Salon Series: Navigating the Messy Middle
SPEAKERS
Kendra Clarke
Vice President of Data Science and Product Development
sparks & honey
Kendra Clarke – Vice President of Data Science and Product Development at sparks & honey, Kendra captains a team of technologists focused on using data to quantify culture and power the transformation strategies that build better companies and better futures.
Kendra has spent over a decade working for New York-based marketing and consulting firms, as well as on a few product/startup projects of her own. She has worked on a host of different clients—ranging from CPG companies like Procter & Gamble to high tech clients like IBM, as well as household names like Starbucks, AT&T, and the NYTimes. Most recently, Kendra was named the Ad Club of New York’s Young Professional of the Year. A passionate home cook, writer, and sometimes surfer, Kendra also speaks regularly on the intersections of diversity, inclusion, and technology.
Janelle James
Qualitative Research Director
Kantar
Janelle James is an experienced marketing strategy executive with a passion for changing the world. Her career spans 20 years, includes multiple marketing disciplines, and has enabled her work to touch over a billion people. She’s currently a Qualitative Research Director at Kantar where she designs, conducts, and analyzes a wide range of studies for Fortune 500 companies and consults clients on everything from consumer and market knowledge to marketing plan development. Janelle enjoys learning about new cultures and has lived in the US, France, Italy, and the UK. She holds both a BA and MBA from Harvard University.”
Ola Mobolade
Marketing Consultant / Founder at COCO
COCO
Beyond her broad expertise leveraging consumer insights to drive brand growth for leading companies, Ola has extensive experience across all age and lifestyle segments of African-American, Hispanic, Asian, LGBTQ and Millennial audiences. She has been a featured speaker on effective diversity marketing at conferences sponsored by the World Federation of Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Advertising Research Foundation, Association of National Advertisers, Advertising Week, Brandweek, World Research Group, and is regularly invited to present and lead executive workshops on evolving organizations to “New Majority” readiness.
In her 20 year career, Ola has spearheaded hundreds of consumer insight and strategy initiatives spanning a wide range of consumer segments and categories, including multinational, U.S. Total Market, and multicultural studies for McDonald’s, The Coca-Cola Companies, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate, Google, Facebook, Snapchat, MTV Networks, Diageo, and many others.
In addition to her work in the for-profit and public sectors, she has partnered with several institutions to illuminate opportunities for improved relations with underserved and ethnic communities including studies for M&T Bank, Loretto Hospital and University of Chicago Medical Center under an initiative led by former First Lady Michelle Obama, in her previous role as VP of Community and External Affairs at UCMC.
Ola is passionate about culture in its various manifestations, and holds dual degrees from Harvard University in Psychology and Afro-American Studies. She is a winner of the prestigious Atticus Award for Original Published Thinking in Communications Services, and a longtime resident of Brooklyn, New York City.