The Future Leader Awards is making fresh waves. This time presented by Digiday, Glossy, and Modern Retail, the 2026 edition is once again recognizing next-gen leaders who are making a significant impact in the industry.
Named as contenders this year are Uber, Time, and eos.
The Future Leader Awards are industry-specific recognition that are presented by media groups, which gives tribute to early- to mid-career professionals – such as an Uber executive – with under a decade of experience, or under 35, who shows high potential, innovation, and significant impact in various fields like marketing, technology, hospitality, and healthcare.
Think of this as Forbes 30 Under 30, except that it honors those under the age of 35.
Digiday is an online trade publication and media company covering digital media, marketing, and advertising. Glossy is an online publication, while Modern Retail is also a website for the fields of technology, marketing, operations, and more.
This year’s contenders, or finalists, share the common vision of forward-looking strategy and cross-functional execution. To be a contender, the rules of the award-giving committee must be grounded in measurable outcomes, delivering games in efficiency, performance, and revenue. These people’s approaches should shape more cohesive and effective experiences across platforms, affiliations, and touchpoints that translate strategy into tangible results.
First on the list of contenders is Seojoon Oh, the senior product manager at Uber. He won in the Rising Product Leader category.
Seojoon Oh heads and leads two engineering teams that are building data-driven platforms, including a first-party attribution system, a real-time KPI streaming hub and a semantic data layer that altogether support the $1.7 billion advertising ecosystem of Uber.
Furthermore, his work was able to strengthen Uber’s capability to measure and track incrementality, optimize spend, and scale lift testing, necessary to enhance marketing performance and ROI.
In addition, this future leader is also advancing next-generation tools, including a Marketing Context Layer and AI-driven diagnostic agents that anticipate performance issues and surface insights, reshaping Uber’s data legacies.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he has been with Uber for only over two years, starting as Product Manager II, and look at those achievements already!
Also awarded as contenders were Favorite Daughter, and Sol de Janeiro.
On the other hand, meanwhile, there’s Natasha Macri, Time’s senior director of marketing partnerships, earning a nod in the Rising Media Leader category for her undying efforts in reshaping the way this 102-year-old brand approaches changing strategic partnerships and revenue growth.
For context, she leads Time’s pre-sale marketing engine in the United States, guiding cross-functional teams to develop impactful proposals connecting brand partners with the most prominent franchises of the publication. She has built a reputation in the fields of operations and creative marketing.
Lastly, for this feature, there’s Katie Zaro, the omnichannel marketing manager at eos. eos is a personal care company.
Zaro leads consumer-first strategies that connect the company’s storytelling, performance, and experience across various platforms. Call Zaro “the queen of eos omnichannel presence” at that, to keep her credentials short.
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