Michael Heller has spent more than twenty years building growth, partnerships, and brand strategy at the intersection of law, finance, media, and creative. He is co-founder of the Blended Entertainment\u2122 approach and The Entertainment Stack\u2122, a proprietary methodology that re-imagines entertainment ecosystems and transforms entertainment into a growth engine for brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He began his career in entertainment law, working with artists including No Doubt and the Wu-Tang Clan, then moved to Bear Stearns as Vice President of Legal in securities, closing nine-figure transactions. At USA TODAY, he served as Head of Brand Partnerships and co-founded the Storytellers Brand Studio, building an eight-figure national live events business and producing the live storytelling series tied to The Wall, the Arizona Republic, and USA TODAY Network project awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. At PDA, he helped stand up the creative studio, building relationships with several Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, he was Vice President of Partnerships at IDX, leading AI strategy work and investor relations partnerships across NYSE and NASDAQ-listed companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His focus is the gap between the CMO and the CFO: how owned entertainment intellectual property moves a company from a services valuation to a media valuation, and how creative work gets underwritten, measured, and carried as an asset rather than expensed as a campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phoenix-based. JD, Chicago-Kent College of Law (Intellectual Property). BA, Syracuse University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","talk_category":[],"event_category":[615],"class_list":["post-35927","speaker","type-speaker","status-publish","hentry","event_category-america_2026"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n