What we believe is quality, what we deliver is impact on growth.
Our iProTeam is a group of global business experts, senior consultants, marketing executives and research specialists. Each member brings his/her unique global perspectives which enhances our beliefs and enables us to keep our promise to our clients.
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The iProTeam(TM):
- Janie Sun - Founder & VP, Global Marketing
Ms. Sun has extensive global business consulting and market research experience for clients throughout Asia, North America, and South America. She leads the experienced iProTeam of consulting and research professionals dedicated to delivering the best quality insights and strategies to clients.
Before Janie founded imiPro, LLC, she worked with a number of client and agency companies where she cultivated her experiences as a global business consultant and market researcher. When she was with the marketing team for The Coca-Cola Company in China, she managed all business and consumer insights initiatives associated with new product development. In this role, she successfully helped the company to introduce or relaunch six brands, including a juice brand which ranked #2 in market share one year after its debut. During her tenure with GfK Group in New York, a leading international market research firm, Janie managed global consumer study covering more than 30 countries, and developed a research protocol that saved the company and client significant time and money, winning her a client satisfaction award from a Fortune 500 client. Her innovative spirit consistently earned her accolades with Zyman Group, a management consulting firm with a focus on marketing, where she successfully led many B2B and B2C global projects for global Fortune 500 clients.
Janie holds a M.S. in Applied Statistics from the University of Illinois, and B.S. in Electrical/Mechanical Engineering from North University of China. Back to top
- Mark Oatman - Sr. Vice President
Mr. Oatman brings over 25 years of experience in all aspects of management and consumer research and strategic planning for foodservice and consumer packaged goods, as well as B2B research and Value Proposition development. Most recently he was Insights Manager at Zyman Group, an Atlanta-based brand strategy consulting company. There he led high-level B2B strategic research for several Fortune 500 companies. This research was pivotal to the development of Value Propositions designed to revitalize company positionings with their stakeholders.
Prior to that Mark was Senior Research Manager at The Coca-Cola Company where he was solely responsible for developing and executing marketing research programs to support Coke’s business with Burger King. In this capacity he provided research support to advance sales of Coke products in the face of declining Burger King traffic; these programs resulted in the sales of 500K incremental gallons of syrup to Burger King. Mark also managed a myriad of qualitative and quantitative research projects for Dasani, Fountain Marketing, the Universal Studios and Upromise Alliance Groups, Sprite/Rocketcash, and the Worldwide Licensing Group.
In his role as VP, Marketing Research at AFC Enterprises (parent of Popeyes, Churchs and Cinnabon), he built the marketing research department for this new up-start company and proposed the $65M acquisition of Cinnabon. While at AFC Mark was also responsible for developing marketing programs to initiate AFC’s franchise sales process worldwide and managed a $1M marketing budget.
As Group Director, Strategic Planning and Research at Arby’s, Mark was responsible for strategic planning in addition to the consumer research and sales analysis functions. While there he developed a 3-year strategic growth plan, executed and presented the results of Arby’s Strategic Growth Study which provided the basis for Arby’s new advertising campaign, and participated in the development of monthly programs for Arby’s annual marketing calendar.
Mark began his career in Cincinnati, Ohio working on traditional consumer packaged goods marketing research for brands such as Windex, Endust, Vanish, and Renuzit. Mark holds an MBA from the University of Cincinnati in marketing and quantitative analysis. Back to top
- Peter Grinyer - Strategy Management
Dr. Grinyer is currently an Emeritus Professor at the University of St Andrews. He has been a full Professor at the City University, London, and the University of St Andrews where he also served as Vice-Principal and Acting Principal. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Stern School of Business, New York University, and Imperial College, London, and an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has had published over fifty papers in the learned journals and five books on aspects of strategy.
Peter currently serves on the editorial boards of the Strategic Management Journal and the Journal of Managerial and Decision Economics. In parallel with these contributions to education and the development of thinking on strategic issues he has made practical contributions. He has been a director of three public companies in the United Kingdom, been the Chairman of a top Scottish graphics design company. For seven years he was Chairman of the St Andrews Management Institute and St Andrews Strategic Management Ltd. (which undertook some 50 strategy and scenario planning projects including a number for major British and international companies) and has undertaken a range of consultancy projects through out his career. Back to top
- Fred Shao - Asia Market Director
Mr. Shao has more than 12 years of experience with multinational companies in the China market. Prior to imiPro, Fred worked for Mars China, The Coca-Cola Company China, and ACNielsen China. Over the past two decades, Fred has experienced and witnessed the unprecedented China market evolution. His knowledge of this unique market and its consumers benefited the companies he worked with and won him several awards from Coca-Cola and ACNielsen. With both supplier and client side experiences for multinational companies, Fred helps clients avoid the pitfalls of growing business in China market, and identify target consumers for organic business growth. His multi-dimensional market and consumer segmentation is one of our best-in-class practices. Fred holds a B.A. degree of psychology from East China University. Back to top
- Julie Zhu - Asia Market Director
Ms. Zhu brings more than 10 years of both client side and supplier side experience to imiPro, especially in pharmaceutical area. Julie worked as a Research Manager for Eli Lilly China. Prior to that, she worked for Shanghai Johnson (a subsidiary of SCJohnson Wax), and SCMR-RI, a research firm in China. Reaching the right target in specific medical areas post great challenges for international pharma companies developing business in China. Julie's strong expertise with physician and patient networks help clients to enter the China market and grow the pharmaceutical business. Julie holds an EMBA from China Europe International Business School, B.A. Back to top
- Harry Zhang - China Government Marketing Director
Mr. Zhang has more than 10 years of experience with the Chinese government and industrial organizations. Before joining imiPro as Director of the Government Marketing, Harry worked for Beijing Baoce Consulting as the Deputy General Manger of the International Events Division, where he oversaw numerous national events such as the Asia-Europe Minister Summit, PATA International Tourist Event, Paris-Moscow-Beijing Auto Relay, Beijing Music Festival, OMIGA China, and Louis Vuitton China New Product Rollout. Prior to that, Harry worked as a Deputy Manger of Customer Service Department, and Director of Marketing and Sales Department of the China World Hotel in Beijing. Harry graduated from China College of Tourism & Travel with a major in Service Management. Back to top
- Zhao Ying - Chinese Gov Industrial Policy Formulation Advisor
Mr. Zhao Ying is the head of the China Institute of Industrial Economics of China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Deputy Director of China Economics Development Risk Research Center.
Mr. Zhao has extensive knowledge of Chinese industry technology development and innovation. He participated in the Chinese government's mid- to long-term technical development policy formulation. He has led research on Chinese critical industrial policies and national projects. He is the first to create the concept of national economics security and published the first book on this topic. He has substantial experience with China's automobile industry. He has led government projects in the areas of China automobile development history, industrial policies, technique improvement, industrial structure, and market and business management. Mr. Zhao's theory on opening the Chinese automobile market to the world has drawn great attention from both domestic and international academics and enterprises.
Mr. Zhao works closely with international academics and has published more than 10 books, co-authored 30 books, published more than 200 papers, and won numerous national and provincial awards. Mr. Zhao's contribution to Chinese industrial economics development and the government's formulation of industrial policies is highly regarded, and his work and consultancy is sought after as part of the government’s Think Tank.
Mr. Zhao's key works are:
- “Super Nation’s Journey: China Economic Security in the 21st Century”, China Yunnan Publishing House, 2006;
- “Big Nation’s Destiny: Benefits and Strategy”, China Economic Publishing House, 2001;
- “Super Nation’s Century: Super Enterprises and Super Politics”, China Yunnan Publishing House, 2000;
- “China Industrial Policy Research”, China Social Sciences Publishing House, 2000;
- “Outlook of China’s Industry Development in 1990’s”, China Economic Publishing House, 1993. Back to top
- Guoqin Chen - China Industry Advisor
Ms. Chen is an expert on Chinese business and industry structure, and government policy. She sits on the board of the China Mechanical Engineering Society. Her contributions to several national projects have earned her a nomination to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Throughout her career as an executive in the Chinese engineering industry, Ms. Chen has built a network among Chinese business decision makers and research scholars. She has published many papers and books, and given speeches at international conferences. Her guidance and expertise on Chinese industry and business have been proven invaluable to our clients. Back to top
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- Brent Seymour - North America VP
Mr. Seymour has 14 years of experience in marketing research and strategy. He brings in-depth expertise in new product development, market development, enhancement of established products and communication, particularly within high-tech industries.
Prior to his position as the VP of North America market with imiPro, Brent was Insights Director for Zyman Group, a marketing consultant that specializes in business strategy. In this role Brent’s primary responsibility was conducting B2B projects for Fortune 500 companies. Previously, Brent worked on e-business strategy at Hewlett-Packard. While he was in this role he was responsible for analyzing, optimizing and implementing the strategic initiatives for Customer Direct programs, driving programs projected to bring in over $100 million in incremental revenue. Before his tenure at HP, Brent was Director of Intelligence for AltaVista Company. There, he created the research group which combined multiple research disciplines to encompass broader strategic activities such as competitive intelligence, analysis of companies to be targeted by business development, advertising/traffic analysis to improve sales efforts and the evolution of customer retention metrics to accommodate the needs of the internet. Additionally, Brent was active in driving industry efforts to optimize market research techniques for the Internet and influencing third-party traffic measurement. While at the Compaq Computer Company, Brent was responsible for all primary consumer market research. This helped lead to the creation of multiple new consumer markets for the PC industry, which Compaq was able to exploit and subsequently dominate.
Brent received his B.A. in Economics and History from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and his Master’s of Marketing Research from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Back to top
- Bill Douglas - Global Project Sr. Director
Mr. Douglas has more than 15 years of experience in marketing research and information technology. For the past eight years, Bill progressed through increasing levels of responsibility at The Coca-Cola Company global headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Bill's recent role with Coca-Cola was the Director of Strategic Planning and Insights for the Beverage Partners Worldwide joint venture with Coca-Cola and Nestle, conducting research with marketing managers to develop new brand positioning for Nestea and related products. He managed key global tracking studies, advertising testing, beverage data suppliers, marketing mix models, and other multi-country research projects. He also worked with The McDonald's Division, supporting Coca-Cola's largest foodservice customer with international qualitative and quantitative research studies.
Previously, Bill worked in marketing research for several years at Kellogg's in breakfast categories and Reynolds' Consumer Products in household kitchen products categories. Bill's projects have covered a wide range, including market segmentation studies, new product development, sources of growth modeling, focus groups, competitive analysis, controlled store tests, advertising and merchandising testing and tracking, research designs and processes, and complex customer and supplier relationships.
Bill holds an MBA from The University of Virginia's Darden School, with an emphasis in marketing and quantitative analysis, and a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from Mississippi College. Prior to graduate school, Bill worked at IBM as a Systems Engineer, and is also an experienced presenter and instructor in several areas, including total quality management and team-building courses. Back to top
- Claudia Balmaseda - South America Sr. Director
Ms. Balmaseda has over 15 years of experience in project management and marketing research with multinational companies and management consulting firms.
Prior to imiPro, Claudia was Insights Manager for Mexico and Latin America at Zyman Group, a highly acclaimed consulting firm. In this position, she led mostly B2C strategic research for market share leading companies in the beverage, canned food, airline, and automotive fluids businesses. Project objectives encompassed value proposition enhancement, brand repositioning, and new brand introductions.
Claudia held the position of Competitive Intelligence Manager at The Coca-Cola Company Mexico, where she was in charge of investigating, analyzing and interpreting competitors’ business strategies with the objective of predicting them in the future. At Coca-Cola, Claudia also was Presearch & Trends Manager, in charge of designing and managing high-level research related to all new initiatives for all Coca-Cola brands prior to market implementation. Among Claudia’s accomplishments were the successful national introduction of Coca-Cola light (in substitution of diet Coke) with record sales and consumer alienation numbers within objectives; establishment of the discipline of Copy Testing in Mexico; design and implementation of a comprehensive Promotions Evaluation protocol.
In her role as Department Manager at Procter & Gamble Mexico, Claudia managed P&G’s Globalization Process, designing and coordinating strategic research for Latin America in the detergents category.
Claudia holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. She graduated with honors. Back to top
- An imiPro Partner: China Huaneng Sciences Company
China Huaneng Sciences Company hires the top notch graduates from the best universities in China. A group of elite young professionals has set up data processing modules to support imiPro’s global practice team at the highest standard. The data processing team supports imiPro with chart automation, data statistic testing, and other data processing works. Leveraging the US-China time differences, the team is critical to our time sensitive projects and meet our clients’ needs effectively. Back to top
To talk to our iProTeam members, please email: iproteam@imi-pro.com
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