David Reis,
CEO and Founder

David graduated Magna Cum Laude with College Honors from UCLA with a degree in Political Science, and received UCLA’s prestigious CAPPP Fellowship.  He went on to intern at The White House, serving as Assistant Director of Television Services, where he worked closely with key government figures including President Bill Clinton, now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President, Al Gore.

After leaving public service, David worked in new media and PR, developing his digital marketing and guerilla outreach expertise as the co-founder of guerillaPR, before starting DEI in early 2000. As a founding member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), David co-authored for the word-of-mouth marketing industry the “Ethics Code,” which became the basis for the social media industry’s ethics code.  DEI’s clientele roster includes Fortune 100/500 companies such as Kraft, Domino Foods, LifeLock, Safeway/Vons/Pavilions, Diageo, P&G, The City of Las Vegas, NBC, and Toyota. 

Lou Cuming
COO

With over 25 years of comprehensive experience leading organizations and business units to achieve corporate goals, Lou is a successful leader who has developed and implemented long-range strategic and tactical business plans. During Lou’s career at Allied Digital, he was responsible for the company’s domestic distribution, packaging and client services operations.  Prior to his association with DEI Worldwide in 2005, Lou­ was the COO of a division of a publicly traded apparel company where he was responsible for worldwide manufacturing and distribution of private label branded apparel for major retailers such as Federated Department Stores, Neiman Marcus and Saks. 

Lou’s approach to embracing and managing emerging technologies to enhance traditional marketing opportunities was developed during his tenure at eNutrition (an American Media company).  During the online explosion of the late 90’s, Lou was recruited to develop the organizational and technical infrastructure required to launch a high growth online Nutritional Supplement store.  At eNutrition, Lou was part of the Executive Management team that successfully secured $50 Million in first round funding.

Tyler Starrine
VP, Campaign Development

With over 5 years of experience in the Social Media space, Tyler offers extensive knowledge and experience in the development, management and execution of Social Media, Interactive Word of Mouth and Blogger Influence campaigns. Since 2006, Tyler has led the development of Social Media strategies for clients such as Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Sony and has navigated the implementation of Social Media initiatives for highly regulated industries including: Financial Services, Pharmaceutical and Alcohol brands. 

Tyler has acted as the Account Lead for clients such as Kraft, Safeway, Smirnoff, Royal Caribbean and Motorola and has been instrumental in helping clients expand their marketing into new, innovative areas of digital outreach and Social Media.

Marc Block
VP, Strategy and Business Development

As VP of strategy and business development, Marc provides daily oversight of account strategy. He holds an MBA in Marketing from New York University and over 15 years marketing experience from both the agency and client side across a number of industries. He has held senior management positions at agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Grey Global Group, as well as six years running marketing for national multi-channel retailer, Virgin Megastores.

Hilary Ratner
Director, Influencer Relations

Hilary leads DEI’s influencer outreach practice, managing relationships with an elite network of influential bloggers.   She is the author behind popular baking blog, Nosh With Me, earning accolades such as “The Top 100 Food Blogs You Can’t Afford to Miss” (FoodVu), “Top 50 Baking Blogs” (Blog Rank), and “77 Mouth-Watering Baking Blogs You Need to Bookmark” (Culinary Arts College). Prior to DEI, Hilary was a technical writer for SCPIE Holdings, Inc. and People’s Bank of California.  She lives in Los Angeles, where she is active in Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.  Hilary has a BA in communication studies from California State University, Northridge.

Christina Mejia
Director, Analytics and Reporting

Christina is responsible for measuring campaign performance, as well as translating the data into meaningful insights.  Prior to DEI, Christina served as Director of Research & Analytics at Fanscape for eight years. Christina holds a degree from the Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California.