Speaker Biographies

Sheilagh Bryan serves as senior vice president of media at Modus Direct. She has gained a wealth of knowledge after being in the DRTV industry for 16-plus years, working in-house and on the agency side for clients such as Humana, Nutrisystem, JG Wentworth, and Wayfair. One of the most enjoyable parts of Bryan’s career has been seeing the growth and change of media across all platforms, allowing for opportunities in CTV, streaming, OTT, display, and linear television as client needs continuously change. Her leadership has excelled in TV marketing strategy, including offline channel expansion and new creative development across brand and product portfolios. Bryan currently resides in Asheville, N.C.

Christine Georgakakis is senior vice president of advertising sales and marketing for the Reelz Network. She is responsible for leading the entire sales efforts of the organization, encompassing national ad sales and performance advertising. Georgakakis began her career at Lifetime. Her expertise building teams that solve challenges and foster innovation have positioned multiple media organizations at the forefront of industry. In 2018, she was named one of the top women in media by Folio and in 2020 she was named an industry leader by Cynopsis. Georgakakis, who holds a bachelor’s degree in mass media and communications and has studied executive leadership at Cornell University, serves on the Workshop Council and Women’s Leadership Council of the PDMI, and is a committed member of the She Runs It community.

Mary Ann Bautista is a 35-year veteran of the direct response industry. She launched Bautista Direct Marketing Inc., a full-service direct marketing company, in 1998. She serves as president of the firm and oversees programs for a broad array of direct-to-consumer and business-to-business accounts. Bautista’s passion for direct response stems from a long history on both the client and agency side of the business. Prior to establishing BDM, she managed the direct response program at Gateway Learning Corp., publisher of the well-known educational product, “Hooked on Phonics.” Prior to that, she spent six years in direct marketing at SyberVision, where her vertical marketing of “The Pimsleur System” foreign language products returned the company to profitability in the mid-1990s. Bautista lives with her family in Alameda, Calif., and — when not strategizing media buys — she spends her time enjoying her husband’s gourmet meals, practicing Pilates, and daydreaming about her next vacation.

As mass media manager for leading international mobile gaming company Playtika, Shani Dar-Gispan leverages her years of experience planning and activating global marketing campaigns to deliver growth across key verticals for multi-brand companies. She is well-versed in TV, video, audio, digital, OOO, IP, and sponsorship, and maximizing their impact on gaming brands’ goals. Her role provides clarity to her external agency and vendor partners by compiling all teams’ feedback and goals into actional plans of attack. Dar-Gispan leverages global partnerships and close vendor relationships to deliver profitable results for Playtika.

Shannon Ellis serves as the chief revenue officer at JuiceMedia.AI, bringing more than 25 years of distinguished experience in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) industry. Ellis excels in driving results, specializing in boosting acquisition performance and revenue for brands. He skillfully manages and inspires sales teams, fostering a wide network of DTC professionals to ensure sustainable growth. Known for innovating customer relationship management strategies and pioneering business processes, Ellis' steadfast commitment to excellence and innovation has solidified his reputation and positioned him as a key figure in the DTC domain. JuiceMedia.AI distinguishes itself as a data-centric, omnichannel media activation platform that merges growth strategy, omnichannel media buying, and analytics with cutting-edge ad technology.

With 30 years of successful experience and expertise, Ken Kerry — co-founder and executive creative director at Script to Screen — enjoys the hunt and the process of solving business and marketing challenges. His passion is to help businesses and entrepreneurs. It gives Kerry true satisfaction to know that he has shared knowledge that has made a true results-driven impact for individuals and businesses. His ambition is to develop team members and to see them thrive. Kerry’s track record of successful campaigns includes more than $6 billion dollars in sales for his client’s businesses, Fortune 500 brands as clients, proprietary campaign management excellence, building direct-to-consumer businesses for online and offline companies, integrity, and being an industry leader for 30 years.

Andrew Farrar co-founded HandsOnToys (HOT) in 1994 with Rustam Booz. HOT launched worldwide hits, including two Toy of the Year Finalists (TOTY), Toobers&Zots® and FLOAM®; Dog Toy of the Year (APPMA), the Wiggly Giggly® Ball; and the Craft Innovation Toy of the Year (HIA) — Crunch Art®. Beginning with the DRTV success of FLOAM, the company transformed to HandsOnConsulting, focusing exclusively on integrated direct response (iDR™), which includes targeted utilization of multiple media, digital, and sales platforms to promote and sell products. HOC’s successful iDR campaigns have included FLOAM, Happy Nappers, Flipazoo, Wobble Wag Giggle Ball, Bubble Ball, Gym 1 Indoor Playground, Vmagic, and SweetBee Magic.

Linda Goldstein is co-leader of BakerHostetler’s Advertising, Marketing & Digital Media team. She provides advertising counsel and regulatory advice to leading Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies. She represents clients in investigative and enforcement proceedings brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), state attorneys general, district attorneys, and other federal and state agencies. Goldstein spends a considerable portion of her time advising clients on how to minimize the legal risks associated with mobile marketing, e-retail, social influencers, native advertising, email and telemarketing, and more. Goldstein’s commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, NBC’s TODAY Show, Adweek, Advertising Age, and the National Law Journal.

As the marketing performance analyst at Southern New Hampshire University, Lauren Gross is instrumental in supporting the success of the university's mass media marketing campaigns. She specializes in creating and analyzing mass media reports to drive SNHU's initiatives. Recently, Gross spearheaded the in-house development of QR codes integrated into SNHU's linear and OTT creatives, maintaining key relationships with QR-code vendors to ensure a seamless system. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of New Hampshire and recently earned an M.B.A. with a concentration in project management from SNHU. Outside of work, Gross loves to crochet and runs an Etsy store featuring all of her creations.

Mari Mazzarri, digital sales director for NBCUniversal Local South Florida, is a sales professional with more than12 years of experience leading innovative, cross-platform advertising strategies, with a focus on the U.S. Hispanic Market and specializing in solutions that leverage the power of NBCUniversal’s digital and streaming portfolio. Mazzarri also has held strategy and sales production roles, where she excelled in overseeing the creative execution of digital initiatives, driving ROI for clients through successful campaigns tailored to diverse markets nationwide.

Beth Johnson has more than 25 years of performance media expertise spanning across categories including finance, healthcare, insurance, retail, DTC, and lead generation. In her current role as senior director of media at Omni Direct, she leads all multichannel media strategy, planning, analytics, and ROI performance for clients looking to reach the large and growing Hispanic market. With Johnson as part of the leadership team, Omni Direct has been recognized as a fastest-growing agency by Inc. 5000, Adweek and the South Florida Business Journal. Prior to joining Omni Direct, she spearheaded the formation of the Hispanic media division for Eicoff, an Ogilvy & Mather company, where she built and led the high-growth business for more than 12 years. Johnson enjoys being an integral marketing partner for her clients by identifying new market opportunities, relentlessly optimizing media, and extracting timely insights from data mining and attribution.

Chris Kasdorf brings more than a decade of sales and marketing expertise to his role as sales manager at Dial800, a leading provider of memorable numbers, call tracking, and AI analytics for the direct response industry. With a proven track record of driving client results, Kasdorf joined Dial800 in December 2022, following tenures at GaggleAMP and HubSpot, where he specialized in helping SMBs to grow their marketing and sales strategies. A graduate of Hamilton College, Kasdorf combines his passion for business with a keen understanding of customer needs to deliver scalable business solutions.

As COO and head of media and analytics, Matt Kelley leads a talented group of marketers and analysts at GainShare in the shift to a consumer-first approach for increased marketing effectiveness. He is responsible for driving innovation and ROI through the intersection of people, process, and technology by maximizing the use of consumer intent signals at every touchpoint to deliver more relevant experiences. Prior to joining GainShare, Kelley held senior management roles at Dentsu/iProspect, Leapfrog, and Leo Burnett.

With more than a decade as an analytics and marketing technology leader, Sergei Peysakhov — executive director of analytics at TCA — is an expert in leveraging data and marketing science to generate measurable client growth. He specializes in advertising effectiveness, brand research, data management, and translating complex analytics into actionable insights. With an extensive background in multi-touch attribution and marketing mix modeling, his focus is on advancing the technology and analytics solutions used within ad measurement and optimizations — or as he would say, “quantifying each channel’s contribution to the bottom line.”

Max Koenig is the senior performance marketing manager at National Debt Relief, where he has focused his time launching the CTV program and scaling the streaming audio channel. With more than 10 years of performance marketing experience, Koenig has spent the bulk of his time on programmatic media buying, leading teams of ad ops and media buying professionals. When not attempting to squeeze out incremental gains for his marketing programs he can be found with his wife, daughter, and dog somewhere outside or on the road, probably with a book in his hand.

David Koye serves as the co-founder and chief product officer at tvScientific, a connected TV (CTV) advertising and attribution platform. During the past 20-plus years, Koye has been instrumental in transforming traditional media landscapes into digital frontiers. He has a deep understanding of product strategy and development, partnership and business development, go-to-market planning, and sales. Koye’s leadership has been pivotal in the application of performance marketing strategies in television. His vision and expertise have provided the foundation for tvScientific's recent success, including fundraising from notable investors such as NBCUniversal, Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4S Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Hearst Ventures, BDMI, Progress Ventures, and Aperiam Ventures. As a leader, Koye is known for his strategic approach and ability to navigate the complex dynamics of the digital media ecosystem. Koye lives with his wife and sons in Virginia.

Racine Levy leads the in-house strategy and buying team at Angi as the senior director of brand media. She has more than 12 years of media experience, working with a variety of brands covering the CPG and entertainment categories. Prior to moving to Angi and bringing media buying efforts in house, she worked at an agency for eight years. Levy is born and bred in Manhattan and a graduate of the George Washington University School of Business, where she studied marketing and interned for the American Advertising Federation (AAF). She doesn’t only have a passion for planning and negotiating media, but Levy also enjoys making new and maintaining relationships throughout the industry.

As a three-time CMO — at SERVPRO, UnitedHealthcare, and HealthMarkets — Mike Stahl is an innovative and pragmatic C-level executive, advisor, and board member focused on achieving fast, measurable results. He has a track record of delivering on large strategic initiatives resulting in significant bottom-line growth and meaningful equity outcomes. For more than 20 years, at both private equity and publicly traded companies, he has successfully guided organizations across multiple industries including health insurance, property-and-casualty insurance, and home services through significant transformation, acquisitions/dispositions, and business development activities.

Mike Tang is the head of media and agency at Flowcode, the offline-to-online company building direct connections between brands and consumers through next-generation conversion technology. Tang is focused on onboarding new partners that want to add a layer of direct response to their advertising, collect first-party data and sales. Prior to Flowcode, he was at Google on the new business and agency partnership teams. Tang attended Miami University and enjoys trying new restaurants in his free time.

Joe Melaragno is head of revenue strategy and performance demand at Samsung Ads, where he works with major agencies and holding companies to drive success for their clients through strategic partnerships, data integrations, and upfronts. He also has launched and leads programmatic sales efforts for Samsung TV Plus, Samsung’s ad-supported OTT service. With more than 15 years of experience spanning across programmatic, video sales, media, and technology, Melaragno is a leading professional in the connected TV space. Prior to Samsung Ads, he led global agency partnerships for AOL (now Yahoo) and served as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting, where he assisted Fortune 500 companies through digital transformations. Melaragno earned a bachelor’s degree in management science and engineering from Stanford University and his MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Jenni Moseley is a NetSuite marketing strategy manager based in Austin, Texas. With more than six years of experience in creative agencies and marketing, she has worked with brands such as IKEA, Coors, Topo Chico, and Mattress Firm. She's led client relationship and strategy campaigns across digital, social, TV, and more. When she’s not working, she’s playing tennis, reading, or traveling.

Michael Weinstein is a veteran entrepreneur and seasoned marketing executive, as well as a fractional chief marketing offficer for Ideal Living, responsible for maximizing marketing and media efforts for DRTV media, e-commerce, digital advertising, social media, and Amazon. Previously, Weinstein was chief marketing officer at Allstar Products Group, and is also responsible for co-founding and taking to market, the mitten-shaped wet wipe viral sensation called Shittens. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science, a master's in business management, and is a frequent public speaker on invention licensing, direct response marketing, and digital advertising.

Ranjit Mulgaonkar is the founder and CEO of Flatworld Group, a full-service Amazon Agency that helps product companies maximize the benefits of Amazon. He brings 25-plus years of senior executive management experience in online marketplaces, e-commerce, SAAS, internet, and digital imaging. Mulgaonkar has multifaceted leadership experience in general management, business development, corporate development, global partnerships, and international operations. His experience includes executive positions at Amazon, Avalara, Telebrands, DNA Response, Adobe (Aldus), and Xerox.

Mike Rabinovitz is a seasoned brand marketer with more than 15 years of experience working at companies like Hershey, General Mills, and New Balance. He has a passion for nurturing brands in the better-for-you and health-and-wellness domains, having recently served as the marketing director of better-for-you at Hershey. In his current role as chief marketing officer at Echelon Fitness Multimedia, Rabinovitz leads the D2C business and guides the brand's vision to empower people in their health-and-wellness journeys. He approaches the rapidly evolving AI landscape with a mix of fear and excitement. Like many marketers, Rabinovitz is trying his best to keep up with the constant barrage of AI tools in marketing, learning what is out there, and assessing what may work best.

Brij Shah is head of strategic growth at Effectv/Comcast Advertising. Amongst his responsibilities, Shah drives strategic partnerships by leveraging Comcast’s deterministic first-party data, combining traditional linear TV and streaming, to drive growth for DTC and performance brands. He has had held several regional and enterprise roles at Comcast during the past decade, prior to which he spent more than 10 years at Ampersand.

Randi Tutelman is the chief customer officer at Flowcode, the offline-to-online company building direct connections between brands and consumers through next-generation conversion technology. Her role in cultivating client relationships has led to substantial revenue growth and market share expansion. Notably, Tutelman has successfully onboarded 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies and managed major accounts including BMW, NBCU, and Hearst. Prior to Flowcode, she directed client success at INTURN, where her strategies generated millions of dollars in transactional value. Tutelman holds an undergraduate degree and a master's degree in engineering from Lehigh University.

Leif Welch is a 25-year ad tech veteran, entrepreneur, and CEO with deep expertise in programmatic advertising. He founded JamLoop in 2018 as a demand-side platform purpose-built for quality CTV advertising. The company serves mid-market agencies and SMBs who want to reach targeted streaming TV audiences across the U.S. Prior to founding JamLoop, Welch ran the mobile advertising division of Cox Media Group and platform sales for ad-tech platform Adify, a division of Cox. He co-founded dynamic display provider, AdMission, which was a spinout from IPIX and was sold to ADP in 2008. Welch spent the earlier part of his career as a financial analyst, after earning an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in marketing from the Kellogg School of Business.