Erin Newkirk is an award-winning innovator with rich leadership in tech, food, retail, consumer packaged goods, and healthcare; spanning start-ups to growth companies to billion-dollar brands. She currently serves as the chief brand and marketing officer for Caribou Coffee. Newkirk and her team hold themselves accountable for how Caribou's brand comes to life across all touchpoints while keeping team, guests, and global responsibility as central guideposts.

Newkirk’s brand-management career began at General Mills, after earning an MBA at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. In 2005, Newkirk co-founded Red Stamp, a correspondence platform on a mission to make relationships stronger, one card/tweet/text/post at a time.

With more than two million users and ten million cards sent, Red Stamp was best known for its award-winning app. It was acquired in 2013 by Taylor Corporation, one of the largest privately held companies in the United States. Newkirk, who stayed on as Red Stamp CEO until 2016, credits long and productive hours at her local Caribou coffeehouse while building her venture.

After leaving Red Stamp and before coming to Caribou, Newkirk served as the founding chief marketing officer at Minneapolis-based health insurance startup Bright Health, advised meal-kit company Local Crate, and helped startups achieve success and alignment through her consultancy, Satya. She is also an active speaker and advisor to entrepreneurs and women in business and technology.

Marianne Radley is the Chief Marketing Officer for Smoothie King Inc. Since joining the company in October 2022, she has made an immediate impact on the organization's business. Marianne spearheaded a comprehensive creative overhaul for the Smoothie King brand, seamlessly blending her strategic vision with innovative design and product development to elevate the brand's identity and market presence, resulting in the company achieving its best sales and traffic growth in its 51-year history. As a member of the company’s executive team, Marianne leads all brand marketing, advertising, sales, and product innovation for the largest smoothie chain in the world. With over 1,350 locations worldwide, Smoothie King is the first health & fitness QSR brands of its kind.

Marianne is a seasoned marketing executive with vast experience across industry-leading companies and a proven track record in marketing, advertising and product innovation. Marianne was the Chief Brand Officer with YUM! Brands overseeing Pizza Hut’s $6.3 Billion U.S. business with direct responsibility for the brand’s advertising, media, marketing, and culinary teams.

Prior to joining YUM! Brands, Marianne served as the Sr. Vice President of Global Marketing for Monster Beverage Company, responsible for all marketing, advertising, product innovation and sponsorship efforts for the $32B global beverage company. While at Monster, she lead the global launch efforts of the company, successfully launching the Monster energy drink brand in 40 countries, including China, Russia, Japan, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil.

Additionally, Marianne spent 15 years at Anheuser-Busch InBev and held various roles in new product innovation, marketing, and sales. Marianne was the first female to lead the Budweiser brand in the company’s history and went on to receive many marketing and product innovation accolades, including Forbes Magazine’s Top 100 Women in Brand Innovation, Adweek’s Top Women to Watch awards and the Cannes Lion Award for Marketing Effectiveness.

Known as a purpose led executive, Marianne most recently served as the CEO for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County, having assumed that role during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that role, she grew the organization from 3 clubs serving 2,100 children annually to 8 clubs serving close to 8,000 youth annually. Additionally, she transformed the organization’s financial outlook, growing their cash-on-hand by over 500% within her first 12 months. Marianne was also instrumental in reshaping the organization’s Board of Directors and leadership teams.

Marianne is a proud graduate of Clemson University, and currently sits on the University’s Board of Directors for the Erwin Center for Brand Communication. Clemson University’s Erwin Center for Brand Communications is a practitioner-based educational program for future brand communications professionals. The Board of Directors were instrumental in building and establishing Clemson’s first student-led creative agency, CADENCY.

Marianne currently calls McKinney, Texas home where she lives with her husband Paul and their four children.

As Chief Marketing Officer of Bojangles, Tom Boland oversees all integrated marketing, media planning and creative partnerships for the 800+ restaurant chain known for its Southern-inspired chicken, biscuits and tea. Boland brings more than 20 years of experience in utilizing digital advertising, social media strategy and partnership marketing to grow market share for industry-leading brands. Prior to Bojangles, he served as Vice President of Marketing at Barstool Sports, where he led the marketing efforts for 65 shows and modernized the brand’s collateral. He also was Vice President of Social Strategy at WarnerMedia and held marketing leadership positions at Turner Broadcasting, Warner Bros. and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In addition, Boland held leadership roles at two top advertising agencies – Ogilvy and Digitas.

om Carr is the Chief Marketing Officer for Chicken Salad Chick. He has brought to the Chick Family nearly 30 years of experience as a strategic, creative, and innovative marketing executive across a diverse range of industries. This includes entertainment, apparel, restaurants, consumer products, and media. He was twice named “marketer of the year” within the cable television industry. Tom hails from New Orleans, a city whose culture he credits for his unique take on brand storytelling.