Advisory Board

mBLAST Advisory Board is comprised of individuals who are thought-leaders in the world of marketing. Present members of the advisory board are David Armano, Danny Briere, Todd Defren, Paul Gillin and Brian Solis.

Bios of each advisory board member are given below.

David Armano

As Senior Vice President for Edelman Digital, David applies his expertise in social media, marketing and business strategy across multiple clients such as eBay, RIM, and PepsiCo to name a few. A global resource, Armano also leads the strategic effort behind the Edelman Digital site and has been working in the digital medium since 1997.

David is considered to be a highly influential voice on the subject of social media for business and has over 50,000 combined subscribers to his blog (Logic + Emotion) and Twitter stream. Logic + Emotion has consistently ranked in the top 20 marketing blogs according to the Ad Age Power 150. Prior to Edelman, David was a part of the founding team of Dachis Group where he helped communicate the vision for social business design while doing groundbreaking strategic work for clients including Intuit.

Prior to Dachis Group, David worked in the digital agency space for over 10 years with organizations such as P&G, HP, WW Grainger, Allstate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Fifth Third Bank. His work on Grainger helped the company earn the reputation of best commerce site according to BtoB magazine and his leadership on HP resulted in a Webaward. David was also a key member of the joint Omnicom “swat team” consisting of TBWA, Critical Mass, and 180 working collaboratively to pitch and win global digital responsibilities for adidas.

He also writes regular industry perspectives for the Harvard Business Review, and is best known for his distinct brand of visual thinking, which can be found both on the Web and in presentations all over the world. David studied visual communications/computer graphics and graduated cum laude from Pratt Institute, where he was mentored under some of the brightest minds in the industry.

Danny Briere

Danny is the founder of mBLAST and is a successful entrepreneur. His extensive professional experience as a consultant, author, speaker and journalist led to his vision for mBLAST. Danny is the founder of TeleChoice, a company he built into one of the premiere communications industry consulting groups. He is also one of the original telecom strategists, having advised carriers, vendors, regulators, startups, and governments for more than 20 years. Danny has built a reputation for identifying trends across technologies ranging from telecommunications to consumer electronics and is frequently quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and The Financial Times. He is also a long-time contributing editor for Network World and columnist and contributor to other leading publications such as Telephony and Telecommunications Magazine and a frequent speaker at a wide range of industry events. Danny also regularly consults with the leading Wall Street financial brokerage houses and venture capitalist firms. Danny's ability to identify new noteworthy, new, industry trends, well before the industry as a whole recognizes them, has led to early exploitation of opportunities in wireless networking, home networking, DSL, PON, VoIP, VoD, and network-hosted applications.

He is the co-author of HDTV for Dummies, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 PCs for Dummies, Smart Homes for Dummies, Home Theater for Dummies, Wireless Home Networking for Dummies, Wireless Hacks and Mods for Dummies, Internet Telephony for Dummies, Virtual Networks-A Buyer's Guide, and A Buyer's Guide to Long Distance Services

Danny earned his Master's in Business Administration from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications Policy at Duke University.

Todd Defren

Todd Defren is recognized globally as a Social Media & Public Relations innovator, thinker & lecturer.  His blog, PR-Squared,  is routinely among the top 20 blogs on AdAge's Power150.

Defren is a principal at SHIFT Communications, a hybrid PR firm named "New Media Agency of the Year" in 2008 and "Agency of the Year" in 2007.  The $12M company works with clients such as Club Med, Quiznos, Jim Beam Brands, Bing and Wells Fargo.

Defren is the visionary behind the Social Media Release and Social Media Newsrooms; a co-founder and Board Member of the Social Media Club, a PRWeek "40 Under 40" honoree, an Advisory Board Member for the SmartBrief on Social Media, a Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research, and, a frequent Social Media speaker.  He was referred to as a "Social Media Marketing Master" in Mashable in 2010.  He is also featured in over 750 "Twitter Lists" including Robert Scoble's "Tech PR Brands & People."

Paul Gillin

Paul Gillin is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. He is a popular speaker who is known for his ability to simplify complex concepts using plain talk, anecdotes and humor.

His award-winning 2007 book, The New Influencers, chronicles the changes in markets being driven by the new breed of bloggers and podcasters. It earned more than 100 favorable reviews from outlets that include The Wall Street Journal, the San Jose Mercury News and the BBC. His second book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, has also earned wide critical acclaim. His next book will look at business-to-business social marketing. It will be published by John Wiley & Sons in late 2010.

Paul was previously founding editor of online publisher TechTarget and editor-in-chief of the technology weekly Computerworld. He writes a monthly column for BtoB magazine and is an active blogger and media commentator. He has appeared as an expert commentator of CNN, PBS, Fox News, MSNBC and many other local television outlets. He has also been quoted or interviewed for hundreds of news and radio reports in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR and the BBC. Paul is a Senior Research Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and he co-chairs the social media cluster for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He holds Red Sox season tickets and can often be found scuba diving during his all-too-infrequent tropical getaways.

Brian Solis

Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media marketing and branding agency in Silicon Valley. Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media. Considered one of the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media and PR 2.0, Solis is co-founder of the Social Media Club and is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup.

BrianSolis.com is among the top 1.5% of all blogs tracked by Technorati and is ranked as one of the leading voices in the Ad Age Power 150 index of worldwide marketing bloggers. Solis is also the publisher of bub.blicio.us, a popular lifestyle and technology blog,  and is also a contributor to TechCrunch, BrandWeek, and Mashable.

He actively contributes his thoughts and experiences through keynotes, industry appearances, books, articles and essays as a way of helping the marketing industry understand and embrace the new dynamics fueling an evolutionary genre of marketing, service, and influence. Content is democratized and influence is equalized…

Brian Solis has been actively writing about new marketing and communications since the mid 90s to document how the Web was redefining the communications industry — he coined PR 2.0 along the way before focusing his efforts on the greater impacts on the future of marketing and media. He was also among the original thought leaders working to organize and define the "Social Media" movement to establish a definitive media category.

His new book, Engage, provides a deep review of the evolution of new media and how to integrate new technologies and methodologies into everyday activity. Prior to Engage, Solis partnered with co-author Deirdre Breakenridge on Putting the Public back in Public Relations, which became a best seller in the communications industry.  In 2007, Solis worked with Geoff Livingston, on Now is Gone, an early, award-winning book that helps businesses learn where to start in Social Media and why.  Solis has also contributed many forewords including PR 2.0 by Deirdre Breakenridge and MySpace Marketing by Sean Percival, Twittfaced by Jacob Morgan, among others.  Solis has also written and published several ebooks on new PR, social media, customer service, personal branding and blogger relations.

Among new marketing tools and philosophies, Solis is also an investor and thought-leader in the Web and new technology landscape. He shapes and documents the rapid evolution of products and services and how businesses and consumers can actually use these tools. He is an active leader in spotlighting and cultivating new startups and emerging visionaries in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Solis is also co-organizer of the monthly Silicon Valley NewTech Meetups and also donates his expertise, time, and resources to promoting and advising San Francisco NewTech Meetup, various BarCamps, Silicon Valley Tweetup, STIRR, SF Beta, Twiistup, TechCrunch events, TechCocktail, DEMO, Office 2.0, and Dealmaker Media events.