Saul J. Berman, Ph.D. is Partner & Vice President, Global Service Area Leader for Strategy & Transformation within IBM Global Business Services (GBS). In this role he works closely with major corporations around the globe on strategic business issues. He leads a worldwide team of IBM consultants focused on delivering business value through business, technology and operations strategy engagements as well as organizational change initiatives. Prior to this role, Dr. Berman was the Lead Strategy Partner for the Media and Entertainment Practice as well as a Global Strategy & Change Services Leader at IBM GBS. Before joining IBM, Saul was the Global Strategic Change Leader at PwC Consulting. He was also previously with The Boston Consulting Group, a divisional Vice President with Broadway Department Stores and an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Southern California. Dr. Berman has more than 25 years of consulting experience advising senior management of large corporate and start-up organizations. He has directed engagements addressing issues of strategy, organization, and operations. He has worked extensively on issues of competitive positioning, differentiation, new business plans & strategies, new business models, growth, operational & cost improvement, operations/ manufacturing strategy, organizational design and enterprise transformation. His clients have included most of the major media companies as well as internet companies, telecommunication companies, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers and automotive companies in the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia. Dr. Berman holds a Ph.D. in Management and Information Systems and a MBA in Production Systems and Operations Research from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. A frequent speaker to industry and strategic planning organizations such as the World Economic Forum, MIPCOM, Consumer Electronics Association, McGraw Hill Media Summit, the National Association of Broadcasters, Online Publishers Association and Digital Hollywood. Dr. Berman was named as one of the Top 25 Consultants of 2005 by Consulting Magazine & Top 50 Marketing executives over 50 by Global CMO Magazine. He is also an editorial advisory board member for Strategy & Leadership Magazine. Additionally, Dr. Berman served as a board member of the USC Film School Entertainment Technology Center, and of the Southern California chapter of the Strategic Leadership Forum. He has also authored numerous books and publications including Not For Free: Revenue Strategies for a New World, published by Harvard Business Review Press, and the recent IBM studies: “Beyond Digital - Connecting media and entertainment to the future,” IBM Institute for Business Value, 2012 and “The Power of Cloud - Driving business model innovation,” IBM Institute for Business Value, 2012.

Mary Hamilton, Managing Director, Accenture: Mary Hamilton is a Managing Director at Accenture. She is the North America and Latin America Lead of Accenture Technology Innovation. In her regional role Mary leads several critical components of the Accenture Innovation architecture, which help our clients to drive continuous innovation at scale: Accenture Labs, the dedicated R&D organization of Accenture; Accenture Ventures, which bridges clients with eco-system partners including incubators, accelerators, corporate venture capitalists, start-ups, and academia; Accenture Technology Incubation Group, which incubates applied R&D into business solutions (XR, Quantum Computing, Multiparty Computing, Robotics) and Accenture Liquid Studios, which prototype and scale incubated solutions at clients all over the world. Core to her role leading Technology Innovation, Mary is focused on driving client co-innovation partnerships, establishing ongoing relationships with leading companies in their industries to conduct joint R&D, shape open innovation, and incubate and rapidly emerging technologies. In the 23 years she has been with Accenture, she has worked across all five industry groups, and her clients have included several prominent Media and Entertainment companies across North America and Latin America. Outside of Accenture, she is on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization, Women Who Code and is passionate about diversity and inclusion, especially in Technology. Mary is a frequent speaker, sharing her perspective on emerging digital technologies for the enterprise and consumers at conferences, client, and industry events. Mary received her SB degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Peg Jackson, Managing Director, Mooreland Partners: Peg is a Managing Director in Mooreland Partner’s Greenwich office. She brings more than 20 years of investment banking, venture capital and operating management experience within the media technology sector. At Mooreland, she focuses on the digital media, marketing software and e-commerce industries. Prior to joining Mooreland Partners, she was a Managing Director at Gridley & Co, where she worked on transactions within the digital media sector. Prior to joining Gridley, Peg worked in venture capital as a Managing Director at NeoCarta Ventures investing in media technology companies such as Silverpop and Myrio (acquired by Siemens). Prior to working at NeoCarta, Peg held corporate development and operational roles at NBC and Reuters.  Peg holds a BA in Economics from Georgetown University and an MBA from New York University.

Robert Rodriguez, CEO, Natcom: A 30 year seasoned expert in the area of entrepreneurial business leadership in the fields of marketing and multi-media content for large platforms such as broadcast television stations, internet sites, telecom companies and other digital organizations throughout the world. Robert brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in content related to health, tourism, technology, e-commerce and social media for the new challenges and opportunities of modern times. He has managed complex acquisitions and work force integrations in the U.S., the Caribbean as well as international regions such as Asia, Latin America and Europe. Currently Robert is the CEO of Natcom Global, a multi-platform video content producer and distributor. Natcom is one of the leading fact based short form content producers and distributors in the U.S. Natcom clients include nearly 75 broadcast stations in the U.S., 1,000 Internet sites around the world, international telecom operators and Fortune 500 companies. Some of Natcom clients include CBS, Disney/ABC, AOL/Verizon, Citibank, Baidu, Humana, the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Department of the Treasury, to name a few. In addition to his overall responsibilities he is also responsible for acquisitions and international expansion that includes establishing operations for Natcom in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to Natcom, Robert was the CEO of NPN Media, a company he and other investors acquired from NBC Universal. NPN produces and distributes fact based news related segments to broadcast stations as well as digital outlets in the U.S. NPN became part of Natcom in 2014. Before NPN, Robert co-founded and was CEO of National Communication LTD (NCL) where he successfully attained an Inc.500 ranking twice. (fastest growing privately held companies in America) NCL is a diversified marketing communications agency that has developed hundreds of marketing and media initiatives for global companies such as Citibank, Burger King and Chevron to name a few. In addition to the private sector NCL provides or has provided strategic consultancy services to governments including the United States, regional government agencies in Spain and the government of the Islands of the Bahamas. Some of NCL’s work with the U.S. Federal Government included micro economic development research and implementation initiatives providing different federal agencies with best practices and recommendations for contracting to small and disadvantaged businesses. In 1995 NCL produced the award winning world record program, “Around the World in a Day” using an Air France Concorde to break the world aviation speed record which currently still stands.

Kevin McGurn, President of Sales and Distribution, Vevo: Based in New York, Kevin McGurn is President of Sales and Distribution at Vevo, where he is responsible for operationalizing and maximizing revenue for all company partnerships including but not limited to Vevo’s YouTube presence. His areas of expertise include: the evolution of television in the streaming era and corresponding shifts in consumer viewing habits; the development of a ubiquitous, multi-platform strategy to get in front of hard-to-reach audiences; the creation and monetization of premium video content; balancing scale, reach and brand safety; and the role of data and research in growing audiences/boosting engagement. Kevin joined Vevo from Fullscreen, where he served as Head of Sales for the company as well as Otter Media properties including Crunchyroll, Roster Teeth SoompiTV and VRV. Prior to Fullscreen, Kevin was Chief Revenue Officer of Shazam. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Sales at Hulu for nearly seven years, where he grew the sales team from zero to half a billion dollars in advertising revenue. Kevin has also held prior senior roles at NBC Universal and DoubleClick.

Emily Powers, Executive Vice President and Head, BritBox North America: Emily Powers is a seasoned corporate strategist and business executive with over 15 years of experience in media. She currently serves as Executive Vice President and Head of BritBox North America spearheading the business for North America with a focus on strategic growth, marketing and content. She leads on all commercial relationships, distribution partnerships, performance marketing, and customer retention. Her current focus is on evaluating, fostering, and delivering strong business development growth opportunities through new platforms, regional expansion and innovative partnerships. Previously, as SVP Commercial and an original member of the BritBox team, Powers was responsible for writing the initial business plan, negotiating and executing the joint-venture relationship between BBC and ITV, and directing the service launch in the U.S. & Canada. Her distribution and performance marketing efforts resulted in achieving >1m subscribers by the third year of the service. She is additionally overseeing business operations for the launch of BritBox in Australia. Powers joined BBC Studios North America in 2012 as Director of Strategy and was later promoted to VP, Strategy & Business Development. In this role, Powers worked to support all of the BBC Studios businesses in a strategic capacity, including Program Sales, Digital Distribution, BBC.com, LA Productions, and also provided strategic deal support and analysis for the spin-off of BBC America into a joint-venture with AMC Networks. Prior to her tenure with the BBC, Powers was Director of Business Development in NBCUniversal’s Digital Distribution group. She was responsible for strategic oversight and deal negotiations for NBCU content distribution on third party digital platforms. Her area of focus included mobile video distribution and supporting the team’s U.S. and Canada Multichannel programming relationships. Powers also served as the main analyst for the broadcast network Affiliate Relations team, working to develop and expand the company’s partnership with non-owned NBC station groups. Powers began her career as an Associate Producer at National Geographic Television & Film, where she produced natural history documentary programming for the National Geographic Channel. She is an MBA graduate from NYU’s Stern School of Business with an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University. She currently resides in Westchester County New York with her husband and three children.

David Borstein is the Senior Vice President of Digital and Social Sales at FOX, leading the Digital Strategy and Sales for both FOX Entertainment and FOX Sports. In this role, David and his team are responsible for monetizing viewership across all digital assets including FOX’s owned and operated apps, FOXNow and FOX Sports, as well as distribution partners, Tubi, Hulu and Amazon Prime/Twitch. Prior to his role at FOX, David was Senior Manager of Twitter’s Dining and Alcohol vertical. In this role, David developed strategic partnerships that helped key direct clients understand, measure, and utilize Twitter’s ad platform. David has also held sales leadership roles at Vox Media and MySpace.com. David is a graduate of The Ohio State University.