The Team

Head of Global Digital Marketing & Analytics Solutions at Estee Lauder

Sahal Laher

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Sahal is an established and influential digital executive skilled in orchestrating transformative business strategy to drive competitive growth and profitability. After a 12 year career in management consulting with Accenture and Deloitte, he has held executive level roles at iconic brands in the retail and consumer business industry including The Estee Lauder Companies, Brooks Brothers, Stride Rite and DXL.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
Enigma is built to solve two of the biggest challenges for the ad-tech world: the elimination of cookies and the implementation of customer privacy laws such as GDPR. The first party permissioned data platform is the only such solution on the market.

Product Counsel at Google

Britanie Hall

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Britanie counsels on myriad aspects of their privacy, cybersecurity, and information practices and on a wide variety of topics, including GDPR, the Internet of Things, e-commerce, facial recognition, social media, ad-tech, health privacy, children’s privacy, and artificial intelligence. Britanie has represented clients in consumer protection and class action litigation and in investigations by various government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights, and state Attorneys General. She is designated as a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
Enigma is a built around privacy fundamentals of consumer consent, control, and ecosystem accountability. Equally as important, the Enigma platform is a duel threat – it creates the conditions necessary for a privacy centric AND economically health ecosystem.

Senior AdTech Executive at Fyber

James Hughes

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
James has spent his career in AdTech connecting publishers and advertisers and has held senior level positions at Fyber (acquired $600mm), Verizon Media, and Millenial Media.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
As someone who has spent the last 10 years of his life working directly with publishers, we are witnessing a giant paradigm shift in the way that data is transacted and utilized. It is imperative that the industry starts to embrace first party data, and the ever evolving ways to drive monetization results.

Co-Founder of Arbor (acq’d by NYSE: RAMP)

Nikhil Dixit

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Nikhil is an early stage startup advisor and angel investor. He was Co-founder of Arbor, a customer intelligence platform that was acquired by LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP) in 2016. At LiveRamp, Nik was SVP of Business Development and GM of the Identity Network. Prior to that he was Head of New Business Development for Google’s Media Platforms division. Nik has been a founder or senior leader at three separate venture backed companies with successful exits in the marketing & advertising technology space.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
We are living in a new digital era where ad tech companies, brands, and publishers must make user privacy central to their strategy in order to survive and prosper. Privacy and consent should no longer be seen as a boring afterthought but rather an opportunity to innovate and differentiate by delivering better, more personalized customer experiences. By empowering users to control their own data, companies will reap the rewards of increased brand loyalty, improved customer retention, and higher ROI.

Deputy Chair Global Data Practice at Squire Patton Boggs

Alan Friel

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Alan is a thought leader in digital media, intellectual property, and privacy and consumer protection law, with three decades of relevant experience to address the intersection of law and technology. Alan’s expertise has been drawn on by publications like the Wall Street Journal.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
There are many companies trying to help the advertising industry solve the challenges presented by the demise of third party cookies, and privacy laws increasing transparency and choice requirements. Enigma presents first party value propositions for consumers, brands and publishers alike. I’m pleased to be part of the conversation as they evolve their services.

Investor & Advisor in early stage startups

Steve Hartman

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Steve has enjoyed an extensive marketing career at brands like eBay, CubeSmart, Urban Outfitters, Eddie Bauer, and Windsor Fashion. As a Chief Marketing Officer he is skilled in the art of brand building. Over the course of his career, Steve has bridged the gap between brands and their customers.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
Ad tech and marketers for too long have been relying on third party data as the lifeblood that has driven their results. Consumers have woken up to the fact that they have become the product and regulators have stepped in to protect them. The time for a first party data ecosystem has fully arrived. The vision of Enigma Data is the most comprehensive I’ve seen, and the team is the right one to bring this to life. Enigma Data is a game changer for consumers to have full control over their data and realize the true value of it, and for marketers to have that 1:1 relationship with consumers that they’ve desired.

Senior Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble

Sean Flanery

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Sean is an accomplished senior brand manager with a laser focus on the intersection of traditional brand building strategies and the new digital world. In his current role on Old Spice at Procter & Gamble, he leads the influencer/celebrity digital creator strategy. In his previous role, Sean was a key contributor in the masterbrand overhaul at The Kroger Company, focusing on their loyalty program, brand architecture, seasonal activations and ensuring consistent look, tone and feel in an omnichannel environment. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work on the agency, CPG and retail sides of the business. Sean believes that bolstering the bottom line and bettering humanity are not mutually exclusive and can be achieved through genuine human connection, creativity and willingness to periodically change the lens through which we view our world.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
Enigma is a highly innovative platform that fuels mutually beneficial consumer-to-brand permissioned connections that not only powers a brand’s ability to connect with customers in the digital world, but also ensures that customers are in the driver’s seat, to control consent and sharing of their own data.

Senior AdTech Exec & Managing Partner at U of Digital, SVP at Exponential

Rick Abell

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Rick Abell is Managing Partner at U of Digital, where he is focused on making digital marketing a better industry through credible, digestible, and applicable education. Prior to U of Digital, Rick was SVP of Supply Strategy at Exponential, where he developed the company’s inventory offering, partnering closely with premium publishers and programmatic platforms. Rick has also held various roles in Product and Operations at Aol, further contributing to his nearly 20 years in the ad tech space.

In addition to his role at U of Digital, Rick serves on local nonprofit boards Live Baltimore and Rebuilding Together Baltimore. Rick holds a BS in Engineering Sciences from Loyola University and an MBA from the University of Maryland.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
The Ad Tech industry is at an important juncture with the pending demise of the third-party cookie. Companies in the space are having to critically review their approach to data and consumer privacy, and in some cases, completely reinvent their tech stack. Enigma is tackling this challenge by putting the consumer first, giving the consumer full transparency and control of how their data is shared with the brands that they know and trust. I’m excited to be partnering with the seasoned team at Enigma to help bring this choice to the consumer.

VP Brand Performance and Publishing at AdColony

Justin Welter

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Justin is a senior AdTech executive with 15+ years in the industry. As AdColony’s VP of Brand Performance and Publishing, Justin works to develop AdColony’s marketplace by connecting the world’s largest brands and agencies to the audiences behind the industry’s most popular apps. Prior to AdColony, Justin was an early employee at Google and Facebook where he managed some of those companies most strategic advertising relationships. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan with Highest Distinction.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
There is a paradigm shift in how data is being considered. Privacy is becoming more and more important, and user’s deserve control over how their data is accessed and monetized. Enigma’s Blockchain technology allows consumers to easily offer those permissions and be rewarded for doing so. It also allows brands to establish direct relationships with consumers, at scale, without added cost or compliance issue. With this in mind, Enigma’s decentralized privacy platform envisions the future of privacy management and compliance, and serves as the gold standard for the AdTech industry going forward.

EVP & Board Partner | PE Acquisitions | Retail & Merchandising Executive

Philip Vostrejs

Enigma Advisor

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
Enigma offers something transformative for organizations and customers to safely and accurately evolve in the digital and relationship management world. The impact is truly unlimited with billions of marketing and promotional investments at stake. This goes beyond expanding regulations but rather towards a more natural, productive manner in which organizations and consumers can interact with one another.

DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL PLANNING & ANALYSIS AT VERRA MOBILITY

Brian Jenkins

Enigma Advisor

BIO:
Brian is an experienced and accomplished financial leader with over 12 years of experience working in industries such as auto retail, warranty services and smart transportation. Throughout his career, Brian has worked across many facets of the business, partnering on financial, operational, and strategic initiatives.

WHY I JOINED ENIGMA:
Consumers have grown increasingly frustrated with how their personal information is shared, often without consent. Enigma seeks to mitigate that concern by creating a personal relationship between consumers and their favorite brands, backed by consent . With the consumer in command of consent, not only will they feel more secure sharing information, brands will be in position to provide their customers with a better experience.