Ira Kaufman has 40 years of management experience and spans three worlds: business, nonprofit and education. Earning his PhD in Marketing and MA in Sociology under the mentorship of Dr. Philip Kotler at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Ira worked with Dr. Kotler to advance early initiatives in social marketing. Since then, his work has focused on crafting branding, and Integrated Digital Transformation and Marketing plans for SMEs and nonprofits. Visiting 40+ countries, Ira developed a cultural sensitivity integrating values and sustainability into workshops on purposeful leadership, marketing strategy and digital transformation in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He taught digital marketing at the senior executive programs at Kellogg and Virginia Tech. Currently, at Lynchburg College School of Business and Economics he is designing innovative courses on leadership, digital marketing and social entrepreneurship while directing their new Institute for Transformative Leadership. As a digital strategist, he guides companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals with their innovation, social branding, integrated digital marketing and transformation strategies. He has a deep commitment to working with Legacy International's Emerging Leaders Network to develop their skill sets as transformative agents for a sustainable future. He has co-authored Digital Marketing: Integrating Strategy and Tactics with Values. Chris Horton is a digital strategist for Minneapolis-based integrated digital marketing agency, Synecore. An avid tech enthusiast, Chris has written hundreds of blogs and numerous ebooks on various topics related to digital marketing, including SEO, inbound, content, social, mobile, apps, digital branding and PR, Internet trends, and digital integration & transformation. His work has been widely syndicated in leading marketing and technology and business management blog directories, including Social Media Today, Business2Community, Yahoo! Small Business, and The European Financial Review. In 2013, Chris' work on SoLoMo was featured in Forbes. He has also contributed as speaker and instructor at the Online Marketing Institute (OMI). In October of 2014, Chris co-authored Digital Marketing: Integrating Strategy and Tactics with Values, published by Routledge. Adopted in over 50 colleges and universities worldwide, he and co-author Ira Kaufman are currently working on a 2nd edition, set for release in the spring of 2018. Chris' digital marketing tips can be found on Synecore's Marketing Technology for Growth blog.
