“How Digital Media is Upending Financial Communications”

Steve has spent 30 years in the M&A business as a financial journalist and leading communications advisor. Steve is U.S. Senior Partner at the Brunswick Group and has been instrumental in building the U.S. arm into one of the top strategic communications advisory firms. In 2015, Brunswick was ranked first in M&A league tables in the U.S. and globally as ranked by deal value, according to Mergermarket.
 

Steve has worked on many landmark M&A deals such as InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, AB InBev’s planned acquisition of SAB Miller, Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth and its planned acquisition of Allergan, the combination of Kraft and Heinz, 3G’s purchase of Heinz, Burger King’s combination with Tim Horton’s, and many others. He has advised many companies on shareholder activist defense, including Heinz, PepsiCo, Macy’s, AIG, among others.

Steve joined Brunswick from The Wall Street Journal, where he was the Finance Editor, supervising the paper’s coverage of mergers, commercial banking, private equity and corporate finance. From 1995 to 2000, Steve covered mergers and acquisitions for the WSJ, redefining the M&A beat by working every Sunday and building its leading franchise. He also launched the Deals and Dealmakers column during his tenure. Steve was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Journal and was a member of a team that won an Overseas Press Club award. He joined the Journal in 1991 to cover banking. When Steve left the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones wrote that “few journalists reach a point where their bylines are synonymous with the paper for which they work, and Mr. Lipin’s departure is tantamount to Maureen Dowd leaving The New York Times.”

Born in New York City, Steve graduated from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in economics. He is a board member of Student Sponsor Partners, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship In Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, and a member of the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Journalism Review. He is married with three children and lives in New York City.

Sparky oversees Brunswick Insight’s Washington, D.C. group with specialized expertise in public affairs, strategic campaign evaluation, and language development. Over the course of his career, Sparky has helped clients develop iconic global platforms such as GE’s Ecomagination and Walmart’s sustainability initiatives.

Sparky has served as a data-driven communications consultant to clients that include Fidelity, Schwab, Experian, BNP Paribas, ACE Cash Express, Lending Club, Millennium, Pinebridge, and BNY Mellon.

Prior to joining Brunswick, Sparky ran the Washington, D.C. office of Edelman's strategic research subsidiary. Sparky has a graduate degree in survey design and data analysis from the George Washington University, and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Kenyon College. He started his career as a neuroscience research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health where he wrote on memory development and awareness. Sparky is a frequent guest lecturer at American University’s school of communication, speaking to graduate and undergraduate courses on research techniques used to inform communication campaigns.

Frank has more than 20 years experience in corporate marketing and digital and social communications, having most recently served as Global Head of Communications for NASDAQ OMX. Prior to that he ran global communications for Newsweek, Inc. and served as global head of media relations for Thomson Reuters. He began his career with business critical communications firm Brunswick Group in London and later in New York.

Frank is currently Chief Revenue Officer and CEO of Social 360, Inc. the U.S. arm of UK based Social 360 Ltd., a position he has held since 2012.  He is responsible for global revenue generation, business strategy, marketing and product development.

Melissa Daly is the founder and president of MFD Communications, a firm which focuses on developing, honing and communicating clients’ key messages to stakeholders. She provides messaging, media training and presentation coaching for clients in several business sectors with a particular strength in financial services, as well as academia, law and professional services firms. Prior to starting MFD in 2011, Melissa was Vice President, Corporate Communications at Goldman Sachs beginning at the height of the financial crisis. There she was responsible for communications for Goldman’s Asset Management and Private Wealth Divisions as well as Goldman’s political and lobbying activities. Prior to that she was with Brunswick Group for four years where she spearheaded its US financial services practice. Earlier in her career, she held senior communications roles at Fred Alger Management, The Hartford and Lipper. Melissa is often quoted in the press discussing a variety of business and communications issues and Bloomberg calls her “a veteran Wall Street message maker.” Her broad experience spans across business sectors and continents.

Jennifer Lowney is Head of Corporate Communications for Citi. In her role, Jennifer oversees the communications teams in corporate, Japan and Canada as well as the social media team, and serves as a principal spokesperson for Citi.

Jennifer has more than 15 years of experience counseling companies on major news events and strategic challenges that affect reputation, valuation and business success.  Over the course of her career, she has supported communications efforts for clients in a wide range of industries.  Her work has included IPOs for Visa, Facebook, Hilton Worldwide and King.com (makers of Candy Crush) and the reorganizations/bankruptcies of Hawker Beechcraft, MGM Studios, Owens Corning, MCI/WorldCom and Enron.  She also has experience supporting corporate transactions including Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus; Pfizer’s acquisitions of Wyeth and King Pharmaceuticals and eBay’s proxy fight with activist investor Carl Icahn.

Michael has over 15 years of experience in corporate, financial and technology communications. As SVP, Corporate Communications for Moody’s, he is responsible for external communications related to Moody’s global corporate reputation and serves as the company’s primary media spokesperson. During his career at Moody’s he helped manage Moody’s media response to the financial crisis and breaking financial news events and developed media strategies to promote the company’s brand through its analytical insights, thought leadership and financial technology products. Michael has also held media relations, communications and marketing roles with Fannie Mae, General Dynamics, PricewaterhouseCoopers and in the information security industry.