Damla Kartal is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, podcast host, and CMO with over 10 years of experience in corporate environments. After completing her postgraduate studies at UC Berkeley in California, Damla launched her international career in the Netherlands. Over the past decade, she has focused on e-commerce, retail and media. As a former Manager Marketing and Head of Customer Experience at Amazon, she is an expert in customer-centric strategies, seamless customer experiences, and innovations. In her current role, Damla is responsible for launching the online business of her family’s physical retail business.
As a podcast host, chairman and CMO, Damla combines her different passions on a daily base. Her mission is to create an understanding of the simplicity of putting the customer first, guide others in a practical banner on how to achieve this and cultivate long term engagement with your audience as a result.
Ben is passionate about driving innovation. He loves working in a team to win new listeners in new ways. He’s been a presenter, producer and journalist in a career of over 25 years.
At Bauer Media Audio, as Chief Content & Music Officer, he created a strategy that resulted in record breaking growth of 20% in 4 years to 24 million weekly listeners, hit ambitious commercial targets and won various industry awards.
As Controller of BBC Radio 1 he used audience insights and data to be at the forefront of visual radio and social media. Radio 1 became the first radio station in the world to reach a million YouTube subscribers and remains the largest radio station on the platform.
Respected for successful strategies, simplifying structures and a leadership style built on clarity, creativity and collaboration.
Gerry Tabio is an author, teacher and performance coach with decades of experience in the media and AdTech industry. Gerry is the Founder & President of Creative Resources Group, a media performance consultancy that works with global companies to accelerate performance, create demand and drive revenue growth.
Gerry grew up in the radio business, starting his career as a newsperson, pivoting to the Promotion/Marketing side of the business and then rising to VP, General Manager. Gerry founded Creative Resources Group in 1990. The firm, which is led by Managing Partner Sally Beamer, has worked with some of the largest and most respected radio companies in the world.
Since 2019, Emma has been Head of Audiences for BBC News and the World Service, leading teams in the UK and globally. She identifies trends, makes predictions, and shapes BBC News offerings by analysing data from TV, radio, online, and social media. Her team’s work spans from legacy audio brands to new podcasts, developing audience segmentations and typologies to guide content strategies.
Emma’s team recently helped boost a nightly news programme’s audience and led research that informed The BBC News Mission. Her expertise in leveraging data is essential in modernizing BBC’s audio news to keep pace with a fast-evolving, crowded media landscape.
