IA CEO Summit Europe September 11-13, 2019 in Edinburgh

Mitch is a former S&P 500 public company CEO and board director. Widely regarded for his leadership and experience, he believes in using data and analytics to create value across multiple industries. A forward thinking leader with expertise in identifying consumer and market trends, Mitch has a proven ability to see “what’s next” and reflect it in strategy.

Recently, Mitch led Nielsen’s transformation from a legacy professional services firm to become a digital, tech-enabled company. Under Mitch’s leadership, the company built a world class, 1000-person data science organization with automated data collection using AI and machine learning, 60 percent of its products moved to DaaS delivery, and with key alliances with Walmart, Google, Facebook, and Tencent. He also acquired 26 businesses (funded in part by 11 divestitures) to accelerate growth, create new revenue streams, and add digital and tech talent.

Prior to serving as CEO, Mitch led Nielsen businesses in North America, Europe, and Asia (China), serving clients in media and the fast-moving consumer goods industries. He began his career at Procter & Gamble, spending 12 years in brand management and market research. Mitch has a broad global perspective and has overseen operations in more than 100 markets.

As a CEO who inspires collaboration, Mitch brings clarity to organizations to drive execution and progress. Under his leadership, Nielsen was recognized by Chief Executive magazine for leadership, by Forbes for innovation, by DiversityInc for diversity and inclusion, by JUST Capital for corporate social responsibility, and by The Wall Street Journal as one of the “Best Run Companies of 2018.”

In addition to his board role with Nielsen, Mitch served as a director for Monsanto [NYSE: MON] from April 2016 until it was acquired by Bayer AG in June of 2018. He is a current director of CECP, a nonprofit association of CEOs encouraging businesses to be a force for societal good, and a former member of the American Heart Association CEO Roundtable.

In February, 2021, Lisa was named Executive Director, Commercial Assessment, Insights & Analytics at Organon, a spin-off from Merck focused on women’s health and biosimilars businesses.

Previously, Lisa led the Global Customer Insights team at Merck & Co, Inc., USA, responsible for leveraging insights, analytics, and design to create innovative, compliant solutions to the challenges facing patients, providers, and payers in the delivery of healthcare.

A strategic, solutions-oriented business leader with more than 20 years of success delivering customer insights and experiences that drive business results, Lisa has been called a “change agent”, an “innovative disrupter”, and a “creator”, among others, for her efforts to challenge the status quo, harnessing the power of data, technology, behavioral science and emerging capabilities in the service of creating deeper insights and better solutions.

Gayle Fuguitt is Chief of Customer Insights and Innovation at Foursquare. Gayle architects C-suite growth and business outcomes for a wide array of leading advertisers in diverse industries through global, mobile location intelligence uniquely embraced by sales, marketing, and engineering. Fuguitt’s combined expertise as a global insights and analytics leader, creative revenue driver, and an early adopter and translator of game-changing technology into business growth drivers plus her award-winning, results-driven leadership connects Foursquare solutions to scalable growth opportunities, enabling the future now.

As CEO and President of The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), Gayle was the first woman to lead this 79-year-old organization of media-tech analytics leaders across more than 400 member companies. Gayle’s three-year tenure is notable for its historic achievements. She spearheaded original million-dollar research quantifying $31 billion in multi-platform marketing spending opportunities for advertisers to invest versus discounting. Industry leaders have designated her research results as “the most important original research in the industry in three decades.” The data which Gayle spearheaded is considered so forward thinking that it is now being implemented as a viable tool for marketers across all sectors.

As CEO, Gayle’s leadership included the formation of A Women Analytics Initiative while her other efforts forged value-driven connections and strategic collaborations with industry leaders like Facebook, Wal-Mart, Twitter, and Google which increased ARF’s endowment by 30 percent in three years.

Prior to her role at the ARF, Gayle spent more than 25 years as an innovator at General Mills. In 1998, she was appointed the first officer ever of marketing research. Among historic firsts that contributed to growth for the global manufacturer, she changed the name of the function from “marketing research” to “consumer insights.” Tapping into revenue-ignition trends, she altered the title again to “global consumer insights.” Considered unprecedented, she led the shift of 85 percent of General Mills’s research to the Internet in one year.

Gayle led the multi-national company’s investments of over $70 million dollars in venture capital into Internet research, social media research, and mobile research from 1998 to 2010. Among other groundbreaking firsts, Gayle held the leadership position of Global Consumer Insights for 18 years — the longest of any executive in the industry — before leaving to seek new leadership opportunities in 2011.

In 1998, Gayle led a six million dollar investment for General Mills in an Internet research startup company called MarketTools. With her bold leadership advisement, General Mills became the first in the industry to invest in technology to co-create business solutions for marketers. In 1999, Gayle was appointed to the MarketTools board where she served for a dozen years. From 2005–2010, she served as MarketTools’ Chair, Governance Committee. MarketTools was later acquired by Survey Monkey and capitalized at more than one billion dollars.

Among other Board of Directors’ positions Gayle served for seven years on the Iconoculture board.

In 2014, Gayle was inducted into the Market Research Council (MRC) Hall of Fame. Gayle holds a BS in Economics and a BA in Industrial Relations from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her MBA in Marketing Research from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. A passionate supporter of the arts, Gayle is a trustee at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and serves on the board of advisors of the Brooklyn Museum. She lives in New York City with her husband, Tom.

Vanella is Global CEO of Hall & Partners. Prior, she spent 20 years in some of the world’s best advertising agencies, including BBH, JWT, and BBDO.

Vanella has always been passionate about brands and communications, how they are created, and how they work. She constantly strives for outstanding creativity in anything she is involved in.

Hall & Partners specialize in creating commercially and emotionally rewarding brand relationships, closing the ‘relationship gap’ between people, brands, and business. She is particularly interested in how digital technology is transforming business models and has built pioneering new thinking about how brands and communications drive behavioural change.

Vanella’s role is to provide energy, direction, and inspiration for the team, to help them develop strong client relationships and to attract valuable new clients.

Vanella is passionate about sustainability.

Her highlights whilst at Hall & Partners have been to help the company grow successfully (doubling in revenue and trebling in profit). Hall & Partners also became the first research company to win a place in The Sunday Times ‘Top 100 Best Companies to Work For’ and Marketing Magazine’s ‘Research Agency of the Year.’ Vanella has also won a ‘Woman of the Year’ award.

She is Vice Chairman and a Fellow of the Market Research Society having previously chaired The Society.

She is currently seeking a non-executive position in a business focused on building strong brands and relationships, both in the UK and internationally.

Richard M. Marshall has more than 30 years of experience in software innovation. Before founding Concept Gap, Richard was a Gartner analyst, covering mobile app design and development. He championed the emergence of key enterprise mobile app technologies.

As an entrepreneur, Richard recognized the importance of the mobile app in 2004 and created a company, Rapid Mobile, that delivered cross-device, highly-usable apps long before they became mainstream. Richard’s career has encompassed everything from coding to corporate governance. He has worked in all phases of product development, from initial concept through implementation and on to sales, marketing, and product management. Communication has always been the common element: storytelling is a key factor in driving the adoption of new technology. He has lectured and written papers, articles, and reports for many years. Richard holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.