Leadership
Ben Greenzweig : Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Benjamin Greenzweig is a leading events and business development professional whose experience includes over two decades working with media, technology, retail, consumer goods, financial services, energy, food & beverage, defense, government and professional services executives across the globe on a variety of topics.
After a distinguished career defined by consistently driving growth and exceeding revenue targets at IIR Informa (now KNect365), The Economist and American Conference Institute, Mr. Greenzweig launched Momentum in 2012, developing cutting-edge conferences for the legal, life sciences, healthcare, financial services, retail and consumer goods industries. He currently serves as the Company’s Chief Executive.
In 2014, Momentum launched CaaS, Conference as a Service, a complete end-to-end solution that delivers professionally researched, developed and executed virtual or live events for trade associations, non-profits, media companies, academic institutions and corporations. To date, Momentum has proudly delivered this service to some of the largest industry players including The Wharton School of Business, Fortune Magazine, the Data & Marketing Association, Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University, IBM, EY, The International Cannabis Bar Association and Entrepreneur Magazine.
In 2020, I launched Balanced, a division of Momentum that provides a catalogue of trusted knowledge about psychedelics, curated from the patient’s perspective, in order to help the curious make decisions about the treatment of their mental health.
Ben made his first sale when he was 5, has run two half marathons, is a long-suffering Mets fan which he is convinced only breeds strong character and unwavering resolve, got engaged on the stage of a country music concert, is originally from the New York City area and currently resides in South Carolina with his wife Casey, his three children and two rescued shelter dogs, Shelby and Ty.
Bryon Main : Chief Operating Officer & Co-Principal
Bryon Main specializes in the organization and development of B2B conferences, providing platforms that drive industry education and networking opportunities. Bryon joined Momentum, the “what’s next” conference organization as Chief Operating Officer and Co-Principal in July 2018. Momentum was founded on a mission to connect people through live events and unique experiences across industries and topics including Blockchain, CX, FinTech, RegTech, FoodTech, XR, Analytics, Professional Services, Retail, CPG, Energy, Manufacturing, Media and Entertainment.
Mr. Main is the former CEO and Co-Founder of ExL Events, and currently serves as a special advisor to the company. ExL is an industry leader in developing innovative, educational conferences, seminars, and training courses to life sciences executives. ExL Events helps life sciences professionals understand and embrace the latest tools and strategies allowing them to improve access to life saving and life enhancing therapies. After leading and growing ExL over 14 years, they were acquired by Questex Events in June 2016.
My work passions and areas of expertise are: Team Building, Technology Implementation, Problem-solving, Marketing Automation, Lead Generation, Business Development, Conference Planning, Contract Negotiation, and am a certified Salesforce.com administrator.
Shari Gelfand : Managing Director & Chief Marketing Officer
Shari is an accomplished marketing leader with 20+ years of experience in the B2B event industry. Her passion in marketing began at the Institute for International Research, then ExL Events, and now continues at Momentum. Expert in multi-channel marketing for live and virtual events, Shari also excels at creative development, project management, search, website and data strategy. She loves spending time with her family and traveling in her spare time.
Kristen Hunter : Vice President, Content
Leveraging 20+ years of experience producing conferences in the life science industries, Kristen brings with her to Momentum a strong portfolio of established events, the experience, drive, and ambition to build and manage a team of Conference Producers and the tools to position them for success.
Kristen joined Momentum in January of 2022 after leaving Fierce Life Sciences, a division of Questex, as Senior Event Director. She proved agility, adaptability and durability during a job-changing pandemic that occurred shortly after a company-wide operations/system integration was initiated. She embraced the disruption as a chance to innovate and took the lead on reinventing established events as COVID-friendly virtual options. Experimenting with different mediums and offerings during this fast-changing time, she leveraged decades of experience to quickly determine the best and most strategic approaches, generating many best practices and guidance tools for colleagues to follow, as everyone quickly adapted to the COVID times.
Having started her career at the Biotech Industry Organization (BIO), she then moved to IIR, now Informa, where she met Bryon Main, currently Momentum’s COO and Co-Principal. She then followed Bryon to his newly created company, ExL Events, and helped build the company from five employees to 85 annual events, when it was acquired by Fierce/Questex. She’s thrilled to be back working with Bryon in a small company environment and excited to help Momentum reach its full potential.
Kristen grew up in Annapolis, Maryland but is now a Jersey Girl residing in Basking Ridge, New Jersey with her active-duty Coast Guard Officer spouse, two kids and two cats.
Christine Bouchard : Director of Operations
Originally from Connecticut, she finds herself to be comfortable with southern life in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Christine has a passion for today’s youth and volunteers regularly for her church youth group and the local JROTC and as an assistant softball coach. She loves a good run and a good beach read. Christine loves spending time with her husband and 2 kids, especially in her happy place of Disney World.
In Memory Of Matt Godson, Co-Founder
In 2012 Matt left the American Conference Institute to launch Momentum Consulting and Momentum Events.
Born in London, Matt Godson studied Economics at Manchester University before joining Baker Tilly Accountants. Matt joined the Events Team at the Business Design Centre in London in 1994 launching, leading and supporting several high-profile conference and exhibitions including IDW, ART, and London Music Week.
In 1997 Matt joined the London Telecoms event team at the Institute for International Research producing more than 120 annual events globally in the Telecoms, Technology and Broadcasting sectors. Transferring to the New York offices of IIR in late 2000 and promoted to Regional Marketing Director, Matt launched IIRs Large Scale Event initiative with the highly successful Pharmaceutical Marketing Congress, CRM Focus, Design and Culture, Prepaid Markets Expo, In Building, CDMA World Congress and many more.
In 2004 Matt joined the American Conference Institute as Head of Marketing and assumed responsibility for the US and European Marketing Operations in 2007. Matt was an accomplished trainer and public speaker having presented at industry conferences in the US, UK and Europe.
On July 31 2017, Matt passed away after a quick battle with gliomatosis cerebri, an extremely rare brain cancer. He was one day shy of his 45th birthday. Matt is survived by his wife, fashion designer Emily Shalant and his sons Charlie & Giles.
A beloved husband, father, son, brother, friend and partner, his legacy will live on, preserved by the countless lives he touched, the people he made better, the ideas he created and the vision that helped form Momentum.
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