2017 CEO SUMMIT January 23-25, 2017 in Miami Beach

An accomplished entrepreneur with a flawless record of guiding start-up and expansion organizations to profitable growth. An analytical, strategic thinker, intelligent risk-taker, and problem solver who is highly skilled in recognizing market trends and gaps, understanding and analyzing the core needs of a consumer, and taking products/services from ideation through global commercialization. I navigate comfortably from the sales floor to the C-Suite and across all functional areas in order to define and execute strategies which result in dynamic, robust organizations. 

Urvi Bhandari is passionate about changing the paradigm of how we live, work and play by connecting people, places and projects across the world. One long term project, (20 years) is to build floating cities providing a new life platform for innovators, futurists, global thinkers and nomads. Urvi is a Partner and Chief Connection Officer of Crush Industries, a media and insights company. Crush Industries is the evolution of People, Places and Ideas! We create insightful media, products, and experiences designed to increase evolutionary potential in businesses and individuals.

Keith A. Cline was named the chief executive officer and director of La Quinta Holdings Inc.in February 2016. Cline served as the chief financial officer and executive vice president of La Quinta Holdings Inc. and LQ Management LLC since January 2013. Cline served as the chief financial officer of Charming Charlie, Inc. from February 28, 2011 to 2013 and its chief administrative officer from 2011 to 2013. He served as a senior vice president of finance for Express, Inc. from 2006 to 2011.

Lisa has recently been appointed to Organon to build new capabilities in insights, analytics, and commercial assessment after many years leading Global Customer Insights at Merck & Co Inc, where she leveraged insights, analytics, and design to create innovative, compliant solutions to the challenges facing patients, providers, and payers in the delivery of lifesaving medicines and vaccines.

After watching one of his advertising campaigns get undermined in a poorly conducted focus group, award-winning creative director Bob Cuneo had seen enough. He believed there had to be a way to evaluate creative ideas without compromising them. And that is when Bob conducted his first focus group. Today, Bob is president and chief creative officer of Brädo Creative Insight.

With a passion for building strong relationships and a mission to drive innovation, Merrill is leading this top full-service marketing research company into its sixth decade. He and his team form actionable research strategies and solutions by combining an intimate understanding of clients' business objectives with the design strength and marketing expertise required to drive business growth.

Dan Foreman is an experienced leader and entrepreneur.

Dan brings more than 20 years of business experience. He specializes in emerging technologies and developing markets, having helped organizations grow from incubation to multi-million dollar revenues (and exits).

Dan began his career at WPP before progressing to senior client, advertising, and consulting roles. These days, Dan operates in advisory, investment, and entrepreneurial positions, currently chairing or advising the boards of several data, marketing, technology, and social media organizations. He also personally invests in many early-stage businesses.

Dan is the current Past President for ESOMAR, holding elected position of 100,000 professionals 2013–14, the first President under the age of 40. He is also founder of TEDxRoyalTunbridgeWells, winner of the prestigious AMA “4 under 40” award, holder of the Disruptive Innovator MR Change Agent of the Year, and a frequent guest lecturer at a number of business schools. He holds a BSc in Psychology and Mathematics from University of Leicester, UK.

Dan is able to tap into a wide network of people to help with different projects.

Eric Grosgogeat is a successful Private Equity Chief Executive Officer. He has partnered with four PE firms, consistently generating strong ROI, most recently as CEO and President of FocusVision Worldwide, the leading global provider of technology solutions for the market research industry.  Under his leadership, the company grew 4‑fold through acquisitions, global expansion and the launch of new services.

Mr. Hermann joined Court Square in June 2013 as a Resource Partner. His expertise spans manufacturing, distribution, software and business services industries. His specific company experience includes Founder and CEO of icarz, a SaaS distribution management software company (now a division of ebay), CEO of General Automotive, the largest switch and lock manufacturer in North America (sold to Echlin/Dana Corp), consultant at Zolfo Cooper performing interim CEO turnaround assignments around the world, Bain and Company, and, immediately prior to Court Square, Managing Director at Thomas H.

Dhan Kashyap started his career in market research in the 80s and has had the privilege of being part of the industry and observing it from multiple vantage points.  He has had significant experience on the agency-side, where he started his career, and then moved to the client-side.  He has lived and worked in multiple markets and cultures – India, the Middle East and North America.  As part of his work on the client-side, he has worked on diverse product categories as detergents, to ice cream, banking and financial services, beverage alcohol and health insurance and health care.

On the client-side Dhan has held research function roles at Unilever, Royal Bank of Canada, Diageo and Humana.  He currently is the head of the research function at Humana – a fortune 100 company delivering health benefits and care in the US.  His work focuses on mining insights which drive consumer engagement in their health.

Dhan has his MBA from the University of Pune in India.  He has presented papers at various forums including an award winning paper at the Esomar.

A visionary leader, entrepreneur, business accelerator, investor, philanthropist and industry futurist, Zain Raj is considered a global leader in finding new and different ways to grow brands. His unique ability to unearth surprising insights and incite inspired ideas has created billions of dollars of value for his clients and investors.

Currently, Zain is the Chairman and CEO of Shapiro+Raj, a top-ten independent insights and inspiration company in North America. He is also the founder and CEO of ZedNext, an ideas incubator that takes an objective and disruptive look at trends to help marketers and business leaders realize their full potential in this data-driven, digitally-led and insights-driven world. His theories and methodologies provide clear and actionable ways to help companies deliver sustainable growth through these times of significant economic and cultural change.

He has authored two Amazon marketing and sales bestsellers, Brand Rituals™: How Successful Brands Bond with Customers for Life and Marketing For Tomorrow, Not Yesterday: Surviving and Thriving in the Insight Economy™. An evangelist for innovation and a strong believer in empowering others, Zain is a sought-after speaker on how marketers can build their businesses and improve their brand value in this evolving landscape of big-data, mobility, digitization and commoditization. He contributes his insights to The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fast Company, Forbes, Crain’s and publications of the nation’s top business schools.

Steve has been in the marketing research industry for more than 30 years, starting his career as a project manager and then working his way up to lead Schlesinger Group for the past 20 years. As CEO, Steve has created the vision and strategy for Schlesinger Group as the world’s leading data collection company.

Board Chair for 2018, Rob is CEO of Grail Insights, a division of Integreon. He is a longtime contributor to the advancement of the profession, including volunteer service to both MRA and CASRO, as well as frequent speaking engagements at industry conferences. 

During more than 20 years in the research community, Rob has been a passionate advocate for informing business decisions through innovative research practices.

Diane is CEO of Burke. Previously she served as the company's Executive Vice President and managed Client Services (Sales), Marketing, Research Innovation, and Account Management. In this role, Diane leveraged a strong strategic perspective and a deep understanding of relationship management to help guide and develop collaborative relationships both inside and outside the organization.