Speaker Bios

Kelly Thompson
Director of Brand Planning
Carmichael Lynch

As director of brand planning, Kelly Thompson guides the strategic evolution of the brands we fight for every day. Kelly leads a sharp-as-nails team of insight miners and brand builders, and as a passionate collaborator she works cross-functionally to craft highly integrated strategies.

Kelly considers herself a Next Generation Planner. “The consumer landscape is constantly evolving, dynamic, diverse and too often for marketers, indecipherable. Today’s planners guide brands into the depths of current culture and along the way, demystify the behaviors, desires, needs and identities of consumers.”

Over the span of her strategic career, Kelly has partnered with a wide array of brands to develop connection with diverse consumer segments: from Xbox to H&R Block and Jack Link’s Beef Jerky to St. Ives.

Prior to joining Carmichael Lynch, she was associate director of strategic planning at Space 150, where she led the planning team and the strategic oversight of key accounts such as Dairy Queen, Andersen Windows and General Mills.

At Campbell Mithun, where she spent six years of her career, she led strategy for Boing, McCann Worldgroup’s Youth & Family practice. As the Youth & Family expert, she played a driving role in the repositioning of iconic brands like Burger King, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Popsicle.

Maria Reitan ignites momentum for some of the nation’s biggest brands with integrated communications strategies spanning public relations, advertising, digital and social engagement. As the chair of the agency’s Marketing to Women group, Maria harnesses the agency’s 21-years experience marketing to the country’s most coveted demographic and deploys that knowledge for the agency’s current and prospective clients.

For more than four years, Maria has hosted a weekly marketing-to-women radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm. PurseStrings reaches tens of thousands of business professionals interested in communicating with the most powerful consumer in the country.

While concentrating predominately in the consumer products industry, Maria has counseled clients in a wide-range of fields – corporate communications, healthcare, financial services, home, food, hospitality and packaged goods. She helped Hasbro celebrate 60 years of Scrabble, successfully recast Rubik’s Cube with Millennials, found America’s Ugliest Door with Therma-Tru and made kitchen organization a must-have for Diamond Cabinets. Her current clients include Trane, American Standard, Schlage and Owens-Illinois.

Prior to joining Carmichael Lynch Spong, Maria spent fifteen years in television news as an Emmy Award-winning news director and producer in Minneapolis, Chicago, Miami, Louisville and both Carolinas.

Pepper Miller founded The Hunter-Miller Group (HMG), a leading edge market research and strategic planning firm in 1985. Since then, Pepper and her company have provided real (vs. invented) insights that have helped many Fortune 500 companies effectively and positively connect with Black America. Some of these companies include, American Airlines, Allstate, AARP, General Mills, Ford Motor Company, Kraft Foods, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Procter and Gamble, Radio One and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

In 2005, Pepper and the late Herb Kemp authored What’s Black About It? Insights to Increase Your Share of a Changing African-American Market-- which is considered by many to be the most important book on African-American cultural marketing insights.

Black (Still) Matters In Marketing, is Pepper’s newest book that invites marketers to raise their cultural IQ about Black America for brand survival.

Pepper has been an invited speaker at many corporations and importantly is delighted to be welcomed back to the M2W® stage where she was the recipient of the 2005 Take the Cake Award.

Tom Peters is co-author of In Search of Excellence - the book that changed the way the world does business and often tagged as the best business book ever. Sixteen books and almost thirty years later, he’s still at the forefront of the “management guru industry” he single-handedly invented. What’s new? A lot. As CNN said, “While most business gurus milk the same mantra for all its worth, the one-man brand called Tom Peters is still reinventing himself.” His most recent effort, released in March 2010: The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. Tom’s bedrock belief: “Execution is strategy—it’s all about the people and the doing, not the talking and the theory.” His blog is ranked #9 among “The Top 150 Management and Leadership Blogs.”

“Tom Peters is the most provocative and engaging (as well as annoying and threatening) management guru running loose in America today.”—CBS MarketWatch

“In no small part, what American corporations have become is what Peters has encouraged them to be.” - The New Yorker

“Peters is ... the father of the post-modern corporation.” - Los Angeles Times

“We live in a Tom Peters world.”—Fortune

“Mr. Peters is an enthusiast, a storyteller and a lover of capitalism. He says that effective management is management that delivers more value to customers and more opportunity for service, creativity and growth to workers. He is saying that the decent thing to do is also the smart thing. It’s a wonderful message.”—Paul Weaver, Hoover Institute, in the Wall Street Journal

Marti Barletta
Founder
The Trendsight Group
Author, Marketing To Women and PrimeTime Women

Marti Barletta is the world’s foremost speaker on marketing to women. She is the author of the groundbreaking book, Marketing to Women: How to Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market, now available in 17 languages; and co-author with Tom Peters of Trends. Her most recent book, PrimeTime Women™: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders, reveals the unprecedented buying power and joie de vivre of women in their prime (ages 50-70) and shows how marketers can tap this “silver bullet” segment’s unparalleled growth, size and spending drive to propel their brand and their business.

A Wharton MBA, Marti founded her firm, The TrendSight Group, to help organizations get smart about women. In the marketplace, with women accounting for the majority of consumer and business buying, she helps companies secure more bang from every buck in their marketing and sales budgets. In the workplace, as the information-driven economy fuels demand for more skilled “human capital;” as women continue to increase their educational lead; as studies confirm women’s management skills advantage; and as mounting evidence correlates more women in leadership with stronger business results on every measure, she expects renewed demand from companies seeking an edge in marketing their positions to top female talent at both the entry and executive levels.

The key to both opportunities is knowing how to better connect with female prospects and engage them to take action. Marti has applied her proprietary GenderTrends™ model across a range of industries; clients have included Allstate, Deloitte Consulting, Ford, Frito-Lay, GE Appliances, Logitech, New York Life, Serta, Trade Secret, Toys R Us, Volvo and Wachovia. She serves on the Advisory Boards of Embrace Pet Insurance, GRAND magazine, International Mature Marketing Network and Samurai Sales Mastery.

As a recognized international authority on marketing to women, women in leadership and women’s growing role in shaping the 21st century, Marti has been quoted on CBS, ABC, MSNBC and NPR, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, USA Today, Fast Company, TIME, Business Week, Entrepreneur and many other publications worldwide. Her dynamic style, command of her subject and passion for her topic have made her a popular speaker at hundreds of companies and professional associations. Audiences note that her lively keynotes and workshops deliver fact-based information, eye-opening insights and instantly actionable ideas, and are both entertaining and memorable.

Jeffery Tobias Halter is a Consultant, Author, Gender Strategist and the President of YWomen, a strategic consulting company focused on engaging men in women’s leadership issues. Jeffery is the former Director of Diversity Strategy at The Coca-Cola Company and has over 30 years of business experience with The Coca-Cola Company, Proctor & Gamble and Alberto-Culver.

Jeffery is also author of the book Selling to Men, Selling to Women. A featured keynote speaker, his work regarding gender differences in the sales process has been used in Tom Peter’s new work Xellence Always. He has been a contributing writer to the Tom Peters Times, Women2Women Link and PINK Magazine. Jeffery holds multiple sales training certifications including Miller Heiman’s Strategic Selling and Conceptual Selling and Master Certification in Carew Internationals Dimensions of Professional Selling.

A passionate advocate in the development of women in leadership, he currently sits on the Simmons Business School’s Business Advisory Board, and has held National Advisory Board positions for Women’s Food Service Forum, The Network of Executive Women, and Linkage Inc. He has taught Business Communications at Georgia State University and has been a Guest Lecturer at The Goizueta School of Business at Emory University and the Coles School of Business at Kennesaw State University.

Several years after his introduction to America as Donald Trump’s original Apprentice, Bill Rancic continues his commitment to entrepreneurship throughout the country. Today, he is building businesses, seizing opportunities and sharing his views on how to succeed in business and in life.

Currently, Bill is developing real estate in Chicago, producing and appearing in several television programs and speaking to businesses and organizations on motivational and business topics.

Bill also regularly appears in The Board Room on NBC’s primetime show “The Apprentice,” Style Network’s reality series “Giuliana and Bill” and is the executive producer of “Airplane Repo,” airing this summer on Discovery Channel. He makes regular appearances on numerous daytime broadcast and cable television programs such as Today, The Tonight Show, The View, Rachael Ray and various CNBC programs to talk to viewers about business and entrepreneurship. He also regularly appears in many major national, regional and local print outlets throughout the country.

A published author, he wrote Beyond The Lemonade Stand to help educate and motivate young people worldwide about the value of money and how to leverage skills, talents and abilities at an early age. All proceeds from the sale of this book have gone to charity. Beyond The Lemonade Stand is the follow-up to the New York Times best-selling book, You're Hired: How To Succeed In Business And Life From The Winner Of The Apprentice, which chronicled Bill's successful life, experience and proven advice.

A budding entrepreneur at a young age, Bill got his first taste of success by founding Cigars Around the World in a 400 square foot studio apartment in Chicago.

Highly engaged in charitable activities, Bill was recently named national spokesperson for Gradiant Gives Back – a program awarding financial makeovers to deserving families during today’s challenging economic climate. He is also an active board member for the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls.

Tatiana Butovitsch Temm is one of the founders of Ampersand, a Swedish-based Business Development consulting firm. Ampersand helps its clients capitalise on the knowledge that not all customers are white middle-aged men. Realising what customer segment is growing the most – and acting on that– give companies a clear competitive advantage.

At Volvo Car Corporation, Tatiana was the communications manager for the concept car YCC. In the project, an all-women team made all the decisions regarding the car and its features. Since its launch in 2004, it has received 2,5 column kilometers of press cuttings, beating the attention of most production cars.

A vital part of Tatiana's working life has been public speaking. She is an experienced speaker that is as comfortable speaking for an audience of 3,000 as for an audience of ten. Tatiana puts a lot of energy in her presentations, and strives to simplify complex business processes so that they are understandable and entertaining to listen to.

Tatiana is a journalist by profession, who has worked with dailies, magazines and as a freelancer. Her strong point is PR, communications and brand development for gender-smart organizations.

Tatiana is a seasoned traveler and has a hard time resisting a visit to a new country. At home, she divides the time between her family; New Zealand-born husband Adrian and daughter Emma, born in 1997, weekend cooking for family and friends and puttering in the garden.

In 2010, Paula Loyola Schmidt established WOMAN EYES, a consulting company focused in bringing female vision to leading companies’ business strategies, working with renowned firms such as Walmart Chile and Roche Laboratories. In 2011, WOMAN EYES partnered with Cadem Research to survey over 3100 consumers in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Perú. The resulting study, “What Working Women Want in Latin America” was presented at a major congress in Santiago de Chile, with an audience of over 750 attendees from all over the region.

Paula was a board member of National Advertisers Association (ANDA) from 2008 to 2010. In 2008, she received the ‘Best Marketing Director’ Award from Capital Business magazine. Additional accomplishments include: ‘Successful Young People’ Award from Diario Financiero (newspaper) in 2009 and ‘100 Leading Women’ recognition twice (in 2009 and 2010) from El Mercurio newspaper and Leading Women Association.

Paula has over fifteen years of banking, telecommunications and retail executive experience. She is a graduate of Business Management and Economics from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, where she also received her Masters in Business Administration. She did her post-graduate studies at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Kathy Sheehan is Senior Vice President and General Manager of GfK Roper Consulting, a unit of GfK Custom Research North America. GfK is the fourth largest market research company in the world, with offices in 100 countries and more than 10,000 employees globally. In her current role, Kathy oversees GfK Roper Consulting’s premier consumer trends services -- Roper Reports®, Roper Reports® Worldwide, the Roper Youth Report® and the GfK Roper Green Gauge® study on the environment. Together, these services help clients turn insight into inspiration and foresight into advantage worldwide.

Prior to joining GfK Custom Research North America, Kathy was the Associate Director of Customer Knowledge at OgilvyOne Consulting, a unit of Ogilvy & Mather. Before joining Ogilvy & Mather, Kathy held several different roles at The Columbia House Company, most recently as Manager, Marketing Planning and Analysis.

Kathy is currently an adjunct professor in the Marketing department at LIM College in New York City. She has also been a guest lecturer in the Masters in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing program at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Kathy speaks frequently at various trade events, including the 2002 SmartMarketing Conference and a keynote at the 2006 American Marketing Association’s “Mplanet”. In addition, Kathy is also a spokesperson for GfK Roper Consulting and has been quoted widely in various media, including CNBC Business Center, BrandWeek, Advertising Age, and The New York Times.

Kathy received her MBA in International Business and Marketing from Baruch College and her MA in International Political Economy from New York University. As part of this MA program, Kathy spent a summer studying at MGIMO, the Moscow Institute of International Affairs in Russia. Kathy holds a BA from Rutgers University with a double major in Political Science and English and a Russian language minor.

Kathy Oneto is Vice President of Brand Strategy at Anthem Worldwide where she leads client and brand engagements across a range of industries from consumer packaged goods to retail to technology. These engagements can include brand positioning, portfolio and range architecture, innovation, and facilitation. Kathy is also responsible for thought development, including Anthem’s Sightings, quarterly reports on trends in marketing, innovation, branding, and design. In the last year she wrote the paper “Today’s Women: Newfound Power, Persistent Expectations,” from which her talk will be inspired.

Kathy brings to her role a blend of client-side brand marketing and general business management knowledge, complemented with consultative experience. Prior to Anthem, Kathy co-founded and was Vice President of Marketing of a natural food start-up where she was responsible for defining the brand and business proposition and was instrumental in bringing the business to life. Before that at Clorox, she developed a solid grounding in base brand management, new product innovation, and retailer marketing. She managed the Kingsford base brand where she drove the new business strategy process resulting in a revised brand strategy and positioning. She developed the first truly collaborative co-marketing program with Wal-Mart in her retailer marketing role, and she led innovation on multiple brands including Glad trash and Fresh Step cat litter. Earlier in her career, Kathy worked at A.T. Kearney, Young & Rubicam, and Burson-Marsteller.

Kathy graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Commerce and has an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Shay Brown is a 16 year former gymnast, track athlete and the President /CEO of Royal Kingdom PR Agency, Inc. RKA, Inc. is a full service public relations agency specializing in sports marketing, celebrity and entertainment PR and event planning. Shay’s background includes being an executive corporate professional in contract negotiation, marketing, and business development. Shay’s high energy, honesty and ethical workmanship have wowed audiences and those who know her around the world. Those who know Shay also describe her as a person of integrity, passion, character, and moral values. Her unmatched work ethic is sought after by many to help with strategic branding, guerrilla marketing, and mass marketing through public relations initiatives.

Her current and former list of clients include: Olympic athletes, NFL/CFL prospects, FIBA/NBA prospects, professional actors, beverage company providers, arena football teams, entertainment and film companies, business coaches/consultants, authors, speakers, chiropractors, TV talk show hosts, and radio personalities. She has helped many others learn to create more wealth through effective networking. Shay has held seminars for some of the nation’s top motivational speakers such as: Les Brown (Top Motivational Speaker, Speech Coach, and Author), Bill Walsh (Leading Venture Capitalist- Power Team International), and non-profit children organizations.

Shay has been featured on several radio stations, in many publications, and TV programs as a former athlete or respected professional in her area. In addition to all of her many accomplishments, this go-getting CEO also serves as the VP of Marketing and minority owner of the Arizona Outlaws Indoor Professional Football Team in Prescott Valley, Arizona, the VP of Marketing/Co-Owner for a global beverage provider (who provide beverage endorsements for celebrities and professional athletes) and as a member of the National High School Basketball Association (501C3) Marketing Committee and Program Coordinator. Shay lives by the adage: “To Whom Much is Given, Much is Required,” and currently resides in Memphis, Tn.