OPS Wrap Up Panel: What Makes Premium Premium?

The OPS New York Wrap up 

Sponsored by DoubleClick

About the Session

AdMonsters' Rob Beeler will moderate a conversation between Rob Norman, CEO GroupM N.A., Kirk McDonald, former President of Digital, Time Inc. and Jonathan Bellack, Product Manager Director, Google that will incorporate themes that have emerged throughout the day. This discussion will certainly turn into debate as the panel discusses what premium advertising is, what we as an industry need to do to bring more dollars online from top brands and where operations ultimately figures into the solution.

About the panelists: 

Rob Norman, CEO GroupM N.A. and CEO Interaction Worldwide 

Rob serves as Chief Executive Officer of GroupM North America and Chief Executive Officer of GroupM Interaction Worldwide.  He has P&L responsibility for all GroupM's operations in the USA and Canada.  Rob was appointed to this position in January 2010 in addition to his responsibility for global digital thought leadership, a position held since 2008. 

In 2005, Rob moved to the USA to create MEC Interaction, a merger of all MEC's interests in digital, search, social and direct response media.  In 2003 and 2004, he served as Chairman of MEC's UK operations and managed the merger between Mediaedge and CIA, laying the foundation for the agency to become the most awarded UK agency of the last five years

Prior to the merger, Rob led the global digital practice of CIA which he founded in 1994 and was a director of its parent company at the time of its acquisition by WPP in 2001.  Rob has worked across almost every industry sector from packaged goods, to automotive, telecommunications and technology.  In addition, he has had management responsibility for businesses and practices in Europe and Asia as well as North America.

Rob has 25 years of experience in the industry and holds relationships with key media market players.  Since moving to the USA, Rob has been named an Advertising Age Media Maven and an OMMA All-Star and has keynoted events such as ad:tech New York and the IAB Annual Conference.  Rob is a director of WPP Digital, Wild Tangent, 4A's, The Ad Council, and is a member of the Greycroft Advisory Board.   He also leads GroupM's U.S. diversity initiatives including a scholarship program at City College New York.

Rob lives in Brooklyn with his delightful girlfriend, her remarkable son and our extraordinary dog.  He has an inexplicable fascination with the New York Mets, an ancient attachment to Tottenham Hotspur, a passion for cricket and is a collector of esoteric books about faraway places and far out artists.  He has worked in media since 1984. 

Kirk McDonald, Executive Media Consultant

Kirk McDonald is a seasoned media veteran with deep experience across a range of media brands and platforms. With 20+ years spent at some of the leading digital and analog media companies, he understands the important balance in leadership required to build start-ups and pivot the strengths of established media companies. 

Most recently, McDonald was President of Digital, Time Inc. In that corporate role, he was responsible for bringing together the company’s collective digital assets to deliver audience and brand solutions to clients. He formerly held the position of Chief Advertising Officer of the Fortune|Money Group, where he oversaw worldwide advertising sales and integrated marketing across the group’s print and digital properties. Prior to joining the Fortune|Money Group, McDonald served as the senior vice president of sales, marketing and client services for DRIVEpm and Atlas, both key units of Microsoft’s advertising business. Previously, Kirk spent nine years at CNET, where he was the senior vice president of network sales. At CNET, McDonald engineered hugely successful strategic partnerships with the top-tier of technology marketers.

Before moving to the digital world, McDonald spent eight years in the magazine industry, selling print advertising solutions for Ziff-Davis publications here and helped to launch titles in three countries. Before that, he worked at Conde Nast’s in a marketing and research capacity for multiple titles including Self magazine.

Jonathan Bellack, Product Management Director, Google

Jonathan Bellack is Product Management Director for publisher ad platforms at Google.  He and his team help publishers of all sizes grow their digital advertising revenues via AdSense, DoubleClick's DFP suite, and more.  Jonathan has 15 years of experience working for and with online publishers (including SmartMoney.com, Consumer Reports Magazine, and departments of the British Government) on site technology, content management, and advertising systems.  Jonathan has a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.