IA Corporate Researchers Conference (IA CRC) October 22-24, 2019 in Orlando

Viridiana Álvarez Chávez was the first Latin American (and first Mexican) woman to summit K2, the second highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest . . . which she conquered the previous year.

Industry icon Simon Chadwick is the managing partner of Cambiar, a management consulting company dedicated to the market research industry. Before founding Cambiar in 2004, Simon was Global CEO of NOP World, prior to which he ran six research companies within Kantar.

Simon is active in the leadership of the marketing research and data analytics industry and is a past chair of the Insights Association and of its predecessor, CASRO. He and his colleagues at Cambiar are prolific authors and commentators on the research profession and publish a series of studies on the state of the industry every year.

In addition to his role at Cambiar, Simon is editor-in-chief of Research World, ESOMAR’s global magazine, and serves on the Board of Directors of a number of research-related companies.

Simon is a Fellow of the Market Research Society. He holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University.

Veteran industry expert Ted Donnelly joined the Schlesinger Group family in 2019 when Baltimore Research was acquired by the company. Ted led the Baltimore Research team for 16 years as managing director. He is a proven leader in the marketing research and insights industry with national notoriety as a dynamic and innovative insights supplier. At Schlesinger Group, he serves as vice president, research solutions where his role is to help key clients meet their business challenges by managing the full spectrum of their informational needs.

Ted is an expert in qualitative, quantitative, and emerging research methods. He believes good research starts with innate curiosity and the creativity to approach the unique goals of each project distinctively to get to the underlying insights. He has a Ph.D. in consumer behavior & advertising research and a MSc in marketing research from the University of Edinburgh plus a BS in psychology from Penn State University.

Ted is dedicated to genuine partnership and creating a collaborative, immersive research process for his clients that helps them get closer to truly understanding their audience. A passionate industry volunteer and advocate, Ted currently sits on the Insights Association Board of Directors and has served in countless committee roles. He is a former chairman of both the MRA and PRC Boards. In his free time, Ted can usually be found coaching, playing, or watching hockey, traveling, and spending time with his two boys in Bel Air, Maryland.

Elizabeth Merrick May has spent the last four years at Google leading insights, analytics, strategy, and marketing teams focused on smart homes and consumer technology. In her current role, Elizabeth leads global teams responsible for product development insights, customer marketing, and brand and strategy measurement for Google Home, Nest, Pixel, Stadia, Chromecast, and Google1 brands.

Prior to Google, she led customer insights and CRM across several industries, including CPG, pharma, and retail. Elizabeth has been in the biz for more than a dozen years and is a recognized expert in consumer strategy and innovation. Her work has spanned more than 30 countries, receiving several top awards along the way. She's a frequent contributor to talks, publications, and public projects, applying her customer-centric lens to everything from on-air cooking with Wolfgang Puck to speaking on aging with Martha Stewart to redefining energy demand solutions with industry leaders.

Elizabeth holds a Masters degree from Northwestern in Predictive Analytics and an MBA from the University of Florida.

In 2010, Sven Raphael Schneider was an unemployed lawyer and recent immigrant to the US with a passion for classic men’s fashion. Along with his wife Teresa, Raphael founded the Gentleman’s Gazette that year with every intention of turning it into . . . a nice hobby.

Nine years later, Teresa and Raphael have nurtured the Gentleman’s Gazette to be a dominant player in the classic men’s style market with millions of men around the world reading and watching videos and buying their classic men’s accessories from Fort Belvedere, their exclusive brand.

Along with her husband Sven, Teresa founded the Gentleman’s Gazette. Together, they have nurtured it to become a dominant player in the classic men’s style market. Millions of men around the world read, watch their videos, and buy their classic men’s accessories from Fort Belvedere, their exclusive brand.

Eric has worked at the intersection of brands, technology, and human psychology for more than 20 years. He has held leadership positions for top technology companies such as Google, Spotify, YouTube, and Instagram. Eric entered the business world through the doors of academia, earning his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology prior to running brand and creative strategy in award-winning advertising agencies. He is currently the CMO-in-Residence for Blackbird, a strategy and business innovation firm based in New York City. At one point, Eric wrote restaurant reviews for a small publication in Boston. These days, he enjoys eating way more than writing about eating.

Brett is Head of North America Insights for Electrolux where he provides deep, transformative consumer insight, consumer opportunities, and marketplace understanding to drive business decisions related to strategic planning, new product innovation, brand and communication, and in-store sales and merchandising programs.

Previously, Brett served as the PepsiCo Insights lead for the YUM! Foods partnership. In this role, Brett led all PepsiCo food and beverage insights work for innovation and consumer activation. Throughout his eight years with PepsiCo, Brett demonstrated his passion for insights-driven activation and increased sales through his work on the Walmart and Dollar General teams, shopper insights in the PepsiCo global sectors, and with Frito Lay innovation, where he helped launch Doritos Jacked, Ruffles Deep Ridge, and Cracker Jack’D. He’s also been an active mentor within the insights and marketing community to help cultivate success and advancement of actionable insights understanding.

Brett earned his MBA from the University of Texas, Arlington and Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Brigham Young University.