AI Tools series – 6 June 2024

Dharmendra is the Founder and CEO of Actnable AI, a research technology company that brings AI and Gen-AI-powered innovative solutions to the market research Industry. He is the former Operations Director for Kantar, overseeing operations in West, East, and Central Africa. He has over two decades of experience in market research, including in India and Africa. He served on the ESOMAR Council board (2023-24) and was the coordinator of ESOMAR’s AI Taskforce. He is also the Insights250 2024 Winner.

He specialises in operational excellence, technology-enabled innovations, data-driven business intelligence, and analytics and is passionate about transforming organisations through AI/Gen-AI. He regularly speaks on ‘AI in Market Research’ at international conferences.  A mentor and people person who believes in bringing out the best in others.

Vesna Hajnsek is a seasoned insights, analytics and strategic marketing professional with a relentless passion for liberating potential of businesses and creating propositions that delight consumers. She has a track record of leveraging insights to build successful brands across fashion, beauty and FMCG with three things in common:  bringing together integrative, strategic and analytical thinking with creativity, fostering successful partnerships across functions, teams, divisions and countries and continuous improvement of approaches and processes for better efficiency.

Vesna brings together 20 years of experience in marketing, PR, event management, sales and insights across start-ups SMEs and multinationals on a local and global level. She uses her wealth of commercial experience to build bridges across teams and creates optimal ways for different stakeholders to use deep understanding of and connection with consumers for business success.

At Swarovski, Vesna is leading brand optimization insights from conceptualization to marketing effectiveness and efficiency. Her drive for proactively finding opportunities for putting consumer at the centre of the company’s efforts and continuous improvement of processes has led to significant ROI improvements both on brand equity and marketing investments.

Vesna Hajnsek’s prior insights experience across FMCG and beauty at P&G, Coty and Wella has honed her skills in multiple areas of business and brand management: from identifying untapped market opportunities and evolving business models to all aspects of global brand building and optimizing local appeal of global propositions. She has also shown her ability to integrate people and perspectives around common goals and strategies across geographies, cultures and priorities.

Throughout her career, Vesna has been driven by two beliefs: that acting on consumers’ needs and wants creates brand desirability and that continuous learning and improvement fosters relevance and optimal performance. She is a member of ESOMAR, a speaker, panelist and facilitator who gets energized by learning new things and using that knowledge to improve the business.

An experienced researcher of 15+ years, with a history working in the Technology, Retail, and Health Care industries.  I currently work on the Research + Insights team at Microsoft, where my focus is on portfolio optimization, compete, and marketing strategy across the Windows organization. 

With nearly two decades of experience in the insights industry, Elise Misse has worked with some of the world's leading FMCG brands, both as a consultant and in-house. She is currently the Global Strategic Insights Director at Ricola, where she is responsible for generating and delivering insights that inform and influence the company's global strategy, communications and innovation. Elise is also pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration, with a focus on leadership and organisational behaviour. Elise has a proven track record of establishing and implementing insight and media measurement programs from scratch, demonstrating her innovative and proactive approach to her work. She has won multiple awards for her excellence and impact, including a double-gold AMEC award. Elise is passionate about translating data into insights, communicating through storytelling, and is ferociously curious. AI's progress brings both leaps forward and necessary leaps of adaptation for insight professionals, reminding us that while jobs might change, our ability to learn and evolve is the true constant. If you’d like to know more, get in touch.

Always finding solutions and getting things done.

Passionate about transforming strategy into reality. Global experience in multiple industries, including beauty, luxury, and healthcare; and across multiple business areas, including Corporate Strategy, Consumer Foresight & Insights, Digital & Technology, Marketing, Data & Analytics, and People. I am most energized by fast-paced, cross-enterprise, agile environments that require visionary strategies and solutions that differ from today's status quo.

Marketing and strategy leader Kendra Speed excels in steering executive teams toward disruptive innovation. Kendra's collaborations with BET and P&G resulted in groundbreaking insights that fueled the Black Men Love campaign. She played a pivotal role in the foundational understanding that undergirds the national CROWN Act. She has ignited over $2 billion in product and marketing pipelines for brands like Dropbox, Toyota, Olay, and JM Smucker. Currently global director of consumer insights at LinkedIn, she oversees a global team focused on consumer understanding for LinkedIn Flagship and Premium, Brand, Equity, Trust and Belonging.

Suraj is the CTO and an AI Researcher at Socialtrait, bringing nearly 15 years of combined experience in software engineering and AI consulting. He pioneers the development of advanced market research tools that leverage generative AI and reinforcement learning. At Socialtrait, Suraj leads the creation of virtual AI communities that accurately represent target audiences, enabling businesses to gain rapid, cost-effective insights and iterate over products and concepts efficiently. His extensive background and leadership are instrumental in revolutionizing how businesses engage with their markets.

Steve Phillips is the co-founder and CEO of Zappi, where he leads the company’s product and strategic vision. A serial entrepreneur, Steve founded Zappi in 2012 to digitize market research and empower brands with insights that inspire and validate their ideas.

Steve has lived in and worked across 4 continents to demystify consumer insights and enable brands with accessible data to inform their next move. He has been recognized by the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR), the UK Market Research Society (MRS) and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) for his leadership and innovation in the market research industry. He regularly speaks on the evolving role of consumer insights at major industry events.

Prior to founding Zappi, Steve founded Tonic Insight, Tuned In Research, and Spring Research, where he led diverse research teams trying to uncover new insights into consumer behavior across the world. He is also a founder member of the Supper Club, a London-based membership organization for entrepreneurs.

Coen Olde Olthof is the founder of junbi.ai, he brings over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, specializing in advertising, neuromarketing computer vision and neural networks (AI). A techie turned CMO, he is passionate about leveraging data for science-based brand decisions. He is also the chairman of the I-Com Behavior Council and an aspiring (but very mediocre) barista.

As Executive Vice President of Marketing, Trip is focused on driving awareness and growth for Canvs AI. Trip is a SaaS marketing veteran with over 20 years of experience. After starting his career in corporate communications (PR/AR), during which he navigated tech category creation, an IPO and an acquisition, Trip joined Aberdeen Group as research analyst covering marketing effectiveness and strategy. At Aberdeen, Trip developed survey-based data sets, correlating actions with performance to identify “best-in-class” practices. He subsequently led a “center of excellence” team within Oracle focused on accelerating modern marketing practices across the North American marketing teams and was head of marketing communications at Dyn, which was acquired by Oracle in 2016. Prior to joining Canvs, Trip led marketing for Blackbaud’s K-12 and Higher Education verticals.