Samantha DiGennaro, a sought after communications strategist, is the founder of DiGennaro Communications (DGC), the leading public relations agency serving the advertising, media, marketing and business-to-business entertainment spaces. Since opening DGC in January 2006, Sam has built a highly reputable agency that has most recently launched a consumer offering as well as burgeoning executive positioning and thought leadership practices.

As the leader of DGC, Sam's creativity and vision drive the agency's culture and set the tone for deep and longstanding client, press, industry and influencer relationships.

Sam has been an integral force in managing the public image of CEOs and the strategic messaging of some well-known C-suites throughout the advertising, media, marketing and technology spaces. She has served as counselor to many independent companies to increase enterprise value on their road to acquisition.

DGC has seen consistent year-over-year growth since opening its doors and has been awarded the following recognition: Top 10 Great Entrepreneurial Places to Work by NY Enterprise Report (2011 and 2012); Inc. 500|5000: America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies for two consecutive years (2011 and 2012); and Best Overall Company of the Year by Stevie Awards for Women in Business (2011 and 2012).

Additionally, Sam was the recipient of an Entrepreneur of the Year award from The Stevie’s in 2012.

From 1998-2005, Sam built and oversaw the New York, North American, and Global Communications teams at J. Walter Thompson, the world's first ad agency. During her tenure, Sam helped reposition JWT as a more nimble creative agency. Prior to that, she was public relations manager at DMB&B. Sam holds degrees from The University of Chicago and has studied etching at The School of Visual Arts. She is on the Board of Poly Prep Country Day School. Sam is an avid adventure traveler and plays competitive softball in her spare time.

Cindy Gallop is a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, whose background is brandbuilding, marketing and advertising - she started up the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York in 1998 and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year. She is the founder and CEO of www.IfWeRanTheWorld.com, a marketing platform that turns human and corporate good intentions into collective action, launched in beta at TED 2010, and subsequently written up and taught as a Harvard Business School case study; and of www.makelovenotporn.com, launched at TED 2009. She and cofounders Corey Innis (CTO) and Oonie Chase (User Experience) have just launched https://www.makelovenotporn.tv/: details can be found at http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/ . She acts as board advisor to a number of tech startups and consults for companies around the world, describing her consultancy approach as 'I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.' She has a reputation as a highly compelling and inspirational speaker at conferences and events around the world on a variety of topics: her talks on the future of advertising and marketing have been tweeted as: ‘The most brilliant speech on the future of advertising ever – not the usual buzzword-laden bullshit’; ‘Watching @cindygallop slice and dice the ad industry status quo like a ginsu knife. #purewin’; and ‘There must be a DeLorean parked outside, because Cindy Gallop is from the FUTURE!’ Pardeep Sall introduced her at InfluencerCon NYC as ‘Cindy Gallop is the truth Jack Nicholson told Tom Cruise he couldn’t handle.’ She published ‘Make Love Not Porn: Technology’s Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior’ as one of TED’s line of TEDBooks and is currently working on a book about her philosophy of life and business. You can view her talk on ‘The Future Of Porn’ at SXSW 2013 here: http://vimeo.com/65764286 and follow her on Twitter @cindygallop.

Mandy Gilbert is chief executive of Creative Niche, a company that provides creative staffing, executive search and workforce management solutions to major advertising, digital, design and public relations agencies in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.
She writes a monthly column in the Financial Post and is ranked as one of Canada’s top entrepreneurs by Profit W100 and Profit 500.

Jen is Director of Awards Programs for the Art Directors Club (ADC). Founded in New York in 1920, the ADC is a not-for-profit membership organization whose mission is to connect, provoke and elevate creative visual communications professionals around the world. Jen oversees the Annual Awards which identify and honor the best work in print and broadcast advertising, interactive media, graphic design, publication design, packaging, photography and illustration, and the ADC Hall of Fame, established in 1971 as a cross-disciplinary acknowledgement of the most renowned professionals in visual arts and communications. (Past inductees represent a diverse group of luminaries in those fields, including Richard Avedon, Walt Disney, Charles and Ray Eames, Louise Fili, Milton Glaser, Annie Leibovitz, George Nelson, Andy Warhol and others.)

Jen’s own creative talents include producing for theatre and film. In June 2009, Jen proudly helped launch the not-for-profit organization DecadesOut. Its mission is to raise public awareness of the cultural impact between science and humanity. It produces works of fiction and non-fiction in theatre, film, and the visual arts. In New York, she has also produced theatre in the New York International Fringe Festival and films at DedPro Inc.

She holds a BA in English and BFA in Acting from the University of Connecticut and has studied theatre at the Circle in the Square Theatre School. She is proud to report that she also has an affinity for dialects, pilates, making banana bread, and is very good at improvising.

Ale Lariu is the CEO of shout (everybodyshout.com) and co-founder of SheSays (weareshesays.com) a five year old award-winning global network organization focused on the engagement, education and advancement of women in digital marketing.

In 2010, Ale was picked by Fast Company magazine as number 29 out of the 100 most creative people in business beating Tom Ford, Jamie Oliver and the founder of FourSquare. In 2011 she was elected ‘World’s Most Influential Female Creative Director’ by Adwomen and got an award for ‘Greatest Individual Contribution to New Media’ by NMA magazine. In 2012 she was in FastCompany’s “League of extraordinary women” with 60 other amazing ladies like Hillary Clinton, Oprah and the founder of Kiva.

Ale has been kicking ass for as long as she can remember. Before starting her own company, she was SVP Group Creative Director at McCann, where she has worked with clients like MasterCard, General Mills, Kohls, Nikon and Verizon. Before that, she worked for Agency Republic, a digital boutique shop four times best interactive agency in the UK. Her 15 year-old career in advertising has lead to 18 prestigious industry accolades including Cannes, D&AD and OneShow. She also spoke at over 15 conferences in the past five years.

Ale is a guest teacher at Hyper Island (Sweden), Berghs (Sweden), Miami Ad School (NY) and Boulder Digital Works. She presented at Wharton and Columbia University. She also writes a monthly column on digital culture for the Brazilian version of Wired magazine and is on the board of the Art Directors Club and the Creative Review Board for The Ad Council. Ale was born in the Brazilian Amazon jungle. She grew up in Rio de Janeiro and in 1994 was awarded a scholarship from the Brazilian government to do an MA in London where she lived and worked for 13 years before moving to the US. She speaks five languages but mixes them a lot.

Ignacio Oreamuno, Executive Director of the Art Directors Club, never believed he needed anyone's permission to change the industry he loves so much. That fearlessness inspired him to found IHAVEANIDEA in 2001, with the intention of creating a community-based publication that shared quality know-how by creatives for creatives. Soon thereafter, Ignacio launched Portfolio Night, the world's first-ever international portfolio review. Both initiatives grew at lightning speed, which solidified his path to inspiring creatives around the world.

In the following years, Ignacio was named one of Marketing Magazine's "Ones to Watch Under 30," and he launched two new initiatives: the Tomorrow Awards, an international award show without categories, exclusively focused on teaching and learning; and Giant Hydra, a first-of-its-kind mass collaboration creative tool for agencies.

Ignacio's recent move to the leadership position at the ADC marks the integration of two of the most esteemed industry advocate organizations in the world-- furthering his goals "to dramatically change, for the better, the industry I love so much".

Having lived in ten countries throughout his life, across Latin America, Europe and North America, Ignacio is no stranger to travel and new cultures. He is known for living his life in an airplane, for his taste for fine food and wine, and for never stopping in his tireless quest to improve the global creative industries.

Gina has had an impact on every aspect of the organization. In her 20 years, she has effectively achieved higher standards by establishing events of career building, educational value; sustaining and growing perennial programs such as Magazine Day know NY Media Day and The International ANDY Awards; strengthening industry dialogue on pertinent, timely issues; and maintaining the Club’s critical commitment to the Foundation (its philanthropic arm which supports the education and mentoring of young people entering the industry).

Her achievements also include bringing profitable, exciting sponsors from the music and media fields to the ANDY Show, supporting MEDIACTION (which “gives back” to the business through agency/client/media alliances), launching Digital Action, overseeing ADVERTISING Week’s Stars of Madison Avenue/Advertising Person of the Year luncheon, and addressing smaller but essential interests like the Small Business Forum and the Young Professionals unit. In the past five years, the ANDY Awards has garnered greater stature and buzz on her watch than in its 40 years of existence.

Before joining The AD Club, Gina worked at Y&R and MTV Networks. A St. John’s University graduate and native New Yorker, she resides here with her husband and three children.