EP325: Chris Slade, Drummer

On today’s episode of Great Minds, we’re pleased to welcome Chris Slade, drummer for several of rock’s greatest bands, including Manfred Mann’s Earth Band from its inception in 1971 to 1978 on eight albums, The Firm, and AC/DC,  for which he drummed from 1989 to 1994 and performed on the 1990 album The Razors Edge.

EP321: Chris Moscardi, Marketing Director of Epic and New Zero World

Chris Moscardi is a marketing strategist, creative director, and MBA with a passion for bringing scalable, sustainable growth to B2B companies particularly in tech, infrastructure, and engineering. Chris’s goal is to bring sustainable development to the forefront of public consciousness using creative storytelling, the influence of marketing, and the levers of business.

EP320: Dr. Aaron Mair, PhD; “Forever Adirondacks” Director; Adirondack Council

Dr. Aaron Mair is an Environmental Justice pioneer intersectionally working in the spaces of, Health, Environment, Voting Rights and Disparities over the last 40 Years; a 35 year veteran urban environmental activist; regional and national Environmental Justice organizer and strategist from the State of New York.

EP319: Archie Gottesman, Co-Founder, JewBelong

A wise rabbi once said: “Judaism is a great product, but the marketing sucks.” As a Jew and a branding professional, Archie was in full agreement. She’s on a mission to re-brand Judaism so that it’s easy to get right to the good parts, no Hebrew required. JewBelong.com is the heart of the rebrand. It’s filled with meaningful, fun, free, easy-to-use Jewish rituals and information that will never leave anyone who’s new to Judaism, or who is Jewish but didn’t get a ton of Jewish education, feeling left out or confused or… JewBarrassed.

EP317: Jessica T. Donohue, PhD, EVP, Head of Global Investment Insights, Sustainability and Impact, State Street

Jessica Donohue is an executive dedicated to working with institutional investors and allocators as their partner, enabling their mission/vision and creating better outcomes for them and the people they serve. Jessica has a proven track record leading client management/ solutioning, organizational transformation, product innovation, and client service/operations. Jessica is a corporate spokesperson with print and broadcast media. She’s a decisive problem-solver, and a neurodiversity and disability inclusion champion.

EP316: Yvonne Hao, Secretary of Economic Development for Commonwealth of Massachusetts

On the eve of ClimaTech 2024 we speak with Yvonne Hao, Secretary of Economic Development for Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Yvonne was a longtime senior executive who co-founded Boston investment firm Cove Hill Partners, and was tapped by the Healey-Driscoll administration to helm the state’s chief economic development agency.

EP315: James Walker, CEO and Head of Reactor Development, Nano Nuclear Energy Inc.

Mr. Walker is a Nuclear Physicist and was the project lead and manager for constructing the new Rolls-Royce Nuclear Chemical Plant; he was the UK Subject Matter Expert for the UK Nuclear Material Recovery Capabilities and was the technical project manager for constructing the UK reactor core manufacturing facilities. Mr. Walker was also seconded to Rolls Royce where he modeled configurations of RR’s Zero-Power reactor to inform confidence limits for the UK’s successor submarine’s mechanical design and worked for the Rolls-Royce Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics Engineering team investigating reactor channel thermal performance to inform new reactor designs and support the safety case for reactors in current class submarines. Mr. Walker’s professional engineering experience includes nuclear reactors, mines, submarines, chemical plants, factories, mine processing facilities, infrastructure, automotive machinery, and testing rigs.

EP314: ClimaTech Edition – Joe Curtatone, President of the Northeast Clean Energy Council

On this first ClimaTech Edition of Great Minds, we’re pleased to welcome Joe Curtatone, President of the Northeast Clean Energy Council, ahead of the ClimaTech 2024 event, June 3-5, 2024.

More information on ClimaTech can be found at https://advertisingweek.com/event/climatech-2024 

EP311: Bosko Milekic, Co-Founder and CPO, Optable

In early 2020 Bosko Milekic co-founded Optable with the goal of re-architecting digital advertising in the post-cookie world. Prior to Optable, Bosko co-founded AdGear, an advertising technology platform that was among the first ad platforms to integrate real-time bidding protocols. He has spent close to 20 years developing advertising technology, as a software developer, product manager, and entrepreneur, and throughout that time has lived through several major re-inventions of digital advertising infrastructure, from the emergence of advertising exchanges and real-time bidding to, more recently, the deprecation of web browser third-party cookies and the adoption of privacy enhancing technologies in digital advertising.

EP310: Debbie Wosskow OBE, Entrepreneur, Investor, Co-Chair of the UK’s Invest in Women TaskForce 

Debbie Wosskow OBE is a multi exit entrepreneur, board advisor and investor, now focused on diversity, health and wellness and economic empowerment. She is co-founder of WJV LLP, the boutique investment and strategic innovation firm that supports and empowesr female founders by connecting female run and diverse VC’s with investors focused on purpose and returns.

Debbie is also Co-Chair of the government backed Invest in Women Taskforce.

EP309: Alda Abbracciamento, President, Global Groupe Client Lead-Walmart at Publicis Groupe

On this episode of Great Minds we speak with Alda Abbracciamento, President, Global Groupe Client Lead-Walmart at Publicis Groupe. Alda’s mission:

  • Drive business growth through creativity among big brands, startups and non-profits.
  • Build partnerships across organizations that inspire collaboration to deliver integrated marketing and technology solutions that power brands.
  • Mentor young talent to bring diversity and energy to the advertising and marketing industries.

EP307: Jennifer D’Alessandro, Head of Ad Sales and Marketing, Future Today

Jennifer D’Alessandro brings over 20 years of experience to her role as Head of Ad Sales and Marketing at Future Today, a video distribution and technology company that operates hundreds of OTT channels on connected TV platforms. Jennifer oversees the ad sales marketing department, leads the U.S. sales team in direct and programmatic partnerships spanning the expansive Future Today library of content, and works with industry trades to inform the community on accomplishments and success stories. Additionally, she works closely with research partners to validate Future Today’s place within the CTV landscape.

EP306: Professor Verne Harris, Acting Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation

On this episode of Great Minds, we’re pleased to welcome Professor Verne Harris, Acting Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Verne Harris has been the archivist for the papers of Nelson Mandela since 2004, as Head of the Memory Programme at the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Centre of Memory and Dialogue.

Before that, he had worked for South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and was the Director of the South African History Archive (SAHA). From 1985 until 2001 he was an archivist with South Africa’s State Archives Service and, beginning in 1997, the newly established National Archives of South Africa; he served as deputy director from 1993 to 2001.

EP305: Emma Lacey, Senior Vice President EMEA, Zefr

Emma Lacey is Senior Vice President EMEA at Zefr, where in her two years with the company she has helped position Zefr as the leading technology provider for brand safety and suitability across Meta, TikTok and YouTube in the region. Prior to joining Zefr, Emma spent 15 years’ building successful commercial teams across the advertising industry, including being part of the EMEA leadership team at OpenX where she worked as Senior Director of Buyer Development to secure strategic partnerships with media agencies and brands. In addition, she has held senior positions within a range of media and adtech businesses, including AOL, Sky and Blis.

EP303: Amy Williams, Founder and CEO, Good-Loop

Amy Williams is the founder and CEO of Good-Loop, the purpose-led advertising platform that makes it easy and profitable for big brands to do good, at scale.Working with the world’s biggest advertisers, including Nike, Unilever, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and L’Oreal, Good-Loop’s ad formats drive engagement and build brand love while donating millions to charities around the globe. Good-Loop’s carbon-neutral advertising has raised over $10m for charities around the world and planted over a million trees – all whilst supporting high-quality journalism and diverse publications.Amy founded Good-Loop in 2016 after quitting her job at ad giant Ogilvy to volunteer at a soup kitchen in Argentina, impassioned by creating a company that could transform advertising into a force for good around the world.Amy was listed as one of Forbes’ 30 under 30, is among Ad Age’s Women to Watch Europe an EY Entrepreneur of the Year and a face of the United Nations #SheInnovates global campaign. She’s also an Adweek contributor, a Cannes SDG Lions judge and a passionate Bloom mentor.

EP302: Consuelo Vanderbilt, CEO and Co-Founder, SohoMuse

Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, seventh generation descendant of shipping and railroad tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt, is an American singer, composer, songwriter, designer, actress, philanthropist and entrepreneur. At a young age, Consuelo studied with famous singing teachers such as Ron Anderson and Seth Riggs and went to Italy and studied music in Fiesole and began performing in cafes and restaurants around Florence. At age 21 she signed her  first record deal in London, and after many years of touring around the globe, in regions including Germany, France, and Australia, she launched her own record label, C&R Productions, and found herself in the top 20 Billboard Dance Charts with her top 10 hit singles. Consuelo’s debut single “Naked” spent 16 weeks on the charts, while her follow-up “Feel So Alive” earned her Billboard’s #2 Breakout Artist honor. Her latest hit “Body Needs” broke Billboard’s Top 5.