Special Guest

Senator Amy Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar is the first woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate. In her three terms she has built a reputation for putting partisanship aside and was ranked “most effective” Democratic senator in a 2019 study by Vanderbilt University. Senator Klobuchar serves as the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, where she has worked to reinvigorate America’s antitrust laws and restore competition. Her book, “Antitrust: Taking on monopoly power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age,” was published in April. As a member of the Joint Economic Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator Klobuchar has been a leader in working to implement a competitive agenda to ensure businesses have the tools they need to grow. A co-chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus, Senator Klobuchar has sponsored recent legislation aimed at connecting every American to high speed internet. She is also chair of the Senate Rules Committee, where she has worked to ensure fairness, transparency, and efficiency in government. Before serving in the Senate, Senator Klobuchar headed the largest prosecutor’s office in Minnesota for eight years. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School.

Keynotes

Doug Peterson

Doug Peterson has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of S&P Global since 2013. He joined the Company in 2011 as President of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. Previously, Mr. Peterson was the Chief Operating Officer of Citibank, N.A., Citigroup’s principal banking entity that operates in more than 100 countries. Mr. Peterson was with Citigroup for 26 years. His prior roles include CEO of Citigroup Japan, Chief Auditor of Citigroup, Country Manager for Uruguay, and earlier he served as Country Manager for Costa Rica. Mr. Peterson is a member of the Boards of Directors of Business Roundtable, the Japan Society, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York Stock Exchange Board Advisory Council and the U.S.-India CEO Forum. He is co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Stewardship Board of the Platform for Shaping the Future of Cities, Infrastructure and Urban Services. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Boards of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee, the US-China Business Council and the Kravis Leadership Institute, and the Boards of Trustees of Claremont McKenna College and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Mr. Peterson received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree from Claremont McKenna College.

Ashley Friedlein

Ashley is a serial entrepreneur at the intersection of media, marketing and technology. His passion and area of expertise is building professional communities. In 1999, Ashley founded Econsultancy, a community of 600,000+ marketing professionals globally, and, more recently, Guild, a platform for running professional groups, networks and communities.

Leslie Norins, MD, PhD

Certain people will always pay for helpful information, believes Dr. Leslie Norins. What's his secret? You must select unserved or emerging situations. Starting from his kitchen table, Leslie created over 80 monthly medical newsletters for healthcare professionals and facilities. All subscriptions, no advertising. Usually each was the first to serve its specialized readers. He estimates his success rate of new launches at 95 percent. He will explain how his "radar" operates to spot openings. And he will reveal two unserved opportunities (non-medical) he feels await an information provider. Leslie was inducted into the Publisher's Hall of Fame, served on the Newsletter Association board of directors, and was twice the keynote speaker at its annual convention.

Speakers

Ed Coburn, CEO, Cabot Wealth Network

Ed Coburn has spent his entire career in the specialized publishing business at Cahners Publishing, Cutter Information Corp., Circadian Information, Harvard Medical School, and Mequoda Systems prior to acquiring Cabot. He has spoken frequently at publishing and media events and served on the board of a number of industry associations. Ed is Co-chair of Renewd.

Dan Fink

Dan oversees the Money-Media business unit, which was acquired by the Financial Times in 2008. Money-Media is a native digital publisher with over 130 staff, 10 products, and operations on three continents. Money-Media sits within FT Specialist, the Financial Times' specialist publishing division, and publishes premium news across multiple industries. Dan is a member of the FT's senior management group, is the chairman of the FT's 401k investment committee, and sits on the executive advisory board for multiple publishing industry groups, including Renewd, MediaGrowth, and the AM&P Network. Dan earned an MBA at Indiana University and was a national champion gymnast.

Andre Bywater

André Bywater is a UK-qualified commercial lawyer with a focus on regulatory compliance, processes and investigations. He advises mainly US and European in-house counsel along with compliance and IT teams. He is based in London in the UK working for Cordery, a niche law firm solely dedicated to compliance issues, in particular in the privacy/data protection, anti-bribery & corruption, and modern slavery spheres.

Patrick Campbell

Patrick Campbell is the Founder and CEO of ProfitWell, the suite of tools that provide turnkey solutions to reducing churn, optimizing pricing, and ensuring revenue recognition is audit proof. ProfitWell's flagship metrics product also powers the subscription financial metrics for over twenty thousand subscription companies Prior to ProfitWell Patrick led Strategic Initiatives for Boston based Gemvara and was an Economist at Google and the US Intelligence community.

Cindy Carter

Cindy Carter is president of WCG's Market Intelligence and Insight Group, which includes the media brands CenterWatch, FDAnews and MAGI. The group publishes newsletters, books, management reports, runs events, and conducts industry research on clinical trials and the life sciences industry. She was formerly the publisher and vice president of FT Energy, a division of the Financial Times, and was also vice president and group publisher at Capitol Publications. Before that, she was an editor at Government Information Services.

Angela Chitkara

Angela Chitkara is Founder of The World in 2020+ Project focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), corporate sustainability, social purpose, and Environmental, Social Risks and Governance (ESG). She is also Founder and CEO of US India Corridor (USIC), a strategic communications firm specializing in socially-impactful public-private engagement. Chitkara is writing a book, Proving Relevance: Doing What We Say Matters. She is a fourth-generation educator and serves on the faculty of Columbia University. Follow her @AngelaChitkara.

Matthew Cibellis

Matthew is a virtual and in-person event producer and a guy who considers himself something of an events and content marketing guru. He works with clients to adapt their event strategy as well as their marketing & social media promotions to the changing world—virtual, hybrid, and multi-hub. Current clients include: GovExec (formerly Government Executive Media Group), Mathematica, Center for Public Integrity, Learning First Alliance, and more. He co-chairs marketing and communications for Renewd, a professional association of specialized subscription, membership, and event professionals developing and sustaining this online community during the pandemic and beyond. Matthew says, “Building a client pool who wants to have fun while they get business done is my game. My subcontractors and I are “fun-seekers” and “engagement-enthusiasts” at heart—probably because we produce experiences for a living)—so we're joyful to work with and bring a wry sense of humor to the proceedings. Happily, we also know how to work within complex organizations to get things done and make you shine.

Helen Coetzee

Helen leads the MPG - a marketing consultancy and digital marketing agency delivering high performance B2B marketing for sustainable revenue and profit growth. MPG’s focus areas are: B2B community engagement, lead generation and marketing to grow memberships, subscriptions and events. Helen also advises business leaders on marketing strategy – helping them understand the role marketing should play in their organisations.

Brian Cuthbert

Brian Cuthbert is a Group Vice President at Diversified Communications U.S., a global media company with market-leading exhibitions, conferences, digital products and publications. He is responsible for the Business Communities division, which includes the Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM), Intersolar North America, The Running Event, Running Insight, American Society of Administrative Professionals, the Administrative Professionals Conference, Vinexpo America and Drinks America. Mr. Cuthbert joined Diversified in April 2013 as the Director of Sales for IOFM and later became its Executive Director in 2015. Previously, Mr. Cuthbert held sales and leadership roles at Greenhaven Partners and Kennedy Information. Mr. Cuthbert graduated Fordham University with a B.A. in Journalism. Originally from New York, he now resides in Maine with his wife and daughter.

Bill Dugan

Bill Dugan has spent his entire career in the specialized information publishing industry at Nutrition Action Healthletter, Georgetown Publishing House, Briefings Publishing Group, StepByStep Marketing, and since 2016 at Mequoda Systems. Bill’s work includes growing Nutrition Action Healthletter to over 1 million paid subscribers, the largest circulation consumer health newsletter in the world; marketing and managing a business self-improvement publishing group; overseeing private-equity acquisitions and mergers of specialized publishing entities; launching a start-up publishing venture for small business owners; and serving Mequoda clients with digital publishing and marketing expertise to grow audience, revenue, and profits. Bill’s work has been recognized with numerous industry marketing and copywriting awards.

Scott Giordano

Scott M. Giordano is an attorney with more than 20 years of legal, technology, and risk management consulting experience. An IAPP Fellow of Information Privacy and a Certified Information Security Systems Professional (CISSP), Scott serves as Spirion’s subject matter expert on multinational data protection and its intersection with technology, export compliance, internal investigations, information governance, and risk management. Prior to joining Spirion, he served as Director, Data Protection for Robert Half Legal and established the global privacy program for Esterline Technologies Corporation in Bellevue, WA.

Hannah Glover

Hannah Glover is a group managing editor at Money-Media. She joined the company in 2007 as a reporter covering tech & ops on Ignites, which covers the mutual fund industry. She was managing editor of GatekeeperIQ, and then of Ignites before taking her current role.

John Hitchcock

John Hitchcock is a media executive with experience in editorial, sales, marketing and general management, encompassing digital and print and spanning newspapers, newswires, newsletters and magazines across five continents.

Chris Howells

Chris has worked within news organisations for over 15 years. In 2010, his team launched The Guardian's first digital community platforms, attracting 575k subscribers and 6m monthly readers. After two years with the Guardian in New York, Chris completed an Executive MBA in the UK, specialising in digital strategy and organisational change. Chris joined the FT in 2018 and supported the transformation of FT Live to a digital events business, hosting over 250 digital conferences in 2020 - including the Global Boardroom. Chris recently joined Tortoise Media, a news startup launched in 2018 by James Harding (former Editor of the Times and Director of BBC news), where he is leading the development of B2B membership products and events.

Jane Johnson

Jane Johnson is the President of Business Transition Academy Inc. (BTA) and is the co-author of Cashing Out of Your Business – Your Last Great Deal. BTA provides comprehensive, impartial business exit planning education, tools, and resources to business so they may achieve their goals. Jane is a CPA, Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor and a Certified Business Exit Consultant.

Angela Kornegor

Angela leads the strategic and operational direction of MedLearn Media, Inc., a specialty healthcare news and information publisher. For the past 18 years, she has served in numerous leadership positions within operational management, product development, marketing and sales. She has led a successful spin-off and transitioned the organization to a subscription-based revenue model that has strengthened customer relationships along with securing a predictable recurring revenue stream.

Kelly Leach

Over a 25-year career, Kelly has crafted and executed winning strategies for navigating the opportunities and threats posed by digital transformation. She has held leadership roles in the US and Europe for media and technology companies including Dow Jones, Piano, Blurb and Time Inc. Kelly holds degrees from Columbia Business School and Rhodes College and currently calls Girona, Spain home.

Timothy Lutts

Editor, publisher and growth stock investing expert, now working just three days a week and loving it.

James Mayes

Co-Founder & CEO, MindTheProduct. Dad & gadget-fan, happiest outdoors, usually opinionated. Remote since before it was cool. He/him.

Lisa McInturff

A veteran marketing professional with over 22 years of experience, Lisa has an appreciation for and the ability to lead and coordinate cross-functional efforts to deliver successful outcomes and results. In her previous role at BVR she oversaw all aspects of BVR's multifaceted marketing strategy and prior to joining BVR, Lisa worked for a variety of companies including a fabless semiconductor company, a professional audio visual solutions and support provider, and a digital display manufacturer. Lisa holds a B.S. from the University of Idaho and lives in Portland, Oregon.

Douglas A McIntyre

CEO of 24/7 Wall St. news service since 2006. Previously CEO of On2 Technologies (software), FutureSource (trading terminals), Switchboard (website), and Financial World Magazine

Carolyn Morgan

Carolyn Morgan has launched, acquired, grown and sold media businesses across print, digital and live events. She was formerly an Exec Director at EMAP, specialising in marketing, events, digital development and strategy. Carolyn was a co-founder of the Specialist Media Show, which she sold to SIIA in 2013.    Carolyn has wide experience of niche publishing businesses and advises many independent media owners on digital strategy through her consulting business, Speciall Media. She regularly curates and chairs conferences on digital media strategy. She is a Non-Exec Director for Thomas Telford, the commercial arm of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and also Executive Grapevine International, an independent niche media business.  Carolyn was a Member of the Council of Nottingham University and of Finance Committee 2016-2020, chairing their Digital Experts Group. Follow Carolyn on twitter @carolynrmorgan Connect to her on Linked in at https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynmorgan Read her blog at https://speciall.media/

Colin Morrison OBE

Colin Morrison is a former journalist who has been CEO of media companies variously in Australia, the UK, US, and Germany including ACP, RELX, Future, Axel Springer, Hearst, and EMAP. As a chairman, non-executive director and strategic consultant of consumer, specialist and B2B media companies in the UK and Australia, he has led M&A, IPOs, and fund-raisings for public and private companies in the UK and AsiaPacific. In addition, he publishes the Flashes & Flames weekly newsletter on global media (www.flashesandflames.com). He has been chair of Magazine Publishers of Australia, and a director of the UK Professional Publishers Association. He is a former education advisor to the UK government.

David Pike

David Pike is Editor-in-Chief and Head of Americas at Energy Intelligence, responsible for overseeing and setting the strategic direction of content across the company. He has worked for Energy Intelligence for over 20 years in a variety of editorial and content roles, and previously worked as an editor and reporter in the UK and Middle East.

Julian Rose

in 2007, Julian co-founded two B2B information companies in the sustainability field -Chemical Watch (from which he successfully exited in 2020) and Environment Analyst, which has grown into an international membership community for the environmental services space. Prior to launching these businesses, he worked for 15 years as a journalist and editor covering the environmental business agenda.

Michael Silberman

Michael Silberman is SVP Strategy at Piano, overseeing strategic services to help publishers and brands define, launch and optimize their digital businesses for revenue growth. Michael was previously General Manager, Digital Media at New York Media, (NYMag), and has held roles at Rodale, MSNBC.com and CBS News.

Roxann Stafford, MD

Roxann Stafford is the managing director of the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, a $20-million initiative that works to empower local news organizations to build trust with their audiences while producing outstanding journalism and developing new revenue streams that can enable them to reach long-term business sustainability. Roxann most recently served as Director of Program for Matter, a New York startup accelerator and venture capital firm, where she oversaw all aspects of the fund’s accelerator program for early-stage media entrepreneurs. She has worked with local news organizations around the U.S. and Asia as well as with national outlets such as The New York Times and The Associated Press.

Cali Williams Yost

For more than two decades, Cali Williams Yost has been a leading authority on high performance work flexibility. Yost is the Founder and CEO of the Flex+Strategy Group, a solutions company helping organizations unlock performance and engagement by reimagining how, when, and where work is done. Yost approaches flexible work transformation as a strategic business imperative. She focuses on the skills individuals need to leverage flexibility and take control of their work+life “fit” in order to do their jobs and manage their lives. Yost graduated with honors from Columbia Business School where she’s noted as an alumnus “Changing the World.”

Mark A. Young

Mark has built an extensive network of business information and media industry CEOs and CFOs during the past 35 years. Mark and his firm, Grist Mill Advisors, focus on small- to medium-sized companies located in the United States and Canada. He has built his financial advisory practice on three elements: acquisition strategy, capital raising and sale preparation. A veteran of 10 years with a money-center bank in New York, Mark joined the Publishing Group of State Street Bank in 1992. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA in finance from New York University.