YMS NYC
Advisory Board
Meet the leading industry experts and the Gen Z voices that are helping to curate the 2025 Youth Marketing Strategy agenda.
Their first-hand experience of working directly with young people and the brands that impact 16-24s make them perfectly placed to help us create content that is relevant, diverse and inspiring and can help shape the future for our industry and young people alike.
Industry Professionals
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Michael has been in the advertising industry for nearly 20 years, recently taking up a new role as Chief Business Officer at Digital Turbine, driving growth, innovation, and exceptional mobile experiences. He was previously the GM of Mobility Advertising at Uber where he was responsible for both the vision and strategy for scaling Uber's nascent advertising business across the ride-hailing app. Prior to Uber, Michael was Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Cardlytics, a digital advertising walled garden that allows advertiser-funded offers to reach 185M MAUs within the native environments of the world's largest banks. Before Cardlytics, Michael was the Global Head of Partnerships at Pinterest where his team oversaw growing and managing an ecosystem of 130+ strategic technology partners across commerce, data, measurement, and ads.
SVP Programmatic / Chief Media Officer at chargeFUZE/AdFUZE | Board of Directors | Board Advisor | Investor in Tech Startups | DOOH Advisor to Swiftmile.com micromobility
Amber is a dynamic, growth-oriented digital marketing executive with an entrepreneurial spirit and 20 years of experience in communications, social media, business development, and live events. She has worked to elevate numerous high-profile global brands, including Ford Motor Company, American Express, L'Oreal, 1 Hotels, Macallan, Autodesk, Olay, Nike, and Amazon. Her contributions have earned recognition with top industry honors such as a Cannes Lion. In her current role at nonprofit Civic Builders, she is focused on branding, storytelling, and strategic partnerships. Amber holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Loyola University New Orleans and is based in the NYC Metropolitan Area.
Gary J. Nix is a distinguished brand strategist and marketing consultant renowned for his innovative approach to brand development and market positioning. With over two decades of experience in the marketing industry, Gary has established himself as a thought leader and expert in brand storytelling, consumer engagement, and digital marketing strategies.
Charu is a dynamic entrepreneurial thought leader in brand and marketing, known for translating insights into impactful brand strategies that drive meaningful change. With over 15 years of expertise, Charu has cultivated a rich professional background with renowned companies such as Rothy’s, Meta, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Ancestry, among others.
Her expertise encompasses leading global teams in various sectors, from Y-combinator startups to Fortune 100 companies. With a comprehensive skill set, Charu is adept in brand marketing, product innovation, concept development, go-to-market strategy, insights, commercialization, consumer segmentation, and analytics. Her leadership experience spans across diverse industries including DTC, Tech, CPG, Health, Fashion, Beauty, Start-ups, and Retail.
Emmy has over ten years experience working in influencer marketing and has watched it evolve rapidly.
Katelynn Whitaker is passionate about driving social impact through storytelling and digital transformation. Currently at the intersection of tech, marketing and social impact, Katelynn has worked for companies like Movember, LinkedIn and Microsoft creating innovative marketing strategies to reach Millennials, Gen Z and beyond. Katelynn attended the University of Southern California and is now based in New York City.
Gen Z Voices
Scout Weeks is a 3rd year communications and media student with a minor in digital studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As an intern at Pion, she has learned so much about the marketing world and is planning on pursuing a career in youth marketing and advertising. Once graduated, she hopes to move to a big city to pursue her goal of becoming a social media marketer.
Rebecca Strug was born and raised in New Jersey. She is a student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia studying Sociology and Creative Writing. In her spare time, she loves listening to music, going for walks in the sunshine, and reading any type of book (fiction preferably).
My name is Justin Leusner, and I am a 21-year-old follower of Jesus, entrepreneur, content creator, YouTube strategist, stadium reviewer and student at Penn State University! I started creating content at 10 years old and have posted over 2,000 videos to social media since then.
Today, what keeps me busy on a daily basis is TDAY Sports. Our Gen-Z-targeted content reaches hundreds of millions of sports fans on a monthly basis through various social media platforms. I lead and work alongside a team of 30 to produce daily short-form, long-form, live, and image content for over millions of viewers across these platforms. We are building Gen-Z's ESPN. From that rapid growth, we suddenly were bombarded with requests to help others with their social media. From that, we built TDAY Production.
Our state of the art, ROI driven social media services include video production, video editing, social media strategy and graphic design helping businesses and personal brands garner millions of viewers (organically) via social media.
In addition to TDAY, I founded and currently run Penn State REACH: the second-largest chapter of the only national social media organization.
Hey! I’m Hannah! I’m from Bend, Oregon and am attending Chapman University in Orange, California as a first generation student. I am currently working towards my Business Administration degree and have enjoyed working on inspiring other students to push towards doing what they love for work.
