Gary Schwartz

Over the past 25 years, Gary has played a leadership role in the high-tech industry founding, investing and managing a number of companies in the health, marketing, social media, automotive, blockchain and financial sectors. 

He is a six-time recipient of the Deloitte Fast 50 Award and was recognized as the "2013 Mobile Commerce Evangelist of the Year" and "2014 US Retail Innovator of the Year." 

Gary is a Simon & Schuster NYC award-winning author with titles that include "THE IMPULSE ECONOMY," "FAST SHOPPER, SLOW STORE" and is presently writing a book on the AI called "IF THINGS COULD SPEAK." 

He is President of the Canadian Lenders Association and the Global Director of the Location Based Marketing Association. He is the recipient of the Macromedia People Choice Award, Retail Touchpoints Customer Engagement Award, as well as the Dodge Foundation Award for Innovation. 

In 2002, Gary ran the first cross-carrier short code campaign in North America. In 2006, Gary founded and chaired mobile committee for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) helping to establish a joint task force between the IAB, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and the Media Rating Council (MRC) to develop global, auditable mobile measurement standards for which he received an IAB award for industry excellence in 2009.

Gary was elected for three terms as the Chairman of MEF North America (www.mobileecosystemforum.com) with a remit to develop a mobile commerce practice to service payment vendors, retailers and content owners for which he received a MEF award for industry excellence in 2010.

Gary is alumnus of Columbia University in New York and the Stanford University Center in Yokohama, where he was the recipient of the Asia and Japan Foundation Fellowships