Gary Ellis is an internationally experienced Chief Digital Officer and General Manager with an award-winning track record of driving business growth, product development, and creative content for pioneering start-ups, mainstream mobile operators, and premier media companies. With a formal education from Harvard Business School and Hamilton College, his deep experience developing globally scalable products, operational models, and teams is unparalleled. Gary's expertise is devising business strategies for new revenue streams and designing solutions that enable creative, technical, product, and operational initiatives to exceed revenue and audience targets. His ability to communicate effectively, negotiate expertly, and empower talent is well known in the industry, constantly developing high potential leaders.

Gary has worked in multiple roles with various organizations throughout his career. He's served on the Board of Directors for the Poetry Society of America and formerly mentored at Techstars where he shared his wealth of knowledge with aspiring entrepreneurs. As the President & Founder of Spider Digital Strategies, and the Chief of Performance Platform & Services (interim) at IBM, Gary's leadership and strategic vision drove these companies to achieve new heights of success. At Hearst, he served as Chief Digital Officer, where he established creative initiatives that enabled Hearst to meet its digital objectives. As VP of Content & Operations IBM, Gary was tasked with growing Viacom's international digital media networks. Before that, he was the Director of Digital Media and Executive Producer at MTV Networks International and BTLooksmart, respectively.