John La Rock
Over twenty years ago, after a long and successful career as a creative director on Madison Avenue, I decided I wanted to use my skills to give back. I co-founded an advertising agency whose sole purpose was to create and distribute public service advertising. PlowShare Group is now the second leading provider of Public Service Advertising in the country, delivering billions of dollars of donated media for our clients, who include the American Red Cross, World Wildlife Fund, Wounded Warrior Project, Save The Children, and Special Olympics to name a few. In all of my years at PlowShare working with charities, I never encountered anyone representing Native Americans. When I retired, I created a foundation to continue my work of giving back. The cause I chose is Native Americans. The Foundation I created is called Sacred People.
Marta La Rock
Marta has been building brands for over 25 years, feeding her desire to tell authentic brand stories, build emotional bonds with consumers, create communications for a changing world and mentor planners. But creating great ideas is her true passion. Marta has worked as a strategist at some of most powerful advertising agencies in the world, including Ogilvy, Y&R and JWT. Most recently, she is the Global CSO of Red Fuse Communications, WPP's full-service integrated global agency dedicated to serving all of Colgate-Palmolive's brands worldwide. Marta is one of the original instructors at Miami Ad School's Boot Camp for Account Planners where she taught for over 12 years. She was elected to and completed Omnicom University’s Senior Management Program and the Maestro Program at WPP. She was inducted into the YWCA's Academy of Women Achiever’s, has served on the 4A's APG Committee and has been an APG Awards Chair, Judge and conference speaker. She has been a finals Effie judge for over 8 years. She has spoken at the VCU Brandcenter, the ARF and at Brown University and has published articles for Adweek.com, The Hub Magazine and CMYK Magazine. She also founded the original APG East Mentor Program, which was created to help junior planners grow professionally. And she is proud to serve as the President of the Sacred People Foundation where she has been working for over 5 years to make a difference. Marta has a PhD in Mathematics Education from NYU and began her career as a math teacher. She lives in Darien, Connecticut with her husband, John. With a daughter Paris and 4 stepchildren, there is truly never a dull moment. Most importantly, she strives to live according to a Maya Angelou quote, "They will never remember what you said; they will only remember how you made them feel."
Anthony Truino
Anthony J. Truino is a Senior Financial Services Executive/Financial Planner, and Investment Specialist at Barnum Wealth Management part of the MetLife Premier Client Group. A major component of Anthony's approach is to educate and empower clients to make integrated financial decisions that work to grow and preserve their wealth, both in the short-term and for generations to come. Anthony's commitment to working one on one with people in support of their goals extends to his work in the community. He is on the board of directors of Foundation for Life, Inc., and Treasured Time, which grants the wishes of parents with life-threatening illnesses. He is one of a select few to be designated a Registered Financial Advisor by the National Football League Players Association. He has also been named a Five Star Wealth Manager in Connecticut and is a member of the Million Dollar Round Table, recognized as the standard of excellence in the life insurance and financial services business. Anthony is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University with a degree in finance and has earned his Certified Financial Planner certification. He enjoys golf and tennis and is an overall exercise enthusiast. Anthony lives in Southport, Connecticut with his wife Stefanie and their daughter Chloe Emma.
Carol Schuster
Carol Schuster is a global brand and marketing expert, building brands for leading Fortune 500 companies. She founded Schuster Consulting Group, dedicated to helping companies build their businesses and brands as they enter new markets. Carol started her career at J Walter Thompson in Germany helping American brands enter the Europe market. She was one of the first marketing executives to enter Eastern Europe. In 2011, she worked in China, where she had been doing business for more than twenty years, helping American luxury brands enter this dynamic new economy. Drawing on her professional, as well as her cross cultural background, she brings her own personal values of curiosity, adventure, creating connections and continuous learning to her approach to business. Carol is committed to the arts as a means for greater self-expression. An avid collector of contemporary art, she enjoys discovering new artists and views art as a means to see the world from a new perspective. Carol received her MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Business. She attended University of Illinois, where she received a Liberal Arts Degree in Germanic Language & Literature and a minor in Chinese and Economics. She is American and also speaks German, Chinese and French. While life may take her around the globe, she lives in the city she loves, New York.
Glen Belush
Glen J. Belush is the sole member of Glen J. Belush Certified Public Accounts. The Firm provides various bookkeeping, accounting, internal control, tax planning, and business consultation services throughout the greater Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven County areas. Glen started his own practice in 1986. His areas of expertise include consultation on financial reporting and operational systems, personal and corporate tax planning, business management and controllership responsibilities. Glen holds a B.S. (cum laude) in Accounting from the University of Connecticut. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts, the Connecticut Society of Public Accountants, the National Association of Internal Auditors, and the American College of Forensic Examiners. He has several Non-Profit Charitable Organizations as clients. In 1997, Glen started the Non-Profit Charitable Organization, The Children’s Open Charitable Trust which provides college scholarships to children who have lost a parent and have shown great character during their period of loss.
Karl Maruyama
Karl S. Maruyama is the principal of Maruyama Design, LLC, a design consultancy in Wilton, Connecticut.
Prior to forming his own consultancy he was Vice President of Corporate Practice at Tom Fowler, Inc. an award winning design firm in Norwalk, Connecticut where he has designed communications for a number of Fortune 500 companies.
He has garnered numerous awards and inclusions into domestic and international juried design shows such as the Connecticut Art Directors Club, New York Art Director’s Club, Print’s Regional Design Annual, AIGA Design Annual, Graphics Design, Graphics Poster, and Graphics Ephemera.
He has been published in Graphis, Rockport Publications, CADC Annual, Type Director’s Club Annual, New Your Art Director’s Club Annual, Print’s Regional Design Annual.
Karl’s volunteer experience includes being a board member of Turning Wine Into Water, a group that holds wine events to build wells and sanitation facilities in the poorest sections of Africa. He also supports the Stamford Shelter for the Homeless.
He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Graphic Design, from the University of Hawaii.
Karl has always been interested in the development of consciousness and the betterment of the human condition. He sees design as a tool to convey better ideas to the population by creating awareness, and thus bring about change.
Larry Robins
Larry Robins is a successful director, cameraman and creative director of commercial and artistic film projects since 1986. He is a member of the Director’s Guild of America. His short film entitled ‘Untitled’ won the best short film award at the Yale Film Festival in 1969 and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Larry owned and operated Robins Productions, a successful commercial photography studio in New York City. His editorial photographs and covers include work for Time-Life Photography, Zoom, Camera, American Photographer, Redbook and numerous other magazines. Larry was the first president and a founding member of the trade group Advertising Photographers of America in NYC. His film work includes projects for companies such as infiniti automobiles, Kraft, Kimberly Clark, Novartis, Coldwell Banker, ESPN, Montefiore Medical Center and other multi-national clients. Other creative work includes PSAs for not-for-profit accounts including World Wildlife Fund, US EPA Radon, 4H, and Norwalk Community College. Larry has been an Executive Board member of the Vermont Film Commission. He attended the University of Michigan. Larry lives with his wife, Maria and their three children – Sam, Sarah and Henry and two boxer dogs in Sunapee, NH.
Tata Sato
Tata spent decades in advertising and marketing as a strategic planner, and brings strong communications skills together with respect and appreciation for cultural values, attitudes and social relationships in an increasingly complex, globalized and transnational context. Having grown up as a TCK in Asia, the Middle East and East Africa, she functions with ease and expertise in cross-cultural, multilingual settings, with strong interest in social justice and equality through literacy development, multilingual education and promotion of human rights. A graduate of Barnard College, Tata earned her TESOL Certification and an MA in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and currently teaches as an adjunct professor at the Institute of American Language and Culture, Fordham University.