2019 Annual Roast Recap

Written by: YE Committee Secretary, Jill Reisinger

She Runs It hosted the 2019 Annual Roast on Tuesday, January 29^th honoring Steven Wolfe Pereira, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Quantcast. Pereira was chosen for his dedication to diversity and inclusion. He launched Encantos to bring meaningfully diverse content to multicultural children so that they can see themselves in our media, and he is a celebrated leader in women empowerment.

Hosted at New York’s Edison Ballroom, the event was festive with a Latin flare in celebration of the honoree’s Dominican roots. The energy was vibrant as guests took part in a selfie-booth, sipped themed cocktails, and moved to the Latin beats of The Alvaro Benavides Group.

The four guest speakers invited to roast Pereira included Alvin Bowles, VP of Global Publisher Sales and Operations at Facebook, Antonio Lucio, Global CMO at Facebook, Julie Fleischer, SVP of Customer Intelligence at WW, and Lisa McCarthy, CEO & Founder of Fast Forward Group.

Pereira was mocked in good-nature for his lack of any media knowledge as recent as ten years ago, his excessive selfie taking, and his extreme FOMO.

The roasting commenced with a slideshow presentation where Pereira’s face was transposed on various pop culture images, highlighting different pieces of his identity. Immense laughter was sparked from the crowd when his face was placed on Dora the Explorer, indicating his tendency to sprinkle common Spanish language that “everyone can understand” into his presentations.

An “SWP Brand Focus Group” was filmed for Pereira’s roasting. The focus group evaluated strengths and weakness. Strengths included his smile, perfectly positioned in the corner of every selfie, and the fact that he is great at spending the money of whichever company he currently works at. It was determined that his list former employers is extremely long. Weaknesses included being the whitest Latino the group had ever met.

In conclusion, the roasters offered the highest praise to Pereira. Bowles & Lucio quoted Maya Angelou, saying that “people will never forget how you made them feel,” and addressed Pereira directly saying “you make everyone feel ten feet tall in your presence.”

After evaluating SWP, Fleischer & McCarthy gave the brand their highest approval rating. They concluded that SWP is a brand worth celebrating, because it believes that the future is female, that everyone deserves a chance, and that language creates reality.

At the end of the roast, Steven Wolfe Pereira took the stage to thank his friends, colleagues, and the She Runs It organization. He praised his mother for teaching him that you always need to respect women, and he reminded the crowd that men need to be part of the equation to push women forward. He respectfully told the crowd “I don’t know any other way to be than to be in awe of all the things women can do.”