[Sneak Peek] Aspire Higher: The Summit

Duncan Blair, VP of Marketing at Article

The DTC playbook: Creating connections in commerce and content

Duncan started his career in marketing more than 10 year ago with a number of senior strategy and marketing leadership roles in agencies and brands both in New Zealand and Canada. He was the first marketing hire at Article 5 years ago and now oversees a team of  more than 40 across advertising, creative, communications, brand, and ecommerce. 

Rebecca Traverzo, VP of Marketing at ThirdLove

The DTC playbook: Creating connections in commerce and content

Rachel has spent the majority of her career on the agency side, helping brands such as Pfizer, Verizon Wireless, Burger King, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble with brand strategy, communications planning, media planning and buying capacity. She then shifted her focus to brand building, storytelling, consumer insights, marketing technologies, and innovation at Calvin Klein for 5+ years before joining ThirdLove to head up marketing, brand communications, data science and analytics.

Savannah Sachs, CEO of TULA

How TULA is building an inclusive, inspiring brand on social

At Tula, Savannah has focused on building a happy, high-performing team to deliver rapid growth. Prior to this, Savannah held positions as COO and UK General Manager at Birchbox and has also worked in management consulting at Booz & Company advising Fortune 500 retail, personal care, and pharmaceutical clients.

Aya Kanai, Head of Content & Editorial Partnerships at Pinterest

Turning inspiration into action with Pinterest creators

Aya Kanai is the former Editor-In-Chief of Marie Claire and current Head of Content and Creator Partnerships at Pinterest. Prior to Marie Claire, Kanai spent nearly 20 years as an editor at publications including Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, and Teen Vogue. She also managed fashion styling for HearstMade and supported special projects for Hearst Magazines digital sites including HarpersBAZAAR.com, TownandCountryMag.com, OprahMag.com, and Esquire.com. 

Sunil Subhedar, Global Head of Performance Marketing at Canva

Growth and personalization at a global scale

Sunil is a seasoned leader with 15 years of experience in marketing and product. Leveraging his background as an entrepreneur, business strategist, & tech enthusiast, he has successfully led the growth and transformation of industry-leading marketing organizations at companies like Uber, Google, and more.

 Ali Weiss, SVP of Marketing at Glossier 

Community-driven commerce at scale

In her current position, Ali oversees brand, creative, product, and consumer insights. Throughout her tenure at the company, which started in early 2015, Ali has played an integral role in driving Glossier’s industry-defining approach to building brand, community, and experiences. Prior to Glossier, Ali held several roles at BlackRock in financial institutions account management and corporate strategy, and as the chief of staff to the Head of iShares. She graduated from Stanford University and received her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Keith Belling, Founder CEO at RightRice

Reinventing a category through a grassroots brand movement

Keith launched an innovative popped snack company in 2007, Popchips, that won awards and acclaim, including being named one of “America’s Hottest Brands” by Advertising Age. As CEO (through December 2013), he led Popchips to almost $100 million in revenues in just over 5 years.

His other ventures range from developing restaurants/retail concepts (Oh-La-La!, one of the first coffee bar chains in San Francisco, Paragon Restaurants), an internet company (Allbusiness.com, leading small business portal sold to NBCi), Restoration Hardware, LBA Realty (private real estate investment & management company), and JAMS (the largest private mediation and arbitration firm).