Lauren Connolly
During the past 12 years, Lauren Connolly has been a part of building some of the largest brands in the United States and the world. She helped launched Cingular and re-launch it under at&t. She currently leads the global creative work on M&M’s, creating ads running in over 44 markets. Most recently, she helped create and introduce Ms. Brown (the last M&M’s character) on the Super Bowl, winning Youtube’s Super Bowl Ad Blitz and becoming the 13th most watched ad in history. Additionally, Lauren and her partner manage the creative output on Mountain Dew, Duncan Hines, Bird’s Eye and Vlasic.
She’s a founding member of BBDO’S Diversity Council which works as an extension of the Agency’s management team in building a diverse workforce within an inclusive environment designed to attract, motivate and retain the best employees.
Nancy Hill
Nancy Hill is President and CEO of the 4A’s (the American Association of Advertising Agencies). She began her career in advertising at Doner/Baltimore in 1983, working primarily on Bell Atlantic Mobile (now Verizon Wireless) .
Hill has been actively engaged as one of the founders of the Digital Advertising Alliance whose efforts on behalf of self-regulation for privacy and online behavioral advertising best practices are now being looked at as the standard to be adopted in many other regions of the world.
Sam Jhans
Sam Jhans is President and Creative Director of Améredia. She oversees agency operations and provides creative direction to the firm in diverse and growing ethnic markets, including Hispanic, Asian American and Eastern European. Sam has worked and traveled across the globe and brings to Améredia an understanding of the different global cultures. Her assignments in Europe at the height of the dot-com boom won her many awards.
Sam has led Améredia to various “Excellence in Multicultural Marketing Awards”, “Fast 50 Company” US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), a “Top Business in America” by Diversity Business and “Supplier of the Year” by an affiliate of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, and other industry-wide awards such as American Design, Communicator, Hermes, Mark and TELLY awards, among others. Her campaigns are consistently covered by the mainstream media and educational institutions use her creative work for classroom case studies.
Loren Monroe-Trice
Loren Monroe-Trice SPHR is Partner, Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Ogilvy & Mather NA.
In her former life, Loren was a VP at Merrill Lynch in NY, responsible for the MBA Diversity Program for Investment Banking and Global Markets. After 6+ years in the financial industry, she joined Ogilvy & Mather. In her current role as Director of Diversity & Inclusion, she is responsible for the design and implementation of programs and initiatives to recruit, retain and develop employees while supporting business growth and our diversity agenda across North America.
As a founding member of our internal Ogilvy Diversity Council, she formed Ogilvy’s nine Professional Networks and is an active advisor. Most recently, she helped launch OgilvyCULTURE – our North American Cross-Cultural strategic business practice.
Due to her longstanding commitment to Diversity & Inclusion, Loren was recognized as a WPP Diversity Champion in 2009. Loren is also a member of RADE (Roundtable of Advertising Diversity Executives) and the 4A’s Diversity Steering Committee. She was formally on the advisory board for the Consortium for Graduate Students in Management, a leading organization promoting diversity in business.
Loren resides in San Francisco but spends her time equally in LA and NY. When not in the office, you will find her with camera in hand taking shots wherever she can, baking artisanal breads or yelling at her xbox.
Jennifer Pozner
Jennifer Pozner is a media critic, author, and Founder and Executive Director of Women In Media & News (WIMN), a NY-based media analysis, education and advocacy group. She published her first book, Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV, and her work has appeared in Newsweek, Ms. magazine, Elle Canada, Newsday, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, Salon, AlterNet and Women’s Enews.
Jennifer also served as an advisor and featured analyst for several films, most recently the award-winning OWN documentary Miss Representation.
