Marianne Ward-Peradoza brings a wealth of experience and leadership from her 17 years in higher education. She has been actively engaged in the Arlington business community, has a background in global studies, and has a longstanding commitment to global engagement. These experiences have prepared her to contribute greatly to the university’s efforts to increase Austin and global connections. Ward-Peradoza earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Miami and a bachelor’s in International Studies/Economics from American University.

Joe DeCosmo is an entrepreneurial, customer analytics and strategy executive with more than 20 years successfully building marketing analytics teams and leading large and complex client engagements. As CAO for Enova International, DeCosmo leads a multi-disciplinary analytics team that provides end-to-end data and analytic services including data warehousing, business intelligence, fraud, credit risk, marketing, and business analytics. Prior to Enova, DeCosmo was Director/Practice Leader of Advanced Analytics and Insight at West Monroe Partners.

With a focus on bringing corporate strategy, marketing and innovation disciplines to problem solving, Fossas is currently the Director of Brand at WP Engine. His work includes the launch of WP Engine’s first brand campaign in 2017, and, if his name sounds familiar, you have probably read his contributions on the wpengine.com blog as he shares updates on the evolution of the company from a WordPress host site to a WordPress Digital Experience Platform. Fossas offers experience across varied industries working with brands across consumer, auto, technology, finance, media, and healthcare verticals including P&G, Clorox, GM, Verizon, HP, Visa, Disney, Universal.

Robert Gilbreath is Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships at Austin-based ecommerce shipping software provider, ShipStation. Working with notable companies including eBay, Amazon, Shopify Plus and Squarespace, Robert’s expertise delivers current marketing intelligence to the MS in Digital Marketing & Analytics program. A regular blogger and a former online marketing consultant, Robert’s experience brings a multi-layer approach to digital marketers seeking real world application.

In her current position with Deloitte, Meredith Gonsalves develops the Deloitte Global campaigns and activations across platforms and develops and executes social content strategies for Deloitte's global social media channels. Her commitment to the advancement of social media education is evident at Deloitte as she leads training initiatives to help better serve a global network of social media practitioners and through her additional work and as an instructor for General Assembly.

Paul Jauregui serves as Vice President of Marketing at Praetorian, a leading provider of innovative cybersecurity solutions for Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Google, Samsung, 21st Century Fox, Whirlpool, and Qualcomm. Most notably, Paul led Praetorian’s go-to-market strategy for the firm’s Internet of Things (IoT) security practice by landing featured coverage in Fortune Magazine, NBC News, BusinessWeek, and TechCrunch. In 2016, Paul’s work led to Praetorian’s selection by Microsoft as its global security auditing partner and a founding member of its new Security Program for Azure IoT.

Brian Massey is the Founder and Conversion Scientist™ at Conversion Sciences, a data driven conversion optimization agency, company. A best-selling Amazon author, Massey is often sought out for the work in his book, Your Customer Creation Equation. His rare combination of interests, experience and neuroses were developed over almost 20 years as a computer programmer, entrepreneur, corporate marketer, international speaker, and writer. Prior to launching Conversion Science, Massey was Founder and CEO of Soft Reality a provider of custom Web and the desktop software for computer-based training, computer-aided design (CAD) and geographic information systems (GIS).

With a background in both graphic design and education, Ness brings her analytics skills and artistic background to her current position and Lead MD, a company specializing marketing automation. Known for her ability to synthesize raw content/data and convert it into anything from an infographic, an informative video or a new user interface, Ness is a committed educator among new and experienced digital marketing professionals. In addition to her work with LeadMD, Ness is also Head of User Experience at Six Bricks, a career-based learning platform.

Kurtis Ruf is the VP of Marketing Development at Ruf Strategic Solutions, a fast growing, big data and market analytics firm. Long recognized as a Marketing Industry expert, Kurt has been published in a multitude of industry trade magazines. In addition, he co-authored, along with Martin Baier one of the industry’s leading resource and training books, "Contemporary Database Marketing: Concepts and Applications." He also formerly served as an adjunct professor at George Washington University.

Neil Patwardhan is the VP of Marketing at Quickstart, Inc. He is a growth-driven marketing & strategy executive with a demonstrated track record in developing and marketing customer solutions in the mobile, digital, computing and big data spaces at both large enterprise and entrepreneurial ventures. Fluent in 4 languages, he is skilled at managing global marketing plans and teams in Americas, Europe and Asia. A strong cross functional team leader with key stops at large established brands such as Dell, LG USA, and Dun & Bradstreet, Neil comes armed with a high track record of "getting it done the right way" using motivation, shareholder value and diving right in. In his spare time, Neil also mentors startups and individuals to help them fully achieve their perceived value.

Michelle Grieshaber is an accomplished CMO with a reputation for building high performance global teams and delivering results throughout her 20+ years of experience in IT and technology. Trained as an engineer, she is a systems thinker who excels at problem solving and at developing organizational capability through vision and leadership. Michelle currently leads the corporate marketing team at AVEVA, a market leader in industrial software. AVEVA uses collaborative innovation to empower people and industries, enabling the planet to thrive.

Dr. Zahay-Blatz is among the driving forces behind the launch of online M.S. in Digital Marketing & Analytics. A thought leader in digital marketing with an international reputation, Dr. Zahay-Blatz owns a consulting practice specializing in data-driven digital marketing (Zahay, Inc.) and she is the co-author of the fourth edition of Internet Marketing, Integrating Online and Offline Strategies in a Digital Environment, and authored Digital Marketing Management: A Handbook for the Current (or Future) CEO. Dr. Zahay-Blatz has also placed hundreds of students in marketing positions including search, social, email, and web design.