Conference Co-Chairs

Pedr Howard – President, Ipsos Creative Excellence in the US

Pedr Howard is the President of Ipsos Creative Excellence in the US, where he leads a premier team of advertising specialists, data scientists, and behavioral researchers. With a 20-year career spanning London and New York, Pedr is a definitive voice on the “art and science” of effective communication. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled research tools that empower the world’s most iconic brands to capture attention in a fragmenting media landscape, turning deep consumer insight into strategic action. A tireless advocate for human empathy in the age of automation, he is currently on a mission to reclaim the “creative wasteland” of retail media – proving that even the most transactional environments can be transformed into shoppable masterpieces that build long-term brand equity.

Ariane Pol – Global Head of Creative and Creator Research & Data Science, Google

Ariane Pol is Global Head of Creative and Creator Research & Data Science at Google, where she leads a cross-functional team and partners with top research providers and academics to provide AI-powered creative effectiveness guidelines, cutting-edge solutions, and industry thought-leadership for Google's top global advertising partners.

Mark Truss – Executive Director, Galileo Research and Strategy Consultancy

Mark Truss is the Executive Director of Galileo Research and Strategy Consultancy, a psychology-based research and strategy company that uses therapeutic and clinical psychological techniques with respondents and participants to uncover deeply held views, attitudes, and cognitive biases, thereby clarifying people’s motivations and decision-making processes. He leads Galileo’s quantitative research and methodology development, using traditional, emerging, and experimental research techniques to drive impactful strategy and communications. Mark is also an active contributor to the industry. He writes for and speaks at events hosted by the Advertising Research Foundation, the 4A’s, and the IAB, and he lends his expertise to industry bodies such as the Market Research Council and the Ad Council’s Research Committee. In addition, Mark is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and NYU and serves as a board member of the ANA’s Educational Foundation. In his spare time, Mark plays lead guitar in a band of market researchers, known as “The Outliers.”

Lisa Zielinski - Head of Offer Strategy & Thought Leadership, Creative Excellence US, Ipsos

Lisa has spent 18 awesome years at Ipsos, immersed in the world of advertising and brand research. In her current role, she sits at the intersection of product innovation & market authority to help brands maximize their creative impact.  She ensures Ipsos’ research solutions solve complex challenges for both sides of the ecosystem - equipping advertisers to build stronger brands and ad platforms to better monetize their environments. Most recently, she has focused on spearheading pioneering research on retail media networks, proving the business value of creative quality in this rapidly evolving channel.  Lisa believes the industry treats brand and performance in too binary a fashion, to the detriment of creating actual demand.  She’s eager to unpack this dynamic and the role of measurement in reinforcing it at this year’s Creative Effectiveness Day.

Featured Speakers

Lana Busignani - Chief Executive Officer, MarketCast

Lana Busignani is a transformational growth leader with extensive experience in media and advertising. Prior to joining MarketCast as CEO, she established and led the Media Division at NielsenIQ, where she transformed talent, drove innovation and launched a new growth business for the organization. Lana has built a reputation leading high-impact teams to deliver solutions that shape the future of advertising, and data-driven decision-making. Prior to NIQ, Lana transformed the Media Division of Quotient and spent 7+ years at Nielsen Media across various roles of increasing responsibility constantly driving innovation and delivering growth. Lana started her career at IRI followed by IPSOS where she established the Advertising Research business in North America, honing her ad creative expertise and passion for helping brands grow. Lana is passionate about solving client challenges and enabling their success. Her leadership is defined by her ability to bridge data, creativity, and strategy—making her a trusted partner for brands, advertisers and platforms seeking to thrive in today’s dynamic marketplace.

Chrystal Day - Head of Creative Insights, YouTube

For more than two decades, Chrystal Day has worked at the intersection of human behavior and creative strategy, translating what audiences think, feel, and respond to into decisions that make campaigns better. As Head of Creative Insights at YouTube, she leads the research function that helps brands and creators understand what makes content effective. Her background spans consumer insights, campaign measurement, and creative strategy across global markets at Google, HP, and Qualcom.

Christine Göös – B2B Creator & Director of Marketing, US at Croud

Christine Göös is an award-winning marketing leader and B2B creator with 14 years of experience across SaaS, martech, advertising, social, and PR. As a marketer, she has built and scaled brands, led integrated go-to-market programs, and worked on campaigns for global companies including Nissan and Mattel, earning more than 30 industry awards including Cannes Lions and The One Show. Alongside her marketing career, Christine has built a growing platform as a B2B creator, partnering with brands including Adobe, Attentive, BNTO, and Optimizely. She was named a 2026 Emerging Creator of the Year finalist, a 2025 Hero100 Creator winner, and a 2025 Advertising Week Big Creator Challenge shortlist honoree. Christine specializes in creator-led growth, corporate creator programs, and how B2B brands can turn people, content, and executive voices into measurable growth engines. She is also a columnist at Creator Collective, co-host of House of Content, and co-founder of The C2C Network, a community for corporate and B2B creators. Her work and commentary have been featured in Marketing Brew and Muse by Clio, and she has spoken at Advertising Week New York, Influencer Marketing Show, and FUTR North America.

Meredith Herman – Global Head of Marketing Acceleration, Kenvue

At Kenvue, Meredith leads teams of marketing specialists including Marketing Excellence, Creative, Global Operations, Production, and Design. An accomplished marketing executive with over twenty years of experience working within global corporations and marketing agencies, she is a proven modern marketer, brand builder, and marketing transformation expert. She has built creative, production and media models, increased media sales contribution, and transformed end-to-end marketing to be data-driven and AI powered in its pursuits for marketing effectiveness. Before working in consumer healthcare, she spent 15 years at creative agencies including BBDO, Ogilvy, and R/GA learning how to build brands and nurture creativity for some of the world’s most iconic businesses including American Express, Unilever, TD Ameritrade, and Verizon. She is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion and is a member of the Institute for Real Growth, as well as the WFA and MMA.

Jake Kastner - Head of Measurement Strategy, Uber Advertising

Jake leads measurement strategy at Uber, ensuring advertisers have all of the tools required to understand campaign performance on its advertising platform. Prior to Uber, Jake has held roles at Roku and within WPP. He has contributed to multiple standards and working papers at industry organizations and working groups. Jake received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.

Avinash Kaushik – Chief Strategy Officer, Human Made Machine

Avinash is the global Chief Strategy Officer at Human Made Machine and a Brand Strategy & Marketing Transformation Consultant at Coach and Kate Spade. He is also the best-selling author of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0.His prior experience includes a sixteen-year stint at Google, and leadership roles at Intuit, DirecTV, Silicon Graphics in the US & DHL in Saudi Arabia. Avinash’s professional career has focused on elevating the Think via frameworks that expand the horizon of possibilities across AI, Marketing, and Analytics. He actively contributes to elevating the Ink by sharing practical and actionable advice via his weekly newsletter, The Marketing Analytics Intersect. Avinash has become recognized as an authoritative voice on Intent-centric Marketing and Incrementality-centric Measurement. His strategic framework See-Think-Do-Care lays out an expansive role for Marketing in delivering customer joy and company profits. His “Smart Clusters” framework outlines focused analytics solutions that solve for the high standards of a CFO – all powered by inventive trust, but verify accountability.

Hannah Lewman – Group Strategy Director, Ogilvy

Hannah Lewman is a Group Strategy Director at Ogilvy, where she sculpts culturally impactful campaigns for some of the world's most recognizable brands. Her strategic approach is rooted in consumer understanding and a drive to create contagious ideas that drive growth. Hannah’s work has earned widespread recognition for both its creativity and effectiveness from leading industry award bodies.

Scott Lichtenthal - Senior Vice President, Mastercard

Scott is the Senior Vice President of Mastercard’s Services organization, and an accomplished product leader with a proven track record in driving innovative product development from ideation to launch. With expertise in leading diverse teams of world-class engineers and designers, Scott is known for fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment that attracts and nurtures top talent.  Scott oversees the global teams responsible for Advanced Analytics solutions. In this role, he and his team manage a portfolio of software and data products, as well as service offerings that empower strategy, product, advertising, marketing, and data & analytics leaders to tackle their most critical challenges using cutting-edge data and AI/ML techniques. These products are utilized by hundreds of financial and merchant organizations worldwide to enhance customer acquisition and engagement, conduct business experimentation and measurement (Test & Learn), improve operations and credit risk management, and drive data and AI strategy and transformation.  Prior to joining Mastercard, Scott held product management and data science leadership positions at Gartner, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Procter & Gamble. Scott holds an MBA from University of Illinois, a JD from Northern Kentucky University, and a BS from Cornell University. 

Pamela Marsh, Ph.D. – Managing Director, Primary Research, Omnicom Media

Leads primary and custom research at OM across clients, new business, and agency thought leadership (20 years at OM) Social Science–Driven Research Leadership: Designs consumer research focused on shifts in mindsets and behaviors. Strategic Storytelling Expertise: Known for translating complex data into compelling narratives that guide strategic and investment decisions Thought Leadership & Industry Visibility: Author/co‑author of dozens of TL studies, many receiving notable press coverage; routinely speaks at industry conferences about consumer, societal, and media/tech trends; expertise in generational cohorts 30 Years of Experience (Academia and Industry): Deep expertise spanning communication strategy, advertising, and consumer/media research (quantitative, qualitative, behavioral, and neuroscience) Credentials: Ph.D. in Communication Theory & Research; former college professor; member of the ARF’s Board of Trustees.

Scott McDonald, Ph.D. - CEO & President, ARF

Scott became the CEO and President of the Advertising Research Foundation in March 2017. Prior to joining the ARF, he held senior research positions at leading global media companies, including 18 years at Time Warner, and 14 years at Conde Nast, covering both the consumer and the advertising sides of the media business. Throughout his career, he has kept a foot in both the academic and business worlds, teaching for 5 years at NYU and for 18 years at Columbia Business School. He serves as an adviser to the Social Science Matrix Program at UC Berkeley and is on the Board of the Population Reference Bureau. An avid art lover, he also is on the board of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He holds an A.B. degree from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Alejandro Garcia Medina – Global Research Lead, LinkedIn’s B2B Institute

Alejandro is a Global Research Lead at LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, where he explores how brands build trust, influence buying decisions, and drive long-term growth in B2B markets. His work blends behavioral science, creative effectiveness, and commercial strategy to help marketers turn insight into impact, and more importantly, stay competitive as new generations of buyers and emerging tools reshape the B2B landscape. Previously, Alejandro led creative effectiveness and cultural trends research at TikTok, advising global strategic accounts on how to activate with relevance and measurable performance. A trained mixed-methods researcher, he began his career in the public sector and holds an M.S. in Data Analytics from New York University.

Ryan Mitchell – Senior Vice President, Ipsos Creative Excellence

Ryan is the creative research lead for the Ipsos B2B Center of Excellence, helping brands and their agency partners create more impactful advertising through rigorous research and actionable insights. Over his 16-year career at Ipsos, he has collaborated with global organizations across industries to uncover the drivers of creative effectiveness, improve advertising performance, and build stronger connections with audiences. Ryan is passionate about translating research into practical guidance that enables marketers to consistently deliver creative quality at scale. He holds a B.B.A. in Marketing from Hofstra University and resides in the Denver metro area.

Karen Montecuollo-Senior Vice President of Brand & Content Insights, A+E Global Media

Karen Montecuollo is Senior Vice President of Brand & Content Insights at A+E Global Media, where she leads consumer, digital, and cultural insights across A&E, Lifetime, and HISTORY. With 15 years of experience in entertainment and marketing, she partners closely with creative, brand, and content strategy teams to uncover audience truths that drive development, positioning, and growth across linear, streaming, and emerging formats. Karen is known for blending rigorous research with innovative approaches— including the practical application of AI—to help insights teams work smarter, move faster, and better serve real business needs. Previously she held senior research roles at J. Walter Thompson, leading global consumer intelligence for brands such as Rolex, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson, and has taught insights and strategy at Columbia University.

Nick Pandolfi - Principal Analytical Lead and Marketing Data Scientist, Google

Nick is a Principal Analytical Lead and Marketing Data Scientist at Google with a decade of experience driving measurement modernization for enterprise advertisers. He specializes in bridging advanced causal inference, statistical modeling, and machine learning with commercial strategy, helping brands rigorously isolate the incremental impact of their media investments. Before joining Google, Nick spent six years in the WPP network across cloud consulting and digital media agencies, leading engagements on data architecture, ad tech integration, and scalable data science solutions for Fortune 500 clients. Nick holds a Master of Science in Applied Data Science from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz School of Business. He is based in Chicago.

Will Sandwick - Chief Data Officer, VML

Will Sandwick is the Chief Data Officer at VML, where he co-leads Marketing Effectiveness & Intelligence in North America. He is responsible developing and implementing holistic data strategies, effectiveness plans, and business transformation initiatives for key clients. Will leads a team of marketing analysts and data scientists to identify unmet customer needs, apply statistical methods to marketing, and maximize effectiveness by delivering actionable insights to VML's clients and partners. Will believes every data point is an opportunity to learn something new about how the work the agency does influences people and changes behavior. His goal in his work is to embed an approach based on learning and experimentation that enables everyone to champion new ideas and better serve their clients’ business. He has a deep passion for humanizing the data. Prior to VML, Will held leading marketing analytics roles at agencies such as: J. Walter Thompson, R/GA, Droga5, The Barbarian Group, and Blippar. He has worked with renowned brands like Nike, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Chobani, L’Oréal, Under Armour, and UNICEF. Will is a frequent speaker and has given talks at the Miami Ad School, and New Inc., and The Samsung Accelerator. His work has been cited in publications such as Adweek, Advertising Age, Creativity Online, Forbes, CNBC, ClickZ, and MediaPost. He is a Cannes Lions, Effie, Clio, and D&AD Impact Award winner. Will is based in New York. He has a degree in Economics and English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Amanda Tobias - Vice President, Ipsos Creative Excellence

Amanda specializes in comms development research – from strategy formation to understanding brand platforms to creative executions. She has over 11 years of experience in Ipsos Creative Excellence working across a variety of categories and industries from Retail, CPG food and beverage to insurance, spirits, health and beauty. Amanda has recently led innovative research and thought leadership examining creative effectiveness in retail media environments, helping answer critical questions around how brands can balance performance marketing objectives with long-term brand growth. This work reflects her passion for helping marketers adapt to the changing media landscape, build stronger, more effective creative strategies in emerging channels, and maximize the impact of their creative investments.

Hannah Williams - Executive Creative Director, Chemistry

Hannah is an award-winning Executive Creative Director at Chemistry, where she leads creative teams in developing breakthrough creative campaigns for major brands. Known for combining sharp strategic thinking with unexpected creative ideas, she has built a reputation for work that captures attention and drives results. Before joining Chemistry in 2023, Hannah spent over a decade at agencies like Fitzco, Grey, and Energy BBDO. Her experience lies mainly in the CPG category with additional experience in the entertainment, retail, fast casual, QSR, healthcare, hospitality, and financial categories. She’s led and worked on notable campaigns for brands like Netflix, Coca-Cola, McCormick, Cholula, French’s, Five Guys, Gillette, Welch’s, Lay’s, Wrigley’s, S.C. Johnson, Quaker, Alka-Seltzer, Bud Light, and Navy Federal Credit Union. Hannah’s work has been recognized by organizations like: The Effies, D&AD, The One Show, The Shorty Awards, The Clios, The Webby Awards, The ADDYs, and the Reggie Awards. Her standout campaigns span across social, experiential, digital, brand partnerships, and integrated storytelling. When Hannah’s not working, she’s probably momming, wallpapering, house reno-ing or reading.

Helen Wolf, Ph.D. - Senior Global Director, Consumer Experience Insights Colgate-Palmolive

Helen is an experienced client-side insights professional with passions for people-centricity, disruptive innovation, and insights agility. As Senior Global Director, Consumer Experience Insights at Colgate-Palmolive, she enjoys the challenge of understanding consumer connections holistically, to provoke people-first thinking and inspire transformational growth. She is always looking for analytical ways to integrate behavior and attitudes, and loves to experiment with new technology-enabled techniques to gain a fuller picture of people at both depth and scale.

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