Jake Ackman is a research and analytics professional whose communication background and strategic thinking helps optimize insights and storytelling for business stakeholders. He has 15 years of market research experience running the gamut from survey operations and focus groups to brand tracking and analytics.

He currently leads the customer loyalty measurement and insights for Fidelity’s retail investing unit. At Fidelity, he helps use survey data and analytics to reverberate the Voice of the Customer to leadership and stakeholders throughout the organization.

Prior to that he led the post-call interaction program at Transamerica and architected a new closed loop feedback program fueled by text analytics. Before that, he managed all branding, product, and competitive research for HomeAdvisor, and led insights that fueled a meteoric rise in brand awareness. Jake got his first taste of research as a part of focus groups for a re-branding campaign at Harvard Kennedy School and knew immediately research was his calling.

Jake has a M.S. in Applied Communication Research from Boston University and a B.A. in Communication from UMass-Amherst. A Bostonian through and through, he used to work at Fenway Park over the summer and would be glad to briefly explain why Tom Brady is the best football player of all time.

Today, he is the co-founder of HubUX and the host of the Happy Market Research Podcast bringing you interviews from insights pros at LinkedIn, GoDaddy, General Mills, and many more. You live once. Love the... 1. stuff you build, 2. the people you build it for, and 3. the team you build it with. Those 3 things are where Jamin dedicates all his effort.  As the previous CEO of FocusVision, he was the first to bring to market a combination of qualitative and quantitative technologies that are used by 75% of the Fortune 100 and over 3,000 companies globally. Prior to FocusVision, he pioneered online surveys, conducting one of the first ones in 1996 and founded a top survey platform, Decipher, in 2000. Jamin started Happy Market Research to help companies use market research to 'generate outsized returns and growth' and offer free podcasts exploring the state of the MR industry.

Kate Eichman recently joined Kellogg Co., bringing a unique perspective with her background in retail, management consulting, and now consumer packaged goods. The common thread throughout Kate’s work is a fascination with the shopper and a love for telling a story with insights. Kate is the Senior Manager of Shopper Insights for Cold Cereal. Kate leads shopper research and the translation of insights to drive action on-shelf. Kate lives in Chicago, Illinois with her fiancé and two kittens.

Kevin Goetz has been at the center of what Hollywood calls the movie research industry for more than thirty years. His firm, Screen Engine/ASI, conducts research for a majority of all movies that are widely released in America and around the world. With decades of experience, Goetz has worked alongside all of the major film studio chiefs, network and streaming platform executives, and production company decision-makers. The Los Angeles Times Magazine counted him as one of the 100 most powerful and influential people in Southern California. He has also produced twelve movies and brings both a marketing and filmmaking perspective to the interpretation of his research findings. He is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and several other distinguished organizations, including Producers Guild of America, Television Academy, SAG/AFTRA, and the Actors’ Equity Association. He currently sits on the boards of five charitable organizations as part of his philanthropic endeavors. Kevin is extremely proud to have his first book Audience-ology be released this year with Tiller Press, a division of Simon and Schuster. In addition to penning his first book, Kevin recently launched a podcast, Don’t Kill the Messenger that brings his book to life. This bi-monthly podcast takes a peek behind the filmmaking curtain as Kevin talks with famous filmmakers, studio executives, stars, and other creatives about movies, filmmaking, audience test screenings, and much more. Kevin also speaks at colleges and universities across the US about audience test screenings and other aspects of film, television, business, and entertainment marketing research.

Passionate about infusing the voice and creativity of consumers into the research process for Escalent clients, Gwen leverages her rich background as a teacher, marketer and researcher. Entering the supplier world after more than a decade owning brand and new product development responsibilities for Coca-Cola and US WEST (now CenturyLink), she has been privileged to provide strategic thinking and recommendations to companies such as Acura, Allstate, Delta Facet Company, Electrolux, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, Purina, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benckiser, Royal Philips, and T-Mobile. To date, Gwen has created over 2000 new product and service concepts, and unearthed cornerstone insights for even more. She cofounded #Innochat, coauthored Amazon best-seller A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing and other innovation books, and her articles have appeared in Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek. Gwen earned an MBA from the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, and a BS in Education from Texas Tech University.

She founded The Hunter Miller Group (HMG), in 1995, a Chicago based, leading edge market research and strategic firm. Since then, she has been helping Fortune 500 companies better understand and positively engage Black America, so they can have loyal customers and a positive bottom line. Pepper has interviewed thousands of consumers about their beliefs, feelings, thoughts and usage of hundreds of products and services for a number of companies including: AARP, BRAVO, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Ulta Beauty, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and more. Her experiences, passion and insights, are revealed in the book that she co-authored with the late Herb Kemp What’s Black About It?, and her book, Black Still Matters in Marketing. Both books are considered to be the most important references about Black consumer insights by many business leaders in the marketing industry. Pepper’s third book, For the Culture: Why Black Americans Matter Today More Than Ever, will be released next year. Pepper is able to help audiences think differently about Black America, and how they should approach this audience professionally and personally. Pepper invites the audience to dig deeper into the Black-American market by talking about both simple ideas and taboo topics. It’s this ability that earned Pepper many awards including MOBE’s D. Park Gibson Award for Excellence in Market Research(2018), MAFA’s Trailblazer Award (2014), the “Takes the Cake” Best Speaker award in 2006 and 2012 at the prestigious Marketing 2 Women Conference, and Target Market News’ MAAX Award for Market Research Executive of the Year (2007). For seven years, Pepper blogged for Advertising Age, is a featured blogger for Forbes, and she enjoys engaging and mentoring and young professionals (and having them mentor her!).

Jennifer Renaud has served as Masonite’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer since March 2020. She joined Masonite from Vertiv Corporation where she served as Vice President, Marketing and had responsibility for marketing strategy, demand generation, field/event marketing, channel marketing and customer engagement. Prior to Vertiv, Jennifer held a number of marketing leadership roles with companies such as Oracle and Microsoft. Jennifer is an Inventor on U.S. method patent for direct-to-patient marketing. She earned her BS in Management from Cardinal Stritch University.

With over 15 years of experience in customer insight & strategy work, Allison’s career has spanned both agency and client side roles, working across B2C and B2B audiences. She currently leads market research for LinkedIn’s Marketing & Sales Solutions businesses, bringing the voice and needs of marketers and sales professionals to the organization. Prior to joining LinkedIn, she served in research roles at Saks Fifth Avenue & American Express. She is a lifelong New Yorker with her MA from Fordham University and BA from NYU.

A seasoned innovator with a passion for progress and problem-solving, Kathryn Topp is an award-winning researcher with more than 20 years' experience in the industry. She's spent her career researching across 83 countries and working with some of the globe's biggest names (including Cadbury, Fonterra, and Nestlé), developing a deep understanding of how brands use data and a keen eye for what the future of research and insights could look like. In 2017, off the back of that personal experience, Kathryn founded the Thinking Studio — a strategic insights agency that quickly evolved into Yabble. In the years since, Yabble has grown into an industry-leading technological trailblazer, powered by AI products like Hey Yabble that are revolutionizing the world of insights. Today, Kathryn's sharp technical mind and limitless curiosity continue to propel the business to new heights. Stacked with supermarket chains, media titans, retailers, energy companies, and FMCG producers, Yabble's roster includes everything from globally recognized consumer goods corporations to one of the largest and most popular community hubs on the internet.

Laura Wronski is Director of Research at Momentive, where she develops best practices in online public opinion research. She works with media outlets and key business partners to generate newsworthy insights from survey data. She joined SurveyMonkey in September 2015 after working at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and graduating from the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland.

Curtis joined Radius Global Market Research from Millward Brown. He was head of the Marketing Science team for Millward Brown’s western region. Prior to joining Millward Brown, Curtis was analytical manager at NPD, where he was responsible for development and analysis of projects including market segmentation, new product development, and customer satisfaction measurement. Before entering marketing research, Curtis taught research methodology at the University of Houston. His background in teaching allows him to speak about high-end analytics with audiences of different backgrounds, statistical experience.

Curtis is actively involved in client development, as well as executing advanced analytic techniques. His primary areas of interest are in conjoint analysis, hierarchical Bayesian analysis, and segmentation methodologies.

Curtis holds a PhD and a master's degree in political science from the University of Houston, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He regularly presents at marketing research conferences and has recently contributed the chapter on conjoint analysis/discrete choice models for The Handbook of Marketing Research.

General Counsel, Law Offices of Stuart L. Pardau & Associates

BRIANNA SYLVER is the founder and president of Sylver Consulting, an international innovation research and strategy firm operating at the intersection of Market Research, User Experience/Design, and Strategy. Brianna and the team at Sylver support Fortune 1,000 organizations to lead the transformation of their brands, products and organizations by providing clarity and focus to the next steps of their growth.

Brianna has gained recognition for her contributions to the fields of innovation, Design Thinking, UX and consumer insights by the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA), HSM Management (Brazil) and the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA). She writes and speaks on topics such as the integration of UX and MR, innovation culture and transformation, blended hybrid research methodologies and entrepreneurship.

Brianna holds a BFA in communication design from the University of Buffalo and a master's degree in human-centered communication design and design strategy (MDES) from the Institute of Design at IIT.

Follow her on LI at www.linkedin.com/in/briannasylver or Twitter @BriannaSylver.

Amy manages client and product success at Walmart Data Ventures. She has been in her current role at Walmart since August 2022

Prior to joining Walmart, Amy held general management positions at a data analytics and brand consulting company. During her tenure, Amy led client engagement and project management initiatives on behalf of numerous Fortune 500 companies such as Meta, Amazon, Google, Netflix, and WPP. Her skill set includes engaging key stakeholders and key leadership in global process alignment discussions and serving as a program manager for major technology brands.

Throughout her career, Amy has emphasized the importance of sincere relationships with her clients. She strives to go the extra mile, providing value beyond the day-to-day operations by showcasing a deep-level understanding of client needs and business objectives.

As EVP, Client Solutions, Raj Manocha helps to lead the sales and commercialization efforts across various product lines. Put simply, when a new product or business is ready for market, Raj helps to lead the company’s sales team in commercializing the venture.

With over 17 years of experience in online market research, working at companies such as Dynata, Delvinia and SAGO, Raj is focused on growing products and services, building high-performing internal teams, and continuing to develop relationships with current and new clients.

Raj, routinely, speaks at conferences about the future of insights, using research technology platforms, and how companies are using research in unique, and scalable, ways.

Raj is heavily involved with the Insights Association, as chair to the board of the international chapter, a member of the Canadian advisory board, and the global engagement committee. He is also on the advisory board of the Master of Science in Marketing Research Program (MSMR) at Michigan State University and the Executive Advisory Board for the Marketing Analytics Centre at the University of Guelph. Further, Raj teaches sessions at Toronto Metropolitan University to startup companies on how they can incorporate research within their product development. Through these roles, he aims to use his leadership and knowledge to develop the next generation of business and marketing leaders.

Sabine Lyko is a researcher with 15+ years of experience in consumer and customer insights including Kantar, Ipsos, some smaller agencies, charities and for the last 4+ years, LinkedIn. She has worked in France, the UK, Singapore and the US. She has extensive experience in brand and communications research for both CPG and tech brands. She currently leads research at LinkedIn for our Talent Solutions businesses (e.g. recruitment, learning, job seeking...).

Nikki has served on the Customer & Market Insights team at Chick-fil-A for 5 years, supporting both Primary Research and now Customer Listening. In her current role, she aims to scale the delivery of Voice of the Customer insights by leveraging AI and analytics. Understanding what conversations are driving the Customer experience enables her to inform decisions to ultimately deliver a more caring experience to Customers.