Jerry Fragetti
Media Mogul, Entrepreneur and Investor
Jerry is a senior operating executive with an extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit and unique spirit with many achievements including successful turnarounds, start-ups, strategic alliances, acquisitions and divestitures. He was recruited by Rupert Murdoch and spent 24 years at News Corporation where, as Executive VP for the FSI division, he acquired and merged two unprofitable FSI marketing companies, reversing a $70 million loss to a $120 million profit. As the head of News American Marketing In-Store Division (Out of Home), Jerry built a network which increased market share penetration to over 50% in the 10 designated marketing areas (DMA’s), leading to the acquisition of their main competitor, Heritage Media, for $1.1 billion. As CFO, he built up the Murdoch Magazine Business Division and in four years sold the division to McGraw Hill and Reed Elsevier for $90 million. As CFO/COO at Talk Media, Jerry launched Talk magazine and website with first-year circulation that exceeded any magazine in history. Prior positions were Senior VP, Media & Operations at Newspaper National Network and head of the re-launch of Max Media LLC. He is on the advisory board and an angel investor of Homer/Speakaboos, a digital interactive company; and also serves on the advisory boards of Gold-Mobile, a CRM mobile tech company; Liftmetrix, a social media measurement tool; and Stylinity.com, a fashion and social media company. He has served on the boards of Center Light, a healthcare management company and Paulist Press. Jerry also co-founded the Executive Forum M.E.D.I.A. Group. Previous roles include a senior executive for Tygrus, a disruptive chemistry tech company; and SVP for Internet Tradeline, achieving record sales and merging with KOZ.com which had a $100mm valuation.
Kathy Murray
Principal
McMorran Strategists, LLC.
Kathy applies her business development and relationship marketing skills to help emerging startups grow as well as enable mid-to-large sized enterprises to infuse innovation into their operations. Prior to founding McMorran, Kathy worked for Faro Technologies Inc. where she was in charge of global market development. Before coming to Faro, Kathy was Senior VP of Aetna Retirement Services; and previously served as COO of Aetna Business Resources. She was a sales and marketing executive at INA (now Cigna), leading 3,000 direct reports with budget responsibilities of $550 million and procurement spends of over $3 billion. From 2000 to 2008, she served as Managing Director of Operations at PricewaterhouseCoopers . Kathy is a board member of the Daily Gazette (a Schenectady media firm); and an advisor to TempBuddy, a Dublin startup. She is also Chair of the Executive Forum; Founder of Executive Forum Angels; Past President of Harvard Business School Women’s Association of NY; Trustee on the University of Rochester Board and Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association. Ms. Murray has served on nonprofit boards including Outward Bound National Advisory; Loaves & Fishes; Pittsburgh Junior Chamber; the Hartford Symphony; Asylum Hill Congregational Church; and the Ellis School for Girls. She received a BA from the University of Rochester and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Cheryl Noti
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Truvessa
Cheryl co-founded the marketing and technology consulting company, Truvessa, to provide inventors, start-ups and growing organizations, assistance in development of marketing strategies, filing of patent applications, securing funding, and development of product launch strategies. She is also CEO for The Common Thread, a new organization that produces benefit events to raise money for various charities. In 2008 Cheryl was Director of Solutions Architecture at Panasonic Systems Communications Company of North America. Previously, she had product development / management, marketing, and sales roles with Verizon Wireless / Bell Atlantic Mobile. In 2006, she was promoted as the Director of Product Development and Management for Verizon Wireless’ new Corporate Services Group, growing a diverse product portfolio to $5B in yearly revenue that exceeded industry growth of 21% in four years. Cheryl earned her MBA in Marketing degree from Temple University and her BS in Public Relations and Journalism degree from Syracuse University.
Helena Wong
CEO and Founder
Top Trend a International
Helena founded Top Trend International to provide consultancy in growth strategy, innovation, international expansion, and brand building. She is also a global investor, including angel investor in the USA and international, with successful exits. Prior to Top Trend, Helena was the President of International at Rosetta Stone where she led the high double digit growth of its international business. Before her position at Rosetta Stone, Helena was the Global President for Oregon Scientific, a Chinese consumer electronic company, based in Hong Kong. Before Oregon Scientific, she was President of Asia Pacific and Global CMO for Esselte, a PE owned global office supply company where she consolidated 40 local brands worldwide into five major global brands totaling $1.2 billion within the corporation’s portfolio. Helena was also General Manager and CMO at Western Union Financial Services; Director of Business Development for Pepsi-Cola International; and worked nine years for Procter & Gamble in different brand management leadership positions in the USA, Asia and Brazil. She earned her M.B.A. at The Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Sao Paulo Business School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in Brazil.