Team
Dedicated to serving you, our team is made up of individuals from all over the world brought together by their passion to answer the call of the ESOMAR community.
Based in Amsterdam, the team is led by a senior management team who report to the ESOMAR Council and the ESOMAR General Assembly of members like you.
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Senior Management Team
The Senior Management Team is responsible for the overall day-to-day management of ESOMAR's core services to you. They ensure the organisation remains focussed on your needs and interests.

Pravin Shekar
ESOMAR Staff, CEO (ad int.) at ESOMARPravin Shekar is an Outlier Marketer and a raconteur. He is the CEO of Krea eKnowledge, a leading healthcare panel research company and an active investor in other firms. Pravin is an ESOMAR India representative and served at the Council earlier. Pravin is the Immediate Past President of the Market Research Society of India.
When the world moves one way, you need to move another way: that’s his philosophy. This going-against-the-grain attitude helps him find opportunity in every crisis. A recipient of the American Marketing Association’s “Emerging Leader” award, Pravin has written 8 books and is set to bring out 5 more, on various aspects of Marketing and Insights
Marie-Agnes Mourot de Lathyle
ESOMAR Staff, Chief Finance and Operations Officer at ESOMARMarie-Agnès Mourot de Lathyle brings a wealth of experience of global organisations through her previous roles in senior financial and operational positions with companies such as Starbucks, Time Warner, Texas Instruments and Impress.
She has worked in many different countries and speaks fluent English and French, and has a good working knowledge of Dutch, German and Italian.
Angela Canin
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Manager for New Business Development at ESOMARAngela has worked at ESOMAR since 2005 and has accumulated a great amount of knowledge and respect for the industry in that time.
A graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelors in English, she began her career in the healthcare industry, moving quickly into the retails and Manufacturing environment. She has lived on 3 continents in 4 countries which has afforded a ‘citizen of the world’ perspective to her current position.
Angela can help with all of your business development and marketing needs.
Felix Chandra
ESOMAR Staff, Business Systems Senior Manager at ESOMARFelix joined ESOMAR in 2010, and is currently in charge of R&D and maintenance of business systems and applications, and overall IT infrastructure. He is responsible for coordinating the maintenance of systems that are core parts of your member benefits such as our Resource Library by ANA and the Directory listing of registered companies.
Marcel Dekker
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Finance & HR Relations Manager at ESOMARMarcel joined ESOMAR just before the start of this millenium in November 1999. As his job title already shows, he has multiple caps on at ESOMAR. In his Finance role, Marcel is responsible for looking into the financials as well as the statistics of the current and previous years monitoring the financial health of your community. Marcel analyses these numbers and prepares both a reflection on the past versus current, as well as providing strategic insight into the Management Team and Council at ESOMAR.
In his HR Relations role, his main focus is on the salary administration, secondary employment benefits such as the ESOMAR pension scheme afforded to employees, recruitment of new staff together with the Chief Finance and Operations Officer, and the overall wellbeing of ESOMAR employees to ensure they can continue supporting you.
Marcel is married to a lovely Peruvian lady for more than 20 years, who has enriched his life and values in so many ways. He is a proud father of two boys that have become young adults already.
Nordin Ahyoud
ESOMAR Staff, Head of Membership and Finance at ESOMARNordin has been working at ESOMAR since 2013, taking various positions in the area of finance and business processes. Since the beginning of 2020, he is has been heading the Finance and Member Services departments and brings a wealth of experience implementing business processes and routines.
Nordin is a certified Data Protection Officer certified by the Universiteit Maastricht's European Centre for Cybersecurity and Data Protection.
Rhiannon Bryant
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Manager Global Events at ESOMARSenior Manager of Global Event at ESOMAR, has more than 20 years' experience within the global events industry and has worked at ESOMAR for 15 years, leading the events team for the last five.
Originally from Wales, Rhiannon has travelled and lived around the world due to her father's career, settling in Amsterdam 20 years ago.
Geraldine Proust
ESOMAR Staff, Head of Public Affairs and Professional Standards at ESOMARGeraldine Proust joined ESOMAR in June 2022 as the Head of Public Affairs and Professional Standards, also joining the senior management team of ESOMAR.
In her role at ESOMAR, Geraldine is responsible for leading global advocacy efforts; managing industry relationships and strategic partnerships; and developing and enforcing global regulatory professional standards for the industry. In this role, she will use her extensive experience in digital policies, data protection and data marketing, as well as her skills in enriching and building professional connections in multiple industry sectors.
Geraldine comes to ESOMAR from an 11-year tenure with The Federation of European Data and Marketing (FEDMA), which represents the interests of the European data and marketing industry. There, she moved quickly to a management position, eventually serving as both Director of Public Affairs and Director of Legal Affairs. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and has the ECBC-B Professional DPO certification from the Maastricht University European Center on Privacy and Cybersecurity. Proust holds a master’s degree of EU law from Panthéon-Sorbonne University and a diploma in legal studies from Oxford University.

Member Relations
Your main interface with the products and services on offer for you. They help you navigate our subscription offers and subscribe you to the most appropriate package. They also ensure that you get the most out of the services throughout the lifespan of your membership.
Nordin Ahyoud
ESOMAR Staff, Head of Membership and Finance at ESOMARNordin has been working at ESOMAR since 2013, taking various positions in the area of finance and business processes. Since the beginning of 2020, he is has been heading the Finance and Member Services departments and brings a wealth of experience implementing business processes and routines.
Nordin is a certified Data Protection Officer certified by the Universiteit Maastricht's European Centre for Cybersecurity and Data Protection.
Bob Birdsell
ESOMAR Staff, Membership Development Director, North America at ESOMARBob is a native of Illinois state, living in Elgin, north-east of Chicago centre. He is married to Flavia, his wife of 20 years, has 3 boys and loves spending his free time playing basketball, softball, and just being outdoors.
Bob previously worked for ISACA, which is an international professional association focused on IT systems audit and governance, and is based in Schaumburg, Illinois. Whilst there, he rose from being their Academic Coordinator, through a range of Membership roles, to the position of Senior Membership Manager.
Caroline Oets
ESOMAR Staff, Office Coordinator at ESOMARCaroline Oets joined ESOMAR in October 2014. Caroline started as an office assistant by performing support of the office facilities and ensuring hospitality to internal as well as external colleagues.
Since the start of the pandemic, Caroline has also been tasked with providing you Customer Service Support as part of the Member Relations team. In this capacity she reaches out to you and members to understand your evolving needs.
Caroline was born in Amsterdam, and is half-Dutch and half-English. In her spare time, she likes to play tennis, dance salsa and go on city trips.
Steliana Ifrim
ESOMAR Staff, Customer Success Team Leader at ESOMARSteliana joined ESOMAR in 2018. As part of the Member Relations team, she is first point of contact of current and potential members. She likes to support you to sign up for membership subscriptions and/or Directory services, onboard you and help you take full advantage of your membership benefits.
Steliana is also responsible for helping ESOMAR National Representatives, ESOMAR members who volunteer to lead our local communities. Steliana helps representatives better engage with their community, to organise local or virtual events and coordinate new programmes or activities to support you in reaching your personal and professional goals.
As a member of the Young ESOMAR Society working group, she also supports YES community members, always looking out for new ways of boost your benefits offered to young professionals.
Kalika Saxena
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Sales Specialist at ESOMARKalika is a part of Membership Team at ESOMAR and is responsible for acquisitions and retention of corporate membership and directory. She provides information to prospective customers, helps you become a member by advising the suitable membership option, also helps ensure you are fully utilising your membership benefits once subscribed. She also collaborates with the Marketing and Communications team to raise awareness of the benefits of using our Directory services for your needs.
Prior to working for ESOMAR, she worked as a Sale Specialist at Laureate Online Education. She was responsible for sales and managing portfolio of online learning services, to support career orientation decisions amongst prospect students and corporates. She holds an MBA in Marketing & Finance from ICFAI University.
With 15 years of sales and marketing experience in diverse sectors like Investment, banking, Real estate and education sectors, she has passion for sales and building business relationships and implementing procedures and service standards for business excellence.
Olga Byckova
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Member Relations Specialist at ESOMAROlga joined ESOMAR in 2008 as a temporary support within the finance department and then later joined the Member Relations team.
Her responsibilities are engaging with the new and current members, increasing the global network of individuals and organisations you can connect with and establishing genuine relations among you and your peers within the ESOMAR community. Olga enjoys connecting you with members all over the world, providing services above and beyond your satisfaction.

Government Affairs and Professional Standards
Government Affairs and Professional Standards coordinate the committees responsible for issuing you ethical and professional guidance, and champion your voice in front of legislators and regulators around the world so that you may continue to operate worldwide.
Geraldine Proust
ESOMAR Staff, Head of Public Affairs and Professional Standards at ESOMARGeraldine Proust joined ESOMAR in June 2022 as the Head of Public Affairs and Professional Standards, also joining the senior management team of ESOMAR.
In her role at ESOMAR, Geraldine is responsible for leading global advocacy efforts; managing industry relationships and strategic partnerships; and developing and enforcing global regulatory professional standards for the industry. In this role, she will use her extensive experience in digital policies, data protection and data marketing, as well as her skills in enriching and building professional connections in multiple industry sectors.
Geraldine comes to ESOMAR from an 11-year tenure with The Federation of European Data and Marketing (FEDMA), which represents the interests of the European data and marketing industry. There, she moved quickly to a management position, eventually serving as both Director of Public Affairs and Director of Legal Affairs. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and has the ECBC-B Professional DPO certification from the Maastricht University European Center on Privacy and Cybersecurity. Proust holds a master’s degree of EU law from Panthéon-Sorbonne University and a diploma in legal studies from Oxford University.
Claudio Gennaro
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Advocacy Programmes Coordinator at ESOMARClaudio joined ESOMAR as Senior Advocacy Programmes Coordinator. In this capacity he is responsible for coordinating our data protection and privacy advocacy efforts as well as coordinating our compliance support services known as ESOMAR Plus.
Claudio is a certified information privacy professional (CIPP/E) with a background in law, international relations and technology. Prior to joining ESOMAR, he also worked as a data privacy analyst at Tesla and compliance officer in several marketing agencies.
Market Intelligence
Giving you access to intelligence about the data, research and insights ecosystem enabling you to plan business strategies and stay ahead of the pack. We also apply market intelligence to improve our core products and services ensuring they remain relevant to your changing needs.
Marie-Agnes Mourot de Lathyle
ESOMAR Staff, Chief Finance and Operations Officer at ESOMARMarie-Agnès Mourot de Lathyle brings a wealth of experience of global organisations through her previous roles in senior financial and operational positions with companies such as Starbucks, Time Warner, Texas Instruments and Impress.
She has worked in many different countries and speaks fluent English and French, and has a good working knowledge of Dutch, German and Italian.
Xabier Palacio
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Industry Analyst at ESOMARXabier is Senior Industry Analyst at ESOMAR and coordinates the production of reports, such as ESOMAR's flagship Global Market Research besides analysing global trends within market research, improving established publications and producing new ones to increase the value for our members and the industry.
Originally from Spain, Xabier has been living in the Netherlands for a number of years, where he studied a Master in International Economics followed by a Master in Marketing at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. He is fluent in Spanish and English, has a decent command of Dutch, and loves music about as much as analysis.
Ajitha Gopalakrishnan
ESOMAR Staff, Junior Data Analyst at ESOMARAjitha is Junior Data Analyst at ESOMAR and supports the production of various reports of ESOMAR's Intelligence Unit. She is also responsible for the creation of new reports, articles and initiatives that are aimed at bringing together all Insights professionals (from Market Researchers to Data Analysts), thus bringing in more value to current and future members of ESOMAR.
Ajitha is from India where she did her Integrated Masters in General Economics and worked in Cognizant Technological Services as an Associate for nearly 2 years. She moved to The Netherlands to do her Masters in Behavioural Economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She is fluent in Tamil, English and is working on becoming fluent in Dutch to understand Dutch memes.
Content and Events
Content and Events manage our calendar of events and activities for the community, they source the most inspiring of speakers, coordinate our programme committees ensuring you are up to date on the latest techniques and applications to keep you ahead of the curve.
Rhiannon Bryant
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Manager Global Events at ESOMARSenior Manager of Global Event at ESOMAR, has more than 20 years' experience within the global events industry and has worked at ESOMAR for 15 years, leading the events team for the last five.
Originally from Wales, Rhiannon has travelled and lived around the world due to her father's career, settling in Amsterdam 20 years ago.
Monique Johnson
ESOMAR Staff, Global Content & Events Specialist at ESOMARMonique is our Global Content & Events Specialist. Among her wide range of responsibilities are ensuring strong content development and delivery, through own research and close liaison with internal teams and external partners and is ensuring that each aspect of any ESOMAR event is delivered on time, within target and with sound financial results.
Originally Monique joined the ESOMAR Members Relations team as Customer Solutions Specialist in 2021 where she also assisted ESOMAR Reps in delivering local events.
Amy Collins
ESOMAR Staff, Events Coordinator at ESOMARAmy is the Events Coordinator at ESOMAR and supports the events team with the development and implementation of both virtual and physical events. She collaborates with a variety of internal and external stakeholders to support an optimal event process and is responsible for ensuring event deliverables received are accurate, on time, and published for our delegates to access.
Amy is an experienced business person who has lived and worked on 3 continents. She believes in exceptional customer service and ensures full support for our event contributors and delegates with enthusiasm and professionalism.

Business Development and Partnerships
Growing your business worldwide takes effort and partners you can depend on, Business Development and Partnerships helps you activate the ESOMAR community to reach your business ambitions across the world and grow your global footprint.
Angela Canin
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Manager for New Business Development at ESOMARAngela has worked at ESOMAR since 2005 and has accumulated a great amount of knowledge and respect for the industry in that time.
A graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelors in English, she began her career in the healthcare industry, moving quickly into the retails and Manufacturing environment. She has lived on 3 continents in 4 countries which has afforded a ‘citizen of the world’ perspective to her current position.
Angela can help with all of your business development and marketing needs.
Marketing and Communications Team
Ensuring you remain aware of all that ESOMAR has to offer you and helping to spread the word about initiatives, campaigns and activities to help you connect, be inspired, grow, and share. We make sure you don't miss a beat when it comes to our bustling community.
Vincent van Bentem
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Multimedia Producer at ESOMARVincent van Bentem joined ESOMAR in 2011 starting as a video editor and producer for the ESOMAR Community. His reputation quickly preceded him producing many of ESOMAR's video legacy over the last decade.
Vincent transferred to the Marketing and Communications team where he is leading conceptual efforts to innovate on formats for your community, the use of live streaming to reach you where you are, beyond simply video editing.
Vincent is always in the mood for creative challenges and loves to create beautiful content that makes a difference in your life.
Iliya Hull
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Marketing and Community Coordinator at ESOMARIliya is the Senior Marketing and Community coordinator here at ESOMAR. An avid traveller, he enjoys exploring the nooks and crannies of different cultures and when all of that becomes too much, can be found getting lost in the mountains or wiping out in a wave.
Born in Russia, raised in England and now working in the Netherlands, Iliya uses his multicultural background to influence, inspire and inform his marketing role to help create a better connected global ESOMAR community.
Lucile Bergar
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Digital Marketing Executive at ESOMARLucile joined ESOMAR in June 2021. She works on the development, implementation and optimisation of marketing campaigns (email, social media, advertising), as well as the coordination of the media partnership programme.
Before Lucile joined ESOMAR, she worked as a Digital Marketing Specialist at BoerenBed B.V for a couple of years in the Netherlands and as a Marketing Assistant in Dublin (Ireland) and Caen (France) where she is originally from.
Brandon Heim
ESOMAR Staff, Graphics and Branding Designer at ESOMARBrandon joined ESOMAR in June 2021 to take on the task of managing our branding, design and any creative materials required by the ESOMAR community. He brings to life our community's outputs.
Brandon received his BA in Graphic Design from Vega School of Brand Leadership in Durban, South Africa and has worked as a freelancer, at a small creative marketing and design agency and as an in-house branding designer for an international provider of sustainability solutions.
Brandon is excited to be on the team and to take the branding of ESOMAR to the next level for your benefit.

Business Systems Research and Development
ESOMAR's innovative services ensure you have access to a bustling knowledge community and can showcase your expertise to a global client base. The Business Systems and Research and Development Team are responsible for maintaining these tech-driven services for you.
Felix Chandra
ESOMAR Staff, Business Systems Senior Manager at ESOMARFelix joined ESOMAR in 2010, and is currently in charge of R&D and maintenance of business systems and applications, and overall IT infrastructure. He is responsible for coordinating the maintenance of systems that are core parts of your member benefits such as our Resource Library by ANA and the Directory listing of registered companies.
Finance
Nordin Ahyoud
ESOMAR Staff, Head of Membership and Finance at ESOMARNordin has been working at ESOMAR since 2013, taking various positions in the area of finance and business processes. Since the beginning of 2020, he is has been heading the Finance and Member Services departments and brings a wealth of experience implementing business processes and routines.
Nordin is a certified Data Protection Officer certified by the Universiteit Maastricht's European Centre for Cybersecurity and Data Protection.
Marcel Dekker
ESOMAR Staff, Senior Finance & HR Relations Manager at ESOMARMarcel joined ESOMAR just before the start of this millenium in November 1999. As his job title already shows, he has multiple caps on at ESOMAR. In his Finance role, Marcel is responsible for looking into the financials as well as the statistics of the current and previous years monitoring the financial health of your community. Marcel analyses these numbers and prepares both a reflection on the past versus current, as well as providing strategic insight into the Management Team and Council at ESOMAR.
In his HR Relations role, his main focus is on the salary administration, secondary employment benefits such as the ESOMAR pension scheme afforded to employees, recruitment of new staff together with the Chief Finance and Operations Officer, and the overall wellbeing of ESOMAR employees to ensure they can continue supporting you.
Marcel is married to a lovely Peruvian lady for more than 20 years, who has enriched his life and values in so many ways. He is a proud father of two boys that have become young adults already.
Mieke Hendrikx
ESOMAR Staff, Accounts Payable and Accountant at ESOMAREdwin Dekker
ESOMAR Staff, Accounts Receivable Accountant at ESOMAR