PMA 2022 Board of Directors Nominees

Mike Allen, Businesswright

I am running for a second term on the PMA Board where I currently serve as the president. I would like to continue what we started this year with the virtual PMA Summits and grow our membership base.

Sarah Beeskow Blay, Silverbean

Hello PMA! I’m Sarah – I joined Affiliate Marketing in 2005 at ShareASale as program manager. While at ShareASale, my career progressed from Director of Client Services, overseeing all Publisher, Agency, & Advertiser development, to Vice President, post Awin acquisition, where I was responsible for all operations & revenue on the platform.

In 2020 I began my own independent consultancy working with several agencies on publisher development strategy and recruitment, which lead to my current role as Vice President, North America for global affiliate & partner marketing agency, Silverbean.

We all know, affiliate & partner marketing thrives on relationships, and this is what will continue to drive our industry forward. Helping to make connections is at the core of what I set out to do both on a professional and personal level. This includes everything from scoping out new business models that can be applied to affiliate, creating new strategic partnerships for clients, or knowledge sharing through resource creation. To help aid personal connections within the industry, I seek out different ways to help bring people together such as posting regular industry job round-ups to help connect active job seekers with new opportunities or coordinating “Chicago Affiliate & Partner Marketers Giving Back”, an initiative to combine local networking with volunteer efforts.

I would be honored to be given the ability to put my combined industry and past non-profit experience to use and help the PMA continue to pursue growth and betterment of Affiliate & Partner Marketing. There is so much rapid change going on in our industry at the present, making it a very exciting yet critical time. I feel strongly the PMA is in a great position to be leveraged, not only as a source of knowledge sharing and education, but also as a central hub for relationship building – a community voice for our channel within the greater digital advertising space.

Christen Evans, Cratejoy

Having served one term on the Board of Directors for the PMA, I have seen how much great work has been accomplished and am excited about the even greater work ahead. The PMA plays such a vital role in the performance marketing industry, and I relish being a part of it. I look forward to being able to further establish the mission and goals of the PMA as well as spread awareness of and advocate for affiliate and performance marketing across all roles in the industry. With my work experience on multiple fronts in the industry, including as an affiliate, at an agency and in-house at a brand, I can lend a voice that offers unique perspectives and insights. A second term on the PMA Board of Directors will be a great opportunity to help further industry advocacy, education and opportunity.

Dustin Howes, Grovia

Dustin Howes has been a long-time advocate of the growth and advancement of the affiliate/performance marketing industry. Over the last 12 years, Dustin has diversified his industry experience, working for networks, publishers, running programs for merchants, and running his own agency. Currently, he is the director of partner management for Grovia, an agency focused on partner recruitment and management of programs. Dustin is extremely passionate about the industry, spreading the good word about affiliate marketing through his personal blog (dustinhowes.com) and Youtube channel.

Lee-Ann Johnstone, AffiliateINSIDER

With over two decades of digital marketing and affiliate experience gained within the retail, payments and the fast paced esports & iGaming industry, Lee-Ann Johnstone is an award winning digital marketing strategist and affiliate performance marketer. In November 2018 she launched AffiliateINSIDER, a Google News approved content hub, Affiliate Marketing Agency and recently developed AMPP an executive training program designed to help Affiliate Program Managers level up their digital skills and drive consistent sales within their affiliate programs. She’s the host of the AffiliateINSIDER’s Affiliate Marketing podcast which has charted in the Top 100 Business News podcasts in over 15 countries during 2021. She’s been voted as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Women in iGaming (2019) and inaugurated as a member of the prestigious forbes.com Agency Council. AffiliateINSIDER’s agency was nominated in the Top 50 Digital Agencies by customers, in The Drum Digital Awards in the UK for 2021 and have recently won Rising Star of the Industry Award at the 2021 IGB Affiliate Awards.

Lee-Ann is a regular speaker, writer and industry contributor to a number of leading digital publications and can be seen as an industry thought leader in Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Program Management in the UK.

Vision for PMA in future:
I’d like to see the PMA take a more active role in showcasing Affiliate Marketing and Program Management as a career choice with new talent coming into the affiliate marketing industry. The industry is diverse but information is fragmented and I’m passionate about helping to keep skills development and learning a top priority to support affiliate managers everywhere – to enable them to provide “best in class service” to affiliates around the world. This is a fast paced industry and we need to have more resources and ideas and collaborations in play to ensure our industry moves forward efficiently as it grows.

Sara Malo, MailCon

My name is Sara Malo. I have been in the industry for approximately 20+ years. I began as an Affiliate Manager when affiliate marketing began around the mid-90’s. At that time I was trained and taught by Shawn Collins and attended one of the first of many Affiliate Summit Events, a cruise to boot! In 2006 I took some time away from the Industry to be home and raise my two children. Once they both started school full-time I went to work for Affiliate Summit for 7+ years as their Client Success Manager. I have done a lot of Business Development during Covid for companies like SiGMA/AGS to broaden my global position in this space. I most recently took a Director role with MailCon who was acquired by Phonexa/ZP. Part of my new role is awareness and networking which I feel I have mastered.

I would like to join the PMA Board of Directors to bring along a new perspective. I have 10+ years of experience in the Event industry in our digital performance and affiliate space so I am not the traditional Agency, Vendor or Network like most members have been in the past. I have a lot of energy and I am eager to spread my wings with PMA.

I appreciate everyone that has been a part of PMA then and now. Thank you for taking the time to read my summary and I look forward to the future of 2022.

Faique Moqeet, Hamster Garage

Faique is the Founder and CEO of Hamster Garage, a partnership marketing agency serving leading brands like Airbnb, Canva, and Turo. Prior to starting Hamster Garage, Faique helped manage a large global partner program internally at Airbnb. Hamster Garage focuses on building innovative programs that lean into exploring new partner opportunities like influencers, podcasts, third party email, native advertising, brand partnerships, and so on. Against a changing landscape, Hamster Garage’s team provides a fresh, tech-enabled way of operating often mimicking our client’s internal processes and philosophies. Committed to performance marketing innovation, under Faique’s leadership, Hamster Garage recently acquired Swipehouse, an influencer marketplace with a collective reach of over 1B users. The HG team will look to Swipehouse as a way to scale influencer campaigns with a performance lens.

Prior to Airbnb, Faique was a management consultant and has a BA in Philosophy from Northwestern University.

Jim Nichols, RevLifter

Thanks for considering me for the board. I am a long-time veteran in the performance marketing industry, having fielded my first affiliate program in 1999. I am right now finishing my first two-year term as a board member, and would like to continue my work on behalf of the PMA and the industry.

Since then I have worked on the brand, agency, and solutions provider sides and have been a strong advocate for making affiliate and partnerships a core component of the marketing mix for leading brands. The brand programs I have helped deliver include multiple industries like banking, credit cards, apparel, general merch, home goods, bedding, and DTC products. I have also held leadership positions with Conversant (CJ), Partnerize, and now RevLifter. I have spoken frequently at events and in the press as an advocate for the industry, and have led efforts to reposition the industry as a key strategic component of modern marketing.

While on the PMA, I have been deeply involved in multiple efforts and areas including FTC lobbying, recruiting new member companies, the event series, and marketing programs. If returned to the board, I hope to be integrally involved in clarifying and elevating the role of the PMA, ensuring all members get even more tangible benefits from membership. Thanks for considering me for another two-year term.

Mandy O’Brien, Partnerize

With nearly 15 years of experience in affiliate & partnership marketing, Mandy O’Brien understands well what it takes to bring her clients, who represent all major verticals, the success they seek in the channel.
O’Brien’s tenure & talent landed her the role of resident expert on all things partnerships, & she extends this knowledge & expertise to many internal facing, client facing and third-party led webinars and bylines. Recently, O’Brien hosted a peak partnership trends and insights 2021 holiday edition webinar & helped co-author a holiday planning & optimization ebook.

As Partnerize’s Senior Director of Managed Services, O’Brien prioritizes clients’ needs by providing thought leadership & strategic oversight all the while honoring best practices. She oversees an account team that support brands with data-driven performance insights, strategic planning, recruitment & optimizations, & product adoption.

O’Brien earned herself a reputation for delivering results, even in precarious circumstances including the pandemic. Her tenure taught her how to pivot when necessary, manage risk & expectations & always keep minds trained on goals. O’Brien is highly skilled at analyzing data to evaluate both advertiser & publisher segment performance to determine areas of risk/opportunity & she consistently operates from a client-centric approach to program management.

O’Brien is adept at executing channel forecasting & managing budgets, both externally & internally. In addition to her role on the PMA’s Coupons and Deals Council, Mandy also serves as a resolute onboarding resource for the business as she exemplifies the company’s values, traditions & visions. While this list of accomplishments, attributes & experience isn’t exhaustive, it does demonstrate O’Brien’s passion for her position & her capability of serving on the Performance Marketing Association’s Board of Directors to bring her passion, experience & knowledge to serve an even broader base of marketers.

Anne Parris, Apogee Agency

I’ve been active in affiliate marketing since 2013 and active in the PMA in the last three years I’ve been at Apogee. I’ve served on the Recruitment Council for the last two years and have spoken at the last two PMA online events. I’m dedicated to advancing the performance marketing industry and hope to be of service on the Board.

Nicole Ron, CJ

Thank you for your consideration! I believe I can be a strong addition to your board and advocate for the association. With 14 years of affiliate experience I bring experience working on both the client-facing side of the business (publisher, advertiser and agency management) and operational function experience (product, product marketing, marketing and business systems). I’m a fierce advocate and believer in the value of this channel and have used my current role as head of global marketing to create and amplify findings that support this channel — not just CJ.

In my current role at CJ, I oversee all functions of global marketing at CJ – brand, content, product (most critical component for us is product marketing, which includes GTM, sales materials, internal training, and adoption metrics), events (including our annual conference called CJU), and business systems (Salesforce development and all other tech vendors for email marketing, website, customer experience, etc.). I’ve lead successful launch and adoption efforts for much of my career. I bring deep expertise, passion and a desire for industry collaboration on key topics such as channel value, privacy, tracking, client models, industry data, DE&I and more.

I see the PMA being a phenomenal industry resource that can bring the very best knowledge and advocacy to our industry — from the creation and dissemination of resources for those new to the space to comprehensive guides for sophisticated markers looking to dig deep into bigger topics. As industry advocates, there are many areas we can collaborate to create rich resources and positions on to drive the industry forward and see “all boats rise” by broadening the affiliate slice of the marketing pie. My rich background in market education and adoption, desire to collaborate and ability to get s*** done will hopefully be a useful asset in this organization. I thank you for your consideration and hope to work with you all in the near future!