How Success Happens

Col Needham is the Founder and CEO of IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for information on movies, TV shows and celebrities. Col created IMDb from a personal database of movie information which he created as a teenager, combined data collected on the Internet in the late 1980s and 1990s. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Amazon’s acquisition of IMDb in 1998, one of Amazon‘s first-ever acquisitions.

Constance Schwartz-Morini is a Co-Founder and CEO of SMAC Entertainment (Sports, Media and Culture), a talent management firm, business incubator, and production company launched in 2010 with Michael Strahan. She is a producer of ABC’s “$100,000 Pyramid,” the new documentary “BS High” on HBO/MAX and “Coach Prime” on Prime Video. Constance also is a co-founder of several consumer lines, including WEAR by Erin Andrews, Michael Strahan™, and Snoop Doggie Doggs.

Shawn Green is the co-founder of Greenfly, a fundamentally new way for organizations and their advocates to collaborate at any scale. The Greenfly platform powers the future of fandom by automating the continuous flow of short-form digital media for sports and entertainment organizations. Previously, Shawn was a Major League Baseball player for 15 seasons and is also the author of The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH.

Leonard Brody is the Co-Founder of Caravan, a company, in partnership with CAA, that helps the biggest celebrities build businesses that align with their brands. A highly respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist and best-selling author, Leonard is known as one of the Top 30 management thinkers in the world. He has been through one of the largest IPOs in history and has been involved in the founding and successful exit of multiple companies.

Jeff Chapin is the Co-Founder of Haven Energy, a home battery focused on building a more resilient energy infrastructure and accelerating the adoption of home energy storage through a two-sided marketplace model. He is also Co-Founder of Casper Sleep and served as the company’s Chief Product Officer until 2021. Jeff has dedicated his career to making an impact through design and engineering, improving on different products from mattresses to clean water systems.

Richard Stern is the CEO of TuneIn, the leading live global streaming and on-demand audio service. An experienced digital consumer product executive with more than 25 years of industry experience, Richard was previously Chief Product Officer at Audible, leading the company’s global product and design organizations. Richard is also a founder in Four Daughters Entertainment, a mission-driven film and television production company devoted to inclusion and diversity in the media industry.

Craig Levine is the co-CEO of ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), the leading competitive games and esports company. Craig helped lead merger of ESL Gaming and FACEIT in 2022 and previously served as the co-CEO of ESL Gaming where he led global business strategy and operations. A longtime gamer, Craig also founded one of the first North American professional esports teams, Team 3D in 2002, and co-founded the ESEA League.

Scott Simonelli is the Founder and CEO of Veritonic Inc., one of the industry’s leading audio research and analytics platforms that provides marketing intelligence for sound. Veritonic are the pioneers in online testing and optimization, helping marketers make data-driven decisions about websites and user experience when they are struggling for guidance. Scott was also Vice President Sales at Optimost and played an instrumental role in the company’s acquisition by HP.

Jomaree Pinkard is the CEO and Managing Director of Pronghorn, a stand-alone business established to cultivate the next generation of Black entrepreneurs, executive leaders and founders within the spirits industry through sustainable investment, incubation and recruitment. He is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of Hella Cocktail Co. an exciting brand of botanically inspired mixers and beverages that has exploded onto the cocktail and bartending scene.

Cesar Carvalho is the CEO and Co-Founder of Gympass, a corporate wellness platform that gives employees access to over 50,000 wellness resources. Cesar developed the idea for Gympass while working at McKinsey & Company, where he realized the importance of employee health and well-being for productivity. Gympass currently provides resources to employees at over 10,000 companies around the world and most recently surpassed 250 million check-ins through its service.