Retail Media StrategyMay 5-8, 2025 at Cornell Tech

in NYC

Dan Hooker is a global retail and consumer packaged goods executive with broad experience across diverse business environments and formats, leading traditional food retail operations and merchandising, as well as product development, consumer and category analytics, sourcing and procurement, global trading, national sales, and e-commerce. An outstanding strategist and general manager, he has led the successful startup of multiple diverse businesses. Known for and recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on retailers’ proprietary brands, Mr. Hooker has shaped clients’ programs across four continents and eight classes of trade. His passion is in helping companies recognize their unique DNA and positioning then creating actionable marketing and sales strategies essential for their success.

Karan Girotra, Professor of Operations, Technology and Information Management (OTIM), is the recipient of the Charles H. Dyson Family Professor of Management chair, for a 5-year term. This chair was given by Rob Dyson, MBA ’74 to support a founding faculty position for Johnson instruction at Cornell Tech, in honor of his father, the founder of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation.

Karan Girotra is a Professor at Cornell Tech and in the Johnson School at Cornell University. Karan collaborates with companies building new business models in the areas of urban living, smart transportation and e-commerce, helping them build rigorous research based solutions.

Karan’s research team has been recognized by multiple awards including the prestigious Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Award and multiple best paper awards. He has also won teaching awards for his teaching on entrepreneurship and new business models and was featured in the Poets and Quant’s Best 40 under 40 business professors lists.

In addition to his academic work, Karan was one of the founders of Terrapass Inc., which the New York Times identified as one of the most noteworthy ideas of 2005. Since then, TerraPass has helped businesses and individuals reduce over hundred million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Karan holds PhD and AM degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Lutz Finger is an esteemed technologist with a diverse background in building innovative technology platforms for companies including Google, LinkedIn, and Snap Inc.. He is the founder of R2Decide, a platform for generative AI tools.

Finger is a regular contributor to Forbes, where he writes about AI and deep learning. His book Ask, Measure, Learn was published in 2014 and serves as a non-technical guide on how to extract significant business value from big data. Finger serves as an advisor, venture partner, and angel investor at several data-centric corporations in Europe and the United States. He has an MBA from INSEAD and an M.S. in quantum physics from TU Berlin.

Finger, who resides in the San Francisco Bay area, aims to bring over 20 years of diversified experience in data science and product management to his students at Cornell.

Dr. Young-Hoon Park is Sung-Whan Suh Professor of Management and Professor of Marketing at the SC Johnson Graduate School of Management. He is interested in big data marketing, digital marketing, and omnichannel customer analytics. Dr. Park’s research has been published in various leading academic journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Management Science, and Marketing Science.

At Johnson, Dr. Park teaches Customer Analytics and Strategy and Marketing Research, both popular MBA elective courses. He has been recognized for exceptional teaching on multiple occasions; the 2008 graduating MBA class at Johnson selected him to receive the Apple Award for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Park previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, where he received the Wharton Advisory Board Outstanding Teaching Award and the Graduate Student Association Council Teaching Award. Dr. Park earned his Ph.D. degree in Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Peter V.S. Bond works as Partnership Acceleration Lead at Flywheel, a division of Omnicom. Prior to Flywheel, Mr. Bond was the Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Business Development at Fetch Rewards, a mobile loyalty platform. He has also held leadership roles at PowerReviews, CVS Health, dunnhumby, IRi, and Priceline.com. Mr. Bond holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an MBA from The Stern School of Business at New York University, and Executive Education certificates from the business schools at Columbia University and Cornell University.

Claudia Johnson has helped lead the transformation of Flywheel since it integrated 11 different companies to provide solutions for specific segments of the digital commerce value chain, in part by replacing Flywheel’s engagement model with her Partnership Acceleration model. In late 2022, she established a global cross-division engagement model for Flywheel to elevate its business interactions within an identified client group. 

To expand the model beyond this initial test, Johnson sourced external leaders with deep knowledge about the omnichannel digital consumer goods world and expertise in retail media and the digital shelf. This led to the creation of Flywheel’s Partnership Acceleration team, including outside professionals from companies such as Procter & Gamble, Haleon, Dunnhumby, CVS Health, Instacart and others. To expand client stakeholder awareness of Flywheel’s strategic partnership impact, she also instituted Annual Impact Reports, providing a high-level overview of the Flywheel solutions actively being used by each client and the client stakeholders, which in turn helped broaden the awareness of the company’s solutions. 

Since launching the Partnership Acceleration model just over a year ago, the portfolio has grown from nine to 14 enterprise clients, representing more than 30% share of Flywheel’s revenue. With the acquisition of Flywheel by Omnicom in January 2024, Johnson and the Partnership Acceleration team are leaders in shaping how Flywheel plays a pivotal role in the commerce capabilities of Omnicom. 

Kristi Argyilan is an accomplished advertising executive currently leading Uber’s advertising division. With extensive experience in retail media and brand innovation, she previously served as SVP of retail media at Albertsons, where she led strategic initiatives to enhance the company’s advertising capabilities. Before Albertsons, she served as SVP of brand innovation at Bed Bath & Beyond, focusing on developing innovative retail solutions. Argyilan is perhaps best known for her role as president of Roundel, Target’s retail media business, which she helped launch and establish as a significant player in the retail media landscape. Her expertise spans digital advertising, brand development, and retail technology integration across major retail and technology organizations.

Manish Sharma is a seasoned leader with over 20 years of experience in digital retail, global marketing, and P&L management. He excels at transforming challenges into opportunities and inspiring change through strategic thinking. Mr. Sharma is the co-founder and CMO of Think Blue, a consulting firm that transforms businesses by melding digital innovations with traditional expertise. He has held various leadership positions across different continents, including leading the marketing function for Asia Pacific, serving as the global lead for the Kellogg Masterbrand, and most recently as the Vice President and General Manager of Omni-commerce at Kellogg USA.

A builder at heart, Mr. Sharma is deeply passionate about building businesses and brands as well as mentoring talent. His areas of expertise encompass marketing, e-commerce, breakthrough innovation, and integrated communication planning. In his free time, Mr. Sharma enjoys spending time with his dogs, traveling, and trying new foods.

Parag Shah is co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Think Blue, a consulting firm that helps transform businesses by melding digital innovations with traditional expertise.

Formerly, at The GIANT Company, Mr. Shah led the Center Store and Omnichannel Merchandising initiatives, guiding a dedicated team to blend traditional retail excellence with digital innovation, significantly enhancing both customer experience and business performance. Mr. Shah’s tenure at Wakefern Food Corporation saw him ascend through various pivotal roles, culminating in a vice-presidential position where he spearheaded initiatives that transformed merchandising practices and nurtured collaborative success across the cooperative.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Mr. Shah is passionately committed to mentorship and advocacy, particularly focusing on educational empowerment for underprivileged communities and fostering diversity within the industry. His goal is to inspire and uplift, sharing the knowledge and insights he’s gained to nurture the next generation of industry leaders.