2013 Yale Customer Insights Conference

Annette Diefenthaler is a Senior Design Researcher and Project Lead for award-winning global innovation consultancy IDEO. Her insatiable curiosity about people, their beliefs and behaviors leads her to identify human needs and desires that can inspire design strategies. She enjoys complex challenges that require deep thought. Yet in her mind, strategies are only as good as their applicability, and with a background as a carpenter and product designer, Annette is passionate about translating her findings into actionable opportunities and tangible design solutions. Since joining IDEO in January 2008, Annette has guided teams in designing bank branches, toys, hospital experiences, multiple services for chronic disease patients, and organizational change programs. She has extensive experience in designing solutions in the area of healthcare. Annette has shared her deep process understanding in countless workshops as well as in creating IDEO's publicly available Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators. She enjoys writing and is a contributor to the Design Dictionary (2008, Board of International Research in Design, Editors: M. Erlhoff, T. Marshall). Annette is passionate about bringing human-centered design to systemic challenges in education. She has recently focused on collaboratively working on new solutions will enable learners to thrive in the changing environments of the future. Annette is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Policy at NYU Wagner's Graduate School of Public Service. She is currently developing a Fellowship Program at The New School of Public Engagement. Now based in New York, Annette grew up in Germany and has lived and worked in many cultural contexts, including Russia, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Prior to IDEO, Annette worked with the Industrial Design Management Department of Vodafone Global in Germany and brand development company The One Centre in Sydney, Australia. She was engaged by the advisory board of the International Design Forum Ulm to develop the Promotion Program Designing Politics - The Politics of Design in 2006 and managed Stefan Ytterborn’s installation “unidentified” by rendel&spitz for the Cologne International Furniture Fair. She holds a masters degree from Koln International School of Design.

Stephen Gold is Director WW Marketing, Watson Solutions, IBM Software Group. He has overall responsibility for the brands marketing strategy, marketing communications, social media, public relations, analyst relations, sales enablement, demand generation, and events. As a member of the senior leadership team he is working to help commercialize industry solutions based on IBM’s transformative Watson technology. Prior to joining IBM, Stephen was Vice President of Marketing (CMO) for SPSS, acquired by IBM in 2009. As President of the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, Stephen oversaw all aspects of the publically traded market research organization, which covered twenty-six distinct technology markets. Previous to this Stephen successfully scaled and sold two Silicon Valley based startups; Azerity to ModelN in 2006 in the capacity as CEO and Digital Market to Agile (now Oracle), as its CMO. Stephen has a twenty-year winning track record of leading successful enterprises and building businesses across industries (technology, software and services) and geographies (domestic and international) for both high growth private and multi-billion dollar publicly traded corporations. Stephen holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and graduated with distinction from Carnegie Mellon University with an MBA. The Pennsylvania Small Business Association and Carnegie Mellon have both recognized him as “Entrepreneur of the Year”. Stephen has appeared on CNN and is a featured speaker at various conferences and universities.

Tamara Gruzbarg is a Senior Director of Customer Analytics and Research at Gilt Groupe, where she is responsible for the development of the analytic direction, roadmap, and insights distribution supporting the entire organization in the delivery of highly relevant personalized offerings to Gilt Groupe’s customers. Prior to Gilt Tamara held senior analytics positions at Experian Marketing Services and JP Morgan Chase. She led analytics teams providing innovative solutions in the areas of promotion and cross-sell, retention and loyalty, multi-channel optimization and test design. Tamara holds an M.A in Statistics and MBA from Columbia University, has had speaking engagements with marketing analytics conferences, conducted client webinars and has been interviewed by industry publications on the topics of e-mail, online marketing and data analytics.

Abigail Posner joined Google a year ago to head up the Strategic Planning Practice for the Agency team. She works closely with the advertising and marketing communities to help amplify their strategic and creative efforts in the digital space. While at Google, she has also launched a thought leadership series on human beings deep, emotional relationships with the digital space: Humanizing Digital. The first in the series is an anthropological study entitled: The Meaning of Mobile: How People Create meaning and Relate to the Mobile Space. Prior to joining Google, Abigail was executive vice president, strategy director at Publicis New York, where she directed strategic planning efforts for major new business pitches and provided thought leadership to key global clients, including L'Oreal, Nestlé and Coca-Cola. Before that, Abigail spent 11 years at DDB New York. There, she co-directed the strategic planning department and directed strategic efforts for a range of clients, from PepsiCo and Unilever to Hertz. Abigail has spoken on consumer trends and brand strategy, and blogs on beauty in our culture at Beautyskew.com. She has published the following articles: Why Beauty Matters Today (Retail Online, September, 2011), Why Packaged-Goods Companies Should Market to Men (Advertising Age.com, February, 2009), Brand Management and Its Greater Purpose (Ad Map, November Issue 2007) and Why Your Mission Matters (Advertising Age, July, 2007). Abigail graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in social anthropology.

Barbara Singer joined ESPN as vice president, advertiser insights & strategy, in the research & sales development department in January 2010. In this role, she leads ESPN’s efforts to use all of the company’s research capabilities to develop effective sales insights and innovative solutions to drive revenue. As a key advisor to the customer marketing & sales management team, she seeks innovative measurement solutions to understand fans’ multimedia behavior. She also works with clients to optimize their use of ESPN platforms. Singer came to ESPN after more than 15 years at Kraft Foods in media planning and research, most recently serving as director, strategic media information. From 1985 – 1994, she worked at the J.Walter Thompson advertising agency in New York, rising to senior vice president, group media director. She guided such clients such as Kodak, the Wall Street Journal, Warner Lambert and Nestle. In that role Barbara won numerous awards for business results and creativity in media planning. A native of Galesburg, Ill., Singer was graduated with a bachelor of science degree in advertising from the University of Illinois in 1983. She received a master’s of science degree from the school in 1984.