Rick Abens

Director Advanced Analytics

ConAgra Foods

Rick Abens has been helping companies improve marketing productivity with practical analytics for over 25 years.  He is President of Foresight ROI, a marketing analytics consulting company.  He previously served as Director of Global Marketing Analytics at ConAgra Foods, where he built a corporate marketing analytics function as part of ConAgra’s quest to improve marketing productivity.  Mr. Abens initiated a return on marketing investment process at ConAgra which forecasts and measures the ROI from marketing programs.  This process has improved marketing returns 10% by identifying opportunities and underperforming investments.

He served in similar positions at Kraft Foods and Kellogg Company.  In addition to his experience working for brand marketers, he spent half of his career with marketing analytic vendors (ACNielsen and Synovate).  This career experience has given Rick a good perspective on how to do the analytics and how to apply it to improve business processes

Mr. Abens serves the marketing industry on the on the board of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board and is Vice President of Research at the PMA, the association for integrated marketing.  In these roles, he has advanced the industry’s capabilities to measure the synergies from integrating marketing actions, measure the long-term impact from marketing and improve shopper marketing collaboration practices.

Tony Bombacino

Chief Marketing Officer

Restaurant.com

Tony Bombacino is the Chief Marketing Officer of Restaurant.com, the trusted and valued source connecting diners and restaurants nationwide. Mr. Bombacino, who joined the company in June 2006, directs all consumer, restaurant and B2B marketing, branding and PR activities, helping the company pass along more than $75 million in gift certificate savings to consumers and attracting more than 10,000 restaurants across the country. During his tenure, company revenue has increased by over 400 percent.

Previously, Mr. Bombacino served as the VP of Marketing and Client Services for Resolution Media, helping build this successful search marketing firm from the ground up. As one of the first few employees, he helped push company growth 10-fold in less than 18 months before an acquisition by publicly-held Omnicom Media Group.  

Mr. Bombacino’s career spans nearly 15 years and includes interactive, direct and brand marketing positions with United Airlines and Andersen Consulting. At United, he developed successful marketing and promotional campaigns for the Mileage Plus loyalty program, in addition to spearheading marketing strategy development that led to record sales for United.com. At Andersen, Mr. Bombacino contributed to building a new practice called “Experience Design,” servicing clients such as Sprint, WebMD and Agilent Technologies to help establish and guide their web identities and presences.

Mr. Bombacino started his career as a marketing consultant with strategy firm Krumm & Associates, now Analytic Innovations. There, he helped develop successful predictive models and marketing approaches that reached new levels of success for Discover Card and other blue-chip clients.   

An active member in The CMO Club and Shop.org, Mr. Bombacino previously held board and executive board positions with the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA) and the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing (CADM).  He has been a regular speaker at numerous marketing industry events and has written for industry publications such as iMediaConnection.com, DM News and MarketingProfs.com. He also strives to influence the next generation of marketers, serving as an adjunct professor at St. Xavier University in Chicago.

Mr. Bombacino holds a M.S. in Direct Marketing from Mercy College and a B.S. in Marketing from Saint Xavier University. He was born and raised in Chicago and currently resides there with his wife and daughter.

Harry Campbell

Former President, Consumer Markets

Embarq

Harrison S. “Harry” Campbell has 24+ years experience leading teams across a variety of functions and businesses. 

Early on, his views on leadership were forged at Procter & Gamble where he worked on notable products including Crest, Pepto-Bismol and Metamucil.  After P&G, Campbell moved to the telecom sector and joined Sprint.  While there, he worked in several leadership roles culminating in president of Sprint’s Emerging Business Solutions Division.  He was responsible for servicing business customers in the mid-market, small-market, SOHO and local government arenas.   

Most recently, Campbell led the consumer markets division at Embarq Corporation.  Recently merged with CenturyTel and now known as Century Link, Embarq was a Fortune 400, NYSE-traded telecommunications company with annual revenue of $6B.  As president of the Consumer Markets Division, Campbell led an organization of 3000+ employees in providing marketing, sales, and operational support of a full line of communication and entertainment services to 4+ million residential customers in 18 states.   

His other senior management experience includes serving as president and CEO of uclick, a major digital syndication company that packaged and distributed branded comics and word games on the web, representing over 110 features such as Garfield, Dear Abby, FoxTrot and Doonesbury; and co-owner of two sports marketing agencies that achieved capitalized billings of $20M.  

Campbell holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian History and Economics from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Indiana University’s Kelley Graduate School of Business. 

Ed Garsten

Manager, Electronic Communications

Chrysler LLC

Native of New York City. Married, two grown children (boy Greg, girl Laura)

BA, Radio/TV, State University of NY at Oswego, 1973

MA, Journalism, University of Arizona, 1980

Began broadcasting career in 1969 while a freshmen at Oswego State University as an air personality at the two campus radio stations.  Continued in radio as a morning drive personality, program director, talk show host and high school play-by-play announcer at stations in the Syracuse, NY area and Tucson, Arizona.  Broke into TV in 1979 as weekend weatherman on Tucson station KGUN, and was later hired full time as a reporter, anchor and producer.

Hired in 1981 as one of 10 founding producers for CNN Headline News in Atlanta.  Over the next 20 years, served as correspondent, anchor and Detroit Bureau Chief, covering such significant stories as the saga of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Hurricane Andrew, the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, a number of commercial air disasters, the auto industry the Jim Bakker/PTL scandal.  Our coverage of the siege at James Nichols’s farm in Deckerville, Michigan was a key component of CNN’s Emmy-award winning coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Entered the print journalism world in 2001 after CNN closed the Detroit Bureau as part of a deep downsizing.  As National Auto Writer for the Associated Press, broke several stories such as the death of UAW President Stephen Yokich and many twists and turns of the Ford/Firestone story.

In 2002, joined The Detroit News as the paper’s beat writer for General Motors.  Broke many stories and had the distinction of being only the third reporter in more than 30 years to have three bylined stories on the same front page on the same day.  

Joined Chrysler in 2005 to establish its media-only blog, TheFirehouse.biz.  Being a “closed” blog, the Firehouse started quite a firestorm and led to a heated debate in the blogosphere.  TheFirehouse has won awards from the PR Newswire, Women in Communications and the International Association of Business Communicators.

In 2006, Chrysler expanded my duties to an all-new Electronic Communications department which encompasses web and broadcast communication.  The public, “Voices of Chrysler” blog was established in 2007 and won awards from Women in Communications and the IABC.

Interests include skiing, ice hockey, kayaking and playing the guitar and drums.

Dennis Haugan
Senior Director, Web Marketing
T-Mobile USA

Dennis Haugan is the Senior Director of Web Strategy Marketing at T-Mobile USA. Currently he is leading his fifth website redesign and tenth microsite design. Dennis has translated vision into multi-year web strategies for marketing, sales and care over the last ten years.

Efforts lead by Dennis moved T-Mobile USA from last place within the wireless industry to leadership positions in many key areas. In February 2007, Forrester Research ranked www.t-mobile.com second in best website score in their Best and Worse Cross Channel Design study.

Dennis and his team grew website traffic by 40% last year by integrating organic and paid search, online advertising, and social marketing programs. Dennis lead acquisition based online advertising and paid search for the last two years and is now focused on universal site design and experience, organic and onsite search optimization, online personalization, and social marketing integration. 

Jay Kidd

Chief Marketing Officer

NetApp

Jay Kidd is the chief marketing officer at NetApp. In that role, Kidd is responsible for all corporate marketing, including branding, press and analyst relations, and demand generation, as well as solution marketing, including product and service marketing, alliances, and field readiness.

Kidd has extensive experience in storage, networking, and high-performance systems. Before joining NetApp, he held the position of chief technology officer and vice president of Product Management at Brocade, where he was vital to developing and implementing the Brocade product roadmap, including infrastructure and strategic evangelism.

Before joining Brocade, Kidd was vice president of Marketing for Omneon Video Networks, Inc., a supplier of storage and networking equipment for video broadcasters, and Multigen, a real-time 3D simulation software company.

Prior to working at Multigen, Kidd spent seven years at Silicon Graphics (SGI), where he directed marketing efforts for the graphics workstations, servers, and SGI Web systems business. He also worked at Hewlett Packard, where he held key engineering and marketing management positions in the Information Networks group.

Kidd holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University.

David Kiley

Senior Correspondent

BusinessWeek

David Kiley is senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Detroit bureau.  Previously, he was marketing editor.  Prior to this, he was Detroit bureau chief for USA Today.  Kiley has held editor and reporter posts at Adweek, Brandweek, and CNN.  He has also worked in the advertising industry.  Kiley is the author of Getting The Bugs Out: The Rise, Fall and Comeback of Volkswagen in America, winner of the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Industry Journalism in 2001, and Driven: Inside BMW, The Most Admired Car Company in the World.  He was the 2005-2006 president of the International Motor Press Assn.

Slade Kobran
Senior Vice President & Director of Global Marketing

infoGROUP’s Opinion Research Corporation Division

Slade Kobran is Senior Vice President & Director of Global Marketing at Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGROUP company.  In this role, Slade oversees ORC’s global positioning, branding and marketing initiatives on a global basis. His twenty years of Marketing experience in business services companies encompasses product management, strategic marketing, strategic planning and business development responsibilities. He joined ORC in 2007 and has been with infoGROUP since 2006.  Prior to joining infoGROUP, Slade held senior marketing, business development and product management roles at ADP and Dun & Bradstreet.

Lauren Kramer-Dover
Director of Marketing
PepsiCo

Lauren is currently Director of Marketing at Quaker Foods & Snacks, where she leads Portfolio Expansion Brands, which include Rice-a-Roni, Near East, Aunt Jemima and Mother’s.  She also directs Quaker Foods & Snacks’ Shopper Marketing team with a focus on delivering relevant shopper analytics and insights to enable growth at key customers. 

Previous to her role at Quaker, Lauren was Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives for PepsiCo’s Wal-Mart team.  In her role, Lauren was responsible for driving game-changing initiatives at Wal-Mart in the areas of environmental sustainability, health and wellness and multicultural consumer activation, as well as overall account alignment.   Lauren was also the Brand Manager for Sierra Mist at Pepsi-Cola North America.  

Prior to joining PepsiCo, Lauren was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group, specializing in both marketing and organizational strategy -- advising clients on new product positioning and market segmentation in businesses ranging from packaged foods, carbonated soft drinks and sports beverages to pharmaceuticals and utilities. As a founding member of Monitor’s Organizational Strategy practice, she helped craft a framework surrounding organizational redesign effectiveness. While at Monitor, she was also the head of Diversity Recruiting, developing the annual strategy and execution plan.

Lauren has a BA in psychology from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.  She resides in Chicago where she enjoys running, yoga and skiing.

Teresa Kroll
Chief Entertainment Bear
Build-A-Bear Workshop

Teresa Kroll joined Build-A-Bear Workshop in September 2001 as chief marketing bear and in 2009 became chief entertainment bear.  Prior to joining the company, she served as vice president of advertising for The WIZ, a unit of Cablevision, from 1999 to 2001. From 1995 to 1999, Teresa was director of marketing for Montgomery Ward Holding Corporation, a department store retailer. From 1980 to 1994, she held various administrative and marketing positions for Venture Stores, Inc. a division of The May Department Stores Company until 1990 when Venture was spun-off as a public company.

As chief entertainment bear, Teresa is responsible for the development and execution of all entertainment and licensing initiatives to enhance brand awareness and Guest engagement. Teresa and her team also manage and direct all strategic partnerships, including product and merchandise licensing, promotional arrangements and third party licensing.  

Since she joined the company, Build-A-Bear Workshop has grown from 71 stores to more than 400 stores worldwide, including company-owned stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, and franchise stores in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.  In 2007, Teresa was instrumental in the development of buildabearville.com® - the company’s virtual world Web site making Build-A-Bear Workshop the first company with both real-world stores and a virtual world experience. 

Teresa has been recognized for her many marketing achievements.  In addition to being named YMCA Woman of the Year, she was also named one of the Top 50 Marketing Executives by Advertising Age magazine.  Additionally, under Teresa’s leadership Build-A-Bear Workshop has received many awards, including being named to the 2009 FORTUNE Best Companies to Work For® list. Buildabearville.com received a 2009 ‘Best of the Web’ award from WiredSafety at the 9th Annual Wired Kids Summit and a 2008 Excellent Product iParenting Media Award. In 2005, the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies made Build-A-Bear Workshop Portfolio Company of the Year; it was named one of the International Council of Shopping Centers “Hottest Retailers of 2004” and the Retail Innovator of the Year for 2001 by The National Retail Federation.

Teresa serves on the Board of Directors of the Magic House – St. Louis Children’s Museum and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation – St. Louis Chapter.  

Larry Light
President and CEO
Arcature

Larry Light is Chief Executive Officer of Arcature, a marketing consulting company founded in 1990, which consults on how to create, build and manage brands. In a recently published book, “Six Rules for Brand Revitalization,” introduces Arcature’s blueprint for restoring brand relevance, rebuilding brand trust, producing measurable brand and business results.

In 2002, Larry was asked to join McDonald’s as Global Chief Marketing Officer for McDonald’s during 2002-2005, the crucial years of one of the most remarkable brand turnarounds in business history. Advertising Age observed, “Mr. Light is credited with reigniting the restaurant chain’s sales and overhauling its marketing plan -- which includes the "i'm lovin' it" strategy and efforts to resonate with the youth market.”

In 2004, Larry was selected by BrandWeek as one the top ten marketers of the year. In the same year, McDonald’s won the prestigious “Marketer of the Year” award from Advertising Age. McDonald’s received the American Marketing Association EFFIE award for global brand marketing effectiveness for the year 2005.

Larry taught marketing at New York University, Indiana University, and Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He has been a guest lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania participating in both MBA and Executive Education programs.  Larry represented the marketing industry at Federal Trade Commission hearings, and before both House and Senate committee hearings.  He was the founding Chairman of the Coalition for Brand Equity -- a group founded by advertisers, agencies and media. 

He began his career in 1965 at BBDO Advertising Worldwide where he became Executive Vice-President responsible for Marketing and Media Services and a member of both the Board and of the Executive Committee.  In 1982, Larry joined Ted Bates Advertising. He was promoted to Chairman, Chief Executive Officer of the International Division of Bates Worldwide and was a member of the worldwide Board. 

Larry earned a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University, in Montreal, and a doctorate from Ohio State University. 

Craig Macdonald
Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
Covario

Craig Macdonald, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Covario, is responsible for the strategic direction, development and marketing of the Covario™ portfolio of solutions.  As SVP and CMO, Craig works closely with Covario’s Fortune 500® advertisers to create innovative, analytics-driven solutions and to build DCOE programs that drive top line revenue and bottom line efficiencies.

Prior to Covario, Craig was the director of product management for the service and management group within Hewlett Packard’s OpenView division where he oversaw service and asset management, configuration management, and discovery applications used by large enterprises worldwide. Previously, Craig held key positions at Peregrine Systems, Inc., Fair Isaac, HNC Software, World Research Advisory, META Group and Greenwich Associates.

Craig is a frequent speaker at industry conferences around the globe including Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech, OMMA and Search Insider Summit.  He is also the author of several white papers and Covario's quarterly Global Search Spend Analysis.

Craig earned an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and a BS from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Jean McLaren

President

MARC USA

In her six years as President of MARC USA Chicago (one of the top 10 independent agencies in the US), Jean has tripled the size of the office through significant new business wins such as Culver’s Restaurants and Firestone Complete Auto Care as well as revitalizing existing accounts through more innovative, integrated programs built on MARC USA’s deep expertise in retail, financial and home-goods related marketing communications.

Prior to joining MARC USA, Jean spent over twenty years at Interpublic and WPP-owned agencies leading global package goods accounts such as Kraft and Heinz.  She also has experience in telecom and tourism.

Jean received her Masters degree from Northwestern University and her BA from Syracuse University.  She lives in Evanston, Illinois with her husband. 

Gary Milner
Global Interactive Marketing Director
Lenovo

Gary Milner originates from Newcastle, United Kingdom but now resides in Raleigh, North Carolina as Global Marketing Director for Interactive Marketing for Lenovo. His role encompasses all of the digital marketing, including search marketing now centralized with Covario. He has  driven the centralization of global interactive media acquisition and trafficking for most of the markets in which Lenovo operates. He has direct responsibility for acquiring traffic for the North American teleweb business which has grown 600 percent in revenue in the past year. Acquisition programs that he operates include affiliate marketing, PC vertical marketing, Comparison Shopping Engines, test programs such as Google TV and display advertising. Gary has spearheaded the formation of the digital measurement dashboard for Lenovo. Gary was awarded the first inaugural award for TV marketing excellence from the Google Corporation in 2008 and in Q4 won the Summitt Award for bleeding edge digital media measurement. Prior to Lenovo, Gary held a variety of roles in the IBM Corporation spanning brand management for Thinkpad Notebooks, Direct marketing, Channel Management and Business Analytics. These roles spanned UK, Paris European HQ, and Raleigh, North Carolina. He has traveled and worked globally with both companies. Gary was awarded an MBA at Manchester Business School and loves to play soccer and golf.

Tom O'Toole

Principal, O'Toole Associates
and
Adviser, Diamond Management and Technology Consultants, Inc.

Thomas F. O’Toole provides business leadership and practical engagement, as O’Toole Associates, at the intersection of marketing and information, for companies in the travel, consulting, marketing communication/systems and a range of other businesses.  He served until December 2008, as both the Chief Marketing Officer and the Chief Information Officer of Global Hyatt Corporation.  He is unique in serving in this dual role.  He was responsible for all brand strategy, marketing, distribution, reservations and information technology for all of Hyatt’s operating companies and brands worldwide.  His specific responsibilities included all: marketing communication, loyalty programs (including Hyatt Gold Passport), electronic commerce, customer data systems and analytics, marketing research and enterprise information systems.

Mr. O’Toole was responsible for all brand marketing and marketing programs at Hyatt in North America since 1995 and, worldwide, since 2004.  He has led and managed all forms of marketing, including: national and international media advertising, database marketing, direct marketing, Internet marketing, promotional programs, trade marketing, public relations and related practices.  He is particularly strong in information-driven, analytic-based marketing methods.

At Hyatt, Mr. O’Toole built electronic commerce revenue from $0 to just under $1 billion.  He grew Hyatt.com and was responsible for Hyatt’s ecommerce strategy since its origins, in addition to leading Hyatt’s relationships with all Internet distributors (e.g., Expedia) and other electronic distribution intermediaries.

Mr. O’Toole was a founding director of Travelweb, LLC (the hotel industry electronic commerce venture) and played a key role in its successful development and sale to Priceline in 2004.  He has been a director of Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (the world leader in electronic hotel bookings and related functions/systems), since 1998.

Prior to serving as CMO and CIO, Mr. O’Toole was senior vice president, strategy and systems for Global Hyatt Corporation.  He joined Hyatt as vice president, marketing in 1995.  Previously, Mr. O’Toole served as vice president, marketing for Renaissance Hotels International (Americas).  Mr. O’Toole began his career doing marketing research methodology and statistical analysis for Wyse Advertising.

Mr. O’Toole was named the 2008 Conrad N. Hilton Distinguished Chair Lecturer at the University of Houston.  He has been featured as a role model for the new CMO position and the new CIO position (most recently by Bearing Point).  In 1998, he was named by Advertising Age to the “Marketing 100” top marketers for his marketing leadership of Hyatt Resorts.

Mr. O’Toole is a director of the Travel Industry Association.  He also serves as a director of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Mr. O’Toole earned his graduate and undergraduate degrees in applied communication theory and methodology from Cleveland State University.  He and his family reside in Wilmette, Illinois.

Dan Quinn
Manager of Global Digital Media
Research in Motion

Dan Quinn is the Director, Online Advertising at Research in Motion.  In his role Dan oversees the strategic management of all global online media including, Search, Display and Mobile.

 
Dan has managed many Global Digital initiatives in his career including the Global Digital Marketing program for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism based in Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Luxury Segment marketing for Expedia Inc. based in Bellevue, Washington.
 
Dan holds an Honors Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Marketing and an MBA from the University of Windsor.  Dan and his family have made Waterloo, Ontario their home since they returned to Canada after 6 years living internationally.

Roxanne Resch

Senior Director, Business Development

Imperial Sugar

As Imperial continues to build for the future, Resch brings more than a decade’s worth of product launch, brand messaging, R&D and supply chain experience to the task. As Global Director of R&D for Merisant, Inc., she led a team that drove innovation and cost-savings into their global strategy with best-practice new product launches and directed R&D teams in the U.S., U.K., France and Mexico. Previously, she served in roles of increasing responsibility at Chef Solutions and M&M/Mars directing cross-functional teams in Product/Process development, technology development, identifying and executing cost reduction opportunities, and manufacturing facilities management.

A native of the Midwest, Resch earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently resides in Sugar Land, Texas.

Jeff Rohrs
Vice President, Marketing
ExactTarget

As Vice President of Marketing for ExactTarget, the leading provider of on-demand software for permission-based email, SMS, and voice marketing, Jeff spearheads ExactTarget's thought-leadership, interactive marketing, and social media initiatives.  He is one of the driving forces behind the company’s SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy, and he has presented at a wide variety of industry events including ad:tech, eec’s Email Evolution Conference, MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit, MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit, Search Engine Strategies, and SMX. 

Prior to joining ExactTarget, Jeff was President and Chief Interactive Strategist for Optiem, a digital marketing agency based in Cleveland, Ohio.  Jeff has also served as a National Applications Consultant for LexisNexis and as an attorney with Baker & Hostelter.  Jeff received his J.D. and Masters in Mass Communication from Boston University, and he holds his B.S. in Mass Communications from Miami University where he currently serves on the Advisory Board for the school’s Armstrong Center for Interactive Media Studies. 

Harit Talwar

Executive Vice President, Card Programs & Chief Marketing Officer

Discover Financial Services

Harit Talwar is a senior business leader in global financial services with over 20 years of experience in Cards, Retail Banking & Payments in the U.S., Europe and Asia.  He is currently Executive Vice President, Card Programs & Chief Marketing Officer of Discover Financial Services and a member of its Executive Committee.  He plays a key role in driving the overall strategy of Discover and is responsible for the Discover brand. 

Prior to assuming his current responsibilities, Mr. Talwar was Executive Vice President of Discover Network where he oversaw business model transformation and rapid growth,  including the acquisitions of Pulse, leading Debit/ATM network, Diners Club International, global payments network, and strategic partnerships with China Union Pay and JCB – leading networks in China and Japan.  Before that, Mr. Talwar was Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s Consumer Banking Group International. Prior to that, Mr. Talwar spent 15 years at Citigroup working in India, the Middle East, the United States and in Europe.  During this time, he held a number of senior roles including general management and country management positions in cards, loans and retail banking.

His involvement with developing start-up businesses, driving business acquisition/integration and managing large/global businesses has enabled him to obtain diverse experience by geography, product groups, functions and business areas. 

Mr. Talwar holds a B.A. Hons Degree in Economics from Delhi University in India and an M.B.A. from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahemdabad.  He is on the Governing Committee of the Chicago CMO Summit and trustee of the American India Foundation.  Being interested in causes related to education and children/women empowerment, he has also held various leadership positions with American School of Warsaw, Poland; College of Lake County, Illinois; Children Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL and Pratham, UK.

Jason Wadler
Executive Vice President Strategy & Development
Leapfrog Online

Jason Wadler is Executive Vice President/Strategy and Development for Leapfrog Online, a leading digital direct marketing company.  Jason joined the company in 2000 to help build the company’s results-based offerings and approach at an early stage.  

Today, Jason is responsible for leading the organization’s business development efforts, new service offerings and corporate branding and marketing.  He delivers leadership, strategy and innovative ideas to the organization, driving the development and delivery of numerous digital direct marketing offerings to support the company's Fortune 500 Clients.  He has over 20 years of integrated marketing and media experience, both direct-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing, including senior-level marketing roles at Townsend Agency, MediaOne/Comcast, Ameritech and Discover Card.   Jason is an active member of the CMO Council, IAB and DMA, and has been a speaker at industry events such as the Financial Services Marketing Symposium and eTail events.

Leapfrog Online builds new customer and sales channels for Fortune 500 brands with a value-based compensation model rewarded on delivering revenue-driving results.  Built using a uniquely integrated model that links passionate direct marketers with innovative technology solutions, Leapfrog Online has delivered vertical-specific solutions for Clients in the automotive, communications, consumer goods and financial services industries.   Founded in 1995, Leapfrog Online has been recognized as a “fastest growing company” by Inc, Crain’s Chicago Business and Deloitte, and ranked by Advertising Age as one of the largest online marketing firms in the country. 

Carol Wentworth

Vice President, Marketing

True Value Company

As vice president of marketing, Carol Wentworth provides marketing leadership to build the True Value brand and to drive retail and wholesale business growth. She is responsible for consumer loyalty, advertising, promotions, consumer p.r., collateral, trade shows and trade advertising and other local marketing programs. In addition, Wentworth leads the development of enhanced capabilities in marketing analytics, segmentation, retail data intelligence and customer experience management.

Wentworth joined True Value Company in 2002. Before joining True Value, she was vice president of sales promotion and marketing for Portland, Ore.-based Fred Meyer, a $5.3 billion retailer with specialties in apparel, home fashion, hardware, consumer electronics, fine jewelry and food. At Fred Meyer, she directed marketing, advertising, promotions, sponsorships and collateral; and created and launched new brands and business concepts.

From 1985 to 1991, Wentworth worked at Campbell-Mithun-Esty, a national advertising agency in Chicago, where she worked on The Kroger Co. account. She was also an assistant store manager for Bread & Circus Supermarkets, a specialty natural foods retailer based in Boston from 1983 to 1984. She began her retail career in 1979 as a store manager for Northampton Food Cooperative in Northampton, Mass.

Wentworth earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith College. She graduated from the University of Southern California School of Business Food Industry Management Program in 2002 and earned an M.B.A. from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in May 2006. She also serves on the board of directors for Member Insurance Agency and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Global Retail Marketing Association.