Category: Speaker

Ms. Trainor is a strategic analyst and operational efficiency specialist with 12+ years of direct selling experience.  She spent the first 8 years of her direct selling career as a corporate employee for one of the top 100 largest global direct selling companies before transitioning to lead the strategic sales and operational launches of two direct selling start-ups over the next three years.

Some of the highlights of her career as a corporate employee were co-authoring and managing the successful rollout of the evolved Integrated Compensation Plan for Take Shape For Life (now OPTAVIA). Another highlight was assisting with the acquisition, purchase and transition of Lulu Avenue. This effort was highlighted both internally with the conversion of staff, operations, and inventory, as well as externally for the field in terms of communicating and teaching new business rules, compensation plan, and branding.

After the launch of the two start-ups as a corporate employee, Ms. Trainor decided to move into consulting where she now leverages her extensive skill set and experience to assist companies of all sizes. She enjoys sharing her knowledge in the areas of inventory management, support systems, compensation plans, recognition, incentives, project planning/ management, and process documentation with companies looking to create efficiencies and develop solutions.

A member of the firm’s Executive Committee, John Villafranco provides litigation and counseling services, with a focus on advertising law matters and consumer protection. John is highly respected for consistently delivering comprehensive legal counsel that emphasizes risk analysis and sound business practices for corporations involved in advertising and marketing. On the regulatory side, clients tell the U.S. Legal 500 that John is “arguably the best advertising lawyer in the U.S.” and “consistently provides good advice and service.”

John’s litigation experience includes consumer class action defense in state and federal court, and Lanham Act litigation involving Internet, telecommunications, fast food, dietary supplement and consumer product companies. Among John’s clients are technology service providers, wireless advertisers, cloud-based software companies, international and domestic telecommunication companies, major retailers and direct marketers, as well as manufacturers of dietary supplements, degradable plastics, automobiles, tires, fuel and engine oils, home appliances and other consumer products.

In addition, John represents clients in advertising substantiation proceedings and investigations conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general. Named Washington, D.C.’s Advertising “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers^® in 2011, clients applaud John’s practical advice, telling Chambers that he “knows the FTC and the law better than anyone.”  John also represents challengers and advertisers before the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Advertising Review Board (NARB). Moreover, he counsels clients regarding issues involving privacy, data security, electronic commerce, dietary supplement labeling, promotion and marketing, fair credit reporting, multi-level marketing, debt collection practices, truth-in-lending, health and safety claims, environmental marketing and standard certification.

John is considered an authority on a range of issues involving consumer protection law. He serves as editor-in-chief of the American Bar Association (ABA) Consumer Protection Law Developments treatise; was editorial chair on a year-long project that culminated in a report entitled “Self-Regulation of Advertising in the United States:  An Assessment of the National Advertising Division” (Apr. 2015); is an author and featured columnist on advertising law issues; and is a frequent speaker at ABA and FTC programs and other advertising law seminars. Notably, John has conducted advertising law workshops for many corporations, including Sprint, AOL, 3M, Whirlpool, Burger King, BellSouth, R.J. Reynolds, XO Communications, Michelin, Bissell and Iovate Health Sciences, among others. In addition, he chaired the 2007 and 2009 ABA Conferences on Consumer Protection, as well as the 2011 and 2012 ABA Antitrust Section Spring Meeting.

John Webb, Senior Legal Counsel for Policy, Advocacy and Compliance for the Direct Selling Association, works on a variety of legal issues, business ethics, and state and federal legislative and regulatory matters. Prior to joining DSA, he served on the leadership team of a successful congressional campaign and then served as a professional staffer for a congressman in Washington, DC as an advisor, identifying and coordinating legislative initiatives and managing committee activities.  Webb is a graduate of the University of North Alabama with a degree in Business Management. After college, he served on active duty with the 101st Airborne Division and then spent more than 10 years in the reserves, including as a member of the 11th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Webb holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Regent University School of Law and is a member of the District of Columbia and U.S. Supreme Court Bars.

Travis Wilson is the Co-CEO of Noonday Collection, a socially conscious, direct sales fashion company. Noonday works with artisan business partners in fourteen countries, including Guatemala, India, Peru, Ethiopia, and Uganda, to create on-trend products that delight US consumers and empower over 4,500 artisans across the globe. 

Under Travis’ leadership, Noonday Collection has grown from a boot-strapped startup working out of a spare bedroom, to become the largest fair-trade artisan accessories company in the world.  Travis and Noonday Collection have been recognized both locally and nationally. In 2015, Noonday Collection was named the fastest-growing company in Austin, Texas by the Austin Business Journal and the 45th fastest growing company in the United States by Inc. Magazine.  In 2017, Travis was honored as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Currently, Travis is a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization and serves on the board of Young Presidents’ Organization.

Travis received bachelor’s degrees in Finance and Public Policy from Southern Methodist University and holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He resides in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.

Brian Wommack is responsible for overseeing the development and execution of the association’s overall strategic communications efforts.

Mr. Wommack has 20+ years of experience helping organizations and brands see around corners and solve problems—or seize opportunities—at the intersection of communications, public policy and law. Providing services as a lawyer, lobbyist or communications strategist—and in hybrid roles drawing from each of these disciplines—Mr. Wommack is a versatile and full-service counselor.

He has helped clients across a variety of industries weather the dot-com collapse, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Enron meltdown, the great recession and numerous corporate, governmental and political scandals. He has also coached clients to position themselves more effectively, to communicate more clearly, and to find and activate like-minded allies to support shared goals.

Brian has clerked for a federal court judge, worked for leaders in both chambers of the U.S. Congress, and practiced at two prominent international law firms, a nationally recognized lobbying group and one of the world’s leading global communications consultancies. He most recently led the strategic communications practice of integrated law firm Cameron LLP.

Monica Wood is currently the Vice President, Global Consumer and Member Insights for Herbalife.  She is responsible for building an insights function from the ground up, creating best in class practices globally and is responsible for all surveys and insights work conducted within the company.

Prior to joining Herbalife, Monica was president of the Market Research Council and also the President of Monica Wood and Associates where she partnered with leading pharmaceutical and CPG clients to develop outstanding solutions and actionable, insightful research deliverables.  

Prior to that, Monica was Vice President Global Marketing Services at Novartis. She was responsible for all global interactive marketing activity, media spending analytics, syndicated and custom market research for Novartis Consumer Health.