Joel Lunenfeld

Vice President, Global Brand Strategy, Twitter

He has been one of the top influencers in the digital space for the last 16 years. Joel is known for encouraging his clients and teams to venture down uncharted paths to discover new ways of igniting conversations between brands and people. At his heart, he is an entrepreneur that believes deeply in the power of creating movements and the growing role technology plays in transparently connecting brands and people.

Graduating SUNY Buffalo in 1999 with a degree in Cultural Anthropology, his marketing career started with an internship at the Empire Sports Network working for the Buffalo Sabres. After graduating, the explosion of the digital landscape thrust Joel into this emerging field. Working at Exceed as a media planner and then at 360i, it became very clear that the new way of media, communication planning, and creative ideation favored his skills as a free thinker who understands culture and people first, marketing second. This led him to his first defining career chapter in 2001. When the bubble burst and many were abandoning the digital media industry, Joel decided to go all in.

As a founding member and eventual CEO of Moxie Interactive, a top full-service digital agency, his accomplishments in this ten-year post helped shape the digital industry in ways still felt today. By 2008 Moxie was the largest advertising agency (digital or traditional) in Atlanta and in the entire Southeast. His work leading client engagement with world-class brands such as Verizon Wireless, L’Oreal, Twentieth Century Fox, and Coca-Cola earned him a place at the table, innovating with the titans of social and digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter in their earliest days.

This lead Joel to his current role and next defining chapter of his career at Twitter. Today he leads a global revenue and partnerships strategy team in over 30 countries, defining and co-creating the future of Twitter’s advertising business with the world's most iconic brands. In his four plus years at Twitter, his team has launched their brand advertising business, growing from zero to $1.4B in 2014. His specialist team works with marketers and agencies to inspire, educate, and partner to achieve results and innovation together.

He is a strong advocate for the future of creativity in the industry. In 2014, Joel created a short form educational film featured at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity called Project #Live, capturing the new class of live, nimble, and iterative storytelling across film, TV, brands, news, and politics. He has held board positions with the IAB and is actively sitting on the board of the Global Art Directors Club, chairing their annual ADC Digital Awards. Joel is actively involved in ADC Portfolio events around the world, personally working with aspiring creatives to guide their books and careers. He and his wife Heddy, a fellow advertising professional, then department chair at The Creative Circus portfolio school, and current instructor at Miami Ad School founded an annual scholarship in 2011 for aspiring young creatives in school.

Joel also cares deeply about giving back to society. In 2014 Joel co-founded a non-profit -Guardian Training- working with at-risk youth to teach and grow self esteem through martial arts. Offering an innovative point system rather than payment, the gym teaches boxing and jui-jitsu while giving back to each other and the community. Joel and his team are opening the doors to this community center in Oakland in 2015. Joel also serves on the board of Hire Heroes USA, a nonprofit that helps veterans and their spouses find jobs and transition from military to civilian life.

More than any career accomplishment, Joel is focused deeply on the love of his family. His growing tribe includes his wife Heddy, daughters Fiona and Lexington, and dogs Izzy and Chloe. His family is his proudest accomplishment to date.

Last Updated: January 13, 2016