TOM BEDECARRÉ
Chief Executive Officer, AKQA
Tom Bedecarré is CEO of AKQA, the digital advertising agency that uses innovative ideas and technology to
deliver results for the world’s top brands, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nike, Schwab, Visa, and Xbox.
AKQA has more than 800 employees in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Shanghai, Washington, D.C., and
San Francisco, where Mr. Bedecarré leads the corporate team. AKQA has been recognized numerous times as
“Digital Agency of the Year.” The Wall Street Journal featured Mr. Bedecarré as an Admaker to Watch and he is
a frequent speaker at industry events. An enthusiastic entrepreneur, Mr. Bedecarré was a founder and CEO of
Citron Haligman Bedecarré, San Francisco’s largest independent advertising agency and a leader in launching
Internet brands. He started his career in advertising on Madison Avenue at Ogilvy & Mather in New York and
later returned home to San Francisco, where he was a vice president at Hal Riney & Partners. Mr. Bedecarré
holds degrees from Stanford and Northwestern universities.
CHARLES BEST
Founder and CEO, DonorsChoose.org
Charles Best leads DonorsChoose.org, a website where every public school teacher can be a change-maker,
and any citizen can be a philanthropist. At DonorsChoose.org, public school teachers post classroom project
requests, and donors can pick the projects they want to support. Every donor then gets photographs and
thank-you letters from the classroom he or she chose to help. Recognition of DonorsChoose.org includes
the Nonprofit Innovation Award given by Stanford Business School and Amazon.com, a Global Technology
Laureate from the TECH Museum of Innovation and Microsoft, the Fast Company Social Capitalist award,
selection by Ashoka, and election by the TechCrunch community as the website “most likely to make
the world a better place.” National media, including Oprah Winfrey and the New York Times have profiled
DonorsChoose as “the future of philanthropy.” In 2009, Fortune featured Mr. Best in the 40 Under 40 list of
business’s hottest rising stars.
ERIC BEST
Chairman and CEO, Mercent Corp.
Eric Best founded MindCorps in 1996 and created a profitable, high-growth software consultancy that served
the Internet and Fortune 500 markets before its acquisition by Amazon.com. Joining Amazon.com, he managed
business development for the Amazon.com Commerce Network, working on the deal team for Amazon’s first
major brick-and-mortar partnership. He founded the software product firm Emercis Corp. in 1998 to provide
e-commerce infrastructure tools to enterprise businesses. Emercis was acquired by Impressa, Inc. in 2000.
Serving as director of Ubarter.com, Mr. Best helped facilitate the sale of the business to Network Commerce in
2000 for $45 million. He is currently chairman and CEO of Mercent Corp. He also serves as chair of Seattle-based
Morse Best Innovation and as director of Bellevue-based ITEX. Mr. Best is a member of the SPU Entrepreneurial
Studies Council and Society of Fellows.
KATHY BLOOMGARDEN
Co-chief Executive Officer, Ruder Finn Inc.
Kathy Bloomgardenn is co-CEO of Ruder Finn Inc., one of the world’s largest independent public relations
agencies. With more than 25 years of experience in communications for multinational companies, including
Novartis, BP, Citigroup, HP, Pfizer, Microsoft, Pepsi, and Sun Microsystems, Dr. Bloomgarden is recognized as
an expert in the field of executive communications, having developed particular skills in CEO positioning,
global corporate reputation management, mergers and acquisitions, change management, and internal
communications. Dr. Bloomgarden is a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Partnership for New
York City, the Atlantic Council, and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. She is the author of
Trust: The Secret Weapon of Effective Business Leaders, and holds a BA degree from Brown University, and an
MA degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University in political science. She is fluent in French, and has a working
knowledge of Chinese, Italian, and basic German and Russian.
