Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer is a USA Today national best-selling author, international
speaker, and board-certified executive coach with over three decades of global executive leadership experience across multiple industries and is the co-founder of The Zeal of the Heel. Dr. Cynthia’s expertise centers on her ability to actualize human potential, detailed in her book Now, Near, Next: A Practical Guide for Mid-Career Women to Move from Professional Serendipity to Intentional Advancement.

Dr. Cynthia has delivered compelling content to the CDC, YWCA, St. Louis Forum, National Beer Wholesalers Association, Deaconess Health, Edward Jones, Ardent Health, The Wynn Las Vegas, Willis Towers Watson, Hightower Wealth Advisors, LEAP HR Healthcare, The Beryl Institute, to name a few. Combining humor, real-world examples, and actionable takeaways, Dr. Cynthia is a business expert focused on amplifying women in business, building high-performance cultures, and actualizing peak performance.

Her unique approach to maximizing human performance has been featured in Improving HR and Heather McGowan’s The Empathy Advantage, on Daring to Leap with Loree Philip, This is Women’s Work with Nicole Kalil, Success Stories of Professional Women with Mel Stanley, and on numerous news outlets. Dr. Cynthia has a Ph.D. in social psychology from Walden University, an MBA, and a Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) designation.

Kimberly, a co-founder and co-chairman of Talent Plus, an international talent solutions company, bestselling author, executive coach, and speaker, helps leaders achieve their highest potential through talent-based strategies and solutions. Kimberly is committed to helping others realize their potential and create a leadership legacy that has an enduring impact and ensures a fulfilling and meaningful future for others. 

Through her leadership, Kimberly has delivered tremendous outcomes for some of the world’s most well-known brands, including Estée Lauder, Ferragamo, Delta Airlines, UCLA Health, University of Kansas Health System, The Ritz-Carlton, and KSL Resorts. Kimberly has an MBA from Pepperdine University and an undergraduate degree from The University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

She has received the Great Place to Work Institute ALL Leadership Award, the Business Excellence Award from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the national Delta Gamma Shield Award. Kimberly is a Wall Street Journal and two-time USA Today bestselling author. Passionate about giving back, Kimberly sits on four boards—Nelnet, Provider Trust, Tabitha, and Artists for Trauma, is a trustee for the University of Nebraska and Lincoln Community Foundations and sits on several global future of work consortiums.

When it comes to building brand loyalty with emerging LDA consumers, few companies have been as successful as Barstool Sports.

During Erika Ayers Badan’s eight-year tenure as CEO of Barstool, she helped grow the popular sports website into a $450 million digital media juggernaut that reaches 66 million unique users every month, two-thirds of whom are under 30.

Ayers Badan was named one of the “Most Powerful Women in Sports” by Forbes and Adweek for her work in diversifying Barstool’s revenue streams and expanding its reach with consumers through merchandising, streaming and podcasting, and PPV programming.

Since retiring from Barstool Sports in 2024 — after increasing the company’s revenue by 5,000% during her tenure — Ayers Badan has since taken on a new challenge as CEO of Food52, a platform that connects a global community of expert and amateur chefs.

As Chief Marketing Officer at Molson Coors, Sofia Colucci brings passion, creativity and strong collaboration to everything she does. The Uruguayan-Canadian marketer first joined Molson Coors leading North American Innovation then progressed to the role of Global VP of Marketing for Miller Brands prior to rising to CMO in 2023. Sofia has a proven track record of driving brands in culture, leading turn-arounds and building breakthrough innovations. She has 20 years of marketing and innovation experiences across multiple countries and industries, including 8 years at PepsiCo focusing primarily on the nutrition portfolio.

Sofia’s work has transformed brands like Miller Lite, with global campaign launches like Tastes Like Miller Time and leading Molson Coors’s first Super Bowl ad in over 30 years with the launch of the High Stakes Beer Ad. During her time on innovation Sofia was credited for transforming the company’s approach through faster go-to-market capabilities and developing a robust pipeline beyond beer.

Sofia has been recognized by Campaign’s Top 50 CMOs, Crain’s 40 Under 40 and Brand Innovators’ Top 100 Women in Marketing. Her team’s work has won multiple awards including Cannes, Effies, and D&AD.

Merrilee Kick is the CEO/Founder of BuzzBallz/Southern Champion LLC, the only woman-owned Distillery/Winery/Brewery combination in the United States. The Texas-based company manufactures ready-to-drink cocktails called “BuzzBallz” and “Uptown Cocktails”, as well as spirits like rum, vodka, gin, and bourbon. The family-operated company sells products in all 50 states and 29 countries and is home to over 1000 employees. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Montana, an MBA from Texas Woman’s University, and she is recently an alumnus of Harvard Business School. She is married to her husband of 36 years, and has two children, who also work in the business with her. Merrilee received the Dallas Business Journal’s Most Admired CEO Award, EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Top Women In Grocery Award, and WPO/Chase Bank’s “50 Fastest” Woman Owned companies in the United States. She is also a winner of the Enterprising Women of the year award, and Enterprising Women’s Top 20 Award.

With the endless number of advertising, merchandising, and marketing tools at our disposal, it’s easy to get caught up in trends and lose sight of a marketer’s core purpose: to understand, connect and motivate the customer. From her high school days as a yearbook layout artist to Chief Product Officer for of one of the world’s largest integrated energy companies, Kim James has been hard at work finding new ways to create indelible connections with people.

Kim saw a career in advertising as a path to exploring the art and science of communication. This emerging passion led her to the advertising program at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. It proved a perfect fit for her love of advertising and curiosity for business.

She got her start via an internship with a drug store retailer which quickly led to a full-time position. The defining moment was a private label cosmetic brand launch that saluted women as being beautiful on the inside and out. It was a huge hit and spurred Kim’s 30+ year career that has taken on her a journey of bridging brand and retail. And, this is where passion turned to obsession. From here, Kim landed in the convenience retail channel. This is where she has refined her expertise in balancing the pragmatic and the dramatic of retail marketing and merchandising. Multi-national retail is a fast, bottom line oriented culture where pennies are optimized. 

Today, Kim has a deep understanding of the levers and dials that need constant fine-tuning to find the perfect bit of magic. This relentless refinement is how you stay relevant. But in order to gain customer trial and loyalty, Kim fully realizes it goes beyond mechanics. You have to find a way to relate, connect and inspire customers. That’s a skill you develop by having an interest in people; their personalities, their habits, their behaviors. And what makes Kim special is her ability to bring humanity to a bottom-line business.

Colleen Lucas is responsible for overseeing A-B’s work in the community from disaster relief and economic impact to responsible drinking and environmental stewardship programs. She also oversees the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales and A-B Brewery Experiences. Colleen has been with Anheuser-Busch for nearly 14 years, holding leadership positions in Brand Marketing and Innovations prior to her current role.

In recent years, Colleen and her team have helped deliver over five million cans of emergency drinking water to volunteer fire departments and communities across the country, responding to natural disasters and fires. Additionally, she has spearheaded the launch of A-B corporate campaigns including That’s Who We Are, featuring the people behind the beer; and Choose Beer Grown Here, highlighting A-B’s adoption of the U.S. Farmed certification for products made with U.S grown agricultural ingredients. Colleen and her team have also forged a first of its kind coalition with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Uber to take a new approach to drunk driving prevention.

Colleen earned a BA in Psychology from DePauw University and an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. She lives in St. Louis with her husband Justin and their three children.

Andrea has over 20 years of experience in Beverage Alcohol, starting her career bartending and building beverage lists for fine dining restaurants. She joined Total Wine & More in 2007 as a store associate and currently serves as the Senior Director of Merchandising, overseeing several categories including Beer, Seltzer, and Non-Alcoholic Beverages. A graduate of Wayne State University, Andrea has developed strengths in strategic vision, efficiency, and innovation. She has consistently set high standards by pursuing strategic objectives, improving operations, and fostering collaborative environments that drive success. Her practical mindset and ability to adapt to emerging trends have resulted in measurable achievements throughout her career. Andrea is dedicated to authenticity and leading by example, promoting transparency, accountability, and inclusivity within organizational culture to enhance collective effectiveness. When not exploring the next beverage trend, Andrea enjoys spending time at home in Maryland with her family and two dogs.

Brittany Crosby is the Director/DMM of Beverages at Walgreens with over a decade of retail experience behind her. Brittany is responsible for leading the regulated and non-regulated category teams at Walgreens. In the adult beverage space, she leads the strategy development with her teams and strives to ensure Walgreens is top of mind for customer needs. Prior to this role, she was the DMM of Electronics, Celebrations, Gen Merch and Financial Services, and throughout her tenure, has managed multiple categories like Cough Cold & Allergy, Wine & Spirits, Electronics and Owned Brand OTC.  She is a graduate of the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism, and in her spare time enjoys cooking, golfing and spending time with friends and family.

Lindsi Taylor is the Director of Communications and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy at Columbia Distributing. She joined Columbia in 2014 and has spent over 20 years in strategic communications roles throughout the Portland Metro Area. In her current role, Lindsi oversees organizational communications, public relations and brand management, in addition to Columbia’s DEI strategy. She leads the continuous development and enhancement of the company’s culture through practices that integrate DEI into Columbia’s overall business strategy. Her mission: That each and every one of her teammates experiences a sense of belonging and inclusion.

Ellie Preslar is the Chief Commercial Officer at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company where she oversees the entire commercial business. She provides leadership, vision, and strategy for the company’s Sales and Marketing teams, and oversees the Business Development Sierra Nevada’s co-packing business. Prior to her time at Sierra Nevada, Ellie spent 17 years at Procter & Gamble, where she was most recently Vice President of Sales for the company’s multi-billion-dollar U.S. Baby Care business. Ellie lives in Asheville, NC and bases her office out of the Sierra Nevada Mills River brewery. When off the clock Ellie enjoys spending time outside with her family, practicing yoga, cheering on her favorite sports teams, traveling, and eating great food.

Sinead Carey is the Director of Sales – Beer at Breakthru Beverage California. She joined Breakthru following the acquisition of Wine Warehouse in April 2023. She holds a leadership role that includes overseeing a team of craft beer specialists, working with supplier partners on planning, market execution, and collaborating with the sales teams to drive performance in the category. With more than 20 years of successful experience working in the beer industry, Sinead has held roles in sales, distributor management, channel management, and trade marketing with Star Brand Imports, Heineken USA and Anchor Brewing. Sinead is an Irish native and a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. She is a Cicerone Certified Beer Server and was awarded the Knighthood of the Belgian Brewers Paddle in 2022.