Greetings, Friends.
It was our great pleasure to welcome a diverse group of one-hundred leaders to New York City to discuss modern leadership at our inaugural Athena Project Founders Salon. The Athena Project is a by-invitation-only community, event and knowledge platform focused on modern leadership and designed to help the next generation of leaders – particularly digital natives across marketing, product, tech and talent – as they ascend into senior operating and board roles, establish portfolio careers and hang out their own shingle.
Our goal is to inspire and support you in your journey to be a wide-spectrum leader and expand and enhance your:
- INFLUENCE: Expand and enhance your personal influence within the enterprise and your industry.
- INTELLIGENCE: Gain actionable wisdom related to emerging technologies and trends
- IMPACT: Drive innovation, growth and the bottom-line by augmenting cross-disciplinary leadership skills
Our recent Salon was an inspiring two-days and Rishad and I are even more committed to bringing this platform to life. You can view the agenda and speakers from our recent Salon below to give you an idea of our approach to value-added content curation and the value of in-person experiences.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can become involved, drop us a line anytime at drewianni@athenaproject.io or rishad@gmail.com
– Rishad Tobaccowala & Drew Ianni
Attendees
Ambassador Harry K. Thomas (ret.)
Former US Ambassador & Dir General
The Foreign Service
Mark Abraham
MD, Senior Partner, BCG & Author,
Customer Strategy in The Age of AI
Harry Allen
Author & Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow
Harvard University
Eric Bader
Board Member
Center for IS Research, MIT
Maryam Banikarim
Managing Director, Live Media
Fortune
Anuj Bhardwaj
Head of North America
Experian Ventures
Pete Blackshaw
Founder & CEO
BrandRank.ai
Mark Brodeur
Former Head, Silicon Valley Innovation Center
Nestlé
Phil Burrows
Head of Digital Sales & CX
Verizon Wireless
Lisa Caputo
Chief Marketing, Comms, & CX Officer
Travelers
Donald Chesnut
Former Chief Experience Officer
GM & Mastercard
Karna Crawford
CMO
Marqeta
Tom Daly
Founder
Relevant Ventures
Ryan Dempsey
Program Manager, Office of The Chief AI Officer
HHS
Vinay Dheer
Director, I.T.
Regeneron
Gary Ellis
EVP & GM
Nexstar Digital
Linda Elkins
Head of Value Realization & Financial Management
W.L. Gore
Siobhan Fagan
Editor-in-Chief
reworked.co
Sarah Fay
Chairman
Ziff Davis
Brian Fetherstonhaugh
Founder & CEO
The Long View Talent Group
Mish Fletcher
CMO
IPG Commerce
David Freeman
Co-Head, Digital
CAA
Seth Green
Dean, The Graham School
The University of Chicago
Drew Ianni
Co-Founder
The Athena Project
Rei Inamoto
Founder & CEO
I&CO
Venky Iyer
VP, Digital Products & Services
Suntory Global Spirits
Arpit Jain
President, Marcel.ai
Publicis Groupe
Brad Jakeman
Senior Advisor
BCG
Greg Kahn
Co-Founder
AI Trailblazers
Terry Kawaja
Founder & CEO
Luma Partners
Jill Kelly
Former US CEO
EssenceMediacom
David Kirkpatrick
Author and Editor
Heather Knuffke
Chief, Advanced and Human IT Integration
US Air Force
Navin Kunde, Ph.D
Innovation Leader, Enterprise Transformation
Black & Veatch
Tolga Kurtoglu
Group CTO
Lenovo
Martin Lange
Product Strategy
Digital Health Works
Andrew Lindsay
Global Head, Enterprise Design
KraftHeinz
Valerie Logan
CEO & Founder
The Data Lodge
Kay Madati
Board of Directors
Wingstop
Renetta McCann
Chief Inclusion & Experiences Officer
Publicis Groupe
Rita McGrath
Distinguished Professor, Strategy & Innovation
Columbia Business School
Morgan McKenney
Former COO, Consumer Banking
Citi
Brian Morrissey
Founder, The Rebooting & Co-Host, People vs. Algorithms
Ann Mukherjee
Board of Directors
Mondelez
John Osborn
Director
Ad Net Zero
Shaelyn Otikor-Miller
SVP Head of Global Digital Workplace
Northern Trust
Scott Peters
Managing Director
Growth Catalyst Partners
Michael Platt, PhD
Professor, Neuroscience, Psychology & Marketing
Wharton School of Business
Ritesh Patel
Managing Partner, Global Digital Health
Finn Partners
Steven Wolfe Pereira
Founder & CEO
Alpha & Co
Paolo Provinciali
VP, Marketing Growth & Performance
LinkedIn
Matt Quint
Exec Director, Center on Brand Leadership
Columbia Business School
Shiva Rajgropal
Professor Accounting & Auditing
Columbia Business School
Kirthiga Reddy
Co-Founder,
Virtualness.io
Justin Reilly
CEO
Wavelo
Amanda Richman
VP, Head of Worldwide Ad Sales
Microsoft
Ira Rubenstein
Chief Marketing & Digital Officer
PBS
Amy Scarlino
Founder & President
Speaker Strategies
Evan Shumeyko
Chief Experience Officer
Kinship (Mars Petcare)
Sherina Smith
Enterprise CMO
American Family Insurance
Aki Spicer
Chief Strategy Officer
Cashmere
Robyn Streisand
Co-Founder & CEO
Titanium Worldwide & The Mixx
Steve Suthiana
Head of Global Marketing Technology & Innovation
Western Union
Andrew Swinand
Group CEO
Inspired Thinking Group
Samuel Tam
GM, HR, AI + Cloud
Microsoft
Danilo Tauro
GM, Uber Eats
Uber
Rishad Tobaccowala
Co-Founder
The Athena Project
Gayle Troberman
President & CMO
iHeart Media
Tina Unterlaender
Sr. Director, Product Management
VW Credit
Bryan Van Dyke
Author
"In Our Likeness"
Kevin Wassong
Founder & CEO
mktg.ai
Tony Weisman
Advisor & Board Member
Lauren Wiener
Managing Director & Partner
Boston Consulting Group
Lauren Wolfson
Partner
Penta
Paul Woolmington
CEO
Canvas Worldwide
Daniel Wu
Course Facilitator, AI Professional Program
Stanford University
Troy Young
Co-Host
People vs Algorithms
Agenda
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10
| 7:30 AM | REGISTRATION OPENS + BUFFET BREAKFAST |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOPS All workshops below run concurrently at 8:00 AM for 45 minutes. |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOP 1: METROPOLIS CONFERENCE ROOM ACQUIRING INFLUENCE: SPEAKING & INDUSTRY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Session Co-Leader: Amy Scarlino, Founder & President, Speaker Strategies Session Co-Leader: Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOP 2 ACQUIRING INFLUENCE: HOW DO I GET PUBLISHED? - BOWERY CONFERENCE ROOM, 43.05 WEST Session Co-Leader: Rishad Tobaccowala, Author & Co-Founder, The Athena Project Session Co-Leader: Dan Gerstein, CEO, Gotham Ghostwriters |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOP 3: INFORMATION AS A SECOND LANGUAGE(ISL): FOSTERING A DATA CULTURE TOGETHER - WHITNEY CONFERENCE ROOM, 46.38 SOUTH Session Leader: Valerie Logan, Founder & CEO, The Data Lodge & Chief Strategy Officer, Data Society Group Vinay Dheer, Senior Director, Information Technology, Regeneron |
| 8:45 AM | ATHENA PROJECT WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS Rishad Tobaccowala, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project |
| 8:50 AM | OPENING KEYNOTE WHY THE CMO SHOULD BE THE CEO - A CONVERSATION WITH ANN MUKHERJEE Moderator: Rishad Tobaccowala, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Ann Mukherjee, Board of Directors, Mondelez, Former Chairman & CEO, North America, Pernod Ricard |
| 9:25 AM | 10 GOOD MINUTES - LIFE IS AN OBSTACLE COURSE: HERE'S HOW YOU NAVIGATE IT Presenter: Maryam Banikarim, Managing Director, Live Media, Fortune |
| 9:35 AM | CRAFTING YOUR NEXT CHAPTER & BUILDING A PORTFOLIO CAREER Moderator: Robyn Streisand, Founder & CEO, Titanium & The Mixx Karna Crawford, CMO, Marqeta Renetta McCann, Chief Inclusion & Experience Officer, Publicis Groupe Maryam Banikarim, Managing Director, Live Media, Fortune |
| 10:05 AM | ON LEADERSHIP, CHARACTER AND MENTORSHIP: A CONVERSATION WITH AMBASSADOR HARRY K. THOMAS (ret.) Ambassador Harry K. Thomas (ret.), Senior Fellow, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, Former US Ambassador (The Philippines, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) & Former Director General, The Foreign Service |
| 10:30 AM | 10 GOOD MINUTES: ON MODERN LEADERSHIP Brian Fetherstonhaugh, CEO, Long View Talent Group and former CEO, OgilvyOne and Chief Talent Officer, Ogilvy |
| 10:40 AM | THE FUTURE OF WORK: BUILDING COHESIVE & RESILIENT CULTURES IN A COMPLEX, HYBRID WORLD Moderator: Siobhan Fagan, Editor-in-Chief, reworked.co Brian Fetherstonhaugh, CEO, Long View Talent Group and former CEO, OgilvyOne and Chief Talent Officer, Ogilvy Shaelyn Otikor-Miller, SVP, Global Head, Digital Workplace, Northern Trust Samuel Tam, GM, HR, AI & Cloud, Microsoft |
| 11:10 AM | BREAK |
| 11:30 AM | BRAND IS A TEAM SPORT Moderator: Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Sherina Smith, Enterprise CMO, American Family Insurance |
| 11:55 AM | THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF DISTRIBUTION & ITS IMPACT ON ENTERTAINMENT, BRANDING & CULTURE Moderator: Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project David Freeman, Co-Head, Digital, CAA |
| 12:20 PM | TRANSFORMATION @ SCALE - BEST PRACTICES, THE ROLE OF A.I. & MORE Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Ryan Dempsey, Program Manager, Office of The Chief AI Officer, Assistant Secretary of Technology Policy, Health & Human Services (HHS) |
| 12:45 PM | LUNCH |
| 1:30 PM | LUNCH KEYNOTE: MARKETING AS A STRATEGIC GROWTH DRIVER Moderator: Paul Woolmington, CEO, Canvas Worldwide Paolo Provinciali, VP, Marketing Growth, Performance and Operations, LinkedIn Iryna Papalamava, Head of Customer Engagement, Guardian Life |
| 2:00 PM | LISA CAPUTO ON INFLUENCE, IMPACT & INTELLIGENCE Moderator: Rishad Tobaccowala, Author & Co-Founder, The Athena Project Lisa Caputo, Chief Marketing, Communications and Customer Experience Officer, Travelers |
| 2:30 PM | AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS All workshops below run concurrently at 2:30pm for 45 minutes. conference. |
| 2:30 PM | AFTERNOON WORKSHOP 1 AI's IMPACT ON MARKETING & ATTRIBUTION - METROPOLIS CONFERENCE ROOM Session Presenter & Co-Leader: Kevin Wassong, Founder & CEO, mktg.ai Session Presenter & Co-Leader: Pete Blackshaw, Founder & CEO, brandrank.ai |
| 2:30 PM | AFTERNOON WORKSHOP 2 ACQUIRING INFLUENCE: SPEAKING & INDUSTRY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - WHITNEY CONFERENCE ROOM, 46.38 SOUTH Session Co-Leader: Amy Scarlino, Founder & President, Speaker Strategies Session Co-Leader: Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project |
| 2:30 PM | AFTERNOON WORKSHOP 3 PRIVATE EQUITY PRIMER: A FORCE OF INFLUENCE EMERGES - BOWERY CONFERENCE ROOM, 43.05 WEST Session Leader: Rishad Tobaccowala, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Scott Peters, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Growth Catalyst Partners Terry Kawaja, Founder & CEO LUMA Partners |
| 3:15 PM | BREAK |
| 3:30 PM | THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MODERN DAY BOARD Moderator: Tony Weisman, Advisor & Board Member, Former CEO, Digitas and CMO, Dunkin' Shiva Rajgopal,, Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing, Columbia Business School Sarah Fay, Chairman, Ziff Davis & Former CEO, Aegis North America |
| 3:55 PM | THE MODERN BRAND - IT'S ALL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE. OR IS IT? Moderator: Rei Inamoto, Founder Partner, Design I&CO Donald Chesnut, Former Chief Customer Experience Officer, GM & Mastercard Danilo Tauro, GM, Uber Eats Advertising, Uber & Advisor, Aperiam Ventures |
| 4:25 PM | THE DIGITAL ECONOMY - A REVOLUTION OR AN EVOLUTION? Moderator: Eric Bader, Advisor, Board Member, Center of Information Systems Research, MIT Terry Kawaja, Founder & CEO, LUMA Partners Scott Peters, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Growth Catalyst Partners Kirthiga Reddy, Co-Founder & CEO, Virtualness |
| 4:55 PM | A CONSIDERATION OF TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES: FROM PUBLIC ENEMY TO GEN AI Session Leader: Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Harry Allen, Author, Writer, Activist, Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow, Harvard University & Former director of Enemy relations, Public Enemy |
| 5:20 PM | DAY 1 CLOSING KEYNOTE PEOPLE vs ALGORITHMS: UNCOVERING PATTERNS OF CHANGE IN MEDIA, CULTURE, AND TECHNOLOGY Co-Host: Brian Morrissey, Founder The Rebooting & Co-Host, People vs. Algorithms podcast Co-Host: Troy Young, Advisor, Investor & former Global President, Hearst Magazines & Co-Host, People vs Algorithms podcast Featured Guest: Andrew Swinand, CEO, Inspired Thinking Group & Former CEO, Leo Burnett Group and Publicis Groupe Creative & Production, U.S. |
| 5:45 PM | DAY 1 ADJOURNMENT |
| 6:00 - 7:30 PM | RECEPTION The Selena Hotel, Rooftop Bar, 518 W 27th Street (near 10th Avenue). Drinks and light fare and appetizers will be served. |
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11
| 7:30 AM | BREAKFAST SERVICE & NETWORKING |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOPS The Breakfast Workshops will run concurrently at 8:00am for 45 minutes. |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOP 1 TURNING BIG SHIPS IN SMALL SPACES: NAVIGATING THE CHALLENGES OF ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION - WHITNEY CONFERENCE ROOM, 46.38 SOUTH Session Leader: Tom Daly, Founder, Relevant Ventures |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOP 2 ACQUIRING INFLUENCE: SPEAKING STRATEGIES & GETTING PUBLISHED- HAYDEN CONFERENCE ROOM, 45.04 WEST Session Co-Leader: Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Session Co-Leader: Bryan VanDyke, Author, "In Our Likeness" |
| 8:00 AM | BREAKFAST WORKSHOP 3 AI's IMPACT ON MARKETING & ATTRIBUTION - METROPOLIS CONFERENCE ROOM Session Presenter & Co-Leader: Kevin Wassong, Founder & CEO, mktg.ai Session Presenter & Co-Leader: Pete Blackshaw, Founder & CEO, brandrank.ai |
| 8:50 AM | WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS Rishad Tobaccowala, Co-Founder, The Athena Project Drew Ianni, Co-Founder, The Athena Project |
| 8:55 AM | OPENING KEYNOTE THE NEUROSCIENCE OF LEADERSHIP: BUILD STRONGER TEAMS, MAKE BETTER DECISIONS AND INSPIRE GREATER INNOVATION Featured Presenter: Dr. Michael L. Platt, Director, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, James S. Riepe University Professor |
| 9:20 AM | AI SPOTLIGHT - WHAT IS YOUR AI FRAMEWORK? Moderator: Morgan McKenney, Advisor & Former COO, Consumer Banking, Citi Daniel Wu, Course Facilitator, AI Professional Program, Stanford University Arpit Jain, President, Marcel.ai (Publicis) |
| 9:50 AM | CONSUMERS’ LIVES, MARKETERS’ LIVES – AND THE SPACE IN BETWEEN Moderator: Steven Wolfe Pereira, Founder & CEO, Alpha & Company Gayle Troberman, President & Chief Marketing Officer, iHeart Media Rishad Tobaccowala, Author & Co-Founder, The Athena Project |
| 10:15 AM | PERSONALIZATION IN THE AGE OF AI: Presenter: Mark Abraham, Managing Director & Senior Partner, BCG & Author, "Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI" |
| 10:25 AM | AI'S IMPACT ON CUSTOMER AND PRODUCT EXPERIENCE: Moderator: Martin Lange, Product Strategy, Digital Health Works Mark Abraham, Managing Director & Senior Partner, BCG & Author, "Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI" Evan Shumeyko, Head of Experience, Kinship (Mars Petcare) |
| 10:50 AM | BREAK |
| 11:05 AM | DRIVING INNOVATION AT SCALE Session Leader: Mark Brodeur, Advisor & Former Head of Nestle's Silicon Valley Innovation Center Linda Elkins, Former SVP, Head of Value Realization & Financial Management & former CTO, Gore Innovation Center, W.L. Gore Navin Kunde, Innovation Leader, Enterprise Evolution, Black & Veatch Anuj Bhardwaj, Head of North America, Experian Ventures |
| 11:30 AM | PRODUCTS & EXPERIENCE - BEST PRACTICES TO DRIVE STRATEGIC GROWTH & LIFETIME CUSTOMER VALUE Moderator: Matt Quint, Executive Director, Center on Brand Leadership, Columbia Business School Venky Iyer, VP, Digital Products & Experience, Suntory Global Spirits Tina Unterlaender, Senior Director, Product Management & Innovation, VW Credit, Volkswagen Group |
| 11:55 AM | WHAT IS YOUR STAKEHOLDER FRAMEWORK? STRENGHTENING CORPORATE REPUTATION, GOVERNANCE & BRAND TRUST Moderator: David Kirkpatrick, Author & Journalist and Former Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Techonomy Lauren Wolfson, Partner, Penta Group John Osborn, Director, Ad Net Zero & Former CEO, OMD USA |
| 12:25 PM | THE FIRST-TIME CEO: WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY AND ACQUIRING THE SOFT-SKILLS TO BE A MODERN DAY LEADER Justin Reilly, CEO, Wavelo (Tucows) & Former Head of Product, Verizon |
| 12:50 PM | CLOSING LUNCH & KEYNOTE: THE 50-YEAR CAREER: NAVIGATING TRANSITIONS & FINDING HARMONY Session Leader: Seth Green, Dean, The Graham School, The University of Chicago Rishad Tobaccowala, Author, Advisor & Co-Founder, The Athena Project Renetta McCann, Chief Inclusion Experiences Officer, Publicis Groupe Bryan van Dyke, Author, "In Our Likeness" & Former Managing Director, Digital Strategy, Morgan Stanley |
| 1:45 PM | CONFERENCE ADJOURNMENT |
Partners
Engage
If you are interested in learning more about Athena Project membership or supporting The Athena Project as a Founding Supporting Partner, please click the button to the right to send an email to Athena Project Co-Founder, Drew Ianni (drewianni@athenaproject.io)