Clients & Friends
- Dave Balter
BzzAgent, President and Chief Executive Officer
- A pioneer in the brave new word-of-mouth marketing world, in late 2001 Dave brought humankind (and any aliens secretly inhabiting the place) BzzAgent. It was the first company to provide diligence around the concept of word-of-mouth marketing. BzzAgent's process and platform – the BzzEngine – was created to help companies harness the power of their own consumers. It's become a leading WOM marketing and research firm that utilizes a network of over 90,000 volunteer brand evangelists. BzzAgent's clients include IBM, Lee Jeans, Anheuser Busch and Kraft Foods. Dave was voted a promotional marketing "top 40 under 40" in 2001 by A.S.I. He holds a degree in Psychology from Skidmore College, which just means he knows what you're thinking. Or thinks you think he thinks he does...
- Eric Paulos
Intel Lab, Research Scientist
- Are you an urban dweller? Well let this man take a look at your, uh, jetsam disposal, and he can tell you a thing or two about yourself. Not keen on the trash thing? Then touch and feel your way around his Berkeley lab as a tele-robot. Again, it's another portal for him to plunge into your psyche, simply by watching your behavior. At Intel, Eric leads the Urban Atmospheres project - challenged to use provocative methods to understand the future fabric of our emerging digital and wireless urban landscape. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Eric developed several Internet based tele-robots including Mechanical Gaze and Space Browsing helium filled blimps. Using video and audio, inexpensive, internet-controlled, untethered tele-robots link users to a remote space, providing a visible, mobile entity with which other people can interact.
- Prof. Alex (Sandy) Pentland
MIT Media Lab, Director
- Say you know a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and his hard drive on his glasses. Huh? Well it makes perfect sense to Prof. Alex (Sandy) Pentland, a pioneer in wearable computers, health systems, smart environments and technology for developing countries. This is after all the man chosen by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape the next century. And he is one of the most-cited computer scientists on good ol' planet earth. He is the founding director of the Media Lab Asia and is a co-founder of the Center for Future Health, the Wearable Computing research community and the international Digital Nations Consortium. He was formerly the Academic Head of the MIT Media Laboratory and is the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. He has won numerous international awards in Art, Science and Engineering. Currently, Sandy directs the Human Design research group at the MIT Media Lab.
- Vivek Sharma/ Nathan Eagle
CEO MetroSpark/ Chief Scientist MetroSpark, MIT Media Lab
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Have you ever? C'mon, we all have. Go ahead and fess up. You've wondered what it would be like to be a psychic. Suddenly all the world's a sieve and you're party to it all. A daydream? Mere fantasy? Well how about reality thanks to MetroSpark. MetroSpark is an always-on, proximity service that connects you to the people, places and things you're interested in through your mobile (or should we start calling it your Third Eye?) Prior to founding MetroSpark, Vivek spent a number of years at Blue Martini Software, and gained a keen understanding on how to provide a better customer experience through analysis of online behavior. Nathan, meanwhile was doing ground-breaking research on what you can infer about behavior within proximity networks. MetroSpark was founded by Vivek & Nathan with the idea that software can help us become more social. Both of them have a well founded academic background from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the MIT Media Lab.
- Amitava Chattopadhyay
Insead India
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Amitava Chattopadhyay is The L'Oreal Chaired Professor in Marketing-Innovation and Creativity, and Professor of Marketing at INSEAD. Prior to joining INSEAD, he has been a faculty member at The University of British Columbia, Canada and McGill University, Canada.
Professor Chattopadhyay is an expert on branding. His research has focused primarily on branding and marketing communications. He has also written about creativity and its role in the success of the new product development process. Professor Chattopadhyay's work has appeared in several journals including the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science and Management Science. He is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, International Journal of Reseach in Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of International Business Studies, Social Science Research Network and the International Journal of Marketing Education. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Association for Consumer Research. For his research, he has been the recipient of the Robert Ferber Award.
Professor Chattopadhyay has developed and taught courses on branding, advertising strategy, marketing strategy, e-marketing, marketing in emerging economies and international marketing for MBA and PhD students. He has taught in executive programs in Asia, Europe, and North America. Professor Chattopadhyay is on the board of directors/advisory boards of several organizations and a consultant to several multinational firms.
- Miguel Ángel Acosta Tally
Ask Jeeves, Vice President for European Business Development
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Generally, Jeeves knows it all. But curious minds wanting to know the best and most successful way to expand across the globe might also want to Ask Miguel. He will pilot this leading provider of world-class information retrieval technologies, brands and services as it broadly expands across the European continent, adding to its US and Japanese saturation. Additionally he will evaluate other options for market penetration including acquisition and JV partnerships. Miguel Acosta is a CFA Charter holder and holds a B.S. in Economics and a Master's Degree in Finance from the Universidad La Laguna. He started his career at GBS Finanzas, a Spanish Investment Bank, in 1995, where he became Vice President. In 2000, he joined Yahoo! Europe as Business Development Director for Finance. Appointments as Strategic Development Director and Head of Monetization and Business Development for Search followed.
- Stephanie N. Robesky
Skype, Project Manager
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"Mr. Watson. I see you. We're Skyping!" Alexander Graham Bell would have a ball. 130 years after he first demonstrated the electronic transmission of speech, its astonishingly contagious descendant Skype has been the strongest viral on the planet for the past 2 years. IP-telephoning has entrenched itself deep down in the heart of the consumer and is not going anyplace but forward. And Stephanie has watched Skype's growth with eagerness she hasn't felt since her early days at Netscape. Having amassed 7 years of online experience with Blue Chip Internet companies worldwide, she has successfully rolled out and managed next generation digital media products and services. These include large-scale e-commerce platforms, content personalization, search, digital rights management and localization for key European markets. As well as Netscape, her in-depth knowledge helped grow Sega, AuctionWatch, PeoplePC and Private Media Group (NASDAQ:PRVT).
- Marc Davis
Yahoo! Research Berkeley, Founder and Director
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Marc Davis is the Founding Director of Yahoo! Research Berkeley. He is responsible for the technical and creative vision and leadership for the Lab. Prof. Davis is on leave from the School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS) at the University of California at Berkeley where he directs Garage Cinema Research. Prof. Davis' work is focused on creating the technology and applications that will enable daily media consumers to become daily media producers. His research and teaching encompass the theory, design, and development of digital media systems for creating and using media metadata to automate media production, sharing, and reuse. His research projects include: Mobile Media Metadata (context-aware mobile media technology and applications that leverage contextual metadata – spatial, temporal and social – to infer media content and support media sharing and reuse); the Social Uses of Personal Media (social science and design research to learn how and why people use digital imaging in order to support the design of next generation mobile media applications); Media Streams Metadata Exchange (media metadata framework for annotating, retrieving, sharing, and remixing media on the Web); Active Capture (interactive cameras that use signal processing and computer-human interaction to capture high quality, reusable, annotated media assets); and Adaptive Media (adaptive media templates and automatic editing functions to mass customize and personalize media). Prof. Davis earned his B.A. in the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, his M.A. in Literary Theory and Philosophy at the University of Konstanz in Germany, and his Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory.
- Suresh Sood
University of Technology Sydney, Researcher
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Caught a case of digital diphtheria? Feeling a bit like Fred Flintstone? Synaptic overload? If one more person talks about the "latest" tech buzz are you going to look for a big fat analog rock and hide under it? Well, Suresh brings a wealth of both industry and academic knowledge that helps audiences and clients understand how leading edge research and initiatives can be applied creatively to solve today's problems. As the Chief Information Architect of Golden Mean, he focuses on the semantics of information to help global clients utilize the structured as well as unstructured information available to revolutionize business practice. He's been a key instigator leading the embracement of digital technologies in curriculum development since 1995. His work has included the handling of insider trading information, operational risk and sophisticated competitive intelligence systems. As a Senior Vice President with Reuters, he developed new business opportunities for advanced technologies across Asia, including China and India.
- Sven Dörrenbächer
DaimlerChrysler AG, Marketing & Communication
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It's a fact. WOM is highjacking one of mass media's largest domains. But what if you're not interested in reaching the masses. What if your sights are set squarely on the deep-pocketed, ever-so discerning, platinum keyboarded, silver spoon-birthed $urfer? Just how does one WOM the select few? Sven has certainly navigated this yellow-brick road. He's responsible for planning, designing and implementing integrated communication measures for the web sites of Mercedes Benz and the incomparably grand Maybach. Sven is also the man behind the innovative Internet presence of several internationally relevant "digital" products and brands, including the "Mercedes Mixed Tape" free downloads and the "Mercedes Text Tracks" audio books. As well, he's headed internationally lauded Internet projects such as the adventure game "Become a Men in Black agent!", the online Christmas game "Wunschwald" and the first interactive film "7 Years Later".
- Alexander Macris/ Scott Foe
Themis Group & Nokia, Massive Gaming Gods
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Fingers nimble? Mouth primed for Multi-Culti trash talking? Ready to get Medieval on the world? Then get your game on, gamers. You're up. Thanks to Alexander and Scott, the world is your playing field. Magna cum laude Harvard Law School graduate Alexander co-founded Themis Group in August 2001 and has served as its President & CEO since its inception. Prior to Themis, he was CEO of WarCry, which he led to become the game industry's second largest massively-multiplayer community network, before integrating it into Themis. As Producer of Sega's Pocket Kingdom, Scott helped to bring massively multiplayer online gameplay to a handheld device for the first time. He was also instrumental in creating Sega's (now Nokia's) SNAP network middleware technology and Nokia's N-Gage Arena global mobile community. He is an active member of the IGDA and holds a certification in Japanese from Kyoto Seika University in Kyoto, Japan.
- Greg Skibiski
Maó Networks, CEO and founder.
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In 1996, Greg joined BackWeb Technologies (NASD: BWEB), a mobile infrastructure software company, as one of the first employees and spent seven years working between the US, Germany and Israel, most recently as a member of the Executive Board and Principal Architect of the Business Development group in charge of IBM, Microsoft and SAP. Previously, he was the Director of Business Development in charge of BackWeb's relationship with SAP, the company's largest source of revenue. Greg also acted as the Principal Architect for SAP integrations, responsible for creating software solutions and leading the development teams that brought them to realization. Greg has co-organized the Drobny Global Hedge Fund Conference for several years, been a frequent speaker at SAP's SAPPHIRE conferences in Europe and the US, and managed sales, partnership and implementation projects in 25 countries. He holds a MBA from HEC Paris and a BS in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University.
- Yubo Chen
University of Arizona, Researcher
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Do actions speak louder than words? New technology is making two types of consumer interactions increasingly important: word-of-mouth learning from others' words (online product reviews posted by existing users) and observational learning from others' purchase actions (revealed through recommendation agents at seller's website). Which of these, words or actions, is most persuasive? How do they jointly impact consumer purchase behavior and product sales? Dr. Chen, an expert in on-line product information, offers answers to these questions based on his extensive studies of various online information sources and markets. Dr. Chen received his Ph. D. in Marketing from the University of Florida. He currently teaches marketing strategy and international marketing at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. His current research investigates strategic implications of different consumer social interactions and how various product reviews are changing the landscape of marketing strategy. His research has been published in leading academic marketing journals such as Marketing Science and Marketing Letters.
- Jinhong Xie
University of Florida, Researcher
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Most firms are contending with two growing sources of independent product information: consumer online reviews and third-party professional reviews. How do these two sources of information affect a firm's potential customers? What are the functional distinctions between these two information sources? How should a firm design its product, pricing, and advertising to best respond to each of them? Dr. Xie's research uncovers the impacts of these two types of independent product information and offers insights on firms' strategic responses. Professor Xie teaches MBA and Executive courses at the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida. Her recent research focuses on the impact of emerging technologies on marketing strategy as well as on how network effects alter optimum strategies for innovation. Her research has won awards from INFORMS (Institute of Operation Research and Management Science), MSI (Marketing Science Institute) and PDMA (Product Development and Management Association). She has published in leading academic marketing journals. Currently, she is Associate Editor of Management Science and Area Editor of Marketing Science. She holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.
- Inus Hwang
Azoomma Marketing Lab, President
- Stepford wives back off and clear the way. There is a whole new formidable breed of opinionated married women inhabiting the domestic digital landscape. And Inus knows all about their remarkable muscle. As president of Azoomma Marketing Lab, Korea's leading agency in buzz marketing, she manages a cyber community membered by 500,000 married women. Her group has worked wonders for CJ, a leading food manufacturer, employing tools such as KitchenForum, Value Sampling and GuerillaPaper. Equally impressive are the brand achievements realized for Daehan pulp's Bosomi diapers and Seoul Milk's milk, juice and yogurt products. Inus also has a radio program and is a committee member of Seoul City. She lectures frequently and was recently honored with an invitation to present to the Korean Ministry of Government Affairs and Home Affairs.
- Scott Foe
Nokia, Games Producer
- Remember when you and a buddy played Space Invaders? You destroyed him and felt like a champ? Well, baby get your game on, the competition today has multiplied like a wildfire. Thanks to Scott, a pioneer in the networked console gaming space and a member of the Dreamcast Network product development team at Sega, you can now play the world. Scott is currently a Producer in the Nokia Games Business Unit, and responsible for pushing the limits of connected mobile gaming. As Producer of Sega's Pocket Kingdom, he helped to bring massively multiplayer online gameplay to a handheld device for the first time. He was also instrumental in creating Sega's (now Nokia's) SNAP network middleware technology and Nokia's N-Gage Arena global mobile community. He is an active member of the IGDA and holds a certification in Japanese from Kyoto Seika University in Kyoto, Japan.
- Shelly Diane Farnham
Microsoft, Senior Reseacher
- You've no doubt heard of a date doctor. But in these online times, a social engineer maybe just what the doctor should've ordered... and Shelly's its personification. A researcher in the Social Computing Group at Microsoft, she studies computer-mediated social interactions. She builds and evaluates prototypes in order to help people achieve their social goals through technology. An expert in operationalizing social constructs from interaction behavior, she's been involved with many prototyping projects including Swarm, Wallop, Point to Point, LeadLine and Personal Map. She holds several patents and her online studies include Use Of Social Technologies to Maintain Social Relationships, Reducing Bad Behavior Online and Online Matchmaking. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Washington.
- Jian Ni
Nokia, Senior Business Development Manager
- Hear ye, hear ye. The smoke signalers of the past have been reincarnated and they're having a massive love affair with mobloging. And Jian is feeding the fire as one of the pioneers in the moblog scene. He is the Senior Business Development Manager of the Lifeblog team in Nokia Multimedia and responsible for creating new business opportunities and developing strategic partnerships around the Nokia Lifeblog application and services. He's also held various positions in product development and technology management in Nokia's mobile handset divisions. Before joining Nokia, Jian was a research assistant at Tampere University of Technology, Finland and worked as a software engineer at Keli Co. in Beijing. He received his MBA degree from Rutgers University, his M.Sc & B.Sc. from Tsinghua University, China and holds 3 patents.
- Dr. Sonjaya Singh Gaur
Indian Institute of Technology, Professor
- In the maddening explosion of new webpage after new webpage, how can a company still access the most coveted of consumers, the e-fluentials? Dr. Gaur is a tenured Associate Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Technology, crowned as one of the leading research centers by Asiaweek. He has specialized expertise in targeting and capitalizing on the WOM influencers of all things viral, particularly in matters of trust, selectivity and diverse behavioral characteristics. His experience in academia spans over a decade and includes consulting, research and training. He is a frequent speaker and contributes regularly to international conferences, workshops and journals. He has trained managers from many of India's leading companies and consulted several Indian and Multinational companies, including Ranbaxy Laboratories, RFCL, Geologistics, Pajas Infopath and Godrej & Boyce Mfg.Co.Ltd.
- Alexander Schwarz
Softonic, Head of Community Management EMEA
- For the last ten years Alexander Schwarz has been working in the online world. After founding an online marketing consultancy focussed on consumer data and research, he started the German market leader in Online Assessment Center CYQUEST. After this and until know he build up one of the biggest download portals for software in Europe Softonic. He is responsible for interaction activities and community management duties in 11 European Countries. For him community building and management has exceeded to be a job. It is his passion. Alexander studied Marketing and Management at the University of Hamburg and Berkeley.
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