Silke Meixner has been recognized as a leading digital business strategist, helping CMOs achieve digital transformation through digital marketing, business and brand strategies that drive end-to-end customer experiences. She helps senior marketing executives navigate their role in orchestrating change across broad ecosystems of internal and external partners to maximize short- and long-term marketing ROI. Silke has deep industry knowledge in technology, media, industrial goods, consumer goods and services where she has operationalized their digital transformation agenda to foster data-driven cultures, with empowered teams that better address market shifts and capture new revenue opportunities. Silke started her career developing new revenue growth platforms for leading companies such as Universal Studios, eToys, and Deloitte before joining IBM’s Digital Strategy practice. Silke enjoys helping marketers succeed in harnessing the power of AI, cognitive abilities and digital tools and enablers to accelerate agile marketing management, marketing operations and commercial capabilities in new product development, e-commerce and brand strategy at leading multinational organizations.

Olivier Koelemij, Founder and Managing Director of MediaMonks Los Angeles, is responsible for the start and growth of the MediaMonks west coast operation. The office has seen an exponential growth to 125+ ‘Monks’ in less than five years and includes several office moves, a successful merger with one of the best VR/post-production companies, and very recently his team opened up MediaMonks' first US Production HUB, as well as launched and merged with their latest acquisition, IMA (Influencer Marketing Agency) in Los Angeles. His deep understanding of tech and commerce allows him to define, translate, and turn strategic insights into unique, scalable and innovative concepts across clients' entire modern marketing mix.

Bill Newell, CEO, SparX Works Inc.: As a founding partner of SparX Works Inc., Bill Newell brings more than 18 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience to the company. Bill has been involved in production and multimedia from its early days and has had key roles in establishing many of the business processes that today are often taken for granted. Bill's areas of expertise include finance, technology, production, and operations. Bill's ability to increase productivity without sacrificing quality has been proven time and time again and is a key asset to the company. A longtime associate of his partner, Sarina Simon, Bill came to North South Studios from the Knowledge Kids Network where he served as Chief Operating Officer for five years. Bill co-founded the Knowledge Kids Network and was instrumental in defining its business objectives, operational processes, and company structure. His thorough planning and oversight launched the KidsEdge websites. This network of award-winning websites contained more than 250 games, thousands of articles, and had the capacity to support 3.5 million users. During his tenure at the Knowledge Kids Network, Bill also executive produced a 12 minute animated movie entitled, DotzWorld, which premiered on the AOL network and featured 25 original characters. Bill's insightful finance skills were invaluable to the company in its negotiations with AOL and other prominent partners. Prior to joining the Knowledge Kids Network, Bill was Vice President of Production for IXL Los Angeles, a NASDAQ listed Internet services company with more than $12 million in yearly revenue in the Los Angeles office alone. As VP of Production, Bill oversaw all aspects of production and provided sales support for IXL's west coast offices. Always prolific, he supervised and managed the design and implementation of over 100 projects including assignments for Polygram, Fox, Warner Brothers, NewsCorp, Baker and Taylor, Mazda, Kawasaki, Universal Studios, and Technicolor, among others. Making use of his extensive finance background, Bill brought financial discipline to his production team and productivity increased over 200% during his tenure at IXL. Before joining IXL, Bill was Vice President of Production for Digital Planet, an Internet services company that was later acquired by IXL. As VP of Production, Bill provided direct management of technical, production, and creative teams. He also oversaw all proposal submissions, bids, technical analyses, and creative treatments for media, technology, and consumer companies including Intel, Mattel, the US Postal Service, Disney Online and Allstate. Bill is also a veteran of the multimedia pioneering company, Philips Media, where he worked for four years as an Executive Producer, managing two in-house production groups. In this executive role, Bill directed a 35 member staff and produced six educational CD ROM products. He also directed the localization of numerous products for the Japanese, English, Swedish and American markets.