Trends/Analysis

Mikhail Ishkhanov Visit Author's Page

Mikhail Ishkhanov, Senior Director, Product Strategy, SOTI
Mikhail Ishkhanov, senior director of product strategy and sales enablement has been with SOTI for over 10 years. His journey began on the support team in 2012, and through the years, he led various teams within the business. His hard work and dedication make a huge impact on the Global Sales Engineering team. As a member of the team, he focuses on growth strategy and product engagement and worked alongside his team to onboard SOTI’s largest customers. In his most recent position as a Senior Director of Product Strategy and Sales Enablement, Mikhail focuses on alignment between Support, Service and Product Managers, along with the Marketing team, to create cohesive messaging and accompanying roadmaps for SOTI products.

Mikhail received a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology Management, specializing in Enterprise Resource Management, from Toronto Metropolitan University. Soon after graduating, Mikhail starts his career at SOTI. Mikhail is a self-motivated individual who takes on challenges and enjoys learning about new technology. He strives to be at the forefront of innovative projects, and this passion is evident through his successful track record.

Tyler Higgins Visit Author's Page

Tyler Higgins is a managing director at AArete, with over 15 years of experience in operational efficiency, strategic sourcing and innovating optimization solutions across key business functions. His work in sourcing innovation, automation and process improvement has achieved over $750 million in strategic profitability improvement across various industries. Higgins has completed projects within most business functions working across public sector, retail, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services. He holds a bachelor of science degree in environmental economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sherry SmithVisit Author's Page

Sherry Smith is president of retail media at Criteo, where she leads the company’s global retail media strategy, advancing scalable monetization solutions powered by AI-driven technology. A true pioneer in retail media, she joined Criteo in June 2020 after serving as Chief Executive Officer of Triad Retail Media, GroupM’s retail media specialist company. Since then, she’s played a key role in establishing Criteo as a global leader in retail media. With over 20 years of experience, Sherry has led transformative digital and promotional initiatives for major retailers and brands including Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, Kroger, CVS, General Mills, Nestlé, and Kraft. Her strategic approach empowers retailers and marketplaces to unlock the full potential of their first-party data and scale high-performing media businesses, while driving measurable growth for brands and agencies.

Ken RoshkoffVisit Author's Page

Ken Roshkoff is CEO of AMC Global, where he serves as innovation strategist and a consumer-driven growth architect. He leads advanced early-purchaser research and verified ratings & reviews platforms at AMC Global, enabling global brands to capture authentic consumer voice immediately after product purchase.

Ken and his team have built and scaled proprietary methodologies including ResponseCash PFU™ (Purchaser Follow-Up) and VerifiedViews™️, helping brands unlock real-world performance insights and accelerate smarter product decisions from day one in-market.

With a strong focus on AI integration, data activation, and launch optimization, Ken operates at the intersection of consumer behavior, product performance, and measurable business impact. His work centers on one belief: the earliest purchasers hold the most powerful growth signal.

Jake HeldenbergVisit Author's Page

Jake Heldenberg, director of sales engineering, warehousing, North America, at Vanderlande, oversees the design of warehouse systems that enable retailers of all kinds to transform their businesses for long-term, scalable success with integrated systems that combine intelligent software, robotics and advanced automation.

Adam IfshinVisit Author's Page

Adam Ifshin, founder and CEO of DLC Management, established the company in 1991 and has grown DLC into a leading force in retail real estate. With a track record of success, he has positioned DLC as one of the nation’s top owners and operators of open-air retail properties, specializing in acquiring assets with significant value-added potential.

Krešo ŽmakVisit Author's Page

As chief innovation officer (CINO), Krešo is responsible for shaping Infobip’s innovation strategy and driving growth. He oversees Customer Services, Marketing and Developer Experience teams, leading company-wide change initiatives ensuring that innovation efforts are closely aligned with business goals. A key focus of his role is enabling and accelerating AI adoption across Infobip’s product portfolio and steering the organization’s broader transformation into an AI-first company. Krešo previously served as Vice President of Products and brings broad experience in product management, market analysis, customer engagement, and cross-functional leadership. He holds a B.Sc. in electrical engineering and computing from Croatia's prestigious Zagreb-based Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

Michael BlancheVisit Author's Page

Michael Blanche is the co-founder and co-CEO of Surfside, the operating system for the retail majority. At Surfside, Michael leads the development of the infrastructure and operating system that aggregates independent and regional retailers, unifies their commerce data, and enables retail media to be planned, activated, and measured against real outcomes across online and in-store environments.

He brings a wealth of experience in creating technology at the intersection of Advertising, Commerce and Customer Experience; identifying future trends and creating business value. As a technologically-minded leader, Michael’s chief skills lie in balancing business, technology and community; prior to founding Surfside, Michael served as the Chief Technology Officer at SITO (NASDAQ: SITO), where he was responsible for leading engineering, product and innovation.

Lukas SchneiderVisit Author's Page

Lukas Schneider is director of campaigns and products and co-founder of MINT Square, with over 15 years of experience in digital advertising, ad technology, and product strategy. His career spans leading European adtech companies and startups, including Adform, Adcloud, Hi-Media, and AdLINK Internet Media.

With a background that combines campaign operations, account management, and product leadership, Lukas brings deep knowledge and expertise of the full programmatic ecosystem, from ad serving and supply and demand-side platforms to native advertising technology. He has led product initiatives, supported large-scale platform integrations, and helped build innovative adtech solutions from the ground up.

At MINT Square, he combines product-led vision and operational expertise to advise global agencies and advertisers on their technology strategies.

Cary LawrenceVisit Author's Page

Cary is the CEO of Decile, an AI-powered ecommerce analytics platform that helps brands turn complex, disconnected data into clear, brand-specific insights and actionable recommendations. A Co-founder of SocialCode and Decile, Cary brings more than two decades of experience building data-driven platforms at the intersection of marketing, media and technology. Her recent work focuses on making advanced analytics instantly accessible and actionable to modern ecommerce teams. Cary is based in Washington DC and holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from Georgetown University and Wake Forest University.