Atlanta Integrated Marketing Summit 2026

Featured Speakers at AIMS 2026

Meet the marketing leaders taking the stage at AIMS 2026, sharing real-world perspectives on brand building, transformation, and modern marketing.

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  Laura Knebusch

  About

  Senior Vice President, Marketing & Consumer Experience

  Session: How Heritage Brands Win With Modern Marketing

  

  About Laura Knebusch

  Laura Knebusch is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Consumer Experience at Georgia-Pacific, where she leads an 80+ person organization spanning media, creative, design, e-commerce, digital marketing, shopper marketing, martech, and innovation.

  Under her leadership, the company’s portfolio of iconic brands, including Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, Brawny, Sparkle, Vanity Fair, and Dixie, reflect her impact in modernizing how legacy brands connect with consumers through sharper insights, stronger creative, and more meaningful brand experiences. Her team leverages purpose, data, and technology to deliver more relevant, insight-led marketing and elevate the end-to-end consumer journey.

  Throughout her tenure at Georgia-Pacific, Laura has held multiple leadership roles, including leading marketing capability development and serving as General Manager of the paper towel and napkin category, where she drove business performance and category growth.

  Prior to joining Georgia-Pacific, Laura built her foundation in brand building and consumer insights at Procter & Gamble, where she worked in the personal health care division.

  Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Wake Forest University and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

  Known for her strategic mindset and passion for innovation, Laura brings a distinctive perspective on modern marketing, where brand building, technology, and consumer experience intersect to drive meaningful growth.

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  Khalilah Cooper

  About

  Vice President of Brand Strategy, Advertising & Media

  Session: Building Brand Meaning Through Experience & Storytelling

  Read speaker feature →

  

  About Khalilah Cooper

  Khalilah Cooper is the Vice President of Brand Strategy, Advertising & Media at Chick-fil-A, Inc., where she focuses daily on building a brand that inspires people to take good care of each other.

  Khalilah leads a team that develops marketing strategy to drive growth, creates and executes messaging to enhance brand love, and supports Operators as they serve and connect daily with millions of Customers.

  Having joined the company in 2013, Khalilah is passionate about growing the Chick-fil-A brand to have a positive influence domestically and internationally. Prior to her current role, she led the Restaurant Design team and spent more than 8 years leading strategy, innovation, and execution centered on the Customer experience, including mobile ordering, catering, drive-thru, dine-in, Team Member apparel, and hospitality.

  Stemming from her passion for leadership development and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, Khalilah helped establish Women in Business at Chick-fil-A. Serving as Co-Director for over 7 years, she dedicated herself to the professional development of female talent within the company. Since its inception in 2014, Women in Business grew from a small group to a movement of over 800 members.

  Before joining Chick-fil-A, Khalilah was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company, serving consumer-packaged goods, retail, and non-profit clients. She rejoined the firm full time after graduating from Harvard Business School.

  After receiving her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University, Khalilah joined Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products as a Scientist and later transitioned into a Go-to-Market leader role for the Aveeno brand. She led new product launches, cost improvement projects, and multiple reformulations across a variety of well-known brands including Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Ambi, Cortaid, Band-Aid, and Johnson’s Baby.

  Growing up on the Southside of Chicago, Khalilah has a passion for educational equality and youth-focused mentorship, particularly within underserved communities. She serves as a mentor for aspiring leaders and is also a Sunday School teacher for preschoolers and middle schoolers.

  Khalilah lives in Fayetteville, GA with her husband, Edwin, and two sons, Aiden and Ethan.

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  Brian Canning

  About

  Chief Marketing Officer

  Session: Marketing Through Transformation: Reinvigorating an Iconic Brand

  

  About Brian Canning

  Brian Canning is Chief Marketing Officer at Hertz, where he’s helping reimagine the future of travel with one of America’s most iconic brands.

  Before Hertz, Brian spent 15 years at Delta Air Lines in a variety of marketing, loyalty and customer experience leadership roles.

  A proud alum of the University of Colorado and the University of Florida, he believes great marketing should drive tangible results, be memorable, and create an emotional connection — which explains the recent launch of the Hertz Gold Squad, a group of golden retrievers whose sole mission is to bring joy to travelers around the world.

  At home, Brian shares life with his wife, Rebecca, sons Julian and Cole, and their dog, Pepper. When he’s not thinking about travel or marketing, you’ll usually find him volunteering on a Little League field. Coaching his sons’ teams keeps him grounded, competitive and regularly reminded that not every audience follows the brief.

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  Just Announced

  Wendy Martin

  About

  Chief Marketing Officer

  Session: The Funnel Is Only the Beginning: Rethinking How Modern Marketing Creates Growth

  

  About Wendy Martin

  Wendy Martin is Chief Marketing Officer at Cricket Wireless.

  Wendy Martin is a seasoned C-suite marketing and business leader with hands-on experience driving growth, building brands, and transforming businesses across retail, consumer, and telecommunications. Wendy currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Cricket Wireless where she leads brand, customer acquisition and retention, product marketing, digital experience, creative, merchandising, field marketing, ecommerce, and integrated marketing for the AT&T prepaid portfolio. Previously, as Chief Marketing Officer, Wendy helped scale Floor & Decor from a regional flooring retailer into a multi-billion national brand, including a successful IPO. She built expertise across brand, digital, CRM, customer insights, creative, and performance marketing. Earlier in her career, Wendy held senior marketing leadership roles driving significant growth and brand transformation at iconic brands, The Home Depot and Express. Throughout her career, Wendy has focused on connecting brand, customer, data, and business performance - building successful marketing organizations and capabilities that turn customer insights into meaningful growth. Wendy is a mom of three college-aged kids (go Buckeyes, Bruins, and Hoyas) and three dogs. She and her husband, Rick, enjoy a broad range of sports, travel, and cheering for their alma mater Wake Forest.