Live & Virtual Event Awards Judging Committee

Chair:

Chris Hook, Global & CEO Communications
Cadence Design Systems, San Jose, California, United States

Chris Hook is a marketing visionary and master craftsman with a track record of helping major technology brands and leaders assert their place at their industry’s center of gravity, while capturing market share and expanding market valuations. He currently leads global communications and marketing at Cadence Design Systems, one of world’s foremost AI technology companies.

Hook spent most of the past 20 years leading major global marketing and communications functions in Toronto, Munich, London, Austin, and Sunnyvale, and his epic portfolio of events includes engagements in places like Iceland, the London Underground, a medina in Tunisia, a beach in Ibiza and even the flight deck of the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. He believes that successful event plans begin with a sense of how you want your audience to feel, which he believes is determined at the confluence of immersive, medium-centric messaging, the ‘looking-glass self’ principle (celebrating your guests), and experiential ‘shock and awe’ execution.

Hook has served as Judging Chair for The American Business Awards on five occasions and has won over 100 international communications, event and marketing awards including a Grand Stevie, 5 Gold Stevies, PR News Corporate Communications Practitioner of the Year, and PR Week Technology Campaign of the Year. On being invited to Chair these awards, Hook tells us: “The Stevie Awards recognize the pioneers, mutineers, rebels, and underdogs that toil every day to advance and refine the craft of business in America and around the world. I’m humbled to be part of the Stevie Awards judging team and community!”

Committee:

Qais Mahmoud Abed Almhairat, Founder  
BixxBot, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Qais is a seasoned marketing leader with a decade of experience across diverse B2C and B2B sectors, including Airlines, Health Care, Medtech, E-commerce, and Edtech. He founded BixxBot, a leading AI tool offering personalized ad optimization strategies and automation, and is an Advisory Board Member at TakalamTech, a leading Medical Equipment Manufacturing company.

Jean Cameron, Head of Field & Channel Marketing            
Productboard, Waterford, Michigan, United States
Jean Cameron is the Global Head of Field and Channel Marketing for Productboard. She has more than 15 years’ experience in B2B SaaS marketing. She is a 2-time graduate of Central Michigan University (Fire Up Chips!) and is a die-hard Detroit Redwings fan and part owner of Detroit City FC.

Kim Clark, Founder   
Polished Professionals Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Kim L. Clark is the founder and principal of Polished Professionals Boston, a solopreneur consulting practice that provides strategic planning and marketing solutions to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Kim is also an adviser and coach to emerging entrepreneurs and small business owners, and she develops curriculum and conducts workshops.

Brad Gillespie, GM Cvent Consulting
Cvent, McLean, Virginia, United States
Brad is Vice President and General Manager of Consulting at Cvent. Cvent Consulting helps customers modernize event marketing and management operations through strategy, planning, process design, and analytics. Brad previously served as Vice President of Corporate and Enterprise Marketing at Cvent and was CMO at Octiv (acquired by Conga) and SiriusDecisions (acquired by Forrester).

Katherine Goldman, Founder
The Very Thing, Montclair, New Jersey, United States
Katherine has led strategy development and creative solutions for major B2B clients, with a range of work that includes customer conferences and events of all sizes, internal communications campaigns, rebranding messaging, and B2B advertising. Today she leads The Very Thing, an agency that provides targeted strategic creative solutions for communications initiatives.

Ananya Jha, Partner Lead    
Google, San Francisco, California, United States
Ananya Jha spearheads revenue growth for Google, managing a multi-million-dollar client portfolio and crafting multi-year strategies that unlock business growth and data transformation with 10+ years of experience in the field of digital marketing, specializing in the education industry.

Anusha Kondam, Vice President Lead Software Engineer
JPMorgan Chase CO, Plano, Texas, United States
With over a decade of hands-on experience in software engineering and architecture, Anusha is deeply committed to tackling intricate business challenges with precision and innovation. Presently, serving as a Lead Software Engineer at JPMorgan Chase, leveraging their expertise in AWS and GCP to architect, develop, and deploy resilient and secure APIs. 

Kathy Limon, Director, Sales Enablement   
VSP Vision Care, Sacramento, California, United States
Kathryn has been a Sales and Marketing leader at VSP for more than 20 years. Her passion lies in elevating the customer-centric experience to grow and retain business through innovative and effective marketing initiatives and sales programs designed to generate revenue, increase brand awareness, and increase consumer loyalty for Fortune 500 companies.

Marie Marks, Senior Vice President
Paramount Global, Los Angeles, California, United States

Vishal Mirza, Director Software 
Mastercard, New York City, New York, United States
Vishal is currently leading the Global Cloud Platform team at Mastercard, driving the organization's adoption of cloud technology. He manages a team of approximately 40 software engineers and plays a key role in Mastercard's partnership with a top-three cloud provider. He has over a decade of experience in software engineering and cloud platforms. 

Tanvir Sahsi, Senior Director & Executive Consultant
The Mount SInai Health System, New York City, New York, United States
Tanvir Sahsi, MD (MBBS), MHA is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 15 years of experience, currently serving as Senior Director of Revenue Cycle, Senior Director of Business Operations, and Executive Consultant at Mount Sinai Health System, New York, NY, for two of the largest surgical programs in North America.

Cynthia Song , Director of Product
Noom, New York City, New York, United States
Cynthia has 15 years of experience in the technology industry, focusing on new product development. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, and a Master’s from the University of Oxford. Having worked and lived in the US, UK and China, Cynthia also provides coaching to help high achievers navigate career breakthroughs.

Alisha Womack, Creative Director   
Wunderman Thompson (VML), Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Alisha brings over 15 years of experience in visual design and creative leadership for a range of companies, including Target, Facebook, Unilever, Walmart, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Etsy, L'Oréal, Papa John’s, Deloitte, and Saint Laurent. Currently serving as Creative Director for the respected advertising agency Wunderman Thompson (VML), Alisha excels at inspiring growth for ambitious brands.

Junru Xu, Senior Product Designer
DirecTV, Bellevue, Washington, United States
Junru (Jennie) Xu stands out as an exceptional award-winning product designer and UX lead, boasting eight years of rich experience in product design, user experience, and human-computer interaction. She currently serves as a Senior Product Designer at DIRECTV in Seattle.

Gary Zhou, Founder
Brand Head / HGG, Beijing, China
Gary has over 15 years’ experience in commercial, branding, marketing, and visual design in the real estate industry. Gary is a key promoter of shopping center marketing in China, is dedicated to providing solutions for branding, digitalization, and diversification for clients, as well as introducing international marketing concepts and resources to China.