Rich Battista
President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Inc.
Rich Battista heads Time Inc. in a time of transition, overseeing initiatives to extend the company’s brands into video, television, experiential, social and e-commerce.Battista is president and CEO of Time Inc. Since his beginning last year, he has played an integral role in transforming brands, helping steer the nearly-century old company in a multimedia, multi-platform direction. He has headed the restructuring of Time Inc.’s sales organization, aiming for an integrated go-to-market approach spanning multiple brands, while building revenue streams through brand development, acquisitions, investments and partnerships. With a monthly global print audience of 120 million and digital audience of 150 million visitors each month, Battista has shifted the company focus to online video, television and entertainment.
Battista joined Time Inc. in early 2015 as EVP and president of People and Entertainment Weekly, and later as president of Entertainment & Sports and Video. A 25-year industry veteran, he is an expert in launching, developing and overseeing large-scale businesses.
Haj Carr
CEO/Founder, TrueLine Publishing
Haj Carr is responsible for a portfolio of six b2b brands and a robust custom media and marketing services business.TrueLine is a digital publishing platform that helps businesses and executives shape and manage their online reputations. Carr oversees editorial staff and coordinates workflows between departments. Under Carr’s leadership since its 2010 launch, TrueLine has transformed into a robust custom media and marketing services business. Two TrueLine properties—Toggle and USBuildersReview.com—were name 2016 Eddie & Ozzie Award winners. Over the last year, TrueLine launched a full-service strategy and public relations arm of the company.
“It is significant to me because we are building this business with a shared employee equity model that exemplifies what we as an organization believe in,” Carr says.
Ronan Gardiner
Chief Advertising Officer, Rodale
Ronan Gardiner is the first chief advertising officer at Rodale, where he has been crucial in helping Men’s Health grow its business across print, digital and mobile platforms.Gardiner is the first chief advertising officer at Rodale, after serving as VP, publisher, and managing director at the company’s Men’s Health brand, where he helped grow its business across both print and digital since joining in 2005. The brand now reaches 36 million digital and social visitors and has advertisers spanning categories such as pharmaceuticals, fashion, grooming, food and beverages, auto and more, with Gardiner driving several of the most notable campaigns in its history.
As chief advertising officer, Gardiner now manages an integrated group centering on print and digital advertising and marketing, domestic licensing, research, and events across all of Rodale’s brands, including Men’s and Women’s Health, Runner’s World, and Organic Life.
Peter Goldstone
CEO, Hanley Wood
Peter Goldstone is pursuing a customer-first, data-driven approach to drive growth for Hanley Wood.To steer the future of b2b media company Hanley Wood, Goldstone is pursuing a data-driven strategy powered by Metrostudy, a research and business-intelligence company focused on the residential housing market. Metrostudy’s business intelligence informs investment decisions for builders, developers, lenders, suppliers, retailers, and manufacturers — Hanley Wood’s core audience.
“We’ve grown by more than $35 million directly as a consequence of being customer-focused, digitally driven and powered by data,” he said in July. And Metrostudy itself is growing: In April, Metrostudy acquired Templeton Demographics, a data firm providing demographic and planning services to school districts.
Christine Guilfoyle
SVP, Group Publisher, Meredith
Christine Guilfoyle has helped women’s lifestyles brands grow across multiple categories, and scored a major success with the recently-launched Magnolia Journal.Guilfoyle is SVP, group publisher at Meredith, where she is an expert at growing and leveraging women’s lifestyle brands across multiple categories, while leading advertising and sales teams. Last year, Meredith launched quarterly magazine The Magnolia Journal, which increased distribution with each issue to date, up to 1 million copies for its third issue—700,000 for paid subscribers.
The Magnolia Journal was a repeat success for Guilfoyle, who oversaw the launch of Allrecipes under a similar model four years ago.
Tim Hartman
CEO, Government Executive Media Group
Tim Hartman is finding new ways to reach government decision makers inside and outside the Beltway.Government Executive Media Group (GEMG), which is led by CEO Tim Hartman, is the public sector division of Atlantic Media, and together the Government Executive, Nextgov, Defense One, and Route Fifty brands reach over one million government influencers each month.
In growing the business, Hartman has found particular success in face-to-face events. “Events have actually been the glue for many of our largest customer relationships,” Hartman told Politico back in February. “In all, events make up about 25 percent of GEMG’s overall revenue, and GEMG laid out a strategy in early 2017 to produce nearly 100 events over the course of the year.”
Kim Kelleher
Chief Business Officer, Condé Nast
Kim Kelleher is a sharp exec who has made a quick pivot in the face of a staffing shakeup.Kelleher is an advertising and marketing executive with more than two decades of domestic and international experience, and she’s recently moved into a new role. With Howard Mittman’s departure in July, Kelleher became a chief brand officer for Condé Nast’s and was given quite the bevy of desirable brands in addition to Wired, which she’s led since 2014. Now, Kelleher will serve as chief brand officer for Wired, GQ and GQ Style, Golf Digest, and Pitchfork.
In 2017, She Runs It named Kelleher a Working Mother of the Year. “I learned a long time ago that there is not enough time to have a different persona for work and home,” she said. “Comfort with who you are and consistency in personality, regardless of situation, is something I appreciate and try to apply.”
Roberta Muller
SVP of Product Development, Northstar Travel Group
Roberta Muller is a b2b veteran who has helped transform the company through her leadership, vision, and technical knowledge.Roberta Muller, who has been with Northstar Travel Group for 29 years, is leading the company’s shift to focus on data and events. She aims to help Northstar to diversify their product mix by building new digital products marketing solutions programs to customers, including an online learning platform for use by clients and advertisers that has developed into a significant revenue stream for the company.
Currently, Muller also serves as the chair of the Digital Media committee at Connectiv, the association of business information and media companies.
Alan Murray
Chief Content Officer, Time Inc.
Since arriving in the world of magazine-media just three years ago, Alan Murray has risen to one of the most powerful positions at one of the largest magazine publishers.As chief content officer (and, by the way, still editor of Fortune), Murray oversees Time Inc.’s editorial operations and is tasked with harnessing the collective power and scale of all of the companies brands to produce and distribute content on every platform. As editor-in-chief of Fortune since 2014, Murray integrated the print and digital editorial teams, established new franchises and platforms, and helped significantly increase Fortune.com’s digital traffic.
His diverse background includes serving as President of the Pew Research Center, D.C. bureau chief for CNBC, and more than two decades at The Wall Street Journal’s Washington bureau.
“It’s really an unbelievable collection of iconic brands,” Murray told USA Today upon his promotion. “And frankly, if we can’t figure out a way to make a good business out of it, we ought to be all marched out of here and shot.”
Dan O’Brien
Chief Operating Officer, Marine Corp. Association
Dan O’Brien is a seasoned Marine veteran bringing the USMC experience to life both in print and online.Though he officially retired from the United States Marine Corps (USMC) back in 2004 after thirty years as an infantry officer, O’Brien is working to give voice to active-duty Marines, veterans, reservists, and retired personnel as the chief operating officer at the Marine Corp. Association. The Marine Corp. Association publishes multiple properties—the Marine Corps. Gazette, which is the association’s professional journal and has a monthly circulation of more than 30,000 readers; and Leatherneck, the monthly print and digital magazine that boasts a print readership of 264,000, nearly a third of which are active-duty.