Wednesday, October 22nd

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM

Track III: Salon III

The Always Connected Consumer - Apps, Devices, Networks - The Social & Entertainment Lifestyle

Kevin Wassong, CEO, LIN Mobile

Brian Burke, CEO, Smashing Ideas

Chaim Haas, Head of Communications, Glide

Mike Schneider, VP of Marketing, Skyhook

David B. Williams, CEO, Volectro

Max Fischer, President and CEO, BeLinked

AKASH JAIN, Head of Consulting & Corporate Development, Brillio

Paolo Sigismondi, MBA, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, USC, Moderator

implementation of the agency’s long-term growth and market strategy. Built upon his extensive experience in early and late-stage start-ups, Brian leads SI’s business growth in competitive markets, creates diverse revenue opportunities  and guides the innovations team to develop leading-edge design and tech-driven solutions that blend physical with digital.  Brian's specialty in growth strategies and keeping content and product companies ahead of the shifting digital landscape has resulted in a client list over the years that includes Philips, Sony Pictures Television, Mattel, Adobe, Nickelodeon, Panasonic, HBO, Showtime, and Turner to name a few. Furthermore, his expertise in the digital content ecosystem, media, platforms, mobile and devices, and design trends has positioned SI as a truly strategic partner and digital arm to several Fortune 500 companies.  Prior to SI Brian was the Vice President of Syndication at Atom Entertainment and Senior Director of Business Development at Zango. He has a BA of Communication Studies from Seattle University and a Master of European Studies from K.U. Leuven, Belgium.

Chaim Haas, Head of Communications, Glide:  Chaim is the Head of Communications at Glide, the world's first and only instant video messaging app. In this role, he leads all of the company's media relations efforts and developing strategic communications programs to help the Glide brand achieve broad awareness among its target audiences, with the goal of growing it into a household brand that we all know, love and use in our daily lives. He joined Glide in July of 2014 after more than 16 years of PR agency experience promoting technology companies -- from innovative startups to established Fortune 1000 brands -- and their executives. In his most recent role leading Kaplow's Technology & Emerging Media Practice since November 2006, Chaim led the Skype account for 7 1/2 years and helped turn it into a household name. Chaim graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in marketing from Yeshiva University's Sy Syms School of Business.

Mike Schneider, VP of Marketing, Skyhook: Mr. Schneider joined Skyhook as Vice President of Marketing in 2013. He has spent his career solving problems using technology with a focus on marketing and analytics. Prior to joining Skyhook, he served as Senior Vice President and Director of The Digital Incubator with ad firm Allen & Gerritsen. He began his career building enterprise class database driven applications and data warehouses. Opportunities to get his hands on world-class technology projects & management consulting opportunities brought him to organizations like Ernst & Young & Oracle. Mr. Schneider served as Vice President at Hill, Holliday and Principal at Tourtellotte Solutions and Senior Sales Engineer at Aprimo. He served as Vice President and Director for Measurement and Analytics of Allen & Gerritsen, Inc. In 2004, he took his CRM and analytics expertise to Hill, Holliday where he built the database marketing practice and also ran the digital technology practice. His client roster includes: Cognos, CVS, Dunkin Donuts, Fidelity Investments, Dell, Gillette, Georgia Pacific, Hannaford, Liberty Mutual, LPL, MFS, Pfizer and Sears. He has built award-winning communities designed and implemented B2B and consumer segmentation, content management and customer relationship management solutions. He co-wrote the book â Location-based Marketing for Dummiesâ and also writes for several blogs including a technology and social media blog called Digital Before Digital. He earned a B.S. in MIS and Accountancy from Miami University in 1995.

David B. Williams, Founder/CEO Volectro; For over 20 years, Williams has built companies and produced innovative products and content at the frontiers of digital media. At Volectro, he is helping leading digital networks own their distribution and forge high-value bonds with their best customers. In 2008, Williams sold a company he co-founded to Disney and spent several years charting new directions in online video. During his tenure, he developed and led key teams at Take180, an award-winning digital studio and network that blazed a trail on YouTube for today's multi-channel networks. He also built and ran MyDcast, Disney's kid-safe platform for user-generated video, driving numerous initiatives for top franchises like Toy Story, Phineas and Ferb and Hannah Montana. Pre-Disney, Williams developed and patented a technology for "massively social storytelling" to produce a succession of online properties, including a series that went from the web to ABC primetime, a Star Trek event starring George Takei and Wil Wheaton, and a series of "fanisodes" based on Showtime's The L Word which resulted in an Interactive Emmy nomination. In the late nineties, Williams created and launched the web's first regularly scheduled animated series, WhirlGirl, which was picked up by Showtime, attracted capital from Viacom, and ran for over 50 episodes. Born and raised in Manhattan, Williams was educated at Sarah Lawrence College and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons.

Max Fischer is Founder, CEO and President of BeLinked, the first interactive mobile dating app that lets users find matches through LinkedIn's trusted professional network. Fischer previously served as an investment professional with Ares Management, LLC a leading investment firm. Fischer has also worked with leading investment banks including Jefferies and Company as well as FBR Capital Markets. Due to Fischer’s interest in entertainment he pursued roles with CAA in their business development group. Fischer graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s of science in economics. Max is a Los Angeles native where he attended the Brentwood School.

AKASH JAIN, Head of Consulting & Corporate Development at Brillio:  Akash brings over 20+ years of experience in helping lead large scale business transformation, customer experience, change management and package implementation efforts especially in Consumer Focused Industries such as Media / Entertainment / Retail and CPG. Akash heads Digital Consulting Globally for Brillio. In his role, Akash helps field facing executives make sense of emerging technologies, marry them to the industry knowledge and help digitally transform the traditional business processes to enable enterprises to capture opportunities and respond to threats and disruptions. Akash leads a team of over 100 associates globally with expertise in retail industry, business process and emerging technology

Paolo Sigismondi, MBA, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, USC: Paolo Sigismondi’s research and teaching interests focus on the phenomena of globalization forged by new technologies and economic forces such as multinational corporations, especially media, advertising and entertainment conglomerates and their impact on society. He graduated summa cum laude in Economics from LUISS University in Rome, Italy. At the University of Southern California he earned an MBA from the Marshall School of Business, a graduate certificate in Business of Entertainment from the School of Cinematic Arts, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. He has more than a decade of work experience in the global media and entertainment industry. He held executive positions in two of Europe’s largest media holding companies, Mediaset and Telemontecarlo networks, and in the United States he worked at the world headquarters of Warner Bros. Entertainment, in its International Television Distribution division. He is the author of the book “The Digital Glocalization of Entertainment: New Paradigms in the 21st Century Global Mediascape."

Internet Summit - Branding Day