Leadership

Milena Alberti-Perez was elected to our Board in February of 2022. Ms. Alberti-Perez serves as the Chair of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Compensation and Talent Management Committee and the Governance, Nominating, and Sustainability Committee. Ms. Alberti-Perez is a seasoned financial, media, and technology executive with over 20 years of experience in book publishing and digital companies. She was most recently the Chief Financial Officer of Getty Images, Inc. (NYSE: GETY), the world’s leading visual content company, where she participated in numerous investor presentations to take the company public. Prior to that, in 2020, she served as the Chief Financial Officer of MediaMath, a demand-side platform for programmatic marketing and advertising. Ms. Alberti-Perez worked in a variety of financial and publishing roles from 2001 to 2017 at Penguin Random House, the world’s largest book publisher, serving as the Global and US Chief Financial Officer of Penguin Random House from 2015 to 2017, as the head of Corporate Development/M&A from 2010 to 2015, and as Director of Spanish Language Publishing from 2004 to 2010. As management, she served as a non-voting member of its board of directors and its audit committee. Ms. Alberti-Perez also worked in financial analyst and research roles at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley.  

Ms. Alberti-Perez has extensive experience in corporate and non-profit boards. She serves on the board of Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI), where she will chair the Finance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee. She also serves on two private company boards in audiobook publishing and digital library distribution, RBmedia and Overdrive, both owned by KKR. She currently serves on three not-for-profit boards: National Public Radio, Jumpstart, and the Wild Bird Fund. She has previously served on the boards of Companhia das Letras, and Flatworld/Sagence, and has served on not-for-profit boards of directors of The University of Pennsylvania Executive Fund and THE CITY.  Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from The University of Pennsylvania, with Distinction in Economics and minors in Math and Latin American Studies and a Master of Business Administration with distinction from the Harvard Business School.  

Ms. Alberti-Perez’s experience is particularly germane to Digimarc’s initiatives to increase diversity and inclusion at all levels of the Company and improve the Company’s finance oversight and operations, cybersecurity and data management, merger and acquisition activities, post-merger integration, and compensation management areas. She has led and mentored teams of more than 200 people across the full spectrum of financial analysis and reporting, including the largest merger in book publishing history, and the integration of those companies. She is also experienced in the areas of cybersecurity and data management and digital transformation, aligned with the Company’s strategic direction.  

LaShonda Anderson-Williams was elected to our Board of Directors in June 2023 and serves on the Governance, Nominating and Sustainability and Compensation and Talent Management Committees. She has a deep understanding of sales processes and the proven history of success leading enterprise technology sales. She brings executive, people leadership, talent development, sales process, operational excellence, and enterprise technology sales experience to Digimarc’s Board of Directors. Ms. Anderson-Williams is accomplished across many disciplines with extraordinary leadership qualities and strategic and operational skills.   

Ms. Anderson-Williams is currently the Global EVP and Chief Revenue Officer of Healthcare and Lifesciences at Salesforce, the world’s leading customer relationship management software platform. She is responsible for the global industry strategy and vision of the second largest industry vertical at Salesforce, leading a team of over 2,000 professionals in delivering 20+% growth on a $1 billion+ business. Previously, she served in a variety of digital transformation and sales management roles over 20+ years at Microsoft and IBM.    

Ms. Anderson-Williams earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree at Texas Woman’s University, and currently serves on the advisory board for the University of Houston College of Technology. In addition, in 2021 she was recognized in the “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology” by the National Diversity Leadership Conference and among the “Top 25 Women Leaders” by The Healthcare Technology Report.  

Ms. Anderson-Williams experience is particularly germane to Digimarc’s initiatives to develop high-performing and diverse talent, foster a world-class sales culture, and improve the Corporation’s sales strategy, operations, and talent management. 

Sandeep Dadlani was elected to our Board in March of 2021. Mr. Dadlani serves as a member of the Governance, Nominating, and Sustainability Committee and the Market Development Committee. Mr. Dadlani was named EVP, Chief Digital and Technology Officer for UnitedHealth Group in September 2022. He is responsible for leading technology and digital strategies across the enterprise to drive innovation and deliver exceptional experiences in health care. In his role, he leads Optum Technology, a leading technology delivery division of Optum, serving the Optum and UnitedHealthcare customer base. Prior to UnitedHealth Group, Mr. Dadlani was the Global Chief Digital Officer at Mars, Incorporated, a $40 billion global conglomerate in the pet care, food and confectionary businesses, where part of his responsibilities focused on the digitalization of the supply chain. He worked with Mars’ global business segments to drive their digital growth, while delivering effectiveness and efficiency to existing business and technology platforms. Earlier in his career, Mr. Dadlani was with Infosys (NYSE: INFY) from 2001 to 2017, where he last held the position of President, Head of Americas and Global Head of Infosys’s Manufacturing, Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Logistic Practices. He co-founded, and eventually ran as Chairman, Infosys Edgeverve, a new artificial intelligence company for Infosys, and Skava, a mobile commerce company. Prior to his employment with Infosys, he began his career in investment banking at Citibank. Mr. Dadlani has won several awards, including CIO of the Year in 2019 by Consumer Goods Technology, one of the top 150 business transformation leaders globally by Constellation Research, and Blue Yonder’s 50 most prominent AI thought leaders in 2021. Mr. Dadlani earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from M.S. University, Baroda, India and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from JBIMS, Mumbai University, India. 

Mr. Dadlani brings product management, operations, digital and technology platforms, data management, artificial intelligence, mobile commerce, e-commerce, platform automation, supply chain digitalization, and international experience to Digimarc. Mr. Dadlani is accomplished across many disciplines with extraordinary leadership qualities. He has more than 25 years of experience in operations, consulting, business development and product management. He has been a contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Forbes and is a regular keynote speaker at industry forums. He has co-authored the UN Global report on supply chain sustainability. Additionally, he is on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Consumption and has participated for several years in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. His experience is particularly germane to Digimarc initiatives to drive digital transformation through product digitization, improve operational efficiencies, and achieve scale across global and industry business segments.  

Katie Kool was elected to our Board in March of 2022. She began Board service on July 1, upon her retirement from Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG). She serves as Chair of the Board’s Compensation and Talent Management Committee and a member of the Audit Committee and the Governance, Nominating, and Sustainability Committee. Ms. Kool is a seasoned finance executive, who began her career with Procter & Gamble in 1995 and successfully transitioned to general management as a divisional CEO, with a proven history of delivering superior results across both Consumer Products and Services business models. She brings executive, financial, international, innovation, and investor relations experience to Digimarc’s Board of Directors. She last served as the CEO of Tide Cleaners, a wholly owned subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, which is a service-based retailer providing out of home dry cleaning and laundry services through franchise and corporate stores, lockers, home delivery, and college campuses, a role she assumed in January 2019. For the three and a half years prior to her CEO experience, Ms. Kool was the CFO for North America Fabric Care, which includes the Tide, Gain, Downy, and Bounce brands and has over $8 billion in retail sales. She was also CFO for the Global Procter & Gamble Professional business, where she developed a five-year strategic plan, including a more focused operating model and improved profit and loss and cash investments to deliver sustainable Operating Total Shareholder Return. In addition to her extensive business leadership experience, Katie was a key member of Procter & Gamble’s Investor Relations team for five-and-a-half years, during which she partnered with three CEOs and led communications for the strategy renewal that spanned two $10 billion productivity programs and a more focused portfolio of strategic brands. Ms. Kool is also a Board Member at Aspen Aerogels (NYSE: ASPN) and serves on the Audit Committee and the Nominating, Governance, and Sustainability Committee. In her personal time, Ms. Kool was Co-Founder & CEO of KW CrossFit. She is a Board Member and CFO for Sonje Ayiti, a nonprofit organization focused on providing tools for Haitians to help themselves via education, economic development, and health promotion, and she co-led the creation of the Cima School of Hope in Haiti, a government-licensed school with over 300 students in Pre-K through 9th grade and over 25 employees. Ms. Kool holds a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Kalamazoo College and a Master of Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis. 

Ms. Kool’s experience is particularly germane to Digimarc’s initiatives to increase diversity and inclusion at all levels of the Company, improve the Company’s finance oversight and operations, and help oversee the Company’s investor relations program, post-merger integration, and business innovation and business process reengineering areas. She is accomplished across many disciplines with extraordinary leadership qualities and financial and analytical skills, including business analysis and value creation, financial controls and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and talent recruitment, development, and retention. She has successfully navigated a business through the COVID pandemic, introduced and managed disruptive business innovation activities, and led the acquisition, integration, and expansion of two start-ups. She has successfully managed investor relations challenges, and has strong controllership skills, leading the General Ledger Accounting organization for the Americas from the San Jose Costa Rica Service Center during the integration of the Gillette acquisition.  

Riley McCormack was elected to our Board of Directors in October 2020 and was appointed to be President and Chief Executive Officer in April 2021, prior to which he served as Lead Director and a member of the Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Governance, Nominating, and Sustainability Committee, and Market Development Committee, and later the Chair of the Compensation Committee. Since 2015, Mr. McCormack has served as Managing Member and CEO of McCormack Family Investments and founded and has served as Managing Member and CEO of TCM|Strategic, a fund that invested $53.5 million in the Company in September 2020. Previously, Mr. McCormack was the founder, CEO, and PM of Tracer Capital Management, a $1.5 billion New York-based global technology, media, and telecommunication hedge fund. Prior to Tracer, he was a partner at Coatue Capital and a high-yield research analyst at Morgan Stanley, covering media and telecom companies. Mr. McCormack graduated summa cum laude from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a Joseph Wharton Scholar. 

Mr. McCormack brings executive leadership, strategic, financial, investment, operational and transactional expertise to the Board of Directors. He also brings the perspective of a longtime shareholder and major investor. He has extensive experience investing in, and providing advice to, a broad range of companies, with a specific focus on fast-growing global technology, media, and telecommunication firms. His prior experience is particularly germane to strategic and financial oversight, attracting institutional investors to Digimarc, and ensuring the interests of all Digimarc shareholder-owners are well-represented.  

Alicia Syrett was elected to our Board of Directors in October 2020 and was elected as Board Chair in April 2021. Ms. Syrett serves as a member of the Audit Committee, Compensation and Talent Management Committee, and Market Development Committee, and serves as the Chair of the Governance, Nominating, and Sustainability Committee. Ms. Syrett brings more than 20 years of investment management industry experience to the Digimarc Board. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Pantegrion Capital, a firm she founded in 2011. Ms. Syrett also founded and leads Madam Chair, a collaborative group of over 200 female Chairs and Lead Directors of publicly traded companies. Before Pantegrion, Ms. Syrett was the Chief Administrative Officer and Managing Director of Mount Kellett, a multi-billion-dollar investment firm acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Between 2002 and 2008, she served as a Director at HBK Investments and as Chief Administrative Officer at Farallon Capital, one of the country’s largest hedge funds. From 2000 to 2002, she served as an Associate in executive recruiting for Russell Reynolds Associates. She began her career at Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette in investment banking. Ms. Syrett holds an MBA from both Columbia Business School where she received Beta Gamma Sigma honors and the London Business School where she graduated with distinction (top 10%) and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated magna cum laude. She served on the board of directors of NewAge from January 2020 until January of 2022. Ms. Syrett is a Board Leadership Fellow certified by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). 

Ms. Syrett brings executive, governance, human capital management, compensation, sustainability, and operational expertise to the Board of Directors. Ms. Syrett is accomplished across many disciplines with extraordinary leadership qualities, a history of investing in and advising hyper-scale growth organizations, a track record of advocating for diversity and equality, and a mastery of modern media. She is an accomplished venture capitalist, author, public speaker and has been a regular guest on various financial network television shows. Her experience is particularly germane to Digimarc initiatives to increase diversity and inclusion at all levels of the Company and improve the Company’s compensation program, succession planning, corporate governance, sustainability and Board and personnel recruitment initiatives. 

Andrew J. Walter was elected to our Board of Directors in October 2016. Mr. Walter serves as the Chair of the Market Development Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee. Mr. Walter has more than 30 years of operations, information technology, and shared services experience, including 26 years at The Procter & Gamble Company, a consumer goods company. Mr. Walter has served on a number of boards, including the GS1 US Board of Governors, an organization that develops and maintains global standards for business communication, and as chair of its technology committee. He is currently serving as an advisory board member or strategic advisor for various privately held technology companies and as Trustee and Vice Chair for the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. Mr. Walter received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati. 

Mr. Walter brings strategic, international, operational, and transactional expertise to the Board of Directors. Prior to joining our Board, Mr. Walter enjoyed a long tenure at Procter & Gamble, where he most recently led its Global Business Services and IT Global Commercial Services and Delivery organization until August 2016, with more than 1,500 IT and multifunctional professionals and more than 5,000 partner resources. He has deep expertise in integration of emerging and core commercial technologies, supply chain management, sales and marketing, and consumer and business analytics.