Maria de Lourdes Gomez-Albrecht is a doctoral candidate in Business Administration at Swiss Management Center University. She is an accomplished and highly-skilled business professional leveraging nearly 25 years of marketing and project management leadership in several industries such as retail, consulting, medical, nonprofit, environmental, and education. Her specialties include strategic planning, loyalty and growth programs, promotion and advertising campaign execution, brand management, and new product launches in both domestic and international markets. Furthermore, as a strategic and tactical thinker, Maria also has extensive experience in ecommerce and digital initiatives, sales operations, analytics, cross-functional teams, printed and social media, broadcasting, and vendor management. She has a deep understanding of multicultural marketing thanks to her fluency in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as business proficiency in French and Italian. Maria lives in Dallas, Texas, and is looking forward to seeing the Cowboys make it to the playoffs again this season!

Hispanic marketing and sales veteran Lucia Ballas-Traynor is currently EVP of Ad Sales for Hemisphere Media Group, owner and operator of five leading Hispanic cable networks in the U.S. and Latin America. With more than 25 years of experience in Hispanic Media, Lucia has built and led top Hispanic media brands across TV, digital, mobile, print, and live events. She served as Publisher of People en Español and General Manager of Galavision and MTV Tr3s. Prior to joining Hemisphere, she was co-founder and EVP of CafeMom’s MamásLatinas, a bilingual online destination dedicated to entertaining and empowering Latina moms.

Margie Bravo is a bicultural, bilingual strategic and passionate brand marketer with over 20 years of consumer package goods experience in top companies like Nestle & P&G. Her skills have been develop through leadership on global, category leading brands like Coffee-matte, Nescafe and Nesquik, as well as Nestle business with more entrepreneurial-spirit importing Latino brands like La lechera, Abuelita and Maggi. She has been recognized for strategic thinking, driving accelerate growth and creating sound marketing plans across traditional, digital & social media platforms.

Margie can provide expertise in all aspects of Brand Management (Brand Positioning, business planning, Brand portfolio and P&L management ), Consumer Insights, Qualitative & Quantitative Research, Hispanic & Multicultural Marketing, Award-winning Advertising Campaigns, Experiential Marketing, CRM Programs & Innovation.

Marie Casimir Fallon is the Director of Media Strategy & Planning at Comcast Cable Corporation. Marie has over 15 years of experience in media planning and buying across various industries telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, CPG and insurance. She received her Bachelors in Marketing from New York University and an Executive MBA from Villanova University.

As President of GroupM Multicultural, Gonzalo plays a key role in all aspects of the multicultural media and marketing efforts initiated by all GroupM agencies: Maxus, MEC, Mediacom, Metavision, Mindshare and Team Arrow. The goal of the division is to provide clients with a truly relevant and informative point of view of multicultural markets and audiences across the US, resulting in tailored communications strategies based on in-depth knowledge of consumers. Under Gonzalo’s leadership, GroupM Multicultural handles $1B in billings from clients such as Nestle, Unilever, Anheuser Busch, Mars, Target, L’Oréal, General Mills, Subway, Church & Dwight, IKEA, AARP, Kimberly Clark and Bayer.

Gonzalo first joined the GroupM family in 2003 as Managing Director of MEC Argentina. During his three year tenure he developed a reputation for creative media thinking and activation. In 2006, he moved to New York to launch MEC Bravo and in 2010 he was instrumental in combining all the agencies under the GroupM Multicultural banner. In 2014 Gonzalo was awarded Media Maven of the Year and in 2016 he was nominated for the Crain’s Visionary Award. Gonzalo started his professional career at American Express Argentina and prior to joining GroupM he worked for BBVA, Hachette Filipacchi and Editorial Televisa.

Janina Delloca-Pawlowski is the Brand Marketing Manager, Multicultural Marketing Lead at Dunkin’ Brands. Her career began in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather, New York, and continued at Boston agencies such as Arnold Worldwide and Hill Holliday.
She is a member of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Multicultural & Diversity Committee, Alliance for Inclusive & Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), and has been a judge for the ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards and EFFIE Awards for the past several years.
Janina serves on the Dunkin’ Brands Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee as well as the Boston Children’s Hospital Latino Advisory Council Milagros Para Niños where she is also the Co-Chair of its Signature Events Committee.
Janina is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Villanova University and Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communication from Northwestern University.

Daylon Goff is a dynamic, visionary, and principled marketing executive with 15+ years of experience providing key support in all levels of marketing, events, and sports management for various Fortune 500 clients.
Since joining The Marketing Arm in 2012, Daylon has ascended the ranks to lead the experiential activations for the TMA’s multicultural team in all facets from conception to completion. He’s created and executed Hispanic, African American, Asian, and LGBTQ targeted events for TMA clients such as AT&T, Frito Lay, Bacardi, American Airlines, and State Farm.
In addition to leading experiential activations, he advises, secures, and manages multicultural talent in conjunction with TMA’s talent department for various brands.
Prior to joining TMA, Daylon held several roles in sports/event marketing, celebrity/sports management, and the spirits industry for entities such as the CIAA Basketball Tournament, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Proximo Spirits.
Daylon Goff is a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where he currently sits on a few advisory boards. He is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated.

Santiago Gomez, was raised in Mexico City and studied economics and business management at Universidad Iberoamericana and Harvard University. As an investment banker for UBS in New York, he advised restaurant groups on acquisitions and expansion strategies in the U.S. and Latin America. During this time he felt that that Mexican cuisine in New York was not representative of the contemporary dishes that Chefs were creating in Mexico’s culinary hotspots. He developed an appreciation for global tastes through time spent in Madrid, Paris, and London, and avidly supports Mexican wines and gastronomy. Alongside his business partner Santiago Perez, Gomez gave birth to Cosme when they both flew to Mexico to recruit and partner with Chef Enrique Olvera. Cosme was named number one best restaurant in New York by The New York Times and is currently ranked number 40 Best Restaurant in the World in San Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best list. Recently he opened ATLA in Noho, a more casual approach to mexican cuisine. Gomez is focused on key customer and corporate relations as well as the expansion of ATLA and Cosme.

Manny Gonzalez serves as senior director, multicultural at Moët Hennessy, working with the company’s portfolio of luxury wines and spirits, which includes Hennessy cognac, Moët & Chandon champagne, and Belvedere vodka. He has a dual role: collaborate with the company’s brands in the development of strategies and programming in the African-American, Hispanic, and Asian consumer segments; and manage the company’s multicultural community relations programs. Prior to this position, he served as director, multicultural for the company’s largest brand, Hennessy. Mr. Gonzalez previously served as vice president of the Hispanic division of Hill Holliday, a Boston-based advertising agency. Prior to Hill Holliday, he was a managing consultant with Zyman Group, an Atlanta-based marketing consulting firm. He also worked at Diageo North America, where he managed both general market and multicultural marketing for Johnnie Walker, and has served as brand manager for Miller Genuine Draft. From 1990 to 1998, he worked in newspaper marketing, first in several marketing roles with the San Jose Mercury News and then as marketing manager for Los Angeles-based La Opinión. He received his bachelor’s from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from UCLA.

Sebastian is the founder and CEO of FLUVIP, the influencer marketing group with the largest presence in the world. He is considered a pioneer and an expert within the influencer marketing industry.

Sebastian earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication from Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires, Argentina and then went on to begin his professional career as founder of Bullpix, a local media agency in Argentina. He has a strong background creating and developing Internet-scale businesses.

Since being founded in Bogota, Colombia in 2010, FLUVIP has expanded to New York, Miami, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina.

The FLUVIP Group has, over the last five years, developed social media platforms to grow the influencer and content marketing industry – FLUVIP Influencer Marketing, AdvocatePro, FLUVIPContent, MediaData, and Influtech. Currently, FLUVIP works with over 100,000 influencers who help promote renowned global brands which include Sony, Visa, Apple, and Unilever among others.

José Manuel leads multicultural planning at J3, UM’s dedicated unit for Johnson & Johnson brands. At J3 he is responsible for developing multicultural strategies for brands such as Neutrogena, Aveeno, Listerine, TYLENOL and ZYRTEC. With more than 12 years of experience in the multicultural space, José Manuel has worked across a variety of categories having partnered with clients such as Sprint, MasterCard, Remy Martin, Heineken, TD Bank, Sotheby’s and US Army. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Southern California.

Parker Morse is the CEO of H Code Media, which he founded in 2015. H Code Media is the leading U.S. Hispanic digital marketing platform helping to connect brands with U.S. Hispanics at scale. According to Comscore, H Code Media is the #1 Authentic U.S. Hispanic entity among top U.S. Hispanic focused companies. Previously, Parker served as Head of Media Revenue at Demand Media (renamed Leaf Group [NYSE: LFGR]), a public digital media company. He has served as chief operating officer of Blue Bite, a mobile marketing company he helped launch, worked in corporate business development and strategy at Warner Brothers and as an analyst at investment banking firm Savvian Advisors (now GCA Savvian). Parker earned his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and received his MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

Vicente has an unrivaled record of 20+ years forming and implementing partnerships in the soccer community and helping companies connect with a multicultural audience. Prior to joining AC&M group, he launched Kelme in the US market and led the Hispanic marketing initiative for Sports Endeavors (SOCCER.COM) for six years. Now as VP of Business Development at AC&M Group, he ensures clients fully maximize their sponsorship and media presence. Vicente is originally from Alicante, Spain but currently, resides in Chapel Hill, NC.

Sandra is VP of Sales for the East Coast at Adsmovil; the largest mobile solutions provider targeting U.S. Hispanics at scale.

She is an accomplished professional with a dynamic 15+ year career leading high-growth and AdTech companies in the U.S. Recently promoted to VP of Sales for the U.S. Market, Sandra has a proven track record of increasing sales and is a viable player in the Multicultural world. Sandra has strengthened companies, primarily in the Hispanic space, to lead in competitive markets and is known for delivering innovative marketing, digital concepts and strategies for her clients in the Telecom, CPG, Retail, Beauty & Fashion and Auto sectors just to name a few. She has a profound understanding of Hispanics and the landscape thanks to her Latino culture and her extensive experience working on hundreds of campaigns targeting the U.S. Hispanic consumer. “It takes one to no one” is her motto and Sandra is not shy and unwavering when it comes to communicating her passion about the Hispanic space. This motto has been proven accurate in reaching the US Hispanic consumer as it relates to their behaviors and media consumption.

Maria is the founder and President of Ingenium Research Boutique, Inc.

Maria has 20 years of experience in both qualitative and quantitative marketing research.  She has conducted a wide variety of  projects including advertising testing, concept testing, brand stretch, market opportunity assessment, product testing, attitudes and usage, and label testing. 

After completing her studies, Maria joined CJS Investigaciones de Mercado, a marketing research firm, in Bogota, Colombia, as a Project Assistant. Moving up through the ranks, she later became a Project Director.  Her primary role was to lead projects with clients such as Procter & Gamble, Frito-Lay, Clorox, Nestlé, British American Tobacco, and Diageo, in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Following her long career with CJS Investigaciones de Mercado, Maria moved to the U.S. where she worked at LaVERDAD Marketing & Media. In this role, Maria organized the marketing research department from scratch, developing templates, budgeting tools, and processes, as well as creating the recruiting department. She was also in charge of training and developing company employees in market research and moderation.

Maria continued her career at Cheskin Added Value as a Research Manager for their Multicultural group.  Her primary role was to lead and execute qualitative research projects among Hispanics for clients such as Discovery en Espanol, Nestle, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Wells Fargo among others.

In 2010 Maria started Ingenium Research, where she has had the opportunity to help various Fortune 500 companies understand Total Market audiences.  She currently serves clients that represent a wide variety of industries such as CPG, financial services, entertainment, communications, health insurance, packaging, etc. in the U.S. and in Latin America (including Brazil).

Eduardo Pérez is a founding Partner of PM3. Eduardo, along with a business partner launched PM Publicidad (now PM3) in 2003 and has led the Hispanic marketing and advertising agency’s growth from scratch to being one of the top 20 Hispanic advertising agencies in the U.S.

Eduardo’s professional background prior to starting PM Publicidad was primarily on the client side, mostly with Astral Group (now Fluidra), a Barcelona-based multinational. He has served on the Board of Directors of several non-profits, as well as on the Board of Atlanta Advertising Club and the Orange County Ad Federation. Currently Eduardo is on the Advisory Board of the Florida State University College of Communications and Information as well as the Advisory Board of the FSU Center for Hispanic Marketing.

Eduardo is a frequent speaker at conferences and events on the subject of the U.S. Hispanic segment and marketing to them, and was a regional and finals judge for the 2013 and 2014 Effie Awards.

Eduardo’s parents settled from Spain to Jacksonville, Florida where he grew up. He was educated at The Florida State University where he earned degrees in International Affairs and Political Science. A former professional road cyclist, Eduardo remains active in sports as a competitive polo player and captain of PM3’s championship winning 7 v. 7 soccer team.

Nelson began his career in marketing and advertising at DMB&B(Starcom Mediavest) where he gravitated towards technology based accounts (TheStreet.com and Epic Games). From there, he moved to Dentsu where he managed media planning for Canon Digital Cameras and Computer Solutions for over 3 years. He moved onto his longest period, working on Sprint at Mindshare, where he joined the digital team to lead geo-targeted and behavioral targeting and as well as early adoption of programmatic solutions.

He diversified his experience to include work at agencies that addressed multiple cultures (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, and African American).

He joined MEC in December 2014 to provide key clients and agency teams target relevant opportunities within several categories/accounts including retail (IKEA), QSR (KFC), and travel (Marriott).

Nelson Pinero continues his a passion for finding culturally nuanced digital solutions that enhance message delivery among multicultural audiences. His new role as Multicultural Digital Director at GroupM will assist negotiations with key digital partners within programmatic, video, social and search.

Pedro is Director, Social Strategy and Influence as well as Co-Lead, Multicultural Social Media Practice at Horizon Media, Inc. in addition to being a contributing blogger at the HuffingtonPost, focused on emerging social and digital trends. He is a 2015 Direct Marketing News 40 Under 40 Award Recipient and FOLIO Magazine Marketer of the Year Winner. As Director of Integrated Marketing at People en Español (Time Inc.) he led award-winning marketing and branding campaigns. During his time as a member of the Digital Innovation Group at Cohn & Wolfe (WPP) he worked across consumer, healthcare, corporate and technology clients creating social and digital media communication strategies. Pedro’s branding and marketing experience includes roles at HBO’s New York International Latino Film Festival and Ocean Drive Español (Niche Media Holdings LLC). Pedro is also part of OUT in Tech and a supporter of God’s Love We Deliver in NYC.

Peter P. Snitzer Jr. is the Founder and Managing Director of Conffianz, a rapidly growing CPG beauty company that caters to the US Hispanic Market. Glamour Magazine and Beauty Inc. recently named him a “futurist” and recognized Conffianz as the #2 most up and coming multicultural beauty brand to watch. Conffianz products can be found online and in select mass retailers such as Wal-Mart. Outside the office you may find Mr. Snitzer diving with great white sharks off the southern tip of Africa, summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, on a church mission trip in Costa Rica or Haiti, or chasing his 5 young children around the yard with his wife.

A Brooklyn Native of both Dominican and Jewish-American heritage, Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muniz, the JewMinicana is a comedic actress with an arsenal of characters, voices, accents and realness.

Rachel’s admitted obsession with game shows has landed her as a contestant on “The Price is Right” and “The Newlywed Game”. Rachel has also had television appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman Show, Nuvo TV’s, “Latino 101” and has starred in documentaries such as HBO Latino’s “Habla Ya!” and “The Bigger the Hoop” (Latino Flavored Productions). She also served as a part-time commentator on MTV’s “FNMTV” video review program. Rachel also has experience on the airwaves. For four years Rachel La Loca was a part of the Internet radio craze on Urban Latino Radio. She has completed multi-episodic web series’ such as “The Work Jerks ” and “Ungirly”. She has collaborated with Univision’s “Flama” channel on viral hits like “Latino Field Studies” “Dominican Uber”, “Puerto Ricans Vs Dominicans” “Abuela BnB” and “Dominican Juicing”.

Caio Street has more than ten years of experience leading integrated digital
marketing strategy and communications that build impactful brands, create
user engagement, and increase ROI. MBA and MFA educated, Caio
understands how Commerce, Culture, and Technology enables businesses to
flourish. He has worked with such innovative brands as FOX Entertainment
and FX Network, AMEX, CreativeLive, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition. At PM3, Caio is
responsible for enterprise-wide digital strategy integration and execution
including business leadership, technology delivery for digital common
components, user experience/user interface design standards and
implementation, and digital governance.

Court Stroud is a writer and a longtime media executive who has worked for Univision, Telemundo, Azteca America, and several digital startups. He is founder and managing partner of the Cledor Group, a boutique consulting practice focused on entertainment and storytelling. Stroud holds degrees from UT-Austin and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He co-created an IAB-certified class in the fundamentals of digital ad sales which will be taught in LA, NY and other markets Fall 2017. At New York University, Stroud designed and teaches several courses, including the upcoming “Diversity in Media and Advertising.” Follow him on Twitter: @CourtStroudNYC

As Associate Director of Social for GroupM agency Essence, Sherwin Su leads the North American social media team, driving successful and innovative initiatives. He is responsible for managing platform partnerships across major social partners and oversees the agency’s development of social strategy across some of the most disruptive campaigns in tech, entertainment and B2B marketing.

Before joining Essence, Su was a Senior Manager at VaynerMedia, where he focused on growing the agency’s local and global paid media business with brands such as GE, MasterCard, Johnson & Johnson and Nature’s Bounty. Prior, he was a Business Development Manager at Kinetic Social, where he pioneered the company’s international expansion and global business development. He has also held media roles at AMP Agency, and Overdrive Interactive.

Su has a BS in Marketing Communication from Emerson College.

Joi is a dynamic and creative media professional, expert at navigating proprietary planning systems and third party research resources. A classically trained media specialist at Carat and Saatchi & Saatchi, Joi has evolved into a leader in the Total Market approach reaching consumers across general market, Hispanic, African American and Asian advertising strategies. In her career she has served on both agency and client side, earning a reputation for breaking the mold of traditional media approaches by crafting effective media solutions that weave digital options, custom content development, both online and offline programmatic strategies, and retail /grassroots program development.

On the client side, she has had stints at both Seagrams Beverage Co. and also with the Government of Puerto Rico. In her position as Media Director for the Government of Puerto Rico, she lead strategy for Tourism, Rums of Puerto Rico and PR Economic Development. She was also instrumental in the public relations initiatives for the island of Vieques.

As Director of Media at SpikeDDB (film director Spike Lee’s boutique creative agency), Joi expanded the role of media with long form programming partnerships for State Farm, Royal Caribbean and Doritos. As part of the 4 person new business team the agency experienced a 90% success rate adding to the roster Jaguar, Brand Jordan, Ariel Mutual Funds, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Essence Magazine and VH1 network.

Fueling a passion for consumer insights, Joi moved to Initiative Media as part of the Communications Planning team leading strategy for Home Depot, Burlington Coat Factory and Dr. Pepper Snapple. In parallel, Joi was an internal resource for the development of the Hispanic Communications strategy for the $800MM Hyundai and Kia Tier 1 and 2 business.

During her time at Initiative, she also helped create and launch Identity, the IPG Mediabrands Multicultural unit. For Identity, she helped realize immediate wins including Merck Consumer Care (Claritin), Merck Pharmaceuticals (Zostavax), J&J Beauty (Ambi, Neutrogena, Aveeno and Cetaphil) and L’Oreal Paris. Under Joi’s day-to-day leadership, L’Oreal expanded efforts into the Hispanic market by 800% experiencing exponential sales growth with this highly engaged consumer segment. In addition to US Hispanic media strategies for L’Oreal, Joi also lead discussions on category and brand support as well as relevant spokespersons and community/industry partnerships for the brand.

In late 2014, Joi was tapped to lead Consumer Engagement for CommongroundMGS, the largest multicultural agency in the country. Here, leading a team of 20, she provided stewardship to innovative marketers including Universal Films, Coors, HBO and Verizon.

A native New Yorker and graduate of Barnard College/Columbia University, Joi is fluent in Spanish. She can also walk on fire.

José E. Vélez-Silva is the Vice President of Multicultural Marketing & Communications for Comcast Cable responsible for leading the company’s efforts to drive brand consideration and increase market share across multicultural audiences. He directs, oversees and manages multiple multicultural advertising agency relationships, as well as all aspects of multicultural advertising campaigns, including strategy, concept development and ideation, and production and execution of creative for TV, digital, print, radio, DM, OOH, retail, social media, among others.

Prior to joining Comcast, José was the Director of Client Services at Global Works Group LLC where he was responsible for all multicultural advertising campaigns on behalf of Cablevision, among other brands. He previously held various senior level marketing positions at Publicis Groupe’s Bromley Communications and at Leo Burnett, as well as at Grey Global Group and Young & Rubicam.
An award-winning integrated marketing and advertising expert with more than 20 years experience, José is originally from San Juan and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with a major in marketing and finance, from the University of Puerto Rico and post-graduate executive program alumni from University of Virginia Darden School of Business. He currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Consisting of the “Core Five” players, Jaime Fernandez, Jerry “Elmo DiFoca” Diaz, Michael “Juan Bago” Diaz, Anthony Palmini and Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muniz, Room 28 and their supporting cast of up and coming actors brings laughter and bladder control issues to thousands of fans via filmed skits broadcasted through various outlets, including thoroughly-produced live shows, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Vine. Highlighting topics from subway R&B singers to Latino superheroes, Room 28 showcases humor in various situations—and the laughter is contagious. Everyone is now asking, “Who are these nuts in Room 28?” and more importantly, “How can I see more of them?” With a unique product offering, Room 28 has built quite the fan-base, which includes a diverse set of millennial tastemakers and influencers. Between a track record of consecutively SOLD OUT live shows between 2014 and 2015 and the creative and highly-produced web content, Room 28 is fulfilling the demand for high-quality, Latino-based comedy in the USA.