“The Power of Culture in Financial Branding”

Ann Dykman has the good fortune to lead an outstanding team of writers and creative content producers with a passion for storytelling. Ann and her team help shape and tell American Express's story internally through the voices of its people. She is responsible for companywide employee communications and has held other editorial and communications roles through her 12 years with AmEx. Ann also spent three years at Pfizer, where she was a senior director responsible for communications and PR for the biopharma company's general counsel and president of its nutrition business. Before joining the corporate world, Ann led communications and publications management for a nonprofit association of public school educators and an education research/curriculum development firm. She began her career as a reporter for what is now the South Florida Daily Business Review. A Miami native, Ann is a happily transplanted New Yorker who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two diva cats.

Bill is a marketing executive with over 25 years of experience building brand stature and leveraging brand assets on both the agency and client sides of businesses. Most recently, the Managing Director of Brand Evolution, Reputation, and Marketing Services at AXA, he has effectively utilized media budgets ranging from under $1M to $+400M to achieve ambitious marketing goals. Recognized as a leader and collaborator, he has worked with internal and external business partners to create highly effective and efficient integrated marketing plans that enhance the value of plan components and maximize ROI. As a marketer driven by and intimately familiar with brand metrics and customer insights, Bill has been associated with notable advertising campaigns at Sun Life Financial and Metlife that have earned FCS awards for best multimedia campaign, Effie awards for advertising effectiveness, the Interbrand Best Global Brands award and a Clear Mark Award for the use of plain language in financial services marketing materials.

Jeff Wilson is an officer and vice president, external marketing and communications at Fannie Mae, a $3 trillion financial services institution that owns or guarantees ~30%of U.S. residential mortgages. Based in Washington, D.C., Jeff leads a team of 40+ communicators responsible for corporate brand marketing, advertising, PR, media relations, financial communications, digital and direct marketing, social media, content marketing and research. Prior to joining Fannie Mae in 2016, Jeff served as senior vice president, marketing and communications at GE Capital, a leading provider of commercial finance. In 2015, Jeff was appointed marketing and communications leader for global information technology, operations, risk, legal and simplification to drive transformational change. For the previous 8 years at GE, he led a team responsible for Corporate Finance marketing and brand strategy including advertising, direct marketing, digital, events, conferences, collateral, content marketing, public relations and corporate communications. Jeff has more than 25years of marketing and communications experience in both corporate and agency settings. Prior to GE, he served as senior vice president, marketing and sales support for Bank of America Business Capital. Jeff also held various marketing positions with FleetBoston Financial and Liberty Bank.  He started his career in boutique advertising agencies Keiler & Company, and Decker—developing award-winning campaigns for clients such as CIGNA, The Stanley Works and Honeywell. Jeff received executive education at GE’s Jack Welch Leadership Center, Ossining, New York, and has a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from Providence College. Jeff’s writing has been published in Strategic Finance, US Banker and American Banker.  A featured speaker at the Jack Welch Leadership Center and UCONN Graduate School of Business, he also speaks regularly at the Gramercy Institute forums for financial marketers and the Financial Communications Society of New York. Jeff is active in the community and is a past board member of Community Accounting Services, the Business Marketing Association and the Advertising Club of Connecticut. He resides in Connecticut with his wife and two daughters.

Rachel Caldwell is Head of Creative in Brand Management at The Vanguard Group, Inc. where she leads a team responsible for all aspects of brand strategy and creative execution across the organization. Prior to joining the brand team, Rachel served as Creative Director in the retirement division for more than 15 years, winning numerous awards for design and marketing excellence. An advocate of Modernism and the value of simplicity, she has served as a professor of graphic design at both Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Ms. Caldwell started her career in advertising and worked as an art director for various agencies in the Philadelphia region including DH2 Communications and Montgomery & Partners (acquired by Earle Palmer Brown Spiro). She earned a bachelor's degree in communication design from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and a certificate in design thinking methodology from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Deidre Campbell is expert at strategic communications programming to advance business goals and transform brands. Deidre specializes in communicating an organization’s values and impact as well as driving integrated marketing communications programs micro-targeted to key stakeholders. Grounded in metrics and measurement, Deidre designs results-oriented programs that draw from a mix of skill sets including corporate/executive communications, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder mapping, research development and benchmarking, thought leadership development, content creation, digital applications, and social and traditional media relations. For the last 20 years, Deidre has developed insights into the needs, trends, and interests of this evolving sector working broadly across its landscape. Her experience includes consumer banking, private banking/wealth management, retail insurance, reinsurance, global insurance brokerage, secondary market support, trading platforms/technologies, hedge funds, professional associations, financial information/data firms, enterprise risk management, commercial finance and accounting. From start-up agencies to mid-tier boutiques to global PR firms, Deidre has worked with some of the finest names in the sector including Accenture, AIG, Aon Corporation, BNY Mellon, JP Morgan Chase, Lloyd’s of London, Mastercard, PwC, Swiss Re, UBS, and XL Capital.

Lisa Manganello is an experienced marketing strategist with expertise in product and brand development. Her strategic approach is driven by a passion for understanding and applying consumer insights to deliver differentiated marketing that drives business results. Since December 2012 Lisa has been with Morgan Stanley. She was the Head of Investment Product & Private Banking Marketing until November 2014 when she became the Head of Integrated Brand Marketing. In her current role Lisa oversees the brand and advertising globally for Morgan Stanley. From 2007-2013, Lisa had her own consulting firm working primarily with financial services organizations to provide strategic marketing leadership, creative direction, program design and implementation. Her clients included Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Samuel Bennett, Inc. During this time Lisa was also a Senior Consultant at Oculus Partners working on an engagement for PNC to design marketing programs that drive PNC’s aggressive growth goals established for the Investing and Retirement business.Lisa worked for Merrill Lynch from 2002-2007 where she focused on segment and channel development for key businesses within the Global Private Client group. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Lisa gained expertise across a spectrum of marketing disciplines while working for WPP Group agencies.

Jason Hill is Global Head of Media for BlackRock, where he is responsible for all aspects of paid media strategy, search, and social across the U.S. and key global markets, and for both BlackRock and iShares campaigns. He has authored a Media Manifesto for the firm to drive best practices in media and content, and has structured some of the firm’s first in-depth content partnerships, with publishers ranging from The New York Times, to Quartz, to Business Insider. He also oversees the firm’s social media efforts spanning creative development, editorial programming, and paid and organic campaigns. Jason joined BlackRock in June 2015. Previously, he spent four years at GE as global director of media and content strategy where he oversaw advertising, media, and market-first content deals in 20 of GE’s growth markets including Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kenya, and the UAE. Based in New York, he transferred for six months to Hong Kong, and spent significant time on the ground in all of his markets. While at GE, Jason also helmed the company’s industry leading approach to global media partnerships, working with The Economist Group, Quartz, Conde Nast, and CNBC International, as well as local market partners as varied as Globo (Brazil), Xinhua (China), and Handelsblatt (Germany). The brand’s flagship program, “GE Look ahead,” created with The Economist, was the recipient of numerous industry awards. Jason began his career on the agency side, rising to Vice President at Saatchi & Saatchi, where he managed the agency’s business development efforts. He later served as Director of Business Development at BBH. Jason also spent time in management consulting as a member of Booz & Co.’s consumer, media, and digital practice. He holds a BA from Northwestern and an MBA from Yale, where he serves on the Alumni Board of Advisors.

Maria is a senior corporate communications strategist with more than 25 years of experience both international and domestically.  She understands the fundamental drivers of business and the evolving, global market place in which brand value is a key component to generating revenue. She joined Legg Mason’s corporate communications group in 2006.  Over her tenure,  she has built strong relationships with leading financial journalists.  Besides working with the media, she has shown proficiency in integrating all areas of corporate communications to enhance, maintain and build Legg Mason’s brand reputation. Throughout her career, Maria has been instrumental in building new practice areas for several firms including institutionalizing the investor relations department at Grupo Elektra and building the Latin American investor relations practice for the Torrenzano Group. Maria has always worked with global, multinational clients starting with her first public relations position at GCI Group.  She has also worked for many leading multinational corporations when she lived in Mexico City during the early NAFTA years.

Carmela Di Meo is Global Head of Marketing & Communications at PineBridge Investments, a private, global asset manager. She has more than 20 years of marketing experience, including leadership positions at OppenheimerFunds, AllianceBernstein, and Brown Brothers Harriman. She received a BA from Long Island University and a MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Jessica has been at Reuters since 2011 and currently covers media and advertising, including how the largest media companies and big consumer-facing names are adapting to the changing landscape. Prior to her current role, she covered trends in mutual funds and investing. In 2012, Jessica was part of a group that was a finalist for Reuters Journalist Team of the Year 2013, for coverage of the Facebook IPO. Before joining Reuters, Jessica worked at a number of niche publications including American Lawyer, American Banker and Crain’s InvestmentNews. Jessica is also the co-author of "The Stay-At Home Dad Handbook" penned before her two children arrived.