Tuesday, May 21st, 2019

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Track I: Haas Conference Center, Room 172 & 173, Live Webcast

Brand Partnerships in Sports - Wellness - Celebrity - Strategies with Media/Entertainment/Technology Partners

Brian Kelly, SVP of Sales, Bleacher Report

Anne-Marie O’Neill, COO, Whalerock Industries

Ashley McCollum, General Manager, Tasty, BuzzFeed

Jesse Nunez, CEO, PopFlyXP

Art Sims, CEO, 1124 Design, Inc.

Moderator - Mark Kapczynski, President, Storymill

Anne-Marie O’Neill is the chief operating officer at Whalerock Industries, a next generation production company and leader in digital media innovation that creates, produces and distributes brand and premium content across the media landscape. As chief operating officer, Anne-Marie oversees content strategy, brand development and business solutions for the official apps of the Kardashian and Jenner women, Golf Media by Tyler, The Creator, Adam Savage’s TESTED, Wonderwall, Purple Clover, Mom.me and emoji keyboards for Kim Kardashian West, (KIMOJI), the Los Angeles Lakers, (Showtime! Stickers), Ellen DeGeneres (Emoji Exploji) and the NFL Players Association (Any Given Emoji). She joined Whalerock Industries in 2012 to launch Mom.me, a popular parenting and lifestyle online brand that offers parenting news, real-world advice, delicious recipes, ideas for living beautifully, and more. Before

launching mom.me and serving as its lead editor, she was deputy editor of Real Simple magazine. Prior to Real Simple, Anne-Marie was a senior editor at People magazine, where she crafted and contributed countless cover stories for America’s most popular weekly. Anne-Marie was recruited from her native Australia to work at People, after spending two years as a writer for Time magazine in Sydney. She started her career at News Corp. in Australia, where she was a national correspondent for all of Rupert Murdoch’s seven metropolitan daily newspapers. Anne-Marie has appeared frequently on national television, including “Today”, “The View”, “Entertainment Tonight”, “Access Hollywood” and CNN, among others.

Ashley McCollum is the General Manager of Tasty, BuzzFeed’s Food brand that reached more than 500M people monthly, launching new content formats including long form programming and a Tasty Talent program while diversifying the brand’s revenue streams.  Previously, she served as Chief of Staff to BuzzFeed CEO and Founder Jonah Peretti, where she worked closely with Peretti and the executive team to shape strategy for company-wide initiatives, including running point on new R&D projects to extend the company’s longterm competitive advantage. Since joining BuzzFeed in 2012, McCollum has helped grow the company from a small 75 person startup with 20 million monthly unique visitors to a thriving international media company with over 1,500 employees and 9 billion monthly content views while rolling out dozens of new content verticals, hundreds of new hires, editorial initiatives and business deals.  In June 2016, McCollum was named to Adweek’s “The 30 Most Influential People in Food” list and in January 2017, she was included on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list. Before joining BuzzFeed, McCollum worked in marketing & communications at NBC News and focused on digital and social initiatives. She studied Economics at Presbyterian College and lives in Los Angeles.

Brian Kelly is the SVP of Brand Sales at Bleacher Report. In this role, Kelly is leading go-to-market strategy for social media, working with advertising clients and BR’s ad sales team to develop social and branded-content campaigns targeted at the site’s core millennial-male audience.

Art Sims is the CEO, chief creative director, president of marketing, creative director of 1124 Design, Inc. 1124 Design’s clients have included Black Panther, Lucasfilm, Will Packer, Paramount Pictures, Spike Lee, Universal Pictures, HBO, Robert Johnson, Under Armour, Showtime, BET, Starz Networks, Amazon, Coca-Cola,Warner Bros, Disney, Code Black,Sony Entertainment, 20th Century- Fox, Cal National Bank, UCLA Extension, Lexus, View Park Prep Charter Schools, Starbucks, Burger King,and Magic Johnson Enterprises. 11:24 proven ability to interpret client and ad agency communication strategies for corporations. 15+ years hands on experience in full service entertainment and general market advertising. Combine expertise in marketing and multi-cultural advertising with exceptional research skills to attain meticulous cultural and temporal accuracy of marketing brands across all platforms. Proficient problem solver who achieves complex creative goals under tight deadlines and budgets. Inspirational team leader with devoted work ethic that is accustomed to wearing many hats, often at the same time. While our cornerstone is entertainment, we have worked with a range of clients…from packaged goods to non-profits and direct-to-consumer service businesses. We are connected…to consumers and some of the best entertainment industry talent through personal contacts with actors, casting agents and influencers.

Jesse Nunez, CEO, PopFlyXP: A native Angeleno, Jesse Nunez is CEO and Co-FOunder of PopFlyXP, a digital fan and content startup for sports and entertainment. A leader in the LatinX and multicultural marketplace for nearly 20 years,  he spent over three seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the Corporate Partnership & Revenue Team working with retail, beverage, tourism, financial & consumer facing brands. Prior to joining the Dodgers, he spent nearly 13 years running his own multicultural advertising and marketing firm in Los Angeles, with clients in the automotive, grocery, retail, healthcare and media sector, among others. In his role at PopFlyXP Jesse oversees the development and revenue streams for the app including the companies ability to expand audiences in multicultural (Latino, Asian, African American), sports and general sports market audiences. He oversees advertising, marketing and brand partnerships for the app and their partners including All Star player Adrian Gonzalez, among others. Jesse resides in the City of Whittier with his wife, Melissa and his four children, Mia, Nikolas, Natalie and Zachary. He is an avid music fan and multi-instrumentalist as well as a member of various civic and philanthropic boards.

Mark Kapczynski has a successful track record as a serial entrepreneur, chief executive, and cross-industry expert.  He serves as an Executive Director of the UCLA Venture Capital Fund, helping to foster innovation connected to the university.  Programs include early stage investing, mentoring, and access to Intellectual Property from university patents. Mr. Kapczynski advises startup businesses as part of the LA Chamber of Commerce’s Bixel Exchange.  In this role, Mr. Kapczynski assists technology startups in Southern California to design their businesses, build out their teams and raise capital to fuel their growth. He also serves as a Venture Partner for Arrowroot Capital in Santa Monica, CA. At Arrowroot, Mr. Kapczynski focuses on investments in the SaaS market in need of growth capital to further develop their businesses.  The areas that Mr. Kapczynski addresses are Big Data & Analytics, Financial Services, and Consumer Internet. Mr. Kapczynski last served as VP of Corporate Development and Strategy for Experian's consumer businesses which include leading consumer brands: Experian, FreeCreditReport.com, and ProtectMyID. Through executing on over 8 M&A transactions, Mr. Kapczynski helped to facilitate Experian’s under-lying growth and profitability. Mr. Kapczynski graduated from UCLA film school and continues to be active in multiple industry associations that span media, mobile telecom, technology, and consumer internet.  He has 12 patents to his name and an additional 40 patents pending.