Lara is an experienced and passionate business leader with 15+ years of experience building and growing brands across multiple industries including consumer goods, alcohol, beauty, and sports in both global and U.S. roles.

In 2021, Lara joined as the first Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of Marketing at the Kansas City Chiefs. While overseeing all aspects of marketing in the U.S. including brand strategy, fan development, content production, events, and community impact, she is also responsible for the internationalization of the club in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Mexico. She has led the marketing team during back to back Super Bowl Championships to becoming the #2 fan base in the league, driving reach across their owned channels on social and digital through powerful storytelling and furthering the legacy of impact of the club and its players locally in the community.

Jim Cooper is the editor-in-chief at Digiday Media’s Digiday, WorkLife, and Digiday en Espanol, managing the brands’ reporting and editing teams and editorial operations.

Prior to joining Digiday, Cooper was editorial director at Adweek, overseeing the publication's editorial functions. Cooper started at the Adweek publishing group as a reporter covering the rise of the cable industry as a programming and technology sector at Mediaweek and rose to executive editor there before shifting over to the editorial director role in October 2012. Before Adweek, Cooper was the programming editor at Cablevision Magazine, a staff writer at Broadcasting & Cable and a community reporter for Gannett-owned daily the Courier-News in New Jersey. He graduated from Kenyon College and received a M.A. in journalism from Boston University. Cooper lives in Westchester County, New York with his wife and two daughters.

As the Global Chief Marketing Officer for Stagwell’s Brand Performance Network, Shannon Pruitt draws on her extensive experience in delivering innovative marketing solutions across various industries like media, content, technology, sports, and entertainment. Her primary role involves supporting Stagwell’s portfolio of agencies by identifying new service offerings and opportunities aimed at driving revenue and success for both the agencies and their clients.

Shannon’s expertise stems from her involvement in all facets of consumer engagement, including brand management, publishing, agency work, and intellectual property rights. She specializes in designing and implementing strategic revenue streams, programs, and partnerships across verticals for clients and agencies alike.

Samira Panah Bakhtiar is a dynamic leader in tune with the powerful relationship between digital media and technology. As General Manager of Media & Entertainment, Games, and Sports at Amazon Web Services (AWS), she leads a high-performing, multi-generational team of builders and champions diversity.

For close to two decades, her work at AWS and Cisco, where she served as Director of Media Operations, led to strategic alignment and business transformations with some of the world’s largest entertainment companies. She has a proven track record in tech strategy, business development, and sales – focusing on introducing innovation and enhancing operational efficiency in the areas of content production, media supply chain, broadcast distribution, OTT, interactive experiences, and content monetization.

A natural curiosity about how things work has led Michael Colella to become an entrepreneur, digital hybrid, and Emmy Award® winner. Michael has spent most of his 24+ year career in sports media, spending five years at NBA Entertainment and over 10 years at ESPN. Sprinkling in short tenures at R/GA and NeueVu, Michael landed at Infillion to lead the Creative developing his mission to foster, challenge, and innovate advertising using data to drive informed decision-making.

Michael’s curiosity extends to his personal life where he enjoys DIY and woodworking, partnering with his wife and two daughters on countless projects. Jersey-born and raised, Michael’s passions and dedication extend to spending time and participating in family-fun activities including skiing, fitness, and cooking.

Grace's experience includes advertising, business development, strategy, sales, marketing, project management, and operations. With an agency and publisher sales background, Grace has created and sold integrated communications and multiplatform promotion opportunities. In addition to creating strategic plans in all digital environments (online, search, video, mobile, content distribution, digital OOH, etc.), she has also developed traditional media planning and buying strategies (TV, radio, magazine, newspaper, and OOH).

Grace served at Mindshare, MECi Interactive, Team One (Saatchi & Saatchi), Deutsch LA, and BBDO. Her agency career client list is marked by global brands, including Goldman Sachs, Lexus, Ritz Carlton, Mitsubishi, Chrysler and KFC.

Her sales career includes new business wins with blue-chip brands such as Starbucks, Kraft, Sony Entertainment, Sprint and Disney.