Don Winter

Don Winter has spent nearly four decades building media businesses in New York, including two that earned places on the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing private companies.

He is the co-founder and co-CEO of Encompass Media Group (EMG), an out-of-home and experiential media company he launched in 2001 with partner Adam Pierce. Headquartered in Long Island City, EMG operates more than 20 exclusive media platforms — from branded coffee sleeves and mobile digital billboards to signage on more than 120 U.S. military bases — and one of the largest field forces in North America, executing campaigns in more than 400 markets across every media market in the country. The company has grown by double digits annually since its founding and has been recognized as an Inc. 500 company, an IT List Award winner for event marketing, and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Blue Ribbon Award recipient. EMG also regularly donates media to nonprofit campaigns, including public-awareness efforts in New York City.

Before EMG, Don founded Resident Publications in 1987 and grew Resident from a neighborhood newsprint paper into a luxury lifestyle magazine covering New York's community life, business, and events, with cover subjects including Maria Bartiromo, Mika Brzezinski, Craig Melvin, and Blair Underwood. He led every facet of the company — sales, editorial, and operations — until its sale in 2021.

Don has served on the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce board since 1993 and today chairs its Board of Directors, where he hosts the Chamber's Chairman's Breakfast series on the future of the city's economy. He has also served on the boards of numerous privately held companies and several New York nonprofits.

A graduate of the University at Albany, SUNY, with a degree in psychology and marketing, Don is a longtime Upper West Side resident, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.