Patrick Courtney, Chief Business Officer, Fuse Media

Nicole is an accomplished leader in the media and digital advertising industry, helping brands and marketers capitalize on disruption for over two decades. As Chief Commercial Lead at Kantar, Nicole helps clients navigate the constantly and rapidly changing landscape of online networking, while ensuring commercial excellence. A 19-year Kantar veteran, Nicole has held various leadership positions in the company. In February 2024, Nicole was promoted to the newly established position of Chief Media Commercial Lead - a testament to Nicole’s expertise, leadership, and impact she has made throughout her time at Kantar. Nicole’s contributions have been instrumental in driving Kantar’s expansion in the digital realm, partnering with the world’s biggest publishers and media brands to create impact and marketing magic. She also drives key thought leadership into disruptive areas including the creator economy, streaming futures, and consumer-centric data management. As Kantar’s first global head of media and digital for a major CPG brand, Nicole spearheaded the creation of a specialized platform implementation team. This initiative significantly enhanced the company’s proficiency with social media platforms, fostered critical relationships with nearly all of Kantar’s major publishers, and was crucial to the inception and ongoing success of Kantar’s Meta Direct Integration. Additionally, Nicole played a pivotal role in the development and market introduction of OTX’s in-market product, Live|Stream. In an era where brands are continually emerging and evolving in their consumer perceptions, media and entertainment companies need to deeply understand their audience. This is where Nicole excels, helping her clients develop content that truly resonates with their target audience. Nicole continues to innovate and stay ahead of the curve by closely monitoring social platforms and emerging trends. Her proactive approach ensures that her clients are responsive to the latest developments, and also positioned to lead in a rapidly changing media landscape. Beyond her professional achievements, Nicole is deeply committed to industry-wide advancement and mentoring. She is actively involved with influential groups such as the ARF Social Council and various mentor networks. In addition to these roles, Nicole contributes to Fairfield University’s Professional-in-Residence program and the Dolan School of Business Marketing Advisory Council. Her involvement focuses on mentoring the future generation of marketing, including professional workshops, resume consulting, mock interviews, and career advice. Being part of the Professional-in-Residence program is particularly meaningful to her, as she was the first person in her family to graduate from college and appreciates the importance of mentorship and guidance to shape successful career paths.

Briana Larsen, VP, Content Partnerships & Business Development, Xperi

Paul Alfieri, Chief Marketing Officer, Cadent Paul Alfieri oversees the marketing strategy of the company’s portfolio of advanced advertising technology solutions. Prior to joining Cadent, Paul was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Turn, a software platform for audience planning, media execution, and real-time analytics. Paul’s previous experience includes corporate marketing, communications, and investor relations at Limelight Networks, as well as communications and marketing for the mobile device and cable infrastructure divisions at Motorola. Paul previously served on the Ad Council’s Board of Directors.

Cameron Douglas is the Senior Vice President of Home Entertainment for Fandango and heads the company’s video-on-demand streaming service Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu), one of the industry’s leading digital retailers in the transactional space. An over 20-year entertainment industry veteran, Douglas oversees content and merchandising for Fandango at Home, offering hundreds of thousands of movies and next-day TV shows, along with an extensive library of 4K and HDR titles, to buy or rent without a subscription, and upwards of 30,000 movies and TV shows that viewers can watch free on demand. Douglas began his career holding various analytics and senior marketing roles at Disney, Fox, DreamWorks, and Paramount. He moved into the digital entertainment space in 2013 as SVP of Content for M-GO, the DreamWorks Animation/Technicolor joint venture, prior to its acquisition by Fandango and rebranding as FandangoNOW in 2016. He has overseen multiple years of double-digit growth in this era, beating the market with a focus on content and core consumer experience. With the acquisition of Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu) in 2020, Fandango has firmly established itself as the No. 3 player in the competitive transactional space and Douglas and team are strategically positioned for the next phase of the premium video market. In 2018, Douglas was elected Chairman of OTT.X (formerly the Entertainment Merchants Association/EMA), the trade group for the home entertainment industry. Douglas is a Stanford University graduate and earned an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and is a longstanding member of Mensa.

Andrew Fitzgerald is senior vice president of streaming video services for Hearst Television and general manager of the company’s rapidly growing Very Local digital-content unit, of which he was the architect. Hearst Television launched Very Local in September 2021 to provide streaming access to local news and new original non-scripted programming in its more than two dozen local markets. Under Fitzgerald’s leadership, Very Local has expanded its program selection and distribution substantially; its titles are now available on nearly every streaming platform, and its localized FAST channels are available via multiple aggregators. The app features more than a dozen new original unscripted shows, including regional Emmy award winners encompassing a variety of program genres. Fitzgerald joined Hearst Television in 2017 as chief digital content officer, responsible for digital initiatives locally and centrally. He launched dedicated social video brands highlighting local stories from around the Hearst Television footprint. He also led initiatives in branded video content and local digital lifestyle storytelling. Prior to Hearst, Fitzgerald served with Twitter for more than five years, including roles building the global team responsible for Moments and overseeing Twitter’s relationships with U.S. news organizations. In previous roles, Fitzgerald helped to launch the social media show The Stream for Al Jazeera English and led the citizen journalism program Collective Journalism for the short-form documentary network Current TV. Fitzgerald is a cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California, where he was both a Renaissance Scholar and a Presidential Scholarship recipient.

Gregory Sogorka, Director, Product Management, FreeWheel

Anil co-founded Bango in 1999 and, as Chief Marketing Officer, is responsible for Bango’s marketing activities and strategic partnerships, including content providers and global network operators. Anil has extensive experience of creating successful partnerships between technology innovators and major market players in online technologies and OEMs. He is highly skilled at, and plays a central role in, both product and market strategy and success. Before co-founding Bango, Anil developed the major partnerships for Cyberlife Technology, one of Europe’s leading computer games technology developers, which resulted in the launch of the company’s ‘artificial life’ technology by the world's leading games publishers. Before that he worked with Bango Executive Chair, Ray Anderson, to establish a technology called X.desktop, which became the global standard for the user interface software on networked computers.

Streaming media executive experienced in acquisition, development, production, distribution and management of video content. Currently, Xumo's Executive Director of Content Acquisitions and Programming Strategy. Prior to that, led Dailymotion's North American content development during that platform's most successful period of premium U.S. channel growth (2013-2017). Also, spearheaded video strategy initiatives for AOL, including executive producing the award-winning series "You've Got."

Tricia Biggio, Chief Executive Officer, Invisible Universe