GreenBook is proud to announce the third annual GRIT Future List-an awards program to inspire, support, and celebrate young leaders who are driving consumer insights forward in unexpected ways. The List recognizes leadership, professional growth, personal integrity, and a passion for excellence in the next generation of insights leaders. These honors have outstanding multi-disciplinary career performances, and a wide range of research, community roles, and entrepreneurial ambitions. They’ve published research, launched companies, received numerous awards and accolades, and spoken at industry conferences around the world.


With hundreds of nominations and very impressive submissions, this year’s judging process continues to be a challenging one. Each of these honorees has a decade or less in the insights industry, yet all are well on their way to having a lasting impact on the direction of our field. We are thrilled to showcase these future leaders.

Mark Alvarez

Managing Director, Philippines
InSites Consulting
Phllippines

Mark has championed customer-centricity across different research and strategy roles in his 10-year-career. Passionate for research innovation, he started InSites Consulting in the Philippines to pioneer digital research in a highly face-to-face market, introducing digital-first collaboration to help organizations embody a customer-first pratice.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Mark innovates with purpose and leads with passion. He is always experimenting with the latest technology & approaches in our industry.”

Rebaz Bahadeen

Operations Director and Co-Founder
Thinkbank
Phllippines

Rebaz co-founded a full-service market research company as his way of giving back to his home region of Kurdistan. Thinkbank’s commercial focus shows that Iraq is more than a country of challenges but a place of opportunity through large-scale quantitative studies. Rebaz holds a Master’s degree in Linguistics from Sheffield University, UK and a BA in English Language and Literature from University of Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Rebaz co-founded a research agency in Iraq in 2018-a market full of challenges. His drive and passion to deliver quality, innovation and lead a happy team has led to big wins and a promising future.”

Andrés Carriles Tellez

Marketing & Data Science Director
GfK
Mexico Andrés’ unique background in math and
statistics allows him to use advanced analytics on market research studies, and text analytics on digital behavioral data to find actionable insights. He believes that sharing the knowledge, and having no black boxes, is the best way to build trust in everyone he works with. Andres is an active member of several industry organizations, including AMAI, IAB, and CIM. FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Andrés built and managed a Data Science team by understanding client needs from the data science
perspective, adding value to the offers around different kinds of solutions. He believes in sharing statistical and technical knowledge within the organization to evolve to better analysis.”

Mary Eapen

Analytis Manager
Absolutdata Research & Analytics
India

Mary has over seven years of experience in driving value for businesses by leveraging data, analytics, models, and products. She enjoys leading new initiatives and applying her analytical background to solving challenging new business problems in the most actionable way. Mary excels at product development through the automation of analytics.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Mary has been focused on applying analytics in innovative ways and converting analytical solutions into automated products for the market. Her high performing cross-functional teams developed a suite of proprietary analytics products, reduced turn-around time by 50%, and powered DIY analytical capabilities for clients.”

Melissa Ferere

Director
Globant
United States

Melissa is a first-generation Haitian-American with global academic and professional experiences. Thus, she champions diverse contextual insights to complement quantitative research when designing technical products. She embeds these insights throughout the development cycle, leading multidisciplinary teams to balance the intersection of customer needs, business goals, and technical feasibility. Melissa holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Melissa volunteers as a Master Mentor with the Global
STEM Alliance and works with Cornell University leading
product design and career development workshops. She
constantly seeks opportunities to learn, grow and lead by example, while paving the way for others.”

JULIA GöRNANDT

Director, DACH Region
SKIM
Germany After some years abroad, Julia went back to Berlin to set up SkIm’s first office in Germany. With innovative,
methodologically robust approaches she and her growing team deliver high-quality insights to leading brands. as a psychologist at heart and by training, she is passionate to shape the future of insights and guide the next generation of researchers. FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Julia has opened SKIM’s Berlin office 2 years ago and has led the team to strong growth, through guiding her clients through their business challenges, always pushing for innovative approaches and working collaboratively with
clients and her team.”

Stephen Griffiths

Associate Manager, Consumer & Market Intelligence
General Mills
United States

With an insights career spanning Nielsen, P&G and General Mills, Stephen is passionate about helping brands grow. He serves on the advisory board of two market research programs and founded the first client-side market research podcast, Digging for Insights, where he interviews authors and industry leaders.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Stephen has done groundbreaking work at General Mills, hosts an insights podcast, and personally coaches students. He’s been working in insights for 5 years and has influenced many future insights professionals.”

Manuela Isliker

Technology Insights Manager
Colgate Palmolive
United States Manuela is passionate about people, with
a mission of making their lives easier and offering delightful experiences through relevant innovation. She is focused on applying unique combinations of consumer science, entrepreneurial methods, agile research & UX research. Manuela aims to challenge the status quo by ensuring people’s needs are truly driving researcher’s innovations. FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Manuela is a force of leadership and passion for reimagining the front end of Insights. She is truly a rising start in Insights,
combining consumer science, entrepreneurial methods, & user
experience research – to create a new expansion of Insights.”

MAYA KANTAK

Consumer Insights Manager
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products
United States Maya combines her consumer insights
expertise with design thinking to drive growth for industry leaders and beloved brands-leading to her recognition as a 2020 Finalist for a prestigious ‘Outstanding Young Researcher’ Award. Maya is determined to bridge the education gap for students and BIPOC through her ongoing volunteerism and role on the Insights in Color Board. FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Maya is an amazing researcher, and I consider myself lucky to have had her on my team. Maya has improved every part of the research function she has touched, and she has helped take the impact of our department to another level.”

Katrin Krüger

Senior Project Director
Happy Thinking People
Germany Katrin’s passion is the fusion of tech and
qualitative research. She is always open to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and loves experimenting with digital options to make research agile, granular, and global. She is a mentor, inspiring and teaching younger researchers looking to start their career in research. Katrin has a Master of Arts from the Freie Universität Berlin in North American Studies. FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Katrin is a rising star. She won the coveted ‘2020 Best Practice Award’ and her fabulous case study with client Electrolux proved how combining Virtual Reality & Qual Research takes clients to the next level in usability & design insights.”

Anije Lambert

Founder
Project Development Consultancy (PDC Research)
Guyana

Anije is a lover of all things market research. She is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and is the founder of Project Development Consultancy (PDC- Research), a market research company she started at the age of 19. She is paving the way forward and promoting market research within her country Guyana and the Caribbean Region.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Katrin is a rising star. She won the coveted ‘2020 Best Practice Award’ and her fabulous case study with client Electrolux proved how combining Virtual Reality & Qual Research takes clients to the next level in usability & design insights.”

Konstantin Morjan

Chief Technology Officer
Phebi Limited
United Kingdom

Konstantin is an experienced and innovative software architect. He has designed and built a number of advanced data integration and analysis systems. A co-founder, Konstantin is responsible for all aspects of the Phebi technology platform and its deployment. He is a pioneer in designing and implementing innovative voice-based applications.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Konstantin is a visionary developer and a rising entrepreneur. I believe that he has already delivered a lot to this industry, but has huge potential to be a global leader.”

Lauren Murphy

Director, Research Scientist
LRW, a Material Company
United States

As a Director on the Pragmatic Brain Science team at LRW, a Material Company, Lauren builds on her PhD work in behavioral neuroscience to bring fresh approaches to market research. She leverages academic theories and methodologies to understand the influences of habit, decision making, and attention on consumer behavior.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Lauren’s background in studying primate behavior offers fresh
perspectives into consumer psychology at the most human
and biological levels.”

Laarni Paras

Research Manager
Sklar Wilton and Associates
Canada Laarni is passionate about research and
innovation for a more inclusive society. She cocreated an innovative quali-quant methodology, developed a disruption framework, and co-founded SW&A’s DEI Team & Meditation Program. She’s designed award-winning programs for marginalized communities, a Canada Millennium Award recipient, and a finalist for WIRe’s Diversity Champion Award. FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Laarni is hell-bent on doing everything she can to improve the research industry. She is a member of a prestigious university ethics board to ensure research participants are well treated,
and she’s pushed her own company to become more inclusive and equitable.”

Lynzie Riebling

VP, Insights & Strategy
REVOLT
United States Over the last decade Lynzie has earned
her reputation as a creative and effective powerhouse within the insights industry. Specializing in qualitative research, she
approaches her work in a way that most don’t-by finding new and unique methods to reach consumers. Her no holds barred
approach has garnered the attention of publications such as Forbes, TIME, and Billboard. FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Lynzie has long been a force for bringing innovation to market research, rising to become one of the industry’s preeminent thought leaders and best practitioners in mining the Millennial and Gen Z segments. She’s a game-changer, and represents the future, now.”

Beth Rogers

Senior Manager, Data Science
Fruit of the Loom, Inc.
United States

Beth leads and helped to build the Data Science division at Fruit of the Loom, Inc. She is a strategic data science leader with over 10 years of experience in Retail, Manufacturing, Biology, and GeoScience. She is also a published scientist in marine camouflage research and has performed research in brain imaging and eye-tracking. Beth also holds an MS from Western Kentucky University.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Beth is developing new analyses that change the trajectory of understanding of consumer behavior especially with geolocation capabilities and modeling. She is an excellent team leader and cross-functional collaborator.”

CHRISTOPHER SOUTH

CEO
Spot Trender
United States

Chris South is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, artist, and advisor based in Silicon Valley, California. His diverse background in Engineering, Business, Finance, Art, and Software is the catalyst for him developing disruptive new solutions. He has five patents with three pending across three companies..

FROM THE NOMINATOR: “Chris is trailblazing solutions to drastically reduce time & cost for product launches leveraging Spot Trender’s platform, resulting in 90% faster & efficient G2M executions for startups & enterprise companies alike. His engineering and business background brings a fresh perspective to the industry.”

Lance Worley

Manager, Customer & Market Insights
SalesForce
United States

Lance leads insight generation for Salesforce’s customer-centric technology solutions. He is a passionate user and advocate of the fields of UX and behavioral science. Lance believes that deeply understanding customers is essential to giving them rich experiences. He also actively supports the University of Georgia’s MMR program as a mentor, speaker, and board member.

FROM THE NOMINATOR:
“Lance pushes the MR boundaries by integrating techniques from other disciplines – design, behavioral, UX, etc. His holistic
view of what research means leads to more impactful work
and concrete action.”

Thank you to this year’s judging panel:

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