Mediatel Events

Ian Murray

Executive Director, Society of Editors

Ian was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the Society of Editors in October 2017. Ian is the former Editor of the Southern Daily Echo and the Editor in Chief of Newsquest’s Hampshire titles. He stepped down from the role in 2017 after 20 years in the position. Alongside editing the Daily Echo, he was also in charge of the weekly free News Extra Series in the Southampton region, the New Forest Post, and Hampshire Society magazine series. He was the president of the Society of Editors for 2013-2014 and has been a member of the Society since its formation in 1999. Ian was appointed vice chair of the Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee (DSMA) in 2018.

Articles from Ian Murray

Alison Phillips

Editor-In-Chief, Mirror

Alison first worked as a reporter for the Harlow Star weekly newspaper before going to Leeds University where she was editor of Leeds Student. She was then a trainee at the Evening Argus in Brighton before joining Connors News Agency and Woman magazine. She came to Trinity Mirror (now Reach) in 1998 as a feature writer on the Sunday People magazine. She moved to become Features Editor on the Daily Mirror in 2001. In 2016 she was made Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Trinity Mirror papers and in 2018 was named as the Editor of the Daily Mirror, making her its first female editor since its very first editor in 1903. In February 2020 she was made Editor in Chief of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. Alison has also written a weekly column in the Mirror since 2012 and in 2018 was named “Columnist of the Year” at the National Press Awards. She is chair of Reach plc’s Reaching Gender Equality group and Deputy Chair of Women In Journalism. She has three children aged between nine and 15. Alison is also a regular media commentator and has appeared on such programmes as Question Time, BBC Politics Live and ITV's This Morning.

Articles from Alison Phillips

James Mitchinson

Editor, The Yorkshire Post

James Mitchinson is the editor of The Yorkshire Post, recently awarded Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain status by PAMCo. He is the editorial director for JPIMedia Yorkshire, responsible for a score of news brands that employ over 100 journalists across Yorkshire, as well as a Westminster Correspondent and City Editor, both based in London. The JPIMedia Yorkshire print portfolio for which James is responsible sells around 300,000 copies per week, reaching around 1m people every week across God's Own County. Its digital portfolio attracts over 0.6m unique browsers per day generating over 1m page views per day. Last year the Society of Editors awarded The Yorkshire Post the accolades of Campaign of the Year and Front Page of the Year. James is a married father of two boys who - when not at work - can be found in the countryside with his seven-year-old trusty Golden Retriever, Wilf, by his side.

Articles from James Mitchinson

David Pidgeon

Editor, Mediatel News

David Pidgeon was editor between 2012 and July 2020.

Articles from David Pidgeon

Greg Grimmer

CEO, Mediatel

Greg is a well known figurehead in the digital media landscape, a member of the IPA and an oft-quoted press spokesman on digital advertising, as well as a frequent judge of major advertising and marketing awards. His influential column on Mediatel.co.uk has been now running for four years and has received wide acclaim from both within and outside the industry. He has also co-authored two books on “Advertising Works 12” and The Digital State.” Greg began his career in media planning at Delaney Fletcher/Bozell and CIA where he rose to become Strategic Planning Director, becoming a board director at twenty eight. He worked at Optimedia before becoming Commercial Director at newly founded ZenithOptimedia Group in 2003. Greg was MD of Zed Media in 2005. ZED grew from 50 staff and billings of £52million to 120 staff and billings of £130million in that period and took a pre-eminent position among agencies in the digital arena, winning awards for work in DiTV, Mobile, and social networking. In 2008 Greg became a founding partner at Hurrell Moseley Dawson and Grimmer (HMDG) a ‘new model’ advertising agency with partners across the advertising, creative and planning spectrum. The agency from launch attracted brands including Autotrader.com, Ancestry.com, Aston Martin, Nestle Superdrug and the launch of WIRED magazine. After selling his stake in HMDG, Greg was enticed by the founders to join the Fetch success story with a brief to expand the company into new global markets and new marketing services.

Articles from Greg Grimmer

Caroline Tredget

Sales Director, The Times & The Sunday Times

Articles from Caroline Tredget

Craig Smith

Head of Publishing, GroupM UK

Craig is the Head of Publishing for GroupM UK, responsible for publisher relationships, publisher trading and leading publishing across GroupM UK. Craig joined GroupM in July 2019, moving from one of their agencies Mindshare, where he spent 7 years as a Business Director and Trading Director across a number of clients and previously worked for Zenithoptimedia. GroupM is the world’s leading media investment company responsible for more than $50B in annual media investment through agencies including Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Essence and m/SIX, as well as the outcomes-driven programmatic audience company, Xaxis. GroupM has a global team of 36,400 people operating in 80 markets, representing 30% of all media billings worldwide; 1 in 3 ads are placed by the network.

Articles from Craig Smith

Katherine Page

Consultant, Katherine Page Media Research Consultancy Ltd

Katherine Page is a freelance consultant specialising in media audience measurement in the UK and elsewhere. In the UK, she is the Technical Consultant to two ‘joint industry currencies’ providing audience estimates: The Publishers Audience Measurement Company (PAMCo) and Route – Outdoor Media Analytics. As an industry expert with over 30 years’ experience, she also produces a number of overviews of the latest developments in international audience measurement, including ones for the PDRF – now asi’s International Publishing & Data Conference – and EMRO (European Media Research Organisation) Katherine started her career working for a magazine publisher and went on to work for a number of leading market research agencies in the UK before becoming an independent consultant in 2007.

Articles from Katherine Page

Demi Abiola

Publishing Director, PHD Media

Demi Abiola is a Publishing Director at PHD media, where he joined in September 2005. He started his career in finance as an accountant for KPMG. Before joining the sales house Carlton Television and then ITV where he spent two years. Demi has a wealth of experience across a range of different sectors. His current client portfolio consists of amongst others; Warner Bros, HSBC, VW brands and Diageo. Demi is passionate about diversity in advertising, he’s been panellist at adweek discussing race in the industry. In addition to involvement in Omnicommediagroup diversity initiatives. In his spare time, you will find Demi playing poker, in the boxing gym or practising Yoga.

Articles from Demi Abiola

Babs Kehinde

Senior Director, Publisher Development, PubMatic

Babs is a seasoned executive with decades of experience in sales, business development and strategy across several successful media and technology companies. As Senior Director, Publisher Development, he is responsible for growing the company’s publisher relationship with a current focus on Audience data trading, PMP, programmatic video and in-app monetisation. Prior to PubMatic, Babs held various director-level positions at OpenX, Essence, Yahoo!, playing a key role in their business development efforts. He has deep insights into the ad technology market.

Articles from Babs Kehinde

Denis Palmer

Global Director Channel Partnerships, Zeotap

Denis is focused on expanding zeotap’s global partnerships and the adoption of best practice data usage and identity resolution. Prior to that he was at LiveRamp where he oversaw business development having been initially involved with launching LiveRamp in the UK back in 2016. During his time at Amazon, Denis worked on the adoption of advertising solutions underpinned by data across Amazon’s online portfolio and the wider web through Amazon DSP. He holds an MBA from The University of Tampa and a degree in engineering from Imperial College London.

Articles from Denis Palmer

Dominic Joseph

CEO & Co-Founder, Captify

Dominic is the CEO and co-founder of search data and intelligence company Captify. Captify is the largest independent holder of consumer Search Data outside of Google & Amazon and its unique technology understands the intent of consumers across all channels including Voice Search, Desktop on site Search and in-app search. Captify’s search intelligence and powerful insights help inform decisions for brands globally, through consumer behavior analysis, brand trends, product and market analysis. Captify’s intent-rich data set powers advertising for many of the world’s largest brands including Apple, Disney, Adidas, American Express and Microsoft. Led by Dominic from startup to present, Captify has experienced explosive growth globally following raising $12m from Series A and Series B rounds. Captify are trading globally with over 250 employees and offices in 11 global territories including London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Chicago and New York. Previous to building Captify, Dominic used to be a professional drummer signed to Polydor Universal, featuring on various chart hits and touring the world supporting various major label artists such as Blondie, Aha, Fatboy Slim and The Bravery. In 2013, Dominic was named GB Young Entrepreneur of the Year and UK Digital Innovator of the Year. Dominic was also championed in the CEO category in the BIMA100 2016 and named Scale Up Entrepreneur of the year 2018 and the Great British Entrepreneur awards.

Articles from Dominic Joseph

Joanna Burton

Chief Strategy Officer, ID5

Joanna sets the strategy for ID5, the independent identity infrastructure for digital advertising. ID5's technology enables publishers to increase programmatic revenues and improve user experience with privacy by design, and allows ad tech platforms to operate more efficiently and to maximise the value of data and inventory. She joined from SpotX, part of RTL Group, which works with publishers and broadcasters across Europe to monetise their premium video content across desktop, mobile and connected TV. Over the past 25 years, Joanna has worked for a range of advertising companies from Microsoft and AOL to AppNexus, Draft FCB, EW Scripps, Omniture and Rubicon Project.

Articles from Joanna Burton

Craig Tuck

CRO, The Ozone Project

Craig is the CRO of The Ozone Project with over 20 years of experience within the media sector across press, cinema and digital - from pureplay to adtech. He is responsible for positioning the platform as a compelling, market leading proposition for agencies and brands in the UK to reach premium audiences in brand safe, fraud free, premium environments. Craig is passionate about generating advertiser value through high attention channels that real people engage with, whilst helping find a way to sustain the creation of those environments, and ultimately maintain a free information economy.

Articles from Craig Tuck

Harmony Murphy

Head of UK Advertising, eBay

As Head of UK Advertising at eBay, Harmony Murphy is responsible for managing and growing the company’s display advertising revenue from ebay.co.uk, collaborating with brand and agency partners, and other buyers of eBay’s premium inventory to deliver innovative data-led media solutions, and demonstrating the value that eBay brings to brands. Before joining eBay in 2019, Harmony was Global Head of Digital & Programmatic at The Telegraph, where she doubled international programmatic revenue over the course of two years. Harmony is also a board member at Generation Success, a not for profit organisation that helps young, ambitious people from diverse backgrounds to realise their career aspirations through mentoring, coaching and access to industry experts and events.

Articles from Harmony Murphy

John Moulding

Editor-In-Chief, Videonet

John Moulding is Editor-in-Chief at Videonet, where he has been covering the evolution of multiscreen TV, connected TV and advanced advertising, among other things, since 2010. He has been reporting on television business and technology since 1999, when digital multichannel TV started to take root in Europe.

Articles from John Moulding

Michael Brunt

General Manager, Times Newspapers Ltd

Michael Brunt became General Manager of Times Newspapers Ltd in 2019, with responsibility for the financial performance of The Times and The Sunday Times and for setting and implementing brand strategies for long-term cross-platform growth. Prior to joining News UK, Michael was Publisher and Chief Operating Office for The Economist. He joined the Economist Group in 2006 and held a number of senior roles in marketing and circulation, including Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director of Circulation. As Publisher, he managed the Group’s circulation, sales, marketing solutions, events and analytics divisions.

Articles from Michael Brunt

Tristan Summerscale

Head of Digital Product & Delivery - Client Solutions, The Economist Group

Tristan leads a global digital delivery team in the Client Solutions division of The Economist's Publisher team. Prior to that he worked as product management director for the mobile technology company AdMaxim, and as product manager at MoBank. For five years, Summerscale also launched and edited a print and digital magazine called Notes from the Underground, distributing over 400,000 copies over five issues. The magazine featured fiction and non-fiction from writers including Matthew Quick (Silver Linings Playbook), William Boyd (A Very Human Heart, DW Wilson (BBC National Short Story Award Winner 2013) and David Vann, amongst many others.

Articles from Tristan Summerscale

Carol Santanna

Design Lead, &us

Carol has over a decade of industry experience, transforming business through human centred design and strategic thinking. She has lead multiple teams and works on improving product quality and consistency applying acquired knowledge on UX and innovation and gathering user insights through multiple research experiments.

Articles from Carol Santanna

Michaela Jefferson

Reporter, Mediatel News

Michaela is news editor at Mediatel News. Contact: michaela.jefferson@mediatel.co.uk / 020 7420 3252. Twitter: @mejefferson_

Articles from Michaela Jefferson

James Wildman

President, Hearst Europe

As CEO of Hearst UK, James has overall management responsibility for the company. He joined in April 2017 with a wealth of experience in transforming media companies, and was elevated to President, Hearst Europe in September 2019 adding oversight of Hearst in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany to his remit. Hearst is the UK’s leading premium content and experiences business, publishing 26 iconic brands including ELLE, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire. Hearst UK circulates more than five million magazines a month and its award-winning content is engaged with by more than 20 million monthly digital UK users. Every year over a million people attend Hearst’s highly acclaimed events such as the Country Living Fairs and Red Smart Women Week. At Hearst, James has led a business turnaround, culminating in a return to top-line revenue growth in 2018 after several years of decline. The company has gone from strength to strength under James’ leadership to accelerate its revenue diversification and digital development strategy, which has paid strong dividends. A relentless focus on cultural transformation has also driven strong gains in team engagement and business success. James has worked in the media industry for over 25 years and joined Hearst from Reach PLC (previously Trinity Mirror) where he was Chief Revenue Officer from 2014 with responsibility for commercial revenue across the group. From 2011, he was Yahoo’s Managing Director, UK & Ireland, responsible for leading Yahoo’s biggest market outside the US. Prior to that, James worked in TV, with stints at ITV and other commercial television businesses, working his way up to become Managing Director of Virgin Media’s television sales house from 2005.

Articles from James Wildman

Karl Knights

VP Revenue EMEA, 4C

Karl started in Ad sales at Chrysalis radio (now Global) in the late 90's during a growth period for that industry. He made the move into digital in 2004 with Yahoo before spending six years with Microsoft from 2005 working in several roles before leading the client team in 2010. Karl’s next challenge was to join Kenshoo in 2011 as their first sales hire outside of the US, 6 good years with Kenshoo saw him lead sales as VP for EMEA until 2017. Prior to 4C Karl spent nearly three years with the Silicon Valley company Dynamic Signal who provide an employee communications and engagement technology. Now, Karl heads up the EMEA sales and client service teams at 4C.

Articles from Karl Knights

Sophie Tighe

Head of Instagram and Snapchat, LadBible Group

Sophie is Head of Instagram and Snapchat for LADbible Group and oversees the editorial and commercial strategy across the two social media platforms. LADbible Group is the leading social publisher for young people aged 18-34 and has over 120 million followers across its celebrated brands which include UNILAD, SPORTbible and their recently relaunched female focused brand, Tyla. Prior to LADbible Group, Sophie earned her social media expertise by launching The Sun’s successful Snapchat Discover Channel and working as a digital journalist at some of the UK’s most popular online publishers including Yahoo and Hearst.

Articles from Sophie Tighe

Reece Brown

Entertainment Partnerships Manager, Twitter

Entertainment Partnerships Manager at Twitter, Reece currently leads Twitter’s Gaming content partnerships in the UK. His role sees him working closely with editorial publishers, creators as well as Esports leagues and teams to bring the best content to the passionate gaming community on Twitter. Throughout his career he’s worked for some of the biggest names in the media industry including Channel 4, Verizon Media and AOL.

Articles from Reece Brown

Mark Sandford

Co-Founder & Commercial Director, Book of Man

Mark Sandford - Co-Founder and Commercial Director for The Book of Man, the award winning platform that looks at the inner lives of men with a specific focus on mental health and well-being.

Articles from Mark Sandford

Maria Cadbury

Managing Director, Persollo

Maria Cadbury is the Managing Director of Persollo, a leading eCommerce and AI-Driven Live Data Analytics Platform for Influencer Marketing. Maria has 20 years strategic advertising experience working up to executive level. She has spent the last four years focused on Influencer Marketing where she has built business and thought leadership in the space. She also works with US companies to help successfully accelerate their businesses in the UK. Maria ran one of the top 10 adtech networks and created two new businesses for the last two organisations she worked with. Maria is a strong minded, high energy and highly articulate Irish woman who revels in impactful action.

Articles from Maria Cadbury

Liz Duff

Head of Media and Investment, Total Media

Liz is Head of Media & Investment at Total Media, who are The Behavioural Planning Agency. She runs the media divisions of the agency, ensuring that behavioural planning principles are applied across everything we do. Total Media’s understanding of human behaviour helps improve marketing effectiveness for our clients. We achieve this by recognising the full range of influences that affect people’s decision making, combined with best in class media, data and research. Starting her career at Carat as a TV buyer, over the course of 20 years Liz has worked in both the independent and network sectors, and across all media channels. She is passionate about the power of integrated channel planning and approaching media planning in a channel agnostic manner.

Articles from Liz Duff

Matthew Rogerson

Director of Public Policy, Guardian Media Group

Matthew Rogerson is Director of Public Policy at Guardian Media Group where he is engaged on issues including data privacy, editorial freedom, issues of dominance in the digital economy and the broader question of the future of the high-quality news media. Matthew was previously a member of the advisory panel to the government commissione Cairncross review of press sustainability, and has provided evidence to a wide range of parliamentary select committees. Matthew previously spent five years as Head of Public Affairs and Policy at Virgin Media and worked in Parliament for a number of MPs.

Articles from Matthew Rogerson

Jason White

Senior Vice President & Head of Publishers, LiveRamp

Jason White is the senior vice president and head of publishers for LiveRamp. He oversees the accelerated publisher adoption of LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS), and helps uphold the company’s commitment to helping publishers grow revenue streams, optimize yield, and demonstrate marketing value. A champion for publisher-supported advertising, Jason continues to advocate for premium content and the democratization of information to keep the internet free in a post-cookie world. Prior to LiveRamp, Jason was the executive vice president and general manager of global programmatic for ViacomCBS. He has also held leadership positions at OpenX and FOX Audience Network, where he helped build its third-party network and first real-time bidding exchange. Throughout his career spanning more than 20 years, Jason has accumulated extensive experience implementing best of breed strategies across the lumascape. Moreover, triple-digit revenue growth through customer acquisition and monetization initiatives can be attributed to his work with various Fortune 100 companies and start-ups. Jason is/has been on the board of the IAB Tech Lab, TrustX, and was Chairman of the IAB Programmatic Council. He has served on the advisory boards of Tumri, Convertro, TrueCar, OpenX, Index, Clean.io. While on the IAB Tech Lab board, Jason led Project Rearc. Industry co-innovation credits include: Ads.txt, RTB, Header Bidding & DCO.

Articles from Jason White

Paul Gubbins

Consultant

Paul has over over 17 years commercial experience in the digital advertising sector, with the last 10 spent in programmatic focused roles. Having held senior positions in companies such as Verizon, PubMatic, Millennial Media, StrikeAd, Reuters & The Daily Telegraph, he was nominated for and won the prestigious Exchange Wire title of AdTech personality of the year (2018) for his continued industry efforts to promote the benefits of data driven advertising to both buy & sell sides. In Paul's most recent role, he was the global programmatic strategy lead for video AdTech company Unruly.

Articles from Paul Gubbins

Tina Lakhani

Head of Ad Tech, IAB UK

As Head of Ad Tech at IAB UK, the industry body for digital advertising, Tina is responsible for communicating the IAB’s position on key ad tech issues and acting as a voice for the sector at an industry-wide level. Her current priorities include developing IAB UK’s Gold Standard and coordinating a cross-industry solution to the end of third-party cookies. She joined IAB UK in 2018 as Ad Tech Manager, having previously gained first-hand ad tech experience at companies including Exponential and Affectv.

Articles from Tina Lakhani

Michael Mullaney

SVP, Global Digital Revenue, The Economist Group

Michael joined The Economist in 2018 and is currently SVP, Global Digital Revenue. In this role he leads the Media Strategy, Revenue Operations, Analytics & Insight as well as Digital Delivery teams. He is responsible for ensuring The Economist’s advertising offering remains competitive and in tune with the changing needs of clients. Previously Michael held senior positions at Yahoo, Amobee, MediaMath and IDG.

Articles from Michael Mullaney

Karen Eccles

Senior Director of Commercial Innovation, The Telegraph

Karen is Senior Director of Commercial Innovation at The Telegraph, leading commercial product, measurement and data innovation to support the company’s subscriber first strategy. She has a long history in media and ad tech, working previously at companies including Innovid, Classic FM, Associated, and Centaur. She is also a trustee board director of charity Clic Sargent.

Articles from Karen Eccles

Sherzod Rizaev

VP of Commercial Operations, Minute Media

Sherzod is VP of Commercial Operations at Minutemedia. Minute Media is a leading media and technology brand focused on two main pillars—platform and content. Minute Media’s platform serves as the company’s foundation, powering its content as well as enabling the evolution of other market-leading digital media brands. To date, Minute Media’s owned and operated destinations include The Players’ Tribune, 90min, 12up, DBLTAP, Mental Floss, The Big Lead, and FanSided. Last 5 years he has been focusing on ad tech, operations, programmatic strategies and revenues. Over the past 13 years, Sherzod worked at a range of media companies including Reach Media, The Spectator, Nothern, and Shell in various roles.

Articles from Sherzod Rizaev

Christopher Kenna

CEO & Founder, Brand Advance

Articles from Christopher Kenna

Jerry Daykin

EMEA Media Director, GSK

Jerry is part of the global media leadership team at GSK Consumer Health, overseeing their media & digital activity across the EMEA region. Previously he has led global media partnerships at Diageo, digital strategy agency side at Carat and social media at Mondelez. An active contributor to the industry Jerry is a member of the WFA Media Board and was one of the authors of their Global Media Charter. He contributed to the recently published ‘Eat Your Greens’ book alongside Byron Sharp & Mark Ritson. Jerry is a vocal proponent of the power of inclusion within advertising, is an Outvertising Board Member and during his time at Diageo led their Rainbow Network, employee resource group.

Articles from Jerry Daykin

Joanne Oatts

Creative Director, OattsWinter

Articles from Joanne Oatts

Edd Weller

Brand Partnerships Director, IngenuIT

Articles from Edd Weller

Richard Miles

CEO + Founder, The Diversity Standards Collective

Rich Miles is CEO + Founder of The Diversity Standards Collective and agency that consults, creates and checks for authenticity in all content that features or targets diverse communities. The DSC strives to help any agency, brand or publisher create work that never offends or misrepresents, something we see all too often in the advertising and marketing industry today. Rich created the first gender pronoun converter app, a tool that helps any business communicate properly with non-binary staff and clients, he is also part of OUTvertising, The Advertising and Marketing industry’s LGBTQI+ lobbying group.

Articles from Richard Miles

Mark Runacus MBE

Co-Founder and Planning Partner, Wax/On

Mark is co founder and planning partner at creative and media agency Wax/On. Previously Mark was an owner of Karmarama, then one of the UK’s largest independent creative agencies, and now part of Accenture Interactive. Mark champions inclusion and diversity in the advertising sector in his role as Chair of Outvertising, advertising’s LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Entirely volunteer run and Not For Profit, Outvertising works with brands and their creative and media partners for more positive LGBTQ+ inclusion in all paid media, and fights for a prejudice free creative working environment as part of a joined-up inclusion and diversity strategy. Mark presents the fortnightly advertising podcast Wax Lyrical. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 2019 birthday honours list for his services to advertising.

Articles from Mark Runacus MBE

Asad Dhunna

Founder, The Unmistakables

Asad set-up The Unmistakables with a mission to help organisations navigate their way through diversity & inclusion. He leads on client work and speaks out about how to make diversity everyone’s business. He told attendees of Cannes Lions about why we don’t need another diversity talk and has been shortlisted as a change maker by Oystercatchers, The Drum and Campaign. He was recently featured on the IPA’s ‘iList’ - a selection of trailblazers for inclusivity in the marketing industry. Asad has held senior positions at Weber Shandwick and FleishmanHillard, managing award-winning work for HSBC, Netflix, Expedia, Freeview and TK Maxx. He also did a stint as Head of Marketing, at Triptease travel technology start-up. Asad volunteered as the Director of Communications for Pride in London (hence the pic) in 2018 and 2019 and is currently a board trustee for akt - the LGBT+ homelessness charity.

Articles from Asad Dhunna

Blair Imani

Historian & Author

Blair Imani is a critically-acclaimed historian, outspoken advocate and activist, and dynamic public speaker. The author of two historical books: Modern HERstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History (2018) and Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and The Black American Dream (2020), she centers women and girls, global Black communities, and the LGBTQ community. She is the co-host of America Did What?!, an educational podcast and anti-racism initiative with Kate Robards. Blair has appeared on Fox News and MSNBC, presented at colleges and universities, spoken at conferences around the world, and delivered powerful talks for organizations and brands including TEDx and GLAAD.

Articles from Blair Imani

Amazin LeThi

Athlete Ally & Stonewall Ambassador / Founder, Amazin LeThi Foundation

Amazin LeThi was born in Saigon where she was left in an orphanage by her mother, she is a transracial adoptee. She is a global Vietnamese LGBTQ sports and human rights advocate, thought leader and global ambassador. She is also a former competitive bodybuilder, entertainment executive and the first Vietnamese internationally published fitness author. Through her personal journey of homelessness, as a young adult and passion for sports Amazin created the Amazin LêThi Foundation to support and address LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness through leadership and development using sports as the platform for change. Amazin’s work in championing social issues is also evident in the awareness campaigns, collaboration on initiatives and contribution as a board advisor she has been recognized for, these include. • Helped organize the first 'Spirit Day' collaboration with GLAAD and White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, shared her story as part of the first White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Asian anti-bullying campaign 'Act to Change' • First Asian Stonewall UK sports champion ambassador and first Asian out athlete to appear in the Stonewall UK ‘Rainbow Laces Campaign’. • Launched the first Asian LGBTQ Southern Voices Event in Georgia and UN LGBTQ Business Standards at the LGBTQ Institute Business Forum. • Board advisor for Queer Britain Museum, Vagina Museum, London Mayor’s Night Czar LGBTQ + Venue Forum Advisory Group, Atlanta Public Schools LGBTQ Task Force and City of Atlanta Asian heritage month advisory board. Amazin has been recognized by GLAAD as an LGBTQ activist accelerating equality globally. NQAPIA also has recognised Amazin for her contribution in accelerating LGBTQ sports equality. Amazin has been listed in the Australian Pride Power List, Out 100 List and acknowledged in the Human Rights Campaign - Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Honours list. In 2020, Amazin became the first Asian LGBTQ Athlete to be honoured at the Brooklyn Nets 4th Annual Pride Night at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn with the 'Game Ball Delivery’ and during 2020, Pride Month, Amazin partnered with The Advocate to host the first Pride Month Asian LGBTQ voices Instagram live series on their Instagram. Amazin has so far spoken to B.D Wong, Leo Sheng, Leonardo Nam a Rain Valdez. She is a Stonewall UK and Athlete Ally sports champion ambassador and a global ambassador for Vietnam Relief Services. She is also part of the Team Biden LGBTQ committee.

Articles from Amazin LeThi