Wharton Marketing Conference 2009

Patti Williams

Associate Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School (Moderator)

Patti Williams is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School. She received a B.A. in communication from Stanford University and an MBA and PhD in marketing from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Prior to joining the Wharton School in 2000, she was an assistant professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU. Patti currently teaches courses on advertising/marketing communication to both undergraduates and MBAs at Wharton, as well as the Marketing Strategy core MBA course. She has also taught on marketing and the Internet. She is the recipient of multiple Wharton Excellence in Teaching Awards and the “Goes Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” MBA Core Teaching Award. Her research interests include the role of emotions in persuasion and consumer decision making, and automatic and effortful processes in consumer behavior. Her papers have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research, among others. She is Associate Editor for the Journal of Consumer Research and serves on the Editorial Review Boards for the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. She is coauthor of Marketing for Financial Advisors, published by McGraw Hill.

Laura Beech

Director, Online Acquisition & Partnerships, American Express

After graduating from the Wharton Business School in 2004, Laura Beech joined the Consumer Card Division at American Express. Currently, as Director of Online Acquisition & Partnerships, Laura leads a team that develops online marketing campaigns aimed at attracting and engaging new customers. Additionally, her team manages online partnerships and strategic cross-channel initiatives. Prior to this, Laura held end-to-end product management responsibility for the Centurion Card portfolio, enhancing the unique value proposition, leading key pricing changes, and implementing innovative retention strategies to retain American Express’s best customers. Previously, while on the Delta Product Management team, Laura ran the portfolio’s branding campaigns and led the launch of a new Delta product.

Prior to business school, Laura began her career in children's publishing at Scholastic Inc. and in e-commerce at a Latin American internet company. Laura lives in New York City with her husband, and in her spare time enjoys snowboarding, international travel, and off-Broadway shows. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Brown University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Douglas Brand

Senior Brand Manger, Chunky Soup and Chili, Campbell Soup Co.

Doug graduated from Tufts University in 1996 with a B.A. in Economics. He worked for two years as a Sports Marketing Assistant for the University of Maryland Athletic Dept then for two more years as an Associate Marketing Manager for Pepsi Bottling Group, managing Mid-Atlantic Regional Marketing Programs for Pepsi brands. He earned his MBA from Wharton in 2002 with a concentration in Marketing. Since graduation from Wharton, he has worked in Brand Management with the Campbell Soup Company where he has worked on the V8 beverage, Soup Innovation, and Chunky Soup businesses. His most enjoyable experiences at Campbell have been reformulating and relabeling the V8 Splash line, leading an innovation team into a three-city, eighteen-store test, and repositioning, reformulating, relabeling, and relaunching Chunky Soup as “better for you.” Doug lives in Center City, Philadelphia, with his wife and two sons.

Lisa Gunther

Global Director–Marketing and Brand Management, Newell Rubbermaid

Lisa Gunther joined Newell Rubbermaid in 2006 and is currently Global Director, Marketing and Brand Management for the corporation. Lisa works with the Executive Leadership Team and the Global Business Units (GBUs) to improve the company’s brand management capabilities and business/brand strategies. Lisa has four areas of responsibility, including process development and management (e.g., strategic planning), community of practice and center of excellence management, formalized marketing training, and individual GBU consulting. She is also a key advisor on the Sales Excellence transformation initiative for Newell Rubbermaid.

Prior to joining Newell Rubbermaid, Lisa worked for McKinsey and Company where she served as a strategy consultant for a wide range of consumer packaged goods and retail companies, focusing in the areas of strategy and marketing. Lisa started her career at Procter and Gamble and Gillette in brand management in the U.S. and Eastern Europe.

Lisa holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Wellesley College. Lisa is passionate about community involvement. She chairs the Gifts in Kind board for the United Way of Metro Atlanta and helped this group start two businesses that contribute over $50 million in goods and services to the metro-Atlanta non-profit organizations. She additionally serves on the finance committee for the United Way of Metro Atlanta. In business school, she helped start a charter school in a lower income area of Boston.

Janelle James

Vice President–Global Marketing, Leo Burnett Worldwide

Janelle James is currently a Vice President in Global Marketing at Leo Burnett Worldwide, an advertising agency with 95 offices in 86 countries and over 7,000 employees. Her team is part of LBW’s corporate strategy group and it exists to balance and reshape Burnett’s global client portfolio. In this role, Janelle works alongside the Global Chief Marketing Officer and is responsible for supporting global/local growth initiatives, increasing the agency’s collective knowledge in key industries, identifying business opportunities, and continuously building the attractiveness of the agency as a superior communications partner. Janelle started her career at Burnett as summer intern in 1999 and since then has worked for the agency in four cities and two countries. She was the youngest expatriate at Burnett and spent the bulk of her Burnett career working in the Milan, Italy office. Her client assignments have included McDonald’s USA, McDonald’s Italy, P&G EMEA, & Samsung Global. Janelle is a native of Brooklyn, NY, and has a B.A. from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Chris Kuenne

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Rosetta

Mr. Kuenne founded Rosetta in 1998 and has been its president since the company’s inception. Earlier in his career, Chris spent 10 years in marketing management at Johnson & Johnson leading the Band Aid and Tylenol Brands franchises, in addition to helping pioneer category management. Subsequently, he was a partner at First Manhattan Consulting Group where he led its retail marketing practice.

Throughout Chris’s 25-year marketing career, he has focused on driving more effective marketing through the discovery and deployment of scalable consumer insights. This obsession motivated him to found Rosetta and pilot its aggressive growth trajectory.

Chris has written numerous articles and given speeches on applying Personality-based sales and marketing to the pharmaceutical, financial services, and consumer packaged goods industries. Chris received his MBA from Harvard University with honors and his BA from Princeton University.

Eric S. Smith

Director of Marketing, Philips Consumer Lifestyle

Eric Smith is director of marketing at Philips Consumer Lifestyle overseeing the Philips Norelco shaving business. Eric has been with Philips for four years, including an assignment on the Sonicare business and a Global Marketing role in Amsterdam. He is also a certified Black Belt and has a particular interest in promotional effectiveness and ROI analysis.

Prior to joining Philips, Eric spent five years in brand management at Procter & Gamble. At P&G, Eric managed a variety of healthcare brands and worked within the media department developing multi-Brand promotions. Eric holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Keith Niedermeier, Ph.D.

Director, Undergraduate Marketing Program, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School (Moderator)

Keith E. Niedermeier is currently the Director of the Undergraduate Marketing Program and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School and spent five years as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Penn State University. Dr. Niedermeier received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Michigan State University in 1999.

Dr. Niedermeier’s research focuses on the social cognitive elements of consumer decision-making. His research has been published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Psychology and Marketing, as well as several other journals and conferences proceedings. He is also the coauthor of two books: Marketing for Financial Advisors and Statistical Analysis of Longitudinal Categorical Data in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Additionally, Dr. Niedermeier has been recognized as an outstanding teacher, receiving the Wharton MBA Excellence in Teaching Award and the Whitney Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching.

Rachana Bhatt

Marketing Director, Chase Card Services, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Rachana Bhatt is a marketing director of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s credit-card division in Wilmington, Del. Chase has issued more than 150 million credit cards in the United States and Canada and is the world’s largest issuer of MasterCard and Visa credit cards.

Bhatt has 15 years of consumer brand management experience, and recently helped bring Chase Blueprint, an industry-first set of features that dramatically improve the way customers can manage their spending and borrowing, to the marketplace.

Before joining Chase, she worked at Capital One, Procter & Gamble, and Campbell Soup Company. She has a management and technology undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and also holds an MBA from Wharton.

Wesley Boas

Senior Brand Manager, Unilever

Wesley Boas is a Senior Brand Manager at Unilever, where she has worked for six years. Wesley’s current role is managing the ice cream novelties portfolio, including the Popsicle, Klondike, and Good Humor brands, totaling $650 MM in revenue. She has been responsible for re-launching the Klondike brand with a modernized “What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar” campaign, launching a Popsicle Ice Age co-branded product to tie in with the Ice Age 3 movie release this past summer, and convincing more people to eat ice cream!

Wesley’s prior brand experiences include the Knorr brand, the company’s largest global food brand and a top priority for the U.S., as well as managing new product development for the company’s Savory division.

Wesley graduated Columbia Business School in 2003 and holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. Outside of work, Wesley enjoys cooking and baking as well as competing in triathlons.

Katie Cheng

Group Product Director, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products

Katie Cheng is a Group Product Director at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products responsible for Strategic Innovations on the CLEAN & CLEAR®, LUBRIDERM® and AMBI® brands. She has worked at the company for the past seven years with a focus on strategic new ventures, including alternate distribution opportunities and breakthrough technologies. Most recently, she was on the team at J&J responsible for the development of the first FDA-cleared at-home laser device for the treatment of fine lines and wrinkles.  

Prior to joining J&J, Katie has had a track record of launching new initiatives and innovation at companies including Ann Taylor and Unilever. She graduated from Penn with degrees from Wharton and the College of Arts & Sciences, and currently resides in Princeton, NJ, with her husband and baby daughter.

Courtney Goldstein

Director–Acquisition, American Express

For the past six and a half years, Courtney has worked in a variety of Acquisition and Product Management roles at American Express OPEN, the small business division of American Express. Most recently, as Director of Acquisition, she has developed strategies to understand, attract, and engage top small business owners through direct marketing channels such as mail and email. Specifically, Courtney does this by gaining comprehensive knowledge of small business needs and wants via research, identifying appropriate capabilities to target future best customers, designing tailored emails and mail packages, and ensuring that card members have an optimal acquisition experience. Prior to this, she was on the launch team for the innovative Plum Card and also held end-to-end product management responsibility for the Executive Business Card portfolio.

Courtney holds a B.S. from The Wharton School and an MBA from Columbia University. She is a dog enthusiast and Arts House Dance Company alum who loves skiing and international travel.

JoAnne Murphy

Marketing Manager–Underarm Protection (U.S.), Colgate Palmolive

JoAnne is the Marketing Manager for U.S. Marketing, Underarm Protection (UAP), managing the Mennen Speed Stick Franchise, which includes Men’s Speed Stick, Ladies Speed Stick, and Teen Spirit Stick. She is responsible for the commercial marketing of the UAP franchise which includes driving volume and net sales, building brand equity and communication strategies, developing integrated marketing campaigns, and managing the brand’s net sales, margin, and operating profit. JoAnne has been with Colgate for ten years, beginning in 1999 as a Business Analyst, supporting the Home Care division. In 2002, JoAnne joined the marketing organization, where she was responsible for the development of the both concept and product of Max Fresh, the first and only toothpaste infused with mini breath strips. JoAnne graduated from Rutgers University with a MBA in Marketing. There she participated in Trends in Global Marketing in Lille, France, and was acknowledged by the North Jersey Chapter of the American Marketing Association. JoAnne also worked as an Analytical Consultant at Information Resources and interned at Ernst & Young LLP.

Angi Rassi

Marketing Manager, General Mills

Angi Rassi is a Marketing Manager at General Mills. Angi has worked at General Mills for eight years on a wide variety of brands. She has worked on Cheerios, Yoplait New Ventures, Hamburger Helper, 8th Continent Soymilk and Old El Paso Mexican Meals. Angi is currently the Marketing Manager on the Kid Yoplait. She also co-leads the Wharton recruiting team for General Mills and participates on the Wharton MBA Career Management Employer Advisory Board.

Angi is a 2001 graduate from Wharton. While at Wharton, she was the Marketing Club Vice President of Career Development, Marketing 101 TA, Admissions Committee Application Reader, and Wharton Global Consulting Practicum participant. Prior to Wharton, Angi was a consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Chicago.

Wes Hutchinson

Stephen J. Heyman Professor, Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School (Moderator)

Wes Hutchinson’s research focuses on consumer and managerial decision making, particularly the interrelationships among attention, learning, confidence, decision making, and expertise in repeated choice environments. His recent research projects include modeling the effects of visual attention at the point of purchase on in-store decisions using eye-tracking data, developing new measures of consumer responses to advertising, mass customization of product aesthetics, and intuitive statistical reasoning as part of decision making. A past president of the Association for Consumer Research, Professor Hutchinson has published articles in a variety of top-tier journals in business and psychology. He is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, and Marketing Science, and he has won several academic awards. Professor Hutchinson’s teaching interests include courses in New Product Development (UG and MBA), the Social Impact of Marketing (UG and MBA), Research Methods (PhD), and teaching Essentials of Marketing for Wharton's Executive Education program. He received his PhD in psychology from Stanford University and his BS in psychology from Duke University. Professor Hutchinson consults extensively with companies worldwide, including Verizon, Rohm & Haas, U-Haul, Datatel, Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Intel Corporation.

Paula R. Garrett

Senior Director, Consumer Marketing, Lilly USA, LLC

Paula Garrett currently leads all consumer marketing strategy and planning for Lilly USA, LLC. She has responsibility for building the respect and desire for marketing discipline and consumer perspective in an industry for which both have historically not been necessary for success. In 2009 she was named to the PharmaVOICE 100 and the DTC Hall of Fame.

Garrett joined Lilly and the Cialis brand team in June 2001, after working with the team as the Brand Strategy Director for a key agency partner. She led the successful consumer launch for Cialis, and in the process was named DTC Marketer of the Year by DTC National in 2004, 2005, and 2007. The Cialis consumer campaign also garnered the PhAME award for Best New Product Introduction and the DTC National award for Best Integrated Campaign.

Garrett began her career at Procter and Gamble, working on Puffs, Charmin, White Cloud, and new tissue products. She was also one of the first brand marketers selected to work on the Wal-Mart Customer Team, an initiative at the forefront of how packaged goods companies work with retail partners.

Following her stint at P&G, Garrett worked for Coca-Cola, overseeing promotional strategies in the fountain division. She then moved to Johnston & Murphy, a high-end footwear company, where she was responsible for developing the strategic blueprint for the brand’s first two line extensions. Garrett later applied her brand strategy and marketing experience to a four year consulting role for companies such as Kraft, Dockers Footwear, and the PGA TOUR.

Garrett graduated from Southern Methodist University with a B.A. in Political Science and a BFA in Journalism, and earned her MBA at Indiana University. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband, three stepchildren, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She enjoys travel, food, wine, books, and long walks.

Nick Hammitt

Brand Development Manager, Unilever

Nick Hammitt is North American Brand Development Manager for Tea at Unilever, focusing on overall branding and innovation initiatives for the Lipton (U.S. & Canada), Red Rose (Canada) & Salada (Canada) tea brands. Nick also is spearheading the initiative to source all Unilever teas in the U.S. & Canada from Rainforest Alliance certified estates. This effort will help to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.

During his time at Unilever, Nick has worked across a number of categories including Laundry, Skincare and Beverages. He started his career on the Snuggle fabric softener brand and led the successful launch of the Snuggle Exhilarations sub-range. He also spent time working to build the Dove lotions business before moving into his current role within Beverages. Prior to business school, Nick spent six years working in advertising at various agencies in New York, Washington DC & Baltimore.

Nick earned his bachelor degree from University of Richmond in International Studies & French and his MBA from Columbia Business School. He resides in NYC with his wife Jen and Boston Terrier Gizmo.

Ben Mand

Marketing Manager, General Mills

Ben is a Marketing Manager at General Mills. He has worked at General Mills for over five years on a variety of businesses, including Progresso, Hamburger Helper, and Pillsbury Strategic Growth Channels. Ben currently manages Yoplait’s Specialty Health and Brands businesses.

Prior to General Mills, Ben completed his MBA at Kellogg in 2002. His prior professional experience includes global marketing at Johnson & Johnson, brand strategy consulting at Interbrand, and sales and marketing consulting at ZS Associates.

Outside of work, Ben and his wife enjoy exploring the Twin Cities with their two-year-old son and infant daughter, trying new restaurants, and traveling.

Jared Susco

Brand Manager, Campbell Soup Company

Jared Susco is a Brand Manager at the Campbell Soup Company, working in the US Soup division. He currently manages the Campbell's® V8® soup and Wolfgang Puck® soup, stock, & broth businesses and previously worked on the Campbell's® condensed soups Mom and Boomer targets. Most recently he completed a multi-year strategic plan for his current business and launched the Help Grow Your SoupTM campaign, which centers on the provenance of the high-quality ingredients that go into every can of Campbell's condensed soup.

Prior to Campbell, Jared served as a Rural Economic Development Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Paraguay and worked in brand management for PepsiCo on the Cap'n Crunch® cereal and Quaker® rice cake teams in Chicago. Jared graduated from the Wharton School in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics, concentrating in accounting, and from Emory University in 2007 with a Master of Business Administration (one-year accelerated program), concentrating in applied statistics. He currently lives in the Society Hill area of Philadelphia with his partner Christopher.

Steve Ennen

Managing Director, Wharton Interactive Media Initiative (Moderator)

Steve Ennen is an award-winning media professional pioneering online strategies for more than 15 years. Ennen is former VP, Digital Business Strategies at American Business Media where, for more than three years, he advised dozens of media and marketing companies on digital transformation, video and mobile messaging, social networks, and the development of digital revenue strategies. Recently, he served as a consultant and business development executive for Neighborhood America, a technology company specializing in enterprise social networks. He has worked with the U.S. State Department to educate foreign publishers on digital media, is an instructor of media strategy at New York University, and has been guest instructor at Medill, Northwestern University. A former publisher and editor, Ennen launched several award-winning printed and digital media products in U.S. and global markets and his essays and journalism has been published in scores of international publications. He speaks around the globe on digital transformation strategies. Ennen has an M.A. degree from DePaul University, Chicago; B.A. degrees in English and Political Science from William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo., and has completed executive education at Northwestern University’s Medill/Kellogg Schools and M.I.T.

Joan Bassett

Marketing Director, Chase Card Services, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Joan Bassett is a marketing director of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s credit-card division in Wilmington, Del. Chase has issued more than 150 million credit cards in the United States and Canada and is the world’s largest issuer of MasterCard and Visa credit cards.

Bassett is currently responsible for Chase Sapphire product development, helping launch this new, innovative product for the affluent market. Prior to her current role at Chase, she oversaw customer treatment strategies for Chase’s best customers and before that, she led the market research and competitive intelligence teams.

Prior to joining Chase, Bassett held market-research roles at Campbell Soup Company and Scott Paper (now Kimberly-Clark). She is a graduate of Villanova University with a degree in Business.

Janis Fratamico

Director of Marketing, IBM Global Business Services, North America

As the North American director of marketing for IBM’s Global Business Services, Janis Fratamico leads a team of marketing professionals responsible for industry and service line marketing, sales enablement, visual design, and other cross-brand initiatives. She recently led initiatives to maximize relationships and revenues from IBM accounts valued in the hundreds of millions by engaging with the most senior tiers of executive leadership in new and innovative ways. Her contributions have helped IBM continue to thrive in tough economic climates and differentiate IBM’s business through groundbreaking campaigns and programs, including the successful “Smarter Planet” initiative.

Prior to her role at IBM, Fratamico was marketing director for Americas for PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting (PwC). She managed a diverse team in marketing, public relations, event management, and advertising, as well as pioneered and managed PwC’s marketing shared services organization. Previously, she served as SAP Marketing Manager for the Americas at KPMG LLP (later BearingPoint).

Fratamico has spoken at multiple ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association) conferences about relationship marketing, metrics, and insights into IBM GBS best practices. In addition, she is a recent Breast Cancer 3-Day walk participant and is the IBM leader for the Saturday Enrichment Program at Tanner Duckrey Elementary School in North Philadelphia. Fratamico earned her bachelor’s degree in speech communications from Pennsylvania State University.

Scott Grunther

Senior Vice President, Networks, Nielsen IAG

Scott Grunther has 16 years of experience within the media industry in various account management and business development roles. Currently, he is a Senior Vice President at Nielsen IAG, the division of the The Nielsen Company that measures television and internet advertising effectiveness. Scott leads an account and research team that provides insights to television network clients including NBC Universal, CBS, Discovery Communications and The CW. One of Scott’s roles is helping television networks understand the impact of new and non-traditional advertising, including product placements, sponsorships, and brand integrations. Scott has also worked in advertising sales at Turner Broadcasting and Bloomberg earlier in his career. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and has an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Andy Von Kennel

SVP, Growth Director, Rapp (Travel Channel)

Andy Von Kennel’s responsibilities include new business and client lead for General Mills, Travel Channel, and ESPN. He has a talent for delivering business results above and beyond the brief with a laser focus on the development of holistic analytically-driven solutions.

Previously, Andy launched RAPP’s promotions and media division in the US bringing in marquee partners like Mattel, Porsche, NIKE and AAA. Before RAPP, Andy led a team of 50 cross-functional marketers and over $175 million in billings for several multi-national clients at Omnicom’s global media network PHD. Prior to joining PHD, he solved clients’ problems in multiple marketing disciplines including public relations, digital marketing, web development and media for clients like Philips Electronics, Pernod Ricard, GlaxoSmithKline, CNN, and Clayton Services. Additionally, Andy held marketing and management positions at Dr Pepper, American Airlines, and Frito-Lay.

He received his MBA from Southern Methodist University with concentrations in marketing and financial consulting and is both a proud graduate of Omnicom’s Senior Management Program and an alum of Omnicom’s MBA Resident program.

Charissa O'Neal

Director of Brand Management, CNN

Charissa O’Neal is the Director of Brand Management in CNN’s Strategic Integration Group. She is responsible for positioning CNN’s programming and its multimedia distribution platforms as strategically integrated solutions in the advertising marketplace. Prior to joining CNN, she worked at Time Inc. in an MBA rotational program with an emphasis in sales development and at HBO as an analyst in the subscriber marketing group. Charissa is a 2001 MBA graduate from the Wharton School.

Roger Wu

Founder & President, KlickableTV

Roger Wu is the Founder and President of Klickable TV, where he is responsible for Klickable TV’s overall business strategy, development, design and implementation, as well as innovation. Prior to Klickable TV, Roger led the digital consultancy Digital Power and Light where he created social networks, Web 2.0 marketing strategies and mobile campaigns. Roger’s career started against the backdrop of the first Internet bubble in 2000 when he worked at a startup called MediaOnDemand.com, a provider of streaming video services. After the bubble burst, Roger joined an alternative energy startup focusing on renewable and sustainable energy. Shortly thereafter, Roger launched his own Internet business. However, his idea of creating a marketplace for investors and entrepreneurs was short-lived and he became an “intrapreneur” at Bloomberg LP spearheading their legal database initiative. Roger is the winner of the Butterfinger viral video contest and speaks regularly about trends in the Internet and their relevancy to business. Roger received a Masters in Engineering, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science Engineering, and a Bachelor of Economics in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School. As a student, he worked in bulge bracket investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Roger has also participated in competitive eating, bodybuilding, three New York City Marathons, made an appearance in Zoolander and Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit, and performed Off Broadway.