Theodore Darko, CISO at KBC Bank, Recognized with the Cyber Resilience Award!

The Millennium Alliance is proud to announce that Theodore Darko, CISO at KBC Bank, received the Cyber Resilience Award at our Transformational CISO Assembly, held May 6-7 at The Omni, Fort Lauderdale.

See the full list of winners and learn how you could be our next nominee—visit our Awards Page!

About Theodore Darko

Theodore Darko is a Senior Information Security leader and CISO with 20+ years of experience advancing cybersecurity strategy, enterprise risk management, and regulatory compliance across global financial institutions, including leadership roles at KBC Bank in New York. I build and mature security programs that strengthen resilience, meet regulatory expectations, and deliver measurable business value.

Key achievements include reducing infrastructure risk by 30–40% through secure cloud transformation, achieving zero high‑risk audit findings, improving incident response efficiency by over 35%, and cutting phishing‑related risk by more than 40%.

How Retail Brands Can Cut Through the AI Vendor Noise with Alex Sobol

Contributed by Total Retail

By Alex Sobol, Co-Founder at The Millennium Alliance

As you read this, business leaders across virtually every industry are dealing with the exact same problem: a deluge of sales calls, cold emails, and sketchy LinkedIn pitches from artificial intelligence vendors vying for even a sliver of your attention. For executives in the retail space it can feel like every platform, tool, and quirky startup is promising to boost your bottom line with the help of AI. There are plenty to choose from, and the challenge has moved from finding AI solutions to figuring out which ones are even worth your time to consider.

I’ve seen plenty from both sides of the vendor-retailer relationship — from great SaaS products that struggle to find footing to executives who are paralyzed at the thought of choosing, and especially choosing wrong. What I’ve seen consistently is that retailers that rush into AI partnerships without a clear framework to vet the options routinely end up with expensive pilot programs that never scale. The ones that approach vendor selection with discipline? They tend to get real results.

Read the full article & discover what that discipline looks like in practice here.

About Total Retail

Total Retail is the go-to source for executives looking for the latest news and analysis on the retail industry.

We offer a daily newsletter (Total Retail Report), content-rich website, virtual (e.g., Virtual Exchanges, webinars) and in-person events (Total Retail Tech, Total Retail Roundtables), comprehensive research reports, podcast channels (Total Retail Talks, Total Retail Tech Insights), and video content. This content serves to provide retail executives with the information they need to do their jobs more effectively.

In addition to Total Retail’s content offerings, we aim to help build community within the retail industry. Our in-person and virtual events provide attendees the opportunity to network with their peers, gain industry insight, and improve their careers and the businesses they work for.

For more information, visit www.mytotalretail.com

The Millennium Alliance Appoints Former Adweek Executive Eric Hayden Shakun as Chief Financial Officer to Accelerate Next Phase of Growth

New York, NY — May 11, 2026 — The Millennium Alliance is proud to announce the appointment of Eric Hayden Shakun as its new Chief Financial Officer. A seasoned B2B information and media ecosystem executive, Shakun brings a wealth of experience in driving financial strategy, corporate development, and operational excellence to help steer The Millennium Alliance through its next phase of rapid expansion.

Shakun joins The Millennium Alliance following his successful tenure as Chief Financial Officer at Adweek, where he was instrumental in transforming the iconic media brand, optimizing its industry-leading events, and building investment-grade information platforms serving the marketing community. With an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a proven track record of aligning big-picture vision with actionable financial strategies, Shakun has consistently served as a trusted advisor to CEOs and Boards of Directors across the B2B information landscape.

Prior to Adweek, Shakun held key financial and operational leadership roles, including COO of Euromoney’s Specialist Information division and COO of TheStreet’s Institutional Services platforms BoardEx and The Deal. His unique ability to balance long-term strategic vision with tactical flexibility makes him uniquely suited to lead The Millennium Alliance’s financial operations.

“With its industry-leading platform for C-Suite connectivity, The Millennium Alliance is perfectly positioned for its next stage of evolution. I am excited to work alongside our executive team and BV Investment Partners to capitalize on this momentum. “My focus will be on driving strategic growth and operational excellence that further strengthens The Millennium Alliance’s position as the leading platform for corporate executive education and peer-to-peer engagement.”

In his new role, Shakun will oversee all financial operations, capital allocation, and corporate development strategies, working closely with the executive team to optimize investments in high-ROI channels, expand the organization’s footprint across new high-value markets, and enhance the overall value delivered to Millennium’s Enterprise C-Suite community.

For more information or to get in contact with The Millennium Alliance directly, contact info@mill-all.com.

ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM ALLIANCE

Founded in 2014, The Millennium Alliance is a premier technology and business advisory firm dedicated to transforming the digital enterprise. By bridging the gap between enterprise C-Suite leaders and their technology partners, we’ve become a global leader in corporate-level executive education and peer-to-peer engagement.

We provide unparalleled access to the enterprise technology community through a combination of premium digital properties and high-impact, in-person experiences, helping organizations of all sizes effectively engage this influential audience.

Our Impact & Reach

We provide senior executives with tangible, real-world learning through a mix of curated in-person experiences and a supporting multimedia ecosystem, including:

High-Impact Events: Exclusive multi-day global Assemblies, ABM-focused community dinners, and one-day city sessions designed to foster meaningful connections, actionable insights, and peer-to-peer collaboration
Digital Leadership: Robust online platforms and premium digital properties
Elite Research: Collaborative projects with world-renowned academic institutions and think tanks

A Global Community
Now one of the world’s fastest-growing platforms for the Enterprise C-Suite, the Alliance serves organizations of all sizes across the private and public sectors. Headquartered in Midtown Manhattan with European operations in the heart of London, we continue to evolve as an international hub for the innovation and technology community.

Meet Our Partners at Alluvium: What They’ve Been Building Toward

Contributed by Alluvium

Most health systems are flying blind on access. Our partners at Alluvium are fixing that. With nearly a decade of deployment experience at HCA, CommonSpirit, and other complex systems, they’ve built the platform that manages access like revenue cycle: visible, measurable, actionable. CEO Jake McCarley explains the evolution.

Learn more here.

About Alluvium Health

Alluvium is the enterprise access and capacity performance platform for complex health systems. Alluvium’s solutions address access fragmentation created by M&A, disparate data environments, and point-solution sprawl by turning disconnected access workflows into a single system that can be actively managed.

For more information, visit alluviumhealth.com.

The Millennium Alliance Achieves Great Place To Work® Certification™ Amid Continued Growth

New York, NY — May 8, 2026 — The Millennium Alliance, a leading technology and business advisory firm dedicated to transforming the digital enterprise, today announced that it has been officially recognized as a Great Place To Work® Certified company.

This prestigious recognition is based entirely on employee feedback and reflects the organization’s commitment to fostering a high-trust, people-first culture. Great Place To Work® Certification is widely regarded as a global benchmark for workplace excellence, evaluating organizations on key factors such as trust in leadership, workplace fairness, camaraderie, and employee pride.

At The Millennium Alliance, employees consistently highlight a collaborative and engaging environment, with 98% of team members reporting that it is a great place to work—significantly higher than the average U.S. company.

“We are incredibly proud to be recognized as a Great Place To Work®,” said Alex Sobol, Co-Founder of The Millennium Alliance. “This achievement is a direct reflection of our people and the culture we’ve built together. From day one, our goal has been to create an environment where our team feels empowered, supported, and inspired to do their best work. As we continue to grow, maintaining that culture will remain at the core of everything we do.”

Great Place To Work® Certification™ is awarded to organizations that meet rigorous employee experience benchmarks, with the majority of the evaluation driven by anonymous employee survey responses. The recognition highlights companies that prioritize trust, inclusivity, and engagement—factors proven to drive stronger business performance and employee retention.

This latest recognition further underscores The Millennium Alliance’s commitment to building a workplace culture that not only attracts top talent but also empowers employees to thrive.

ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM ALLIANCE

Our Impact & Reach

We provide senior executives with tangible, real-world learning through a mix of curated in-person experiences and a supporting multimedia ecosystem, including:

High-Impact Events: Exclusive multi-day global Assemblies, ABM-focused community dinners, and one-day city sessions designed to foster meaningful connections, actionable insights, and peer-to-peer collaboration
Digital Leadership: Robust online platforms and premium digital properties
Elite Research: Collaborative projects with world-renowned academic institutions and think tanks

About Great Place To Work®
Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and leadership behaviors proven to drive market-leading performance. Its Certification™ program evaluates organizations based on employee feedback and data-driven insights to identify companies that create outstanding workplace experiences.

#Millenniumlive: The Visibility Gap: How Consumers Search in the Age of AI with Yext

In March 2026, Yext surveyed 1,120 US consumers on how they find local businesses across Google, AI tools, social media, and review platforms. The findings are clear: AI adoption is on the rise, and the customer journey is now fragmented across more channels than most brands are managing. This episode breaks down what changed, where consumers place their trust, and what it takes to stay visible when customers are searching everywhere at once. Joining the podcast is Rebecca Colwell, SVP of Marketing at Yext, the leading brand visibility platform for multi-location brands.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.

About Yext

Yext (NYSE: YEXT) is the leading local brand visibility platform built for a world where discovery and engagement happen everywhere — across AI and traditional search, social, websites, and direct communications. Backed by billions of trusted data points benchmarked against the competition, Yext provides unmatched visibility into brand performance at both the global and hyper-local level. From insight to impact, you get actionable recommendations and a suite of integrated tools to execute at scale. The result: clarity, control, and confidence that customers discover you everywhere it matters. To learn more about Yext, visit Yext.com

Gartner® Report: Top Insights on AI for CMOs with Treasure Data

Contributed by Treasure Data

If there’s one report every marketing leader needs to read in 2026, it’s this one.

The latest Gartner® report—Top Insights on AI for CMOs—is an essential 15-minute crash course for every marketing leader not considering retirement.

Download your complimentary copy, courtesy of Treasure Data, to discover how to:

Balance quick AI wins with long-term strategy
Use AI to build brand trust
Change your channel strategies
Optimize your tech stack for AI
Prep for the impact of agentic AI on your team

👉 Get ahead of AI—download the report now.

About Treasure Data

Treasure Data provides global brands the trusted data foundation and intelligence to know and engage every customer with hyper-personalized experiences. The company’s Intelligent CDP, AI Agent Foundry, and AI Marketing Cloud together form the AI-enabled marketing platform to help companies reduce total cost of ownership and power revenue growth through more relevant engagement and AI decisioning.

To learn more, visit www.treasuredata.com.

#Millenniumlive: Health Plans Need Help, Now: Breaking Free From Systems & Silos Holding Down Plan Performance with 4L Data Intelligence

Guests Clay Wilemon from 4L, and Christina Hedge from Booz Allen, break down why health plans are under more pressure than ever, and explore the challenges driving financial losses across both commercial and government-backed plans. They discuss what “health plans” really encompass today—from commercial insurers and TPAs to CMS programs and the VA, highlighting the unique operational and financial hurdles each faces. Clay shares 4L’s approach to transforming performance, emphasizing interconnected workflows, breaking down costly silos, and how 4L’s partnership with Booz Allen combines advanced AI, cybersecurity, and large-scale delivery expertise to modernize healthcare ecosystems. The episode also introduces the 4L Health Plan Performance Suite—an integrated platform designed to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enable truly high-performing health plans.

About the Guests:

Christina is a seasoned executive leader with over 30 years of experience driving healthcare transformation across commercial plans, federal programs, provider contracting, and digital health innovation. As CMS Market Lead and Federal Healthcare Payer Practice Lead at Booz Allen Hamilton, she collaborates with federal payers (CMS, the Department of Veterans Affairs, TRICARE, and the World Trade Center Health Program) to spearhead impactful change at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Previously, Christina held leadership roles at WellDoc, Kaiser Permanente, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, bringing innovative mobile apps to market to improve health outcomes, managing multimillion-dollar portfolios, and fostering payer-provider collaboration. Known for her operational expertise and strategic vision, she is adept at addressing complex healthcare challenges while uniting payers, providers, and policymakers to create sustainable solutions.

Clay serves as CEO and Chairman at 4L Data Intelligence ™. He has helped in launching over 500 new healthcare brands and has co-founded multiple healthcare technology companies. Clay is also a partner in the Visionary Venture funds. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Octane, a Southern California non-profit economic development organization that has helped early-stage tech and med-tech companies raise over $5.9 billion in funding. He holds a BA degree from Vanderbilt University.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.

About 4L Data Intelligence

4L Data Intelligence™ is the Integr8 AI™ powered company focused on helping our customers and partners deliver better healthcare, insurance and government services at a lower cost by improving data, provider, payment and decision integrity. We are committed to USING THE POWER OF Integr8 AI™ TECHNOLOGY FOR GOOD by helping healthcare payers, health systems, governments and insurers deliver better services and care and reduce trillions of dollars in out-of-control costs by making actionable data accessible in real-time, automating inefficient processes and preventing fraudulent, wasteful and abusive payments that drive up costs. For more information visit 4LData.com.

Best B2B Sales Practices in the “Age of Bombardment” with Alex Sobol

Contributed by CustomerThink.com

Featuring Alex Sobol, Co-Founder at The Millennium Alliance

We are living in an age of “information overload,” with the constant barrage of apps, messages and updates exceeding the brain’s capacity to process. This trend is clearly playing out in the current advertising and marketing landscape. With a relentless focus on performance, today’s brands are pumping out ever-increasing volumes of ads and marketing campaigns – a “high volume” strategy for finding the winners fast.

According to Hero Rankings, the average U.S. citizen encounters anywhere from 4,000–10,000 ads per day (especially online), up from around 500 per day in the 1970s. With individuals consciously registering less than 100 ads on an average day, this advertising and marketing onslaught makes it exponentially harder for brands to stand out.

In a B2B sales context, this translates to customers and prospects being more distracted — and having lower attention spans, according to researchers at Northeastern University — than ever before. This raises the bar for garnering a prospect’s attention higher than it’s ever been. It’s not that you’re a bad salesperson, unlikeable or a failure – you just haven’t adapted to the new B2B sales climate.

Read the full article & stay ahead here.

About CustomerThink.com

CustomerThink is a global online community of business leaders striving to create profitable customer-centric enterprises. The site serves millions of visitors per year, from over 200 countries around the world.

Major topics include Customer Experience, Customer Engagement, Leadership, and Technology. This is the place to learn about every facet of customer-centric business management in articles, blogs, interviews, and news.

For more information, visit www.customerthink.com

Agentic AI Is Forcing Analytics and Operations to Converge with EDB

Contributed by EnterpriseDB

The future of AI platforms lies in converged capabilities—and sovereign infrastructure will decide the winners.

The past two years have seen an unprecedented wave of investment across the data platform landscape. Databricks, Snowflake, Salesforce, and others have spent billions acquiring database and governance technologies. That spending is not incidental. It is a signal.

We have left the world of single-system-wins-all. For decades, the enterprise data stack expanded by adding specialized platforms for transactions, analytics, governance, and AI experimentation. That approach worked when workloads were predictable and separated by time and function.

Agentic AI changes that. Agents collapse traditional workload boundaries. They retrieve, analyze, decide, and act, often in the same workflow, against live enterprise data.

Enterprises now need an AI and data constitution. One sovereign foundation where analytics, operations, and AI are governed together by design. In this era, the winners will not be those with a single best-in-class capability. They will be those who converge capabilities securely and operate as one sovereign platform.

Read the full article to stay ahead.

About EnterpriseDB

EDB Postgres® AI (EDB PG AI) is the first open, enterprise-grade sovereign data and AI platform—secure, compliant, and scalable, on-premises and across clouds.

Built on Postgres, the world’s leading database, EDB PG AI unifies transactional, analytical, and AI workloads, enabling organizations to operationalize their data and LLMs while maintaining control over sovereign environments. EDB PG AI is supported by a global partner network and delivers up to 99.999% availability as well as hybrid management and a built-in AI factory.

As one of the most active contributors to the PostgreSQL project, EDB is deeply invested in the vitality of the global community.

To learn more, visit enterprisedb.com.