Speakers

Kevin Boehm

Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Chicago's Boka Restaurant Group, Chairman of BIÂN

After opening 33 restaurants over the last 28 years, James Beard winning restaurateur Kevin Boehm has become one of the nation’s foremost visionaries in the field of hospitality. Kevin, along with his partner Rob Katz, has built a restaurant group based on great chefs, inspired design, and enlightened hospitality.

Boehm and Katz were named as Restaurateurs of the Year by TimeOut Chicago in 2010, the Chicago Tribune in 2011, and the Illinois Restaurant Association in 2017, and were Eater National’s Empire Builders of the Year in 2012. They have been finalists for the James Beard Best Restaurateur in America award from 2016 to 2019, and in 2017, New City Chicago ranked them #1 in its annual list of the 50 most powerful influencers on the Chicago dining scene. In 2019, they won Outstanding Restaurateur in America at the James Beard Awards.

In addition to Boka Group, Boehm co-founded BIÂN, a private wellness club, in 2020.

Boehm is a contributing writer for Fast Company, and has had pieces published in Esquire Magazine, Plate, the Chicago Sun-Times, and McSweeney’s. Kevin has been a featured or keynote speaker for the National Restaurant Show, MUFSO, Miami Food & Wine, New York City Wine & Food Festival, the Kellogg School of Management, the University of Illinois, Hearst, and The Welcome Conference at Lincoln Center. He has given the commencement address at both the Culinary Institute of America and Kendall College. He currently sits on the board of the Illinois Restaurant Association, Open Table, and 826 CHI, and is a founding member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition.

Brian Ward

Strategic Insights Manager, McDonald’s

Brian Ward is a Strategic Insights Manager at McDonald’s, working in the Global Foresight & Exploration Center of Excellence. Prior to joining McDonald’s, Brian spent over 11 years at Ipsos where he was a Research Director at Ipsos Connect. Brian enjoys reading about Evolution and Contextual Behavior Science when he is not serving his community as a T-Ball coach. Brian has an MBA from DePaul University and a BS in Marketing from Northern Illinois University.

Oscar Yuan

President, Ipsos Strategy3

Oscar Yuan is the CEO and President of Ipsos Strategy3, Ipsos’ marketing, brand and innovation consultancy. In addition to leading the global organization with a presence in 19 markets and sitting on the leadership board of Ipsos North America, he is also an active Partner in the firm where he serves select clients as an experienced executive advisor. In his role as Partner, he specializes in the food/beverage and retail/hospitality industries, and has worked closely with organizations such as Target, Coca Cola, Nestle, Nordstrom, Samsung, and McDonald's.

Sarah Tomasaitis

Associate Director Global Portfolio Insights, Mars Wrigley

Sarah is a passionate insights leader, energized by leveraging data and rich human insights to build strategies that drive growth and inspire forward thinking. Sarah’s 18 year insights career has spanned both client and supplier side, across consumer insights, shopper insights and market intelligence and analytics. As a Global Portfolio Insights Lead, she inspires thinking that shapes Gum & Mints strategy.

Kyle Goings

Director of merchant growth and new verticals, Grubhub

Kyle is the director of merchant growth and new verticals for Grubhub. In this role, he’s responsible for driving the strategy and roadmap for launching and growing Grubhub’s non-restaurant lines of business. Prior to Grubhub, Kyle oversaw Expedia’s eCommerce strategy. Kyle started his career at Walgreens in its supply chain optimization vertical. Kyle received a bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University.

Sarah Lehman

Vice President, Ipsos Channel Performance US

As a Vice President of Ipsos Channel Performance, Sarah Lehman specializes in measuring and managing the delivery of brand promises across all customer touchpoints to drive profitable growth for her clients. She has 15+ years of industry experience, working primarily with grocery, retail petroleum and specialty retail clients.

Jesse Itzkowitz, PhD

Chief Behavioral Scientist, Ipsos Behavioral Science Center

As Chief Scientist of Ipsos’ Behavioral Science Center, Jesse Itzkowitz uses his background in marketing and psychology to identify and impact non-conscious factors that influence consumer decisions. With 20 years of experience and doctoral degrees in marketing and cognitive psychology, Jesse has helped numerous Fortune 100 companies (from retail to technology to healthcare) use behavioral science to drive insights and marketing strategy.

Priyanka Naik

Priyanka Naik is a self-taught Indian vegan and sustainable chef, Food Network champion, Quibi Dishmantled Winner, TV Personality, Author of THE MODERN TIFFIN and columnist of "Ecokitchen" for The Washington Post! An avid traveler who’s been to nearly forty countries, her globally inspired original recipes, with a focus on sustainability, have been featured on her blog Chef Priyanka and on TODAY Table - an NBC Peacock TV Show she co-hosts, among many other editorial and TV features. Priyanka has been featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Forbes, GLAMOUR, The TODAY Show, CNN, GQ, Bon Appetit and more. She has partnered with hundreds of brands globally, including JUST Egg, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Spotify for brand campaigns. Priyanka is a first-generation Indian-American raised on Staten Island, New York, and weaves in Indian elements throughout all of her original vegan cooking.

Megan Fedie

Senior Manager Consumer Insights

Megan is a Senior Manager of Consumer Insights at Beam Suntory, the world's third largest leading premium Spirits company. In her current role, she is challenged with keeping up with and getting ahead of consumer behavior in the dynamic, fast-growing US Ready to Drink business. She has 10+ years Insights experience that spans across the supplier side and client side at Nielsen and KraftHeinz. Megan graduated from the University of Wisconsin and is a proud badger sports fan.

Joseph DeVeny

Executive Vice President & Head, Ipsos Innovation US

Joseph DeVeny is a consumer insights professional with 15+ years of international experience servicing major clients across sectors. In his role as the head of Ipsos’ US Innovation practice, Joseph leverages his comprehensive understanding of the methodologies and learnings required for true innovation success to craft business-oriented stories born out of forward-thinking, custom research services.

Laurel Ashbrook

EVP and Senior Client Officer for Ipsos

Laurel Ashbrook is an EVP and Senior Client Officer for Ipsos in the United States. Throughout her 30+ year career, Laurel has designed and consulted on numerous strategic foundational and innovation research engagements in both a domestic and global capacity. In the recent past, she has worked closely with Kraft Heinz, Nestle, McDonald's, Sonic, and Target. In her current role, she will lead Ipsos’ US relationship with Campbell’s, Kellogg’s, and Tyson.

Erica Jones

Senior Manager, Cultural & Inclusive Marketing at Kellogg Company

Erica Jones, Senior Manager of Cultural & Inclusive Marketing at Kellogg Company, has 10+ years of marketing experience that spans across the non-profit and corporate sectors. Her work focuses on embedding Equity, Diversity & Inclusion into the Kellogg North America marketing organization, with a focus on developing and refining brand strategy, communications, and innovation with diverse cohorts. During her marketing career, she has led campaigns, partnerships, and developed innovation strategies on brands such as Eggo, MorningStar Farms, Special K, and Pop-Tarts.

Manuel Garcia-Garcia, PhD

Global Lead, Ipsos Neuroscience

Dr. Manuel Garcia-Garcia is Global Lead of Neuroscience at Ipsos. He brings strong academic credentials combined with outstanding expertise in insights and cognitive sciences, and has developed thought leadership to shake the industry on various fronts, including mobile ad effectiveness, cross-platform advertising, multicultural marketing and consumers’ emotional response and decision-making. Manuel is also a co-leader of Ipsos’ Anti-Racism Employee Resource Group.

Lisa Zielinski

Vice President, Ipsos Creative Excellence

Lisa Zielinski is a Vice President in Ipsos’ Creative Excellence service line. She has consulted on numerous award-winning campaigns and works day-to-day with several of the top advertisers in the food and beverage industry. Lisa has also partnered with businesses to establish a common language around DE&I goals, elevate performance indicators like REM (Ipsos’ Racial Equality Measure) to bring focus to the portrayal of marginalized communities in advertising, and drive measurable change.

Matt Carmichael

SVP, Head, Ipsos Trends and Foresight Lab

Matt Carmichael is a senior vice president at Ipsos, the head of the Ipsos Future and Foresight Lab and the editor of the award-winning foresight magazine, What the Future. He is a certified foresight professional. He oversees the team responsible for the production of Ipsos thought leadership in North America including the Ipsos Coronavirus Consumer Tracker. Previously he was an editor at Crain’s Chicago Business and AdAge. His reporting at AdAge lead to his first book, Buyographics, which combined ethnography and big data to examine consumer and demographic trends.

Claire Hanlon

President and CCO, Ipsos Client Organization

As President and Chief Client Officer at Ipsos, Claire Hanlon is an accomplished senior marketing research professional with a deep understanding of client corporate goals and a proven ability to identify and implement opportunities to drive client business outcomes. She has extensive experience interpreting consumer data and using innovative research methods to deliver strategic insights to clients across many industries, including the food, beverage, retail and CPG markets.