Andre is a former DII basketball/overseas pro basketball player turned creative, author and equity-builder. French (Parisian). English (native). Spanish (futbol). German. Award-winning creative from Cannes Lions to One Show to Clio, formerly Las Vegas Tourism, IHG hotels and Tumi pitch winning Executive Creative Director at GREY, global Creative Director at TBWA\Neboko in Amsterdam, formerly Digitas, Sid Lee and Y&R in Paris. Recently Cannes Lions Outdoor Jury 2022, Adweek Creative 100 and One Show 2023 Integrated and Experiential Jury. Mr. Gray is the author of Digital Anthropomorphism: Humanizing the Brand, a Master of Arts in Global Communications, a staunch advocate for underrepresented voices through work like Black Madison Avenue and lives to add to the Cultural conversation. For him, it is not what you say, but what you do. AND WE STILL CAN’T BREATHE.

Learn more about ANNEX 88 here: https://www.annex88.com/

Learn more about Andre here: https://www.andreggray.com/

Sharon Harris is the CMO for Ascential Digital Commerce. Ascential Digital Commerce is pioneering how brands win in digital commerce. Supporting global brands including P&G, Haleon, 3M, Logitech, and Mattel, our expertise helps clients make better decisions in real-time. Ascential is marketplace agnostic and applying global insights to drive outcomes across Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Mercado Libre, Alibaba, and others by optimizing and accelerating brands and manufacturers digital commerce performance. 

Sharon leads the marketing efforts to position the brand and accelerate its growth as a global digital commerce platform. Her extensive experience in growing brands and disrupting categories by leading teams and pioneering advertising innovation helps to accelerate the company’s global expansion and position it as a leader in the market. 

Sharon serves as an Operating Board of She Runs It, formerly Advertising Women of New York, a century + old organization with roots and origins in membership and service to a community united in its intention to see more women as leaders. She is also the Vice Chair of IGNITE National, a nonpartisan organization that encourages young women to actively engage in the political process. Sharon is a founding member of the Black Executive CMO Alliance (BECA). BECA provides an intimate, trusted, safe space for Black marketing C-Suite executives to share, learn, elevate, and pay it forward to create opportunity, access, and equality for Black marketing leaders.

Whether it’s inspiring or enticing audiences on digital platforms, or crafting stories for broadcast and streaming networks, Tracey Lincoln’s innate desire is to make space for audiences to explore their humanity, and connect with characters through content that intrigues. Simply put, Tracey just loves making stuff.

As a Los Angeles native, her work in entertainment is a natural fit, as her past work at FX Networks, Hulu, Google, Disney and Paramount Pictures have allowed her to produce and direct award-winning content for series like Atlanta, American Horror Story, Marvel's Legion and more.

For Tracey, content is more than "king"— it’s a visual adventure that drives connection. Giving life to stories and content is kind of her thing, and she’s always been drawn to projects that tap both creative and strategic juices. She’s left brain, and right brain. Her current role and work at Parkwood Entertainment has further amplified this connection, as she serves as the Director, Social Media.

Through her company, Athens Park Media, she's created and executive produced a web series, documentary and short films. Her team is currently in development and production on projects that will begin launching this year.

Tracey Coleman is Creative Director and multicultural marketing maven with over 15 years of experience in marketing and advertising. Tracey began her career in New York City as an Art Director at Ogilvy, where she was trained on the fundamentals of traditional advertising by industry giants. Like a typical millennial, she soon grew weary of tradition and left the company for a hip, boutique agency that specialized in multicultural marketing, celebrity events, beauty and spirits.
That’s where things got interesting.
At Walton Isaacson, Tracey led creative teams for Clear Ultra Shea Hair & Scalp (Unilever) and Courvoisier cognac where she curated integrated campaigns and unique experiences. Over the years, her expertise and thought leadership on multicultural beauty has been requested at speaking engagements, agency pitches, and presentations for Fortune 500 companies.
After becoming an independent consultant in 2014, Tracey spent most of her time leading the growth of the Cantu hair care brand. As the global lead of brand activation, she relaunched the brand’s identity on social media, executed award-winning events across the country, and helped elevate the brand from #4 to #2 in textured hair care in the United States.
Somewhere along the way, she realized that women of color needed more than the beauty ads and influencer tutorials that brands were creating to attract their attention. They needed a place to connect, be seen and be celebrated. Curly Girl Collective was born to meet that need, by creating innovative beauty events for women of color. Their largest event, CURLFEST, which began in 2014, has attracted over 75,000 guests, and has become a destination experience attended by women from as far as Ethiopia, South Africa and Switzerland.
In between work, travel blogging, events, and speaking engagements, she finds time to serve underserved communities abroad through her award-winning nonprofit organization, Purpose Driven Passports.
Tracey’s work has been recognized by Forbes, The New York Times, ESSENCE, and Adcolor to name a few, but the common thread across these accolades is her relentless passion to be a champion for communities that need to be seen and heard.

Jackie Velasquez-Ross began her career in San Francisco recruiting creative talent in advertising. Over time, Design and Research became her passion and specialty. She’s hired Executive Leaders and ICs for Facebook, Instagram, InVision, Blavity, and many others. Most recently, she built Twitter’s Design & Research recruiting team and practice. Jackie’s currently running a strategic recruiting and career coaching practice. When she’s not working, she chases after preschooler twins and orders lots of takeout to avoid cooking dinner.

A former beauty and fashion magazine editor of O, The Oprah Magazine, Seventeen, andInStyle, Tai is also an established serial entrepreneur and TV host who has hosted her ownshows on TLC and GSN. Last summer, Tai hosted and produced Lens of Culture, a travel showcreated for millennials of color on CleoTV. She is also a regular contributor to network and cableTV including ABC, NBC, E!, BET, TVOne, among others.A true multi-hyphenate committed to the upliftment of women, in 2019 Tai launched BeyondReady, a purposeful development platform that partners with corporations, organizations, andbrands to support the professional and personal growth of its employees. Partners haveincluded The Wing, Curls, and the National Black Child Development Institute.In April of 2020, Tai further expanded her entrepreneurial footprint joining Brown Girl jane, aplant-based wellness and CBD company, as Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer. Inpartnership with two fellow Spelman alumni, Tai endeavors to not only shift theperception ofwhat wellness means for women of color but is committed to providing education and access tonatural products and services that meaningfully support women in actualizing wellness forthemselves

Kimbrough is a writer and an award-winning producer who started her advertising career as a Creative Secretary in 1974 with Burrell Communications Group.  

Kimbrough won first place at the Orlando Urban Film Festival for the short film, Raggedy Man, that she produced with longtime industry friends.   Most recently, she served as Co-Producer on a documentary entitled Burrell:  Advertising Revolution which highlights Tom Burrell and the positive impact his agency had on advertising targeted to the African American community.  The documentary aired on PBS.

Kimbrough is a Christian and an active member of her church, Murchison-Isom Temple CME where, Rev. Dr. Karen Walker-McClure is the pastor.  At her church, she serves as Director of Creative Arts, a steward, and an usher.

Kimbrough lives in Chicago, Illinois and is the proud mother of Crystal and proud grandmother of  Tiffany and Ean.

Ivellisse "Ivi" is an award-winning entrepreneur who brings a decade of experience in using marketing as a force for good—for brands of all sizes. From inside major creative agencies like IDEO and Ogilvy and beyond, Ivi has sharpened her creative skillset in public relations, media, design, marketing and communications all in the spirit for positive change. She's a speaker, poet and writer who’s been recognized and featured by ADCOLOR, Adweek, Time Magazine, The 3% Conference and the PR Club’s Bell Ringer Awards. In 2018, she stepped out as the visionary behind bombilla®, a branding & design agency for social change based in Oakland, CA. In nearly five years, this small & mighty team has served more than 60+ clients in the Bay Area and across the country with brand strategy, visual identity and graphic design. Local clients include B-Love's Guesthouse, East Bay Economic Development Association, Alliance for Community Development, Black Cultural Zone, Azteca Negra, Café Gabriela, RUNWAY, Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative, Young Community Developers and so much more.

Bombilla (lightbulb in Puerto Rican Spanish) shines with its all women-of-color staff and is fueled by a national network of diverse co-conspiring creatives on our mission to make the world brighter. Ivellisse has served as a 2x judge for The Webbys and The American Advertising Awards-Fox River, taught small business branding for Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative and volunteers as a mentor for creatives of color. In her free time, you can find Ivellisse with her nose in a good book or on a plane to her next destination.

Angelina Darrisaw is the founder and CEO of C-Suite Coach, a firm that offers expertly designed professional development and coaching programs for working professionals and small business leaders. C-Suite Coach has staffed coaches and provided training programs for Google, Major League Baseball, NYU's Veteran Lab Accelerator, Zendesk, Oscar Health, Year Up, Omnicom, SEO, THowardF, and many others.

C-Suite Coach, a WBENC, NMSDC and NGLCC certified business, is a preferred supplier for Google, with contracts ranging from Supplier Diversity consulting and content design for racial equity programs. C-Suite Coach also services Black & Latinx small businesses by supporting Google's efforts to bridge the digital divide through tactical digital skills training. As a part of this work, the C-Suite Coach staff manages 20 coaches who have offered free coaching and resources to over 100,000 US-based Black and LatinX small businesses through more than 1000 programs across the US since 2018.

These efforts helped Angelina earn Forbes Next 1000 and Black Enterprise's 40 under 40 Award for Business in 2021, the Digital Diversity Network Innovation and Inclusion for social entrepreneurship in 2019, the "Innovators & Disruptors: Diversity & Inclusion Award" presented by New York On Tech and NBC Universal and the Year Up Urban Empowerment Award in 2018, and the Walker's Legacy Power25 award in 2017.

Darrisaw has presented at leading conferences such as Leading Women Defined, ATD, SHRM, Black Enterprise's Women of Power Summit, Entrepreneur's Summit and 40 under 40 Summit, Ebony Women Up, Google's State of the Black Woman, the 2016 Democratic National Convention, CultureCon, AdColor Futures, Hue Tech Summit, and many more. She has keynoted at institutions including TIAA, Year Up, Edward Jones, Princeton, Brown, Davidson College, NYU, Oakwood University, and many more. She holds a BA in political science from Davidson College. She is an alumni board member, an MA in management from Wake Forest University, and a certificate of coaching from New York University. Darrisaw is also an adjunct professor for the Masters in Integrated Marketing Program at New York University.

Veronica Appleton is a scholar, practitioner and children’s author. Currently, she serves as a scholar-practitioner holding professional roles within the corporate sector and in academia. Dr. Appleton works as lecturer for DePaul University College of Communication, facilitator for Northwestern University Weinberg School of Arts & Sciences Executive Education Program in Racial Equity in Business, and head facilitator for Yale University’s Women in Leadership Executive Education program. She’s also a certified diversity professional and works as Vice President for Talent Management and Inclusion within The Marketing Arm, an advertising agency within Omnicom Group, Inc.

As a renowned speaker, Appleton has served as keynote and speaker for some of the world's largest Fortune 500 organizations and believes educating the future is an essential strategy for building equity in communities and systems at-large. Appleton's work has been recognized by Crain’s Business, FOX News, and Diversity Journal’s Top Professionals in Higher Education. She's also a mentor and board member of several nonprofits providing resources and impact in communities of color, women, men and children.

Of all her career accolades, Dr. Appleton is a giver of her time to the community. She currently serves as Task Force Member within DePaul University’s Addressing the Vincentians’ Relationship with Slavery Committee, a Board Member for the Chicago Foundation for Women Southside Giving Circle, and a Board of Directors for Bernie’s Book Bank. Outside of work, Dr. Appleton is also a children’s author and reading literacy advocate.

Dr. Appleton completed her undergraduate education at Purdue University, graduate education at DePaul University, and doctoral education at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.