2019 Board of Directors & Trustees

Scott McDonald

CEO & President
ARF
Scott McDonald became the CEO and President of the Advertising Research Foundation on March 1, 2017. With over 30 years of research experience solving pressing business issues, Scott is an ardent champion of high-quality standards. He has held senior research positions at leading global media companies, including 10 years at Time Inc., and 14 years Conde Nast. He also served as Chairman of the ARF from 2001 to 2002. His innovative work at the intersection of advertising research, traditional media, and the digital revolution reflects his roots in academia. Namely, McDonald earned his PhD in Sociology from Harvard University and has taught courses on media measurement, media economics, and monetization strategies at Columbia Business School for the past 18 years.

Barb Murrer (Chair)

Senior Director, Global Marketplace Insights
Levi Strauss & Co.
Barb is Senior Director, 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.

Jed Meyer (Past Board Chair)

MD, North America
Ebiquity

In his current role, Jed Meyer leads Ebiquity’s North American business. Ebiquity is a leading independent marketing and media consultancy with expertise around three corepractice areas: Media, Analytics & Tech. With 18 offices globally, we offer full coverage of the world’s largest advertising markets. Our consultants and experts work directly for 70 of the world’s 100 leading brands to optimize their marketing investments.
Prior to joining 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 of Directors 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).

Mary Ann Packo (Secretary)

CEO North America, Insights
Kantar
Mary Ann Packo is CEO of Kantar’s Insights businesses in North America, including Kantar Millward Brown, Kantar TNS and Kantar Added Value. She is also member of Kantar’s global Insights board. Prior to this role, Mary Ann was CEO of Millward Brown in North America, a world leader in brand and advertising research and consulting. Over the course of her career, Mary Ann has established extensive experience in marketing, advertising, brand-building, digital media and information services. She has led both corporate and entrepreneurial businesses and has a track record of success in start-ups, growth businesses, international expansion and global business management.

Prior to joining Millward Brown, Mary Ann was a pioneer in the internet and digital media measurement arena serving as president and chief operating officer of Media Metrix – from start up through to IPO – and later group president of its successor company, Jupiter Media Metrix. Mary Ann has also held senior-level positions with a number of global marketing research firms. She was president of NPD Canada’s Customer Research Group in Toronto; managing director of IPSOS-NFO, a Paris, France-based European joint venture company; and was vice president, western U.S. region for NFO Research in San Francisco.

Throughout her career, Mary Ann has worked across industries for many of the world’s leading brands including: Coca-Cola, Microsoft, ESPN, Unilever, Pepsi, Bank of America, Intel, Morgan Stanley, Pfizer, J&J, P&G, ESPN, American Express, Walmart, Chase and Expedia. She is a frequent public speaker and recognized new media industry expert, and has received numerous business awards. Mary Ann earned her bachelor’s degree at Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA.

Margaret Coles

In her role at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, Margaret leads a team of researchers, analysts, and data scientists who leverage data, technology and insights to make the work more effective and the results more accountable. At GS&P she consults with clients to help them ask better questions of their data and research, to incorporate more meaningful data into their models, and to understand the mindsets and emotions that fuel consumer motivations.

Margaret is the recipient of the ARF Research Innovation Award as well as multiple Ogilvy and Effie awards for advertising effectiveness. She holds a U.S. patent for marketing performance models.

Nishat Mehta

President
IRI Media Center of Excellence
Nishat Mehta has spent his career focused on enhancing relationships between brands and consumers through technology, data and analytics, especially in the CPG and retail industries through leadership roles at IRI, 84.51º and dunnhumby.

Mehta graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and master’s degree in computer science. He lives in New York with his wife, Shalini and their three children.

Follow Nishat Mehta on Twitter at @nishatmehta.

Peter Bradbury (Research)

Managing Director, National Television Client Services
Nielsen
Peter Bradbury is the Managing Director of National Television Client Services inside the US WATCH Business at Nielsen. In this role, Peter and his team work closely with some of Nielsen’s largest and most strategically important Media clients including AMC, A&E, CBS Corporation, Discovery Communications, Disney/ABC, FOX, Sony, Time Warner, Univision, Viacom and several hundred other Broadcast, Cable, Production and Syndication Companies. Peter’s career with Nielsen spans more than 20 years and includes Senior roles in both Nielsen’s WATCH and BUY businesses, both domestically as well as Globally. During his tenure Peter has had the privilege of working closely with some of the World’s largest and most successful companies in both Media and Consumer Packaged Goods. Peter currently serves as Nielsen’s Ambassador to the Advertising Research Foundation and sits on Nielsen’s Diversity and Inclusion Council. In his spare time Peter enjoys spending time with his wife, Nada and their three sons, Peter Jr., Nicholas and George. He and his family enjoy many hobbies together including swimming and jogging and they are avid New England Sports Fans.

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

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.

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

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.

Board of Trustees

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.

Nihan Brunton

Senior Director, Global Consumer Insights
Marriott International
Nihan is a strategy-minded business professional with 11 years of experience leading complex, high profile, multi-brand, global consumer insight initiatives and programs across the hospitality, e-learning, and media industries. She is experienced in leading strategic consumer insight platforms and providing leading-edge expertise in the market research discipline and brand strategy consulting. Nihan has been with Marriott International for 5 years. In her current role, she is leading global market research efforts across 30 brands in Marriott portfolio and its loyalty programs to package consumer insights into actionable steps for the business. Prior to that, Nihan supported The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott brands in the luxury tier for their consumer insight needs for design strategy and brand initiatives. Prior to joining Marriott, Nihan worked as consumer insights/market research expert at Rosetta Stone and Discovery Communications where she led several large scale quantitative and qualitative market research studies and brought voice of consumer to the decision making process. Nihan has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Istanbul University, a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Economics from Wright State University. Her interests include travel, Pilates, running, and scuba diving.

David Blumberg (Young Pros Representative)

Manager of Brand & Consumer Insights
Comedy Central
Dave Blumberg is a Manager of Brand & Consumer Insights at Comedy Central. In this role, he designs and executes custom research projects to help inform marketing and development strategies for new and existing franchises. Prior to joining Comedy Central, Dave spent five years at ESPN on the Advertiser Insights team and supported Ad Sales through his work with an award-winning online insights community and managed the day-to-day relationship with the ESPN Lab. Dave holds a Master of Science degree in Communication Research from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University. In his free time, he enjoys playing organized sports, cooking and relaxing with a good movie.

Bernard Brenner

Senior Director
Microsoft
Bernard Brenner is a Senior Director in Microsoft’s customer and market research team, supporting its global advertising, retail and social strategies. The core goal of Bernard’s role at Microsoft is to provide insight into how customers (consumers and commercial) experience Microsoft marketing at the touchpoints closest to their purchasing experience. Bernard has built his career supporting and consulting on marketing research activities for a variety of global companies, having run the global marketing research team for Nokia in Helsinki to creating a technology customer empathy practice at TNS.

Josh Chasin

Chief Research Officer
comScore
Mr. Chasin has more than 25 years of experience in media and market research. Prior to joining comScore, Mr. Chasin was the principal and founder of Warp Speed Marketing, Inc., a Manhattan-based media research consultancy. Mr. Chasin is a former executive at Arbitron, Inc., and a past President/CEO of Simmons Market Research Bureau and Northstar Interactive. In his career, Mr. Chasin has been directly involved in the development and management of audience measurement services for a variety of media, including television, radio, magazines, newspapers, out-of-home, and the Internet. Mr. Chasin is a member of numerous industry organizations and committees, including the Advertising Research Foundation (“ARF”) Online Measurement Council, ARF Online Panel Research Quality Council, Online Reach/Frequency Committee, Video & Electronic Media Council and Media Effectiveness Council. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from NYU and an MBA in Marketing Management from Pace University.

Jane Clarke

CEO, Managing Director
Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM)
Jane is the CEO & Managing Director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). She is responsible for developing CIMM’s strategy and vision and overseeing all day-to-day operations. CIMM is a coalition of leading video-based content providers, media agencies and advertisers formed to spur innovation in cross-platform measurement. Since its launch, CIMM has produced a Roadmap for STB Data and a Lexicon of over 1400 RPD and advanced advertising terms to provide transparency and education for industry use of RPD data, in addition to a whitepaper on Best Practices in Ad Campaign Effectiveness Research. CIMM has also launched proof-of-concept Pilot Tests for new cross-platform media planning tools (MBI’s USA TouchPoints) and campaign effectiveness tools (with Symphony Advanced Media). Currently CIMM is Pilot Testing comScore’s “Project Blueprint” 5-platform (TV, radio, computer, smart phone, tablet) measurement of unduplicated reach across three media (video, audio, text). Jane has over 30 years experience in the media industry collecting and analyzing strategic insights into global consumers for Time Warner, Sesame 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 led cross-media measurement initiatives both internal to Time Warner, as well as external as a co-chair of the Advertising Research Foundation’s 360 Media & Marketing Super Council and as a contributor to the Council for Research Excellence’s Video Consumer Mapping Study.

Margaret Coles

Associate Partner
Quantitative Strategy (Data, Research, and Analytics)
An innovator in the evolution of marketing research and advertising, Margaret helped implement the first large-scale client marketing systems while at KPMG Consulting, helped develop the earliest online research platforms while at NFO and Markettools/Zoomerang, and led development of one of the first automated Bayesian advertising models while at Factor TG. In her role at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, Margaret leads a team of researchers, analysts, and data scientists who leverage data, technology and insights to make the work more effective and the results more accountable. At GS&P she consults with clients to help them ask better questions of their data and research, to incorporate more meaningful data into their models, and to understand the mindsets and emotions that fuel consumer motivations. Margaret is the recipient of the ARF Research Innovation Award as well as multiple Ogilvy and Effie awards for advertising effectiveness. She holds a U.S. patent for marketing performance models.

Keri Degroote

Senior Vice President of Research & Analytics
Pandora 
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 Pandora, Keri held senior leadership positions at iHeartMedia, Turner Broadcasting and FX & FMC Networks.

Stephen DiMarco

Chief Digital Officer
Kantar

Stephen is Chief Digital Officer of Kantar’s Media & Content Domain, and brings more than twenty years of sales, marketing and strategy experience to the role.

Prior to his current role, he served as the Chief Client Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Millward Brown Digital / Compete. In addition, he serves on the WPP Digital Analytics Task Force. Previously, Stephen was a co-founder of the Internet consulting firm ZEFER, was part of the launch team for FX Networks, and managed consumer marketing for Comedy Central. Stephen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. from Georgetown University.

Jeff Doud

Director, Marketplace Analytics
Kellogg Company
As director, marketplace analytics at the Kellogg Company, Jeff Doud oversees the Kellogg marketing effectiveness program and supports the development of analytical ROI measurement frameworks within Kellogg. Jeff’s work directly informs the placement of all Kellogg North America advertising and promotional investment. Previously, he served as senior manager, business analytics, responsible for development and enhancement of Kellogg internal trade promotion modeling, merchandising insights, national price action analytics, and acting as the research lead with academic professionals. Jeff began his career at Information Resources Inc. (IRI).

Seth Duncan

Leader, Analytics & Insights
W20

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.

Andy Fisher

Chief Analytics Officer
Merkle
As Chief Analytics Officer at Merkle, Andy’s primary responsibility is driving Merkle’s analytics innovation, especially at the intersection of CRM and media analytics. One of his other areas of specialization is helping to bring new approaches in big data analytics to the network television and cable industries. 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

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.

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!”

Abigail Hollister

President
Ameritest
Abigail Hollister is President at Ameritest, a research-based Branded Communications consultancy founded in 1989. Abby joined Ameritest in 2005. She leads the company’s strategic direction, implementing action plans and guiding team development and systems management. Additionally, Abby focuses on research innovations and company partnerships to build out best in class solutions for client partners. Abby’s experience within Ameritest includes research design and development, client relationship management, and consulting, helping partners in strategy and tactical execution of branded communications across industries.

Prior to joining Ameritest, she worked in Client Service at Millward Brown in Naperville, IL and in custom research for Catalina Marketing Research Solutions in Schaumburg, IL. Abby is a graduate of the University of New Mexico with a degree in Marketing Management and a minor in Psychology. One of her efforts to give back is to work with undergraduate students and career services, assisting with job placement and networking events.

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.

Gunnard Johnson

Head of Measurement Science and Insights
Pinterest
Gunnard Johnson is head of measurement science and insights at Pinterest. He heads a newly formed team of 12 employees focused on improving Pinterest’s tools for analyzing its users and the impact of its advertisers’ spending. Prior to Pinterest Gunnard was head of Quantitive Ads Research. At Centro, Gunnard was the Advertising Research Director for Google, where he led the Americas team and influenced Google’s push into brand measurement. An industry leader, Gunnard has worked with the IAB to define the next generation of engagement metrics, the ARF where he has spoken at multiple conferences on topics such as brand measurement and big data, and multiple consortium efforts to improve cross-media measurement via next generation media mix and attribution models. Prior to Google, Gunnard was the SVP of Marketing Science at WPP’s TeamDetroit, where he established a global data and analytics practice for Ford and GroupM’s diversified clients. Gunnard started his career at Andersen Consulting, which became Accenture, in CRM and Customer Insights. He has an undergraduate degree in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. Gunnard lives outside of Ann Arbor with his wife and 3 boys.

Louis Jones

Executive Vice President, Media & Data
4A’s

Louis Jones enables the 4A’s Media & Data Practice to amplify its members’ collective voice with various partners and suppliers. He oversees the 4A’s media committees/ task forces, and serves 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 client 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.

Elissa Lee

Director of Research on Advanced Measurement Technologies
Google
Elissa and her team focus on creating new and innovative measurement solutions to understand the impact of brand advertising and marketing, from reach and awareness across channels to sales and ROI. Previously Elissa led advertising research for the Americas. She joined Google in 2011. Prior to her work at Google, Elissa served as VP of Research at TiVo for 10 years where she was responsible for managing in-house research and analytics, including user and market research for TiVo’s consumer products as well as product development for TiVo’s Audience Research Business, which leveraged STB data and integrated TV data with Internet measurement to understand cross screen video consumption. Earlier in her career, Elissa was the Head of Consumer Research at Casio U.S. R&D Center, ran a large scale content coding project on movie portrayals of alcohol and drug use, and earned her B.A, M.A., and Ph.D. from Stanford.

Greg Levitt

VP Enterprise Products
Foursquare
Greg Levitt is Foursquare’s VP, Enterprise Products, leading the development of the company’s high-growth revenue products as well as core technology and data platforms. He also manages Foursquare’s product-marketing function. Prior to Foursquare, Greg co-founded and led product development at 33Across—a social ad-targeting company that was ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in 2013—and held leadership roles in Yahoo, 24/7 Real Media (acquired by WPP) and Primedia. Greg graduated from Brown University and received an MBA from Columbia.

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.

Robert Liodice

President & CEO
Association of National Advertisers, Inc.
Bob Liodice, who currently serves as president and chief executive officer of the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA), first joined the organization in 1995. He was previously executive vice president, responsible for member relations and business development with a primary focus on strengthening relationships with ANA member companies and broadening the membership base. Prior to the ANA, Bob was vice president of global marketing and sales for Grupo Televisa, a major worldwide broadcaster. Previous experience includes more than 15 years in marketing and financial management at Kraft General Foods, including having served as category marketing manager for the Jell-O and Bakers brands. He is also a member of the board of directors of The Advertising Council, Advertising Research Foundation, National Advertising Review Council, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and the Advertising Educational Foundation. Bob holds bachelor degrees in accounting and management and an M.B.A. in finance from New York University.

Abby Mehta

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.

Steven Millman
Simmons Research
Chief Scientist

As Chief Scientist, Steven Millman oversees a strong measurement science team responsible for creating advanced techniques to combine measurement technology and methodology. Throughout his career, Steven has maintained a focus on quantitative and statistical analysis, survey, research design and other applied research techniques. Prior to joining Simmons, Steven was 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.

Dave Morgan

Chief Executive Officer
Simulmedia
Dave is the CEO and founder of Simulmedia. He previously founded and ran both TACODA, Inc., an online advertising company that pioneered behavioral online marketing and was acquired by AOL in 2007, and Real Media, Inc., one of the world’s first ad serving and online ad network companies and a predecessor to 24/7 Real Media (TFSM), which was later sold to WPP. After the sale of TACODA, Dave served as executive vice president, Global Advertising Strategy, at AOL, a Time Warner Company (TWX). A lawyer by training, Dave served as General Counsel and Director of New Media Ventures at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association in the early 1990’s. Dave received a B.A. in political science from The Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law. He serves on the boards of the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS) and the American Press Institute (API), and was a long-time member of the executive committee and board of directors of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). He and his wife, writer Lorea Canales, live in Manhattan with their two daughters.

Robin Opie

Chief Analytics Officer & Group Vice President, Data Science: Oracle Data Cloud

As the leader of the Data Science organization, Robin Opie is responsible for the 135+ Data Scientists who deliver and continuously improve the analytical capabilities that support Oracle Data Cloud’s audience targeting, ID graph linkage, and measurement products.

Opie came to Oracle through its acquisition of Datalogix, where he was Chief Analytics Officer. Prior to joining Datalogix, Opie managed the Engineering Analytics function at Comcast, where he was responsible for evaluating billions of dollars in technology spending and is credited with saving hundreds of millions of dollars during his 4 years in the role. Opie’s 20+ years of working experience have also included analytics leadership positions at Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Moxi Digital, Mercer Management Consulting and Chase Manhattan Bank. Opie holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Certificate in Dance from Princeton University.

Bob Pearson

Senior Advisor
W20 Group

Bob is Senior Advisor for W2O Group, a leading digital marketing communications firm. Prior to W2O Group, Bob worked as VP of Communities and Conversations at Dell to develop the Fortune 500’s first global social media function. Before Dell, Bob was Head of Global Corporate Communications and Head of Global Pharma Communications at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland, where he served on the Pharma Executive Committee and he held the role of Vice President of Media and Public Affairs for Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi).

He is a three-time author (PreCommerce, Storytizing, Countering Hate), frequent speaker and blogger on digital marketing, as well as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University and The University of Texas McCombs Business School, where he is designing a new course on digital media models. Bob is also a guest lecturer at the U.S. State Department where he teaches courses on digital media and how to counter disinformation and extremism.

Bob resides in Austin, Texas.

Tim Perzyk

Sr. Director of Global Market Insights & Analytics
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.

Edward M. Prince, Jr.

Senior Vice President, Marketing Solutions & Corporate Development
Neustar
Edward M. Prince, Jr. Neustar’s Senior Vice President, Marketing Solutions & Corporate Development. In this role, he oversees the development and management of complete, cloud-based workflow solutions to enable clients to more effectively market their brands. These services include Neustar’s Measurement and Attribution, Customer Intelligence and Activation platforms. Mr. Prince also oversees the Corporate Development Group that has driven eight acquisitions over the last five years transferring Neustar to an Information Services company. Prior to joining Neustar, Mr. Prince was the Chief Operating Officer, Global Media, at National Geographic, and President, National Geographic Ventures — the for-profit arm of National Geographic where he worked from 2003-2012. Mr. Prince also served as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at AOL Broadband from 2002-2003, and Senior Vice President, Business Development for AOL from 1999-2002.

Raja Rajamannar

Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and President Healthcare
Mastercard (new bio)
Raja Rajamannar is Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of Mastercard. He is responsible for building the Mastercard brand, fueling business and advancing sustainable competitive edge for the company. With more than 30 years of experience as a global executive, Mr. Rajamannar has been recognized for the innovative thinking and leadership in business transformation he has brought to executive roles across multiple industries and companies including Unilever, Citigroup and Humana.
In 2018, Forbes ranked Raja at #5 on its list of the “World’s Most Influential CMOs”, and among the Top 25 “World’s Most Innovative CMOs” by Business Insider. He’s also been noted as one of Adweek’s “Top 50 Most Tech Savvy CMOs in the World,” as well as on the Adweek 50 “Top 50 CMOs Leading Charge to Transformation”.
Mr. Rajamannar is a member of the Board of Directors of PPL Corporation, a Fortune 500 power generation company. He serves on the boards of the Ad Council and the Association of National Advertisers, and is a member of the World Federation of Advertisers’ global leadership team.

Ali Rana

Global Head of Audience and Brand Solutions
Snapchat
As The Global Head of Snapchat’s Audience and Brand Measurement Solutions, Ali leads measurement strategy across all of Snapchat’s advertiser clients. Prior to joining Snapchat, Ali spend 16 1/2 years at Millward Brown, more recently as the company’s Chief Digital Strategist. While at Millward Brown, Ali built a number of pioneering measurement solutions across leading platforms and advertisers. Ali has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Oberlin College and resides in NYC.

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

Senior Vice President, Portfolio Research
Turner

Beth Rockwood is senior vice president, portfolio research for the ad sales team at Turner. Rockwood oversees Turner’s portfolio of linear and digital brands, category and client insights as well as outcome focused research for advertisers. Prior to joining Turner in 2016, she served as senior vice president, insights and analytics at Discovery Communications, and held similar positions at CBS Television Network and Young & Rubicam. In addition to her role at the ARF, she is on the research board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and serves on the advisory board of Ehrenberg-Bass.

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

Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer
Viacom Media Networks (VMN)

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

EVP, Head of Insights & Analytics
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. 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. 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.

Kirti Singh

Vice President, Global Consumer and Market Knowledge
P&G
Kirti is the Vice President, Global and Market Knowledge at P&G since 2014. Kirti joined P&G December 1, 1993 and positions held at P&G include, Vice President, Global Health & Grooming and Pet Care from 2013-2014, Vice President, Asia Market Development Organization from 2009-2013, Manager, Gillete-Blades & Razors from 2006-2009, Director, Global Fem Care from 2003-2006, Associate Director, North America Fem Care in 2003, Associate Director, Global Personal Cleansing Care from 2000-2003, Senior Manager, Personal Beauty Care and Market Measurements, China from 1998-2003, Manager Personal Care Cleansing from 1996-1998, Manager, Laundry from 1995-1996 and Manager, Laundry from 1993-1995. Kirti holds a B.S. degree from Malaviya Regional Engineering College, India and an M.B.A. from XRLI, India and currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Jonathan Steuer

Chief Research Officer,
Omnicom Media Group

Jonathan has been actively involved in emerging media for over twenty-five years and has been an innovator in media research and audience-based media planning for nearly two decades.

Jonathan manages OMG’s Research, Advanced Media and Investment Operations & Analytics teams. OMG Research consolidates all of OMG’s media and consumer research capabilities including primary and secondary research, research and data procurement, investment research and analytics, partnership research and consumer insights. OMG Advanced Media manages development and deployment of advanced TV solutions and other data-driven cross-platform audience-based media planning, buying and reporting solutions for use across OMG’s media agencies, OMD, PHD Media, and Hearts & Science. OMG Investment Operations & Analytics develops and manages marketplace demand and forecasting and media inventory tools to support OMG’s integrated investment team.

Prior to joining Omnicom Media Group, Jonathan served as Chief Research Officer at TiVo; before that, he managed the design and deployment of the pioneering cross-media (TV+ online+ mobile) research effort for AT&T AdWorks (now part of AT&T’s Xandr).

Jonathan holds a Ph.D. in Communication Theory and Research from Stanford University (1995) and an A.B. in Philosophy from Harvard College (1988). He originally hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and lives in the East Village, New York City with his wife Marjorie Ingall, two teenage daughters and two female cats.

Mark Truss

Global Director of Brand Intelligence
J. Walter Thompson
Mark Truss oversees research, insights and brand intelligence at J. Walter Thompson, servicing all brands across the globe. Mark is an active contributor to the research industry, writing for/speaking at events hosted by the ARF, 4A’s, IAB, AEF and the ANA, and lending his expertise to industry bodies such as the Ad Council’s Research Committee, Social Media Week and as a member of ESOMAR. Mark is also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and NYU teaching market research and consumer behavior to graduate students, is a member of the Board of the Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF) and a member of the Advisory Board at Berkeley College’s Marketing Communications Program.

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.