BRIDGE Announces an Unprecedented Roster of Speakers and the Agenda for its Inaugural Summit and DE&I Retreat

BRIDGE 2023 Speakers Chief Business Leaders from Adidas, Adsmovil, Campbell's, Condé Nast, Direct Digital Holdings, Discover Financial, GroupM, IBM, Indeed, milkPEP, Nielsen, Sephora and Unilever, as well as Cultural Icons including Artist Fiona Compton, Basketball Legend Kevin Bradshaw and Judy Smith, the inspiration for the Hit Series, Scandal

SAN DIEGO, March 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- BRIDGE, the only independent DE&I trade organization to serve the global marketing industry, today announced the initial roster of speakers for its first annual retreat, BRIDGE 2023: Pioneering DE&I Next Practices, April 23-25 at Zachari Dunes in California.

The goal of BRIDGE 2023 is to take attendees through a journey that begins with a foundation steeped in data and culminates with tangible business practices of what it means to operationalize inclusion as a business practice for growth.

To accomplish this, BRIDGE's board of directors curated a roster of speakers that looks and speaks to topics no other trade organization or conference has tackled as its sole focus. It also designed the program to go beyond keynotes, talks and workshops, to include research and a first-of-its-kind BRIDGE Stories program as well as immersive cultural experiences.

BRIDGE Stories is a unique and evergreen series of real-world personal journeys that DE&I champions are delivering and BRIDGE is documenting as part of an ongoing project the trade organization has invested in to capture as part of the history of corporate America and beyond.

Leading attendees through the BRIDGE 2023 experience are BRIDGE's:

Summit Chairs

• Sheryl Daija, founder and CEO, BRIDGE and Jonita Wilson, Chair of the BRIDGE Board of Directors and BRIDGE Chief Diversity Officer for Discover Financial Services – Daija and Wilson will open up each day of the summit and lead attendees through the journey. Wilson and Daija led the curation of BRIDGE 2023, alongside board level steering committee, including executives from Adsmovil, Discover Financial, Campbell's, IBM, Indeed, MilkPEP, and NBCUniversal.

Keynote Speakers

• Fiona Compton, Artist – On Day 1, attendees will hear from London-based Saint Lucian photographer, artist, filmmaker, historian, activist and storyteller, Fiona Compton. Compton is unapologetically dedicated to retelling and reclaiming Caribbean history and culture and its unbreakable linkages to Africa by unearthing stories buried away in obscure corners of little known history books. During her opening keynote, Compton will share her story and help attendees imagine a different world centered around inclusion and equity as she retells history in ways we might not have heard before.
• David Kenny, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nielsen, Kirk McDonald, Chief Executive Officer, GroupM North America and Judy Smith, Crisis Management Expert & inspiration for the hit TV show Scandal, Founder & CEO, Smith & Company – On day 2, The Critical Role of the CEO in Building an Inclusive Company take center stage as the keynote session. During the talk, three of the nation's most inspirational leaders will discuss the need for Inclusion in the workplace and marketplace to drive change at scale and why this need has never been stronger.

BRIDGE Stories: Storytellers

• Kareem Cook, Chief Marketing Officer, Owner, Naturade – Following BRIDGE's first storyteller, Kareem Cook will share his experience of breaking through in the world of big-box retail with his line of plant-based meal alternatives. He'll take us through how they became the first Black-owned company in their category to be distributed at Costco.
• Sandra Sims Williams, Chief Diversity Officer, Nielsen will deliver Seeing us, Seeing the Truth. During this session, the powerhouse DE&I leader and BRIDGE Board Member will speak her truth about what it means to be a Black woman in corporate America.
• Kevin Bradshaw, SVP, Executive Director, City Year San Jose and Basketball Legend Bradshaw will present Smile, Black Man, Smile, Bradshaw's personal lived experiences and unique understanding of the issues facing Black men in business.
• Sarah Camhi, Director, Trade Marketing, Adidas – will discuss how Kanye West's antisemitic rhetoric at the end of 2022 compelled her to find her voice during a difficult time at a brand she remains loyal to and as an advocate in standing up to hate.

BRIDGE "Voices of Inclusion" Research Speakers

• Dr. Omar Rodriguez Vila Associate Professor in the Practice of Marketing, Emory University - Goizueta Business School, Deborah Yeh, Global Brand Purpose Officer, Sephora Americas, Yashica Olden, Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Condé Nast and Leslie Waller, Vice President of Marketing, Campbell's and Rebecca Messina, Global CMO, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co – On Day 1 of the summit, Rodriguez Vila, Yeh, Olden, Waller and Messina will lead a two-part session on How to Build Inclusion as a Business Practice (Rodriguez to deliver based on BRIDGE's new Voices of Inclusion Research) and How to Build an Inclusive Workplace, Workforce and Marketplace (Messina will facilitate with Yeh, Olden and Waller to discuss the practical application of the insights)

Executive Sessions

• CMO/Business Leader Executive Session – Randi Stipes, VP, IBM Brand Marketing; CMO, The Weather Company, DE&Idre Smalls-Landau, U.S CMO & EVP, Global, Business Equity, Mediabrands and Mark Walker will explore how marketing and business leaders can build their own cultural competency and the crucial role they play in building an inclusive workplace and marketplace.
• CDO Session – Tish Archie Oliver, Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Unilever and Lukeisha Paul, Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion will explore how we are moving away from DE&I as a philosophy to inclusion as a business practice and what this means for DE&I leaders. We will explore the crucial role you all play and your contributions to DE&I as a business growth strategy and its impact on overall business outcomes.

Special Sessions

• Matthew Tsang, Co-Founder, Ness Murby, JEDI Brand Strategist, Counsellor and Paralympian, Wiley Davi, PhD, Professor of English & Media Studies, Bentley University, Vanessa Castañeda Gill, CEO and Co-Founder, Social Cipher Tsang will moderate a discussion about What Inclusion Means to the Most Unincluded
• Yin Woon Rani, CEO/CMO, milkPEP and Jennifer Warren, VP, Global Brand Marketing and Communications, Indeed In collaboration, Rani and Warren will deliver Talent is Universal. Opportunity is Not, a session that will showcase how brand commitments to diversity are not one size fits all and are playing out at their brands, highlighting Indeed's Tribeca Film Festival award-winning Rising Voices initiative and MilkPEP's bold new campaign "You're Gonna Need Milk For That"
• Sheryl Daija, founder and CEO, BRIDGE, Randi Stipes, VP, IBM Brand Marketing; CMO, The Weather Company and IBM Watson Advertising, Deidre Smalls-Landau, U.S CMO & EVP, Global Business Equity, Mediabrands, Mark Walker, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Direct Digital Holdings, Tish Archie Oliver, Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Unilever, Lukeisha Paul, Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion GroupM As we close BRIDGE 2023, the various diversity, marketing and business leaders will reconvene to share the top actionable perspectives from their respective sessions. The learnings from the sessions will help prioritize BRIDGE programs and accelerate change.

More BRIDGE speakers and workshops will be announced soon. In the immediate, if you are interested in learning more about how you can join BRIDGE to drive change, please contact [email protected]

About BRIDGE

Launched in 2022, BRIDGE is a member-driven 501C6. We help companies bridge the gaps that have created inequities for under-represented and untapped communities in the workplace, workforce and marketplace. With the variety of programs that BRIDGE offers including proprietary research, storytelling workshops, best practices, events and more, we identify and dismantle the structures in place to drive systemic change in belonging, representation, inclusion, diversity and equity (BRIDGE is an acronym for these constructs). Our long term goal is to create a comprehensive BRIDGE agenda for companies and certify against its implementation and impact. BRIDGE is an inclusive organization that welcomes support and participation from all companies in the global marketing industry as well as like-minded academics and DE&I champions. We are stronger together. Visit BRIDGE to learn more and join (http://www.wearebridge.com).

Media Contact: Linzy Meija, [email protected]

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