#SandageSymposium
We are excited to present the following speakers and panelists at the Sandage Symposium on Thursday, March 31 and Friday, April 1, 2022.
#SandageSymposium
We are excited to present the following speakers and panelists at the Sandage Symposium on Thursday, March 31 and Friday, April 1, 2022.
President at JLB + Partners
Tom Browning joined JLB+P as President in 2021. He brings 30+ years of advertising agency experience across global, national and regional accounts. He has led teams and built successful client partnerships with McDonald’s, S.C. Johnson, Emerson Electric, Anheuser-Busch, Nestlé, Frito-Lay, Discover Card and many other leading corporations.
Tom is a former member of the Board of Governors for the Chicago chapter of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
Since joining JLB+P, Tom has consulted with S.C. Johnson and Consolidated Edison to help improve their creative and media agency relationships as well as assisted AbbVie with the evaluation of in-house vs. external media agency services.
On a more personal level, Tom is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign obtaining both a B.S. degree in Finance and an M.B.A. in Marketing. He feels lucky to have been married to his wonderful wife Jill for 29 years (and counting!) and the two of them are proud parents of now-grown triplets who will be graduating college this year!
Lifecycle Marketing Manager at M1Finance
Jenna has worked for startups as well as Fortune 500 companies such as Pandora Radio and Groupon. She has spent her career in the tech industry and is currently a Growth and Lifecycle Marketing Manager for Chicago-based fintech M1 Finance.
Senior Program Manager, Talent Development at Global Overview
Jana Smith is a Senior Program Manager of Talent Development at Global Overview (GO). Throughout her career, she has worked in a variety of roles spanning operations, technology, communications, and project/program management. In her role at GO, she is focused on supporting the training and development of employees at all levels across the organization, from internship through to senior leadership. She is passionate about empowering those around her to thrive! In her free time, you can find her powerlifting, spending time with her 2 dogs, traveling, or trying out the latest board game release with her husband.
Ads Sales Manager at Amazon
During his tenure at Amazon, Micah has held a variety roles including Account Executive, Education Programs Manager, and is currently an Ads Sales Manager based in Chicago. Previous to Amazon, Micah worked in a variety of roles in Sales and Account Management at Microsoft and Yahoo, helping brands activate across digital touchpoints. Micah is passionate about developing early career talent and helping them grow into their ideal careers. Micah is excited about the continued growth of Education Programs at Amazon and interfacing with students who are interested in digital media as a career path.
Manager, Cultural and Inclusive Insights at Kellogg Company
Toya Mitchell is a marketer whose experience spans across marketing and advertising functions including communications planning, shopper marketing and consumer insights. Toya launched her career in media and communications planning at several agencies including Burrell Communications, Havas Media, Uniworld Group and SMG United – one of the first cross agency teams servicing one client – P&G.
In recent years, Toya shifted focus from advertising to consumer research including a stint at IRI followed by Mintel where she wrote reports focused on Black and multicultural consumer insights across categories and lifestage. She currently works at Kellogg’s as the Manager of Cultural and Inclusive Insights, serving as an internal consultant in helping teams understand the multicultural consumer business opportunity.
Toya holds a B.S. in Advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is from and currently lives in Chicago, IL.
Advertising Sales Manager at Effectv
Kelly French-Strube is an Advertising Sales Manager with Effectv, based in Champaign, Il. Her experience extends to coaching and recruiting and responsibilities include achieving revenue growth through motivating a high-performing sales team all while providing the best in customer experience and results.
Effectv is the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable that helps local, regional, and national advertisers connect with their audiences on every screen by using advanced data to drive targeting and measurement of their campaigns. And the advertisers can utilize their in-house creative agency, Mnemonic to craft compelling messages. Headquartered in New York City, Effectv has a presence in 66 markets and a reach of 30 million households.
VP, Influencer and Multicultural Marketing at Edelman
Dani Jackson-Smith (BS ’06, advertising) is a VP of influencer and multicultural marketing at Edelman. Before becoming VP at Edelman, Jackson-Smith led work there on Kellogg’s, Eli Lilly, Sanofi, and other brands; she then led DE&I at Edelman Chicago and launched the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement Multicultural Leadership Program across the U.S. and Edelman’s Authentic 365 podcast across their international network.
In 2019, she independently launched The Cre8tors to connect diverse high-level artists whose work impacts culture with opportunities to utilize their skills to reshape the world.
Jackson-Smith is also a member of the James Webb Young Alumni Advisory Board for the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising. She continues to be a community leader as a part of the Chicago Ad Federation Diversity Thought Leaders’ Council and on the boards of Off The Street Club and Free Spirit Media.
Talent Acquisition Partner at Ogilvy
Melissa works as a Talent Acquisition Partner at Ogilvy. She specializes in the Public Relations space but has recruited across traditional advertising roles including Account Managers, Strategists, Social Strategists, HR professionals & more. Ogilvy leads with empathy and believes “if each of us hires people bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
University Recruiting & Program Management at The Trade Desk
Melissa Martel has built a career in University Recruitment across varying industries at companies such as Goldman Sachs, American Express, and now The Trade Desk. Melissa is passionate about diversity recruiting, program development & management, strategic partnerships & employer brand. Being a part of a student’s early career journey is what brings Melissa so much meaning in the work she does every day.
Melissa holds a B.A. in Psychology from The Ohio State University (Go Bucks!) and completed a program from Harvard Business School Online in Management Essentials. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, spent 8 years growing a career in New York City, and now currently resides back in Cleveland.
Editor, Fortune Magazine
John Buysse is an audience engagement editor at Fortune. He leads audience strategy and content distribution for Fortune across social media, search, editorial platform partnerships and anywhere else Fortune content is consumed. Buysse joined Fortune in 2017. Prior to that he served as a social media strategist and Arizona’s state digital director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, managing Secretary Clinton’s official presence on Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn. He began his career as a brand strategist at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. A native of the Chicago area and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s College of Media, Buysse lived in New York City for several years before returning to Chicago in 2018.
Eric Minor, the university’s first chief marketing officer, leads campus wide efforts to tell the Illinois story of excellence in research, teaching, public engagement and economic development. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Before his role at UIUC, he was most recently the senior director of marketing and innovation for the Arcola, Illinois-based Libman Company and prior to this, he has served as the brand marketing leader on brands including Quaker Oatmeal, Cheetos, Raid and 9-Lives cat food. He has demonstrated the ability to envision, plan, execute and deliver high-quality campaigns and approaches that translate into recognizable, respected and resilient brands. And, importantly, he understands the need to build an U of I foundational brand that can then be tailored to specific units and audiences.
CCO, ARC Worldwide
Chris has built his entire career around architecting award-winning, business-driving campaigns that simultaneously ignite brand love and results. With deep, cross-disciplined experience, he is most inspired by today’s challenge of creating connected brand experiences that engage consumers across multiple points of contact. Prior to Arc, Chris has held senior creative roles at Y&R, Trisect and VSA Partners. He has created memorable work for brands as varied as McDonald’s, Visa, Frito-Lay, Kawasaki, Hilton, Sears, The American Red Cross and the Centers for Disease Control. And his work has been recognized by nearly every industry award — including Cannes Lions.
General Manager of Trading Strategy at The Trade Desk
Alex Perrin is the GM of Trading Strategy at The Trade Desk, where he is tasked with consulting fortune-100 brands on how to make the most out of their advertising investments, and how technology can evolve their competitive advantage. Alex has a keen eye for data utilization, and how brands and agencies can leverage best-in-class technologies to achieve business outcomes of the future. Alex has worked in Digital Advertising for 15 years, with a focus on Advertising Technology spanning the last decade.
CEO, Co-Founder at Covalent
Walker is a jack-of-all-trades social impact consultant and entrepreneur spurring disruption across the philanthropic and business sectors. Award-winning journalist turned savvy problem-solver, Walker is at his best when he’s breaking down narratives to address complex social problems.
He is the CEO and founder of Covalent, formerly known as Covid Fellows, connecting talented students to small businesses to provide digital marketing and fundraising support. To date, they’ve created over 110 fellowships, helped over 80 small businesses and nonprofits, and engaged over 160 mentors from across the world. This summer, Covalent is partnering with The Hub for Brand Innovation and Advertising Technology to launch the Impact Marketing and Fundraising Fellowship — an exclusive opportunity for UIUC students to work at the intersection of digital marketing, social impact and race equity. To learn more or apply, visit www.thisiscovalent.org.
CEO, Bad Moon Talent
After graduating from Illinois in 2007 (B.S., Advertising), Drake began his career at DDB NY on various accoutns including United Technologies, Lipton, Klondike and Breyers Ice Cream. In 2010, he moved to Los Angeles to work on the PlayStation account at Deutsch LA, which launched his career in video games. Shortly after, Drake began working on the Consumer Marketing team for Call of Duty at Activision. After launching five Call of Duty titles, he began to focus on esports at Activision, Blizzard and MLG on the teams that launched the Call of Duty World League and the Overwatch League. In 2019, Drake co-founded Bad Moon Talent, a talent agency specializing in the players and broadcast talent within the esports industries, where he is currently the CEO.
Product Specialist at Twitch
As an Product Specialist at Twitch, Armando (he/him) believes that advertising’s core purpose is to help people and he uses this compassionate approach to enable brands to unite with an extremely passionate, live community.
Before Twitch, Armando spent 2.5 years as an Account Executive at Amazon Ads, where he consulted brands, both small and large, with how to use advertising to help grow their businesses. He passed his learnings to over 20 new teammates as one of the first employees in Amazon Ads’ HQ2 office in Arlington, Virginia. Armando was also an initial handraiser in developing the first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advocacy group that aims to drive an ongoing DEI dialogue across Amazon Ads.
Outside of work, Armando loves to engage in industry events and connect with young talent. He was recently recognized as a 2021 ADCOLOR FUTURE, and previously served on the first We Are Next Advisory Board to develop scalable mechanisms to provide more career development opportunities to young talent. Armando also loves LEGO, annotating every book he reads, and reviewing movies and video games via Instagram stories.
Co-Founder and Partner at Ascendant Loyalty Marketing
David Slavick has a B.A. in Advertising and M.S. in Communications from UIUC. His career has progressed from Top 10 ad agency firms leading teams in media/strategic planning, to CRM/Loyalty planning/management for global brands, to consulting at both Accenture Interactive and Deloitte Digital. He is now Co-founder & Partner at Ascendant Loyalty servicing the customer-centric needs of Top 100 clients in: Retail, Hospitality, Cruise Lines and Pure Play e-Commerce sectors. David is a multi-channel retail marketing expert leveraging data insight to drive strategic planning, creative/offer management, customer loyalty program design/strategy, and analytical modeling/segmentation application to drive profitable business results.
