Great Minds

Julia Haart is a self-made businesswoman, designer, and bestselling author. She was raised in an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. At age 42 she fled, changed her name, and without any formal education or background in fashion launched her career as a designer with her namesake shoe collection. Just a few years later, she was named creative director of La Perla and would become co-owner and CEO of Elite World Group and one of the most influential people in fashion. In 2021, Julia and her NETFLIX hit series “My Unorthodox Life”, which streams in over 190 countries, took the world by storm. In her memoir BRAZEN, Julia writes with radical vulnerability and honesty, sharing her deeply personal journey of heartbreak, resilience, and courage to flee a fundamentalist community. Released in April 2022, BRAZEN became an instant bestseller in the U.S. and U.K. Above all else, Julia applies her experience and platform to be a force for positive change in the world and supporting women who have dedicated their lives to building a better future.  With the right for women to choose under threat, Julia has taken a leading role in the pro-choice movement marching in support of women’s rights, rallying her community of influential friends and followers, supporting organizations such as #VoteProChoice and Plan C, and serving on the Advisory Council of the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition. With so much at stake at home in the U.S., Julia has also worked tirelessly to campaign for pro-choice politicians and support organizations such as Emerge America to help recruit and train like-minded women to run for office. As a champion of democracy globally, Julia fights for the right to freedom around the world including Iran and Ukraine where she led a mission to deliver ambulances and critical humanitarian supplies.

Andrew has over fifteen years of Ad and MarTech experience at eBay, Google, Facebook/Meta, Netflix, Snap, and fintech startups.  He has tackled hard challenges in product, strategy, growth, go-to-market, and partnerships across many verticals and geographies.  He is highly strategic, and has experience building and applying buy- and sell-side ad technology at scale.

Andrew has been advising companies of all shapes and sizes since 2012–from start-ups to Fortune 500 enterprises. He has spoken at large conferences (Meta’s F8), guest-lectured at universities (UGA, Santa Clara, Rotman School of Management), and served on various ad industry boards & working groups (IAB, MMA, MRC, ARF, WFA).

PJ Pereira is an industry veteran of over 20 years, most famously known for co-founding the independent award-winning creative agency, Pereira O’Dell. In 2023, PJ was also named Chief Creative Officer of independent agency network Serviceplan Americas.

Pereira is a pioneer in the marketing world, sitting at the intersection of tech, entertainment and advertising. His credentials have made him one of the industry’s most influential and respected creatives. He has been named to Adweek’s Creative 100, Ad Age’s Creativity 50, and to the 4A’s 100 People Who Make Advertising Great. Most recently, PJ was named Jury President of the inaugural AI discipline at 2023 ADC Awards. Also in partnership with ADC, he helped create 101+1, the world’s only interactive gallery that explores the untapped potential of creativity in collaboration with AI.

Outside of his work in advertising, PJ enjoys other creative pursuits as a novelist, painter, and martial artist. In 2023, PJ will release a book (his 5th) about the unlikely combination of Artificial Intelligence and kung fu. Pereira is particularly drawn to the concept of an AI’s influence in design and creativity, and he tries to engage this emerging tech in his own creative process whenever possible.

Esther-Mireya is a high-performing strategic marketer with a knack for building results-driven powerhouse integrated, strategic marketing functions that deliver maximum enterprise value and operational efficiency. Experienced leader in large-scale digital transformation and organizational change – including rebrands, mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs. Effective in matrixed organizations requiring strategy, agility, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and operational excellence. Bi-cultural and bi-lingual thought leader on diversity, equity, & inclusion. Trained people manager and team builder creating the next generation of leaders.

Rob is CEO of SmartFrame Technologies, an innovative image-streaming service that brings control and fresh monetisation opportunities to image owners, publishers and advertisers. Based in London, Rob joined as CEO in 2015 as a highly experienced entrepreneur and business leader to help define the company’s commercial strategy, take the product to market, and raise the required funding.

His previous experience includes multiple start-up roles such as Founder of Rascals Night Club, Founder and CEO at My Phone Club, Co-Founder and Sales Director at Wellbeing Network, and Founder at Holistic Personal Training Services.

As the founder and global CEO of Advertising Production Resources (APR), Jillian leads the world’s largest and fastest growing production consultancy with over 150+ people in 50+ countries. APR helps marketers to optimize their content creation ecosystem by providing services such as production consulting, cost controlling, vendor selection, and quality assurance. Jillian’s mission is to help advertisers achieve the best return on investment in production and to drive innovation and value in the creative production process.

Elizabeth Brennan is General Manager, Advertising, for Permutive, which is powering the future of targeted advertising on the open web. With over decade of experience in digital advertising, Elizabeth is a champion of women in business and a strong believer in the power of mentoring. A graduate of the University of Reading, Elizabeth is a former winner of the prestigious NABS Fast Forward award and has gone on to achieve Code First certification as part of the organization’s initiative to increase the number of women in tech.

Katy is CEO of the Valuable 500, the global business partnership of 500 companies working together to end disability exclusion. She played an instrumental role in the initiation of the Valuable 500 when she partnered with Dr Caroline Casey to launch the programme at DAVOS 2019.

With over a decade of experience at AMV BBDO, Katy held leadership roles, including Chief Client Officer, Chair of BBDO EMEA Talent Engagement Council, and Head of Account Management and Managing Partner. She played a key role in the ground-breaking 2016 Maltesers Disability campaign, which garnered prestigious awards and became Maltesers’ most successful campaign in 18 years.

After 7 years working in both  NZ and Australia on a range of domestic and international business from Air New Zealand, Bank of New Zealand, Pepsico, Danone, Frucor Beverages,  Nintendo and Casio, she returned to the UK in 2006, working at WCRS and then M&C Saatchi on Fosters, British Airways and TfL and was the Group Account Director on British Gas and Carphone Warehouse at CHI&Partners for 3 years before joining AMV BBDO in 2010.

Katy’s expertise extends to multi-discipline communications across 25 markets and includes serving as the Global Omnicom lead for Rexona, and the Global BBDO lead for Snickers. She has been acknowledged as a Marketing Trailblazer of 2019 and has recently served as a Leadership Mentor for Disability Rights UK. More recently, Katy has made valuable contributions to the executive leadership team at PINWHEEL, a corporate sustainability company.

Ahead of Advertising Week New York 2023, taking place at THE PENN DISTRICT, Great Minds welcomes Skylight CEO Stephanie Blake. Skylight is a placemaking and venue development, management and consulting firm committed to creating bespoke venues in storied places.

Over the last two decades, Shachar has helped to build and scale global brands, including Meta Reality Labs, Bumble, Snapchat, and Apple.

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Shachar turned to women’s politics, and helped to legalize emergency contraception through Planned Parenthood with John F. Kerry. That led her to develop the brand for the century-old women’s organization, NCJW, the group responsible for Head Start, Meals on Wheels and Benchmark – preserving our Pro-Choice Bench. From there she went to Columbia University in New York, where she led marketing and communication for student services while getting her Master of Science in Strategic Communications. She spent six years leading digital and marketing strategy at several media and creative companies in New York, including Digitas, Deep Focus, and StrawberryFrog.

In 2011, Shachar was recruited by Apple Inc. to lead market development strategy for Apple’s digital advertising platform. She left Apple in 2014 to become a Managing Director at a venture and creative capital firm, West, where she ran the company’s portfolio in New York before joining Snap Inc in 2017 to lead Global Brand Marketing. During her time at Snap, she defined the role that marketing plays in driving growth and revenue for the company. At the end of 2020, she joined Bumble as Vice President of Global Marketing, overseeing brand marketing, product marketing, community marketing, brand partnerships, and their expansion into 150 markets.

At the end of 2021, she joined Meta’s Reality Labs. Today, as Vice President, Marketing she leads brand and integrated marketing team across VR (Meta Quest), VR content (Oculus Studios, Beat Saber), AR (Ray Ban Stories), Metaverse (Horizon Worlds, Avatars) and Work (Meta Work Portfolio, Quest for Business).

In addition to her professional marketing leadership, she serves as the Chairwomen of the Board of Directors for SAY.org and as an Independent Board Director at TouchTunes. She lives in Venice, California with her husband, Jason, and is the proud mom of Morgan + Riley, her 10-year old twins. She is originally from Israel and immigrated to America in 1985.