Carolyn Watt is the Managing Director of Profero’s Social Media and Digital PR business unit.

She is responsible for heading up Profero’s social marketing offering adding core competency around digital PR consultancy, social marketing strategy and implementation, blogger relations and community management, advocacy programs, content creation and brand reputation management, online buzz tracking and analytics.

She was formerly Mindshare’s Head of SEO, Digital PR and Social Media, leaving the WPP agency in October 2009 to launch this new Profero digital PR and conversational marketing division as a key part of its digital solutions offering.

Carolyn set up Mindshare’s search engine optimisation (SEO), digital PR and social marketing division in April 2008 incorporating online brand positioning, SMO, SEM, analytics and tracking technologies as well as the design and creation of digital content. She has worked with some of the biggest clients in the business including LG, Volvo, HSBC, 3, Talk Talk, IBM, ITV, Unilever, Nestle, Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover.

She has nine years experience in strategic and tactical marketing, PR and communications (both digital and offline) including the previous Client Services Director at Netrank Ltd both pre and post Netrank’s January 2008 acquisition by LBi. She was also the Strategic Marketing Manager for Intel’s first foray into services, and has managed the PR
and marketing for a range of American and British IT and comms companies. She also worked part-time as a party agent for one of the UK’s main political parties, conducting research, editing reports,canvassing and writing speeches for MPs.

This combines with five years experience as a print, digital and broadcast journalist writing, editing and presenting news and features for a range of TV, radio and print media including the Guardian, The Sunday Times, Voice of America, GMTV, BBC Radio Five Live, CNN, Sky and Channel 4.

She has a BA Hons in Politics, NCTJ accredited (National Council for the Training of Journalists) and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Specialties:

• Digital marketing strategy across global markets
• Natural search strategy and Project Management
• Digital PR Consultancy and Project Management
• Social media campaigns – definition and implementation.
  Blogger relations and community management
• Content creation
• Brand reputation management
• Technical SEO Consultancy
• Competitive benchmarking
• Training & Workshops Reporting, tracking and analytics consultancy

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Joachim Helfer, Business Development Online, Müller Medien Unternehmensfamilie, Nuremberg, Germany

Joachim Helfer has been with Müller Medien since 2005 and is co-ordinating all pay-for performance-activities with the company family that contains various businesses from directories, local radio and tv stations books and direct distribution divisions in Germany and other EU marketis. Joachim Helfer is involved in all major partnerships with directory properties and very present in the international directory community.

He is also representing the p4p initiative of the German directory publishers and in this role responsible for the local PPC ad network “Lokale-Internetwerbung” with integrations into the Germany online directories like dasoertliche.de, dastelefonbuch.de andgelbeseiten.de, as well as suchen.de and t-online. Prior to his job at MM he headed the international product development and marketing department of the international ad rep firm ad pepper media in Hamburg and Nuremberg for 5 years and before the online media unit of the multimedia agency ID-Media in Hamburg. He has a degree in Business and Management from FH Mainz and University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland. The 37-year old online expert is married and has a 13-month old little daughter.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

David Pearce, Head of Mobile Services, Yell.com
This ‘year of the mobile internet’ marks the 21st anniversary of David’s career in wireless communications, which commenced in 1988 when he joined the then Racal-Vodafone, with the responsibility for the commercial management of its mobile data products and services.

In the intervening years, David has worked globally on the commercialisation and marketing of mobile value added services on behalf of carriers, solution vendors and investors.

Throughout this time, David’s guiding principles have remained constant; the need to grow and retain profitable, revenue-generating customer bases by producing enhanced value for them in an ever-evolving marketplace.

David’s full profile can be viewed at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dpearce and he’s always open to invitations to expand his professional network.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Anton Grutzmacher – Director of Custom Data Products UK

Anton Joined Experian Hitwise in Aug 2001 and has been a member of the senior management team for the last 4 years.

Anton spent the last 3 years as Head of Client Services where he was responsible for client retention and revenue growth across the UK business. Anton has been a major contributor to the development of the Experian Hitwise proposition over the last 8 years and has recently moved into a new role as the Director of Custom Data Products in the UK. Anton is responsible for identifying and developing new opportunities for data integration and product development by working with other Experian businesses and external data providers.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Simon Greenman, Managing Director – Online, European Directories

Simon joined European Directories as Managing Director – Online in 2007.  His focus is on driving online revenue and usage growth across the eight operation countries, including the rollout of flagship IYP sites, video products, the social local site Tupalo.com, and the recent launch of the Skype partnership.

Simon is something of an industry veteran with nearly fifteen years of global experience in the local search and yellow pages industries. He was a co-founder of the MapQuest.com service, one of the most widely used and licensed local search services in the US. He was most recently based in the US as Head of Digital for R.H. Donnelley, a
leading Yellow Pages publisher.  He joined them with the acquisition of Dex Media, a US$1.6B publisher, where he had held the same position and was part of the team that completed a successful IPO in 2004. He was responsible for leading the group’s overall digital initiatives, including driving revenue growth with the introduction of new IYP and
SEM advertising products, growing DexOnline.com to the number one in-region consumer local search site, and establishing well recognized partnerships with Google and Yahoo!.

Mr Greenman holds a MBA from Harvard and a BA in Computing and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex, England.  He has also held increasingly senior technology and management positions with Accenture and R.R. Donnelley.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Roland Bryan, Director, Strategy at Associated Northcliffe Digital

Roland currently leads digital strategy across A&N’s digital assets under the AND umbrella. He is responsible for identifying opportunities to drive profitable growth across the portfolio through new product development, improved commercialisation, strategic partnerships and acquisition strategy.

He has also recently launched a new pilot in the hyperlocal space, localpeople, which has 50 live sites across the West of England. He is acting as General Manager of this proposition.

Prior to joining DMGT, Roland headed up the content acquisition team at Virgin Media with a particular focus on major channel carriage deals and growing the VOD content offer.

In addition to these roles, Roland previously worked at OC&C Strategy Consultants from 1999-2006 where he rose from Analyst to Associate Partner, leading their delivery capability in European Media. His projects included work on major media transactions such as Formula 1 and Telegraph Media Group and led corporate strategy assignments for Holtzbrinck, Trinity Mirror, BT and ITV amongst others.

Roland was educated at Oxford University, Keble College where he graduated with a Masters in History.

He lives in London.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Claudia Poepperl, Founder & CEO

Claudia is founder and CEO for adaffix, a Call 3.0 company that enriches the call experience by adding relevant content to calls in real time. She has 16 years experience in the mobile, media and local search industries with various senior management and operational roles.

Prior to adaffix, Claudia was Chief Marketing Officer for mobile search firm mobilePeople. As Managing Director for UCP Claudia was behind the success of Germany’s largest youth social network ‘uboot.com’. Claudia also worked for Ucp Morgen, Qpass, T-Mobile Germany and T-Mobile Austria. Claudia holds master degrees in Media Science and Mass Communication from Paris-Lodron University (Austria) and Bowling Green State University (USA).

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Jonathan Ewert

Jonathan is a proven executive with global expertise in Internet advertising networks, social networking, e-commerce, and professional services. Mr. Ewert has a consistent track record in business transformation, working capital improvement, business development strategy and execution, organizational change management, and business process re-engineering to drive shareholder value. He is regarded as an authentic and passionate leader with a strong client focus and is a speaker at industry conferences such as Search Engine Strategies and Local Social.

Mr. Ewert was most recently Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for LookSmart (NASDAQ: LOOK), a leading search advertising network and management company, where he led the turnaround of the media business. Mr. Ewert joined LookSmart in April 2007 as East Coast Vice President, Advertising and Publisher

Services and was promoted to General Manager of Advertising Networks in September 2007, to Senior Vice President in October 2008, and to SVP of Corporate Development in April 2009. Through a combination of discontinuing certain operations, enhancing the product portfolio, doubling the size and coverage of the network, and revitalizing the sales and marketing organizations, Mr. Ewert’s leadership resulted in quarter-over-quarter revenue and paid click gains of 50% while decreasing operating expenses at the same time.

From 2003 – 2006, Mr. Ewert served as Chief Executive Officer of ePALS until selling the company. At ePALS, Mr. Ewert eliminated barriers to solvency and growth,
secured $7 million in debt and equity financing, and achieved revenue growth and cash flow break even through expansion of core assets. Prior to ePALS, Mr. Ewert served as VP Business Development to restart eCommerce Solutions, and as VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications for Modem Media, where he led the preparation and positioning of the company for Modem’s successful IPO in 1999.

Previously, Mr. Ewert served in a variety of management roles at Infoseek Corp. until the sale of the company to Disney in 1998. From 1991 to 1996, Mr. Ewert merged Audio Ad, Inc. with Newspaper Voice Services to create a $50 million interactive voice response service bureau serving the publishing industry with customers such as Gannett, Knight-Ridder, and Tribune Company.

Mr. Ewert is a past Board member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, serves on the Advisory Board of The Guru Nation, the Advisory Board of Stuart Levine & Associates, and the Steering Committee of Project Inkwell, an organization that has built standards to accelerate the deployment of 1:1 technologies onto K-12 desktops worldwide. Mr. Ewert also serves on the Advisory Board of Cancer101, a non-profit that provides tools and resources to the newly diagnosed. He earned his B.A. in Political Science in 1986 from the College of the Holy Cross.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Jim Brown, CTO CloudMade

Jim Brown is CTO at CloudMade (www.cloudmade.com) where he is responsible for all development, technology and infrastructure. He came to CloudMade after serving as CIO at Sonopia, a US based MVNO.

Before Sonopia, Jim was CTO at WinWin Technologies, building a CRM and advertising ASP around a real-time profiling engine that hosted over 300 million data points across 35 million consumers and supported over 1 million ad-serving transactions per day.

Prior to WinWin, Jim served as COO of Fairgain, which was merged with Jatak.  Jim held the role of VP Business Management at Symbian during the company’s fastest growth period. He came to Symbian from Oracle, where he was managing principal and practice director for technical architecture.

Jim began his technical career in the early 1980s at Kmart where he deployed the first distributed Unix systems into over 2,200 store locations and was responsible for international systems, R&D and strategic planning at various times. He also spent several years at GM/EDS implementing plant floor automation systems.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

James is currently responsible for overseeing the development of BBC Local, the BBC’s online news and information service across the UK, and location services across BBC Online including mapping and location based technology.

He spent four years as Assistant Editor for the local ‘Where I Live’ websites in England and has worked on many new initiatives for the development of news gathering operations and enhancing BBC journalism output on new platforms, including the increasingly role of user-generated content.
He has been working in regional and local broadcasting in the UK since 1998, initially as a strategy analyst covering the audience reporting and strategic positioning of regional television and local radio services across England.

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.