Uber, Time and eos are 2026 Future Leader Awards finalists

In the Rising Product Leader category, nominees include Seojoon Oh, senior product manager at Uber. He heads two engineering teams building data-driven platforms including a first-party attribution system, a real-time KPI streaming hub and a semantic data layer that together support Uber’s $1.7 billion advertising ecosystem. Oh’s work has strengthened Uber’s ability to measure incrementality, optimize spend and scale lift testing, directly improving marketing performance and ROI. He is also advancing next-generation tools, including a Marketing Context Layer and AI-driven diagnostic agents that anticipate performance issues and surface insights. Oh is reshaping how Uber approaches privacy-first marketing and data-driven decision-making.

Time’s senior director of marketing partnerships Natasha Macri earned a nomination in the Rising Media Leader category for her efforts in reshaping how the 102-year-old brand approaches strategic partnerships and revenue growth. Macri leads Time’s U.S. pre-sale marketing engine, guiding cross-functional teams to develop high-impact proposals that connect brand partners with the publisher’s most prominent franchises. Rising through the organization over nearly six years, she has built a reputation for combining creative thinking with operational discipline while managing and mentoring a growing team. Under her leadership, Time has scaled its partnership pipeline while improving efficiency and win rates, contributing to significant year-over-year advertising growth.

Finalists in the Rising Content Marketing Leader category include Katie Zaro, omnichannel marketing manager at eos. She leads consumer-first strategies that connect the personal care brand’s storytelling, performance and experience across platforms. Zaro has driven key omnichannel initiatives, including a full redesign of eos’ DTC website, transforming it into a unified hub that strengthens both storytelling and conversion. She has expanded content ecosystems with the launch of the brand’s first blog and ensured consistency across DTC and retail channels. Her CRM leadership has also delivered strong performance gains, with email and SMS channels growing significantly year over year while elevating the overall consumer experience.

These rising talents are setting new standards for what leadership looks like today. See the complete list of finalists below.

Rising Agency Leader
Raquelle Kleiman – January Digital
Caroline Mandel – FTI Consulting
William Lapointe – Pathlabs
Barbara Rego – Majority
Gretchen Gerlach – Laughlin Constable
Zach Gad – The Unquantifiable
Jessica Huang – Herman-Scheer

Rising AI Leader – NEW
Zuny Fester – JustPaid
Anushka Salinas – Nanit
Elizabeth Opp – Madhive
Johnny Rohrbach – SILVERSIDE

Rising Audio Leader – NEW
Emily Dyer – Macmillan Publishers

Rising Brand Leader
Bailey Leffler – Purdue Brand Studio
Manjunath Venkatram – ThoughtData
Alessandro Fontana – January Digital
Helin Tu – EssilorLuxottica

Rising Content Marketing Leader – NEW
Emily Duncan – tvScientific
Katie Zaro – eos Products

Rising Creator – NEW
Kiana Davis – The Sociable Society
Malachi Mitchell – The Sociable Society

Rising Design/Creative Leader – NEW
Johanna Ketterle – Oak Essentials
Brenna Cunningham – The Unquantifiable
Anna Weddle – Hook
Caleb McMullen & Hussein Rumaithi – McKinney
Song Yoon – MobileFuse

Rising E-commerce Leader – NEW
Jordan Harper – Barefaced

Rising Finance Leader – NEW
Stephanie Porter – Hook
Rachel Villalobos – Spaceback
James Marrero – Playfly Sports
Danielle Lauzon – Fintel Connect

Rising Founder – NEW
Andi Cross – Edges of Earth
Kristie D’Ambrosio-Correll – Dacora Motors
Tejas Manohar – Hightouch
Jordan Banafsheha – icepop
Isan Elba – Beauty Access/Beauty Forward
Aerin Glazer – Tilt Beauty

Rising Influencer Marketing Leader – NEW
Olivia Meitz – Skirt PR
James Reid – Collectively
Ted Raad – Trend Companies
Griffin Haddrill – Mirage Digital
Ellen Hawkins – #paid
Alexis Martin – eos Products

Rising Innovator – NEW
Brian Carpenter – DECIEM
Lauren Vesler – Goddess Maintenance Co.
Dr. Victoria Rose Veytsman – Rose Code, Inc.

Rising Marketing Leader – NEW
Bianca Fernandez – Personal Day
Nicole Julien – Affinity Solutions
Sophie King – LucidLink
Christina Diane Warner
Monica Hunter – Ad Council
Sammi Fischer – Ad Council
Danielle Moss – Barbarian

Rising Media Buying and Planning Leader – NEW
Michelle Lantz – Attention Arc
Saida Mirzalimova – Viral Nation

Rising Media Leader
Travis Misner – Playfly Sports
Justine Sto. Tomas – Hello Sunshine
Yasmin Edrees – TravelDesk, MMGY
Natasha Macri – TIME
Nicholas Friedman – Crunchyroll
Oliver Brantley – Nebo

Rising Merchandising Leader – NEW
Sisana de Kruijf – billups
Brittany Ainslie – SAYN

Rising Operations Leader – NEW
Caitlin Barter – datafuelX
Jo-Jo Jones – Ad Council
Jaclyn Maclean – Viral Nation

Rising People Leader – NEW
Lauren Harris – Oak Essentials
Heather Dugan – billups

Rising PR Leader – NEW
Daniel Kramer – Nextdoor
Nina Trach – The Ad Council
Haley Norton – Nebo Agency
Bridget Betances – Sol de Janeiro
Allie Silvestri – National Geographic

Rising Product Leader – NEW
Benjamin Lacapere – Equativ
Seojoon Oh – Uber Technologies
Brian Davis – MadConnect
Dean Phillips – ClickUp
Brandon Allen – ViewLift
Morgan Rabin – Favorite Daughter

Rising Retail Leader – NEW
Cecilia Snider – Five Below

Rising Sales Leader – NEW
Lara Ramos – Oak Essentials
Lexi Keller – The Sociable Society
May Solomon – The Sociable Society
Natalia Becerra – Macmillan Publishers

Rising Social Leader – NEW
Maria Fernanda Llanes Lemos – billups
Maggie McGrath – Skirt PR
Ameera Masud – Digitas
Brandon Monte – DECIEM
Emily Armstrong – Unisys
Kira Henson – Good Apple

Rising Technology Leader
Louisa Rogers – AdRoll
Kayli Nishime – AllGear Digital
Mateusz Jedrocha – Adlook
Caleb Mansfield – Claritas
Anirudh Shah – MediaMint
Pratyush Mulukutla – MediaMint

Rising Video Leader – NEW
David Mwila – Equativ
August Moon – 1440 Media