Lunch with the Experts

	Sally Abrahms is an award-winning Boston writer and editor specializing in aging and boomers. She has published in the country's top magazines and newspapers, on major Internet sites, and is the author of two books. Sally also does corporate communications work for businesses, organizations, and institutions. She blogs for the Huffington Post and weekly on caregiving for AARP at: blog.aarp.org/author/aarpsally
	Lori Bitter is President of Crew Media, a firm focused on high quality engagement with mature consumers. Lori has more than 25 years of advertising, public relations and strategic planning experience and is the author of numerous white papers on topics relevant to the senior and Boomer population. She serves as publisher for Eons. com and GRAND, the digital magazine for grandparents and their families.
	Jean Brittingham is the founder and CEO SmartGirls Way, the breakthrough brand for integrated support for women entrepreneurs. Over the years while working in the field of sustainability, Jean has come to believe that women, and in particular women leading innovative businesses, hold the keys to sustainable economic growth and a thriving world. Prior to starting SmartGirls Way, Jean founded Brittingham Partners, an innovation and sustainability studio and she has worked with a diverse client group that includes Fortune 50 companies, leading-edge start-ups, local and national governments, and nongovernmental organizations. Jean has served on the Consumer Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum, as strategic advisor, director, and faculty member for the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, and as an expert on gender equity for the Katerva Challenge. She sits on numerous business and nonprofit boards and plays key roles in the women's entrepreneurial movement, through her partnership and work on the We Own It Summit (WOIS).
	As President/CEO of Linkage, Scott Collins is responsible for the strategic direction & growth of the company which connects its more than 460 member locations to a broad range of resources to ensure their ongoing success. Linkage collaborates with senior living providers & thought leaders throughout the country to explore new market opportunities beyond the campus as well as innovative ways of generating revenue and containing costs.
	Mary Furlong, Ed.D., MFA's president and CEO, is a leading authority on the baby boom generation as it moves toward and beyond age 50. Through her three companies she has raised over 130 million in venture financing and corporate sponsorships for companies with products and services to serve the needs of the boomer/senior marketplace. In March 2011 Mary received an award as one of the top 100 Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and is also the author of Turning Silver into Gold: How to Profit in the New Boomer Marketplace.
	Jeff Hasen builds, strengthens and protects brands. Companies benefiting from his talents have landed on Wired's list of most innovative entities on Earth and been named pioneers and the early leader in the burgeoning mobile marketing category. Named a top CMO on Twitter, Jeff is the author of the upcoming book, Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices, due in Spring 2012 from Wiley Publishing. He co-created the certification program for the Mobile Marketing Association. He is one of only two individuals certified by the MMA to train professionals and students on mobile marketing definitions, techniques, and benefits. At Hipcricket, he conceived and led the execution of an accelerated rebranding effort in advance of the mobile marketing software and services company being named "the early leader in the mobile marketing space in the U.S." by Frost and Sullivan. Hipcricket also won consecutive annual pioneer awards from CTIA - The Wireless Association. Jeff's emphasis on integrity in business has made him a frequent speaker and writer on what he calls "Moments of Trust," the points that make or break brands and dramatically impact loyalty and sales.
	Jody Holtzman has more than two decades of experience helping companies develop and implement competitive strategies and achieve their strategic market goals. At AARP he leads AARP's Thought Leadership efforts which support the organization's new brand positioning around a focus on living not just aging and for people 50+ to live their best life. Previously, Jody led AARP's research, competitive intelligence and strategic analysis functions. A central focus of this research is to understand the needs, wants and preferences of AARP members and prospective members, their intent to join and renew memberships, as well as their views regarding AARP's social mission and policy goals. Prior to that, Jody was AARP's first Director of Strategic Analysis and Intelligence where his team provided forward looking and actionable insight about AARP's external environment in support of senior management decision-making. Jody is a member of AARP's Leadership Team and Brand Council.
	An award winning journalist specializing in legal topics, Deborah L. Jacobs has been a syndicated newspaper columnist, newsletter editor and freelancer for many national publications, including The New York Times, Bloomberg Wealth Manager and BusinessWeek. In her latest entrepreneurial venture, Deborah self-published her bestselling book for consumers, Estate Planning Smarts. Now a senior editor at Forbes, Deborah writes for Forbes magazine and blogs at www.forbes.com/deborahjacobs/blog covering the broad range of topics that affect baby boomers as they approach retirement.
	Frederick R. Lynch is Associate Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. His newest book is One Nation Under AARP: The Fight Over Medicare, Social Security and America's Future (University of California Press, 2011). His previous books include The Diversity Machine (Transaction Paperbacks, 2001) and Invisible Victims: White Males and the Crisis of Affirmative Action (Praeger Paperbacks, 1991). He is the author of dozens of articles and book chapters ranging from "Social Theory and the Progressive Era," Theory and Society (1977) to a 2011 chapter on "Politics of Aging Boomers" in Robert Hudson's The New Politics of Old Age Policy. He has been profiled and interviewed by most major newspapers, television networks, National Public Radio, etc. His popular CMC courses include: "Inequality, Politics and Public Policy," (Gov 113), "Organization of Health Care and Public Policy" (Gov 105) and "Juvenile Delinquency and Public Policy" (Gov 109).
	Greg O'Neill, PhD is director of the National Academy on an Aging Society, a Washington, DC, think tank on population and aging issues and the policy institute of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Dr. O'Neill specializes in the demographics of aging and civic engagement. His publications include "The State of Aging and Health in America," a national and state-by-state report card on healthy aging and the recent article, "The Baby Boom Age Wave: Success or Tsunami?" that appears in Boomer Bust? Economic and Political Issues of the Graying Society (Praeger, 2008). Dr. O'Neill is the co-editor of Public Policy & Aging Report, the Academy's signature publication. For the past five years, he has directed GSA's Civic Engagement in an Older America project, an initiative funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies to advance the issue of older adult civic engagement in the research and public policy arena.
	Laurie Orlov is a a tech industry veteran, writer, speaker and elder care advocate, is the founder of Aging in Place Technology Watch, a market research firm that provides thought leadership, analysis and guidance about technologies and related services that enable boomers and seniors to remain longer in their home of choice. Her blog reaches the most influential readers in the aging and technology marketplace.
	Carol Orsborn is CEO of www.FierceWithAge.com, the Online Center for Spiritual Aging and Simple Living, and Executive Director of CoroFaith, offering audio-based spiritual continuity to individuals in the long-term care and aging-in-place community. She is the author of 21 books on issues related to life stage development and Boomer marketing, including Boom: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer-the Baby Boomer Woman (Brown/Orsborn) and Vibrant Nation: What Women 50+ Know, Think, Do and Buy (Reily/Orsborn.) Carol has served as senior strategist with VibrantNation.com and co-founder of Fleishman-Hillard's FM Boom, the first initiative by a global PR firm dedicated to helping companies market to the Boomer generation.
	Ilya Oshman is a Senior Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis at Weight Watchers International (WWI). Prior to WWI he served as the Managing Director with Roberts Mitani LLC, a boutique investment bank in New York that provides investment banking, strategic advisory and management support to companies in healthcare, consumer/retail and industrial/clean technology sectors. He was also a Senior Advisor and acting CFO of Follica Inc., a startup that is developing treatments for hair loss and skin disorders and is backed by InterWest and Polaris. Until May of 2009 Ilya served as the CFO of Natura International, a global division of the largest Brazilian cosmetics company Natura Cosmeticos (public in Brazil).
	Stuart Rosenthal is the founder, publisher and editor of the Beacon newspapers, free monthlies serving the 50+ populations of Greater Washington, Greater Baltimore and Howard County, Md. The award-winning monthlies have a readership exceeding 350,000 and may be read online at www.theBeaconNewspapers.com. Rosenthal also chairs the Maryland Commission on Aging, serves on state and local advisory boards, and is immediate past president of the North American Mature Publishers Association (NAMPA), the trade association representing publications for boomers and older adults.
	Francine Russo is the author of They're Your Parents, Too! How Siblings Can Survive Their Parents' Aging Without Driving Each Other Crazy (Random House, 2010). The book, widely acclaimed in the media as "groundbreaking," has won raves from readers and launched Russo as a professional speaker and consultant on multi-generational communication and decision-making in the Aging market. Russo, a widely recognized journalist, is known for being among the first to spot trends in her own boomer generation.
	As a cultural observer and bestselling author of 15 books, including Passages, Gail Sheehy has changed the way millions of people look at their lives. In her history-making books and introspective commentary, Ms. Sheehy has addressed fundamental questions that apply to women and men as they move through the stages of adult life from adolescence into their seasoned years. Her books have rocked the culture and changed the way millions of women and men around the world look at the stages of their lives. In 2010 she takes on the most challenging and personal issue in her latest book: Passages in Caregiving.
	Like many baby boomers, Missy Sullivan is easily enthralled by her own generation-its chest-thumping energy …. its "What? Me worry?" optimism... and the way the ground seems to shake, T-Rex-style, every time the massive, 78-million-headed monster takes a single lumbering step. So last year, after taking on the "boomer beat" at SmartMoney, the personal finance magazine of The Wall Street Journal, Missy immediately dove in, covering topics ranging from empty nester spending trends to the difficult market for downsizing to the things other publications failed to tell you about retiring abroad. As senior editor at SmartMoney since 2007, she has also led the magazine's consumer spending coverage of topics including travel, cars, tech, health, education, real estate, green living, collecting and wine, editing numerous award-winning stories and columns.

Lunch with the Experts

What's Next Boomer Business Summit | Produced by Mary Furlong & Associates | © MFA 2011 All Rights Reserved