The most important decisions are made by the hardest people to reach and influence.

Marla Kaplowitz has served as President and CEO of the 4A’s — the leading U.S. trade association representing over 600 advertising and marketing agencies — since May 2017.

Prior to leading the 4A’s, Marlas served as CEO of MEC North America (now Wavemaker, part of GroupM), beginning in 2011. As CEO, Marla drove the agency’s strategic initiatives with a focus on delivering growth for its people, clients and the industry. Marla led MEC to become a major disruptor in the area of talent management with its innovative approaches to attracting, nurturing and retaining the industry’s top talent. MEC NA was cited in Fortune’s “Great Places to Work” feature and was named in Advertising Age’s “Best Places to Work in Advertising and Marketing” in 2015.

Marla serves on the Boards of Penn Entertainment, The Ad Council, BBB National Programs, Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), and Media Village.

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Richard S. Marshall is Global Managing Director at Korn Ferry, where he leads the world’s largest recruiting firm’s practice which focuses on corporate communications, investor relations and government affairs. Since joining the firm in 2005, he has led nearly 400 successful engagements globally, including C-suite officers at Softbank, Alibaba, PepsiCo, Boeing, General Mills and the NFL, and other Fortune Global 500 organizations. In addition, he placed Investor Relations Officers at the world’s two largest IPOs, and other leading brands including Alibaba, Walmart, PayPal, Boston Properties, GE and Virgin Galactic.

Before his search career, Marshall spent more than 20 years as a communications and public affairs leader and advisor to four CEOs in three different industries. He was Chief Communications Officer at Home Depot, then a Fortune #13 retailer. And earlier, led communications at Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Subaru during its turnaround that was called “Most Improved Car Company in the World” by The Financial Times. He is active with the Arthur W. Page Society and the National Investor Relations Institute, among other professional organizations.

Marshall holds a B.S. in Marketing from Indiana University and completed graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania.

Terry McAuliffe served as the 72nd Governor of Virginia (2014-2018). He began his career as the National Finance Director for President Carter, and later went on to co-chair President Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. He also served as DNC Chairman (2000-2005) and as the Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential Campaign.

As Governor, McAuliffe created thousands of jobs that brought in over $20 billion in capital investment to the state, reduced the unemployment rate, and boosted personal income. McAuliffe’s priorities included safeguarding women’s access to healthcare, bolstering the public school system, protecting the environment, restoring voting rights to rehabilitated felons, galvanizing bipartisan support for landmark gun violence reduction legislation, and securing consumer cyber transactions.

After McAuliffe was elected Governor in 2014, President Obama appointed him to the National Governors Association’s Council of Governors to provide advice on national security matters. McAuliffe also served on the National Democratic Redistricting Committee as the State Engagement Chair to combat gerrymandering.

He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and a Visiting Fellow at Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. McAuliffe and his wife Dorothy were married in 1988, and they have five children.

Sean Patrick Maloney has a distinguished career in both the public and private sector.

He was elected five times to represent New York’s 18th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 2013-2023. While in Congress, Representative Maloney chaired both the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure as well as the Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee of the House Committee on Agriculture. He served as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and was elected by his colleagues to House leadership in 2020. He is the author of more than 40 pieces of legislation that have become law. 

Prior to serving in Congress, Maloney served as President Clinton's White House staff secretary, helped found a financial services software company, and worked as a partner at two global law firms.

Raised in Hanover, New Hampshire, as the youngest of six siblings, Maloney attended public elementary and high schools before earning undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia. He worked as a volunteer with the Jesuits in rural Peru between college and law school from 1988-89.

He is the first openly LGBT person ever elected to Congress from New York and the highest ranking openly LGBT person ever to serve in the House. He and his husband, Randy Florke, recently celebrated their 30th anniversary and have raised three children together.

Alexander Jutkowitz is an advisor, investor, and board director for private equity, growth, and venture investments in media, marketing, and information services.

He advises and serves on the boards of a stakeholder analytics and intelligence firm, a diverse audience marketplace, a performance marketing business, an expert professional services platform specializing in marketing and strategy, a decision-maker influencing and marketing firm, and a B2B news and information services brand.

He was a longtime data and insights expert, a crisis and reputation expert in over 30 countries, and is the founder of an award-winning content marketing firm.

Having split his childhood between Latin America and the United States, Jutkowitz has a unique cultural perspective that has informed his career. He was raised in Chile, then Philly, is fluent in Spanish, and has been an advocate for more diverse cultural perspectives in his industry and beyond.

Alexander has taught at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism. His book, “The Strategic Storyteller,” was published by Wiley in 2017.

Julian Ha is a managing partner with Heidrick & Struggles, the global executive search and leadership consulting firm. He leads the firm’s Legal, Risk, Compliance & Government Affairs Practice and founder of its Trade Association Practice. Julian represents numerous Fortune 500 clients and member-driven organizations and has placed CEOs and senior executives in legal, public policy, government relations, and corporate affairs roles. Previously, Julian practiced corporate law in New York, Singapore, and London, operated as a venture capitalist in London, headed the European business development efforts of Capital IQ and was a director with ESCL, a British merchant bank.

Sarah E. Feinberg is the founder of Feinberg Strategies LLC, a strategic communications, CEO advisory, public policy and operations firm specializing in advising companies in the tech and transportation sectors. Feinberg founded her firm in 2017, following a career that spanned many years of government service, as well as deep experience in the tech sector.

During 2020-2021, Feinberg served as the President of New York City Transit –the largest transit agency in North America and home of the iconic NYC Subway. Feinberg’s service as NYCT President was notable for its timing – just days into her tenure, NYC became the epicenter of Covid-19 in the US. Feinberg led the agency’s aggressive response to the pandemic.

Prior to serving as NYCT President, Feinberg served as the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, the sole safety regulator for the US passenger and freight rail system. Feinberg was nominated for the post by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the Republican-led US Senate. Prior to leading FRA, Feinberg served as Chief of Staff at the US Department of Transportation, where she led the agency’s day-to-day operations, as well as all agency and regulatory actions related to modern day transportation challenges including autonomous vehicles, drones, aviation, etc.

Previously, Feinberg served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Feinberg also served on Capitol Hill in both the US Senate and the US House of Representatives, was director of policy communications at Facebook from 2010-2013, and served as Bloomberg LP’s Director of Communications and Business Strategy.

Sean Garrett is the creator of three industry-first consultancies: The first tech policy communications agency bridging Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.; the strategy consultancy Pramana Collective run by former heads of comms of high-profile companies; and, now a one-of-kind community of 300+ of the top comms leaders called Mixing Board. Sean was Twitter’s first comms and marketing leader, an active early advisor to Slack, and a strategic consultant to the Obama White House.

Susanne Deegan has 30 years of experience advising companies on strategy, corporate reputation and positioning, ESG, workforce engagement, business operations, and crisis and issues management, with recognized expertise in labor relations situations. 

She spent a decade at Teneo, the CEO advisory firm, where she counseled clients across a broad spectrum of issues and industries. Previously, she worked at Burson-Marsteller, where she helped to launch and grow the Labor and Workforce Relations sub-practice within the Public Affairs group.