An accomplished CMO, entrepreneur and agency leader, John Digles has achieved breakthrough firsts while advising international corporations, governments, associations, and new ventures how to leverage communications as a catalyst for change, recovery and transformation. Mr. Digles is founder & CEO of Ascent Strategy Group, the first agency built to power the digital transformation of healthcare.Over the last decade, John helped reshape the medical technology market through transformational campaigns to introduce first-of-their-kind medical devices. He established brand partnerships to advance health equity and fostered adoption of remote patient monitoring, wearables, dental lasers, virtual coaches, and mobile apps for chronic condition management.An alum of Edelman and MWW, Mr. Digles led global reputation comeback programs. He previously created the premier Health and Wellness practice in the public relations industry and built it into an agency home for the world's biggest brands in sports nutrition, pine bark extract, ginseng, plant protein, joint health, and medical technology. As CMO for a health and wellness startup, John played a leading role in building the company into a celebrated international brand with $350M+ annual sales. He negotiated the historic first jersey-front sponsorship in North American professional sports, the inaugural deal with Major League Soccer. John created a trailblazing brand-centric social sharing platform, hosted the industry's first virtual events, and presented his global marketing case study to the WFDSA World Congress XIII. Mr. Digles is an award-winning independent movie producer and entertainment entrepreneur who has earned critical praise at Sundance and major film festivals worldwide. He led a successful effort with the motion picture industry to gain legislative passage of Illinois’ first visual media production tax incentive, which attracted Hollywood studio projects, generated record-setting revenue, and created thousands of new jobs.John serves on the Business Advisory Council for the DePaul University Driehaus College of Business and Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. He is an ambassador for The Economic Club of Chicago and a member of the Sundance Institute and the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI™).Mr. Digles advises public officials and is often engaged in political campaigns, civic service, and public policy initiatives.