Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

10:45 AM - Noon - The Women's Media Track

Track III: Poolside Tent I

Living the Life: Women Entrepreneurs, Lifestyle Innovators and Disrupters

Mallika Bajaj, Indian journalist and sportscaster

Anne-Marie Roussel, Venture Partner, Illuminate

Nina Simosko, Chief Product Officer, NTTi3

Devery Holmes, President & CEO, Spark Marketing

Melissa Palazzo, President, Ant Farm

Jen Mojo, founder, Paper Dolls

Lisa Kraynak, Founding partner, Propelle partners, Moderator

experiencein managing marketing, strategy, agency operations and personnel for some of the most prestigious brands. Prior to her role as President of Ant Farm Melissa has held leadership positions at Ketchum Public Relations, USA Networks, Miramax Films and Sony Pictures. Melissa is a strong believer in a motivational management style with an emphasis on staff growth and development and has a history of building and retaining highly skilled and energized teams who enjoy what they do.  Proven success in establishing strong industry and client relationships as well as business development, creative management and an expertise in heart centered leadership. Melissa is on the Executive Board of A Place Called Home, a wonderful organization which focuses on creating opportunities for children and teens in South Central Los Angeles. When not trying to take over the world she enjoys doing yoga with her husband and caring for their beautifulone year old daughter.

Mallika Bajaj, Indian journalist and sportscaster: India’s youngest Davis Cup host, sportsperson, producer, radio jockey, journalist, TV host and businesswoman, Mallika Bajaj is a bundle of energy and talent. One among the few young entrepreneurs of the country, she is the Founder of digital media firm, Little Yellow Beetle.  After completing an MA in Media and Communications from the University of London, this dynamic lady directly went on to build her first company in the Middle East at the age of 22! But that was just the beginning. At 23, she started the Little Yellow beetle, a highly reputed 360-degree Media Solutions Digital Studio along with her sister Pallavi Bajaj, who gave up her dream job as a Trade Expert in one of the Switzerland’s leading banks to support Mallika’s dream – what a duo!  Mallika has also appeared as a sportscaster at the 2010 Australian Open tennis tournament, the Australian Football League (AFL) and has written for the Advantage Tennis publication. Unbelievably, she had also represented the country in Tennis, until a stubborn injury forced her to the sidelines. Can you guess what she did next? Well, she actually directed a film titled “Tennis Play and Stay” which ended up being covered by CNN! In fact, what we found most fascinating is that she has always been the youngest wherever she has been – be it school, university, or even her MA programme where she was elected student representative for a class of everybody over 25-years age at just 21!

Anne-Marie Roussel is cofounder and COO of SeeSpace Ltd. a startup delivering a new TV interface blending broadcast and Internet content together on the TV screen. Anne-Marie has collaborated with Illuminate for several years, first as an EIR and now as an advisor sharing her 15+ years of experience as a technology executive. She is an expert in the transition of consumer technologies to the enterprise.  Prior to Illuminate Ventures, Anne Marie was Head of Acquisitions and Partnerships for Sharp Corporation and earlier she managed the Digital Media and Mobile Communications portfolio for Microsoft’s Entertainment Division including product groups such as Xbox, Windows Mobile and MediaRoom. Previously, Anne-Marie was Vice President at Gartner Group in Paris, France where she was responsible for the creation and launch of Gartner’s “Cool Vendors List” –a yearly round-up of the best and brightest startups in IT and “Gartner Invest” — an advisory service for investors in tech. In her spare time, Anne-Marie is a wine aficionado.

Devery Holmes, President & Chief Executive Officer, Spark Alliance Marketing: Devery Holmes is a recognized leader in brand, entertainment and partnership marketing. She founded Spark Alliance Marketing in 2009, after serving as President and CMO for NMA Entertainment & Marketing.  SparkAM services include full service marketing solutions for brands as well as content providers, and in 2013, added branded integration to its list of services with the acquisition of Creative Entertainment Services (CES).  Under Devery’s leadership, SparkAM has developed and managed partnership marketing programs for brands and content providers such IHOP, 20th Century Fox Filmed Entertainment, Schwarkopf Professional USA, Boston Beer, Focus Feature Films, InStyler, Zipcar, CBS Films, Inc., Hostess Brands, LLC., Warner Bros. Domestic Syndication, Pretzel Crisps, Bigelow Tea, Barilla Pasta, Brown Forman brands and Bare Snacks.  Holmes has managed numerous award-winning marketing programs; most recently SparkAM was awarded a Gold REGGIE and the Gold Pro Award for the Hostess “Twinkie Minion Makeover” campaign with the Despicable Me 2 DVD. Other programs of note include:  IHOP partnerships with Horton Hears a Who!, Despicable Me, The Lorax, Spy Kids 2, and Man of Steel; Marvel Heroes with Yahoo!, Nvidia, Rayovac and Dell Alienware; Hostess Brands with X-Men: Days of Future Past, Shrek, Transformers, King Kong, and The Bee Movie; Pretzel Crisps with Mr. Peabody & Sherman; HeadBlade with Elysium; Zipcar with The Giver; and InStyler with Bridesmaids and Sex and the City 2.  Recently, SparkAM developed an augmented reality basketball game with Hostess Brands and the Penguins of Madagascar.   In her career, Devery and her team have won the Super REGGIE Award for the Samsung/The Matrix Reloaded campaign, the Key Art Award for Sears/Chicken Little “Wish Big”, the Gold REGGIE for BMW and Goldeneye, and the Gold REGGIE award for Baskin-Robbins’ Shrek it out campaign.  A Southern California native, Holmes began her career at ABC Television, she has chaired the Entertainment Center of Excellence Committee for the PMA, now called The Brand Activation Association (BAA) and has her M.B.A. in marketing and management from Loyola Marymount University.

Nina Simosko, Chief Product Officer, NTTi3: Prior to her new position at NTTi3, Nina Simosko worked for Nike, Inc. in Beaverton, Oregon and was responsible for leading the creation and execution of Nike Technology strategy and operations world-wide. Nina currently serves on the Advisory Boards Appcelerator and Reflektion. Previously, she worked at SAP where she last served as the Senior Vice President in charge of SAP’s Global Premier Customer Network (PCN). She led both the PCN Center of Excellence and SAP’s Global Executive Advisory Board. During her tenure, she was also part of SAP’s Global Ecosystem & Partner Group which was charged with continuing to build and enable an open ecosystem of software, service and technology partners together with SAP’s communities of innovation. Finally, she served as the Global Chief Operating Officer for the worldwide Customer Education organization. Responsible for driving more than half a billion euros in global software and services revenue, SAP’s Customer Education team was named the leading IT Education and Training organization in the world according to IDC’s Competitive Analysis Report, Worldwide IT Education and Training 2008 Vendor Analysis. Nina has more than twenty years of sales and operations management experience with a deep understanding of the global high-tech industry having held various senior management positions at Oracle Corporation, Siebel Systems and Tandem (a Compaq company).

Jen Mojo is the founder of Paper Dolls, a network of female entrepreneurs committed to embracing and enhancing the way professional women work, individually and together. Members vary in their industries and independent aspirations but share a common belief that women go farther when they go together.  With a focus on redesigning the workspace for women, she opened the first Paper Dolls  co-working studio in Los Angeles – a beautiful, inspiring place filled with community. She is currently at work scaling Paper Dolls within Los Angeles and nationally. Jen’s background is in marketing. She is a 20+ year multi-discipline marketing leader with a passion for creating emotional consumer connections and experiences. Jen has worked directly or in partnership with some of the world’s leading brands including Microsoft, Disney, Samsung, Pepsi, Farmers Insurance, Major League Baseball and CBS delivering award winning digital, retail, product launch and experiential marketing programs.

Lisa Kraynak, Founding partner, Propelle partners:  Lisa Kraynak is a pioneer in the development of innovative brands and experiences that bring value to consumers’ lives. She has more than 20 years of experience, which have included key roles at Demand Media, NBC Universal, iVillage, Viacom, Intuit, the City of New York, and Del Monte Foods.  In 2012, Lisa launched Propelle partners, a digital business accelerator, dedicated to growing entertainment, media and e-commerce businesses. Clients range from early stage start-ups, to mid-level growth companies as well as large multi-national organizations focused on profitably scaling their digital businesses.   Prior to founding Propelle partners, Lisa served as Senior Vice President and General Manager at Demand Media, where she launched the company’s major extension into the Women’s category and built the consumer brand and business in the Fashion and Beauty segment. As General Manager, she led the partnership between Demand Media and Tyra Banks, driven by a large and compelling library of content, including over 1100 original videos created for the YouTube platform, as well as multi-million dollar sponsorships from L’Oreal and additional blue-chip advertising partners.  Before Demand Media, Lisa was a senior executive at NBC Universal, where she served as a core member of its Digital Media group, overseeing a significant expansion which included the creation of the company’s first digital studio for video content, the acquisition of iVillage and the launch of Hulu.com, all of which helped to grow the company’s digital revenues to more than $1 billion over four years.  Prior to NBCU, Lisa held key posts with the City of New York within the Bloomberg Administration, where she served as Senior Vice President of Marketing, as well as with Viacom where she worked with the world's leading advertisers and agencies to develop industry-leading, integrated marketing platforms which spanned Viacom's entire portfolio of media assets.   Prior to Viacom, Lisa was on the founding team of iVillage.com where she served in a variety of Programming, Community, Marketing and General Management roles, establishing iVillage as one of the top 20 sites on the Internet. Preceding iVillage, she worked in the Silicon Valley for the Intuit Corporation managing the OEM business and leading all consumer acquisition. She began her career with Del Monte Foods, advancing through a steady progression of sales, marketing and brand management posts.  Whether starting something from scratch or working within large companies to launch new businesses, Lisa has consistently been on the forefront of imagining and implementing new ways to provide consumers compelling solutions and experiences.