More women are ascending into leadership roles than ever before, but with this progress comes a renewed focus on work-life balance and well-being. From the effects of stress on women’s health to more frequent conversations about women often taking on the bulk of home and family responsibilities, the idea of “having it all” seems more insurmountable than ever. To foster the growth of female representation in the workplace and in leadership, women need support.
In this iteration of Connatix's women in tech & media series, industry leaders will debate common questions with a modern lens. What does an effective support system look like? How can current leaders help the next generation of female talent rise through the ranks? And is it possible to have it all?
Georgia Room is an inclusive lounge that welcomes beauty in all its genders, colors, shapes and sizes. The cultural sophistication and high-energy feel of Georgia Room comes from Georgia O’Keeffe’s relationship with New York City. Her first gallery was here, as were her first recognized paintings. Georgia Room aims to pay homage to this era of her life with partnerships with cultural curators who are pushing the envelope on what is possible.
With her distinctive blend of remixed classics and contemporary gems spanning the gamut from house, disco and EDM to rock, soul and pop, the Samantha Michelle experience is hallmarked by her ecstatic touch on open-format excellence.
Toronto-born and London-bred, Samantha’s recent accolades include a June 2022 tenure aboard Paramount’s yacht at Cannes Lions as well as commissions in both 2019 and 2020 from Wall Street Journal to perform at both Cannes Lions and Davos for the World Economic Forum. Other recent highlights include spinning for Christian Louboutin, back-to-back bicoastal gigs for Dolce & Gabbana, performances at Soho Desert House Coachella, and the Cinetic Media party at Sundance. She’s also DJ’d private events for brands such as Bulgari, Versace, Harper’s Bazaar, Meta, Rolling Stone, Christie’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Carolina Herrera.
As the Vice President of Advanced Advertising at the PGA Tour, Pilar leads a team that focuses on ad product activation, first-party data strategy, programmatic, paid media and marketing activation. Pilar spent over 19 years at Reuters and served in many different capacities. The highlight of her career was when her Revenue Operations team won The Business Transformation Award for 2021.
Pilar is a graduate of Boston University with a BS in Journalism. Immediately after graduating, Pilar directed and produced a full-length documentary entitled In Sickness and In Health. Her award-winning film traveled all around the world.
Ran is a Global Director of Direct-to-Consumer Commercial Strategy at AB InBev. Led by a passion for bringing uncommon people onto common ground, she leverages her experience in marketing and digital innovation to help brands like AB InBev build robust digital go-to-market strategies that foster meaningful human connections and deliver impactful business results.
Passion and personality matter to her, and Ran is always looking for opportunities to unlock potential and lift up team members. Her leadership style is rooted in servant leadership, a growth mindset, and creativity- built from a combination of perspectives gained throughout her career working at companies such as Twitter and Boston Consulting Group.
Somewhere in between launching digital products and human-centric design, Ran is a wanderlust. She enjoys spontaneous trips, hikes in the mountains, and learning about cultures around the world. Music is her native language, and her favorite brain foods are books.
Ran is a daughter to immigrant parents, wife to a supportive partner, and proud mom to Lily.
Nicole recently joined the Global Media team at Microsoft from Spark a Publicis Media agency where she was the media lead for the Citibank Global media account. Prior to her time with PMG, she spent over 7 years with Dentsu Aegis, Microsoft’s media AOR - leading both B2B and B2C commercial campaigns. For over 20+ years Nicole has worked across various media agencies such as PMG, Dentsu, Mediacom, and PHD Media, fostering strong relationships and trusted partnerships with her clients, teams, and the media partner landscape.
Nicole has led a $600+MM global media business with responsibility to develop all aspects of the go-to-market strategy for various Microsoft LOB’s. Under her leadership, her teams across agency Research and Insights, Strategy, Content, Comms Planning and Digital developed the global approach to ensure the strategy is brought to life for each campaign and performance goals were met.
Nicole’s life, however, is made up of more than just her professional achievements. She is a mother of 3 beautiful girls. She continuously works to raise and provide for her 24-year-old daughter, Nyana (currently in law school), her 12-year-old daughter, MayLee (avid athlete who keeps her Saturdays booked) and Natalia who is 3 (that should speak for itself). She currently lives on Long Island with her daughters and fiancé, Louis.
Katie Pillich is a senior RevOps executive with over 15 years of experience managing operations teams for US publishers. She’s currently at The Daily Beast, an IAC company, where she sits on the Executive Team as Senior Vice President of Revenue Operations and Analytics.
After joining the Beast in 2015 to build the publisher’s ad stack from the ground up, Katie’s responsibilities have grown to now overseeing revenue data and operations for the publisher’s diversified revenue pie - including ad sales, programmatic, commerce and subscription. In the last two years, Katie has focused on informing the overall company strategy by making data driven decisions to drive growth of the current and lifetime value of a consumer.
At Connatix, Jenn leads the global growth and expansion of the publisher development, buyer, partnerships and marketing teams. Previously, she was the VP/GM of Programmatic at Sizmek, where she scaled the programmatic business and drove several strategic acquisitions.
Jenn co-founded Givology.org, a nonprofit which connects donors to students in developing countries.