2021 Board of Directors & Trustees

Scott McDonald, Ph.D.

CEO & President
ARF

Scott McDonald 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.

Mary Ann Packo (Chair)

Senior Partner Hypothesis Group

Mary Ann Packo is Senior Partner at Hypothesis Group, a premium insights, design and strategy agency that serves many of the fastest-growing, highest value brands in the world. Her focus is to lead the next wave of growth and innovation for the award-winning firm. Over the course of her career, Mary Ann worked for many of the largest insights agencies in the world and has led brand-building businesses, both corporate and entrepreneurial. She has a track record of success with start-ups, high-growth businesses, international expansion and global business management.

Before joining Hypothesis, Mary Ann held senior management positions at WPP, as CEO of Kantar Insights, CEO of Kantar Gold Rush, and CEO of Millward Brown North America. Prior to that, Mary Ann was a pioneer in the Internet and digital media measurement arena as president and chief operating officer of Media Metrix, from start-up through to IPO. She has also worked outside the U.S. as President of NPD Canada’s custom research business and Executive Director of Ipsos-NFO, a Paris-based European Joint Venture.

Today, in addition to her role at Hypothesis, Mary Ann serves as Chair of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Board of Directors, Co-Chair of She-Can Revolution 2.0 and champion of a number of global women’s leadership initiatives. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and lives a bi-coastal life, splitting her time between New York City and San Francisco.

Barb Murrer (Past Board Chair)

VP, Global Marketplace Insights,
Levi Strauss & Co.

Barb is Vice President, Global Marketplace Insights, for Levi Strauss & Co., one of the world’s largest brand-name apparel companies and a global leader in jeanswear, founded over 160 years ago. Barb leads the company’s insights efforts and, along with her team, works across the business to help inform strategy and tactics in areas such as Marketing, Merchandising, Design, Retail and Ecommerce. In the sixteen years prior to LS&Co., Barb worked for The Clorox Company in Insights leading Shopper, Advanced Analytics and in her last role, Cleaning and International. She has a breadth of experience across Insights specialties as well as across a variety of product categories. Her first role in Insights was with Nielsen, onsite with what was then Kraft General Foods. Prior to this she worked in Corporate Banking in New York City. Barb holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Colgate University and an MBA in Marketing and Organizational Development from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business.

Mark Truss (Secretary)

Chief Research Officer
Wunderman Thompson Data

Mark Truss is the Chief Research Officer for Wunderman Thompson Data, overseeing research, insights and brand intelligence. Using traditional and emerging research techniques, Mark and his team help companies uncover hidden truths about consumers, cultures and brands that drive impactful communications across a variety of media channels.

Mark is also an active contributor within the industry. He writes for and speaks at events hosted by the Advertising Research Foundation and the 4A’s and the IAB; as well as 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 for the ANA’s Educational Foundation and the Advertising Research Foundation.

In his spare time, Mark plays lead guitar in a band of market researchers, known as “The Outliers.”

Nishat Mehta (Treasurer)

Chief Product Officer & President
IRI Media Center of Excellence

As Chief Product Officer, Nishat Mehta is responsible for building innovative, easy-to-use products that deliver value to IRI’s consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail clients. He oversees product management, product marketing, data science and research and development.

In addition, Mehta serves as president of the IRI Media Center of Excellence and works with IRI’s CPG and retailer marketers and the broader marketing technology industry to optimize return on media spending through unrivaled insight into the relationship between media interactions and consumer purchase behaviors.

Before joining IRI, Mehta led the customer communications team at 84.51º, where he helped leading grocery retailer, The Kroger Co., and its CPG brand partners create the most relevant and personalized communications with consumers to strengthen retail and brand interactions. Prior to leading this team, he served as the company’s head of brand media, leveraging the power of data and other retail assets to improve CPG brand advertising.

Prior to his roles at 84.51º, Mehta was responsible for developing strategic partnerships at dunnhumby Ltd, where he led the elevation of the company’s digital media measurement and targeting business, transforming the way CPG brands bought, sold and measured their media.

Mehta spent 15 years at MicroStrategy, a leading provider of sophisticated enterprise software platforms for business intelligence, mobile intelligence and social intelligence applications, helping companies of all types leverage data and insights to make better decisions. As vice president of social intelligence, Mehta drove the company’s initial foray into social analytics by introducing application-based solutions for – retailers and brands to help them better understand consumer behavior on social networks, particularly Facebook. During his tenure, he also built MicroStrategy’s OEM partner program, securing more than 150 partnerships with major data software companies such as Oracle, Accenture and Kronos, allowing the company to expand into high-volume businesses.

Mehta graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and a master’s degree in computer science. He resides with his wife and children in New York City.

Follow Nishat Mehta on Twitter at @nishatmehta.

Peter Bradbury (Research)

Chief Commercial Officer, U.S.
Nielsen Global Media

Peter Bradbury is Chief Commercial Officer, U.S. for Nielsen Global Media. In this role, he has overall responsibility for nurturing and building Nielsen’s partnerships across the national footprint, including broadcast and cable television, MVPDS, digital, print and social media.

Bradbury’s career with Nielsen spans 24 years. Most recently, he led the company’s commercial efforts across national television, radio, digital, local TV and social media, as well as Gracenote metadata, Nielsen Sports and gaming. His new role will expand his current remit to include Nielsen’s Advertiser and Media Agency teams, as well as Media Analytics.

Peter serves on the Executive Board of Directors of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), and the Center for Communication; he also serves on Nielsen’s Diversity and Inclusion Council.

Britta Cleveland (Media)

Senior Vice President, Research Solutions
Meredith Corporation

Britta Cleveland is responsible for all of Meredith’s National Media Brands and leading women’s websites. Prior to joining Meredith, she was the director for advertising research at Reader’s Digest and prior to that she worked on the advertising agency side of the business in the New York offices of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising and held media planning positions in the San Francisco offices of Foote, Cone & Belding and Dancer, Fitzgerald, Sample.

Ware has written and presented papers at numerous industry events covering issues related to advertising effectiveness and tablet magazine readership. She was on the leading edge of the “engagement” movement when she developed the “Involvement Index.” Another key focus has been on the drivers of ad effectiveness, the importance of magazine inputs for Media Mix Modeling and, most recently, ‘bottom funnel’ ROI metrics. She’s also excited about being on the forefront of the transformation of research from data delivery to story telling, particularly the role of “listening” to generate consumer insights.

Over the past two years, her focus has been on tackling the issue of magazine accountability and specifically the development of an accountability metric that attributes sales lift to magazine advertising. One of her goals to raise the level of interest in research beyond the research community, by providing practical solutions and tools – simplifying the complicated.

Radha Subramanyam (Media)

Chief Research and Analytics Officer,
CBS Corporation and President, CBS Vision

Radha Subramanyam serves as Chief Research and Analytics Officer, CBS Corporation and President, CBS Vision. She joined the Company as Executive Vice President, Chief Research and Analytics Officer of the CBS Television Network in November 2017 and was promoted to her current role after 18 months. Subramanyam oversees all research and analytics operations for CBS, including audience measurement, analytics, market research, program testing and advertising research. She has extensive experience in research and data analytics in all areas of the industry, including broadcast, cable and digital, as well as radio and social media.

Most recently, Subramanyam served as President of Research, Insights and Data Analytics for iHeartMedia, where she developed and managed wide-ranging data and research efforts involving digital analytics, ratings and measurement, ad sales research, mobile measurement, programming analysis, music research, campaign measurement and marketing research.

Prior to joining iHeartMedia, Subramanyam held senior executive research roles at Yahoo!, MTV Networks and Nielsen, where she was one of that company’s early leaders of a new analytics and consulting practice. Before beginning her career in the media industry, she taught media and entertainment at Vassar College and New York University.

Subramanyam serves on the board of directors of the International Radio & Television Society and the Advertising Research Foundation. In addition, she serves as the chair of diversity on the board of directors of Women Advancing, an organization recognizing diversity as a priority for the future health of society and supporting development of resources to advance diversity in media, marketing and entertainment.

She was named as one of Corinium’s Top 100 Innovators in Data and Analytics in 2018, a list highlighting business leaders, technologists and influencers who have accelerated the proliferation and understanding of data and analytics over the last 12 months. Subramanyam was also one of the power women in Variety’s 2019 Women’s Impact Report.

Subramanyam is a graduate of Northwestern University, with a Ph.D. in radio, television and film.

Abby Mehta (Marketer)

SVP, Marketing Insights & Media Analytics Executive
Bank of America

Abby Mehta is Senior Vice President, Marketing Insights & Media Analytics Executive at Bank of America. Her current responsibilities range across the Enterprise, Consumer Banking and Wealth Management lines of business. Abby brings 20+ years of experience in harnessing consumer insights through research and analytics to develop effective customer-centric strategies that enhance the brand as well as drive the business.

Prior to Bank of America, Abby established the Center of Excellence for Customer Insights & Marketing Research at Staples. Abby integrated the brick-and-mortar and online LOBs to offer a holistic view of the customers for more effective business planning and implementation. Before Staples, as Global Head of Customer Insights for Monster, Abby managed research in 18 countries to bring actionable recommendations to her business partners across the organization. Prior to this, Abby’s served as Head of Research for Gallup & Robinson marketing and advertising consultancy, where she supported clients from a variety of Fortune 100 companies across many verticals as well as Federal agencies.

Abby started her career as Assistant Professor of Advertising at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University.

Kirti Singh (Marketer)

Chief Analytics and Insights Officer,
P&G

Kirti Singh leads P&G’s global Consumer Market Knowledge (CMK) organization and Analytics and Insights group in leveraging cutting-edge data, analytics, behavioral science and visualization to discover consumer, shopper and market insights—and transform them into actionable outputs that drive growth of P&G’s global product portfolio. Under Kirti’s leadership, CMK has become an invaluable partner in shaping the direction of our ten product categories to grow brands, guide strategies and portfolio choices, and design in-market executions.

Since joining P&G in 1993 as a CMK manager in India, Kirti has held numerous leadership positions across P&G businesses, including Beauty Care, Feminine Care, Health Care and Grooming. He has worked across many geographies including India, China, Singapore and the U.S.

Kirti serves as executive sponsor of the Young William Cooper Procter Society, an organization of newer employees whom, in the spirit of P&G’s second President and community philanthropist, volunteer in local communities, develop relationships with peers, and hone leadership skills.

Outside of P&G, Kirti lends his expertise to academia and the public sector to foster development in the areas of consumer insights and research.

Elizabeth Tarpinian (Marketer)

Consumer & Market Insight, Senior Director
Unilever North America

Elizabeth Tarpinian is responsible for leading the Unilever CMI team for North America, and she is looking forward to driving the local business. Liz has recently transitioned from Dove Global CMI where she spent the last 7 years focused on building Dove’s connect to women and establishing Dove Men+Care’s point of view in the global market. Throughout her 20 year career at Unilever, she has had the opportunity to be the voice the consumer and build brands such as Mentadent, Caress, Suave, Vaseline, Axe, Pond’s and Qtips. Liz has an MBA from State University of New York at Albany and a BS degree from Binghamton University.

John Walthour (Marketer)

Vice President, Strategic Insights
UnitedHealth Group

John Walthour is a consumer insights and business analytics leader with global experience driving strategic direction, decisions, and profitable growth at a senior executive level. He’s known for inspiring change by communicating compelling stories that integrate deep consumer understanding and advanced analytics to impact all aspects of the business model. John’s been a champion of the shift from traditional research to modern methods and analytics. John leads The Strategic Insights Group for UnitedHealth Group the nation’s largest healthcare company.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, John was at General Mills in a variety of Global Consumer Insights leadership roles. Prior to joining General Mills, John worked for Nielsen in Tokyo and Chicago, and John Morton Company, a strategy consultant. John earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Northwestern University and his MBA from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Outside the office John currently serves on the Board of Directors for Global Minnesota the, volunteers for The BrandLab and Minneapolis Public Schools, and spends every remaining minute with his family and friends.

Andy Fisher (Agency)

Head of Merkury Advanced TV
Merkle

As the Head of Merkury Advanced TV, Andy’s primary responsibility is driving person based marketing and big data adoption in all areas of Television including Linear, Addressable, Connected, Programmatic and X-channel planning and Measurement. Andy has held several positions at Merkle including Chief Analytics Officer and he ran the Merkle data business. Prior to joining Merkle, Andy was the EVP, Global Data & Analytics Director at Starcom MediaVest Group where he led the SMG global analytics practice. In this role he built and managed a team of 150 analytics professionals across 17 countries servicing many of the world’s largest advertisers. Prior to that role, Andy was Vice President and National Lead, Analytics at Razorfish, where he led the digital analytics practice and managed a team of modeling, survey, media data and business intelligence experts. He and his team were responsible for some of the first innovations in multi-touchpoint attribution and joining online/offline data for many of the Fortune 100.

Andy has also held leadership positions at Personify and IRI. He is a frequent speaker and a co-author of “It Only Looks like Magic: The Power of Big Data and Customer Centric Digital Analytics”. Andy is an avid traveler having visited more than 100 countries. He also follows the chess world and is the former US high school chess champion. Andy holds a BA in mathematics from UC Berkeley and an MA in statistics from Stanford.

Chris Fosdick (Agency)

Managing Partner
The Cambridge Group

Chris Fosdick is a Managing Partner with The Cambridge Group, a leading strategy consulting firm and a subsidiary of Nielsen. He has spent the last ten years with TCG helping clients primarily in the consumer products, retail and media spaces develop demand-driven growth strategies and respond to change.

Chris’ work explores how shifting consumer demand is reshaping competition, and how dynamic companies can adapt to meet new challenges. He has developed strategies for domestic and global clients around new product development, innovation strategy, business and brand portfolio optimization, pricing strategy, customer and market segmentation, and business model evolution.

Prior to joining The Cambridge Group, Chris worked in the media sector, developing, launching and marketing television and online content for cable brands including MSNBC, SyFy/USA Networks and Pax/ION.

Chris earned his MBA with honors from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with concentrations in Analytical Consulting, Marketing Strategy, and Media Management. He also holds a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Martyn J Crook

VP Business Insights, Data and Analytics, United HealthCare Services
UnitedHealth Group

Martyn has over 25 years of analytics, research and strategy experience, serves on the advisory boards for University of Wisconsin, Marketing Science Institute, and Ehrenberg Bass Institute. He is also on the board of a couple of startups Delineate Strategy and Team8.

Martyn leads Business Insights and Analytics for United Healthcare. A large part of his work is focused on getting research, analytics and insights embedded into the business to make better in the moment decisions, recently he has also been working on analytics for the government response to COVID-19 for medical providers and uninsured Americans. Prior to this he ran Global Research, Performance Reporting, Data Strategy and Analytics for The Coca-Cola Company and built the Data, Analytic, and Consumer Research capabilities team at Kimberly-Clark. In these roles he established innovative solutions to grow the business based on the latest thinking in analytics, data science, behavioral science and adapting tech developed from other industries, always ensuring that the work was effective and embedded into the business process. Martyn joined K-C from Microsoft where we lead a team developing next in class Business Solutions using data and analytics, building on experience he gained at General Mills establishing the UK and European research and analytics and in the US from leading Global Data Strategy, Big Data Analytics and Innovation. Over the years he has earned a reputation for delivering innovative, useful, and proprietary techniques and developing teams who are able to take this work and make a difference to the businesses they support.

Martyn is passionate about analytics and teaches classes at various Universities around the world as well as speaking at conferences and events. Martyn holds a Ph.D from Imperial College London. He just moved back to Minneapolis from Atlanta. He rebuilds and races vintage Minis, enjoys wine, hiking, doing cool science experiments, wandering around botanical gardens looking for inspiration for his own, and volunteering to help end inequality using AI and Analytics.

Carl Mela

T. Austin Finch Foundation Professor of Marketing
Duke University

Carl F. Mela is the T. Austin Finch Foundation Professor of Marketing at Duke University and past Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute. He holds an engineering degree from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Marketing from Columbia University. Prior to his Ph.D., he held management positions at Hewlett Packard, Hughes Space and Communications, and Proxima Corporation.

Prof. Mela applies economic and statistical models to generate insights regarding the long-term effects of marketing activity on brand equity and the effect of digital marketing technology on consumer and firm behavior. Articles along these lines appear in the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Harvard Business Review, and the Journal of Consumer Research and have received or been a finalist for forty best paper awards including the INFORMS John D.C. Little and Long-Term Impact Awards and the American Marketing Association’s William O’Dell and Paul Green Awards.

Prof. Mela serves or has served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Marketing Research, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics and is or has been on the editorial boards of the Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing and Marketing Letters. Professional boards include the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Unilever, Information Resources, Incorporated, the Marketing Science Institute, and the Advertising Research Foundation.

Board of Trustees

Marian Anderson

Director, Market Research
Microsoft

Marian Anderson is director of market research at Microsoft. Marian and her team are responsible for driving new methodologies, new approaches, and ensuring the customer and market research team is on the cutting edge of the research industry.

Until recently, Marian led research for Microsoft commercial advertising and for the Office brand portfolio.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Marian was SVP at GfK, leading brand and communications consulting. Prior roles included strategy consulting at Harris Interactive and political polling at Penn, Schoen & Berland in Washington, DC.

Marian has a MBA from George Washington University, and a BS from the University of Utah.

Vassilis Bakopoulos

SVP – Head Industry Research
Mobile Marketing Association

Vas is the SVP – Head of Industry Research for the Mobile Marketing Association. In this role, he is responsible for defining the organization’s learning agenda and conduct research to tackle marketing´s most important unanswered questions. During his tenure at the MMA Vas has run high profile Industry research studies including the largest public series of cross media studies behind the label of SMoX, and a cross platform series of experiments on opportunity to see using neuroscience. Vas is also leading the organizations research efforts across all programs including Brand Safety, Fraud Marketing Attribution, Marketing Org, location and data targeting etc.

Before joining the MMA, Vas held senior Research and Strategy roles at Digitas/Publicis and Kantar in New York and Europe.

Vas is a frequent speaker and he is published at the Journal of Advertising Research and other publications. He sits at the Board of Trustees of the Advertising Research Foundation and the Content Board of I-com.

Josh Chasin

Chief Measurability Officer
VideoAmp

Josh Chasin is Chief Measurability Officer of VideoAmp. Most recently, he was Chief Research Officer of Comscore and prior to that, he owned and operated a media research consultancy, Warp Speed Marketing, whose clients included Arbitron, Scarborough, Comscore, Simmons, the Online Publishers Association, the Traffic Audit Bureau, and Project Apollo.

Josh is a 36-year market research and audience measurement veteran who has experience in all facets of design, development and implementation of syndicated and custom research. He has been involved in the management and oversight of audience measurement services for TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, out-of-home, and the Internet. He spent 17 years at Arbitron, where he worked in the Statistical Services department and the Advertiser/Agency group before rising to Vice President, Marketing for New Ventures in 1993. He is a past president/CEO of the Simmons Market Research Bureau and of Northstar Interactive, a pioneering online research company.

Josh has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from NYU, and an MBA Cum Laude in Marketing Management from Pace University. He belongs to a number of industry councils and organizations, and he has been a regular contributor to Mediapost’s Online Metrics Insider column. Josh was selected one of Advertising Age’s 2012 Media Mavens. His liner notes for the 2004 release, The Allman Brothers: Live at the Beacon Theater earned him a platinum record.

Jane Clarke

CEO, Managing Director
Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM)

As the CEO and Managing Director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), Jane is responsible for developing CIMM’s strategy and vision and overseeing all day-to-day operations. CIMM is an R&D coalition of companies in the TV/premium video ecosystem. It was formed to spur innovation and collaboration in cross-platform media measurement and bringing more granular measurement to TV. CIMM has launched game-changing proof-of-concept Pilot Tests for cross-media measurement technology with innovative vendors, and created breakthrough whitepapers on return path data, data enrichment, cross-device and cross-channel identity measurement, and advances in cross-channel and TV attribution measurement.

Current CIMM initiatives range from a study to unpack data inputs into TV Attribution, as well as a Whitepaper on Best Practices in Combining Smart TV and STB Data. Additionally, we are working on designs for TV Data interoperability and ID resolution, as well as creating standardized formats for Ad Names (using Ad-ID), metadata and file formats.
Jane has more than 40 years’ experience in the media industry collecting and analyzing strategic insights into global consumers for Time Warner, Children’s TV Workshop and National Geographic. Most recently, she was Vice President of Insights and Innovation at Time Warner Global Media Group where her work fueled marketing solutions across television, online, mobile and print. She is on the Board of the Advertising Research Foundation and I-COM Global, and has received numerous industry awards.

Maris Cohen

Director of Content Marketing
NCSolutions

Maris Cohen leads content marketing for NCSolutions, which helps brands and media companies improve advertising effectiveness across all channels. With a curiosity for quantitative research and fervor for writing, she’s spent eight years telling stories with behavioral data, be it that of consumers or advertisers, with the goal of growing and converting audiences by delivering valuable insights.

Prior to joining NCS, Maris spent four years at The NPD Group, where she wrote about retail trends, led digital content initiatives, and managed their web presence. She also spent five years at Kantar Media, where she developed the research firm’s thought leadership program through storytelling with advertising data.

Maris is currently pursuing her MBA at Columbia University, and holds a B.A. from New York University with concentrations in French, Mathematics, and Business. How’d she put that French degree to use, you might ask? It’s actually how she got her start in the research world—translating consumer surveys from French to English at TNS France. In her spare time, she enjoys recreational cooking and eating.

Andrew Covato

Global Head of Measurement Product & Insights
Snap Inc.

Margaret Coles

EVP Edelman Intelligence
Head of West Coast

As Head of the West Coast at Edelman Intelligence, Margaret leads a team of researchers and analysts delivering communications and marketing research for the agency’s client base including Genentech, Paypal, Facebook, and HP among others.

Previously the head of research, data and analytics for creative agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Margaret is an innovator in the evolution of marketing research and advertising. She helped develop and market the earliest online research platforms while at NFO and Markettools/Zoomerang and led development of one of the first advertising performance models while at Factor TG. She has worked both as a marketer and researcher for clients such as Wageworks, Healthline, Bank of America, and others. As a Director in KPMG’s Financial Services practice, she served as both a client consultant and marketing strategist.

Margaret is the recipient of the ARF Research Innovation Award for her work on a novel methodology for segmentations as well as multiple Ogilvy and Effie awards for advertising effectiveness. She has served as a guest lecturer in marketing, brand and research at Harvard University and as an invited speaker at SXSW. She holds a U.S. patent for marketing performance models.

Keri Degroote

Senior Vice President of Research & Analytics
SXM Media 

In this role, she leads Ad Effectiveness, Analytics, Consumer Insights and Measurement for Ad Sales.  She brings 20+ years of highly specified Marketing Research experience in the media industry, with notable expertise in campaign effectiveness, media mix modeling, and attribution.  Keri has successfully led research leadership departments and teams for Radio, TV and Digital media outlets. Before coming on board at SXM Media, which contains brands like Pandora, Sirius XM and Stitcher, Keri held senior leadership positions at iHeartMedia, Turner Broadcasting and FX & FMC Networks.

Jim Dravillas

Senior Research Scientist
Google

Jim Dravillas, Senior Research Scientist at Google, is a 20+ year veteran of the advertising research business. Prior to joining Google in 2010, he led various advertising agency research and analytics groups within Ogilvy. From the early days of digital advertising to present, he has been involved in several pioneering and first-of-its-kind measurement and research initiatives. His driving passion is to understand how advertising works and to continually advance the state of measurement.

In his current role at Google, he applies this expertise to issues facing Google’s largest advertisers, to the measurement of Google’s own media and advertising products, and to organizations serving the advertising industry at large.

Seth Duncan

Chief Data Officer
Real Chemistry

Seth Duncan has led research and analytics teams for over 10 years in both academic and business settings. Since 2007, Seth has focused on using digital and social media data to provide marketing, communications, and strategy insights to a range of clients, including Warner Bros., General Mills, Procter & Gamble, IBM, HP, Medtronic, Genentech, Amgen, and Abbott Laboratories.

Seth’s analytics and research expertise span advanced statistics, social, digital, and Web analytics, as well as traditional media and primary research. He has extensive experience applying these analytics approaches to a broad set of use cases, including product development and design, branding, creative content and execution, messaging, social and Web optimization, and influencer and media relations. He was named one of Holmes Report’s “In2 Innovators of the Year” in 2015. Seth earned a BA in psychology from Reed College and an MS in Psychophysiology at San Francisco State University. He also attended Boston College’s PhD program in cognitive, affective, and behavioral neuroscience and the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology graduate program.

Amy Fenton

Chief Client Officer, North America
Kantar

Amy Fenton is a global marketing executive with a focus on strategic market planning, organic business growth, branding and transformation. Amy is currently the Chief Client Officer at Kantar for their North America Insights business.

Previously, Amy was the Chief Marketing Officer and Client Officer for Ipsos North America, responsible for marketing and growing the Ipsos brand as well as the client base. Prior to Ipsos, Amy spent the majority of her career with Nielsen in various leadership roles across their businesses in the US, Europe and Latin America. Before joining Kantar, she began her career in consumer insights at Procter & Gamble, then joined Nielsen holding a number of leadership roles globally in Nielsen’s Innovation business across North America and Latin America.

Huw Griffiths

Global Chief Product Officer
UM

As Global Chief Product Officer, Huw brings over 20 years of experience in research and advanced analytics to UM, where he is responsible for research, analytics and tools capabilities.

Srishti Gupta

Director, Amazon Advertising
Amazon

Bio to come

Susan Hogan

Senior Vice President, Research & Measurement
IAB

Sue’s 30 years of experience spans integrated media strategy, consumer insights, advertising/media measurement and team building.

While the majority of Sue’s career has been creating, supporting and measuring advertising initiatives for content providers like Viacom and Martha Stewart Omnimedia, she also spent two years agency-side to gain a broader and deeper understanding of the advertising space. And her earlier years included B2B media (Cahners Travel Group; Lebhar Friedman, Chemical Week). Sue has been hands-on and “neck deep” in Digital since the mid 90s.

A graduate of Iona College (NY), Sue also taught various undergraduate Advertising courses at CCNY. “I am a course junkie myself. All kinds of topics—not just work-relevant. But I have found that even a beginner’s drawing class can spark ideas for an advertising insights study. Give yourself creative downtime and you find you are Always On!”

George W. Ivie

Executive Director,
Media Rating Council, Inc.

George is the Executive Director and CEO of the Media Rating Council, Inc. (MRC), an industry organization created in 1963 to assure high ethical and operational standards in audience measurement services. Mr. Ivie’s background includes over 20 years experience in media research auditing and consulting. Prior to being appointed the Executive Director of the MRC in January 2000, George was a partner at Ernst & Young and their lead representative and advisor to the MRC, conducting all MRC audits and interacting with MRC management and member organizations. George has a thorough knowledge of research best practices, operations, controls and information systems in Television, Radio, Print, Multi-media and Internet measurement services. George is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Information Systems Auditor.

Ashwini Karandikar

EVP, Media and Data
4A’s

Bio to come.

Helen Katz

SVP, Global Research Lead Data Sciences Practice
Publicis Media

In her current role, Helen Katz leads the global research unit within Publicis Media’s data sciences practice. She is a trusted industry expert on research, with a particular focus on data quality and reliable measurement. Her interest in innovation inspired her to play an instrumental role in developing best practices in the measurement of addressable TV and advanced video campaigns in the U.S. A 19-year Publicis Groupe veteran, Katz has served in various strategic research capacities for Publicis Media, Starcom, Zenith and GM Planworks – the holding company’s former division devoted to the General Motors business. In 2009, she was integral to the Publicis Groupe team that launched The Pool – a unique research consortium that aimed to identify the next new ad formats across various channels such as online video, mobile/tablets and more.

Prior to joining Publicis Groupe, she was Vice President, Media Research Manager at DDB Needham. She began her career as an advertising professor at Michigan State University, and is currently an adjunct professor at DePaul University. She has published numerous articles in industry and academic journals, as well as three textbooks on advertising and media, the most recent of which is The Media Handbook (7th edition, 2019). She is the ex-officio Chair of the Executive Committee of the Media Rating Council, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Advertising Research Foundation. Katz is also the recipient of the Advertising Research Foundation’s “Great Minds” award for research innovation, Jay Chiat’s Strategic Excellence Silver Award for innovation, and Stars of Attribution leadership award.

Katz has a master’s degree in advertising and a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Illinois, and was an undergraduate English major at the University of London.

Pierre Le Manh

Chairman and CEO
Ipsos

Pierre Le Manh joined Ipsos in 2004 as the Ipsos CEO for Europe. In 2008, he was appointed Global CEO of Ipsos Marketing, one of the five business lines of Ipsos, and Chairman of the CEEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. In 2010, he was promoted to Deputy CEO of Ipsos and since his relocation to New York City in 2013, he has assumed his current role as the Ipsos CEO for North America, in addition to his role as Global CEO of Ipsos Marketing. Ipsos is a leading global market research firm, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, with 16000 professionals operating out of 86 countries in 2015.

Mr. Le Manh began his career in 1988 with the French Government in Canada. In 1989, he joined Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) as a Consultant in the Strategic Services practice, primarily involved in the areas of Consumer Goods, Utilities and Retail. In 1993, he moved to become the CFO of Adami, a company managing copyrights in the entertainment industry. In 1996, he joined Encyclopaedia Universalis, a print and digital publishing company, where he was promoted in 1998 to Chairman and CEO. In 2000, he joined Consodata, an international company specialized in Database Marketing. Initially CEO for France, he was promoted in 2001 to CEO for Europe and then a year later as Global CEO. Mr. Le Manh remained with Consodata until 2004, when the company merged with Acxiom. At that point in time, Mr. LeManh joined Ipsos. Mr. Le Manh, 49, has an MBA from the French Management School ESSEC. He resides in New York City with his partner Alexandrine.

Gregg Lindner

President of Americas, GfK
Chairman, MRI-Simmons Joint Venture

Gregg Lindner is President of the Americas for GfK where he oversees all of GfK’s businesses in the region and is Chairman of the Board of the recently formed MRI-Simmons joint venture, which is majority owned by GfK. He is also a member of GfK’s Global Senior Leadership Team. A media research industry veteran, Gregg has extensive expertise in leading large syndicated media research organizations while focusing on innovation and quality metrics.

Gregg joined GfK in 2015 after over 25 years with Arbitron/Scarborough Research. At Scarborough Research he managed the day-to-day operations of the business, including sales, product development, research and operations. He then served as Executive Vice President, Service Innovation, and Chief Research Officer at Arbitron with responsibilities ranging from ensuring accreditation of PPM markets to sales of custom research aspects of the business.

Gregg earned two degrees from the University of Maryland – a Master’s degree in Quantitative Analysis and Urban Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics. He is a locally elected school board official with a second term that ends 11/19.

Bill Livek

CEO and Executive Chairman
Comscore

Bill Livek has been in the business of measuring consumer behavior for more than three decades.

As Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice Chairman, Mr. Livek’s passion for the media, marketing and entertainment industries spurs him to be a driving force for innovation in consumer and audience measurement. Since joining Comscore in 2016, Mr. Livek has also served as the company’s Executive Vice Chairman & President.

Prior to joining Comscore, Mr. Livek served as Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Rentrak, where he spearheaded the next generation of products to precisely measure movies and TV everywhere. Mr. Livek previously served as Co-President of Experian Research Services, Co-Chair/Co-Owner of Simmons Market Research Bureau, Co-Founder of Transactional Data Solutions (an LLC with MasterCard), Vice President of Sales/Marketing for Arbitron and was a principal shareholder in Birch Research, which was later integrated into Scarborough Research, where he served as President and CEO.

Mr. Livek draws upon his industry experience and audience measurement expertise as a frequent speaker at advertising industry events. When he’s not working towards the advancement of Comscore’s initiatives, Mr. Livek loves riding his road bicycle on the weekends. His idea of a great vacation is a scenic, weeklong bike trip.

Megan Margraff

Vice President, Data Strategy,
Oracle Advertising

Megan Margraff is VP Data Strategy for Oracle Advertising, which is a trusted independent provider of digital activation and measurement solutions serving advertisers, agencies, publishers and platforms across the AdTech industry. Megan serves as a key member of Oracle Advertising’s product leadership team and owns the strategic roadmap in the areas of data supply and partnerships, data usage and intelligence, and data governance and compliance. Megan’s team is accountable for Oracle Advertising’s strategy on inbound data supply, prioritizing data partnerships and incenting contribution to owned data assets, testing and evaluating datasets for varied applications across our activation and measurement portfolio, and maximizing the commercial value of our data assets. Megan’s product team also drives the company’s efforts to surface intelligence on the health of our data assets and usage in Oracle’s product portfolio, and ensures that data usage is consistent with both regulatory compliance requirements and contractual usage terms. Megan further leads an Applied Data Science team that optimizes the way data assets are used, prototypes new ways of extracting value and creating meaningful features that inform product development roadmaps, and engages directly with key clients on how to best leverage our products.

Megan is an experienced senior leader of highly skilled analytic and data science teams, with a passion for all things data-related and a drive to produce business results for clients and internal stakeholders. Prior to joining ODC via acquisition, Megan had a strong track record of driving successful outcomes with start-up companies (Spire, acquired by Datalogix/Oracle, and Cannondale Associates, acquired by Kantar Retail). Megan holds a BA and MBA from ICHEC Brussels Management School, with a focus on International Business Administration.

Ivan Martinez

Vice President, Strategic Insights, Brand and Government Programs
UnitedHealth Group

Bio to come.

Jed Meyer

NA, Media Domain Leader
Kantar

As the lead for the NA Media Domain Product team, Jed works across Kantar to transform our approach to achieving Media domain sales and profitability objectives. Jed partners with the global Media Domain, Marketplace, Analytics and Marketing teams to ensure that client needs are being met as related to offer innovation, offer delivery and product marketing.
Prior to joining Kantar, Jed led Ebiquity’s North American business. Ebiquity is a leading independent marketing and media consultancy with expertise around three core practice areas: Media, Analytics & Tech. Jed built a strong team with a focus on delivering client value and expanded the company’s presence in the critical North American market. Before Ebiquity, Meyer was at Google, where he created a Brand Measurement practice that brought together first and third party data to define & enable better measurement of Google media to drive smarter investment decisions for clients.

Previously, Meyer was Executive Vice President of Corporate Research for Univision Communications, Inc. (UCI), the leading media company serving Hispanic America. Meyer also served as Global Director of Research and Analytics at Annalect, part of Omnicom Media Group where he was focused on developing models and processes to support and sustain the integration of online and offline data across all Annalect platforms and global markets.

Prior to that, Meyer spent nearly 20 years at Nielsen, spearheading Nielsen’s entry into both online ratings and set-top box data and working with Media, Agency and Advertiser clients.

Meyer is active in many industry organizations, serving on the Board for the Advertising Research Foundation (Past Chair) and has been a board member of the Media Ratings Council, Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and the Council for Research Excellence. In the community, Meyer is a regular volunteer with New York Cares & The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen and is a member of the Board of Managers for the Prospect Park YMCA (Past Chair).

Steven Millman

Senior Vice President, Research & Operations
Dynata

Steven Millman is an award-winning researcher currently leading all research and operations initiatives across Dynata’s Advertising Solutions division, which provides activation and campaign measurement over the entire lifecycle of a campaign. In this role, Steven is also responsible for automation, innovation, and thought leadership. Prior to joining Dynata, Steven was Chief Scientist at Simmons Research (MRI-Simmons) leading measurement sciences and developing new products. Before Simmons Research, Steven served as Senior Vice President for Research at comScore, where he led the ad effectiveness line of business, along with all custom survey work, combining self-report with behavioral data. Throughout his career, Steven has maintained a focus on innovation, quantitative and statistical analysis, survey, research design and other applied research techniques.

Tim Perzyk

VP, Global Business Marketing & Research
Twitter

Tim joined Twitter as the company’s 1st researcher in early 2011. Today, he oversees all of Twitter’s ad effectiveness relationships for clients globally, as well as the company’s thought leadership research for marketers. Tim also leads Twitter’s internal consumer insights practice, which optimizes the company’s own marketing efforts as a brand. He joined the company from MTV Networks, where he served as director of consumer insights and digital research. Before MTV, Tim worked in television and digital media research at NBC Universal and video ad platform Tremor Video. Tim received a B.S. in economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has memorized Nielsen ratings and Billboard charts since the 1980s and enjoys a pop quiz. He is @tperzyk on Twitter.

Marjorie Reedy

Director of Digital & Innovation
Merck

Marjorie Reedy is a seasoned market research professional with a passion for identifying innovative market research solutions that bring the voice of the patient and customer to life.

Currently as Director of Digital & Innovation at Merck, Marjorie specializes in developing “Best Practices” for a range of cutting-edge research methodologies, including: neuro-science, social media and virtual reality. In her current role, she has also piloted new technologies, that enable marketing teams to maximize investment across multichannel platforms. The Advertising Research Foundation has honored her with both a Silver David Ogilvy Award and A Great Minds Award for her work in these areas. Marjorie has shared her “real world” innovative experiences at the following industry conferences: PMRC, PMRG (the Annual and The Institute), IIEX TMRE and the ARF.

In addition to the pharmaceutical industry, Marjorie has expertise in the over the counter and consumer packaged goods sectors. As Senior Director of Research at Nabisco Foods, she focused on iconic brands such as Grey Poupon, A.1. Steak Sauce and Planters Nuts. At Jordan McGrath Case & Taylor Advertising, her teams won industry awards for the following campaigns: Quaker Oats’, “It’s the Right Thing To Do”, P&G’s Bounty “Sorriest Spills” and “Zestfully Clean” and GSK’s “Oxycute Them”. Prior to joining Merck, Marjorie also enjoyed the world of independent consulting.

Marjorie is an active member of The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), serving on the Board of Trustees and as a Director of the Health & Wellness Forum. She is also a member of Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and has run fundraisers and educational forums for Dress For Success through this organization. She also has been a long-standing member of Intellus.

Beth Rockwood

SVP, Ad Sales Research, WarnerMedia
Beth Rockwood is senior vice president of ad sales research at WarnerMedia. Rockwood oversees research for WarnerMedia’s portfolio of linear and digital brands, marketplace intelligence, category and client insights as well as outcome focused research for advertisers. Based in New York, she reports to JP Colaco, head of Ad Sales at WarnerMedia.

She currently serves as a trustee for the Advertising Research Foundation, as a director for CIMM, on the board of directors for the MRC, and a research board member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Jorge Ruiz

Head of Measurement
TikTok

Jorge Ruiz is currently the Head of Measurement at TikTok where he leads a global organization that will drive advertiser value and insights. This responsibility includes building an organization from the ground up, establishing a high-performing culture, and leading measurement as well as research innovation for the TikTok advertising business.

Prior to TikTok, Jorge was the Head of Agency Measurement at Facebook where Jorge led global initiatives for holding companies and consultancies across highly complex (and often) custom measurement and research initiatives.

And going back further, Jorge led the media analytics team at Neo@Ogilvy where his numerous research contributions helped set the bar on media analytics for the agency. Jorge was awarded the 2013 ARF Great Minds Awards, Innovation Award – Certificate Winner, David Ogilvy ARF research awards 2011 & 2012 (individual & team), and served as board advisor to Google on their development of Google Consumer Surveys.

Roberto Ruiz

Executive Vice President, Research, Insights & Analytics
Univision Communications Inc.

Roberto Ruiz is Executive Vice President of Research, Insights & Analytics at Univision Communications Inc. (UCI), the leading media company serving Hispanic America. Ruiz works with a team of marketers whose goal is to help corporations capitalize on the US Hispanic consumer as a source of growth. The team drives all aspects of marketing, from research to consumer insights to building the business case for brands, using syndicated and custom research tools.

Ruiz is a Hispanic Marketing expert with more than 20 years of experience in senior management positions at client, agency and media. Throughout his career, he has worked in several industries including financial services, interactive, advertising, consulting, startups and packaged goods.

Prior to joining UCI in 2008, Ruiz served as the founder and President of Consumer Contacts, a boutique consulting firm specializing in Hispanic marketing. Previously, Ruiz was a founding partner at The Vidal Partnership, a Hispanic advertising agency in New York. He was one of four partners that took the business from a mid-size agency to a powerhouse recognized twice by Ad Age as agency of the year. At Vidal, he worked on accounts such as DirecTV, Century21 Real Estate, MasterCard, Diageo, and Cingular Wireless.

Prior to that, Ruiz worked at Prodigy Internet and led the team that launched the first fully bilingual Internet Service Provider targeting Hispanics in the US.

Ruiz moved to the U.S. from Venezuela in 1993 to pursue his MBA and started a career at MCI Communications Inc. where he held management positions in direct response, telemarketing and international marketing; targeting Hispanic consumers in the US and Latin America. After MCI, he held the senior marketing position at MoneyGram, where he led the Mexico and Latin America money transfer business.

Ruiz’ career in marketing and advertising started in Venezuela, where he received his classic marketing training working in consumer packaged goods at Pillsbury, Gillette, and Mavesa. A bug for the creative took him to lead the strategic planning group at one of the top ad agencies in the country ARS/DDB where he also fell in love with the international marketing side of the business.

Ruiz is actively engaged in speaking at trade conferences, including the Association of American Advertising Agencies, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Consumer Healthcare Product Association (CHPA), and Nielsen’s Consumer 360, among others. He also collaborated with author Chiqui Cartagena in writing “Hispanic Boom: A guide for Hispanic Marketers.” Recent projects include “The Bilingual Brain,” a breakthrough research project developed in partnership with Nielsen and SMG using neuroscience to understand the effect of language in engaging bilingual Millennials.

Ruiz holds an MBA in International Business and a MA in International Economics from The George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Colleen Fahey Rush

EVP & CRO,
ViacomCBS

In her role, she leads the company’s Research & Analytics team, supporting Viacom senior management and providing guidance to research teams across the company’s portfolio of brands, including MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central. Colleen oversees the development of VMN’s consumer insights research on new media behaviors and emerging technologies. This work informs the company’s creative and business operations, from programming and digital strategy to ad sales and content distribution and marketing. Colleen has been instrumental in driving innovation in the cross-platform measurement space and creating solutions for the industry’s key measurement challenges. She has shared VMN’s research and insights in presentations at The White House, on Capitol Hill and on Wall Street. She has spoken at premiere consumer and research-focused conferences held by “The Economist,” The Advertising Research Foundation and The Institute for International Research, as well as at international venues including the Monaco Media Forum and the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association Conference. Colleen joined Viacom in 1996, where she served most recently as Senior Vice President of Research for VH1/CMT.

Colleen began her career at CBS, holding a series of positions at the company’s O&Os and broadcast network. She went on to serve as Director of Research at Telemundo, before becoming Associate Partner and Director of Research at J. Walter Thompson. She serves as the chairman of the board of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), is chairman of the executive committee for the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and is a 2009 TAMI Award winner for her integral role on the CTAM Research Committee.

She holds a B.S. in Communications from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is also on the Advisory Board for the Communications Department at Cornell. In 2010, she was named to Ad Age’s list of Media Mavens, and in 2009 was recognized by Working Mother Magazine as a Working Mother of the Year.

Peter Sedlarcik

Chief Data Officer
Havas Media

Peter is a dynamic leader in the converging areas of data strategy, business insights, and marketing analytics. Since 2014, Peter has lead the Insights & Analytics practice across Havas Media USA with primary hubs in New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco and now serves as Chief Data Officer for the agency. Overseeing a team of approximately 100 Insights & Analytics specialists, Peter ensures that data driven insights underpin all media recommendations Havas Media delivers to clients, and that technology fueled campaign Analytics ensure in market optimizations that maximize business results for clients, specifically via the agency’s audience planning platform Converged. Peter plays a key role in driving automation efforts across the Havas Media Insights & Analytics practice, and he is also part of the agency leadership team tasked with continually evolving the customer centric, behaviorally based media strategy and planning process across the agency. From 2010-2014, Peter transformed the MPG Research team into the consumer focused, data infused Havas Media Business Insights practice. Under Peter’s leadership, this team doubled in size and became a central component of agency business development efforts as well as client service teams. Key functional areas under Peter’s leadership: Strategic Planning tools development and implementation, Management and deployment of syndicated audience resources, primary consumer research, media mix modeling, and data partnership development.

Prior to joining Havas Media, Peter played a leadership role in the Insights and Analytics units at TargetCast and Carat, and was an inaugural member of the Millward Brown/Dynamic Logic Media Practice. Peter has broad category experience within the advertising industry, key client experience includes: P&G, Unilever, Sears/Kmart, Fidelity Investments, Volvo, LVMH, Expedia, New York Life, American Express, Pfizer, Sanofi, BMS, Choice Hotels. In the early part of his career, Peter held positions in media sales at Lifetime Television as well as media buying at the Himmel Group.

Peter holds an MBA from Baruch College Zicklin School of Business, and a BA from Fordham University. He is an MRC Board Member and sits on the 4A’s Media Research Committee.

Michael Schoen

SVP and GM, Marketing Solution
Neustar

Michael Schoen is the SVP, General Manager of Marketing Solutions at Neustar. He oversees the end-to-end system of identity that gives marketers a complete, real-time portrait of their customers and prospects, enabling a personalized dialogue across all marketing channels. Michael’s leadership has been instrumental in building the industry’s most authoritative and real-time marketing platform, built on trusted identity and leveraging the most sophisticated analytics models to help the largest brands with complex decision-making.
Prior to joining Neustar in 2014, Michael was the EVP, Product at Cadreon, IPG’s cross-channel audience measurement, management and buying platform. Michael was responsible for driving the product strategy, development, and technology partnerships that enabled Cadreon’s offerings across all addressable media.
Before that, Michael was General Manager, Advertising Platforms and VP, Product & Technology at LookSmart, where he was responsible for building out a paid search platform and publisher syndication business.

Michael holds an AB in Computer Science from Harvard College and an MBA from UCLA.

David Shiffman

Executive Vice President, National Research & Analytics
iHeartMedia

As Executive Vice President, National Research & Analytics at iHeartMedia, David is responsible for leading all aspects of National measurement and analytics for America’s #1 Audio Company. David works across iHeartMedia’s diverse assets including Radio, streaming audio, podcasting, and live events to deliver customized research, measurement and optimization solutions to support iHeart’s National clients and their partner agencies.

David’s expertise in understanding consumer behavior, and his knowledge of the diverse and rapidly changing media marketplace, advanced analytics and advertising effectiveness is instrumental in serving the needs of his clients and shaping new solutions for audio research.

David spent over 15 years on the media agency side, working at Publicis Media agencies in both Canada and the U.S., most recently as EVP Research & Analytics at MediaVest. Prior to joining iHeartMedia, David led Agency Sales at comScore.

David holds a M.A. in Communication Management from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, and lives in NJ with his daughter, son and two dogs.

Cole Strain

Senior Director, Audience Products
Samba TV
Cole Strain is the Senior Director of Audience Products at Samba TV, where he builds products for agencies and brands to leverage Samba’s omniscreen targeting and comprehensive TV analytics. Cole is an ads measurement nerd and is currently binging 90’s sitcoms.

Prior to Samba TV, Cole was the Head of Measurement Solutions at Pinterest where his team oversaw all measurement partnerships, conducted research that advanced internal and external measurement solutions, and helped prototype all new solutions and methods. Previously, he held data science and analytics roles at Datalogix, Oracle Data Cloud and Sovrn Holdings.

Shyam Venugopal

Vice President, Global Media & Consumer Data Strategy,
PepsiCo

Shyam has been with PepsiCo since 2012 and has operated in roles both at the sector and global level. He is currently VP – Global Media and Consumer Data Strategy at PepsiCo. In this newly created global role within PepsiCo, his mandate is to create and deliver data-driven marketing strategies, capabilities and processes that improve the ROI on our advertising investments and build long-term brand equity. He is tasked with defining PepsiCo’s vision for consumer data strategy and to partner on how we leverage that data to inform end-to-end marketing strategies and activation. His responsibility also includes transforming PepsiCo’s relationships with external media agency partners, publishers and marketing technology providers, actively scouting new data partnerships, platforms and technologies.

His prior roles include leading the Marketing Analytics team at FLNA, VP and lead for Global Insights Capability Development and Deployment and most recently as VP, Consumer Insights, Analytics and Category Mgmt function at FLNA. Over the last6 years, he has led several key organizational initiatives – He was responsible for building out the underlying capabilities to support the Demand Sciences efforts and drive best in class practices with vendors that served as model for the global Insights roll-out. Additionally, he was accountable for implementing a Data and ROI Driven Marketing approach, where wee led a multi-year analytic project resulting in 50% ROI improvement over a 4-year period and drove acceleration of digital efforts by 6X resulting him being named Frito Lay Marketer of The Year in 2014. A strong believer, in accelerating the use of data driven marketing, he created first ever in-house programmatic media division within PepsiCo as well as start of our Personalization journey. In his last role as Vice President, Insights, Analytics & Category Management, he led the transformation of insights at Frito-Lay North America to an end-to-end enterprise function, spanning white space and opportunity identification to commercial execution.

Prior to joining PepsiCo, he spent over 10 years in Technology and Advanced Analytics and worked in a variety of industries addressing a broad range of problems, from assembly line sequencing for the automotive sector to new product forecasting for the gaming industry.

Originally from Kerala, India, he has called US home for the last 20 years. He has a B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai and a M.S. from Purdue University both in Engineering. His wife Abitha and their 2 schnauzers live in Dallas, TX. Foodies and travel enthusiasts, they are eagerly checking off places to go to on their bucket list.

CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

Board of Directors

Moneesha Banerjee

Executive Vice President,
Ipsos North America

Bio to follow.

Andrea Bertels

Vice President, Global Responsibility & Sustainability, Nielsen
Executive Director, Grantmaking, Nielsen Foundation
Nielsen

Andrea Bertels is Vice President, Global Responsibility & Sustainability at Nielsen, where she has been since July 2014. Andrea oversees the Nielsen Cares global volunteering program, which empowers our people to mobilize our data and expertise for good through skills-based volunteering and pro bono work. She and her team also lead Nielsen’s Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting efforts. In addition to her Nielsen role, Andrea also serves as Executive Director of Grantmaking for the Nielsen Foundation, a private foundation originally funded by Nielsen. Prior to Nielsen, Andrea held roles at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Accenture.

Kristin Branch

Director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Analytics and Insights
University of Wisconsin – Madison, Wisconsin School of Business

Kristin is the Director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Analytics & Insights at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In service of that role she teaches graduate marketing students as well as career coaches all students as to finding careers in the marketing analytics and consumer insight fields. Kristin stays closely connected to the marketing industry through attending and speaking at conferences like The Market Research Event, ARF events and the Insights Association. She leads UW’s own insights conference, their ‘Summit’ biennially.

Prior to joining UW-Madison and the A.C. Nielsen Center, Kristin spent several years in corporate marketing roles. Kristin earned her MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from UW’s School of Business and her undergraduate degree in Marketing from the University of Denver. Kristin is the proud parent, along with her husband, of twin 6 year old girls.

Deborah Campbell

Vice President of Consumer and Marketplace Insights
Verizon Communications

Deborah leads a team of over 50 Consumer Insights specialists, UX researchers and syndicated intelligence experts. Her team represents the voice of the customer and passionately advocates for the best customer experiences. They deliver holistic and actionable insights that help Verizon develop differentiated products and services, create motivating marketing communications and extend Verizon’s brand equity.

While still focusing on growing the core wireless and wireline businesses, CMI is helping transform Verizon into a top tier technology company that is driven by a deep understanding and empathy for consumer needs across a wide range of topics including data privacy, the successful launch of the 5G network, next-gen gaming, sustainable business practices and the ‘Internet of Things’.

Prior to her current role, Deborah enjoyed leading the CMI team at Gerber Baby Food, the infant nutrition division of Nestle USA. She has over 30 years’ experience in Consumer Insights, providing strategic guidance to companies such as American Express, Kraft and Bayer. She has been a speaker at The Market Research Event, Shopper Insights in Action, Market Research in a Mobile World and has been recognized in ‘Who’s Who’ in Shopper Insights.

Campbell holds a BA in History & Political Science from Wellesley College and an MS in Political Science from MIT.

Gloria Cox

Senior Partner
The Cambridge Group

Gloria recently rejoined The Cambridge Group as a Senior Partner. The Cambridge Group is a boutique strategy consulting, research and analytics firm that has helped global Fortune 1000 products and services companies find profitable growth for over 45 years. We get hired when clients want to translate customer research into strategic, operational and financial strategies for their organization.

Previously she was an Executive Vice President at Nielsen, serving as the US Commercial Leader for their 18 largest global-national clients, including Nestle, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola, Colgate, and Kimberly-Clark. Gloria joined Nielsen in 2009 through the acquisition of The Cambridge Group, where she was the Managing Director.

During her 20 years at Cambridge, she specialized in consumer products and services clients,
working with them to develop market driven growth strategies through consumer targeting, brand strategy and positioning, and new product development. She has extensive experience in working with clients in a wide variety of categories and countries to identify current, latent and emerging profitable demand.

Prior to joining The Cambridge Group, Gloria was an Engagement Manager and core member of the Consumer Goods Practice at McKinsey & Company where she addressed strategic and organizational challenges for several consumer goods and services clients. Gloria began her career in market research in the Paper Division of Procter & Gamble. During that time, she was responsible for designing, executing and analyzing custom market research for several key Procter & Gamble brands including Pampers, Luvs, Charmin, Bounty and Puffs.

Gloria graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana University with a dual degree in telecommunications and business. She received her Master of Management from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Master of Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary. She was ordained as a minister in the United
Church of Christ in 2015.

Louis Jones

Media & Marketing Consultant

Louis brings a long history of insight and problem solving to the media & marketing landscape. As a consultant, he works with clients across the marketing spectrum to help narrow issues and design solutions to glean keener insights and drive results.

Jones was the EVP of 4A’s Media & Data Practice – designed to amplify its members’ collective voice within the advertising ecosystem. He oversaw 4A’s media committees/ task forces, and
served as liaison with industry associations to lead efforts that address
industry-wide issues like brand safety & cross-media measurement.

Prior to joining the 4A’s Team, Louis had consulted for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) for a year and one half, helping them create mobile education modules to help advertisers to continue to invest in the mobile channels.

Charged with creating the integrated media agency of the future, Louis joined Maxus/GroupM in the fall of 2009 to lead Maxus to a new data focused agency model that put digital at the center of communications planning. In his five years at Maxus, Louis grew Maxus into a top 10 Media Agency with 6 offices and over 400 staffers. This growth earned Maxus Adweek’s Agency of the Year honor in 2012.

Previously, Jones was responsible for Havas Digital’s global services, including product development across the various digital agency networks – including digital, direct response, mobile, systems integration, and creativity. Much of time in this role was spent working from Paris and Madrid in order to be closer to the Network’s European and APAC operations. Prior to this, Louis led three years of double-digit growth for Media Contacts’ US operations as EVP, Managing Director USA. Louis had been a part of the Havas Media family since May 2001.

Before joining MPG in 2001, Louis was Executive Director of Organic Online in San Francisco where he led all online marketing activities for Organic’s West Coast clients through the height of the dotcom boom. Louis also served as Managing Director of Diamond Media (dedicated Clorox media unit). His first ten years in advertising were spent at J. Walter Thompson in New York, where he rose to Deputy Media Director before heading to the West Coast.

Scott McDonald, Ph.D.

CEO & President
ARF

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.

Jed Meyer

NA, Media Domain Leader
Kantar

Prior to joining Kantar, Jed led Ebiquity’s North American business. Ebiquity is a leading independent marketing and media consultancy with expertise around three core practice areas: Media, Analytics & Tech. Jed built a strong team with a focus on delivering client value and expanded the company’s presence in the critical North American market. Before Ebiquity, Meyer was at Google, where he created a Brand Measurement practice that brought together first and third party data to define & enable better measurement of Google media to drive smarter investment decisions for clients.

Prior to that, Meyer spent nearly 20 years at Nielsen, spearheading Nielsen’s entry into both online ratings and set-top box data and working with Media, Agency and Advertiser clients.

Linda Vytlacil, Ph.D.

Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation Endowed Chair of Data Analytics and Professor of Marketing & Data Analytics
Soderquist College of Business | John Brown University

Linda Vytlacil is the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation Endowed Chair of Data Analytics and Professor of Marketing & Data Analytics at the Soderquist College of Business, John Brown University. Before her academic career, Dr. Vytlacil served as Vice President, Retail Data Science at Walmart Labs where she led teams engineering intelligent systems to automate decisions across consumer, operations, and supply chain functions. Her organization was instrumental in modernizing the way Walmart creates and uses knowledge about the individual customer and how it innovates to serve changing consumer needs.

Dr. Vytlacil holds a Masters in Financial Economics and a PhD in Organization and Management. She serves on the Board of Directors for INTEGRIS Health, the largest health system in Oklahoma, as well as the on the Board of Directors for the Marketing Science Institute, a nonprofit research organization bridging the gap between academic marketing theory and business practice. She actively mentors Women in STEM globally.