bum, Blades spent 12 years with The Hershey Co. During her tenure there, she spearheaded the first-ever micro-seasons shopper marketing campaign, achieving more than 10 million impressions and $1 million in additional sales. This campaign earned recognition through a Progressive Grocer Category Captainship award.

FUN FACT: Blades loves working with animal rescues; she has two rescue dogs herself.

Lauren Biondi
Manager, Social Media, Content Creation and Digital Advertising
Wakefern Food Corp.
Age 36

Biondi spearheads innovative strategies for ShopRite, The Fresh Grocer, Price Rite Marketplace and Fairway Markets, elevating their online presence and customer engagement. She has spent more than nine years at Wakefern, orchestrating multifaceted campaigns that encompass social media, influencer marketing and digital advertising initiatives. Biondi holds a bachelor’s degree in communications, a master’s in public and organizational relations, and an MBA in food marketing. Her team has been dedicated to growing the ShopRite YouTube presence and has forged mutually beneficial influencer partnerships with New Jersey-based celebrities, such as Mike Sorrentino of “The Jersey Shore” and Melissa Gorga of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” Videos featuring these “hometown heroes” earned significant engagement and follower growth for ShopRite accounts, along with some credit with Millennial and Gen Z shoppers. The team was also recently honored with two National Grocer Association Creative Choice Awards, including Outstanding Grand Opening or Remodel Campaign with its ShopRite of Huntington Station Grand Opening, and The Unilever People Positive Award for its ShopRite LPGA Classic: A Jersey Shore Tradition Campaign. She says her biggest accomplishment of the past year was returning to work after her maternity leave and successfully navigating her new role as a working mom.

FUN FACT: Biondi is a yoga teacher. She teaches two hot vinyasa classes a week at a local studio, and says it is a great creative outlet and stress-reliever.

Jeffrey Bustos
Vice President, Measurement Addressability Data
IAB
Age 33

Bustos played a pivotal role in spearheading the development of the IAB/MRC Retail Media Measurement Guidelines. His leadership is central to setting new standards in retail media metrics, driving greater transparency and improving the accuracy of advertising measurements. His work has helped shape the current retail advertising landscape, fostering a more accountable and effective environment for media investments. Bustos coalesced retailers, brands, agencies and ad-tech companies to develop Retail Media Measurement Standards in the U.S. this past year, and he’s working in a global capacity across Europe and LATAM to bring standards to other regions. In his role at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Bustos is instrumental in developing industry standards and guidelines for measurement and addressability solutions. His work primarily focuses on enhancing revenue growth, efficiency and scalability across various sectors such as retail media, data clean rooms, and privacy enhancing technologies. Previously, he worked at GroupM, where he led data and audience strategy for e-commerce clients, specializing in cookieless solutions, audience strategy and data taxonomy. His extensive background in programmatic and data-driven initiatives positions him on the leading edge of navigating the complex landscape of digital advertising, particularly in a time when privacy concerns and data transparency are paramount​.

FUN FACT: Bustos drinks hot chocolate every day. He may even add some cheese to melt inside.

Lily Chou
Senior Manager, Digital Marketing
Fairlife
Age 34

Chou transitioned from a brand role to spearheading the company’s digital marketing efforts this past year. Key work has been with the company’s Amazon marketing strategies for which Chou crafted audience-led strategies and full-funnel activations, tailoring messages and tactics based on shopper behaviors. Her strategic approach drove record household penetration and subscription rates while achieving a notable 20% year-over-year improvement in marketing efficiency. Under her leadership and collaboration, Core Power became the leading brand within the Coca-Cola portfolio on Amazon, establishing a new benchmark for marketing activations and holistic measurements, and serving as a model for other Coca-Cola brands. She also spearheaded Fairlife’s first commerce marketing mix modeling, establishing benchmarks for retail media investments across more than 10 retailers. Collaborating cross-functionally, she derived robust insights from the MMM (marketing mix modeling) initiative, significantly contributing to the optimization and standardization of commerce marketing practices. Chou also pioneered an omnichannel audience framework for the Fairlife portfolio, elevating commerce marketing to an audience-centric approach. Enhancing engagement rigorously based on shopper behaviors, occasions and basket affinity aligned with brand strategy and insights. She optimized the consumer experience by tailoring creatives and tactics to the audience, inspiring other teams to refine their audience strategies and share insights.

FUN FACT: Chou has a younger brother with whom she shares a striking resemblance despite a four-year age gap. Their mutual love for travel led them to create a YouTube channel to share their story, which has recently crossed the milestone of 10,000 subscribers.

Alex Crawford
Senior Marketing Specialist
7-Eleven
Age 34

Crawford spearheaded 7-Eleven’s Ja’Marr Chase Always Open Collection this past football season after the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver compared himself to the convenience store chain, saying that “he’s always open.” She collaborated with cross-functional partners to create a merchandise line in less than five days after his tweet went viral. Crawford’s work also includes The Convenience Tour Golf Collection, which she saw from concept and production to marketing and promotion. The collection gained viral traction and was covered by media outlets including Golf Digest, Complex, Hypebeast and others. She also took the reins of the 7Collection, captained the management of a new e-commerce venture in its inaugural year, and has played a pivotal part in expanding 7-Eleven’s cultural footprint by engaging with fresh fandoms, such as golf enthusiasts, supporters of Ja’Marr Chase, and Pac-Man fans. A standout moment was when Blink-182’s bassist, Mark Hoppus, organically wore one of the chain’s t-shirts during their reunion performance at Coachella. Crawford began her career with the Dallas Cowboys, then moved into shopper marketing on the agency side and worked on the 7-Eleven account before joining the company just over five years ago. She’s held various roles within the marketing department, spanning teams such as P-O-P, private brands, shopper, sports and, most recently, e-commerce.

FUN FACT: One of Crawford’s tweets was read on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” during a segment called #weddingfails. It ended up going viral and was featured on news outlets like Buzzfeed, The Daily Mail and The Mirror.

Courtney Crossley
Vice President, Commerce Media
The Mars Agency
Age 31

Crossley’s work this past year included playing a key role in securing and onboarding six new clients while developing and implementing a new organizational structure for The Mars Agency’s rapidly growing commerce media team. Internally, she also led work to develop the agency’s retail-forward search strategy to continue to push the integration of commerce and media, and oversaw production of the quarterly Retail Media Report Card. She also consulted with retail media network partners to help them ideate and implement strategic best practices, helped develop the IAB’s recommendations for standardized measurement, and spoke frequently at industry events/podcasts. She is most proud of her work being able to maintain the agency’s high standards for client excellence as well as its entrepreneurial and collaborative culture as it more than doubled the size and scope of work of its commerce media team. Crossley started her career as a client relations associate at PepsiCo. She then learned the technical aspects of media as an account manager with Google, and she worked with large traditional brands on growing their digital presence. Her next stop was at Kroger’s 84.51 as an account executive. She joined The Mars Agency in 2022 as commerce media director for the Kroger practice and was promoted to a vice president role less than two years later.

FUN FACT: Crossley is an accomplished equestrian, competing in three-day eventing at the FEI (International Federation for Equestrian Sports) level. On most weekends, you can find her out at the barn or with horses competing along the East Coast.

Aaron Dunford
General Manager of Nordstrom Media
Nordstrom
Age 36

Dunford’s career at Nordstrom has spanned more than a decade. Early roles included spearheading the men’s customer marketing strategy, resulting in an increase in digital campaign performance by more than 50% year over year; marketing finance, where he supported the growth and management of the largest vendor-funded marketing program at the time, surpassing the planned target by 33%; and marketing analytics, during which time he built the Merchant & Vendor Insights team. Then, as director of marketing strategy, he developed and launched Nordstrom’s retail media practice, the Nordstrom Media Network. Dunford was promoted to senior director of Nordstrom e-commerce in 2021. In that role, he drove topline sales, restructured digital merchandising and divisional-focused marketing, and achieved a 25% increase in labor efficiency. After he assumed the role of general manager of Nordstrom Retail Media in mid-2023, he led all retail media strategy, development and execution, beating the 2023 plan by double digits. Named to his current post earlier this year, Dunford now oversees all media at Nordstrom, including both enterprise and retail media, and saw Nordstrom Media Network exceed growth plans for a fourth consecutive year.

FUN FACT: Dunford is a motorcycle junkie; he has never ridden one he didn’t like.

Sonja Evans
Vice President, Business Intelligence & Strategy
Blue Chip
Age 39

Evans led the development of Blue Chip’s “The Future of Retail” trends presentation for multiple organizations, including E. & J. Gallo, Brown-Forman, White Castle and Bausch & Lomb. She was also a key contributor to the agency’s Commerce Center of Excellence and New Business teams. She is proud and honored to have been awarded the agency’s “Beautiful Mind” award at its annual meeting this past year. The award was named in memory of a former colleague and her personal mentor. Evans also acts as a mentor to the agency’s team of young talent and says it’s very rewarding to watch them grow into amazing strategic planners. Evans started her marketing career as a marketing associate with a Chicago-based restaurant group. The position was what she refers to as a “crash course” in all things marketing, from planning and buying the media, writing radio copy, designing print ads, PR and media relations, to planning and executing hundreds of events, website and email management. She then transitioned onto the agency side in account management/client leadership at Blue Chip. Throughout her time at the agency, she has worn many hats including account leadership, presentation design, business development, and marketing and strategic planning. She has worked across many CPG categories including alcoholic beverages, frozen, snacking, beauty, health and wellness and others.

FUN FACT: Evans has been skydiving over Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.

Lachlan Gow
President
Qsic
Age 37

Gow has extensive experience in technology, digital, media, advertising, operations, planning, risk management, contractual negotiations and executive-level client management. He oversees the Qsic team’s efforts, which led to notable business growth exceeding 90% in 2023. He says this growth has been driven by the successful execution of Qsic’s strategy, product evolution and feature adoption among its valued clients. This past year he worked closely across Qsic’s efforts in retail media, c-store, grocery and QSR. Qsic is a commercial music streaming platform, influencing more than 100 million shoppers at the point of purchase monthly. In addition to helping businesses establish and own their brand sound, the company also helps retailers to set up, run and commercialize their audio assets. This extends from music curation and collateral to ad sales and price evaluation. Qsic has invested heavily in developing a patented method of measuring the impact of audio advertising on real-world transactions. Qsic is now a leading provider of AI technology that strategically leverages the power of audio to deliver better customer and sales experiences. Recently, Gow partnered with the team at Gulp Media Networks to develop Gulp Radio. They ultimately gained approval in 2023 to build the world’s largest and most sophisticated commercial radio network, reaching more than 12 million customers daily. Gulp Radio is powered by Qsic’s innovative AI advertising platform and will soon be deployed into 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes locations.

FUN FACT: Gow always wanted to win a 30-under-30 award.

Tara Hekmat
Client Director
Threefold
Age 31

Hekmat has experience working on both the brand and agency side, with the majority of her career spent at SMG, a network of retail media specialist agencies that includes Threefold, Capture and Plan-Apps. She has worked with major CPG brands to help plan, manage and measure their retail media campaigns across top grocery retailers amid the ever-changing demands of the retail and commerce marketing landscapes. In 2023, she joined Threefold’s North American team to support its expansion plans across the U.S. and Canada, working with retailers and CPGs to accelerate developments in the retail media space from Threefold’s New York headquarters. She says it was a big leap to put her life in London on hold to move to the U.S. and spearhead Threefold’s ambitious expansion. Notable work this past year includes partnering with a major U.S. retailer to help advance its retail media network offering. She was also involved in the refreshed brand platform of the U.K.’s favorite biscuit brand, relaunching it in the U.K. grocery space with successful results. She also led one of the company’s retail media delivery teams to execute best-in-class, multi-retailer campaigns, collaborating with key retailers and media partners. 

FUN FACT: Hekmat has three passports, studied four languages (but she can’t claim to speak them fluently) and has been lucky enough to travel to six out of the seven continents.

Kelvin Hill
Associate Creative Director/Copy
Arc Worldwide
Age 36

Hill has more than 13 years of advertising and digital marketing experience. He held copywriting positions at Leo Burnett, Trisect Agency and Geometry Global before joining Arc Worldwide in March 2021. He currently helps manage everything from projects to creative careers while also leading creative teams for client Unilever. In the past year, his work was awarded three Reggie and two Effie awards for campaigns done in collaboration with clients Walgreens, CVS and Unilever. Walgreens’ Untold Beauty was created to give minorities and women who have been historically underrepresented a platform to show the world what makes them beautiful. It challenges conventional beauty standards by featuring real people and representing authentic beauty. CVS’ Positively Real encourages CVS shoppers to show up as their most confident and authentic self both in-person and online. With Unilever brands, Hill says his team is making strides to accurately represent real people in this industry. This past year, he has also taught a class at Chicago State University that aims to build a pipeline into the advertising industry for minority students who have faced significant barriers. The class not only introduces the students to an industry they may have never considered, but it also gives them a foundation to get hired at an internship or junior position after college.

FUN FACT: Hill is a hang-glider pilot.

Shanteria Jones
Senior Manager, Omni Commerce/Shopper Marketing
Kellanova
Age 28

Under Jones’s leadership, Walmart e-commerce sales have seen a significant increase in revenue versus a year ago, including the categories salty up 35%, frozen up 39%, and portable wholesome snacks up 32%. Jones executed strategic initiatives and innovative marketing campaigns, including the company’s Cheez-It & PUBG: Battlegrounds marketing campaign. For the first time, the brand pivoted away from its iconic red to introduce disruptive packaging for consumers digitally and at retail. She developed a go-to-market omni-program to drive product awareness that included a “Gaming Forward” editorial in the Celebrate Arkansas magazine, a strategic influencer partnership, the ideation of the Cheez-It Battleground exhibit, and product reveal at a gaming-centric festival while leaning into paid search amplification through Walmart Connect. She also helped shape and bring to life a discussion panel that brought together retail, CPG partners and content creators to discuss omnichannel collaborations and the future of gaming. The activation increased new-to-category consumers by 26% in 30 days. She is most proud of being promoted to her current post last year, charged with managing digital and physical activations for iconic brands. The promotion expanded her experience and exposure into a new segment of the business, portable wholesome snacks. Jones started her career at Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. during high school and college, then landed at Walmart in real estate, integrating and accelerating the digital transformation at a small-format university campus store. Once in merchandising and eventually transitioning to Kellanova, she honed her knowledge and expertise in omni-commerce. 

FUN FACT: Recently, she renewed her vows in Thailand with her high school sweetheart, Troy.

Shobha Kansal
Director of Category Leadership
Kraft Heinz
Age 36

Kansal began her career as an intern at Procter & Gamble. After earning her master’s degree in sociology, she joined Kraft Heinz on its omni-commerce team, collaborating with various retailers and solution providers on driving digital commerce excellence. In her current role, she is responsible for leading and developing a team of 27 individuals, including both people leaders and individual contributors. Her focus is on enabling each team member to achieve their career aspirations while also implementing and activating path to purchase principles to enhance shopper loyalty for the company’s retail partners. Recently, she was involved in sponsoring an omnichannel category workstream initiative. The project was designed to enhance the fluency and democratization of information across the category and sales organizations. Kansal says she is extremely passionate about dismantling organizational barriers in order to improve efficiency and transparency. She also recently had the honor of participating in a panel discussion on motherhood for nonprofit organization, Beautifully EmpowHERed, whose mission is to offer mental health services, career counseling and inspirational events to empower women to be their true selves. Another accomplishment she is very proud of was being named the “Volunteer of the Year” at her children’s school.

FUN FACT: Kansal is a certified yoga instructor.

Samantha Landry
Manager, Digital Shelf
Bacardi USA
Age 34

Landry and her team work closely with both national account managers and shopper marketing to create omnichannel program sell-in focusing on its top Bacardi brands during key selling seasons. She is most proud of the fact that Bacardi USA is recognized by both retailers and BevAlc distributors as having the most optimized product content. All Bacardi brands not only have completely optimized image carousels, enhanced content and search-engine optimized copy, but they are continuously winning onsite placement at Walmart, Kroger, SPECS, ABC Liquors and others. The world of digital shelf is ever-changing for Landry and her team. Not only is it a daily workstream to create and present omnichannel programming throughout the year to key retailers, but meeting retailer product information requirements, maintenance of syndication providers, and producing product content requires on-going maintenance. Landry’s career started at Century 21 Real Estate working across digital marketing, events, communications and national advertising. Since then she has gained experience across different industries within various marketing functions until she found the niche of digital shelf just before the pandemic. Ever since, she has leveraged the science of digital shelf to optimize and grow the online footprint for prestige consumer healthcare brands and Bacardi brands.

FUN FACT: Landry’s love of history has brought her to countless countries and many castle explorations.

Elinor Lee
Director, E-Commerce Marketing
Paramount
Age 37

In 2023, Paramount launched two tentpole theatrical campaigns for its franchises, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT): Mutant Mayhem” and “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie.” Lee drove Amazon’s omnichannel strategy and prioritized on-site consumer engagement by bringing compelling content to the forefront. She is most proud of her work in helping bring together a theatrical retail campaign for the TMNT movie, including a first-of-its-kind Sewer Shop experience that was powered by Amazon, which unlocked incremental marketing across the ecosystem. The Sewer Shop was hosted at the TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Experience in New York and Los Angeles, which featured a cross-category assortment, reignited the fandom behind a beloved 40-year-old franchise, and captivated a new generation of fans. Lee oversees commerce marketing for Paramount’s Amazon business across a diverse portfolio of content, managing more than 12 brand stores and spearheading paid advertising strategy. She has been at the entertainment company for five years and has seen the intellectual property portfolio expand from Nickelodeon to adding MTV, Yellowstone, Paramount Pictures, Star Trek and more. Lee started her marketing career at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, managing marketing campaigns in support of Stewart’s Crafts, Pets, Office and Gardening lines, which she helped launch on Amazon. 

FUN FACT: Lee has visited 11 U.S. national parks already, with a goal to visit as many as possible in her lifetime.

Jesse Leikin
Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Product and Technology
Incremental
Age 34

Leikin is proud of Incremental’s focus on empowering enterprising brands and agencies to consciously expand their advertising efforts and determine their optimal media mix. The company’s neutral media measurement enables clients to look beyond DTC safe havens and increase awareness within even more impactful channels across the advertising landscape. He is particularly proud of the engineering process that the Incremental team has developed. Rather than hyper-focusing on creating the elusive “perfect product” at the company’s launch, its ongoing goal is to refine its measurement iterations and innovate alongside its solution at a granularity and speed that accurately reflects that of the retail media landscape, as a whole. Leikin’s entrepreneurial career evolution began at age 12, offering technology support services. During his time at the University of Maryland, he founded several companies and finally entered the advertising field with Verizon Media (then known as Millennial Media), where he focused on developing innovative ad units for iOS and Android. In 2020, Leikin co-founded Incremental, a measurement and analytics provider using its innovative data platform to help brands and agencies obtain granular insights into their retail media investments.

FUN FACT: Leikin is an avid trivia player and part of a four-time championship trivia team in the Baltimore area.

Jackie Liu
Marketing Manager, Retail Marketing
Mattel Inc.
Age 32

Liu led Mattel’s Barbie “Best Week Ever” Amazon program, a seven-day, back-to-back retail execution showcasing unique themes from 2023’s hit Barbie movie. The campaign exceeded expectations, ultimately increasing ordered revenue by 81.5%. The program won the Online Media, Marketing and Advertising (OMMA) award for Advertising/Promotion Website or Microsite. A nearly four-year veteran in retail marketing at Mattel, Liu began her career in the PR industry at Ogilvy Public Relations in Taiwan before making a shift to the digital marketing field. However, she says it was in retail marketing where she found her true passion. Working closely with retailers, advertisers, and brand marketing teams, she focuses daily on driving conversion and boosting sales.

FUN FACT: Liu enjoys traveling and immersing herself in different cultures. She had the opportunity to learn how to cook Tom Yum Soup in Bangkok, Thailand, explore tea culture in Kyoto, Japan, and join an aboriginal dance group in her home country of Taiwan.

Maria McManus
Vice President of Marketing & Innovation
Deep Indian Kitchen
Age 39

McManus joined Deep Indian Kitchen in late 2022 to help lead the brand’s strategic, high-growth initiative, and has since seen it grow by more than five times and expand to more than 20,000 doors. Her recent work has resulted in the company delivering 44% syndicated retail sales unit growth in 2023 versus the year prior, not including Costco or e-commerce. Deep Indian Kitchen has seen success as the leading frozen Indian food brand in America, in part by creating new frozen Indian food consumption, and with 72% of its growth incremental to the frozen entrees and appetizers category. McManus led the marketing team to deliver impactful, mid- and upper-funnel campaigns and tactical executions, resulting in e-commerce (online, pickup and delivery) performance that is two to three times the industry average. The company was selected as No. 16 on Instacart’s Fastest Growing Emerging Brands list for 2023, crediting the marketing team’s strong tactical execution on the platform that helped drive velocity and distribution growth. In celebration of Diwali 2023, McManus led the marketing efforts to create the company’s largest activation as a brand to date. The activation welcomed consumers nationwide to Deep Indian Kitchen’s holiday table and featured a 10,000-meal giveaway via Instacart. The press release, influencers and multi-pronged digital campaign were a significant success and a first for the brand, holiday and Instacart.

FUN FACT: McManus is a former trick water skier, completed the NYC marathon, and loves to sail. Oil painting, drawing and spending time with her family are her favorite ways to unwind.

Georgia Martin
Partnership Director
Boots Media Group (Part of SMG)
Age 32

In leading the Boots Media Group team, Martin has doubled the size of the business in the past two years with a strong focus on innovation, team development and positive team culture. Martin’s recent work includes introducing new digital inventory both in-store and online, enhancing the company’s presence in the digital marketing space, and launching “Audience 360,” a ground-breaking tool allowing supplier brands to leverage Boots’ first-party data across various platforms including META, Google and The Trade Desk with comprehensive end-to-end measurement for offline and online sales. She has also driven innovation by securing major partnerships with media players such as ITV, offering new CTV opportunities to supplier brands. One of Martin’s passions is developing people; she has grown BMG from 10 members to more than 40 individuals who are all working toward a clear growth and innovation strategy. Martin spearheaded the transformation of the retail media organization into Boots Media Group, showcasing her strategic vision and adaptability to market trends. Martin has worked for SMG in retail media for the last nine years and has taken on multiple roles across leading U.K. retailers, including The Very Group, Co-op and Boots. 

FUN FACT: Martin is an avid dog lover and is a proud mum to her dog Rick.

Danielle Mathews
Vice President, Commerce and Performance Media
Mosaic
Age 36

Throughout this year, Mathews’ role has been laser-focused on spearheading new business endeavors, culminating in the successful conversion of more than 15 new clients into media clients. A standout project for her involved a collaborative effort with a baby food brand, where she championed the infusion of fresh perspectives into the annual planning processes. Through strategic partnerships with innovative firms like Blis and Aki, the team breathed life into creative concepts in novel ways. The team’s approach ensured optimal funding allocation for search initiatives and the implementation of supplementary tactics during pivotal sales periods, in tandem with the retail media networks, resulting in substantial impact and success. Mathews also works closely with parent company Acosta alongside the digital commerce team to orchestrate end-to-end solutions for clients. She says the collaboration ensures the team’s ability to drive sales across various shopping channels, optimizing its approach from an e-commerce perspective. Additionally, spearheading the acquisition of a new brand as the Shopper Agency of Record has been a highlight in the past year, witnessing the tangible impact of its strategies reflected in significant sales growth at key retailers. In particular, seeing a major shift in online sales catapulting the client to a category leader status has been a standout achievement.

FUN FACT: As much as she thoroughly enjoys her job, Mathews equally enjoys “Wheel of Fortune.” She has applied numerous times and actually got a casting call this year.

Kurtis McMullen
Head of Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Labatt Brewing Co.
Age 32

McMullen has spent his 12-plus-year career at Labatt, holding eight different roles across the brewer’s commercial function. Most recently, he was the brand activation manager for Budweiser in Canada. Now leading the efforts for non-alcoholic beverages for three years, he acts as a cross-functional general manager. The company launched Corona Sunbrew, which is the first-of-its-kind to offer a source of Vitamin D. He and his team scaled the new product to the number one non-alcoholic brand in Canada over the last 18 months. It was the first-to-market globally, starting with six-pack bottles (which is iconic for Corona), then 12-pack cans (for summer) and 24-pack bottles (for Costco volume), becoming a global benchmark for success. He has also overseen non-alcoholic category expansion and leadership, including grocery and new channels. While non-alcoholic beer is historically sold in grocery, the company has been growing the category in liquor retailers, mass merchandise stores, on-premise/quick-service restaurants, convenience stores and Amazon, etc. These channels are driving strong awareness for the category and incremental sales, including the first “non-alcoholic beverages” category on Amazon and exclusive areas on-shelf in liquor channels versus being merchandised with their alcoholic mother brands and dispersed through the store. New grocery aisle signs and building retailer out-of-aisle programs to help shoppers find the company’s products has also been a focus for McMullen. He has led the transformation of the brewer’s non-alcoholic business through a new RTM partnership, developing emerging channels, integrated omnimarketing campaigns, and collaborative retailer activations.

FUN FACT: McMullen loves to travel and explore nature. In his free time, he can be found diving with sharks in Africa, hiking Machu Picchu, or searching for new beaches around the world. With one son and another on the way, he hopes they share his joy for adventures.

Jordan Mikeska
Director of Shopper Marketing
Nature Nate’s Honey Co.
Age 33

Mikeska manages all shopper marketing, e-commerce and retail media for Nate’s Honey, charged with introducing customers to the company’s honey products through in-store activations, digital retailer-specific marketing efforts and more. A member of the marketing leadership team, she supports other departments including innovation, commercialization, operations and sales. She also serves as a critical link between sales, operations and marketing. In 2023, she oversaw the execution of more than 200 shopper marketing programs in 25-plus retailers and helped secure record numbers for honey households. Mikeska is most proud of the multiple ways her programs work together to instill a level of trust with retailers and customers alike. She knows that each time a customer picks up the company’s iconic, orange-labeled honey bottle or sees an in-store advertisement or activation, it’s an opportunity to earn trust with the communities it serves. As the retail landscape continues to change, she is quick to pivot, utilizing trends and leveraging her deep relationships with retailers to keep Nate’s a brand leader in the honey category. Her background is rooted in driving brand success through innovative shopper marketing strategies, with experience starting on the agency side for companies like Keurig Dr. Pepper.

FUN FACT: Mikeska was born over Texas soil in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hook ’em horns!

Nikki Nagy
Team Lead, Trade & Shopper Marketing
Boston Beer Co.
Age 39

With more than a decade of experience in shopper insights, strategic media planning, and team leadership, Nagy is dedicated to driving brand growth and innovation. Over the past year, Boston Beer has been undergoing a transformation from conventional trade marketing to the dynamic realm of commercial marketing, a journey that Nagy says entails embracing an omnichannel strategy that is designed to break down silos with dedicated departments of shopper marketing, channel marketing, performance marketing and connected commerce to redefine industry standards. Throughout her career, she has successfully managed multiple projects from both the agency and client-side, with a focus on driving year-over-year return on ad spend improvements in the ever-changing retail media landscape. Nagy is committed to fostering collaboration and mentorship, driving teams toward achieving impactful outcomes in their go-to-market strategies. In addition to her professional accomplishments, Nagy is passionate about staying at the forefront of media innovations and contributing to industry thought leadership. This year she tried her hand at new product development in the outdoor furniture sector and was awarded her first patent based on the assembly mechanism. She now has prototypes and is hoping to launch this summer.

FUN FACT: Nagy has a mild addiction to home improvement and renovation projects. She just took on her first beach house on stilts.

Brendan O’Brien
Commercial Strategy Director, Insights
84.51
Age 32

O’Brien leads commercial strategy for the innovation team within 84.51 Commercial Insights, which builds products and services for client data science and data engineering teams. Recent work includes launching the 84.51 Clean Room to enable privacy enhanced first-party data collaboration between Kroger and consumer product goods clients. By creating a shared understanding of mutual customers, he says it empowers both sides to create more thoughtful experiences in store, online and through Kroger Precision Marketing. He also oversaw the launch of 84.51 Data Direct to enable cloud-scalable data sharing architecture to CPGs, agencies, brokers and other clients, an evolution in merchandising data sharing that the company says will collectively save clients thousands of hours in regular reporting tasks. Data Direct helps CPGs access more granular Kroger data to create their own internal/external reporting and automate daily and weekly tasks. He is proud of his work with CPG company leaders in showcasing success stories of how they are driving business strategy and growth with the data, science and consulting from 84.51 insights in conferences throughout this past year. Prior to joining this team, he served as an insights account manager, and prior to joining 84.51 nearly seven years ago, he worked at the global brand consultancy, Landor.

FUN FACT: O’Brien plays drums in a band that’s celebrating its 10^th anniversary as an outfit this year.

Angela Pargas
National Shopper Marketing Manager
Talking Rain Beverage Co.
Age 37

Pargas leads campaigns that not only drive revenue but also set new standards in the Away from Home landscape. She uses data-driven shopper insights to drive successful programs that include gamification, augmented reality experiences, location-based marketing, social commerce integration and sustainability programming. Pargas also inspires her team to push boundaries and embrace change, fostering a culture of continuous learning. She was recognized by Talking Rain’s leadership team as the first “Marketing Unicorn” award recipient, noting her contributions to business growth and commitment for going above and beyond. This past year, Pargas also led the successful product launch of the company’s new Sparkling Ice +Energy brand, emphasized growth channels such as c-stores and foodservice, and was awarded the company’s Flavorful Futures & Go Green Scholarships, which highlight sustainability and academic excellence, and contribute to community growth and development. She was a speaker at the Brand Innovators’ Future of CPG Roundtable, and executed a series called Blooming Mood Boosters for adults with developmental disabilities after winning the Talking Rain Passion Fund Grant. Outside of work, she was chosen as one of the top floral designers for the Fleurs de Villes ARTISTE 2024 National Floral Exhibition Series. 

FUN FACT: Pargas is the founder of Sol Bloom, a Chicago-based floral company from which every arrangement benefits a local charity. Her grandmother taught her floral design before she passed away during the pandemic, and now Pargas proudly shares the skill with her community.

Caitlin Pearson
Senior Director, Sales
Aki Technologies, the Media Division of Inmar Intelligence
Age 37

Pearson was one of the top revenue producers at Aki last year and was awarded a spot in the 2023 President’s Club. Her work included leading two award-winning campaigns, including Nature Valley, which won a Platinum Hermes Creative Award as Best Advertising Campaign because of its success in driving incremental sales across mobile and CTV using personalization at scale. The Primal Kitchen campaign won a Gold Hermes Creative Award for Best TV Ad Campaign for driving a sales lift using Aki’s CTV ONE that serves different versions of CTV ads as users stream their content, grabbing their attention and creating a larger conversation. Pearson’s career began in power tool sales, where she honed her customer service and sales skills. After earning an MBA at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business, she became a buyer on the merchandising team at Target and gained experience in product selection, marketing, understanding consumer behavior, and business through the eyes of a retailer. She says this blend of sales, business and marketing experience ultimately led her to a career in ad-tech. Pearson has been with Aki for more than five years and is fueled by the ever-growing and evolving market, and the company’s capabilities to problem-solve for clients.

FUN FACT: One of Pearson’s goals in 2023 was to try a new pasta shape every month. Hot tip: Sfoglini’s Cascatelli is worth the hype.

Joey Petracca
Co-Founder & COO
Chicory
Age 33

Petracca recently led the building and development of four new products that are now in beta testing, including Chicory Aisle, Chicory Portfolio, Chicory Reach and Chicory Print. All four leverage the company’s proprietary contextual recipe targeting and enable brands to reach active shoppers beyond the recipe card and across the broader recipe page, boosting incremental return on advertising spend for Chicory’s clients. He owns all of Chicory’s technical partnerships with retailers, retail media networks and publishers. He was also instrumental in securing a partnership with Giant Eagle’s retail media network, Leap Media Group this year, helping the teams align on a measurement strategy that serves all parties. Recent work also included the successful development of Chicory’s new internal campaign insights database, which it uses to provide additional value to CPG clients. He also led the development and launch of Chicory’s first self-service insights and reporting platform, Partner Portal. Publishers can now easily access performance data through this user-friendly platform, empowering them to analyze and optimize recipe card performance. Petracca was the key player in securing Chicory’s long-standing partnership with Kroger Precision Marketing/84.51. This partnership delivers additional insights and value to Chicory’s clients, improving customer retention and overall campaign performance.

FUN FACT: Petracca is a blackbelt in taekwondo.

Chris Placencia
Client Success Senior Director
Albertsons Media Collective
Age 39

As the partnership lead for Albertsons Media Collective, Placencia’s primary focus is on developing and implementing connected commerce programming to deliver exceptional experiences in support of Albertsons’ merchandising and brand priorities. He has been instrumental in overseeing some of its largest in-store and digital programs, including Super Bowl, Back-to-School and Holiday in collaboration with CPG partners. His work extended beyond media when he developed an internal guide outlining best practices for merchandising partnerships, bridging the gap between retail and media and transforming how The Collective collaborates with merchandising. In the past year, he also spearheaded the reimagination of the Albertsons Media Collective annual planning process. Collaborating with creative, data and analytics, audience and media ops counterparts, he rolled out the revamped process internally, aiming to expand and grow collaborative CPG partnerships. His efforts included search, display, social, in-store, division programming and sampling initiatives, all aligned with CPG and merchandising objectives and KPIs. Prior to joining Albertsons, Placencia held key positions at Procter & Gamble, managing the Walmart.com business, and at Coty/Wella, overseeing the Amazon business across a range of categories and achieving notable growth. Before that, his experience at Zulily involved onboarding both new and established QVC partners for successful limited-time events.

FUN FACT: Placencia, a golfer, has made two hole-in-ones — both of which were blind shots. He didn’t get to see them go in, but instead was surprised each time to find his ball in the hole when he walked up to the green.

Hunter Poole
Vice President, Brand Partnerships
Acorn Influence
Age 33

Poole was named to his current post in October 2023, charged with expanding Acorn Influence’s sellable solutions and team infrastructure by building a framework for its Sales Operations department. He also designed the framework for the company’s brand ambassador programs, including “Brand Immersion Days,” a model now used to lock in larger, long-term partnerships with major brands. Its goal is to take influencer programs from transactional, one-off activations to fully integrated strategies that act as the anchor of shopper marketing plans. He also led efforts into the experiential activation space through a successful Pet Brunch with an event that included 50 dogs – reverse engineering concepts designed to only live in the social/digital space and bringing them to life in the physical space. He is proud to have hosted and performed in Beyonce-inspired drag for more than 200 people across Acorn’s overall enterprise as part of its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee Happy Hour during the most recent all-company retreat in Mexico. Poole was an early stage employee at companies like Collective Bias and Chicory before joining Acorn Influence. He’s contributed to the introduction and evolution of influencer to the shopper marketing world, and has played pivotal roles in building businesses from the ground up in spaces that are now fundamental to the commerce marketing ecosystem, like creator content and shoppability. 

FUN FACT: Last year, Poole wrote the treatment for a reality show and has started pitching it to networks and production companies.

Megan Pukala
Senior Director, Amazon Media & Marketing Leader
Procter & Gamble
Age 38

Pukala has spent nearly 16 years at Procter & Gamble. Throughout her career, she has gained experience across engineering, consumer research, marketing and sales, cultivating her unique interdisciplinary approach to growing businesses, brands and people. She has worked across more than 30 world-renowned brands including Bounty, Olay and Gillette, launching new items and managing mature billion-dollar brands. Today she serves as P&G’s head of Amazon Media & Marketing, where she oversees demand creation for the company’s largest digital commerce business and leads retail media innovation for the company. In the past year alone, she led the transformation of P&G digital commerce go-to-market models from agency-owned to in-house, delivering significant top- and bottom-line growth for the company. She also elevated joint advertising partnership with its largest digital commerce partner to deliver breakthrough, first-to-industry ad-tech capabilities that are accelerating P&G’s global digital commerce business and securing its place as a thought leader within digital advertising. Further, she sponsored the P&G Seattle office’s Equality & Inclusion program to deliver talent diversity goals, more impactful community connection, and more relevant products and advertising for diverse consumers.

FUN FACT: At press time, Pukala was expecting her first baby in May.

Stephanie Reiman
Commerce Marketing Director
Conagra Brands
Age 36

Reiman has worked for Conagra Brands for 13 years, holding various positions in the company’s Customer Leadership organization including direct selling, business development, communications and commerce marketing. She moved into her current post, supporting its regional grocery business, in August 2023. Since then, her work has included co-leading negotiations training for the Customer Leadership organization. The negotiations program kicked off in 2022 with the intent of strengthening the salesforce’s negotiations skills. To date, she and the other co-leaders have taken more than 300 members of their team through the two-day course. Reiman also leads a team of five managers supporting annual and long-term commerce plans for regional retailers. Its goal is to connect with shoppers wherever they are by continuing to drive an integrated omnichannel marketing approach. They partner with retailers to build out strategic commerce plans to activate against joint business initiatives while delivering Conagra’s key objectives. In addition, she collaborates internally to drive connectivity between the company’s national brand strategies and retailers to maximize sales and build brand equity. She is most proud of being awarded the Timeless Value Award for Leadership this past year. Recipients are nominated by the Customer Leadership organization for demonstrating the qualities of acting like an owner, simplifying, making decisions and inspiring others. 

FUN FACT: Reiman volunteers as a dog bio writer for an animal rescue organization, The HIT Living Foundation, to help dogs find their forever homes.

Ryan Schaumburg
Senior Vice President of Sales
InMarket
Age 35

Schaumburg has led InMarket’s growth and presence in the Midwest market over the past five years to its multi-million dollar revenue stream today, helping hundreds of household brands remain at the forefront of digital marketing innovation and shatter industry benchmarks. Under his leadership, the company’s sales team has grown 162% over the past two years, consistently exceeding sales goals. He has secured partnerships with third-party sales lift companies to prove out incremental sales and return on ad spend, and helps drive new innovations around his customers’ needs. InMarket’s retail media partnerships, digital out-of-home, in-store amplification offerings, immersive creatives and award-winning Lift Conversion Index have helped lead to double-digit growth among current CPG clients. Schaumburg also partners with Team Brightside, which partners with media agencies around Chicago to raise money for pediatric cancer by sponsoring fundraisers and competing in triathlon races across the United States. He says he is most proud personally of becoming a new dad and, despite industry headwinds, achieving double-digit revenue growth in 2023 for InMarket on the professional front. Prior to joining InMarket in 2016, he spent nearly five years at News America Marketing, responsible for managing key retailer and CPG relationships with household brands.

FUN FACT: Schaumburg has completed more than 10 endurance races across the country including triathlons, marathons, triple challenge and a full Ironman.

Rick Shuman
Head of Shopper Marketing
Grey
Age 34

Shuman joined Grey Midwest in 2021 with more than 12 years of experience in shopper marketing, consumer promotion and leadership on both the brand and agency sides. He is responsible for building the shopper marketing practice for Grey. Recent efforts include being involved in new business wins for Swisher Sweets, Gorilla Glue, Mojo Energy and others. He was also instrumental in Procter & Gamble’s Omni-Channel Toolkit Creation: 2024 Paris Olympics, which included establishing a toolkit to maximize P&G’s Olympic Sponsorship across regions and touchpoints that was aimed to showcase the company and its brands while winning at retail with a consistent message across the globe. The toolkit was touted as the most compliant globally for a P&G toolkit and Shuman’s team is already working on a 2026 Milano Cortina toolkit. He also started “The Slate” newsletter as a thought-leadership platform for Grey. He says it was built with the intention to showcase Grey’s knowledge across shopper, e-commerce, performance marketing and CRM to the broader CPG community. Additionally, it is a tool to equip account leaders, strategists and creatives with important trends to incorporate into their work. Previously, he was leading shopper marketing and consumer promotions strategy and execution for Kao brands and prior, he led consumer promotions for L’Oreal Paris and played an active role in its digital transformation. He started his career on the agency side at pep promotions.

FUN FACT: Shuman has lived in seven states across both coasts and the Midwest. Also, he has never lost a fight to a polar bear.

Larissa Starkweather
Associate Manager, Customer Marketing
General Mills
Age 28

Starkweather joined General Mills in January 2018. In a sales role the first two years of her career, she then transitioned into customer marketing roles, initially supporting the company’s club retailers and then the Walmart team, leading General Mills’ omnichannel portfolio events including back-to-school with Box Tops for Education and various seasonal campaigns. She currently leads the company’s Morning Foods cereal and dairy brands for Walmart. Work this past year included the Cheerios Veggie Blends exclusive early launch at Walmart. As part of a broader partnership, both varieties — apple strawberry and blueberry banana — were exclusive to Walmart for the first six months. Prior to that, the team launched the item exclusively on Walmart.com two weeks ahead of in-store visibility as an extension of its dotcom exclusive playbook. Efforts included robust omnichannel campaign support that drove awareness of the early launch and conversion both online and in-store. The exclusive early launch and marketing support resulted in double the category average when looking at percent sold online, accelerating the digital flywheel. Internally, it was a successful innovation launch and externally, it was also recognized as a best-in-class e-commerce launch in a Profitero white paper.

FUN FACT: Starkweather loves to bake desserts in her free time.

Erin Strong
Senior Manager, Omnichannel Marketing
Bimbo Bakeries USA
Age 38

Strong’s career has spanned work with restaurant groups, in paid search, digital marketing and, during a nearly five-year stint at Coca-Cola, market development, business development and eventually sales, leading teams in California. Strong joined Bimbo Bakeries in early 2018 in the sales strategy department, always intending to marry her sales experience with her marketing experience. She moved from sales strategy and customer planning to shopper marketing, omnichannel shopper and e-commerce and, finally, to her current post. This past year she was asked to present an innovative Hispanic Heritage and Dia De Los Muertos campaign to the Association of National Advertisers’ Multicultural Marketing Meeting as an example of campaigns that drive authentic connection and strong engagement with the shopper. She also spearheaded the expansion of Walmart’s AI function of Dynamic Creative Optimization for Offsite media which allows her team to optimize the creative and copy for a campaign, delivering personalized messaging meant to connect with shoppers to drive conversion on the retailer site. Strong is proud of her work leading Bimbo Bakeries’ Racial Equity Action Committee for Organization and also working with its agency to better streamline creative processes for its largest retailer accounts and breakdown silos between work streams to allow for stronger and more effective creative efficiency. 

FUN FACT: Strong has traveled solo to four continents.

Swetha Subramanian
Vice President, Data Strategy and Measurement Science
Loblaws
Age 37

Subramanian has more than 14 years of experience in leading data science. Her career spans roles across Meta, where she led measurement product development and marketing science consulting. She also has experience founding a stealth mode startup as well as establishing data science consulting practices in programmatic media and technology consulting organizations. She is a thought leader in advanced marketing science, is passionate about retail media, marketing strategies and privacy enhancing technologies, and is committed to mentoring the women in technology community. While in her most recent role at Meta, she developed a first-of-its-kind closed loop measurement for retail media networks, piloted with Dollar General. She also led the reintroduction of Meta’s conversion lift measurement in the privacy centric ecosystem, driving significant adoption and reintroducing incrementality to all of Meta’s advertisers. Finally, she developed Meta’s renewed measurement narrative for the privacy centric ecosystem, anchoring on actionable and objective-led applications. It garnered more than 200,000 hits and was introduced at Meta’s measurement forum widely attended across the globe. Now at Loblaws since October 2023, she led the first-of-its-kind omnichannel RCT-based (Randomized Controlled Trials) incrementality measurement built by its retail media network, Advance powered by Loblaw.

FUN FACT: Subramanian aspires to break into professional singing someday. She was a finalist on two musical reality shows in India — “Indian Idol” and “Idea Star Singer” — and wanted to actively pursue a career in music.

Olivia Walker
Senior Omni-Shopper Marketing Manager
Kenvue
Age 31

Walker joined Kenvue in November 2022 as the omni-shopper marketing manager for Sam’s Club & Walmart Oral Care. She has since moved over to the Walmart team in her current post for Skin Health & Oral Care, where she is responsible for activating against iconic brands such as Neutrogena, Listerine and Aveeno. Walker leads with a digital-first mindset, embracing new technologies and ideologies to help accomplish the Kenvue purpose. In the past year, she owned the exclusive launch of Listerine Clinicals at Walmart during the competitive Q4 holiday timeframe, delivering digital penetration of nearly two times the brand average. Additionally, she led efforts for expanding the company’s successful SkinU series for the second year at the height of the back-to-school season with the implementation of a full omni-channel approach, bringing the first-ever digital and IRL shoppable livestream to Walmart with Neutrogena scientist and lifestyle influencer, Mei Mei. Recent work also included leading the company’s first Walmart commercial sustainability program in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, helping to plant more than 100,000 trees while delivering 60 million impressions in 60 days for Kenvue at Walmart. She is most proud of being responsible for one of its largest brands, Neutrogena at Walmart. Prior to Kenvue, Walker spent seven years at Mars Wrigley. 

FUN FACT: Walker is a five-time chili cookoff competition winner and is always looking for some friendly competition to bring the heat.

Raphaela Walsh
Head of Product
CVS Media Exchange (CMX)
Age 38

Walsh’s career has spanned work in financial services, health and wellness, and retail media networks. With expertise in AI and machine learning — as well as a passion for developing performance-based, test-and-learn cultures — she has helped develop more precise, forward-looking behavioral analytics solutions within CVS/CMX since joining the retailer in 2021. Within her first six months, Walsh had redesigned the CVS.com homepage and navigation using best-in-class design principles and new personalization technologies to unify the experience and further engage CVS Health’s 2 billion annual digital interactions. As a result, the site successfully improved its health and wellness brand positioning by 300 bps and drove more than 54% incremental health appointments at CVS Minute Clinics and Health Hubs. She also activated internal ad-tech to bridge the customer experience across CVS Health platforms, leading to better customer experience and customer discovery. The program has led to more than $95 million in incremental cross-functional revenue. For its feature campaign, Medicare AEP, internally the team was able to reach 20 million interactions with 65+-year-olds, for critical medical coverage during the annual enrollment process. Walsh transitioned from internal ad-tech to end-to-end ad-tech product development for CVS Health in January 2023. Since then, she expanded its internal ad-tech capabilities across onsite-display and sponsored product capabilities to monetize CVS Health’s traffic, delivered new programmatic offerings, launched Premium Audio, enabling new channel reach with publishers inclusive of Spotify, Pandora and iHeart, and activated a first-product-led roadmap to activate self-service capabilities across offsite channels and sponsored products as well as omni-channel and innovation to more than 9,000 CVS locations. 

FUN FACT: Walsh and her husband own an eight-acre farm on the ocean in Rhode Island where they raise a small loving herd of alpacas and grow lavender and tomatoes.

Paul Williams
Senior Vice President, Head of Commerce Product & Sales Strategy
Publicis Commerce
Age 39

With more than 17 years of experience in digital marketing, Williams powers the commerce machine at the center of Publicis Groupe, working with clients and agencies across technology investment, retail media networks, retailer partnerships, business development and commerce service accelerators. By building and architecting many of the agency’s in-house platforms/solutions and leading new business sales targets, he drives commerce revenue growth across the holding company, while ensuring clients are enriched with highly transformative solutions. Prior to this, he revamped Publicis’ performance content practice by building and rolling out new capabilities including conversion optimization for DTC experience testing and personalization, LocationIQ for local listing optimization, and content marketing with a focus on DTC experiences that address customers’ intentions for improved on-site engagement post-media and organic traffic. Recently, he streamlined business development processes, which ultimately helped Publicis Groupe exceed its 2023 commerce revenue goals. He also built and launched new products like Commerce Experience Optimization for fast-deploy media-to-conversion landing pages as well as guiding further development and product strategy for Publicis’ Commerce/CRM Strategic Intelligence solution suite within the company’s Groupe-wide identity platform. He is most proud of successfully helping to lead the merger and acquisition and onboarding of a newly acquired solution into the company.

FUN FACT: An avid writer and reader, Williams has kept an active weblog for more than 20 years, coursing through quite a few major societal and technological changes (and, of course, areas of interest).