Speakers

Dr. Dan Abramowicz is Crown’s chief technology officer, with global responsibility for technology development, including new product design, process improvements, materials developments, engineering, and systems that enable process monitoring, database management, and cost reductions across the breadth of Crown’s packaging products (food cans and ends; beverage cans and ends; aerosol containers; metal vacuum closures; specialty packaging; and packaging equipment). In addition, Dr. Abramowicz heads Crown’s environment, health and safety organization and Crown’s sustainability initiative.

Michelle Adams leads the shopper and retailer insights group and manages the SMART Learning Center, a retail theater focused on shoppers. Her passion is identifying state-of-the-art research methodologies to help Frito-Lay better understand shopper attitudes and behaviors. Prior to joining Frito-Lay, she worked at M/A/R/C Research as an account director and spent nine years at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Office of Inspector General as a senior policy analyst.

Prior to joining BVI Networks, Alexei Agratchev was the founder and general manager of an internal startup within Cisco’s emerging technologies group focused on developing video applications for gaming and retail markets. During his eight years at Cisco, Agratchev held a number of leadership positions with direct responsibility for developing and launching new product lines. Prior to joining Cisco, Agratchev was a consultant at Accenture in their electronics and high tech operating unit.

Bob Anderson is responsible for advancing all CRM practices for the Stop & Shop and Giant Landover chains. This includes developing sales and building initiatives focused on the store, merchandising and customer segment objectives, as well as proposing, evaluating and developing new technologies to facilitate the advancement of Stop & Shop's CRM vision.

Anderson has been with Stop & Shop for more than 15 years. Prior to his current position, he was manager of database marketing, where he oversaw the development of the company's customer data warehouse and targeted marketing programs. He also worked on Stop & Shop's Web application and launched the first outbound e-mail program. Anderson has also worked in category management, store management and as a sales analyst for Stop & Shop.

With over 20 years of experience in customer marketing Adrian Baker leads client engagements on shopper services – directing customer-focused strategies through in-store, direct and digital channels.

Prior to joining Nielsen, Baker was with dunnhumby where he was responsible for developing customer-led communications strategies for grocery, department store and financial services retailers. He previously worked for DoubleClick, leading their European media business and directing pioneering strategies for digital connections with shoppers.

Baker has successfully advised organizations across industry sectors including Tesco, Muller Dairy, Unilever, Maxima, BT, Barclays, the AA, BA.com, Marks & Spencer and Shop Direct.

Don Baker is the vice president of pricing and category selling strategies for Sara Lee based in Downers Grove, IL. Baker is responsible for pricing, training, shelving and assortment, category management, sales operations and sales information systems. He has been with Sara Lee for almost four years.

Baker has been in the consumer packaged goods industry for more than 25 years. He has held various, retailer, sales, marketing and strategic thinking positions.

He has served on the food advisory board at Western Michigan University and as an advisory member of the CPG Management Program at the University of Arkansas.

Chris Borek is a senior manager at Target in charge of the in-store digital guest experience for the retailer’s multi-channel digital marketing division. His current role focuses on in-store digital marketing, mobile, social, online, as well as emerging technologies. Borek works with several agencies, brands and partners to determine how to most effectively message to Target’s affluent shopper. During Borek’s 10 years at Target, he has held roles in finance, merchandising, technology and has also managed a Super Target store. Prior to coming to Target, Borek spent time at West Publishing Co. in a variety of finance and accounting roles. Borek received his MBA from the University of Minnesota focusing on finance and IT and also has his CPA.

With over 30 years of experience in branding, marketing and retail, from the trenches with Procter & Gamble to president of BrandTruth Marketplace Intelligence Services, Stephen Bosch brings unique and powerful insights into how brands connect (or disconnect) with the consumer/shopper in the marketplace. Conducting retail research for major brand clients such as Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Nintendo and Columbia Sportswear, BrandTruth has observed and engaged many thousands of consumers/shoppers, retail associates and managers since it’s founding in 2002.

Rich Butwinick, president and founder of MarketingLab, has more than 25 years of experience in marketing and promotions. MarketingLab develops and executes marketing programs that engage consumers, activate brands and increase sales by building commanding relationships between brands and shoppers. MarketingLab's clients include Procter & Gamble, Qwest Communications, Supervalu, Land O’Lakes, Regis, Imation and others. Butwinick is a board member for MAAW, Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide and a committee member for the Twin Cities Marathon.

Alison Chaltas' core strength is building brands through creative insight-based retail solutions. She has been at the forefront of shopper marketing and category management best practices for 20 years. Chaltas began her career with Procter & Gamble, developing new channels of distribution and category management capability. As an Interscope founder and vice president at Euro RSCG Meridian, Chaltas brings proven success helping manufacturers and retailers collaboratively build categories and brands via shopper-centric insights and solutions.

Prior to joining The Partnering Group (TPG), John Clutts spent 20 years with Giant Food in Washington, DC, and later Ahold USA in a variety of management and executive positions. His last corporate position was vice president of marketing services for Ahold USA, where he developed several new business opportunities that generated millions of dollars of profits, dramatically increased the effectiveness and revenues generated from in-store marketing programs, and led the creation of Ahold’s merchandising & marketing technology strategy. Starting as an IT professional, Clutts managed several large-scale initiatives developing enterprise merchandising, supply chain, decision support, and loyalty marketing application suites. He successfully transitioned from technology to merchandising, becoming an early pioneer in category management best practices.

As part of 3M's digital-out-of-home team, Dr. Terry Collier works with 3M's corporate labs to match new technologies to emerging market needs. Dr. Collier and his colleagues are working with design, advertising, marketing and media agencies to translate their needs and requirements into features within a web-hosted predictive vision model, available as 3M Visual Attention Service, 3M.com/VAS.

As president of G2 Interactive, Tom Conti is charged with continuing to forge the leadership position of this innovative force in the interactive communications sector.

Conti oversees operations in both New York and Pennsylvania, in addition to growing the agency’s activation marketing and digital capabilities throughout the U.S. market. A multifaceted marketer, Conti brings deep expertise as a practitioner across all marketing disciplines, working with a broad array of business-to-business and consumer clients such as DuPont, Comcast, Coca-Cola, Acura and SEI Investments.

With over 20 years experience in leading successful marketing communications agencies, Conti was most recently president of G2 Interactive Philadelphia. Prior to joining G2 Interactive, he held the position of president at The Star Group. Under his direction there, the agency experienced significant growth across all disciplines and geographies. His impressive track record in agency leadership also includes time as senior managing partner at MRM/Princeton, part of McCann WorldGroup, as well as at Earle Palmer Brown and Ketchum Communications, where he also held senior management positions. Conti is a board member on The American Association of Advertising Agencies, Philadelphia Council.

James Damian is responsible for reinventing the experience of shopping in mass specialty retail. Joining Best Buy in 1998, James evolved and scaled the store concepts from suburban to urban market places, throughout the U.S., thus changing the game in consumer electronics retail.

In 2004, Damian led the design of Best Buy’s first concept stores out of the big box, to get closer to the female and young male customer, with Studio D and Escape in Chicago. These breakthroughs enabled the innovation methodology, and developed the company’s “new store experience,” through an R&D capability. He continues to lead optimization of the big-box design for a shopping experience that not only answers, but also anticipates changing customer desires for Best Buy North America, Asia and Europe. He names legendary Tiffany’s window designer and creator of the “blue box,” Gene Moore, as his primary source of teaching, coaching and inspiration.

Prior to joining Best Buy, Damian held positions with Howard Sant Partnerships, a London architectural firm; Harvey Nichols, a London-based luxury retailer; B. Altman & Co. and R.H. Macy & Co. department stores in New York; and Hindsgaul Mannequins Worldwide of Copenhagen, New York, London and Paris. He also served as president of Damian Randd (Resources Advancing New Design Directions).

Brian DeLong has 14 years of marketing experience, including a role as associate creative director at Ryan Partnership in Minneapolis, as creative consultant, on-site lead at Creatis Inc and as a lead designer at Sportsman’s Guide.

Some of his clients include ConAgra, Land O’Lakes, Pepperidge Farm, Hormel, Nestlé Nutrition, Energizer, Novartis, 3M, Campbell Soup, Best Buy, Target Direct, Medtronic, Thompson West, ING and Northern Tool & Equipment.

Seth Diamond leads the insights function at Catapult Marketing, after gathering over 15 years of client-side insights and marketing experiences. He spent most of his career at Kraft Foods, helping to build businesses like Maxwell House, Grape Nuts, Honey Bunches of Oats and Kool Aid. Seth led the insights and strategy team for Kraft’s eCommerce division and CRM program. He also led Kraft’s word-of-mouth marketing and launched services and rewards programs.

Ben DiSanti has been charged with developing a planning function internally for TPN. He offers a diverse background in marketing, research and advertising spanning over 20 years that includes a range of disciplines, from project management to strategic planning. TPN is the fourth agency where he has built a strategic planning discipline. Clients such as McDonald’s‚ Burger King, Kroger, Best Buy, Walmart, Sprint, Clorox, 7-Eleven, Cricket and the U.S. Postal Service have experienced the benefit of the insights he brings. DiSanti's personal philosophy of building brands from retail out helped him as a team leader to win the $1 billion USPS business. His focus on driving learning around the shopper’s world has led him to recently serve as a member of the In-Store Marketing Institute’s Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing.

Tanya Domier is president of Integrated Marketing Services, the marketing division of Advantage Sales and Marketing. She has served on ASM’s board of directors since 2006.

After beginning her career with The J.M. Smucker Co., Domier joined ASM in 1990. Rising through the ranks, she realized that the company was uniquely positioned to address the shortcomings of traditional promotional agencies, which often delivered ideas that were not executable in a store environment or within brand budgets. She envisioned a customer-centric marketing agency model that would ground programs in shopper insights and store environment knowledge and with respect to clients’ overall brand marketing and sales strategies.

Domier's vision was realized in 2000, when Integrated Marketing Services was formed under her leadership. After a decade of organic growth and two acquisitions, the division today is a $300 million business delivering comprehensive solutions at retail, with separate units focused on full-service program management and execution, event marketing, in-store sampling, custom publishing and retailer-specific multi-brand programs.

Matt Egol is a partner with Booz & Company’s Consumer, Media & Digital practice. Egol has 14 years of consulting experience, focused on working with clients across the consumer packaged goods, retail, media and marketing services sectors.

As marketers embrace a broader set of opportunities to engage consumers along the full path to purchase, they are building new capabilities to better leverage and integrate content development, applications and social media into their marketing toolkit. Many of these opportunities require better integration across traditional silos to build new capabilities, from consumer and shopper insights, to promotions and in store marketing, to advertising and branded entertainment, to digital relationship marketing. Recent client engagements have focused on issues such as helping consumer marketers develop new capabilities for shopper marketing and digital to drive sales growth and enhance brand equity, transforming media businesses into marketing solutions providers, working with marketing services companies to develop plans for growth and helping retailers better harness investments in digital to build consumer relationships and enhance promotions effectiveness.

Craig Elston is senior vice president of The Integer Group’s insight & strategy department, and his role is to spearhead Integer’s development of disruption and media arts planning, thus pushing Integer’s strategic thinking and execution for a range of clients in countries worldwide. Before entering the Integer fold in October 2006, he served in its sister network at Tequila\London, heading a large team of communication planners as well as leading Tequila\Connect, a separate consulting group dedicated to the planning, management and measurement of total brand experience. Elston's career also includes creating Alphabet, a boutique integrated hot shop in London, as well as heading the planning department of Brann Worldwide. In addition, Elston's first tentative career steps and some big career learnings were taken under the supervision of the research and planning community of the Barclays Bank Group.

Maria Emmer-Aanes is a veteran marketer with two decades of experience connecting consumer products to their markets. Having honed her expertise at industry leaders like Target and Grey Advertising, Emmer-Aanes' shifted her focus to organic and sustainable offerings, directing the marketing and rebranding efforts for Great Harvest Bread Co. and now for Nature’s Path Foods, North America’s largest organic cereal manufacturer. As director of marketing and communications, she has helped reposition Nature’s Path to reach wider audiences in more meaningful ways, directing innovative approaches that integrate all marketing, social media, branding, events and sustainably driven packaging efforts.

With his shopper-driven orientation, Patrick Fitzmaurice has proven success in bringing brands to life in retail. He has a 25-year track record of consumer packaged goods and general marketing success. Fitzmaurice has built expertise in manufacturer-retailer collaborate business planning, shopper marketing capability building and identifying opportunities through hypothesis-driven thinking. Before joining The Capre Group in 2003, he held leadership roles at companies such as Unilever, Nielsen and Donnelley Marketing as well as successful business building in several company start-ups. He has served as president of the American Marketing Association in Georgia, currently serves on its executive board and is a frequent speaker and industry facilitator.

Sarah Gleason is a master at developing and institutionalizing actionable retail marketing strategies. Prior to becoming a consultant in 2002, Gleason spent 18 years in brand management, new product development and strategy at General Mills and Kraft/General Foods, where she honed strategic and leadership skills that translated into consistently strong results. In her last position at Kraft, Gleason was vice president, strategy, responsible for developing the strategy and annual marketing plans for integrated marketing services and all multi-brand marketing initiatives.

Mike Grimes is an accomplished sales and business development executive with expertise in new customer acquisition, go-to-market strategies and strategic alliances for early-stage companies. He has been with Modiv Media since 2001.

Prior to Modiv, Grimes was vice president of North American sales for PinPoint Corp., a manufacturer of real-time proximity solutions for manufacturing and healthcare markets, where he built and managed the direct and channel sales teams. Prior to PinPoint, Grimes held various VP-level positions at Telxon Corporation (now part of Motorola), a manufacturer of mobile wireless information systems. He ran Telxon's northeast division for four years and later built up its North American channel sales team.

Kieran Jason Hackett comes to CBX from The Rockwell Group, the world-renowned design and architecture firm. At Rockwell Group he led the firm’s brand activation capability, Studio Red, working with clients such as The Coca-Cola Co., McDonald’s, P&G, Mercedes-Benz, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Club Med and Jet Blue to create dynamic brand experiences in the built environment.

Dr. Brian Harris is internationally recognized as a pioneer and innovative thought leader in the field of retailing and consumer products marketing. He has led the global adoption of two of the most significant modern methods in the retailing and consumer products marketing industry: computerized shelf space management and category management. In 1983, Dr. Harris co-founded ABA Groups, which developed the Apollo Space Management System. In the late 1980s he introduced the industry to the principles and process of category management.

He is recognized around the world as the “father of category management.” He co-authored the U.S., European, and Brazilian ECR Category Management Best Practices Reports. In 1990, Dr. Harris co-founded The Partnering Group to develop and implement his business methods. Since then, he has successfully implemented his business methods with leading retailers, wholesalers and consumer goods product manufacturers in over 25 countries. He has trained more than 5,000 retailer and manufacturer managers in these business methods. He is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences around the world. He co-authored the next generation category management best practices report, Shopper & Category Development, published by the FMI. He also chairs the Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing, which is developing industry best practices for collaborative shopper marketing.

Working from an early age in her parents’ small-town Michigan grocery store, Michelle Hayward literally grew up in the consumer products business. She founded Bluedog Design to help Fortune 500 clients like Nestlé Purina, Starbucks and General Mills leverage white space opportunities, build new brands, create in-store shopper marketing experiences, and develop packaging that engage and motivate consumers. She regularly travels the world to identify innovative communication, product, packaging, and business ideas. Hayward is curious about all things food culture related and is ever eager to talk restaurants and trends.

As one of P&G’s top marketing executives, Dina Howell oversees the organization that plays a key role in P&G’s end-to-end go to market strategy bringing executional excellence to initiatives and multi-brand scale programs in every country in which P&G operates. The multi-functional Brand Operations organization ensures that P&G’s local marketing plans are integrated, holistic, and executed efficiently and effectively in order to touch and improve the lives of consumers globally. In addition, Dina’s current role includes responsibility for the media organization for the world’s largest advertiser and is tasked with developing global best practices in media and communication planning.

During her 22-year tenure with P&G, Dina dedicated 8 years (1996-2004) to growing P&G’s business with the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart. P&G’s marketing relationship with Wal-Mart was established under Dina’s leadership and expanded to include on-the-ground P&G marketing and market research resources in all countries where Wal-Mart operates.

In 2002, Dina’s marketing expertise and leadership in the area of shopper marketing earned her the distinction of being named one of ten Harley Procter Marketers at P&G, an internal recognition of the company’s most accomplished marketing masters. Dina is a Point-of-Purchase Hall of Famer named by the In-Store Marketing Institute and P-O-P Times magazine, and Ad-Age Woman to Watch 2004.

Currently based in Cincinnati, Ms. Howell contributes to the community as a board member for the Cincinnati Regional Tourism Network Board, and is a board member for Give Kids the World Foundation and in various local community associations.

Geoff Jackson was appointed Director, Integrated Shopper Marketing for the Campbell USA division in August 2009. Jackson helps centralize the decision-making around shopper and consumer marketing programs and leverages his marketing expertise to ensure Campbell is focused on the activities that drive growth, best leverage the company's scale, and meet the needs of its consumers, customers and shoppers.

Jackson joined Campbell in 2000 as an Associate Manager of Consumer and Customer Insights, focused on modeling and analytics for the US Soup division. Since then he has held positions in strategy, front end innovation, and base business brand management. Most recently, he led the launch of Campbell’s Select Harvest soups.

Prior to Campbell, Jackson worked for IRI and AC Nielsen as an Account Executive on the Campbell business. Prior to Nielsen he held positions at Information Resources, Inc as a Project Manager and Towers Perrin as a Benefit Administration Services Specialist.

Jackson earned both his BS degree in economics and his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Jason Katz has more than 20 years of agency experience in development of promotional, account specific, direct and interactive marketing programs. He is currently the EVP, emerging media, at Catapult Marketing. Previously Katz held positions at Marketing Corporation of America, Saxton Communications and Stratmar Systems. He has a bachelor of arts in psychology from Alfred University.

Kat Kozitza is the director of interactive marketing at Supervalu, where she is delivering improved capabilities to leverage the increasing portability of digital channels into the in-store experience. Her efforts frame the customer experience around the intersection of web, e-mail, social media and mobile promotions into the retail environment.

Jon Kramer is an acknowledged leader in helping marketers address the challenges of competing in a new more complex environment – where distribution channel consolidation, media fragmentation and changing consumer demand requires new disciplines and skill sets.

His background spans 30-plus years in the marketing industry. During that time, Kramer specialized in programming development for leading consumer package goods companies including Procter & Gamble, Kraft, PepsiCo and Campbell Soup.

Kramer founded the J. Brown Agency, one of the country’s first marketing communications firms specializing in integrating brand equities with and retailer equities to build mutual sales growth. His leadership grew the agency to $250 million in billings.

Kramer has been instrumental in identifying optimal corporate infrastructure and approach to driving retail support and accountable marketing programming.

With 30 years of CPG and OTC experience, Ed Kuehnle is an active participant on a variety of industry and community boards. As president of Catalina Marketing Services, the company's U.S. in-store, media and brand consulting business, Kuehnle’s team leverages transaction-level purchase decisions to develop, implement and measure strategic media and marketing campaigns for leading CPG marketers and food, drug and mass retailers.

For more than two decades, Lily Lev-Glick has analyzed shopper behavior, purchase motivations and how retail environments impact decision-making. The convergence of this experience has led to her recognition as one of the most recognized and effective strategists in the field of Shopper Marketing. Lev-Glick is the founder of Shopper Sense™, a shopper insights strategy practice. She holds an MBA in marketing from Adelphi University and serves as distinguished faculty for the In-Store Marketing Institute.

Wendy Liebmann is founder, CEO and chief shopper of WSL/STRATEGIC RETAIL, retail strategists and shopping futurists. For 20-plus years, WSL/SR has helped worldwide clients understand shoppers and “shopping life,” and how to use that knowledge to drive shoppers to buy more.

Liebmann founded WSL/SR to "get marketers out of their ivory towers to meet their shoppers on the selling floor,” whether that floor is real or virtual. Her philosophy: if you are passionate about shoppers every day, if you stay close to their needs, wants, dreams, lifestyles and their “shopping life,” the chance of success is great.

Liebmann has extensive global experience in strategic marketing, retailing and research, first in her native Australia where she learned to be a passionate shopper, then globally. She writes The EDGE, a monthly trendletter on emerging shifts in the global shopping landscape.

She is frequently called upon by the media to provide insight into the retail environment and shopping. Liebmann is regularly cited by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press, and appears on CBS, NBC and ABC evening news, The Today Show and CNN, among others. She is a recognized speaker, having addressed organizations in the U.S. and internationally.

As director of business solutions for Pavone Client Services, Mary Lorson helps to identify and address strategic marketing needs for the think tank’s clients. During the past 20 years, she has reported on trends, research and branding theory to companies across the United States.

As executive vice president, director, shopper marketing division of Draftfcb, Jim Lucas helps retailers, manufacturers and service providers to motivate shoppers through value-added experiences. An internationally recognized retail expert, Lucas is the acknowledged founder of the science of Retail Ecology. He brings more than two decades of experience to today’s changing retail landscape and is a leading authority on the science of understanding how consumers interact with brands and how they behave in retail environments.

Lucas is a frequent speaker at leading industry forums including the Cannes International Advertising Festival, cosmeceuticals conferences and In-Store Marketing Institute and POPAI events.

Darren Marshall leads global customer and shopper marketing for The Coca-Cola Co. internationally.

A Canadian national, Marshall joined the company in 1998 and has held senior leadership roles in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. Prior to his current role, he was the chief marketing officer of the 35 markets that make up the Asia Pacific region.

Marshall brings a strong strategic focus to the business, and the fundamental belief that great results come from great people who blend human and business understanding with creativity. His teams have focused on holistic marketing innovation, building not only brands, but also providing breakthrough product, package and channel development.

He holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and was previously trained as a pianist and composer. He has held marketing roles with the Procter & Gamble Co. and YUM Brands in both Canada and the United States.

Autumn Dawn McDonald, director, consumer insight and strategy, is responsible for leading Kraft Foods’ “In Market Testing for Growth” organization, which provides competitive advantage by testing products, strategies and programs in market before full-scale expansion.

Born in Corpus Christi, TX, McDonald joined Kraft two years ago. During that time, she has overseen in-market testing that has touched each of Kraft’s business units and more than 15 retailers. McDonald also spent a period of time leading research for the company’s “Immediate Consumption” team as well.

Prior to joining Kraft, McDonald spent two years at Colgate-Palmolive, leading oral care shopper marketing. Her time at Colgate Palmolive was preceded by nearly a decade with Procter & Gamble, where she led research teams in P&G’s snacks and beverages division, multi-cultural business development organization, shopper understanding organization and the national customers organization.

Tim Miller leads the shopper insights and analytics team for ConAgra Foods. In this role, Miller is responsible for insight development that leads to the creation of retailer-specific programs that resonate with shoppers to drive category and brand growth. He also manages the marketing science behind ConAgra’s innovative and leading-edge toolbox and methodologies. Miller's team is part of the integrated customer marketing team at ConAgra Foods, a collaborative group of thought-leading professionals in category leadership, in-store marketing and shopper marketing who deliver “concept to cart” execution for differentiated, customized shopper solutions to drive consumer loyalty.

Before joining ConAgra Foods, Miller led the category development and marketplace research efforts at Kimberly-Clark Corporation. He started his career at IRI where he worked in the advance analytics department supporting multiple customers.

Elissa Moses is chief analytics officer for EmSense Corp., the leading quantitative provider of neurosensory insights focused on understanding positive/negative emotion and cognitive engagement for advertising, packaging, concept development, product usage and shopper experience research. She is responsible for creating breakthrough market research applications, applying dry wireless EEG EmBand™ technology to a wide array of survey and in-context research settings such as package testing in-store and natural habitat product usage. Moses is also responsible for broadening the global accessibility of neurometrics in working to develop partnerships with other leading market research firms such as PRS, Millward Brown, IRI, TNS and GfK.

Prior to joining EmSense, Moses held key corporate market research and strategic planning positions including SVP, global consumer intelligence and strategy at Royal Philips; SVP, head of strategic planning at D'Arcy Masius Benton and Bowles; EVP, managing partner at Grey Worldwide; and founder and managing director of The BrainWaves Group consultancy. Elissa is also author of the book, The $100 Billion Allowance: Accessing the Global Teen Market, based upon her extensive global study of teenage attitudes, values and shopping behavior spanning 45 countries. Moses is a frequent speaker at marketing conferences and also is a review editor for the Journal of Advertising Research. She has a BA in human behavior from the University of Chicago and studied marketing at the Northwestern Graduate School of Management.

Jim Murphy is regional vice president, sales, at Yahoo! Inc. He currently runs the Midwest sales team in Chicago with key customer focus on CPG and retail. An 11-year veteran of Yahoo and over 15 years of digital marketing expertise, Murphy is extremely passionate about creating new ways to connect brands with consumers. Areas of current focus are new ways to segment audiences, the power of intersecting content with social tools to drive CPG and retail sales and validating offline sales impact.

Michael R. Murphy, Ph.D. has been working in virtual research for the last five years, currently with Fifth Dimension and with Decision Insight prior to that. This more recent experience was built on a strong research foundation on both sides of the supplier-client relationship. Murphy's research skills are based on his Ph.D. work in psychology and more than fifteen years in market research and shopper insights.

Tyler Murray is a leader in the digital shopper marketing space, pioneering new digital strategies to improve shoppers' lives. He has worked with innovative digital thought leaders and companies such as Frito-Lay, P&G, LG and many others. His range of experience provides a unique perspective on activation strategy, creative and execution to deliver high-ROI campaigns. Before joining Saatchi & Saatchi X, Murray was the director of emerging media at the L.A.-based Visionaire Group, an award-winning digital agency working with Land Rover, Porsche and all major film studios.

Joining Wallace Church in 2006, Russ Napolitano is vice president, strategic development, overseeing strategy, marketing and business development for the firm. Napolitano’s career has been dedicated to strategic branding. He previously worked for Ted Bates Worldwide and Gerstman+Meyers (now Interbrand). Prior to joining Wallace Church, Napolitano was executive vice president with The Bailey Group Inc. for 14 years, a strategic branding and design firm in Philadelphia.

Napolitano has experience across many product categories and has worked closely with such clients as The Dial Corp., GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Maxell Corp. of America, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Novartis, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Welch’s and Wyeth.

He obtained his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University and his MBA in marketing and advertising from Baruch College in New York. He is a member of The American Institute of Graphic Arts, The America Marketing Association, The Art Director’s Club, The Institute of Packaging Professionals and The Private Label Manufacturer’s Association.

Napolitano is the author of articles published in Brand Packaging, Shelf Impact and Marketing News, the publication of the American Marketing Association, and has recently written an article “Packaging Can Be Your Best Investment” for the recently published Shopper Marketing book. He as been a featured speaker at corporate branding summits, Branding & Marketing Excellence, HBA Global Expo, Institute of Food Technology (IFT), Interphex, In-Store Marketing Institute (a Distinguished Faculty Member), International Quality & Productivity (IQPC), Package Design, Packaging Strategies, Marketing Expo and the Beverage Industry Conference. He has also served as a judge for the Clear Choice Awards sponsored by the Glass Packaging Institute.

As CEO, G2 US, John Paulson is responsible for the agency’s ten U.S. offices, which offer services in relationship marketing, interactive, shopper and promotional marketing, design and data consulting, and the development of G2’s multidisciplinary offers in the North American market.

Paulson’s multi-channel communications expertise is the product of an extensive career spanning a range of disciplines, including media planning, account management, integrated marketing and digital communications.

With 15-years of industry experience, he has held management positions at DDB Worldwide, M&C Saatchi, Grey Interactive, J. Walter Thompson, Grey Advertising and MVBMS. Most recently, he served as president of G2 Interactive.

Crystal L. Pinkston holds the position of consumer insights manager in the Kraft Foods’ “In Market Testing for Growth” organization. The group is a center of excellence within the Kraft consumer insights and strategy function, responsible for best practices related to testing in order to drive competitive advantage by testing products, strategies and programs in market before full-scale expansion.

Born in Fort Worth, TX, Pinkston joined Kraft in mid 2008. During that time she has worked in the areas of in-market testing, virtual testing and primary research across several of Kraft’s business units and retailers.

Prior to joining Kraft, Pinkston spent three years at the Clorox Co., most recently leading the marketing intelligence group for the Glad business unit. While at Clorox, she also held assignments in new product development for Glad. Her time at Clorox was preceded by six years at Procter & Gamble, where she spent several years in the customer business development organization and consumer and market development organization.

Dr. A.K. Pradeep founded NeuroFocus in 2006. Now the company ranks as the world leader in the neuromarketing research field, with 25-plus patents for its advanced technologies and a blue-chip client list representing top companies in many Fortune 100 categories. Before founding NeuroFocus, Dr. Pradeep was the founder and managing partner of Meridian Consulting LLC, a privately held California company specializing in governance consulting and customizing and applying GE best practices to multiple industry sectors. He is also the founder of BoardVantage, a company founded in 2000 that provides Web-based corporate governance platforms for corporate boards of directors. Dr. Pradeep holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Tim Ressmeyer is a senior member of IRI’s global innovation and shopper marketing team. In his current role, he drives corporate thought leadership focused on consumer and shopper insights for IRI in North America. He is a strategic thinker and is skilled in translating consumer and shopper trends into actionable strategies for manufacturers and retailers. Dr. Ressmeyer has a compelling track record of survey research, consumer panel advanced analytics and change management in large and mid-sized market research and related companies.

Since 1993, Patrick Rodmell has been principal business strategist for Watt International and has supervised the development of brands for clients around the world. He brings an intuitive mix of creative insight and business acumen in support of international clientele. Rodmell has been published in numerous trade, business and academic publications, and has presented his ideas on branding, marketing and design to high-profile organizations like the National Retail Federation, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the Advertising Retail Foundation, the Association for Corporate Growth, and the In-Store Marketing Institute.

Catherine Roe leads Google’s digital initiatives for top midwest CPG companies and their agency partners. She brings over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing, specializing in digital media, CPG sales, shopper marketing and retail. Prior to joining Google in 2007, she was director of sales, team Target for Pepperidge Farm, managing the number two retail team for Campbell’s Pepperidge Farm. Prior to that, Roe ran the central region sales team, as director of sales, covering the major grocery retailers across 13 states. She began her career with Supervalu, leading buying, merchandising, and ultimately category management for grocery center of store. Roe also led the category management evolution for the c-store group of BPAmoco.

Masha Sajdeh assumed the chief shopper strategist role at Arc Worldwide in 2009.

She has spent her entire career doing one thing, and one thing only – diagnosing and shaping people’s behavior. Her expertise lies in locating the more important consumers, connecting with them as people, and using brands to transform the way they think, feel and ultimately behave.

Sajdeh's views are informed by the years she has spent working in brand consulting, direct/database, digital, promotion and now retail. This fusion of experiences has created a cross-channel expertise that is completely relevant in today’s world of multichannel shoppers.

She brings the extensive experience of providing strategic solutions for such retailers as Walmart, Starbucks, Walgreens and Kohl’s. Sajdeh has also delivered strategic and insight-led programs to the consumer packaged goods companies and customer marketing teams of Proctor & Gamble, MillerCoors, Coca-Cola, Comcast and Whirlpool.

Suzy Sharpe leads clients in the discovery of actionable insights for targeted audiences. Her company, Sharpe Insights, conducts comprehensive qualitative and quantitive shopper marketing research – from online eye-tracking and usability to in-store eye tracking retail safari studies. She helps deliver comprehensive recommendations throughout the entire shopper journey that drive the conversion of shoppers to loyal buyers.

Laura Smith, lead North American shopper marketing insight manager for Hewlett-Packard, holds Master’s degrees in both experimental psychology and consumer/industrial research. She has worked for several top Fortune 500 companies in insights, where she was deeply involved in all aspects of the product design and innovation process. Her primary focus is driving strategy through insights. Smith is passionate about working with product and marketing teams to inform strategy based on the voice of the shopper and creating the ultimate shopping experiences online and in-store.

Dave Sommer was the founder and president of Retail Media Link (RML), a retail marketing company. In February 2006, Mediaedge:cia acquired RML and retained Sommer to develop a CPG brand marketing practice.

Prior to founding RML, Sommer was a vice president at Y&R Advertising and led the integrated marketing activity for CPG clients. For the past 15-plus years, Sommer has partnered with CPGs and retailers to develop integrated marketing plans that build brands, generate consumer excitement, activate shoppers, enhance retailer/supplier relationships and drive sales growth.

Sommer's background in CPG/retail marketing started at a very early age because he grew up working in his family's food brokerage business in upstate New York. At 16 years old, Sommer was calling on retailers, packing out product, building in-store displays and developing innovative in-store merchandising programs.

Since those early days, Sommer has served in leadership positions at Colgate-Palmolive, Advantage Sales and Marketing, Disney’s Internet Division, FreeRide.com and The Marketing Group. His strong experience in brand marketing, advertising, promotions, customer marketing, category management and digital media allow him to understand clients' business challenges and provide integrated solutions.

Dr. Brian Stankiewicz received his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology with an emphasis in vision science from UCLA and was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin before joining 3M's Corporate Research Labs in 2007. Dr. Stankiewicz leads the development of the algorithmic models simulating aspects of the human vision system that quickly and accurately predict what people are likely to initially notice within a scene.

Cathy Stauffer recently joined PRN to lead development of new markets and innovative products. The product development, consumer experience and marketing teams report to her. Stauffer brings more than 25 years of consumer technology, retailing and marketing experience to PRN. Previously, Stauffer was president of Good Guys, a $1 billion consumer electronics retailer before it was sold to CompUSA in 2003. She then became CMO at Gateway Computers. Immediately prior to joining PRN, Stauffer led a successful consulting practice advising C-level executives on strategic brand positioning, retail and consumer marketing best practices and implementations, and consulting to financial sectors on key retail and consumer technology trends.

Tiernan Summins has been in the CPG Industry for over 20 years, having worked on both the manufacturer and supplier sides of the business. She has been in the category management and shopper insights functions for the majority of her career. Currently, senior director of shopper insights, Summins has spent the last five years with The Kellogg Company, first managing their snacks market insights team and then broadening her role to manage shopper insights for all Kellogg divisions.

Mary Tarczynski joined MARS in 2007, bringing more than 15 years of sales and marketing leadership experience at Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Clorox and Kern's Beverages. She earned a bachelor of science degree in public relations from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in marketing research from the University of Georgia. Tarczynski is a recipient of the Kraft “Best of the Best” and Meals Division Pinnacle, Clorox Laundry Leadership and “Top 25 Bay Area Women Redefining Success” awards.

Craig Tokusato, featured in the In-Store Marketing Institute’s 2009 Who’s Who in Shopper Marketing, joined Diamond Foods in 2009 following three years at Williams Sonoma and 12 years in brand shopper marketing and general management at the Clorox Co. Tokusato has received numerous awards including the Clorox Worldwide Marketing Leadership Award, Laundry and Specialty Division Leadership Awards and a Silver Effie. Tokusato holds a bachelor of arts in marketing from Santa Clara University and an MBA from University of Chicago.

With three decades of retail marketing and advertising experience, Jeff Weidauer offers a unique perspective on the industry as an expert in shopper marketing and technological retail solutions. As director of corporate advertising for Albertsons, Weidauer managed every aspect of the company’s advertising efforts through all media channels. As director of brand advertising with Supervalu, Weidauer oversaw brand development, strategic planning, ethnic marketing and the ad budget. Weidauer joined Vestcom in 2008.

John Wilkins leads strategy and planning at Miller Zell. He has extensive experience in developing brand and retail go-to-market plans from strategic and operational viewpoints. He has worked with such companies as Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike, Weight Watchers, Cirque du Soleil and Newell Rubbermaid.

Wilkins began his career in the fashion industry in New York and has worked in disciplines including merchandising, product design, customer testing and market research. At FedEx, he focused on the retail supply chain.

Caroline Winnett received her MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. She went on to found Albany Associates, providing marketing services to corporate clients. Subsequently she was a publisher at Wilderness Press and chief marketing officer for BoardVantage. Winnett sits on the boards of three California corporations and is the co-author of “Corporate Governance: Five Easy Pieces.”

Scott Young is president of Perception Research Services, a company that conducts over 600 consumer research studies annually to help companies develop, assess and enhance their packaging and point-of-sale marketing efforts. Young leads PRS’ efforts in implementing qualitative, quantitative, store-based and web-based research programs on behalf of Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods and Diageo, among many other clients. He also regularly authors articles regarding packaging and point-of-sale research, which have appeared in the Design Management Journal, Brand Packaging and Package Design.