ARF Board & Trustees Bios

2026 Board of Directors & Trustees Bios

ARF Board of Directors | ARF Trustees | ARF Charitable Foundation Board of Directors | MSI Trustees | CIMM Board of Directors

ARF Board of Directors

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.

Chair
Mark Truss
Executive Director
Galileo Research and Strategy Consultancy

Mark Truss is the Executive Director for Galileo Research and Strategy Consultancy, a psychology-based research and strategy company that uses therapeutic and clinical psychological techniques with respondents and participants to uncover deeply held views, attitudes, and cognitive biases to clearly understand people’s motivations and processes in decision making. He leads Galileo’s quantitative research and methodology development, using traditional, emerging and experimental research techniques in order to that drive impactful strategy and communications.

Mark is also an active contributor to the industry. He writes for and speaks at events hosted by the Advertising Research Foundation 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.

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

Secretary
Abby Mehta
SVP Marketing Insights and Media Analytics
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.

Neha Bhargava
Director, Advertising Research
Meta

Neha Bhargava is the Director of Advertising Research team at Meta. Before joining Meta, Neha was a strategy consultant focused on providing product and marketing decisions based on big data.

She started her career as an Electrical Engineer and a Mechanical Engineer designing avionics control hardware for rockets. Neha holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Pete Doe
Chief Research Officer
Nielsen

Pete Doe is Chief Research Officer at Nielsen. He has decades of experience in market research, audience measurement, big data and statistical modeling techniques.

In his current role he leads Nielsen’s Data Science Organization, overseeing the development of audience measurement methodologies across video, digital and audio globally. This is his second stint at Nielsen: between 2004-2015 he was a primary architect of Nielsen’s data integration products and contributed to patented innovations in Set Top Box measurement, Digital and Outdoor Advertising Research.

Between 2015-2022, Pete was Chief Research Officer at clypd, an advanced TV platform start-up acquired by Xandr in 2019, which in turn was acquired by Microsoft in 2022.

Before moving to the United States, Pete was a board director at RSMB TV Research in the UK, where he worked primarily on the BARB TV audience measurement currency as well as data fusion projects. He started his career at NOP Market Research in London.

Pete is a graduate of King’s College, London University.

Chris Fosdick
Head of US
PA Consulting

As Head of US, Chris leads a team of industry experts across Consumer & Manufacturing, Energy & Utilities, Health & Life Sciences, Financial Services, and Transport. PA leverages insight and impact to change the face of businesses, economies, and society for the better, and the company’s diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies, partnering with clients to help solve their biggest challenges.

Chris has spent the last two decades helping clients respond to changing market dynamics to capitalize on new growth opportunities. Recognizing innovation is crucial to unlocking organizations’ growth, Chris is passionate about bringing together diverse teams of experts to get to the best possible solutions for clients. Chris joined PA in 2022 when it acquired The Cambridge Group, an award-winning growth strategy consulting firm. 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.

Chrissie Hanson
CEO
OMD USA

Chrissie Hanson is the CEO of OMD USA, Ad Age’s 2025 U.S. Media Agency of the Year, where she leads the transformation of how brands create more valued and valuable customer experiences. Her focus is on elevating the rigor, measurability and effectiveness of modern marketing, principles deeply aligned with the ARF’s mission to advance the scientific practice of advertising.

Across her 25-year career, Chrissie has worked with global, regional, and national brands to design decision systems, analytics frameworks and operating models that empower teams to act with clarity and accountability. She has championed the integration of data-driven insights and attention-based measurement, helping marketers navigate a rapidly evolving landscape marked by privacy shifts, proliferating metrics and new forms of consumer behavior.

A frequent contributor to industry publications, Chrissie brings a strong point of view on the future of media planning and the importance of evidence-based standards to deliver smarter insights and the work that drives growth. She has served as a jury member and Jury President across the industry’s most respected global festivals, including Cannes Lions (Creative Strategy and Media), WARC Effectiveness, The Shortys, and the Clios, and will serve as President of the Dubai Lynx Media Jury in 2026.

A committed advocate for industry progress, Chrissie is passionate about strengthening the ecosystem around trust, transparency, and high-quality research. She firmly believes that better measurement leads to better creative, better media, and better business outcomes, and that advancing that mission requires active collaboration between agencies, marketers, platforms, and trade bodies. She is dedicated to bringing that perspective to the ARF Board during a pivotal period of change for our industry.

Treasurer
Bill Livek
Non-Executive Vice Chairman of the Board
Comscore

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 Chief Executive Officer, President and Vice Chairman.

Prior to joining Comscore, Mr. Livek served as Vice Chairman and 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.

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.

Carl Mela
T. Austin Finch Foundation Professor of Business Administration
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.

Steven Millman
Chief Scientist
iSpot.tv

Steven is an award-winning researcher and data scientist with over two decades leading market and advertising research teams – serving thousands of brands, agencies and research firms, as well as experience in political and management consulting. He was the 2024 Market Research Council Hall of Fame Change Maker, an award which recognizes the industry’s most impactful market researcher of the year.

In his role as Chief Scientist at iSpot, Millman leads the evolution of iSpot’s data science and AI strategy across Creative, Audience and Outcomes measurement. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at New York University, where he teaches courses on the use of AI and LLMs in advertising and market research organizations.

Previously, Steven was employed at Dynata, where he served as the Global Head of Research and Data Science, as the Chief Scientist at MRI-Simmons, and as SVP Head of Research at comScore. He is also an inveterate coffee snob.

Greg Pharo
Global Senior Director, Communications & Marketing Effectiveness
The Coca-Cola Company

Greg Pharo is global senior director of communications & marketing effectiveness for The Coca-Cola Company. He heads worldwide communications, advertising & media diagnostics and data services for the world's leading beverage company, helping Coke maximize its return on marketing investment. His responsibilities include media analytics and optimization, advertising and messaging research, and holistic communications best practices. He also co-chairs the Measurement and Accountability Committee for the ANA-Association of National Advertisers.

He’s a recognized expert in advertising insights, forecasting, earned media analytics, ad creativity assessment and marketing ROI. Greg has pioneered advances in the marketing analytics field with new-to-the-world mix modeling and multitouch attribution techniques for measuring media’ impact on sales and brand perception. He also invented market mix modeling techniques to measure mass advertising’s ability to reduce customer churn. Most recently Greg co-developed artificial intelligence techniques for predicting ad performance prior to airing.

Greg is a graduate of Emory University where he received both bachelors and MBA degrees. Prior to joining Coca-Cola he worked in marketing and finance at AT&T, Siemens, Georgia-Pacific and Kodak.

Christine Turner
Managing Director, Global Product Solutions
Google Ads & Measurement

Christine is currently the Managing Director for Global Product Solutions, focusing on Measurement, Data & Audiences. She graduated from the University of Southern California and has spent the last 20 years in a variety of digital marketing, advertising measurement, and analytics roles at companies including Estee Lauder, Yahoo!, Instagram, and Facebook. Prior to Google, Christine spent four years building out Facebook Marketing Science teams, initially focusing on bringing Instagram ads to market and later working with customers and agencies to increase the value of their investments through advanced measurement and auction buying methods. She joined Google & GCS in 2018, where she focused on scaling customer success through the Independent Agency segments. Most recently, Christine leads the $4B+ US West Agency business

In all her roles, Christine has maintained a deep focus on leveraging data to drive business decisions and building diverse, inclusive teams. Her hope for the industry is to develop a common and accurate currency for understanding the value of all media investments, helping marketers focus on real business growth.

Christine currently resides in Redwood City, CA, with her family. When not working, she is usually "Just Dancing" with her kids, Sofie and Cade.

Brian West
VP, Data & Measurement Strategy
NBCUniversal

Brian West serves as SVP, Data & Measurement Strategy within NBCU's Media Group Decision Sciences. In this capacity, West is responsible for powering insights across the NBCU portfolio and measuring, analyzing, and interpreting data from a variety of partners. His purview spans all of NBCU’s media businesses, supporting brands including NBC, Bravo, Peacock, and more. West and his team support NBCU’s cross-platform strategies in several different areas including developing new cross platform measurement capabilities, operating NBCU's current measurement solutions and curating the resulting data, partnering with teams across NBCU to ensure data quality, and analyzing and projecting media landscape trends. Additionally, he is responsible for setting NBCU's content measurement strategy through work with internal and external partners on current measurement and data solutions, plus the development of emerging measurement initiatives.

Nicole Whitlow
Global Head of Consumer Insights, KitchenAid Small Appliances
Whirlpool

Nicole Whitlow is the global head of Consumer Insights for KitchenAid Small Appliances at Whirlpool Corporation. She also led Brand/Advertising Insights for all US major appliances brands for 2 years, covering the Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, JennAir and Gladiator brands. Prior to Whirlpool, she led Consumer Insights for Barilla America and was responsible for the company’s market research team for the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. She has also held client and vendor side research roles at companies such as McCain Foods, Millward Brown/Kantar and Catalina Marketing. Nicole is passionate about translating data and trends into meaningful growth opportunities for brands.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University with a concentration in Marketing and Mathematics and her MBA from DePaul University with a concentration in New Product Development.

She is a member of the Advertising Research Foundation’s Board of Trustees and has also served as an Ogilvy advertising judge.

ARF Board of Trustees

Tina Allan
Chief Global Solutions Architect
McCann

Bio to follow.

Risa Andersen
Head of North America Media and Data
PepsiCo

Over the last decade at PepsiCo, Risa Andersen has worked across marketing functions including brand, innovation, shopper, media, data, and tech. Today, she heads the Consumer Data and Retailer Media agendas for North America.

Risa is responsible for spearheading 1st party data acceleration including the portfolio CRM loyalty program PepsiCo Tasty Rewards, for driving a consumer driven, audience-first approach to consumer activation, and for driving our strategy and investments in retailer media where she works closely with PEP’s retailer partners as they grow their media and data capabilities.

Risa has her MBA from the University of Chicago – Booth School of Business, and her undergraduate business degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Vassilis Bakopoulos
SVP – Head Industry Research
MMA Global

Vas is the SVP - Head of Industry Research for MMA Global. 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.

Charlotte Blank
Chief Marketing Officer
Jaguar Land Rover North America

Charlotte Blank is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Jaguar Land Rover North America. In her previous role, she was the Chief Behavioral Officer of Martiz, one of the world’s first “chief behavioral officers.” As CBO, Charlotte led Maritz’s practice of behavioral science and innovation. She forged the connection between academic theory and applied business practice, by elevating the use of field research to advance our understanding of human behavior in the modern marketplace. Charlotte has led programs in consumer psychology and global branding during her ten years in the media and automotive industries, including various marketing roles for General Motors, and new product innovation for Turner Broadcasting.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology from Emory University, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. Incentive Magazine named Charlotte a Visionary and one of 2016’s 25 Most Influential in the Incentive Industry. In 2018, St. Louis Business Journal named Charlotte one of the city’s Most Influential Business Women. Charlotte is obsessed with field research, and her TEDx talk, “Lead Like a Scientist” makes the case for embracing experimentation to improve workforce incentives and motivation. Ever-curious about what “makes us work,” Charlotte is a frequent contributor to PeopleScience.com.

Kathleen Bohan
Senior Vice President, Audience Strategy and Insights
TelevisaUnivision

Kathleen Bohan is the Senior Vice President of Audience Strategy and Insights for TelevisaUnivision, the world’s leading Spanish language media company. She has been specializing in Hispanic media, consumer and demographic research for over twenty-five years. Much of her career has been spent advocating for better Hispanic and Spanish language representation in media and insights tools and data sources to ensure that the Hispanic audience is accurately represented within the total media landscape. In her role she oversees teams dedicated to media and audience research in Local and national radio and TV, network TV and Digital. Her work also encompasses consumer insights on the growing impact of the U.S. Hispanic consumer and the critical ways that culture can drive behavior.

She joined what was then Univision Communications in early 2002 as Vice President of Research and Marketing for the radio division from a similar role at national rep firm Katz Media. She was promoted to SVP in 2007 and in 2014 she assumed leadership of the Local TV Research teams in a newly formed Local Media division. In 2022 Kathleen’s responsibilities expanded again to include the network TV Research team.

Kathleen holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and attended graduate school at Columbia University. She is a member of the Media Rating Council and the National Association of Broadcaster’s Committees on both Local Radio and TV Audience Measurement.

Claire Browne
Head of Research
Adelaide Metrics

Claire Browne is Head of Research at Adelaide Metrics, where she leads the company's research strategy, represents Adelaide on key industry councils—including the Advertising Research Foundation's Board of Trustees—and advances the industry's understanding of attention-based media quality metrics. With over 30 years of media research experience, Claire brings deep expertise in analytics, measurement, and data integration to drive innovation across the advertising ecosystem. Before joining Adelaide, Claire spent 16 years at RPA, where she founded and led the Media Research practice as VP/Director of Media Research. There, she partnered with brands such as American Honda, La-Z Boy, and CoStar Group to elevate planning, investment, and ROI strategies through advanced media analytics. Her earlier leadership roles span Ampersand, Razorfish, Sony Worldwide Networks, and Katz Media Group. Claire has long contributed to shaping industry standards, serving on the Media Rating Council and as a charter participant in the US Joint Industry Committee.

Chris Bruderle
Vice President, Industry Insights & Content Strategy
IAB

Chris Bruderle brings over 25 years of experience in Data/Web Analytics and Media Market Research at premium Digital and Muti-Platform web publishers including The Daily Beast, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Conde Nast Publications and This Old House Ventures.

Before working at IAB where he leads research-based thought leadership initiatives, Chris was most recently VP, Analytics & Research at The Daily Beast where he spent nearly 7 years and was responsible for the tracking, analysis and reporting of The Daily Beast’s O&O site and off-platform data/analytics for Senior/Corporate Management, Editorial, Advertising Sales, Product/Engineering, Audience/Business Development, Social Media and PR. He established the company-wide Editorial Analytics and Advertising Sales data and research stacks which included, among others, Google Analytics, Parse.ly, Krux DMP, Optimizely, comScore, Kantar, Samba, Newswhip, Crowd Tangle, Buzzsumo, and CrazyEgg.

Prior to The Daily Beast, Chris spent 5 years as Associate and Acting Director at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia where he directed the correspondence and development of all research-based strategies supporting the Advertising Sales and Marketing staffs of each of the MSLO media brands and platforms across digital, mobile/tablet, TV, print and radio. Chris has also held marketing and market research positions at Conde Nast and Time Inc. Chris started his career at BBDO as an Assistant Media Planner where he most notably completed the “Media Training Program”.

Chris earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in English and Communications from Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Joe Cashen
Marketing Intelligence Manager
Mitsubishi Motors North America

Joe Cashen is the Marketing Intelligence Manager at Mitsubishi Motors North America. His expertise spans a wide range of disciplines, including marketing research and analytics, e-commerce, customer experience enhancement, and marketing strategy development for major automotive brands. Prior to joining Mitsubishi, Joe spent 19 years at Nissan North America, where he led the development of Nissan’s first MMM, the national was a key member of the rollout of the e-commerce platforms, spearheaded customer experience programs, and managed marketing for the Titan and NV series vehicles. He also has agency experience, having worked at Saatchi & Saatchi LA, developing consumer insights for Toyota campaigns. Earlier in his career, Joe served as Director of Pricing Strategy at CarsDirect.com. Joe holds a BA in Economics and History from Duke University, where he graduated Cum Laude and was an ROTC Scholarship recipient. He is also a retired Major in the United States Army Reserve, having served in the Gulf War and been deployed in the Middle East.

In his spare time, Joe enjoys tinkering with cars in his garage and unsuccessfully training his dog. He currently resides in Nashville, TN.

Anibal Casso
Chief Strategy Officer, North America Global Strategy Lead WPP’s OpenX
Ogilvy

From a childhood steeped in the vibrant culture of the Dominican Republic to navigating the bustling streets of New York City, Anibal's journey has been fueled by an insatiable curiosity and a passion for understanding what connects us all. For over two decades, this drive has shaped the strategic vision of some of the world's most influential brands, leaving an indelible mark on the industry. His career began at Y&R in Dominican Republic, honing his Communication & Media Planning skills across LATAM, before transitioning to the U.S. to spearhead Multicultural Strategy & Comms Planning for giants like Heineken, Nissan, Johnnie Walker, Wendy’s, and the NFL. He then held leadership roles at Wieden + Kennedy, Droga5, 72andSunny, and FIG, where he catalyzed award-winning campaigns for iconic brands like P&G, IKEA, Old Spice, Google, Heineken, Ketel One, Audi and many more, earning recognition from Cannes Effectiveness, EFFIES, WARC, One Show, and Clio’s Effectiveness.

Today, as North America's Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy, Anibal leads a multidisciplinary practice at the intersection of Advertising, Connections, PR, Social, and Business Transformation. He is also the Global Strategy Lead at Ogilvy for WPP's OpenX, steering the future of brands within the Coca-Cola family. Beyond this, he champions Ogilvy's Intercultural approach, redefining how brands connect with the ever-changing fabric of America by embracing the richness of culture and perspective. His commitment extends to transforming Ogilvy NA's Integrated strategy team, building a more representative and inclusive group that reflects the communities they serve.

More than just a strategist, Anibal is a natural-born storyteller driven by a deep curiosity about creativity and human behavior. Known for his bottom-up leadership style, Anibal prioritizes relationships and remains intimately connected to his team's day-to-day realities. A firm believer in the power of human connection, Anibal is committed to fostering a culture of kindness and creativity, believing it's the key to crafting a culture where work truly works.

Maris Cohen
VP, Research and Analytics, Corporate Affairs
Blackstone

Maris Cohen is a marketing research and insights executive with more than a decade of experience helping organizations identify and unlock growth through consumer understanding and data-driven storytelling. She brings deep expertise across marketing strategy, primary and secondary research, analytics, and insight generation, with experience spanning technology, financial services, media, and consumer categories. Known for her ability to translate complex data into clear, action-oriented narratives, Maris partners closely with senior leaders to inform strategy and decision-making.

Maris currently serves as Vice President of Research and Analytics, Corporate Affairs at Blackstone, where she leads research and analytics to support corporate affairs strategy. Previously, she was Director of Marketing Research and Strategy at Binance.US, where she built and led the marketing research function, partnering across Marketing, Product, Design, UX Research, Analytics, Finance, and Business Development. Her work informed branding, segmentation, product launches, and performance measurement, contributing to a 35-point increase in Net Promoter Score and a 95% reduction in cost per acquisition. Earlier, Maris held senior roles at NCSolutions and The NPD Group, where she delivered thought leadership and insights on consumer behavior, media effectiveness, and emerging trends, driving significant audience and lead growth.

Maris holds an Executive MBA from Columbia Business School, where she earned Dean’s Honors and Distinction, and a BA from New York University in French Language, Culture & Literature, Mathematics, and Business Studies. Her career began abroad in Paris, translating consumer surveys from French to English—an experience that sparked her lifelong curiosity about consumer decision-making and the power of research to shape strategy.

Arturo Encinas
Director, Brand, CX & Connected Services Research
General Motors

Bio to follow.

Lindsay Franke
Group President, North America
Ipsos

Lindsay is an advertising and marcoms strategist with extensive experience in partnering with Fortune 500 companies to develop and refine creative strategies and brand communications. She is passionate about creativity and propelling the future of advertising.

Lindsay is a thought leader and advocate for gender equality in the advertising industry. Under Lindsay’s leadership, Ipsos has become an established and trusted partner of the Female Quotient, and the first research member of ANA/SeeHer, a coalition of marketers and media owners committed to accurate gender portrayal and representation in advertising. Lindsay has presented and moderated at several industry events, including Ad Week and Cannes Lions.

Justin Fromm
Head of Insights & Thought Leadership
Samsung Ads

Justin Fromm is an experienced media executive and a leading expert in the Connected TV and SVOD space. Justin has extensive experience as a data leader, conducting strategic research on the value and effectiveness of TV and digital media as advertising platforms, the marketing of televisual programming, and the effects of new technology on consumer behavior and the media industry.

Justin has deep expertise in market research and has led the research work at advertising sales organizations at broadcast networks and CTV/OTT platforms. He has broad experience designing and leading data analyses and research studies using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, biometric and lab-based measurement, and advanced analytical techniques.

A published thought leader, Justin has been a standing member of industry trade associations, and is a frequent panelist and speaker at industry events (ANA, Nielsen360, ARF, MRA, TVOT). He has the unique ability to explain complicated ideas in a way that advertising buyers and sellers, network executives and business owners alike, can understand and utilize to help their businesses excel.

Dr. Joetta Gobell
SVP, Data Strategy and Insights
People Inc.

Dr. Joetta Gobell is the Head of Data Strategy & Solutions for People Inc. Dr. Gobell spent her time in academia as a cognitive scientist, studying the psychological and computational underpinnings of human information processing, with a specific focus on visual attention. Her scientific quest has included questions like, “How does paying attention to something change our experience of it?” to “How do viewers resolve ambiguous visual scenes to understand what they are seeing?” to “What are the dynamics of the distribution of visual attention across multiple locations in space?” Outside of academia, Joetta has spent nearly two decades exploring human motivations and needs while working in product development, market research, and media (digital and TV).

At Dotdash Meredith, Dr. Gobell manages a team of researchers who share her passion for understanding the richness of human behavior through the questions people ask and the content they turn to for answers.

Vijoy Gopalakrishnan
VP, Product Management, Innovation Products and Media Intelligence Suite
Circana

Vijoy Gopalakrishnan is VP Product Management , Innovation Products and Media Intelligence Suite at Circana.

Prior to Circana, he spent over two decades leading and building measurement products to maximize ROAS. His area of expertise includes attribution, TV ratings, and sales effectiveness measurement for CPGs, publishers, and retailers.

Tom Hicks
SVP, Corporate Advanced Analytics & Measurement
Paramount

Tom Hicks is a senior media analytics and measurement executive with deep expertise in television marketing, audience analytics, and client communications. He has spent his career at the intersection of media, measurement, and client service, helping organizations translate complex audience data into clear insights that inform strategy, advertising effectiveness, and business decisions across a rapidly evolving media landscape.

Tom currently serves as Senior Vice President of Corporate Advanced Analytics & Measurement at Paramount, a role he has held since 2014. He leads enterprise-wide analytics and measurement initiatives supporting corporate strategy and advertising performance across Paramount’s multi-platform portfolio. Previously, Tom spent nearly 18 years at Nielsen, where he held a series of increasingly senior leadership roles, including SVP of Media Client Communications and SVP of Business Initiatives. At Nielsen, he was a trusted partner to the cable and media industries, guiding clients through major changes in audience measurement, policy, and analytics.

Tom holds a BS in Television/Radio with a concentration in Media Management from Ithaca College and has completed executive education programs at Harvard Business School and The Wharton School, with a focus on cable industry leadership and advanced customer analytics. He is known for combining analytical rigor with clear, effective communication to drive alignment and impact among diverse stakeholders.

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.

Mihkel Jäätma
CEO & CO-founder
Realeyes

Mihkel is the CEO of Realeyes. An ambitious entrepreneur and a visionary, he saw an opportunity for emotion analytics before “big data” was even coined.

Mihkel Jäätma is CEO of Realeyes, the emotion tech company he co-founded in 2007 at Oxford University. After ten years of breakthrough R&D innovation, Realeyes is now the technology leader in emotion AI for marketing performance, providing unfiltered emotional responses from consumers to businesses. Combining the latest in computer vision, deep learning, and behavioral science has enabled Mihkel to secure multi-million partnerships with several of the world’s finest international brands, agencies, and media companies.

Mihkel is passionate about humanizing the big data that increasingly governs our daily lives. He sees it his mission to bridge the gap between the academic research into human emotions, the latest in machine learning, and actionable business applications.

Ashwini Karandikar
EVP, Media, Technology and Data
4A's

As EVP, Media, Tech & Data, at the 4A's, the leading trade organization for marketing communications agencies, Ashwini Karandikar provides leadership, guidance, advocacy and consultative support to member agencies on all media and data related issues including measurement, analytics, brand safety, programmatic, digital and distributed ledger technology. In addition to supporting members, Ashwini works alongside industry partners across trade associations, media companies, platforms and technology providers.

With over 25 years of experience in advertising, business development and operational excellence, Karandikar is an entrepreneurial executive who has built diverse and talented teams in over 50 markets and most recently worked as a senior advisor for McKinsey's High Tech, Media & Telecom Practice. Prior to that, she spent 10 years at dentsu, initially at iProspect and then led Amnet (dentsu's programmatic group) in the US. In 2013, she took on the role of Global President expanding the capabilities and offerings. She started her career in the US in Dallas, Texas, at Tribal DDB and later Temerlin McLain followed by a client-side role at Match.com. Prior to joining dentsu, Ashwini was at Range Online Media where she led client services for the expanding digital offerings.

Helen Katz
Executive Vice President, Research
Publicis Media

In her current role, Helen Katz co-leads the global Data Intelligence practice at Publicis Media, a central team that provides insight, consulting, best practices and thought leadership in analytics and research. Helen oversees global data and research partnerships for Publicis Media and is a trusted industry expert on data quality and reliable measurement. She is currently an active member of both the U.S. Joint Industry Committee on alternative currencies, as well as the Media Rating Council.

A 23-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 and New York 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 (8th edition, 2022). 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.

Gillian Kenah
US Customer Pod Lead
Tracksuit

Gillian is the US Customer Pod Lead at Tracksuit – a beautiful, affordable, always-on brand tracking platform that helps marketers measure and communicate the value of brand building. She works with global brands to leverage their brand health data and also manages a team of Brand Champions (CSMs) at Tracksuit. She previously managed custom quantitative consumer insights projects day-to-day at GfK (an NIQ Company), ensuring studies were executed on-time, on-spec, and on-target from end-to-end. Her experience in market research spans various industries including CPG, technology, retail, and energy. Skilled in research methodologies such as brand tracking, purchase journeys, concept testing, attitude and usage, and segmentation. Practiced in translating statistical findings into actionable insights that directly influence clients’ marketing strategies. Holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from Binghamton University.

Melissa Kim
Senior Director, Enterprise Research
Best Buy

Melissa is an experienced and highly strategic leader, specializing in retail strategy development, market research and marketing. She is passionate about understanding consumer motivations and behaviors and using that knowledge to help companies make more informed, customer obsessed, decisions.

Currently, as the Sr. Director of brand and marketing effectiveness research at Best Buy she leads efforts to understand consumer perceptions of the Brand, value propositions, and messaging. Specific areas of focus for her team include brand positioning and segmentation work, brand tracking, creative diagnostics and ad optimization, campaign measurement, and extensive ad-hoc qualitative and quantitative research.

Prior to her time with Best Buy, Melissa spent a number of years leading strategy development on the Enterprise Strategy team at Target before joining their Insights team – conducting research with a broader brand/enterprise lens. While there, she also spent time on Target’s Brand Marketing team. Though still close to research, in this role she leveraged insights to create short and long term marketing plans for Target’s corporate social responsibility efforts along with measurement approaches to monitor success.

In addition to her role at Best Buy, Melissa is an advisory board member for the Institute for Research in Marketing at the University of Minnesota, where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Human Resources. She enjoys spending time in classrooms at the U sharing her corporate experience with students whenever possible and feels blessed to call Minnesota home with her husband, two kids (Max and Mia), and new puppy.

Anastasia Leng
CEO and Founder
CreativeX

Anastasia Leng is the Founder and CEO of CreativeX, a technology company that powers creative-decision making for the world’s best brands. CreativeX technology is used globally by Fortune 500 brands like Unilever, Mondelēz, Heineken, Google and more to measure creative efficiency, consistency, representation and impact across all creatives worldwide.

Anastasia spent more than 5 years at Google, where she worked on nearly every ad tech and analytics product and led entrepreneurship efforts in EMEA. She’s been a nomad all her life and has lived in Bahrain, Vietnam, Hungary, Russia, France, the UK and the US. She remains a mediocre tennis player and an aspiring writer.

Igor Levin
Senior Director, Global Data Science, Strategy and Digital Analytics
Kenvue

Igor Levin is a senior global analytics and data science executive with a proven track record of transforming data into strategic insight that drives profitable growth. He blends deep analytical expertise with strong business acumen to help organizations better understand consumers, optimize marketing and commercial performance, and make smarter, faster decisions. Known for his ability to anticipate future business needs, Igor has consistently built scalable analytics capabilities and high-performing teams across complex, global organizations.

Currently, Igor serves as Senior Director of Global Data Science, Strategy, and Digital Analytics at Kenvue, where he leads analytics supporting the company’s global transformation to the Science of Brand Growth framework. His work spans category buyer definitions, behavioral segmentation, enterprise data strategy, and the development of advanced data science tools that enable more effective, insight-driven marketing and category-level communications worldwide. Previously, Igor spent more than seven years at Johnson & Johnson, where he shaped and led global data-driven marketing analytics and precision marketing capabilities, building international teams and implementing closed-loop measurement, optimization, and governance at scale.

Earlier in his career, Igor held a series of senior leadership roles at Avon Products, Inc., where he built and led North American marketing, sales, and insights functions during periods of significant transformation. He played a key role in the company’s post-recession recovery and omni-channel evolution by delivering advanced analytics, customer and competitor insights, and enterprise-wide performance measurement. Igor holds an Executive MBA from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management and a BS in Computer and Information Science from Brooklyn College, with advanced engineering studies in mathematics and physics.

Andy Littlewood
Chief Planning & Data Officer
Brainlabs North America

Andy Littlewood is the Chief Planning & Data Officer for Brainlabs North America, where he brings together two crucial disciplines for Brainlabs ensuring that all client strategies have data at the core.

His career spans creative, digital, and media agencies, previously serving as Global Chief Product Officer at UM Worldwide, where he collaborated with University of Oxford academics to develop foundational research in marketing intelligence, which was instrumental in driving new business growth and helping secure UM's recognition as Campaign's Global Agency of the Year in 2023.

Prior to that he worked with Accenture Song's Droga5 and WPP’s MediaCom, where he helped drive marketing strategies for many successful brands including Anheuser-Busch, PlayStation, Whole Foods, Hennesy, Meta, Huggies, Hotels.com, Hilton, Uber, Signet, Metlife, and Ally Financial. Over that time he was named an Adweek Media All-Star and Internationalist Agency Innovator.

Andy holds a BA Hons in Marketing from the University of Stirling and a CIM Professional Postgraduate Diploma from Napier University. He’s a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM).

Pamela Marsh
Managing Director, Primary Research
Omnicom Media Group

Bio to follow.

John Marson
SVP, Managing Director
Horizon Media

John Marson is SVP, Managing Director with eleven years of experience working for Horizon Media. John oversees Horizon’s CORD group, a catalyst for more inspired thinking and effective, strategic plans and investments through world class plan tech and perspectives. He is responsible for creating agency-wide value through the development of advanced data driven, outcome-based planning tech in addition to actionable, measurement-led perspectives and insights that drives forward-thinking strategies, innovation, and better business results for HMI teams and clients.

Prior to Horizon John spent 11 years at Kraft Foods as Sr. Media Manager overseeing media strategy for iconic brands such as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Stove Top, Oscar Mayer, A1, Cool Whip, and Jell-O, as well as managing the company’s Out-of-Home practice. He started his career at Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago working across accounts including SC Johnson, Coors Brewing Company, Quaker Foods/Gatorade, Circuit City, Diners Club International, and Kraft Foods.

John’s planning expertise and creativity earned him recognition such as Kids Media Planning Planner of Year, US OOH plan of the Year, and a Bronze Lion. He is active in media and research industry committees including the IAB and the JIC.

A native Hoosier, John graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington with a BA in Telecommunications, and business minor.

John is inspired daily by his wife and their three sons. In his free time, John likes to golf and cheer on his sons in baseball.

Vita Molis
Head of Editorial, B2B Institute
Linkedin

Vita Molis brings nearly 15 years of experience driving data-driven insights, shaping marketing strategies, and leading high-performing teams across media and entertainment. As Head of B2B Institute for Editoral at LinkedIn, she spearheads thought leadership and strategic initiatives that advance the future of B2B marketing.

Previously, as a leader at TikTok, she built the research and insights practice, working with strategic accounts and major holding companies to deliver impactful insights. Her work has been recognized at premier industry events, including Cannes, Ad Week, and SXSW. Vita’s global experience spans roles at top research agencies like Ipsos and Nielsen, where she partnered with Fortune 50 companies to shape marketing strategies, evolve products, and unlock sales for global brands. In addition to her professional role, Vita sits on multiple boards and committees to drive the industry forward. Known for combining analytical rigor with creative storytelling, she is a proven leader dedicated to empowering businesses with actionable insights.

Samantha Moore
Director, Market Research
Microsoft

Bio to follow.

David Porter
Head of Ad Sales Research, Data and Insights
Warner Bros. Discovery

David Porter serves as Head of Ad Sales Research, Data and Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery. In this role, Porter partners with the Ad Sales organization to drive revenue growth across the WBD portfolio of streaming, digital and linear platforms. He oversees the Ad Sales Research and Data functions leading overall strategy and execution for alternative currencies, advanced analytics, cross-platform measurement and insights, streaming and digital engagement, and data clean rooms. Additionally, Porter and his team are responsible for the development of advanced tools and technology, enabling advertisers to maximize their first party data, optimize campaigns, and measure impact across the WBD converged video platform.

Porter most recently served as CEO of Canoe Ventures, where he led addressable TV advertising across linear, VOD and streaming video platforms for partners. Prior to Canoe, Porter was Vice President, Ad Innovation and Programmatic Solutions at Turner, during which he led product management and sales solution teams to drive revenue. Additionally, Porter led teams at AOL, as Global Video Monetization Lead, and Microsoft as Global Sales Strategy Lead for Video. Porter has also held Advanced Advertising leadership roles at Cox Communications and AT&T. Porter splits his time between WBD’s New York City and Atlanta offices.

Esteban Ribero
Global Research Leader
TikTok

Esteban is the Global Research Leader for the Marketing Science team at TikTok, the leading short-form video platform designed to inspire creativity and bring joy. His goal is to use research to understand the world we live in and design experiences that move people. He is on a mission to use research and insights to make advertising more joyful for consumers and rewarding for brands.

He built his career at the intersection of Consumer Research & Psychology, Marketing & Business Strategy, and Machine Learning & AI.

Prior to TikTok, Esteban was the Head of Strategic Planning and Insights at Performics, the leading performance marketing agency of the Publicis Groupe. After working in strategic planning positions at TBWA, PHD, and Leo Burnett/Lapiz for more than 12 years, he went to work as the VP of Analytics and Insights at Luminar Insights -a Big Data analytics start-up within Entravision Communications- and then at Egg Strategy, a leading innovation and brand strategy consulting firm.

He holds a BS in Psychology, a MA in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin, a MS in Machine Learning and AI from Northwestern University, and a Graduate Certificate in System Dynamics from Worcester Politechnic Institute.

James Slezak
Founder and Chief Executive
Swayable

James is founder and chief executive of Swayable, the AI data platform company based in New York and California. Swayable is backed by investors including Y Combinator, and is used by many of the world’s marketing and advocacy campaign organizations to measure the impact of their content and messaging.

He was previously part of the senior management team at The New York Times, as Executive Director of Strategy for Digital Product and Technology, and Vice President and Chief of Operations of NYT Global. Before that, he was a founding partner at New York-based social-change agency Purpose, and a strategy consultant at McKinsey.

Originally from Australia, James moved to the U.S. to earn a PhD in experimental physics at Cornell in the Davis Lab, where he developed new measurement technology and published discoveries in journals including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Physical Review, while also studying economics under Kaushik Basu, later the Chief Economist of the World Bank. He was later appointed as an affiliate to the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, and more recently to Princeton’s Kahneman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy.

James is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the social impact organization led by UK’s Princess Anne, and was listed by Origin Magazine as "one of the top creatives changing the world”. In addition to his work leading Swayable, he contributes to the global challenge of building a healthy information environment as a council member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Information Integrity, to which he was appointed for the 2025–2027 term.

Nancy Smith
President & CEO
Analytic Partners

Nancy Smith is Founder, President, and CEO of Analytic Partners. Nancy began her career as a brand marketer, and she identified a market need for better data analytics to drive enterprise growth. Nancy’s experience struggling to turn data into actionable intelligence inspired her to launch Analytic Partners in early 2000. Since then, Nancy has built the company into the global leader in analytics with offices around the world from the Americas to EMEA to Asia and Australia. Along the way, Nancy has transformed Analytic Partners from an analytics consultancy to a technology firm with an industry-leading commercial analytics software platform, GPS Enterprise. Nancy was named the Ernst & Young LLP Entrepreneur of the Year 2020, Florida Award. Nancy has an MBA degree from the University at Buffalo School of Management where she focused on econometrics, marketing, and international business. In addition to building and leading Analytic Partners, Nancy has a passion for education and has served on numerous boards at educational institutions from childhood education up to the university level. Nancy currently makes her home in Miami along with her family.

John Spadaro
Sr. Vice President, Research
FOX News Media

John leads all measurment and research efforts for FOX News Media, supporting content and sales functions for FOX News, FOX Business, FOX News Digital, FOX Weather, Outkick and FOX Nation. He has an extensive background in measurment, currency research, advertising sales strategy, custom research, audience profile work and marketing return on investment.  Previously, John held senior research leadership roles at CNN, Zenith Optimedia, The Walt Disney Company and Viacom.

Michelle Sullivan
Director, Guest Insights
Target

Bio to follow.

Lily Tong
Director, Brand Measurement
Amazon Ads

Lily Tong is the Director of Brand and Cross-channel Measurement at Amazon Ads. She is responsible for supporting brands in measuring their upper and mid-funnel campaign objectives, and providing full-funnel benchmarks to help brands gain context and insights into their performance.

Prior to joining Amazon, Lily worked in management consulting at McKinsey and in tech startups. She has a B.S. from Georgia Tech and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Marc Vermut
Vice President, MS Knowledge Lab
TransUnion

Marc Vermut is a marketing strategy, data, and analytics executive with 20+ years’ experience. Marc is responsible for driving thought leadership and innovation across TransUnion’s Marketing Solutions identity, audience, activation, and measurement offerings, delivering strategic insights that help brand leaders make better, more data-driven, marketing decisions.

Anita Watkins
Chief Solutions Leader: Innovation, Creative, Qualitative North America and Global Qualitative Lead
Kantar Insights North America

Anita Watkins serves as the Chief Innovation, Creative, and Qualitative Solutions Lead for Kantar Insights North America and Global Qualitative Lead at Kantar. In this dual role, she'll return to Global Qualitative focused on implementing Kantar’s growth strategy, AI solutions and commercial excellence across 55 markets. And as Chief Solutions Lead for NA,she leads three core Kantar Solution areas (Innovation, Creative and Qualitative) in providing best-in-class insights and consulting to the world's biggest brands. She remains on the Global Product & Solutions Leadership team and is now part of the North America’s Executive Team.

Watkins, a 27-year veteran of Kantar, led North America’s Qualitative from 2001 to 2017. In 2017, she was named Global Head of Qualitative and in 2021 took on an additional role as Global Solutions Leader for Innovation.

Anita earned her Bachelor degree from the University of Dayton. She started her career in Market Research in 1996. Anita serves as Vice Chair of the Marketing Research Program at Michigan State University. She has spoken at several workshops and conferences teaching professionals leadership principles for maximizing potential in people and how to connect emotionally with teams.

Cara Weiss
SVP, Research & Analytics
iHeart Media

Cara is a Senior Vice President of Research & Analytics at iHeartMedia. She leads a team responsible for insights and data-led support, strategy, and optimization for cross media and digital marketing partnerships. Prior to joining iHeart, Cara founded a consulting practice focused on helping clients maximize first party data assets in targeting and insights, and has led data and research teams at Conde Nast, the Guardian News & Media and across various media agencies. Her experience spans insights and data management across a variety of product categories including CPG, telcom, luxury goods, among others. In her spare time, she lectures for Syracuse University’s Online Masters program in Communication. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and three children.

Marta Williams
Vice President, Insights
UnitedHealth Group

Marta leads brand insights and analytics across the UnitedHealthcare brand and businesses. In her 8 years focused on UnitedHealthcare – she’s delivered insights to guide brand strategy, inspire impactful advertising and measure campaign performance across a modern media mix.

Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare in 2016,  Marta worked at 3M for 6 years conducting a wide array of B2B and B2C global research across a variety of products and brands including Post-it®, Thinsulate, Scotch, ScotchBrite, Command, Nexcare and Filtrete. Marta  has a BA in Psychology and MA in Counseling Psychology from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

Marta  enjoys family time with her husband, young son and dog; likes to explore new restaurants in the Twin Cities and aspires to see every Best Picture Nominee each year prior to the Oscars airing.

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

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

Monica Wood
VP, Global Consumer and Member Insights
Herbalife

Monica Wood is currently the Vice President, Global Consumer and Member Insights for Herbalife Nutrition. She is responsible for building the insights function from the ground up, creating best in class practices globally and is responsible for all business analytics and insights work conducted within the company.

Monica has advised many Fortune 100 elite corporations during her extensive career and has earned recognition as one of the leaders in the field for her work with some of the world’s best-known brands. Her work has earned her multiple professional awards for excellence, including in 2024 receiving the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award from the American Marketing Association, the industry’s oldest and most prestigious award, given to pioneers in the field. She has also been honored by the Advertising Research Foundation multiple times, including receiving the prestigious Grand Ogilvy Award. She has also earned a Gold Effie award. Quirk’s awarded her its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021, and in 2023 selected her as Courageous Leader for her advocacy for innovation and change in the market insights industry. In 2022, she was named as a Research Hero by the Market Research Society. Monica has also been identified as a “Woman to Watch” by the Direct Marketing News in 2017.

Prior to joining Herbalife Nutrition, Monica was president of the Market Research Council and also the President of Monica Wood and Associates where she partnered with leading pharmaceutical and CPG clients to develop outstanding solutions and actionable, marketing insights. Prior, Monica was Vice President Head of Global Marketing Services at Novartis Pharmaceutical Company. She was responsible for all global interactive marketing activity, media spending analytics, syndicated and custom market research for Novartis Consumer Health. Prior to joining Novartis, Monica was Vice President Consumer Insights and Strategy Panning at ToysRUS. In that role, she created the insights and strategy group and had full global responsibility for insight and strategy work for ToysRUS and BabiesRUS. Prior to ToysRUS, Monica was EVP of Edelman Public Relations. There she founded Strategy One, their strategy and insights department. Among her other accomplishments, she lead the development of one of the first 360 media tracking systems. Before that, Monica was with Wyeth, where she was Vice President, Market Research, for Consumer Health. Monica led the research function for such well-known Wyeth brands as Advil, Robitussin, and Chapstick. Amongst her accomplishments, Monica created global standards, processes and best practices for new product development, copy testing and tracking. Through her leadership and insight work, Advil was repositioned from a "body pain brand" to an "everyday pain" solution, resulting in a significant growth in revenue. She also helped develop and launch Advil liquid gels.

Monica rose to Director of Market Research at the Campbell Soup Company. There, she worked on driving brand strategy on such well-known brands as Campbell Soup, Prego Spaghetti Sauce, V8, Pepperidge Farm, and Godiva Chocolates. Monica’s work for Campbell Soup was documented in Malcolm Gladwell's 2009 book, What the Dog Saw. In his New York Times bestseller, Gladwell documents Monica’s work driving the reinvention of the Spaghetti Sauce category.

Monica’s reputation for providing transformative marketing innovations has earned her leadership spots in many of the industry’s professional associations. She is past President of the Market Research Council; has served as a Committee Leader for the American Marketing Association; and was a board member for both the David Ogilvy Advertising Research Foundation Awards, and the Market Research Advisory Board for the Ad Council. Wood currently provides weekly presentations as chair of the Direct Selling Association’s Industry Research Committee and is a member of the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board at University of Miami’s Herbert Business School. She is a frequent speaker at industry events, including most recently for the Direct Selling Association where she was a speaker for the Annual meeting in 2024, and at the Quirk’s New York conference in 2023.

Monica went to University of Miami receiving her MBA Magna Cum Laude in Marketing and University of Florida, Magna Cum Laude.

Andrea Zapata
EVP, Ad Sales Research, Measurement and Insights
Warner Bros. Discovery

Andrea Zapata serves as EVP, Head of Ad Sales Research, Measurement and Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery. In this role, Zapata oversees research for Warner Bros. Discovery’s portfolio of linear and digital brands, marketplace intelligence, category and client insights as well as outcome focused research for advertisers.

Zapata brings a wealth of experience in media where she has brought an innovative approach to her work, demonstrating the value and impact that research, data and insights can have on a business. Previous to her role at Warner Bros. Discovery, Zapata served as Head of Research, Data and Insights for WarnerMedia.

Prior to WarnerMedia, she was Vice President of West Coast Sales at Vevo, responsible for building on the momentum of their US sales teams’ in-market strategy and maximizing the value of premium music videos. In addition, Zapata has held research leadership positions at Effectv, and Hulu. At Hulu, she built the research practice from the ground up, making critical changes in the company’s go-to-market sales narrative.

MSI Board of Trustees

Mike Anderson
Vice President, Market Research, Global Brand
Fiserv

Bio to come.

Lisa Courtade
Executive Director, Global Business Insights & Analytics
Organon

Lisa joined Organon for the opportunity to build a new team with the power to leverage the full suite of insights capabilities to understand and deliver on the unmet needs in women’s health. Creating a boundaryless organization with skills in analytics and decision science, marketing research, pricing, forecasting, foresight, social, experience design and competitive intelligence, the team is dedicated to creating innovative, compliant solutions to the challenges facing patients, providers, and payers in the delivery of lifesaving and life enhancing medicines and devices.

Lisa has been called an “innovative disrupter” and a “change agent” for challenging the status quo and harnessing emerging technologies and data along with the behavioral sciences to identify deep insights and new market opportunities. She is excited to offer her experiences to building capabilities in a new kind of health care company that is focused on listening to women and developing impactful medicines and healthcare solutions.

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.

Bill Donnelly
Vice President Market Insights and Customer Experience
Penske Truck Leasing

Bill Donnelly is Vice President of Market Insights and Customer Experience at Penske Transportation Solutions, a transportation and logistics services provider. In his current role, he and his team provide insights on customer needs, competitors, market conditions, business analysis, and partners for Penske’s service lines. Bill joined Penske in 2007 to launch the customer account management web site. He moved on to managing the company web site and later into market research. Prior to working for Penske, Bill worked for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in its interactive marketing group, held a marketing role with Mitel Telecommunications equipment, worked as a consultant with American Management Systems, and analyzed IT and telecommunications markets with Research Asia in Hong Kong and Thailand. Bill holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies from Middlebury College, a Chinese language certificate from Beijing University, and an MBA from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. He currently resides outside of Philadelphia, PA.

Andrew Doyle
Global Lead, Business Analytics & Intelligence
Vizient

Andrew Doyle is the Global Lead for Analytics & Intelligence at Elanco, a leading animal health company spun-out from Eli Lilly in 2019.  He has dedicated his career to harnessing data to tackle the most pressing business challenges related to sales, marketing, and business strategy.  Prior to his role at Elanco, he served as a manager at Deloitte Consulting where he focused on digital and customer transformation within the human healthcare industry.  He graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, concentrating in marketing and econometrics.

Anna Estlund
Senior Director of Insights & Strategy
Pernod Ricard

Bio to come.

Kristin Federico
Head of Personalization Strategy & Enablement
Vanguard

Kristin Federico is the head of Participant Marketing and Communications within Vanguard’s Participant Strategy Experience group. She leads teams of marketing- and communications professionals who are responsible for creating and executing Vanguard’s marketing strategy that supports participants’ holistic financial needs, both in and outside of retirement. Kristin and her teams focus on driving engagement and positive financial outcomes for Vanguard’s 5 million plan participants. After beginning her financial services career in banking, Kristin joined Vanguard in 1997. Her Vanguard tenure has been primarily within Institutional Investor Group (IIG) in client-facing roles such as relationship manager and communication consultant. She has also led communications professionals in Vanguard Retail Marketing and in Participant Education in IIG.

Anjan Haadler
Director, Media Sciences
Comcast

Anjan Haalder is an adept marketing analytics strategist, trained in Marketing, Technology and Data Science, with over fifteen years’ experience in media and marketing performance optimization. He has worked for agencies and brands across many industries and verticals, and designed, developed, and delivered cross-channel performance measurement and optimization programs, besides research and experimentation initiatives, towards driving optimal ROI from marketing.

David Kaul
Managing Director, Data, Measurement & Analytics
Google

Bio to follow.

Caroline Lesage
Director Marketing Capabilities Development / Director Orange Marketing Business School
Orange

Bio to come.

Olivia Lioi
Global Senior Director, Marketing Science
Nike

Bio to follow.

John G. Lynch, Jr.
Distinguished Professor, Leeds School of Business
University of Colorado-Boulder

John G. Lynch, Jr. is University of Colorado Distinguished Professor at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado-Boulder. Lynch received his BA in economics, his MA in psychology, and his Ph.D. in psychology, all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a member of the faculty at University of Florida from 1979-1996, where he was Graduate Research Professor. From 1996-2009 he was the Roy J. Bostock Professor of Marketing at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Lynch is a Fellow of the American Marketing Association, the Association for Consumer Research, the American Psychological Association/Society for Consumer Psychology and one of five Fellows of all three organizations worldwide. In 2015 publications tracked by the Web of Science, Lynch was one of the 25 most cited marketing scholars in the world. He has been a recipient of the Paul D. Converse Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Marketing and the Society for Consumer Psychology’s Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award. Six of his papers have been honored as outstanding article of the year: he has been recognized once each by the Journal of Marketing Research and by the Journal of Marketing, and four times by the Journal of Consumer Research for papers written in 1988, 1991, 2010, and 2015. Two of his papers this last decade are the most cited papers in any marketing journal in the year of their publication: his 2010 Journal of Consumer Research paper on mediation analysis, his 2013 Journal of Marketing Research paper on simple effects in moderated regression, and his 2014 Management Science paper about financial literacy and downstream financial behaviors. He has served as president of the Policy Board of the Journal of Consumer Research, president of the Association for Consumer Research, associate editor for the Journal of Consumer Research, and associate editor and co-editor for the Journal of Consumer Psychology. He was the founding Director of the Center for Research on Consumer Financial Decision Making and founding co-chair of the Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making. He is a member of the Academic Research Council of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Abby Mehta
SVP Marketing Insights and Media Analytics
Bank of America

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

Satya Menon
EVP, Analytic Practice
Kantar

Satya Menon leads the Brand & Marketing ROI practice within Kantar, North America. She is responsible for guiding clients in the Marketing Effectiveness suite of solutions, and for coordinating operations in the ROI Analytics center of excellence devoted to driving channel and content. Satya has extensive experience consulting with clients across all verticals, including Retail, Finance, Technology and CPG sectors. She has consulted with multiple brands globally and within North America on ROI measurement, advertising effectiveness and brand equity research.

Satya has a unique background that spans 25+ years of quantitative market research, consulting and academic research and teaching at top business schools in the US. Prior to joining Kantar, Satya held faculty positions at the business schools of University of Chicago and University of Illinois, Chicago. Her academic research has been published in top marketing journals and she is an active presenter at industry forums like the ARF, MSI and AMA.

Satya received a Ph.D in Marketing from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Robert Moakler
Quantitative Researcher
Meta

Robert Moakler is a quantitative researcher at Meta where he works on projects related to privacy, causal inference methodologies, and the impact of cross-channel marketing campaigns.

He received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the NYU Stern School of Business in 2017. While attending NYU, Robert worked at Integral Ad Science where he did applied data science research that developed methods for causal inference using large-scale digital data with a focus on advertising.

Elena Pinakatt
Vice President, Global Marketing Analytics
The Coca-Cola Company

Elena Pinakatt is currently the Vice President, Global Marketing Analytics, at The Coca-Cola Company, where she is responsible for global end-to-end marketing analytics for Corporate functions and all 9 Operating Units around the world.

Prior to this role she worked in different marketing roles across various geographies, such as Europe, US, and Asia. Elena has led and launched big brand businesses, such as Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke/Coca-Cola light. Before she took on her current role, she was responsible for leading The Coca-Cola Company’s juice portfolio, the largest juice business in the world.

Elena is a German native but considers herself a global citizen. She holds a BA (Honours) degree in Business Communication from the University of the Arts, London, and an MBA in Marketing from Lubin Business School, Pace University, New York City.

Elena is passionate about women’s advancements, human rights, and traveling the world. She currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband Prinz, and their two children, Estella and Leopold.

Radha Subramanyam
Chief Research and Analytics Officer, CBS; President, CBS Vision
CBS Corp

Radha Subramanyam serves as chief research and analytics officer at CBS and president of CBS Vision. She joined the Company as executive vice president, chief research and analytics officer at 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, content testing and advertising research. She has extensive strategic and operational experience in all areas of the industry, including broadcast, cable, digital and streaming, as well as radio, music and social media.

Most recently, Subramanyam served as president of research, insights and data analytics for iHeartMedia, where she developed and managed wide-ranging 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. 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 Center for Communication, the International Radio & Television Society and the Advertising Research Foundation. She is the recipient of many accolades including being named among the National Women’s Conference’s “Top Women in Business,” the Tri-State Diversity Council’s “Top Women Leaders of New York” and Corinium’s “Top Innovators in Data and Analytics.” In 2023 she was a distinguished recipient of the International Women’s Day Award at the Consulate General of India. She is a sought-after media thought leader and speaker.

David Torgerson
Chief Analytics Officer
Sentara Healthcare

Dave Torgerson serves as Chief Analytics Officer at Sentara Healthcare, where he works to coordinate the use of information in decision-making across the organization. He leads a team of 100+ analysts that support a wide constituency including senior leadership, hospitals, the health plan, and medical groups.

Dave started his career as a Nuclear Engineer in the U.S. Navy / Department of Energy. He spent a number of years as a management consultant specializing in strategy, analytics, and analytic organizational design, which led to series of industry-side roles in building analytic organizations and capabilities at U.S. Cellular, Gogo, and now at Sentara. He is passionate about the role data & analytics play in creating “clarity out of chaos” and how analytic capabilities can evolve into a strategic advantages for companies and organizations.

Dave has also been an Instructor and guest lecturer at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and specifically has co-taught the Master of Business Analytics program Boot Camp, as well as a corresponding Coursera online course in business analytics. He has also guest lectured at Duke, the University of Rochester, the University of Chicago, William & Mary, and Old Dominion University.

Dave holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from Duke University, as well as a Master in Engineering Administration from Virginia Tech and a Master equivalent in Nuclear Engineering from the Bettis Reactor Engineering School. He also spent a year in the Marketing PhD program at Duke.

Dave’s outside interests include triathlon, surfing, playing music, and building things – and he applies analytics to all of them.

Dr. Matthias Unfried
Head of Behavioral Science
Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions

In his research, he investigates the behavioral foundations of market decisions. The focus is on the influencing factors and the effects of the interaction between humans and machines. In addition, he works on so-called cognitive biases in management decision-making.

Before he joined the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions, he was a teaching and research assistant at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg where he received a PhD in Economics.

Hongjie Wang
SVP Analytic Innovation
PNC Financial Services

Bio to follow.

Uri Weg
Global Head of Measurement Research
Pinterest

Bio to come.

Hannah Wilder
Manager, Analytics and Insights
Domino’s Pizza

Hannah Wilder is a manager on the Analytics & Insights team at Domino’s focused on improving understanding of how pricing decisions impact customers and franchisees while also helping her small but mighty team continue to learn and grow.

After starting her career at Domino’s as an intern in 2016 with a background in computer science and statistics, she has had the opportunity to explore many areas of the business through data. Hannah’s experience ranges from collaborating with wide cross-functional teams to build data pipelines for beginning-stage technology innovations to generating leadership-facing insights to influence decision making for the US business.

Along the way, she connected with the women’s Employee Resource Group at Domino’s (WiSDOM) and grew from an occasional Community Outreach volunteer to a board member. As a board member for the last four years, Hannah has worked with other board members to set strategy and manage budgets to support their mission to champion, inspire, and connect women and their allies. In her role as a board member, she is responsible for communicating with Domino’s leadership in addition to planning and executing events in partnership with volunteers.

Ali Winterberger
Marketing Intelligence Analytics
AmWay

Bio to follow.

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

Charitable Foundation Board of Directors

Moneesha Banerjee
Global Service Line Leader, Market & Brand Strategy
Ipsos North America

Bio to follow.

Andrea Bertels
Vice President, Corporate Citizenship
Nielsen
President and Executive Director, Grantmaking Nielsen Foundation Nielsen

Andrea Bertels is Vice President, Corporate Citizenship at Nielsen. As part of Nielsen’s purpose to power a better media future for all people, the Corporate Citizenship team strives every day to engage our people, processes, data and technology to make Nielsen a more responsible company and to enable a more equitable world, where everyone is included and everyone counts.

Andrea and her team lead Nielsen’s Environmental, Social, and Governance responsible practices and reporting efforts, which include Nielsen’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report. They also work to deepen employee engagement through Nielsen’s global volunteer and environmental programs, as well as drive meaningful community partnerships through Data for Good pro bono projects.

In addition to her Nielsen role, Andrea serves as President and Executive Director of Grantmaking for the Nielsen Foundation, whose mission is power and advance inclusive innovation and representation in the media and technology industries, especially through the use of data and research.

Prior to joining Nielsen, Andrea worked in Economic Research & Analysis for the New York City Economic Development Corporation and earned a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.

Kristin Branch
Distinguished Lecturer, Marketing
Wisconsin School of Business

Kristin is the Distinguished Lecturer of Marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business. In service of that role she teaches undergraduate students as well as career coaches 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, 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.

Louis Jones
Senior Fellow
Brand Safety Institute

Louis Jones serves as Senior Fellow, which follows time as Chief Marketing Officer and a two year stint as the Brand Safety Officer (BSO)-in-Residence. Previously, Jones was EVP, Media & Data at the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) where he jumpstarted the industry focus on brand safety with the creation of the 4A’s APB. With more than 30 years in the ad industry, Louis has been the CEO of Maxus – Adweek’s Agency of the Year in 2012. Previously, Jones was responsible for Havas Digital’s global services, including product development across the various digital agency networks – digital, direct response, mobile, systems integration, and creativity after Louis led three years of double-digit growth for Media Contacts’ US operations as EVP, Managing Director USA. His first ten years in advertising were spent at J. Walter Thompson in New York.

Jed Meyer
Chief Revenue Officer
Aquila

As the CRO for Aquila, Jed works to cultivate marketer support for our pioneering cross media measurement platform. Jed partners with Product, Operations, Marketing and global solution partners (Accenture, Kantar Media) to ensure that client needs are being met as related to offer innovation, offer delivery and product marketing. Jed has worked across the Media buy/sell/technology ecosystem, holding leadership roles at Kantar, Ebiquity, Google, Univision Communications, OmnicomMediaGroup and Nielsen. He is also 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 his free time, Jed volunteers regularly with food insecurity agencies including Encore Community Services and God’s Love We Deliver.

Dr. Linda Vytlacil
Professor of Data Analytics
John Brown University

Dr. Linda Vytlacil, former Vice President for Data Science/Global Data & Analytics Platforms for Walmart Labs, is a recognized people leader and commercial manager with extensive experience in building teams and creating analytics capabilities to harness profitably the power of big data analytics. With business development experience and P&L responsibilities in global consulting services, Dr. Vytlacil is a successful and award-winning team leader who is skilled at identifying and developing talent. She brings numerous skills to the classroom including technical credentials in advanced analytics across customer domains such as strategy, loyalty, digital marketing, pricing strategy, retail, product innovation, market research, econometrics, demand forecasting and performance measurement.