2024 Board of Directors & Trustees Bios
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
Nishat Mehta
C-Level Executive, Board Member, Advisor & Investor
Nishat Mehta was most recently President of Global Products & Solutions for Circana, a company formed from the merger of IRI and The NPD Group. In that role, Mehta led an integrated global team with responsibility for all of Circana’s products and commercial responsibility for many of Circana’s solutions, including Media, Retail, E-commerce, Analytics, and Growth Consulting. Mehta was previously President of Media for IRI.
Before joining IRI, Mehta led the customer communications team at 84.51º, where he helped leading grocery retailer The Kroger Co. and its CPG brand partners create relevant and personalized communications to strengthen customer loyalty. Prior to leading this team, he served as the Company’s head of brand media, leveraging the power of data and other retail assets to improve CPG brand advertising. Prior to that, Mehta was responsible for developing strategic partnerships at dunnhumby. Here he led the elevation of the Company’s digital media measurement and targeting business, transforming the way CPG brands bought, sold, and measured their media.
Mehta also spent 15 years at MicroStrategy, a leading provider of sophisticated enterprise software platforms for business intelligence, mobile intelligence, and social intelligence applications, helping companies of all types leverage data and insights to make better decisions. As Vice President of Social Intelligence, Mehta drove the Company’s initial foray into social analytics to help brands better understand consumer behavior on social networks, particularly Facebook. During his tenure, he also built MicroStrategy’s OEM partner program, securing more than 150 partnerships with major data software companies such as Oracle, Accenture, and Kronos, allowing the Company to expand into high-volume businesses.
Mehta graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and a master’s degree in computer science. He resides with his wife and children in New York City.
Follow Nishat Mehta on Twitter at @nishatmehta.
IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR
Mary Ann Packo
Senior Partner
Hypothesis Group
Mary Ann Packo is Senior Partner at Hypothesis Group, a premium insights, design and strategy agency that serves many of the fastest-growing, highest value brands in the world. Her focus is to lead the next wave of growth and innovation for the award-winning firm. Over the course of her career, Mary Ann worked for many of the largest insights agencies in the world and has led brand-building businesses, both corporate and entrepreneurial. She has a track record of success with start-ups, high-growth businesses, international expansion and global business management.
Before joining Hypothesis, Mary Ann held senior management positions at WPP, as CEO of Kantar Insights, CEO of Kantar Gold Rush, and CEO of Millward Brown North America. Prior to that, Mary Ann was a pioneer in the Internet and digital media measurement arena as president and chief operating officer of Media Metrix, from start-up through to IPO. She has also worked outside the U.S. as President of NPD Canada’s custom research business and Executive Director of Ipsos-NFO, a Paris-based European Joint Venture.
Mary Ann serves as Chair of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Board of Directors, Co-Chair of She-Can Revolution 2.0 and champion of a number of global women’s leadership initiatives. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and lives a bi-coastal life, splitting her time between New York City and San Francisco.
Treasurer
Tim Perzyk
Global VP of Marketing & Research X
Since joining X as the company’s 1st researcher 11 years ago, Tim now oversees X’s global ad effectiveness research and audience insights practices. He also leads Twitter’s internal consumer insights team, which optimizes the company’s own marketing efforts and quantifies perceptions of the X brand. In 2020, he assumed responsibility for X’s global business marketing, including oversight of commercial product launches and external thought leadership, with a focus on insights from digital anthropology on the platform. Tim reports to X CMO Leslie Berland.
Prior to X, Tim was a director of consumer insights and digital research at both MTV Networks and NBC Universal, where he led early work into the relationship between social media engagement and television viewing.
Tim received a B.S. in economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has memorized Nielsen TV ratings and Billboard music charts since the 1980s and enjoys a pop quiz. He is @tperzyk on X.
Vice Chair
Mark Truss
Chief Research Officer
Wunderman Thompson
Mark Truss is the Chief Research Officer for Wunderman Thompson, overseeing research, insights and brand intelligence. Using traditional and emerging research techniques, Mark and his team help companies uncover hidden truths about consumers, cultures and brands that drive impactful communications across a variety of media channels.
Mark is also an active contributor within the industry. He writes for and speaks at events hosted by the Advertising Research Foundation and the 4A’s and the IAB; as well as lends his expertise to industry bodies, such as the Market Research Council and the Ad Council’s Research Committee. In addition, Mark is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and NYU and serves as a board member for the ANA’s Educational Foundation and the Advertising Research Foundation.
In his spare time, Mark plays lead guitar in a band of market researchers, known as “The Outliers.”
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.
Sean Bruich
Vice President, Global Consumer Science & Insights
Nike
As Nike’s VP, Global Consumer Science & Insights, Sean leads Nike’s Consumer Insights function globally, encompassing Nike’s research, analytics, and data science efforts around the world. Sean’s teams specialize in consumer data science and machine learning; measurement and marketing science; retail, digital, and operational analytics; and consumer, market, and product research. Sean joined Nike in 2013 to launch its digital analytics and data science capabilities.
Prior to Nike, Sean launched and led measurement science and data partnerships at Facebook (now Meta) and at Google, he led customer research & analytics.
Sean studied at Stanford University, where his research utilized emerging brain-imaging technologies. He’s active in supporting LGBTQ+ stories in film and has interests in fitness, architecture, and cocktails.
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
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.
Bill Livek
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice Chairman
Comscore
As Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice Chairman, Mr. Livek’s passion for the media, marketing and entertainment industries spurs him to be a driving force for innovation in consumer and audience measurement. Since joining Comscore in 2016, Mr. Livek has also served as the company’s Executive Vice Chairman & President.
Prior to joining Comscore, Mr. Livek served as Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Rentrak, where he spearheaded the next generation of products to precisely measure movies and TV everywhere. Mr. Livek previously served as Co-President of Experian Research Services, Co-Chair/Co-Owner of Simmons Market Research Bureau, Co-Founder of Transactional Data Solutions (an LLC with MasterCard), Vice President of Sales/Marketing for Arbitron and was a principal shareholder in Birch Research, which was later integrated into Scarborough Research, where he served as President and CEO.
Mr. Livek draws upon his industry experience and audience measurement expertise as a frequent speaker at advertising industry events. When he’s not working towards the advancement of Comscore’s initiatives, Mr. Livek loves riding his road bicycle on the weekends. His idea of a great vacation is a scenic, weeklong bike trip.
Carl Mela
T. Austin Finch Foundation Professor of Marketing
Duke University
Carl F. Mela is the T. Austin Finch Foundation Professor of Marketing at Duke University and past Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute. He holds an engineering degree from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Marketing from Columbia University. Prior to his Ph.D., he held management positions at Hewlett Packard, Hughes Space and Communications, and Proxima Corporation. Prof. Mela applies economic and statistical models to generate insights regarding the long-term effects of marketing activity on brand equity and the effect of digital marketing technology on consumer and firm behavior. Articles along these lines appear in the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Harvard Business Review, and the Journal of Consumer Research and have received or been a finalist for forty best paper awards including the INFORMS John D.C. Little and Long-Term Impact Awards and the American Marketing Association’s William O’Dell and Paul Green Awards. Prof. Mela serves or has served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Marketing Research, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics and is or has been on the editorial boards of the Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing and Marketing Letters. Professional boards include the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Unilever, Information Resources, Incorporated, the Marketing Science Institute, and the Advertising Research Foundation.
Kirti Singh
Chief Analytics, Insights & Media Officer
P&G
Kirti Singh leads P&G’s global Consumer Market Knowledge (CMK) organization, Analytics and Insights and Global Media group in leveraging cutting-edge data, analytics, behavioral science and visualization to discover consumer, shopper and market insights—and transform them into actionable outputs that drive growth of P&G’s global product portfolio. Under Kirti’s leadership, CMK has become an invaluable partner in shaping the direction of our ten product categories to grow brands, guide strategies and portfolio choices, and design in-market executions.
Since joining P&G in 1993 as a CMK manager in India, Kirti has held numerous leadership positions across P&G businesses, including Beauty Care, Feminine Care, Health Care and Grooming. He has worked across many geographies including India, China, Singapore and the U.S.
Outside of P&G, Kirti lends his expertise to academia and the public sector to foster development in the areas of consumer insights and research.
Andy Smith
SVP Consumer Insights
Flowers Foods
Andy is the S.V.P. of Consumer Insights for Flowers Foods which markets iconic brands such as Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder Bread, Nature’s Own and Tastykake. Prior to Flowers he has worked at Mars, Nabisco and Hershey. During his career, Andy has supported both base business and innovation. He also has international experience driving initiatives in developing markets, primarily China, Brazil, Mexico and India.
As a member of the ARF, he currently is chairing their Creative Council initiative to help better drive creative excellence through insights. During prior years he has participated in the ARF’s Neuro 1.0 “How Advertising Work” Forum and participated in the initiative on data quality (FOQ 1&2). Andy has also been an Ogilvy advertising judge.
Andy has also been a board member of the NMSBA (Neuromarketing Science & Business Association), a global association for neuromarketing professionals whose mission is to better understand consumer behavior and insights through neuroscience tools.
Radha Subramanyam, Ph.D.
President and Chief Research & Analytics Officer
CBS
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.
Christine Turner
Privacy, Measurement & Analytics, Lead
Currently Christine leads Privacy, Measurement & Analytics for Google’s Consumer, Government and Entertainment Large Customer Segment. In this capacity she works with customers and key verticals to better understand consumer trends & insights, design accurate and scalable measurement practices and deliver ad effectiveness insights on media best practices.
Christine graduated from the University of Southern California in 2003 and has spent the last 20 years in a variety of digital marketing, advertising measurement and analytics roles at companies like Estee Lauder, Yahoo!, Instagram & Facebook. Prior to Google Christine spent 4 years building out Facebook’s Global Marketing Science client & agency teams. Initially she focused on bringing Instagram ads to market and then more broadly working with customers and agencies to both understand and increase the value of their FB investment through advanced measurement & auction buying methods. She joined Google & GCS in 2018 where she has focused on scaling customer success through the Independent Agency segments. Currently Christine leads the $4B+ US West Agency business and the US GCS SA360 team. In all roles Christine has had a deep focus on leveraging data to drive business decisions, but most importantly on building and leading diverse and inclusive teams.
Her hope for our industry is that we 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 two kids Sofie & Cade (8 & 6), and dog Cooper.
ARF Board of Trustees
Tina AllanGlobal Chief Data & Intelligence Officer
FCB
Tina Allan joined in 2021 as Global Partner & Head of Data Science and Connections, a newly created role, where she oversees FCB’s global end-to-end solutions across CRM, brand, and media. Tina’s expertise brings innovative data-driven business solutions and enhanced creative experiences to consumers on behalf of our clients. With an award-winning track record, Tina joins FCB after serving as Managing Director of Data Solutions at BBDO New York, where she built data-driven results for global brands across a variety of categories and brands, including Mars, Ford, Bacardi, FedEx, SAP, Pepsi and Dunkin’. Her rich experience spans much further, as Tina has built CRM and analytics offerings throughout Omnicom for over two decades. Tina is an executive member of She Runs It, has spoken at ANA’s Digital Summit and has served as a judge at major industry award shows, including Cannes Lions, Global Effies, DM Association Echo Awards, The One Show and YouTube Awards, to name a few. She sits on the Rutgers University Big Data Advisory Board and was named one of the New York Business Journal’s Women of Influence in Advertising in 2017 and She Runs It’s Working Mother of the Year in 2019
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.
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.
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.
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.
Renee Cassard
Chief Research Officer
Omnicom Media Group
Renee is a veteran advertising executive with 20+ years of expertise rooted in studying consumer behavior. Renee has a MA in Developmental Psychology from Colombia and a BS in Molecular Genetics, and today describes herself as a market researcher, strategist, and product lead. She leverage dynamic research approaches, datasets and technologies to continually create solutions for clients that are centered around her passion for understanding consumer sentiment and behavior.
In her role as Chief Research Officer at Omnicom Media Group, Renee launched OMG Signal in 2021, the company’s first single source consumer panel of 3.3mm with an identity match to Omni, Omnicom’s media planning and activation platform. OMG Signal is one of many multiple initiatives aimed at innovating foundational datasets used for media planning, which have experienced unprecedented fluctuations in their ability to predict future behavior in today’s increasingly dynamic world.
Prior to that, Renee was Chief Audience Officer at Hearts & Science, where she led marketing science, data science, and digital audience planning for two years. Her journey with Omnicom Media Group began in 2011, as part of the leadership team responsible for pitching, and winning agency’s largest account at the time, GSK on board in 2011. During her time there as PHD’s Healthcare Vertical Marketing Science lead, she tripled the size of the analytics team servicing GSK’s OTC and pharma business units, generating $2mm+ in incremental advanced analytics revenue, and won multiple awards (ARF David Ogilvy 2013, I-COM Finalist 2013, I-COM Finalist 2014) for her and her team’s work in target audience development, digital modeling and scenario planning, and platform neutral video planning. Prior to that Renee was a marketing communications consultant, applying data and insights to develop strategies for various marketing and advertising, PR, market research and fortune 500 client projects.
Keri Degroote
Senior Vice President of Research & Analytics
SXM Media
In this role, she leads Ad Effectiveness, Analytics, Consumer Insights and Measurement for Ad Sales. She brings 20+ years of highly specified Marketing Research experience in the media industry, with notable expertise in campaign effectiveness, media mix modeling, and attribution. Keri has successfully led research leadership departments and teams for Radio, TV and Digital media outlets. Before coming on board at SXM Media, which contains brands like Pandora, Sirius XM and Stitcher, Keri held senior leadership positions at iHeartMedia, Turner Broadcasting and FX & FMC Networks.
Colleen Fahey Rush
EVP & CRO
Paramount
Colleen Fahey Rush is Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer at Paramount. Rush oversees the research, insights and analytics functions across Paramount’s leading portfolio of streaming, broadcast, entertainment, news and sports brands. She is also responsible for the corporate research function including data collection and analysis spanning the company’s business portfolio to support strategic priorities.
Rush leads research and insights across content, streaming, marketing, brand strategy, trend forecasting, digital and social to inform decision making, drive strategy and super serve audiences in today’s evolving media landscape. Under her guidance and leadership, she built the company’s corporate consumer insights practice dedicated to new technologies and emerging consumer behaviors to inform key stakeholders. She continues to play an instrumental role in the industry advocating for the improvement of linear, digital and multiplatform media measurement and analytics in order to manage and aggregate data across all of Paramount’s media and digital properties.
Rush most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer of ViacomCBS. Her previous roles also include Executive Vice President of Strategic Insights & Research and Senior Vice President, Research & Insights for VH1, CMT and Logo.
Rush is on the Board of Trustees at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), on the Advisory Board of Civic Science, and sits on the Advisory Board for Cornell University’s Department of Communication. She holds a U.S. Patent in Systems and Methods for Delivering Online Advertisements.
She earned a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and has an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Amy Fenton
Head of Ad Solutions
MarketCast
Amy brings more than two decades of advertising and consumer research experience to MarketCast. In her current role, Amy is responsible for MarketCast’s Ad Solutions organization which includes more than 200 advertising researchers and a portfolio of world-class ad research products, including those from MarketCast’s recent acquisitions.
Prior to joining the company, Amy was the Chief Client Officer for Kantar North America, where she led the client service teams responsible for managing the company’s top brand and advertiser relationships. Before Kantar, Fenton served in research, client service, and marketing leadership roles at Ipsos, and before that, she spent more than two decades at Nielsen on the “Buy” side of its business (now NielsenIQ). A strong supporter of women leaders in research, Fenton began her career at Procter and Gamble.
Lindsay Franke
President and Service Line Cluster Leader 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 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.
Colleen Funkey
VP, Consumer Insights
Estee Lauder Companies
Colleen Funkey began her career studying psychology at Rhodes University in South Africa. With a passion for people and understanding what drives them and why, she is curious, asks lots of questions and likes to learn something new every day.
From marketing Colgate toothpaste in South Africa, to launching her own beauty care range ‘Imbali’, then unlocking insights to guide the marketing of Anheuser-Busch’s iconic beer brands and now in her role at the Estée Lauder Companies, Colleen seeks to understand the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ in order to design brand strategies and business solutions that connect in a relevant, credible and ownable way.
Great brands are built when we make meaningful connections with people, that’s why the consumer is always at the center of everything we do #consumerobsessed.
Huw Griffiths
Global Chief Product Officer
UM
As Global Chief Product Officer, Huw brings over 20 years of experience in research and advanced analytics to UM, where he is responsible for research, analytics and tools capabilities. His passion for simplifying massive amounts of data into clear, precise action has been evident throughout his career.
Dr. Joetta Gobell
SVP, Data Strategy and Insights
Dotdash Meredith
Dr. Joetta Gobell is the Head of Data Strategy & Solutions for Dotdash Meredith. 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
SVP, Product Management, Innovation Products and Media Intelligence Suite
Circana
Vijoy Gopalakrishnan is SVP 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.
Natasha Hritzuk
VP, Global Consumer Insights
Warner Bros. Discovery
Natasha Hritzuk serves as Vice President of Global Consumer Insights for Warner Bros. Discovery. In this role, Natasha focuses on delivering studies that optimize the current business across all our enterprise assets, as well as identifying new consumer opportunities that reflect shifts in the entertainment ecosystem. Additionally, she supports WBD’s Corporate Marketing teams.
Prior to this role, Natasha served as VP, Global Consumer Insights, HBO Max at WarnerMedia, where she was responsible for delivering research that deepens understanding of the HBO Max consumer experience. During her time in this role, she launched HBO Max Insiders, a members-only online community of subscribers who participate in surveys and other activities led by her team to gain deeper consumer insights to inform business strategy. Prior to that role, Natasha served as VP, Consumer Insights at Turner where she led the Future of Advertising initiative including heading up AdLab, an industry consortium tasked with building digital advertising experiences optimized for both consumers and marketers. She also provided a roadmap for a consumer-centric data acquisition strategy to support the development of the WarnerMedia Consumer Privacy Center.
Before WarnerMedia, Natasha served as Microsoft’s Global Head of Insights & Analytics, Advertising and Consumer Monetization where she delivered foundational research to inform business strategy and new digital products. She launched the group’s thought leadership program, which led to her co-authoring a Wylie published book, “Multi Screen Marketing: The seven things you need to know to reach your customers across TVs, computers, tablets, and mobile phones.” Prior to her role at Microsoft, Natasha led the Consumer Insights and Analytics team at General Mills UK & Ireland and was responsible for the end-to-end brand experience across five product categories. During this time, she won three International Champion Awards for delivering research excellence. Natasha has also served as the Branding and Communications Director for WirthlinWorldwide.
Natasha holds a doctorate in political psychology and political behavior from Columbia University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Calgary.
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.
Renuka Iyer
Director, Market Research
Microsoft
Renuka is a Director of Market Research in Microsoft. In her current role, as the leader of campaign measurement, she and her team leverage data, analytics, and market understanding to inform Microsoft’s prominent advertising campaigns. In her long tenure, Renuka has worked on some of the most complex business problems and has built sophisticated research programs to inform various product strategies and corporate initiatives.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Renuka was a research manager at Unilever, India and managed their foundational research programs for multiple product categories.
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.
Melissa Kim
Senior Director, Brand and Employee 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.
John Lee
Chief Data Officer, Advertising and Partnerships
NBCUniversal
John Lee serves as Chief Data Officer for NBCUniversal’s Advertising and Partnerships division. Lee leads an established centralized data strategy unit tasked with accelerating the development and implementation of NBCUniversal’s enterprise-wide consumer identity and data strategy generating enhanced business results for marketers and engaging consumer experiences across the company’s One Platform. Lee and his team work collaboratively and in close coordination across the entire enterprise as well as with Sales, Operations and Technology Services infusing a data-first mindset across all products, services and interactions. Additionally, Lee and his team are responsible for developing and transforming the company’s market-leading identity capabilities from the Audience Insights Hub to NBCU ID and more. Lee reports to Krishan Bhatia, President & Chief Business Officer, NBCUniversal Advertising and Partnerships.
Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Lee served as Global Chief Corporate Strategy Officer at Merkle/CXM – where he led Merkle’s global corporate strategy function aiding in the development and execution of Merkle’s business vision, value proposition, and long-term planning.
Lee joined Merkle in 2008 and has served in a number of leadership roles including: Chief Product and Data Officer; Global President, Merkury; EVP, General Manager for Healthcare, Life Sciences, Insurance, Wealth Management, Travel, Media, and Entertainment. Prior to Merkle, Lee held executive roles in sales and marketing technology in Liberty Mutual’s Personal Markets division and was a member of CapGemini’s CRM and digital experience practices.
Lee is the co-author of the book on digital marketing trends, “The Rise of the Platform Marketer,” released in 2015 by Wiley Publishing. He is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and lives in Wellesley, MA.
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.
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.
Jed Meyer
SVP, Media Solutions Leader
Kantar
As the lead for the NA Media Domain Product team, Jed works across Kantar to transform our approach to achieving Media domain sales and profitability objectives. Jed partners with the global Media Domain, Marketplace, Analytics and Marketing teams to ensure that client needs are being met as related to offer innovation, offer delivery and product marketing.
Meyer is active in many industry organizations, serving on the Board for the Advertising Research Foundation (Past Chair) and has been a board member of the Media Ratings Council, Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and the Council for Research Excellence.
Steven Millman
Global Head of Research & Data Science
Dynata
Steven Millman is an award-winning researcher currently leading all research and data science initiatives globally for Dynata and is responsible for automation, innovation, and thought leadership. Prior to this role, he ran research, data science and operations for Dynata’s Advertising Solutions division, which provides activation and campaign measurement over the entire lifecycle of a campaign. Before Dynata, Steven was Chief Scientist at Simmons Research (MRI-Simmons) leading measurement sciences and developing new products. As Senior Vice President for Research at comScore, he led the ad effectiveness line of business, along with all custom survey work, combining self-report with behavioral data. Throughout his career, Steven has maintained a focus on innovation, quantitative and statistical analysis, survey research, research design and other applied research techniques. He is also an inveterate coffee snob.
Tomomi Mimura
Global and North America Media Insights Lead
Unilever
Tomomi Mimura, a senior consumer insights expert with almost 20 years of research experience, currently leads US and Personal Care North America Media Insights & Measurement at Unilever. She is responsible for deepening Unilever’s understanding of media and delivering actionable insights that help Unilever brands effectively and efficiently utilize media investment to grow their brands. She currently represents Unilever in the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Cross Media Measurement initiative and chairs the ANA’s Influencer Marketing Advisory Board Guidelines Committee. She has also served on the Facebook Measurement Council. Now in her 12th year at Unilever, she has held many Unilever Consumer & Market Insights positions ranging locally to globally on top brands as Hellmann’s, TRESemmé, Dove, Vaseline and Axe. Prior to Unilever, Tomomi spent time at Nielsen BASES and Millward Brown, managing such clients as Unilever, Pepsi and Reckitt Benckiser. Tomomi earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Yale University.
Kyle Papanikolas
Senior Director Global Insights
McDonald’s
Kyle Papanikolas leads the newly founded Foresight & Exploration function at McDonald’s. His remit includes maintaining a pulse on customer sentiment, strengthening the insights function, and developing a foresight capability that pushes the thinking of the company beyond the 3-year horizon.
Kyle’s 14+ years of experience – including both client and agency side – centers at the connection of human understanding and company strategy. Areas of expertise include customer segmentation, consumer tracking, advertising development, reputation management and brand strategy.
Jorge Ruiz
Global Head of Marketing Science
TikTok
Jorge Ruiz is the Global Head of Marketing Science at TikTok. He joined TikTok in December of 2019 and built the team from the ground up. This industry-leading team excels at delivering crucial learnings for how to better drive advertiser outcomes and evidence-based thought leadership to clients and the market.
Prior to TikTok, Jorge was the Head of Agency Measurement at Facebook. He joined Facebook in 2013 as a Global Ecosystem Measurement Manager, responsible for helping agencies develop, execute, and improve advertising effectiveness measurement solutions. Previously, Jorge spent a decade at Ogilvy, ultimately serving as Partner, Director of Media Analytics.
Jorge earned his BA in International Affairs from American University in 1999 and his MS in Direct and Interactive Marketing from NYU in 2003.
Roberto Ruiz
Executive Vice President, Research, Insights & Analytics
TelevisaUnivision
Roberto Ruiz is executive vice president of Research, Insights and Analytics at TelevisaUnivision, the leading media company serving Hispanic America. Ruiz leads a team of marketers driving all aspects of marketing, from research to consumer insights to building the business case for brands, leveraging syndicated and custom research tools with the goal of helping advertisers and partners capitalize on the growing U.S. Hispanic population.
Ruiz is a Hispanic marketing expert with more than 20 years of experience in various senior management positions. Throughout his career, he has worked in several industries including financial services, interactive, advertising, consulting, startups and packaged goods.
Prior to joining TelevisaUnivision in 2008, Ruiz served as the founder and president of Consumer Contacts, a boutique consulting firm specializing in Hispanic marketing. Previously, he 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, Ruiz worked on accounts such as DirecTV, Century21 Real Estate, MasterCard, Diageo and Cingular Wireless. Prior to that role, Ruiz worked at Prodigy Internet and led the team that launched the first fully bilingual Internet Service Provider targeting Hispanics in the US. Ruiz also previously worked 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 and MoneyGram, where he led the Mexico and Latin America money transfer business.
He began his career in marketing and advertising in Venezuela, where he received his classic marketing training working in consumer packaged goods at Pillsbury, Gillette and Mavesa. He also led the strategic planning group at one of the top ad agencies in the country, ARS/DDB, where he worked on the international marketing side of the business.
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 Direct Marketing Association, the Consumer Healthcare Product Association, Nielsen’s Consumer 360, among others. He also collaborated with author Chiqui Cartagena in writing “Hispanic Boom: A guide for Hispanic Marketers.”
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.
Stephanie Scalice (Young Pro Chair)
Senior Market Research Manager
Stephanie is a Sr. Market Research Manager at LinkedIn focusing on B2B quant and qual research for LinkedIn‘s Talent Solutions.
Prior to this, she held several roles in market research on both the agency side (GfK) and the brand side (Macy’s Inc. and PVH Corp.) – leading consumer research ranging from brand health to product/concept testing to shopper insights and segmentations.
Stephanie received a B.S. & M.S. in Experimental Psychology from Saint Joseph’s University and loves listening to podcasts, all things related to exercise and volunteering as a Girls on the Run coach.
Michael Schoen
EVP and GM, Marketing Solutions
TransUnion
Michael Schoen is the General Manager and Executive Vice President, Marketing Solutions at TransUnion, developing and perfecting a unified marketing intelligence platform that enables companies to win in the connected age. Michael oversees the end-to-end system of identity, helping companies know everything they can about customers and prospects, create spectacular customer experiences, and analyze what worked and how to make it better. His leadership has been instrumental in architecting the industry’s most authoritative and real-time marketing platform, built on trusted identity across people, places, and things.
Prior to joining Neustar in 2014, Michael was the EVP, Product at Cadreon, IPG’s cross-channel audience measurement, management and buying platform. Michael was responsible for driving the product strategy, development, and technology partnerships that enabled Cadreon’s offerings across all addressable media. Prior to joining Cadreon, Michael was General Manager, Advertising Platforms and VP, Product & Technology at LookSmart, where he was responsible for building out a paid search platform and a publisher syndication business.
Michael holds an AB in Computer Science from Harvard College and an MBA from UCLA.
David Shiffman
Executive Vice President, National Research & Analytics
iHeartMedia
As Executive Vice President, National Research & Analytics at iHeartMedia, David is responsible for leading all aspects of National measurement and analytics for America’s #1 Audio Company. David works across iHeartMedia’s diverse assets including Radio, streaming audio, podcasting, and live events to deliver customized research, measurement and optimization solutions to support iHeart’s National clients and their partner agencies.
David’s expertise in understanding consumer behavior, and his knowledge of the diverse and rapidly changing media marketplace, advanced analytics and advertising effectiveness is instrumental in serving the needs of his clients and shaping new solutions for audio research.
David spent over 15 years on the media agency side, working at Publicis Media agencies in both Canada and the U.S., most recently as EVP Research & Analytics at MediaVest. Prior to joining iHeartMedia, David led Agency Sales at comScore.
David holds a M.A. in Communication Management from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, and lives in NJ with his daughter, son and two dogs.
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.
Audrey Steele
EVP, Ad Sales Research, Insights and Strategy
FOX
Audrey Steele serves as Executive Vice President of Ad Sales Research Insights and Strategy, Fox Corporation. In this role, Steele has strategic oversight and plays a pivotal role in helping drive the division’s research strategy to maximize revenue growth by developing data and insights for the FOX Entertainment sales and portfolio teams.
A well-regarded media and research veteran, Steele joined Fox as an SVP of Sales Research and Marketing in 2000. Prior to joining the company, Steele served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Media Resources at Zenith Media. Earlier in her career, she was a Vice President of Research at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising and a Marketing Manager for Audits of Great Britain.
Since 2020, she has co-chaired the Fox Ad Sales Diversity and Inclusion Council. In this voluntary role, Steele has served as a leading voice in forwarding the D&I Council’s mission to further the culture of inclusivity within the sales division by focusing on recruitment, education, development, and retention.
During her distinguished career, Steele has been recognized with a variety of professional awards. She has been honored as an Ad Age Media Maven, by Cynopsis as a Top Woman in Media, and included by Cablefax on their annual Diversity List, which recognizes and celebrates the most influential multi-ethnic executives in the media industry. A native of Queens, NY, Steele graduated from Fordham University with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
Malcolm L. Stewart
Principal
Advanced Analytics, AT&T
Malcolm works in AT&T’s Advanced Analytics group utilizing Modeling, Test & Learn and other analytic techniques to deliver sound, fact-based insights informing business decisions. Since joining AT&T in 2015, Malcolm has significantly contributed to AT&T’s Test & Learn, Market Mix Modeling (MMM) and Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) practices.
Malcolm has previously held marketing leadership positions in the Entertainment, CPG and Energy businesses. Malcolm is a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion in marketing communications and all marketing disciplines.
Malcolm is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University.
Cole Strain
Vice President, Head of Research & Development
Samba TV
Cole Strain is the Vice President, Head of Research & Development at Samba TV, where he leads a team of data scientists and analysts who develop and deliver innovative products and solutions that measure TV viewership, engagement, and attribution across devices and platforms.
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.
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.
Edwin Wong
SVP, Insights & Innovation
Vox Media
Edwin Wong is Senior Vice President, Insights & Innovation at Vox Media, the leading independent modern media company known for building the best media brands and the technology that enables them. He leads research to identify key trends in consumer behavior and help advertisers capitalize on these trends to effectively connect with their core audiences.
He has been studying digital consumer behavior for nearly 20 years and has held previous roles at BuzzFeed, Pinterest and Yahoo.
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
Sunil GuptaEdward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
Sunil Gupta is the Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration and co-chair of the executive program on Driving Digital Strategy at Harvard Business School. He served as the head of the Marketing Unit from 2008-2013 and was the Chair of the General Management Program from 2013-2019.
Sunil’s current research is in the area of digital technology and its impact on consumer behavior and firm strategy. The primarily goal of his research is to understand how digital technology is disrupting existing industries and how incumbents should transform their businesses in this new environment. His book on this topic, Driving Digital Strategy, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in August 2018.
Sunil’s previous research focused on customer management, pricing, and return on marketing investment. His book, Managing Customers as Investments, captures some of the findings from his research on customer management, and it was selected as the 2006 winner of the annual Berry-AMA book prize for the best book in marketing.
Sunil has published three books and over 110 articles, book chapters, cases and notes on these topics. His research has been well recognized and his articles have won several national and international awards.
Sunil is an advisor to several startup firms and serves on the board of US Foods. He has conducted seminars and consulted with many companies including Abbott, ADIA, Adidas, Adobe, American Express, Amway, AT&T, AutoTrader, Avon, Bacardi, BJ Wholesale Club, Duracell, IBM, GfK Academy, Heineken, Henkel, Johnson and Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, L.G. Electronics, MasterCard, McKinsey & Company, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, NPD Group, Pfizer, PwC, SK Telecom, Sanofi, TD Bank, Telefonica, Turkcell, Unilever and Vodafone.
As a business expert, Sunil has frequently appeared on several national and international radio and television programs, such as CBS, CNN, NPR and BBC, and has been quoted in Forbes, The Fast Company, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
Sunil holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
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.
Jean-Pierre Dubé
James M. Kilts Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Jean-Pierre Dubé is the James M. Kilts Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Professor Dubé is also director of the Kilts Center for Marketing at the Booth School, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a faculty fellow at the Marketing Science Institute. From 2008-2010, he was a research consultant for the Yahoo! Microeconomics Research group. He has been working as a research consultant with Amazon since 2018.
His research interests lie at the intersection of industrial organization and quantitative marketing. He has conducted empirical studies on the formation of consumer preferences for branded goods, price discrimination, advertising, food deserts and nutrition policy, and the role of misinformation in consumer demand. This empirical focus is also reflected in his MBA course on pricing strategies, which is designed to teach students how to apply marketing models and analytics to develop pricing strategies in practice. Several of his recent research projects are in collaboration with companies in the US and in China.
Dubé’s work has been published in the The American Economic Review, Econometrica, The Journal of Marketing Research, The Journal of Political Economy, Management Science, Marketing Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and The Rand Journal of Economics. He is an area/associate editor for The Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Marketing Science, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics. He was the recipient of the Chicago Booth class of 2016 Phoenix Award for service to the extracurricular and community activities of the graduating class, the 2008 Paul E. Green Award for Best paper in the Journal of Marketing Research and of the 2005 Faculty Teaching Excellence Award for Evening MBA and Weekend MBA Programs at the Chicago Booth. He was also the recipient of several MSI Research Grants, a Kauffman grant, and a Yahoo! Faculty Research Grant.
Dubé earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in quantitative methods in economics in 1995, a master’s degree in economics in 1996, and a PhD in 2000 from Northwestern University. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2000.
Sandy Jap
Sarah Beth Brown Professor of Marketing
Emory University, Goizueta Business School
Sandy Jap holds the Sarah Beth Brown Endowed Professorship of Marketing Chair. She joined the faculty in 2001 and prior to that was on the faculty at the Sloan School at MIT and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published widely on the development of strategic partnering and organizational relationships, go-to-market strategies, and e-procurement. She is the author of Partnering with the Frenemy, a book on the dark side of business relationships and A Field Guide to Channel Strategy, a how-to book on going to market strategy. She is an international speaker, expert witness, and consultant to a wide range of industries and firms. Sandy has won numerous lifetime achievement awards and fellow designations for her impact on the field. Her work has received significant attention from the academic community and the marketplace, including The Wall Street Journal, CFO Magazine, and Harvard Business Review.
She is an editorial board member at leading marketing journals, and a visible leader in the marketing discipline. She teaches channel strategy and retailing management for MBA and executive programs, as well as the marketing strategy seminar in the PhD program. She is a co-founder of the Emory Marketing Analytics Center (MAC). She received her PhD from the University of Florida (Go Gators!) and enjoys spending time with her kids. Tennis, red wine, and Cape Cod summers come in a very close second.
Barbara E. Kahn
Patty and Jay Baker Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania
Barbara E. Kahn is Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. She served as Director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center and as Executive Director of Marketing Science Institute (MSI). Barbara also served as the Dean and Schein Professor of Marketing at the School of Business Administration, University of Miami and as the Vice Dean of the Wharton undergraduate program.
Barbara has been elected president of both Association for Consumer Research (ACR) and Journal of Consumer Research Policy Board and selected as an MSI trustee. She was associate editor at Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and Marketing Science and has served on the editorial boards of all major marketing journals. She was elected as a Fellow for both ACR and Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP). Barbara received her PhD, MBA, and MPhil from Columbia University, and her BA from University of Rochester.
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.
Shannon Nutter
Principal, Head of Proposition and Customer Experience – Vanguard Superannuation
The Vanguard Group
Shannon Nutter is the Head of Proposition and Experience for Vanguard’s superannuation business in Australia. In prior roles, Shannon led Participant Strategy and Development for Vanguard’s US Retirement business and also served as head of Institutional Marketing and as head of Market Research and Voice of Client for all US and international businesses. She joined Vanguard in 2007 and has more than 15 years’ experience in both consumer and B2B markets, focused on strategic planning, new product development, market analysis and innovation.
Additionally, Shannon originated and led the development of My Classroom Economy® (myclassroomeconomy.org), a free program built by Vanguard volunteers for grades K-12 that teaches children key life skills through experiential learning. Now in its tenth year, the program is used by more than one million students in the United States and beyond. Shannon earned a BA from Macalester College and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
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.
Sarah Walters
Vice President, US Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases
AstraZeneca US
Sarah Walters is Vice President, US Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases (US CVMD). In this role, Sarah leads the overall US CVMD team and is responsible for the strategic direction, selling strategy and performance of the cardiovascular and diabetes business units.
During her 25-year career with AstraZeneca, Sarah has held a variety of leadership roles in both marketing and sales across several therapeutic areas including GI, CNS, Respiratory and CV, and on products in different stages of life cycle. In her most recent position, Sarah served as Country President, Austria where she led the Oncology, Respiratory and Immunology and Cardiovascular Renal Metabolic (CVRM) portfolios. Prior to this, Sarah was the Executive Director, Diabetes Franchise for the US CVMD business unit, where she was responsible for leading the US development and delivery of the strategic and operational commercialization plans across the diabetes portfolio. She also served as a senior sales leader of large teams in the US sales organization, as the Executive Business Director (EBD) for the CV Specialty Sales Team as well as Commercial Business Director (CBD) for the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley CV Specialty sales teams.
Sarah holds a B.S. from The Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Charitable Foundation Board of Directors
Moneesha BanerjeeExecutive Vice President
Ipsos North America
Bio to come.
Andrea Bertels
Vice President, Global Responsibility & Sustainability, Nielsen Executive Director, Grantmaking
Nielsen Foundation Nielsen
Andrea Bertels is Vice President, Global Responsibility & Sustainability at Nielsen, where she has been since July 2014. Andrea oversees the Nielsen Cares global volunteering program, which empowers our people to mobilize our data and expertise for good through skills-based volunteering and pro bono work. She and her team also lead Nielsen’s Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting efforts. In addition to her Nielsen role, Andrea also serves as Executive Director of Grantmaking for the Nielsen Foundation, a private foundation originally funded by Nielsen. Prior to Nielsen, Andrea held roles at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Accenture.
Kristin Branch
Director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Analytics and Insights, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Wisconsin School of Business
Kristin is the Director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Analytics & Insights at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In service of that role she teaches graduate marketing students as well as career coaches all students as to finding careers in the marketing analytics and consumer insight fields. Kristin stays closely connected to the marketing industry through attending and speaking at conferences like The Market Research Event, ARF events and the Insights Association. She leads UW’s own insights conference, their ‘Summit’ biennially.
Prior to joining UW-Madison and the A.C. Nielsen Center, Kristin spent several years in corporate marketing roles. Kristin earned her MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from UW’s School of Business and her undergraduate degree in Marketing from the University of Denver. Kristin is the proud parent, along with her husband, of twin 6 year old girls.
Louis Jones
Media & Marketing Consultant
Louis brings a long history of insight and problem solving to the media & marketing landscape. As a consultant, he works with clients across the marketing spectrum to help narrow issues and design solutions to glean keener insights and drive results.
Jones was the EVP of 4A’s Media & Data Practice – designed to amplify its members’ collective voice within the advertising ecosystem. He oversaw 4A’s media committees/ task forces, and served as liaison with industry associations to lead efforts that address industry-wide issues like brand safety & cross-media measurement.
Prior to joining the 4A’s Team, Louis had consulted for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) for a year and one half, helping them create mobile education modules to help advertisers to continue to invest in the mobile channels.
Charged with creating the integrated media agency of the future, Louis joined Maxus/GroupM in the fall of 2009 to lead Maxus to a new data focused agency model that put digital at the center of communications planning. In his five years at Maxus, Louis grew Maxus into a top 10 Media Agency with 6 offices and over 400 staffers. This growth earned Maxus Adweek’s Agency of the Year honor in 2012.
Previously, Jones was responsible for Havas Digital’s global services, including product development across the various digital agency networks – including digital, direct response, mobile, systems integration, and creativity. Much of time in this role was spent working from Paris and Madrid in order to be closer to the Network’s European and APAC operations. Prior to this, Louis led three years of double-digit growth for Media Contacts’ US operations as EVP, Managing Director USA. Louis had been a part of the Havas Media family since May 2001.
Before joining MPG in 2001, Louis was Executive Director of Organic Online in San Francisco where he led all online marketing activities for Organic’s West Coast clients through the height of the dotcom boom. Louis also served as Managing Director of Diamond Media (dedicated Clorox media unit). His first ten years in advertising were spent at J. Walter Thompson in New York, where he rose to Deputy Media Director before heading to the West Coast.
Jed Meyer
SVP, Media Solutions Leader
Kantar
As the lead for the NA Media Domain Product team, Jed works across Kantar to transform our approach to achieving Media domain sales and profitability objectives. Jed partners with the global Media Domain, Marketplace, Analytics and Marketing teams to ensure that client needs are being met as related to offer innovation, offer delivery and product marketing.
Meyer is active in many industry organizations, serving on the Board for the Advertising Research Foundation (Past Chair) and has been a board member of the Media Ratings Council, Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and the Council for Research Excellence.
Linda Vytlacil, Ph.D.
Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation Endowed Chair of Data Analytics and Professor of Marketing & Data Analytics, Soderquist College of Business
John Brown University
Linda Vytlacil is the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation Endowed Chair of Data Analytics and Professor of Marketing & Data Analytics at the Soderquist College of Business, John Brown University. Before her academic career, Dr. Vytlacil served as Vice President, Retail Data Science at Walmart Labs where she led teams engineering intelligent systems to automate decisions across consumer, operations, and supply chain functions. Her organization was instrumental in modernizing the way Walmart creates and uses knowledge about the individual customer and how it innovates to serve changing consumer needs.
Dr. Vytlacil holds a Masters in Financial Economics and a PhD in Organization and Management. She serves on the Board of Directors for INTEGRIS Health, the largest health system in Oklahoma, as well as the on the Board of Directors for the Marketing Science Institute, a nonprofit research organization bridging the gap between academic marketing theory and business practice. She actively mentors Women in STEM globally.