Melanie began serving as CEO of the Insights Association on January 1, 2020.

Previously Melanie served as Executive Vice President, Research Science & Data Strategy at Dynata.

A respected, passionate voice on market research trends, standards and quality, Melanie has participated in many industry organizations, events and initiatives. She serves on the executive board of the University of Georgia’s MRII Education program and is an active member of Women in Research (WIRe). Previously Melanie served as President of IA’s Southwest Chapter and as a U.S. representative to ESOMAR.

Melanie has spent more than two decades designing, executing, and interpreting research for agencies and corporations, having started her career at a full-service research firm where she gained a strong research background. For the past decade, Melanie has developed expertise in all forms of digital research including online, mobile and social.

Beginning in 2011, Melanie served as EVP, Global Client Services at Research Now and worked in roles of increasing responsibility in the years following the company’s merger with SSI and subsequent renaming as Dynata. Dynata is the world’s largest first-party data and insights platform with a reach that encompasses 60+ million consumers and business professionals globally and serves nearly 6,000 clients.

“I’m an analyst by nature. And I love nothing more than digging into data—even really messy data. I love when things don’t line up neatly because that’s when the real works starts.”​​​​​​​

- Jon Derome​​​​

When Jon Derome, General Manager of Microsoft Customer and Market Research, started his career, he was deeply involved in politics. He worked for a congressman on two campaign cycles. He then worked in the Massachusetts State House. When that job ended, after initially thinking of going to law school, he got a job in a city where he had spent time while in college—Prague. While in this job, he came to a realization: He loved research. 

He enjoyed studying a topic, building expertise through data, and summarizing what he’d learned. So he set about to start a career in research. After a short search, he joined IDC. He travelled all around Europe interviewing people and collecting data to help Western companies enter and perform in Eastern European markets. He was in his element. After a few years working in Prague and Paris, Jon moved back to the states to work for Yankee Group running a consulting practice focused on business-to-business technology. His work at Yankee Group had him working with some of the largest tech companies in the world.   

After about five years, one of those companies, SAP, came calling in search of research and analytics help. Jon jumped at the chance to join SAP to help with the company’s long-term planning—building scenarios and forecasts on where markets were heading and using data to influence engineering resource allocation. His career was going in the right direction, and he thought he was in for the long-haul. Then he heard from a colleague who was at Microsoft.

The opportunity sounded intriguing, so Jon flew out to Seattle. He loved the people and the area and was soon packing up and moving west.

Jon’s first role was as director of Windows consumer market research and that role led to other positions, including director of server and tool research, senior director of cloud market research, senior director of Office market research, and then senior director of consumer lifetime value data science and M365 research.  

“I believe in invention because it means we create something that

hasn’t existed before. I want us to invest our energy and resources to invent

new ways to answer business questions.”

- Jon Derome

Jon came into his current position, leading CMR, in October 2019. He immediately set about to build a more open and inclusive team that embraces debate, encourages quiet voices, and gives everyone a chance to speak their mind. He also encourages team members to work across organizational lines to ensure the best results. Above all, he strives to never let the past dictate how CMR does things today or tomorrow. For Jon, the opportunity to lead such a smart, dedicated team of research experts is the privilege of his career. ​​​​​​​  

Nancy is a trailblazer in human experience design with over 15 years of industry experience building scalable user research platforms and revitalizing user interfaces at leading companies such Uber, Google, IBM, Cisco, and Intel. Throughout her career, Nancy has gained a reputation for delivering big results in a culturally honest and purposeful way with hundreds of products deployed in over 80 countries worldwide. She consults globally on remote user research methods and development in emerging markets. Her past research examined design frameworks around the promotion, development, and implementation of global policies around user experiences in tech.

Nancy is currently developing the Douyon Research Institute, Silicon Valley’s first social enterprise research institute focused on bridging the gap between mental health and tech innovations. She is proudly Haitian, has traveled to over 70 countries, and speaks fluent sarcasm. In her spare time, she lectures on user experience methodologies, dances in Carnivals all over the place, and lives her best life as written in her forthcoming book.

Gina Fong is a consumer anthropologist and principal at Fong Insight, a marketing consulting firm, and an Adjunct Lecturer of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She integrates creative problem solving, visual storytelling, and analytical moderating to help her clients and students develop game-changing strategies and solutions for their business challenges. Gina brings the consumer to life within an organization and coaches teams on how to use their own insight muscle to surprise and delight their audience across the entire consumer journey. She consults, teaches, and coaches a variety of clients around the world, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurs and start-ups.

After leading teams and building great brands at P&G, Pepsico, YUM!, eBay and H&R Block, Kip Knight now helps clients build their brands through solid marketing strategies and creative, practical solutions.

Kip is the founder of CMO Coaches, a team of former CMOs who work with aspiring marketing leaders. He is also an Operating Partner with Thomvest Ventures, a $500M cross-stage venture capital fund based in San Francisco, and a Board member at Netbase Quid.

Kip started his career at P&G in brand management. He served as CMO at Taco Bell and VP of marketing at eBay. He has held a number of senior executive roles, including general manager positions at PepsiCo and eBay, and was president of H&R Block US as well as president of H&R Block International.

He is the co-author of “Crafting Persuasion: A Leader’s Handbook to Change Minds and Influence Behavior.”

Kip earned his B.S. degree from LSU in marketing and his MBA from the University of Cincinnati.

Pierre joined Ipsos in 2004 as the Ipsos CEO for Europe. In 2008, he was appointed Global CEO of Ipsos Marketing, one of the five business lines of Ipsos, and Chairman of the CEEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. In 2010, he was promoted to Deputy CEO of Ipsos and upon his relocation to New York City in 2013, he assumed his current role as the Ipsos CEO for North America in addition to his role as Global CEO of Ipsos Marketing. Pierre began his career in 1988 with the French Government in Canada. In 1989, he joined Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) as a Consultant in the Strategic Services practice, primarily involved in the areas of Consumer Goods, Utilities and Retail. In 1993, he moved to become the CFO of Adami, a company managing copyrights in the entertainment industry. In 1996, he joined Encyclopaedia Universalis, a print and digital publishing company, where he was promoted in 1998 to Chairman and CEO. In 2000, he joined Consodata, an international company specialized in Database Marketing. Initially CEO for France, he was promoted in 2001 to CEO for Europe and then a year later as Global CEO. Pierre remained with Consodata until 2004, when the company merged with Acxiom.

As CEO of a company pioneering industry change, Camille understands what it takes to make business decisions while operating in volatile environments and building strong cultural buy-in. She believes operationalizing consumer centricity as a strategy will produce consistent results and have a harmonizing effect on decision makers; and adopting an ‘outside-in’ approach to analyzing opportunity is essential in a world where data is trying to win. Beyond driving behaviors through impactful communication, knowledge activation, and change management initiatives, she serves as a chief integrator amongst once-siloed organizational teams for Fortune 100 companies.