AAF National Conference
June 12 - 15
The Fairmont Dallas
Dallas/Fort Worth
Ruth Parr, managing partner & worldwide brand planning director, DDB
Ruth Parr has 27 years of advertising agency experience from DDB, Ogilvy & Mather, McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam, Davis Wilkins, French Gold Abbott and Dorland, Kirkwoods. In addition she has four years client-side experience with Unilever. Parr possesses a strong combination of analytical thinking and creative intuition, along with a great sense of humor and the ability to see "the big picture." She helped establish the discipline of account planning in the U.S. (first in New York, then in Dallas).
Tony Pearman, chief creative officer, Access
Tony Pearman began his professional career in Washington, D.C., specializing in three-dimensional graphic design. While there, he worked with print, exhibit and signage teams, creating both two-and three-dimensional designs for clients like Coca-Cola, United Airlines and The Smithsonian Institution. Access, which Pearman founded with copywriter/business partner Todd Marcum, is a creative shop that has been nationally recognized for outstanding design and advertising as well as exhibit design. They also offer public relations services and, through strategic partnerships, digital printing, fulfillment and distribution, and tradeshow services.
Tony Ponturo, vice president, global media & sports marketing, Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Tony Ponturo's responsibilities range from directing the media planning and buying functions for the company's beer brands and Busch Entertainment, including Busch Gardens and Sea World, to overseeing the sports marketing and sports production operations within the company. Ponturo joined the company in 1982 and has played a key role in developing the corporate media structure. In January 2004 Ponturo was named the most influential person in sports marketing by the Sports Business Journal.
Kathleen S. Reilly, founding partner & president, Consultative Resources Corporation
Kate Reilly has been a consultant in the area of consultative selling, communications, problem-
solving, leadership and coaching and group dynamics since the early 1970s. In 1981 she founded Consultative Resources Corporation. Reilly has led the company in developing a number of training programs in sales and relationship development including consultative selling skills, coaching skills, team selling and consultative relationship skills.
Keith Reinhard, chairman & CEO, DDB Worldwide
Keith Reinhard leads DDB Worldwide, which ranks among the largest global advertising agency networks in the world with 206 offices in 96 countries. In 1986 Reinhard was one of the architects of the advertising industry's first and only three-way merger, creating Omnicom, one of the world's largest advertising and marketing services holding companies. Concurrent with the creation of Omnicom, Reinhard accomplished the merger of Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper Worldwide, first known as DDB Needham Worldwide and now DDB Worldwide.
Stan Richards, principal, The Richards Group
Stan Richards founded The Richards Group as a freelance practice after graduating from Pratt Institute in New York. Over the next 26 years, it became one of the nation's premier creative resources. In 1976 it became a full-service advertising agency. His work has received awards in virtually every major competition in the world. In 1999 Richards received the highest honor available to a creative with his election to the Art Directors Hall of Fame, joining such luminaries as Walt Disney, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol.
Stone Roberts, president and chief executive, Carlson & Partners
Stone Roberts joined Carlson & Partners in June of this year. Previously he led Gotham, a New York-based advertising agency he started 10 years ago. During his time there, Gotham had tremendous success, particularly with the Internet. Gotham's portfolio of Web experience includes such notable brands as WebMD, America Online, E*TRADE, Fidelity Investments' Online Brokerage and Priceline.com. Roberts has significant experience in branding online properties and successfully leveraging them for clients in the broader marketplace today.
George Ross, vice president, sales, Walraven
George Ross has been a member of the Dallas Ad League for since 2002. As a new member he became interested in student education and joined the DAL Education Committee. He chaired the high school initiative committee and along with his committee, developed and published the junior and senior high school student resource binder "So You Want a Career In Advertising." Ross has held a wide variety of executive marketing and sales positions throughout his career.
Dave Sabella, senior creative director, RadioShack Circle R Group
Dave Sabella has been a part of the Dallas ad community for over 15 years. In addition to being an art director and creative director, he also is an accomplished musician. Sabella has played guitar and keyboards with working bands throughout the Southwest for many years.
Phil Schneider, executive vice president, marketing, Pier 1 Imports
Phil Schneider is responsible for the strategy that guides Pier 1's marketing and branding efforts, including advertising, target market development, Internet marketing, credit services, public relations, creative development and production. During his 18 years with Pier 1, Schneider has guided the company through several marketing campaigns, including "Get in Touch With Your Senses" featuring renowned interior designer Thom Filicia, from the hit television show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Alan F. Schultz, chairman, president & CEO, Valassis
Al Schultz joined Valassis from Deloitte and Touche in 1984. Since that time, he has held a variety of leadership positions throughout the company, including sales, marketing, operations and finance. Valassis is a respected leader within the marketing service industry and is well known for its innovative coupon and promotion media properties. Schultz, along with the talented Valassis leadership team, is responsible for the company's vision, growth strategies, new business ventures and overseeing the overall operations of the company.
Diane Seimetz, partner, Launch Agency
One of the three founding partners of Launch, Diane Seimetz set up shop as an "intrapreneurial" effort in 1999 at IPG agency Temerlin McClain Dallas. The group developed high-profile campaigns that successfully launched such new ventures as online dating Match.com, the Paris Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, American Airlines' AA.com travel site, Rave Motion Pictures, and Groceryworks.com. Creative director and writer by trade, Seimetz started advertising life in 1986 at Tracy Locke, Dallas. Her subsequent nine-year tenure at Temerlin McClain included both brand planning and creative.
Wallace S. Snyder, president & CEO, AAF
Wally Snyder serves as the American Advertising Federation's chief spokesman, representing 50,000 members - including 130 corporate members, 210 local ad federations and 210 college chapters. Prior to joining the AAF, Snyder was associate director for advertising practices at the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, where he served as principal adviser to the FTC on advertising issues. A 16-year veteran of the FTC, Snyder joined the Commission as a trial attorney and was involved in litigation for a variety of cases.
Brian Steinberg, advertising columnist, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company
Prior to being appointed to his current position in 2003, Brian Steinberg was a special writer and the media business reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, the company's real-time, electronic news division. As Newswires' lead media reporter, he covered many subjects and companies and edited "The Pitch," a weekly marketing column, which he originated with another reporter in September 1999. Steinberg joined Newswires in 1997 as a reporter covering the telecommunications industry. Steinberg was a business reporter and columnist for the Capital in Annapolis, Md., before joining Dow Jones.
Andrew Susman, CEO, Studio One Networks
Immediately prior to founding Studio One Networks, Andreew Susman was director, business development, for Time Inc. New Media. His responsibilities included the oversight and general management of such activities as custom publishing and programming, syndication, distribution and network development. Previously he managed all advertising marketing activities for Time Inc. New Media and built digital brands for major Time Inc. products. In early 1996, at Time Inc., Susman created the first and only dedicated Internet sponsored programming unit in the industry.
Patrick Taylor, director, media and marketing communications, Meredith Corporation
Patrick Taylor is responsible for managing all communications for Meredith Publishing Group including magazines (Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, More, Traditional Home, Country Home, etc.) and business units including integrated marketing, Meredith Interaction, corporate solutions, retail partnerships and book trades. His extensive public relations experience includes serving as VP-corporate communications for Yellow Pages Publishers Association; director, corporate communications for Personal Finance Group, Time Inc. and director of corporate communications at Rodale Press Inc.
David Verklin, CEO, Carat North America
David Verklin is CEO of Carat North America, the largest independent media services company in North America. Under his leadership, Carat has grown into one of the elite media research, planning and buying organizations in the industry, with almost $5 billion in media billings annually. A recognized leader in the media services industry, Verklin is regularly quoted on media issues in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today and serves as a media analyst for CNBC, ESPN and MSNBC.
Mike Weber, president, Mike Weber Creative Media, Inc.
Mike Weber is a producer, director, writer and voice talent. After 17 years as a morning radio personality and station manager Weber opened a recording studio in Tampa, Florida. Now known as CMR Studios the facility has grown into a full-service broadcast production company that is consistently recognized for creative excellence. He has been a local and district ADDY chair numerous times, has served on the National Committee since 1988 and is currently the chairman of the AAF National ADDY Committee.
Douglas J. Wood, partner, advertising & marketing law group, Reed Smith Hall Dickler LLP
Douglas J. Wood has more than 26 years of experience representing national and multinational companies in advertising and unfair competition, intellectual property and Internet matters. In addition, he serves as legal adviser to several worldwide advertising industry trade organizations, and is general counsel to both the Association of National Advertisers and the Advertising Research Foundation. He is also the founder, chairman and U.S. member of the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance, an alliance of independent lawyers located throughout the world with expertise in advertising, marketing and promotion law.
Tony Wright, senior partner, chief strategy and planning officer, Ogilvy&Mather North America
Tony Wright began his advertising career in London at Saatchi & Saatchi before moving to Chiat/Day in Los Angeles and Toronto, becoming the youngest-ever member of their worldwide board and the driving force behind the famous "Energizer Bunny" campaign. In 1989 in Minneapolis, Wright formed McElligott Wright Morrison White, which was subsequently sold to the Omnicom Group. Tony was then a founding partner with Omnicom in the New York agency Berlin Wright Cameron, created to serve Volkswagen.
Gary Yost, vice president, marketing, Valassis
Gary is vice president of marketing at Valassis, Inc. He is responsible for marketing the company's product lines, including advertising, market research and sales training. Since joining Valassis in 1995, Yost has build the company into a world-class marketing organization.
Diego Yurkievich, director, Miami Ad School San Francisco
For the past 15 years Diego Yurkievich has lived and worked between the U.S. and Europe at
agencies including Weiden & Kennedy and Tandem DDB. To each he brought his own brand of cooperative rule-breaking, creating award-winning work for Nike and Audi along the way. While on sabbatical from the agency world, Yurkievich discovered a deep and abiding love of teaching. A three-month stint as teacher in residence at Miami Ad School in South Beach became a year-long posting and led to his current role as director of the San Francisco campus.
For more information on AAF's national conference call 1-800-999-2231 or e-mail aaf@aaf.org.
