Martin Lindstrom started young: he won a competition and was declared the best LEGO builder in Denmark. And it didn't stop there. He set about developing a LEGOLAND in his parents' back garden. In his first year of opening, he had over 1,000 paying visitors – including two senior LEGO executives who offered him a trainee position. So at the age of 12, Martin Lindstrom began working in LEGO's Design Department. At the same time, he developed a fascination with marketing, so he set up his own small marketing company, and helped his mother sell her beauty products. After selling his agency he went to the European Academy of Advertising, and was subsequently offered seven jobs at top agencies. After much deliberation he accepted a role at the global giant BBDO, and became an advertising executive. He went on to form BBDO Interactive Europe and, three years later, founded BBDO Interactive Asia. Both grew to become the largest Internet solutions companies in their regions.

By the age of 30, Lindstrom was appointed global Chief Operating Office of British Telecom/Look smart. Working out of London and Sydney, his main role was to establish a global operation with offices across 18 countries. These remarkable beginnings heralded ongoing startling achievements. Still in his early thirties, Lindstrom is one of the world’s most respected branding gurus according to the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He sits on several boards around the world, including Yellow Pages in the United States, and his bluechip client list includes Mars, Pepsi, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, Reuters, Visa, Pepsi, McDonald's, Kellogg's, Ericsson, Yellow Pages and Microsoft. In addition to his several board memberships, Lindstrom advises the boards of a number of companies, including Bertelsmann, worldwide.

Throughout 20 years of hands-on marketing experience, Lindstrom has conceived a revolutionary set of principles that achieve positive business results from transformational marketing strategies. He rejects the old rules of the industry that conceptualized branding as an art form expressed through vague commercials and awareness messages. Instead, his unique vision is scientific and process-based, all supported by global studies conducted by a team of more than 600 researchers. The Chief Executive Officers of McDonald's, Mattel, LEGO and Disney have all endorsed Lindstrom’s work and acknowledge that his visionary branding principles and practices are the drivers of sales and profits, and consequently the centerpieces of business.

Lindstrom has a reputation for earning "a guaranteed standing ovation" at his revolutionary presentations on branding which, during 2005, were held in more than 50 cities across 29 countries. His inspiring presence and stimulating delivery is reflected in his articles and observations, published regularly in journals across the world and earning him popularity as an insightful and entertaining columnist.

His books on branding, written with industry icons such as Don Peppers, Martha Rogers, Patricia Seybold and Philip Kotler, are sold worldwide and have been translated into more than 20 languages. Lindstrom’s latest book is Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (October 2008).

Lindstrom was named one of the 2009 world’s 100 most influential people by TIME magazine.

Nick Ayres manages social marketing for Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), the largest hotel company in the world by number of rooms with more than 650,000 rooms and over 4,500 hotels across 100 countries.

Prior to joining IHG, Nick spent nearly five years at The Home Depot. For the last two and a half years of that time, Nick helped build out their social media practice and online content strategy as part of their interactive marketing and corporate communications teams. In addition, Nick also spent time working in brand management for The Home Depot’s proprietary brands as well as in new product development & strategic initiatives for their Financial Services team.

Nick holds a MBA with a concentration in marketing and entrepreneurship from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a BS in Business Administration from Emporia State University. You can catch him on Twitter @nickjayres.

Shawn Bloom has over 12 years of loyalty marketing experience working in Financial Services, Retail and Entertainment sectors. After completing his MBA at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto he joined American Express where he worked in partner development and marketing communications roles for the Membership Rewards program.  Following this, Shawn went to the Hudson’s Bay Company where he was Director of the Hbc Rewards program.

Currently, Shawn is the General Manager of SCENE LP, the entertainment loyalty program from Cineplex Entertainment and Scotiabank. In this role he is responsible for planning, development and execution of the program.

Chris Boyce is the Chief Executive Officer of Virgin HealthMiles, a provider of employee health programs that pay people to get active and help companies reduce healthcare costs. The company’s unique Pay-for-Prevention™ approach, based on physical activity and healthy lifestyle change, excels in getting and keeping members engaged and active in the process of getting healthy through technology, validated measurement tools, and innovative, engaging strategies. Virgin HealthMiles works with more than 120 corporations and government agencies across the U.S., representing more than 500,000 employees. On average, 40 percent of a client organization’s employees participate in the Virgin HealthMiles program, well above the typical single-digit enrollment levels for most traditional wellness programs. The company is a member of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.

Chris brings an impressive background in healthcare and technology leadership to Virgin HealthMiles. Chris joined Virgin HealthMiles in 2006 as Executive Vice President, product and business development, and soon thereafter became the company’s Chief Executive Officer and board member. As the founder and former Vice President of business development of UPromise, a successful loyalty coalition and college savings account business, Chris has a deep background in corporate and consumer loyalty programs. While at UPromise, he built a business development team that now boasts the largest and most comprehensive partner coalition of any loyalty program in the U.S. Prior to founding UPromise, Chris was director of the Healthcare Business Unit at Trilogy Development Group in Austin, Texas. Chris received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1996.

David Canty joined JetBlue in January 2007 as Director of Loyalty Marketing and Partnerships. In this capacity David is responsible for TrueBlue, JetBlue’s customer loyalty program, the JetBlue card by American Express, Email marketing, Customer research and Partnership marketing.

David’s career in loyalty began back in the UK, where he was manager of Datacenter operations with Acxiom UK. He relocated to the United States in 1995 and spent 11 years with Starwood Hotels & Resorts holding several senior marketing positions in Loyalty and Partnerships. Prior to joining JetBlue, Dave successfully created and launched a new loyalty program for the nations largest auto parts store AutoZone. AutoZone Rewards was directly responsible for over $200M in sales lift in the first year.

David was born and raised in Cork, Ireland and is a passionate supporter of Liverpool Football Club in England’s Premier League.

Roberto Chade is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dotz, Brazil's online coalition loyalty program, with more than two million users and 50 online sponsors. Since he founded the company in 2000, Roberto built Dotz into the largest loyalty company in South America, eventually attracting the interest of LoyaltyOne, the world’s leading loyalty marketing company, which acquired a stake in Dotz in late 2009.

Since then, Roberto and LoyaltyOne have been committed to transforming Dotz into a traditional, retail-based coalition loyalty program. This includes recent partnerships with Banco de Brasil, the fuel service chain Ale and the grocery chain SuperNosso. Dotz has successfully launched the first phase in Belo Horizonte, one of the most important capitals in Brazil, reaching 250,000 collectors in just 5 months and is now starting the rollout phase for the rest of Brazil.

Roberto attended Harvard University, where he studied Business Administration and Management, and the Superior School of Marketing and Propaganda (ESPM) in Sao Paulo, where he studied management. Roberto has twice been named the "Entrepreneur of the Year" in Brazil.

As Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, Mark Friedman leads SoundBite’s expansion into new markets and product offerings that leverage the unprecedented and dramatic changes in consumer communications preferences. Mark has more than 20 years’ experience in marketing, sales and business development positions with leading companies such as IBM, Lotus Development, Epoch Systems/EMC and Dragon Systems.

Mark holds a degree in Systems Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Morley leads the Rewards Team and has global responsibility for developing and executing The RecycleBank Rewards Program. The Rewards Team is responsible for evangelizing and enhancing the core rewards program; establishing key national, regional and local reward partnerships in all territories; development of Gconomy™ and related partnerships; analysis and, ultimately, ensuring that RecycleBank Members always access to an aspiring mix of redemption options that motivate engagement.

Morley is an experienced entrepreneur and loyalty program marketplace expert, specializing in strategy, business development, management and operations within rapid growth business environments. Previously, Ivers acted in the capacity of GM for Air Incentives – a loyalty incentive program fuelled by frequent flyer miles whereby clients could provide their customers with a choice of airline miles as an incentive for utilizing their services; and as Vice President of Business Strategy for Points International – a publicly traded corporation that develops proprietary solutions to the loyalty industry and operates Points.com, the world's leading reward-program management portal.

Morley was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and relocated his family to New York so that he could apply his passion for loyalty and reward programs, at RecycleBank, to better the world for his son, Hudson.

Morley is a Dean’s Honor List graduate of The Richard Ivey School of Business.

Kelly Hlavinka directs all publishing, education and research projects at COLLOQUY, where she draws on her broad experience as a loyalty strategy practitioner in developing articles, white papers and educational initiatives. An acknowledged expert in the theory and practice of loyalty marketing, she also regularly contributes to DM News, The DMA Insider, DIRECT and BrandWeek, and is often cited by publications such as Newsweek, Advertising Age and Smart Money.

Kelly is a featured presenter at many industry conferences and has taught loyalty workshops and webinars around the world. She previously launched and managed COLLOQUY’s strategic consultancy, working with clients such as Lennar Homes, MGM MIRAGE, Eddie Bauer, Best Buy, HP Software and Visa International. Prior to joining COLLOQUY in 1996, she held marketing positions with Buyers Choice (now The Polk Company), database marketer ACS and Equifax Consumer Direct.

As Vice President of International at Loyalty One, Jay Malowney is responsible for leading the company's growth initiatives outside of the core AIR MILES Reward Program^® business. For the last two and a half years Jay has lead the effort to expand in South America, working closely with the leadership team at Dotz and helped translate the knowledge and experience from LoyaltyOne into the Brazilian market place. Jay has had many roles within the organization in his 10 years with the company, including responsibilities leading the business development team and client services teams within the AIR MILES Reward Program in Canada.

The AIR MILES Reward Program is recognized as one of the premier loyalty programs in the world with two thirds of the Canadian population actively collecting AIR MILES and over 100 sponsoring companies issuing AIR MILES Reward Miles through more than 14,000 retail locations across the country. The AIR MILES Reward Program was started in 1992 and currently employs more than 1,200 people across Canada.

As LoyaltyOne’s Senior Vice President, Corporate and Product Development, Catherine leads a team that guides the strategic planning process, assesses critical business issues and investigates “make, partner or buy” alternatives for achieving corporate goals. She and her colleagues support product development across LoyaltyOne by monitoring external trends, facilitating ideation sessions, conducting early market pilots and sharing best practices for launch into the marketplace. Her responsibilities also include fostering the enabling strategies that help create an innovation culture throughout the organization.

In addition to her general management experience, Catherine has wide-ranging expertise in direct and consumer marketing, product management and sales, and packaged goods marketing and research. Prior to joining LoyaltyOne, she was President and CEO of ICOM Information & Communications LP, a leader in database direct marketing acquired by Alliance Data in 2006. In more than a decade with ICOM, Catherine was initially part of a senior team driving the company’s US expansion, then progressed through executive roles in human resources, sales and client services. Previously, she held positions in brand management and human resources with Procter & Gamble.

An acknowledged expert in direct marketing, database analytics and privacy issues, Catherine is frequently invited to speak at marketing conferences and often quoted in the business media. She is a past board and executive member of the US Direct Marketing Association and chair of the DMA’s Ethics, Privacy and Social Responsibility sub-committee. She holds a BBA degree in Marketing and Organizational Behaviour from York University in Toronto.

As Director of Loyalty for GameStop Corporation, Jenn McMillen manages the PowerUp Rewards loyalty program as well as targeted communications for GameStop, a $9B international retailer with 4,500+ US stores. Formerly, Jenn was practice leader at SMART Marketing Solutions and director of marketing at Tuesday Morning Corporation. Jenn received her MBA in Marketing from Southern Methodist University.

As Vice President of Product Development, Peter Meyers is responsible for introducing new loyalty programs and services to the North American marketplace – building on LoyaltyOne’s unique expertise in operating the continent’s most successful loyalty coalition, the AIR MILES Reward Program^®. He has a particular focus on developing loyalty solutions for the heath care sector.

Prior to assuming his current position, Peter was Vice President of Marketing, with another Alliance Data business – ICOM Information & Communications L.P, a leading provider of targeted marketing solutions and data analytics services. Progressing from 1997 through a series of sales and new venture roles, he was ultimately responsible for all marketing communications and product innovation. He previously held brand management positions with Procter & Gamble and Novartis. A regular speaker at direct marketing conferences, Peter is an acknowledged expert in targeted promotion and lead generation; understanding and shifting consumer behavior; direct marketing strategy; and effective database mining and target selection.

Anas Osman leads new cardmember acquisition strategies across all marketing channels, card products, and behavior / risk segments. He also oversees marketing, engagement and post-booking profitability for these new cardmembers.

Prior to this role, he served as Vice President of Marketing Planning and Customer Strategy. He was responsible for maximizing the effectiveness of Discover card’s marketing investments, leading strategy, new initiatives, and competitive insight teams, and overseeing Marketing communications and administration.

Prior to joining Discover, Anas directed a number of strategic Internet initiatives at Capital One Financial as Head of Online Account Management. He partnered and led cross-functional teams to develop robust new online and email marketing capabilities that resulted in over $1 billion in new balances and over $20 million in cost savings. He also helped reinvent of the company’s online account acquisition.

Prior to his experience at Capital One, Anas founded XOLIA, a “private-label, paid search” Internet marketing company that focused on financial services industry, where he served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and later Vice President of Strategy. Anas pioneered a “private-label, paid search” business model that resulted in thousands of new accounts, record conversion rates, and valuable industry intelligence for clients such as Fidelity, E*Trade, Ameritrade, and Citibank.

Anas also gained consulting experience at Andersen Consulting. He serves as an inventor for a business method patented on “Pay-for-Results based Marketing,” technology patent for “Neural Network based Decision Processor and Method,” and a pending patent for credit card rewards, “Rewarding Good Consumer Credit Card Behavior.

Anas earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and his BA in Economics from Northwestern University.

As President, Bryan Pearson leads all of the enterprises organized by Alliance Data under the LoyaltyOne umbrella: LoyaltyOne Consulting, the AIR MILES Reward Program^®, COLLOQUY, Direct Antidote and Precima. Joining the organization soon after its founding in 1992, he moved through a series of progressively senior roles, becoming President of the AIR MILES business in 1999 and assuming his current position in 2006.

Bryan is a highly regarded expert on enterprise loyalty, retail marketing, coalition marketing and customer relationship management. He is a frequent speaker at industry events around the globe, and his views are widely quoted in national and international publications. He also contributes to COLLOQUY magazine as a writer and a member of the editorial board.

A strong supporter of many community and charitable groups, Bryan is a board member of the Special Olympics Canada Foundation. He is also an active participant in the Venture Management program at Queen’s University.

Jim directs the advancement of enterprise loyalty at COLLOQUY, an endeavor guided by his almost 30 years of managing in marketing, strategic planning, business development, innovation, and communications. Jim also assists with COLLOQUY’s loyalty workshops, seminars and conferences, and serves as an academic liaison for colleges, universities and thinking institutions performing research on Enterprise Loyalty.

Prior to joining COLLOQUY in 2010, Jim founded his own company and was a principal at BUILT TO LEAD, a leadership development practice based in Central Ohio. From 1997 to 2008 he worked at Alliance Data Inc., most recently as Chief Marketing and Planning Officer and as a member of the Executive Committee for the Retail Services division. Earlier, he served as Senior Vice President at Information Resources Inc., consulting with such clients as Procter & Gamble, Kraft USA and ConAgra frozen Foods. A resident of Columbus, Ohio, Jim serves on the Advisory Board of The Initiative for Managing Services at The Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, and is an MBA-level instructor in Services Marketing at OSU. He and his wife Lauri have three children.

As Director, Denise Yunkun is responsible for the FedEx marketing strategy for the small and medium business customer segments in the United States. With 22 years of experience in the transportation industry, she leads a team of 30 marketing professionals.

Yunkun moved to her current position in October 2006 after six years as the director of sales technology for FedEx Solutions. She joined FedEx in 2000 from RPS, now FedEx Ground.

Yunkun has received many awards. In 2006, she received the company’s highest honor – the FedEx Services Five Star Award. Most recently, she received another Five Star Award for creating and delivering an integrated marketing campaign called Choose Purple to acquire customers with the exit of DHL in the marketplace.

Todd Vang is the Divisional Vice President of Insights and Loyalty, in the Marketing department for Walgreens, located in Deerfield, IL.  The Insights and Loyalty department is a newer area within Walgreens with the mission of building the voice of our primary customers into the actions of the company.  To accomplish this, many core capabilities are being built and enhanced through all of the areas within the department, including Healthcare and Retail Insights, Loyalty, Consumer Research, Syndicated Research and Strategic Modeling.

Todd has held many different roles in strategy, planning, and research in his more than 20 years at Walgreens.  His previous role was the Director of Planning & Research, which focused on delivering profitable long-term store growth strategies.  Todd received his MBA and his BS in Economics from the University of Minnesota.