WIRe Board Emeritus

Alisa Hamilton is the President of Harvest Insights, a boutique market research firm based in Atlanta.  She specializes in focus group and online community moderating as well as in-depth interviewing, quantitative analysis and executive reporting.  She is the host of the Atlanta chapter of Women in Research (WIRE), and in her free time is a foster mom to rescue puppies for Angels Among Us Pet Rescue.

Anthony (Tony) Michelini is Director and Global Head of Brand Insights & Strategy and Head of Brand Advertising for the Global Branding and Sponsorship Team at Citi.

Tony has more than 20 years of experience in brand strategy and planning, market research and intelligence, integrated marketing communications and new product development. He has helped build and revitalize leading global brands across IT, CPG and services.

Prior to Citi, Tony worked for IBM as Director of Corporate Brand Strategy and WW Market Intelligence. In this role, he led research and strategic planning which drove IBM’s global Brand strategy and Integrated Marketing Communications.

Before IBM, Tony worked for Warner Lambert/Pfizer in consumer insights and innovation and held senior strategy and brand planning positions at Young & Rubicam and Grey Advertising.

Ashley is the Global Associate Director of Human Intelligence for Mars Wrigley, responsible for translating business needs into human challenges, and driving meaningful and actionable insights to fuel the strategic direction and vision for the growth of iconic brands, such as M&M’S, Skittles and Snickers. As a seasoned professional with 15 years of experience in human insight and brand strategy, Ashley is known for her ability to think strategically and execute flawless. Prior to her current role, she most recently served as Senior Vice President of Media and Content at Citi, where she led the media and custom content program for Citi social impact campaigns globally.

BV’s current role is in the new C4G organisation of Unilever as VP CMI for Country & Customer Development for Americas & Europe; he’s also responsible for three centres of excellence in Shopping & Ecom Insight, Market insight and Advanced Analytics. BV is a member of the Global CMI leadership team and, in his external professional circles, he was elected as the Vice President of the Global Market Research industry association, ESOMAR for term 2017-18.

BV joined Unilever in June 1993, at Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd, leading market research & media. In Nov 1997, he was promoted as Head of Market research for Hindustan Lever Ltd ( HPC & Foods).

In 2003, he was promoted as Vice President – CMI for Asia and later assigned to lead the BD CMI team for Home & Oral care categories.  A year later, BV was appointed as Global VP CMI for HPC categories, based in London. From 2009-2015, BV was in Singapore as Vice President CMI for Global Markets, business partnering the COO of Unilever.  In 2017, in the C4G new organisation, he was given leadership role to establish a new wing of CMI to support for Country & Customer development teams.

BV is married with two children and his wife also works for Unilever in the area of Professional marketing for Global Oral care. Their son is a computer science engineer in California and their daughter is studying management at Boston University. They have two lovely dogs who are the best creatures to de-stress with every day….you really do not need a spa !!  BV enjoys family holidays at home or overseas!

Babita is Head of Strategic Partnerships at Zappi. At Zappi, Babita is responsible for looking after Zappi’s most important customers, collaborating on product design, digitisation strategies and change management, with a goal to elevate the role of Insights professionals within organisations. Babita has more than 20 years industry experience, anchored mostly in tech, commercial and digital roles. Babita is also a member of the Main UK MRS Board.

Begoña Fafian started her career 25 years ago in marketing, enjoying her time in SC Johnson Wax, Colgate and Coca-Cola Branding Departments and, in 2004, she transferred into Insights and Research in Coca-Cola. She is a strong believer in the added value of information and that insights need to be brought to live and influence business decisions. Since 2015 Begoña, a Spanish native based in London, has been in charge of being the actionable voice of the consumer for the 12 countries that comprise Western Europe.

Christina Jenkins leads LinkedIn's Talent Solutions Marketing Field team focused on Global Strategic Accounts, Regional Verticals and Core Markets: UK, France, DACH & Benelux. Previously, she led Twitter’s North America Business Marketing team and was responsible for overall marketing and go-to-market content strategy, thought leadership and vertical marketing for key business audiences, brands and agencies. Christina has also held marketing, business development and research roles at Millward Brown, Dynamic Logic and The Wall Street Journal working with global marketers and agencies in the US, UK, Europe and Asia. Christina has lived in New York City, London and currently resides in San Francisco with her husband and daughter.

Danielle is a Director at insight-driven strategy consultancy The Forge. Danielle is passionate about elevating our industry; being the Women in Research (WIRe) London lead, WIRe Advisory Board member, MRS Diversity, Inclusion and Equality lead and is often seen presenting, Chairing or writing at and for IIEX, ESOMAR or MRS.

Danielle holds an MA in Geography, and an MSc in Environment, Society and Culture, both from the University of Edinburgh. Danielle also enjoys exploring wine, dystopian fiction and CrossFit, but usually not at the same time.

Dyna is the Managing Director of the Consumer & Retail, Technology and Telecommunications practices at Escalent. She has a propensity for action and is on a quest to advice and inspire insights leaders across the world. Over the course of her career, Dyna has been on the executive team of multiple venture/private equity backed start-ups, including two that she co-founded herself. On this journey, she's experience an IPO, scaled a company, and been through two acquisitions. She also co-founded the WIRexec Leadership Summit to promote collaboration among other female executives in the industry. Above and beyond, Dyna believes in diversity and inclusions as well as providing mentorship to young women. Dyna and her partner live in Northern California. They love to mountain bike, ski, and do yoga when they are not busy sorting drama between their two teenage girls, teen-age boy exchange student, and rambunctious Frenchie named Matcha.

Elaine is leading value creation and commercialization efforts at Charles River Analytics, an AI/ML R&D Defense company. She drives innovation to advance business and national interests. Elaine holds a Ph.D. in Applied Cognitive Science, with a proven track record leading high performance teams and delivering measurable results through business development, product marketing strategy, agile development and customer experience (CX) for both startups and global technology companies. Elaine holds a “customer always” philosophy and is passionate about delivering superior customer experiences across all touch-points along the customer journey where branded impressions are formed. Her past work at think tanks has given her diverse knowledge of R&D organizational design and innovation strategies that drive idea creation from R&D to commercialization. Laser-focused on efforts to accelerate innovations and bring products to market through licensing, corporate partnerships, and joint ventures.

Emily Della Maggiora is Founder and Managing Partner of Pioneer Ventures. Emily is research, software and data partnership strategist with 20+ years’ experience in deal making, client management, and profitable strategic revenue growth within Entertainment, Media, Digital, Technology. Expertise in the strategic assessment of technical business requirements, infrastructure, analytics platforms, data monetization, partnerships and exits.

Eric Salama is the former Chairman and CEO of Kantar, the data investment management division of WPP, the largest marketing services and communications company in the world. Previously, Salama was a Main Board Director of WPP Group, and CEO of www.wpp.com. Eric has also worked in consultancy and political roles, and was a non-executive director of The British Museum and The Horse’s Mouth Foundation. Currently, he serves as the non-executive director of the Department for International Development. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of London.

“We empower people to shape the future of brands”

Erica has been a leader and innovator in the Australian market research industry for over 20 years. After working client-side in FMCG marketing and innovation, she opened her own agency, Direction First, in 1997. Erica’s expertise, training and commercial acumen underpinned the agency’s agility, future-focus and collaborative approach.

Direction First joined forces with InSites Consulting in 2017, representing the first office in the Asia-Pacific region for the Belgian-founded company. Today, the team in Sydney leverage the global experience and innovation-focus of 600+ people across 17 offices (including Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Paris, London and New York).

A regular contributor to industry conferences, Erica is passionate about the continuing evolution of market research services. She is not only passionate about uncovering meaningful insights, but also activating insights; ensuring they live and breathe in an organisation.

JD Deitch, based in Paris, France, is a veteran of the market research industry. He began his career client-side in financial services, then went on to hold senior global positions at The NPD Group, Ipsos, AYTM, Bakamo Social and Cint. He is the Founder & CEO of PASSAGGIO. JD is a frequent speaker and a thought leader in the insights industry as it evolves to tackle the challenges of the digital age. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science with Distinction from The American University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jane Frost, CBE, has served as CEO for the Marketing Research Society (MRS) for the past four years, joining the organization after several years in government where she held leadership roles. Altogether, Frost has more than 20 years of experience delivering customer-based change to a wide range of corporations such as Unilever, BBC, Shell and others. She is Cambridge educated and, in addition to being a trustee and NED of the Lowry, she is vice chair of the Fair Trade Foundation.

Joanna Derry is a global brand and marketing insights strategist who loves working with similarly passionate professionals to grow and develop consumer-centric businesses.  She is passionate about understanding cultural impact within people’s behaviours and motivations and how it plays out in the marketing sphere.  She has led insights projects in more than 50 countries across the globe having lived and worked in a few as well.

Joanna doesn’t believe the consumer comes first, she believes that true consumer insight will unlock the future for your brand, if only you know where to seek it out.  

Joanna currently works for Nestle Oceania as Head of Consumer Insights & Marketplace Intelligence, where she has a leadership role across the organisation to drive consumer and shopper centricity for business growth.  She has also held roles at Procter & Gamble and a European online marketplace.

Joanna is an award-winning industry presenter who loves to champion consumer-centricity in various forums when she is not traveling in her spare time immersing herself in the many cultures of the world.  She believes in never doing the same thing twice and is in a constant internal battle between her analytical brain and her creative brain.  She loves nothing more than a good laugh and believes that although we should take our work seriously, we should never take ourselves too seriously!

Lynnette Cooke is an advisor to high growth companies. She was the CEO of Kantar Health and in 2009, she led its creation by merging five healthcare research and consulting firms into one global organization. Kantar Health continued to transform and strengthen as an industry leader. In 2020, Lynnette led the process that resulted in Kantar Health being acquired by Cerner, now part of Oracle.

Drawing upon her experience building and scaling businesses, Lynnette provides advisory services focused on executing long-term growth strategies and cultivating a corporate culture that empowers and retains top talent.

Always drawn to healthcare, Lynnette is passionate about patient education and the use of technology and real-world evidence to expedite the development and approval of life-changing treatments. She is currently a board member of Within3 and Apollo Intelligence, two companies with a shared vision to use data and insights to improve patients’ lives.

Lynnette believes in paying it forward through mentorships and volunteerism. She is an active mentor and sponsor to women leaders aspiring to advance their career and is an advisor to Women In Research (WIRe, www.womeninresearch.org), an organization that connects and empowers women across the global research community. For over 20 years, Lynnette has been a supporter of Angels Place (www.angelsplace.com), an organization in Michigan providing loving homes and professional support to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Marie-Agnes, former ESOMAR CFO, is French, lives with her partner, who is Dutch, and their son in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Marie-Agnes grew up in different countries and multicultural cities. She speaks French, Dutch and English fluently. After her PhD in Economics & Finance, Marie joined the semi-conductor company, Texas Instruments, which gave her the opportunity to learn and to grow in an international, multicultural and innovative business environment. During the 13 years at Texas Instruments, Marie utilized Market Research to advance her skills in management, finance, CRM and business strategy internationally. Marie joined Time Warner Inc. and Starbucks in the Netherlands. During this time, she was responsible for the innovative projects and was part of an enthusiastic community of pioneers.

Marion Elliott has worked in the market research industry for 8 years. While her experience in the field began in software and technology, she now works at Op4G where she aids in the delivery of the company’s mission to provide practical innovation to the biggest names in the market research arena. An avid follower of the latest trends and innovations, Marion is enthusiastic about market research technology and insights. Since 2018, she has served as the lead on WIRe’s “WIRe in Color” initiative, which seeks to strengthen the connections among—and raise the visibility of—women of color in market research.

Pratiti Raychoudhury started at Facebook in October 2010 as a researcher working on Facebook Platform. Previously, she was the Director of Customer Insights at Yahoo, leading brand and campaign insights globally as well as market and user experience research for Yahoo! Open Strategy. She was the first market researcher at PayPal and eventually led the consumer research team.

Roddy Knowles is VP of Research at Feedback Loop, ensuring its customers realize maximum value from Feedback Loop’s agile research platform for rapid consumer feedback. In addition to academic training in the social sciences, he has an extensive professional background in both qual and quant research methodologies.  Roddy is a frequent speaker, award-winning author, and champion of research innovation and best practices.

Sima Vasa is a multi-faceted business leader in the market research and analytics space. Her broad range of expertise centers on P&L management, operations, business development, marketing, entrepreneurship to investment banking. Currently, she focuses on advising clients on overall business strategy, evaluation of strategic options, and execution of investment banking mandates via Oberon Securities, a middle market investment banking firm.

In addition to her professional endeavors, Sima is an active Women in Research executive member, serves on the Port Washington Public Library board of trustees as an elected official, and previously sat as the Chairman of SampleCon. Frequently taking the stage at national technology and market research conferences, Sima is the host of her own podcast, Data Gurus, which has received national recognition as one of the leading podcasts in the market research and data ecosystem vertical. Sima continues to serve on the board of directors of Paradigm Sample, a company that she co-founded.

She earned her MBA in Finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business, her undergraduate degree from Drexel University, and she’s a former member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO).

A New Zealand native, Vanessa has worked in the field of research and innovation for over 15 years and has lived in Japan for over 20 years. Vanessa does not stand still and is always looking for ways to improve the status quo. She liked to think in the process of ‘What do I know?… So what does that mean? Now what do I do?’ She’s unafraid of exploring newer methodologies in an effort to continually improve and has a strong passion for the end to end process of research, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. Vanessa has worked in all stages of the business spectrum, from Innovation and Product development to insights and short and long-term Strategy. Prior to her current position she was the General Manager for Nike Women’s category. Currently, she is the president and founder of Heart Data Inc, a company focused on putting the Heart and Human-centric element to the research data, algorithms and work that we do. She has a strong passion for Japan, sports, women and innovation! Her current “other” passions are her “boys” (husband and 2 sons), marathon running and raising awareness for breast cancer.