A committee of senior media buying executives that use passion points and cultural insights to target consumers.

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Marcos Baer
Board Chair
President
Portada
@marcosbaer

Marcos oversees editorial and sales. He is based in Portada’s NYC headquarters. Prior to launching Portada in 2003, Marcos worked in both the media and finance sectors. He occupied leading roles at the Spanish edition of The Wall Street Journal, in Spain’s newspaper Cinco Dias and at SwissRe. He is an MBA, and a CFA. Marcos is a print junkie and also loves all things digital media. He also is passionate about everything related to New York City and loves to play tennis.

Jeanette Millan
VP, Media Director
Spark Foundry
@SparkFoundryUSA‏

Jeanette Millan is Vice President and Media Director at Spark Foundry.In this role, Jeanette leads multicultural media activation across all accounts and oversees all media activations for the Mondelez and Telemundo accounts. Her responsibilities include maintaining strong relationships with media partners, evaluating media opportunities, supporting National TV Upfront negotiations, advising agency client teams, and providing continued multicultural media education for all teams.Jeanette has over 20 years of Hispanic media buying and planning experience, which includes national and local broadcast as well as print and multimedia content negotiations across categories such as Auto, CPG, Retail, QSR and Telco.

Dana Bonkowski
SVP, Multicultural Lead
Starcom
@starcom_USa

Dana is a 24-year Starcom veteran. A founding member of Tapestry and Starcom Multicultural, she has experienced first-hand the multicultural impact on mainstream America and knows how to objectively and successfully steer clients forward. Her current role is Multicultural Lead for Starcom, where she advances cultural understanding across the agency and helps new and veteran clients deliver growth through multicultural audiences. Dana has steered several award winning teams and serves as a North American Effie Judge.

Darcy Bowe
SVP, Media Director
Starcom USA
@Starcom_USA

Darcy has been with Starcom for 14 years, focusing on investment and television. For the past 6 years, she has co-lead the Video Center of Excellence, which focuses on Television, Digital, Out of Home, Social and Mobile Video media. She consults teams internally as well as clients directly regarding the Video media landscape. She works with the Video marketplace to assess trends, identify opportunities and negotiate buys. She specializes in advertising to Kids and has expanded into Multicultural over the past year.

Lauren (Barish) Handelman
Media Director
Spark Foundry
@SparkFoundryUSA‏

Lauren is a long standing member of the Publicis Groupe family, having joined the SMG Multicultural team in 2008. She currently works at Spark Foundry New York as the Director of Video Investment for Wendy’s. Previously, she spent seven years at Tapestry where she orchestrated award winning video & branded content campaigns for Procter & Gamble’s beauty brands, before moving to NYC where she led cross-platform multicultural investment for Sprint.

David Queamante
SVP, Client Business Partner
UM Worldwide
@UMWorldwide

David is a lifelong fan of great advertising and an award-winning media leader. His experience spans top categories and blue-chip brands including FCA, Garnier and Burger King. He built his reputation around insightful thinking blended with analytics, and enjoys creating tools when none exist.

Vanessa Hartley
Director
Hearts & Science
@Hearts_Science‏

Vanessa Hartley is an 18-year veteran of out-of-home media and has been member of the Omnicom Family since 2005. Her account experience includes QSRs, packaged goods, technology, financial services, entertainment and telecommunications.She started with Outdoor Media Group, an Investment Group for Omnicom, in Chicago working on McDonalds, H&R Block, Intel and Pepsico Brands. Then, she moved back to her home city of New York where she ran the HBO business for six years. Now a Group Director at Hearts & Sciences, she manages the OOH Investment Group for all lines of business for AT&T.

Jessica Roman
VP, Media Director
Publicis Groupe
@publicisgroupe

Currently VP, Media Director – PMX, she works to leverage Multicultural investments. Previously, Jessica spent 5 years overseeing all Multicultural investments at Walmart. Before that, Jessica was VP on the Kraft team at MediaVest. There, she co-led the Big Bet initiative, in which Kraft significantly increased its Hispanic media spend. In addition, she was integral in initiatives such as Oreo’s Cuenta Cuentos, Ritz Gustazos del Sabor and Single’s Discover the Truth, and was recognized with the AHAA award for best use of radio, for Kraft’s MIO innovation plan.

Jennifer Leonard
Director, Multicultural
Haworth Marketing + Media
@haworthmedia ‏

A 20+ year U.S. multicultural media industry veteran, Jennifer has experience across strategic planning, channel planning and investment agency verticals and a vast category portfolio (Retail, Auto, Telecommunications, QSR, Insurance/Financial Services). She’s an expert in inter-agency communication and process for total market strategies.  Currently, she is the Director of Multicultural Strategy for Haworth Media+Marketing in Minneapolis, including the Hispanic, African-American, Asian and LGBTQ+ audiences.

Stephen Paez
SVP Managing Director
Spark Foundry
@stephenpaez‏

With close to two decades of experience, Stephen leads multicultural framework, development and execution across all Spark brands. Since joining Spark, he has been able to propel the client’s growth in the multicultural space, which can be directly attributed to his passion for proving results through data. He is closely connected with Publicis Media Multicultural, accessing the best tools and technology in the multicultural space. Stephen has helped drive significant organic growth on several existing Spark accounts, ultimately increasing multicultural revenue by three fold. Stephen’s expertise and ability to deliver results has and continues to benefit Spark clients including Audible, Brown Forman, Mondelez, and Telemundo. Before joining Spark, Stephen led multicultural on multiple accounts across various industries including McDonald’s, HP, Florida Lottery and Toyota. Stephen is a trusted resource for Spark clients and a full team integrator who works seamlessly and smoothly with other key disciplines to ensure all ideas and activations are developed with inclusivity and cultural insights.

Kate Canel
Director of Performance Media
The Shipyard
@TheShipyardCrew‏

Kate leads all strategic programmatic strategy planning initiatives at The Shipyard and oversees the agency’s integration of digital advertising technologies that drive innovation and measurable client growth. She brings more than 10 years of experience in global marketing and digital media strategy. Her programmatic specialty includes e-commerce, trading strategy, tactical planning, buying, optimizing and data integration, while her brand marketing roles have spanned the pharmaceutical, health, finance, CPG, auto, travel, Luxury and entertainment industries. Canel is an alumna of Ursuline College and Columbia Law School.

Katrina Ithier
Activation Manager for Multicultural at Essence
Group M
@GroupMWorldwide ‏

An experienced Activation Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry for over 10 years, Katrina currently leads the Multicultural Center of Excellence on the Universal Pictures team at Essence. Previously, she spent seven years as part of Mediavest’s Multicultural arm, MV42, where she worked on Comcast and Cox Communications before moving into a dual role as Hispanic and General Market Supervisor on Post Foods and Duracell. Her continued passion for Multicultural media drives her to, not only learn, but continue to educate the importance of the Latino audience in her new role.

Nelson Pinero
Senior Digital Director, Senior Partner
Group M
@GroupMWorldwide ‏

Nelson Pinero has worked across General Market and Multicultural accounts for over 20 years. His began as an Assistant Media Planner at DMB&B (Mediavest) working on Burger King, Coca-Cola, TheStreet.com and GT Interactive. After 3 years he moved onto Dentsu Communications Agency. In 2002 he decided to deepen his exposure to the Multicultural advertising market by joining the Bravo Group . In 2003, Nelson moved to Mindshare were he served multiple roles over his 9 years.He joined MEC in 2014 to work in Vilma’s team developing strategies and executing media solutions for IKEA, KFC, Marriott among others. In 2016 he was appointed to Multicultural Digital Director at GroupM.He spends his free time traveling occasionally to the Caribbean to see his family, riding his bicycle through the mean city streets during spring, summer and fall, playing guitar and writing music whenever he gets a chance.

Joseph Kiwanuka (Guest)
Senior Manager, Cross-Cultural Connections (Identity | IPG Mediabrands)
UM Worldwide
@UMWorldwide

Multicultural Media Specialist who excels in creating cross-cultural solutions through consumer insights, media strategy, and media channel/partner selection.

Oscar Allain (Guest)
VP, Group Partner, Cross-Cultural Strategy & Research
UM Worldwide
@UMWorldwide

Cross-Cultural Insights + Strategy | Research | Multicultural | Millennial | Gen Z | Sports & Sponsorship Marketing | Experiential
► Award winning marketing visionary with significant multicultural marketing, communications, advertising, branding, and sales experience at enterprise and Fortune levels for sports sponsorship portfolios targeting engagement and growth in Hispanic markets.
► Develop client-centered multicultural communications platforms leveraging data-driven marketing plans, programs, and activities as well as expertly crafted client experiences that encourage consumers to self-identify and experience positive emotions affiliated with products.
► Senior most advisor and touchstone for marketing managers and C-suite executives offering outstanding cross-functional leadership to execute corporate-wide marketing, messaging, evangelism, and brand ambassadorship.
► Research specialist/leader, including insights and strategy, gaining actionable insight into consumer behaviors, motivators, and purchasing decisions that inform client investments, branding, and marketing strategies and build traction in market share.

KEY STRENGTHS

Bilingual: English and Spanish | Hispanic Marketing Expertise | Long Range Marketing Vision
Sponsorship Portfolio Management | Strategic Key Client Management | Tactical Planning
Establish Marketing Strategy, Platforms, Messaging | Research, Analytics, and Consumer Insights.

2020 Agency Star Committee Schedule

  • ▶︎February, 2020

    Winter Virtual Meeting
    (exact date tbd).

    ▶︎April, 2, 2020

    In-person meeting at Portada Los Angeles

    ▶︎July 2020

    Summer Virtual Meeting (exact date tbd).

    ▶︎September 24, 2020

    In-person meeting at Portada New York

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