Dr. David Steel, executive vice president, is the head of strategy and corporate communications for Samsung Electronics North America. In this role, he is responsible for corporate strategy including new sources of business growth, cross divisional alignment and supporting the CEO. Corporate communications include media relations, brand positioning and messaging as well as being the window for global communication efforts.  With more than twelve years within the Samsung organization, he has deep experience across several Samsung business units and possesses a breadth of expertise in many product categories. Dr. Steel has maintained strong relationships with retail channel and business partners around the world and is dedicated to managing new business opportunities and partnerships in North America.

Dr. Steel joined NAHQ in the summer of 2008 after ten years at Samsung Electronics in Korea. He began his time at Samsung in the Global Strategy Group, where he managed strategy and business development projects for numerous companies within the Samsung Group. From 2002 to 2007, he served as Vice President and head of marketing for the Digital Media business, where he established the role of marketing within the $25bn business. Working closely with his colleagues from around the world, he was able to strengthen the focus on key accounts, leading to sales growth of more than 300%, and develop leading capabilities in marketing communications and public relations. In 2007, he moved to the Mobile Communications Division, where he oversaw marketing strategy for the world’s number 2 maker of mobile phones.

Prior to joining Samsung, Dr. Steel worked at McKinsey & Co. and Argonne National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Dr. Steel earned a PhD in Physics from MIT, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a BA in Physics from Oxford University.

Brynne Dunn is a Senior Specialist in the Corporate Citizenship Department at DIRECTV. As part of the Corporate Citizenship Team, she manages Employee Giving Programs, DIRECTV GOES TO SCHOOL and the DIRECTV Scholarship Program.

Prior to joining DIRECTV in 2012, she worked as a consultant for nonprofit organizations and social enterprises in the U.S. and abroad.

Dunn holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics in International Development Management, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Spanish from the University of Southern California.

Diane Wood is president of the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), the nation’s leading organization in lifelong environmental learning, connecting people to knowledge they use to improve the quality of their lives and the health of the planet. NEEF achieves this by providing knowledge to trusted professionals and other leaders who, with their credibility, amplify messages to national audiences to solve everyday environmental problems.

Diane has over two decades of executive experience both nationally and internationally. She worked for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for 15 years in a variety of executive capacities including vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean and vice president for research and development. Under Diane’s tenure the Latin American program grew to an $18 million conservation program. Before joining NEEF, she was the executive director of the Center for a New American Dream.

Her experience in environmental education spans formal and non-formal education sectors and includes curriculum development, nature interpretation, conservation education, sustainability education and natural resources extension. Diane developed national environmental education programs as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay from 1977-1981. She co-authored “Conservation Education: A Planning Guide” for the Peace Corps. Diane has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Peace Corps and the U.S. Agency for International Development. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including a 10-year Presidential appointment (under both George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton) to the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative board. Diane has a Masters in Science and Environmental Education from Cornell University.

Eric R. Hargis is the National PTA executive director. Since July 2011, Hargis has worked with the association’s Board of Directors to continue long-term strategies and priorities that benefit families nationwide. He is instrumental in integrating PTA’s core values with the association’s strategic plan to build on its purpose of speaking for every child with one voice.

“I am excited and honored to serve National PTA’s millions of members, board of directors, volunteers and staff. I look forward to continuing the legacy of this great American institution and working toward improving the lives and futures of America’s children,” said Hargis.

“This position offers me the opportunity to help improve our nation’s future by fighting for our most valuable resource: our children.”

“Eric has an established record of success from every organization he’s worked with, as well as the proven leadership our national staff needs to serve today’s families and school communities,” said Betsy Landers, National PTA president. “With his selection, we know that PTA® will grow stronger while reaching its goals in our strategic plan.”

Hargis has more than 30 years of non-profit experience, including high-level positions at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the American Diabetes Association and the Arthritis Foundation. Most recently, Hargis was president and chief executive officer of the Epilepsy Foundation of America for more than 10 years.

A graduate of the University of San Diego, Hargis lives in Maryland with his wife and has two children.

Joel Lunenfeld is the Vice President of Global Brand Strategy at Twitter. Joel has been one of the top influencers in the digital space for over a decade. He is known for encouraging his clients and teams to venture down unchartered paths to discover new ways of igniting conversations between brands and people.

Prior to joining Twitter, Joel was a founding member and CEO of Moxie Interactive, a top digital agency, leading engagement with world-class brands such as Verizon Wireless, L’Oreal, Twentieth Century Fox and Coca-Cola. Joel is an entrepreneur and change agent that believes in the power of participation and the new role technology plays connecting brands and their customers.

John Legend is a nine-time Grammy-award-winning artist and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Show Me Campaign, an organization that works to break the cycle of poverty through education.

Miguel Salinas is program director for the Adobe Foundation and senior manager of philanthropy at Adobe. He was lead project manager for the visioning and creation of the Adobe Youth Voices program, the signature global philanthropy initiative of the Adobe Foundation that empowers youth from underserved communities to comment on their world using multimedia and digital tools. Miguel and his team are charged with the strategic planning and day-to-day operations of Adobe Youth Voices, which currently includes more than 600 schools and out-of-school sites in 57 countries. Since its inception in 2006, the program has engaged more than 100,000 youth and more than 4,000 educators worldwide.

Miguel has more than 15 years of experience in philanthropy, strategic communications and media. Prior to Adobe he was communications director for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, a national educational nonprofit focused on supporting Latino students to seek and attain a college degree. He has also managed a grants portfolio and strategic communications for worldwide philanthropy programs at Intel Corporation, including the Intel Computer Clubhouse and Intel Teach to the Future initiatives. Miguel began his career as a journalist, covering crime, government and education for various publications in Texas and California.

Miguel has a lifelong passion for advocating for educational opportunities for youth from underserved communities and for supporting the arts. He has been a featured speaker and panelist on CSR, youth education and philanthropy issues. He was the 2011 James C. Bowling Executive-in-Residence at the School of Journalism and Telecommunications, University of Kentucky, and was invited to offer an intervention before the United Nations General Assembly at a High-Level Meeting of the UN on Youth.

A native Texan, Miguel is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where he received a Bachelor of Journalism degree.

Shelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York’s On-air Tech Expert (WNYW-TV) and the host of Fox Television’s monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living.  He also hosts United Stations Radio Network’s, Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily, a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm, as well as Technology Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). He invented the underlying technology for Enhanced Television (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Monday Night Football), the most popular form of interactive television in the United States. Six-time Emmy® Award-nominated, his professional vitae includes years of experience in television production and musical composition. A prolific composer, Palmer was the recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP’s) 12th Annual Film and Television Music Award for ABC’s hit series Spin City. He was also recognized the following season in the category of “Most Performed Television Themes.” Palmer’s music credits include the theme songs for Live with Regis & Kelly, Rivera Live and MSNBC as well as the digital debut of the “real” cat singing the classic “Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow.” He is a weekly columnist for the Jack Myers Media Business Report, The Huffington Post and a regular technology commentator for CNN and CNNi. Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2nd Edition (York House Press, 2008) the seminal book about the technological, economic, and sociological forces that are changing everything, Overcoming The Digital Divide: How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career (York House Press, 2011) and Digital Wisdom: Thought Leadership for a Connected World (York House Press, 2013). For more information, visit shellypalmer.com.

Steve Smith is editor-in-chief of TWICE, the trade publication of record for the consumer electronics industry. Smith joined TWICE in 1993 as editor and has covered CE industry since he first attended the International CES in January 1982 to report on the emerging video game and PC businesses. Smith edited the consumer electronics section of Home Furnishings Daily in the 1980s and early 1990s. He has also been editor in chief of the International CES Official Daily, which has been published by TWICE since 1994.

In November 2004 the Anti-Defamation League’s National Consumer Technology Industry Division presented Smith with its Torch of Liberty award. Smith has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs and has been interviewed in print about the consumer electronics industry many times. During his tenure at the publication has received several editorial awards, most notably the annual Best DTV Journalism award by the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers twice.

He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from City College of New York and lives with his wife Marion in Brooklyn, N.Y.

With over 14 years of creating music for some of the biggest musicians in music history, Swizz has contributed to the sale of over 280 million records in just the US alone, working with the likes of Jay-Z, DMX, Beyonce, Kanye West, and Bono to name a few.

Swizz has lent his creative contributions to the likes of global brands such as Reebok (Vice President - Sports Style Marketing, Design, and Brand Music Development) and Lotus Cars (Vice President of Design & Global Markeitng).

Swizz is also the 1st producer-in-residence at New York University’s Clive Davis’ Recorded School of Music and is currently working with Christian Louboutin on a ground-breaking music-collaboration debuting in Paris this coming March.

Swizz’s latest music venture is his new partnership with O&Media of Korea, in which his focus will be bridging the K-Pop music scene with Western music cluture.

When not creating music, Swizz is anb avid art collector and painter whose goal is to inspire new artists around the world to express themselves and is working on opening his own international “new artist” art gallery.

Tina Morefield is director of Corporate Citizenship for DIRECTV, one of the world's leading providers of digital television entertainment services. In this role she is responsible for the company’s community outreach and charitable giving initiatives, with a focus on K–12 STEM education and employee volunteerism.

She joined DIRECTV in 1999, and has more than a decade of experience in the field of Corporate Communications, including employee communications, HR–related communications and executive presentations. In 2004, she added responsibility for Corporate Citizenship and grew it into the stand-alone function she leads today.

Morefield holds bachelors’ degrees in English and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a Certificate in Corporate Community Involvement from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.