PROGRAM  
SPEAKERS » TORONTO

Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of one of the most widely read and influential news and opinion sites in the world, Arianna Huffington discusses the new media, politics, the economy and her own story of success.

Currently a central player in shaping the interplay between politics, the economy, the media and public policy, Arianna Huffington stands at the forefront of the new media. The driving force behind The Huffington Post, she leads one of the world’s most successful and influential news and opinion sites. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union. Only a year after launching The Huffington Post, Huffington was named to TIME magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people, and she was recently named as one of the most influential women in media by Forbes magazine. Huffington is author of 12 books including the best-seller On Becoming Fearless…in Love, Work, and Life and the very timely, Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America, re-released in 2009. She has given her honest, outspoken views on shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show, Squawk Box, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, Today and The Tonight Show.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reputation as a resolute defender of the environment stems from a litany of successful legal actions. Mr. Kennedy was named one of TIME magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success in helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. The group's achievement helped spawn more than 160 Waterkeeper organizations across the globe. In 2009, he was named one of Rolling Stone’s “100 Agents of Change.”

Mr. Kennedy serves as senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, president of Waterkeeper Alliance, is a partner in the clean tech work of Silicon Valley’s VantagePoint Ventures, and is the environmental advisor to Napo Pharmaceuticals. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at Pace University School of Law’s Environmental Litigation Clinic and is co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio. Earlier in his career, he served as assistant district attorney in New York City.

He has worked on environmental issues across the Americas, and has assisted several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands. He is credited with leading the fight to protect New York City’s water supply. The New York City watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development. He also helped lead the fight to turn back the anti-environmental legislation during the 104th Congress.

Among Mr. Kennedy’s published books are the New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Nature (2004); The Riverkeepers (1997); and Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr: A Biography (1977). His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Nation, Outside magazine, the Village Voice, and many other publications. His award-winning articles have been included in anthologies of America’s best crime writing, best political writing and best science writing.

Mr. Kennedy is a graduate of Harvard University. He studied at the London School of Economics and received his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. Following graduation, he attended Pace University School of Law, where he was awarded a master’s degree in environmental law.

Country Lead, Solution Specialist Sales | Microsoft Advertising Canada

Jason Dailey is currently the Country Lead for Solution Specialist Sales at Microsoft Advertising Canada. In this role he manages a team of digital media experts across multiple disciplines (e.g. Gaming, Mobile, Video, Targeting, Search, Performance Advertising, etc.), who provide Innovation, Inspiration and Integration. They innovate by collaborating with clients to deliver inventive digital media solutions, inspire by providing thought leadership and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and integrate by being the voice of the customer into Microsoft.

Prior to this role he was Client Services manager with Microsoft in NYC, leading a team of search strategists who provided world-class service and account management to Premium Search advertisers. Prior to joining Microsoft he served as Strategic Planning Manager at Travelzoo where he analyzed strategic projects, launched and managed new products, including Travelzoo’s meta-search engine, and oversaw all search engine marketing initiatives. His professional experience also includes working at entertainment companies, such as Bad Boy Entertainment, Marvel Enterprises, Elektra Records, and Focus Features, and management consulting, where he helped financial services clients optimize their cost structures. He holds a BS from MIT and an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Terry began his career as a copywriter for some of Canada’s top creative ad agencies. In 1990, he co-founded audio production company Pirate Radio & Television, which now has studios in Toronto and New York City.

Terry has won awards from around the world for writing and directing. Marketing Magazine chose him as one of Canada’s “Most Influential” marketing people, he was named Canadian judge for the inaugural year of Radio at the 2005 Cannes Advertising Festival in France, and Radio Jury Chairman of the International Clio Awards in Miami. When he’s not creating advertising, he’s talking about it while hosting the award-winning CBC radio series, The Age of Persuasion. He co-wrote the best-selling book, The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture this year, published by Knopf Canada. Terry is a member of the Advisory Council for the Canadian Advertising Museum.

The advertising industry has given Terry the Les Usherwood Lifetime Achievement Award, the Fritz Spiess Lifetime Achievement Award for Television, and inducted him into the Marketing Hall of Legends in January 2009.

He has a wonderful wife and three lovely daughters.
Who like some of his work.

Managing Director and Head of Google Canada

Jonathan is the managing director and head of Google Canada. He is responsible for continuing to build Google’s brand and reach in the Canadian business community, as well as for developing and executing the company’s market strategy within Canada. He leads the region’s advertising sales operations and contributes to the strategic growth of Google’s products and services.

Prior to joining Google, Jonathan was the senior vice president of operations for AOL Europe,general manager of AOL Canada Inc. and vice president of audience for AOL Canada Inc. Earlier, Jonathan managed the sales team at the start-up Bird On A Wire, a venture focused on creating and monetizing hosted Internet infrastructure.

Jonathan holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Toronto and an M.B.A. from the Rotman School of Management.

Principal Analyst

Ron’s research focuses on helping customer experience professionals create differentiating online experiences by satisfying user needs in ways consistent with core brand attributes. Ron is also the lead analyst researching the implications rich interfaces have for transforming the way customers interact with companies online. Ron is part of a core team responsible for developing and maintaining Forrester’s Web Site Review and Forrester’s Web Site Brand Review methodologies.

Speaker Series: Yahoo! Canada - Clicking With The Human Mind: Creating Online Experiences And Ads That Emotionally Engage Customers (Royal Ontario Museum)

Director, User Experience Research

Dr. Jill Strawbridge leads a team of user experience researchers in the Advertising Products Group (APG) at Yahoo! Her team supports the advertising side of Yahoo!’s business: researching the factors influencing ad effectiveness as well as guiding the design of systems that connect online advertisers, agencies, and publishers.

She has spent the past 20 years applying the principals of human behavior to the design of products and systems with which humans interact. Prior to joining Yahoo! in 2007, she researched and designed both consumer and B2B user interfaces for companies that include Symantec, Citibank, Bizrate, Shopzilla, Philips Interactive Media, and Xerox.

As an international lecturer on user experience research for the Nielsen Norman Group, she has had the opportunity to train practitioners on advanced research methods. She also teaches extensively at the college level (undergraduate and graduate courses). Currently she teaches human factors design psychology classes at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and a graduate course on Human Computer Interaction in the psychology department at UCLA.

Dr. Strawbridge holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from The Ohio State University, an M.A. in Human Factors/Applied Experimental Psychology from CSUN, and a B.A. in Psychology from UCLA.

Speaker Series: Yahoo! Canada - Clicking With The Human Mind: Creating Online Experiences And Ads That Emotionally Engage Customers (Royal Ontario Museum)

Vice President, North American Field Sales

Mitch Spolan is Yahoo!’s Vice President of North American Field Sales, based in New York, NY. In this role, Mitch leads Yahoo!’s entire North American field sales organization, with a particular focus on growing revenue and share with Fortune 500 customers.

Mitch has been a part of the Yahoo!’s sales organization since 1998, most recently leading the southern sales team which has offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Austin. He relies on his creative and technological background to help his team be first to take advantage of new opportunities and accelerate revenue at market leading rates.

Mitch began his career as an Architect after graduating from the University of Florida with both a Bachelors degree in Design (1993) and a Masters in Architecture specializing in Architectural Acoustics (1995). He practiced at a large architecture firm in Atlanta for several years before becoming fascinated with the growing world wide web. The web offered both infinite creative outlets along with the ability to leverage new technologies in ground breaking ways; the same qualities that drew Mitch to Architecture and Architectural Acoustics as a career. The web’s combination of art and science was extremely appealing.

In 1997, while continuing to practice Architecture, Mitch opened an interactive advertising agency out of his spare bedroom. His agency specialized in creative design along with media buying, which was concentrated on Yahoo!.

Speaker Series: Yahoo! Canada - Clicking With The Human Mind: Creating Online Experiences And Ads That Emotionally Engage Customers (Royal Ontario Museum)

Creative Director

Ryan thinks the web is the best toy ever. After 10 years as a web pusher, he’s dedicated to making epic creative work that gets results. Ryan has called several Toronto agencies home, including 10plus1, and Maclaren MacCann. As Creative Director at henderson bas, Ryan has created award-winning campaigns and online innovations for clients in nearly every category, including Coca-Cola Ltd., Nintendo, Mercedes-Benz, Capital One and Molson Canadian.

Speaker Series: MDC Partners - Creativity in the New Age (Royal Ontario Museum)

Vice President, Digital Innovation, MDC Partners, NYC

Speaker Series: MDC Partners - Creativity in the New Age (Royal Ontario Museum)

Chief Digital Officer, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, NYC

Speaker Series: MDC Partners - Creativity in the New Age (Royal Ontario Museum)

With her unique voice, disarmingly frank lyrics, melodic gifts, and exotic good looks, singer and songwriter Anjulie announces herself as a commanding new presence on the music scene. On her self-titled debut album, the Los Angeles-based songwriter comes across as a confident young woman who examines her life, loves, obsessions, and heartbreaks with fearless introspection.

Her music is a sophisticated blend of indelible pop smarts, hip-hop edginess, and world-music spice, topped by Anjulie’s sultry vocal stylings.

Ad Ball – A Fashion Fetish (Fermenting Cellar at The Distillery District )

Partner/Managing Director of Interactive
Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Winston is responsible for the leadership of interactive production and business development. He oversees interactive for clients such as Samsung, American Express, Domino's, Microsoft, Coke Zero, Burger King, Old Navy, Gap, Best Buy.

Since his arrival in 2005, Winston has been a principal leader in the build-out of Crispin Porter + Bogusky's internal interactive capabilities enabling the agency to handle large-scale application production, mobile and social media strategy, SEO/SEM, metrics analysis and implementation, interaction and experience design, and technical development responsibilities. Today Interactive is made up of 250 people with more than 400 others working within interactive on an ongoing basis.

Over the last twelve years, his work has been recognized by international award shows and publications such as Cannes Cyber Lions, Andys, One Show, Clios, London International Awards, Business Week, and Communication Arts.

Winston also serves on the Board of Directors of Boulder Digital Works at the University of Colorado, a new digital education initiative in Boulder, CO, focused on developing today and tomorrow's digital leaders and entrepreneurs.

Speaker Series: MDC Partners - Creativity in the New Age (Royal Ontario Museum)

Cameron Wykes is the Founder and Managing Partner of BabyRobot, a 'digital engagement' group who look beyond the web to provide consumers with digitally focused, location-centric, immersive experiences.

Over his 15 years in digital, Cameron has successfully created and built multiple digital marketing companies, all merged or purchased by traditional advertising agencies. Cameron's understanding of the online space, its audience, and its unique culture allows his clients to better understand their target and how they behave online, helping turn perception into participation.

Cameron has been recognized at Cannes, the CASSIES, the Webby Awards, and for one of the Worldwide Top Sites of 2007 at TheFWA.com. Cameron was also awarded with Best of Show and Gold honours at the Digital Marketing Awards, for his creative and strategic leadership on the successful anti-tobacco site, Stupid.ca.