2020 Board of Director Nominees
DAA is pleased to present the 2020-21 Board of Director nominees. The member voting period is open from April 6 through April 17, 2020 at 11:59 PM ET. There are a total of seven Board seats up for election, in the below two sections. Voting members of the DAA receive an email with a unique voting link. If you were a member at the start of the voting period and did not receive an email please contact the membership team.
Please note the following important reminders:
- Only one ballot can be submitted by each voting member.
- Only the votes received during the specified timeframe will be counted as cast votes. Late ballot submissions will not be accepted.
- Only members of the DAA in good standing at the start of the voting period are eligible to vote in a Director election.
- All votes will remain confidential.
Slate
The slate consists of five Board seats and will be voted on as a block. Members can either vote for the slate or against the slate. The nominees on the slate are below, please click a name to expand or collapse the nominee information.
Click a name to expand or collapse nominee information panel.
Nominee Name: Jeff Allen
Nominee Company: Adobe
Nominee Job Title: Product Marketing Adobe Analytics
Country in which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic / Consultant / Practitioner / Vendor): Vendor
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyaallen/
In addition to helping shape the vision and strategy, Jeff regularly represents Adobe at numerous analyst, media, industry and Adobe-sponsored events. During his time at Adobe, Adobe Analytics has received numerous accolades from all major analyst publications. Most recently Adobe was recognized as a leader in the Forrester Wave, Web Analytics, November 2017 and the Gartner Magic Quadrant, Digital Marketing Analytics, September 2017.
Jeff has spent the last 20+ years of his career working in tech marketing, sales and product management roles. Prior to joining Adobe, he was VP of Marketing for AtTask (now Workfront), a hyper-growth SaaS project management company. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University in Russian and Business.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
I spent my first two terms focusing on redesigning the association's Awards program, creating the Quantie Awards, and helping to develop new streams of income. I think the mission of the DAA needs to continuously broaden and evolve the same way the scope of most analysts and data scientists are continuously evolving.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
I think the DAA has an opportunity to set a measurable standard for excellence in practitioners and executives who operate with data. I would like to see the DAA develop a system for credentialing our community that tells any employer how competent someone is in using the latest technologies and processes to improve and optimize their business. Additionally, I believe I can help the largest vendors in the industry to get behind such a certification.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
Like nearly analyst we serve, the mission of the DAA must evolve to the changing demands of insights professions and insights-driven businesses. I believe the DAA needs to expand its scope to continuously embrace adjacent technologies, use cases, and job functions to become the premier source of networking certification and best practices for the people who serve data-driven businesses. I believe I bring a unique perspective from customers, consultancies and independent software vendors that can help shape the direction of the DAA. I am in a decision-making position with one of the most widely used technologies in the industry and as such can help marshal the resources of the Adobe ecosystem to help the DAA and its members’ cause.
Nominee Name: Charles Davis
Nominee Company: Blast Analytics & Marketing
Nominee Job Title: VP, Solutions
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Consultant
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesjdavis/
I’ve been in the analytics industry for Blast for over 12.5 years. Blast is a leading analytics agency providing analytics consulting to the enterprise. I’ve also started and co-chaired the San Francisco Chapter of the DAA since its inception in 2012.
At Blast, I’ve helped develop our analytics practice as a practitioner and technical sales team member in the past and now as an executive leader. I also have the opportunity to communicate with analytics leaders, marketing leaders, and executives within our client organizations and understand their needs and long-term roadmaps.
Outside of analytics, I’ve been the President of the Governing Board of a local youth theater company (a 501.3(c) organization for 6.5 years, which has given me experience in managing the financial and operational challenges of a non-profit organization.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
Having started the San Francisco Chapter of the DAA and actively co-leading the Chapter since then, I bring a perspective on how Chapters can contribute in a more meaningful way to the direction of the DAA. Chapters are underutilized as a source of expertise and production to further the mission of the DAA. Chapters are currently not asked to help “advance the use of data to understand and improve the digital world.” They are asked to host events and increase the membership of the DAA.
My major contribution will be to initiate programs to involve chapters in efforts to advance the use of data to understand and improve the digital world.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
Beyond the stated contribution above, I will bring a perspective to the DAA that I believe will help push the DAA forward. That perspective is to focus the efforts of the DAA on fewer initiatives and centering those initiatives on areas that advance the analytics industry. The DAA must take stock of the things that it is doing and evaluate whether it is being done at a world class level. If it is not, then it should be scrapped or revised until it is at a world class level. An example is the Certified Web Analyst program. It is still branded as a “Web Analyst” certificate even though we’ve been the Digital Analytics Association for many years. And as one who is involved in the hiring of analysts on a regular basis, I can tell you that the CWA certification is not a factor in our hiring process. A program like the CWA program is inherently difficult, as are many of the programs that the DAA is involved in. They can be greatly improved through increased involvement from DAA membership or they need to be retired if they are not an effective vehicle for advancing the DAA Mission.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
The DAA needs to aggressively evolve to meet the needs of today’s analyst and today’s organizations. The DAA currently does far too many things that do not benefit either the analyst or the organizations that employ analysts. The DAA also does not do some things that it should be doing to help both parties.
An example is the DAA Community form and Community Groups. Instead of finding a way to participate in online discussions already happening, the DAA has added another channel to the already crowded set of channels professionals monitor or participate in. Currently, the majority of recent posts in the Community are from DAA employees or board members. This is an example of something that the DAA is spending energy and time on that isn’t supporting the DAA Mission.
An example of something the DAA could do to support professionals and organizations is to develop “Educational Roadmaps” based on target roles in an organization. If someone wants to be a Director of Digital Experience, what skills and experience do they need to have to achieve that role. Where can those skills and experience be gained (even if it’s from outside the DAA)? The DAA would be providing tremendous value to its members (both individual and corporate) by organizing outside educational resources into a roadmap (with options) for key analytics related roles.
These types of initiatives are achievable within two years if the DAA is purposeful in focusing on things that are of the greatest value to the industry.
Nominee Name: Nicholas Mihailovski
Nominee Company: Google, Inc.
Nominee Job Title: Senior Product Manager
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Vendor
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-mihailovski-1199264/
Before I founded Data Studio, I was the lead product manager for Google Analytics Core UI and Data Platform. In this role, I oversaw the vision, strategy, and launch of many successful features used by millions of users. A few of the top launches include: Universal Analytics, Intelligence, Benchmarking, Data Import, Offline Conversion Import, Custom Funnels, and Analytics Mobile App. In the role, I managed a team of product managers. I was awarded a patent for universal analytics server-side sessionalization, and was a frequent speaker at industry conferences.
Prior to leading Google Analytics, I managed the Google Analytics developer relations team. In this role, I developed the vision and strategy for the Google Analytics APIs, developer platform, and technology partner program. I founded the team and grew it to managing 5 direct reports and 15+ indirect reports. I launched 5 new APIs, including new versions of Google Analytics ubiquitous tracking code. I grew the Google Analytics reporting API to become one of the most popular APIs across Google, and grew the technology partner program to over 100 partners. In this role, I spent time evangelizing and was a global speaker for major online marketing and analytics conferences. I was also a co-founder of Web Analytics TV, an online video series with Avinash Kaushik.
When I first started at Google, I worked as an online marketing consultant. I developed analysis strategies for Fortune 1000 advertisers including: HP, CareerBuilder, Financial Times, Macy's, ReMax, Roche, Paramount Studios, Lionsgate. I pioneered studies to measure the influence of paid search on natural search, the impact of traditional media on online consumer behavior, and online advertising impact on in-store sales. I conducted many webinars, agency workshops, and presentations for C-level executive briefings.
In my first job out of college, I sold Urchin Software to global businesses. Urchin is a web log analysis and reporting tool. I worked with unique customers such as the US House of Representatives and the Canadian Space Agency to analyze their log data with Urchin. Urchin was acquired by Google, and became Google Analytics.
I graduated from the University of California Riverside with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. I still enjoy coding when I find the time.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
My 16 years of analytics industry experience gives me a unique perspective on the digital analytics industry.
From when I started at Urchin Software, I’ve seen the industry evolve from analyzing web logs to making digital analytics the backbone of strategic decision making. I’ve worked with small business, global enterprises, and agencies. I’ve worked across many aspects of analytics including consulting, building partner ecosystems, and building new products for analysts.
This experience gives me a unique perspective on where the digital analytics industry is going that I can use to help the DAA grow into the future.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
I can assist the DAA by furthering its mission to advance the use of data through professional development and community.
As the lead product manager for Google Data Studio, I advance the use of data everyday, making data analysis accessible to millions of business users. As data grows exponentially, and data access becomes easier, data analysis is becoming a core skill of modern jobs.
Business workers are being asked to measure the impact of their work. Journalists are being asked to optimize the content they write based on viewership. Teachers are being asked to improve student performance by analyzing attendance, test scores, and grades. These people don’t think of themselves of data analysts; data analysis is just a new component of their job.
Many of these new analysts lack the formal training to use data effectively and don’t know what questions data can answer, what tools are available, and how to find resources to help them.
I can leverage my leadership and product management experience to assist in making the DAA the premier resource for the emerging analytics community and to grow the proficiency of the overall analytics industry.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
The digital analytics space is growing fast. Analysts are uniting data across their companies, from different domains, to create new business insights. Many new tools have emerged across the vendor and open source landscape. In addition, new roles such as Data Engineer and Data Scientist are becoming common at many companies.
The DAA should be at the forefront of these changes uniting practitioners from across disparate domains to define best practices, new standards, and educate the next set of practioners.
My industry experience and my successful product management give me insights into how the industry is evolving. I can bring my knowledge to the DAA to form new partnerships across the industry, and to grow the overall analytics community. Now is an amazing time to be in the analytics space, it’s growing, evolving, and I want to help make the DAA the premier organization to guide the industry to the future.
Nominee Name: Mary Owusu
Nominee Company: Cansius College, Mower, Gurubound
Nominee Job Title: Assistant Professor of Marketing and Information Systems, Senior Advisor, Digital Strategy & Analytics, Founder and Consultant
Country in which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic / Consultant / Practitioner / Vendor): Academic/Consultant
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryo/
In 2003 when I began my career in search marketing, it wasn’t long before I realized that I was a far better analyst than I was a client-schmoozer. I could care less if my client ranked #1 in Google--it mattered more to me that their increased rankings were contributing to meaningful business impact such as sales, conversions, phone calls, etc. This conversion-focus set me apart from my peers early on in my career asI fully embraced analytics as my calling. And I haven’t looked back.
Now, almost two decades later, I’m blessed to have been able to make a career out of my passion for linear thinking and my drive to always ask the so-what questions.
Over my career, I have been able to serve clients such as Chiquita, Ford, Radisson Hotel and Siemens, providing digital marketing and analytics solutions and driving qualified conversions to their businesses. I’ve spent the last 5+ years as VP, Digital Strategy and Analytics at Mower (www.mower.com), a leading independent marketing agency with 9 locations throughout the U.S. There, my responsibility was to oversee the agency’s cross-office digital marketing team, and develop the analytics products necessary to sustain our position as a forward-thinking agency. And the DAA has been instrumental in my success.. I was able to grow the team, expand our offerings and lead the adoption of a major BI tool that enables advanced analytics and digital transformation
My DAA membership has been more than influential to my career growth, and I cannot say enough about the wealth of support it has afforded me. Equally important is the fact that I am committed to the DAA as well. My journey with the DAA began In 2017 when I was asked to represent the DAA as its Women in Analytics keynote speaker in the last-ever eMetrics Summit. Later that year, I volunteered for and subsequently served on the University of British Columbia’s Content Review Task Force, helping the DAA organization revise the digital marketing course work provided by the university. Since then, I’ve been blessed to join the DAA board where I’ve served as the liaison for the Education taskforce, Women in Analytics initiative, the 2020 Symposia project, and a resource to the marketing team for consultation on marketing channels and strategies. I’ve served these roles with a deep commitment and would love the opportunity to continue to see the DAA move forward in these initiatives.
I believe that to live is to change--and I recently left my corporate career and entered academia full-time. It was a HUGE change for me, but I needed to start saying yes to spending more time with my family--and yes to democratizing the digital analytics field for future generations. I love that through the case studies and open discussions I share in class, I'm able to bring diversity, equity and inclusion into the classroom so that students (MBAs and undergrads)--regardless of their backgrounds--can appreciate each other and take their learnings back to their workplaces and their inner circles. I love pushing the envelope with them and making them really think about how marketing and analytics intersect with diversity, society, sustainability, ethics and just about everything in-between. In fact, I’ve been an adjunct professor since 2012, and in that role, I’ve helped introduce many new digital analytics professionals into our field. I’ve been inspired by them as I’ve coached and mentored them--and I’m especially proud of the women and the people of color who have joined our field after being students in my classroom.
Through my continued involvement with the DAA board, I hope to continue to bring an innovative perspective to a STEM field that's often seen as complex and complicated, drive up membership, and diversify our base.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
Build upon the DAA’s commitment to inclusion by helping to grow racial diversity at both the member and board levels. It goes without saying that diversity, equity and inclusion are important tenets to any organization. The DAA has done an incredibly notable job of building up gender diversity. I would like to keep the momentum going by putting focus on the racial minority segment as well. If reelected to the board, I will work with my peers to assess the DAA’s penetration with people of color, and based on what we learn, develop strategies for sustained diversification and inclusion. For example, I would love to explore how we can leverage partnerships with urban communities and perhaps inner-city colleges and high schools to elevate awareness of the DAA while expanding the diversity of our member base.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
The DAA’s mission of advancing the use of data to understand and improve the digital world through professional development and community resonates deeply with me. As a relatively young person who has advanced professionally within the analytics field, I know how important professional development and networks are to growing in this field. As a member of the DAA board, I can bring leadership and best practices to the young analytics professionals within the DAA by forming and engaging in groups and communities where we can all learn, network, kick imposter syndrome to the curb, and become stronger in our work. I also think the mid- and senior-level analyst is a critical group for the DAA. I like to think that I fall within that category and will be personally motivated to help the DAA organization develop effective “safe places” where this group can air day-to-day challenges, and get help from our peers.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
Continue working with the Education taskforce to clarify and define the DAA’s education offerings. One of the tenets of the DAA’s mission is professional development—and education is at the core of that. Over the years, the DAA has offered various educational services to our member base. With so many online courses available elsewhere to members now, we need to identify and leverage a niche where the DAA can add the most value. I’m committed to helping the Education taskforce continue to explore partnerships and opportunities that make us a go-to resource for analytics education.
Advance the DAA’s reach and its mentorship program. The DAA has been a well-kept secret for a long time. Membership has grown steadily yet slowly, and awareness of the DAA continues to be low across various groups within our target market (be that non-marketing analysts e.g. PR practitioners, data scientists, or anything in-between). We need to define exactly who our ideal customers are, then hyper-target them through specific awareness advertising to drive up membership. I am looking forward to continuing to be a resource for the DAA’s marketing team (as I have been) to ensure that we continue to challenge ourselves, put forward break-through creative, define our perfect customer avatars, and track/optimize our campaigns for razor-sharp performance.
Build stronger networks between the DAA and the academia segment. Since 2012, I have spent part of my career teaching digital marketing and analytics to college-aged undergraduate and graduate students. And this year, I’ve fully leaned into my calling and made full-time professorship my career. In today’s world, many colleges are trying to patch together “digital marketing” and “analytics” degrees and certifications, but many are unsure of how to go about it—and even more of them are unaware that there is an association that can be a partner to them in the process. If reelected to the board, I will work with my peers to determine paths to effective integration with colleges across the world. The more awareness we can build for DAA within the academia segment, the more members we can grow, as students, professors and administrators begin to see the value that the DAA offers to the field.
Reenergize or create a program that allows DAA members to give back to the world at large through pro bono analytics work. What good is data if we can’t use it for good? It’s no secret that the field of analytics is daunting to many businesses, and non-profits/NGOs/humanitarian groups are no exception. As a member of the DAA board, I will work with others to assess the opportunity for establishing a means by which DAA members can meaningfully offer pro bono work to organizations that would otherwise be unable to afford such services. I *think* such a program may have been created by the DAA in the past – so as a board member, I will work with my peers to uncover what worked, what didn’t, and how we can use those learnings to develop something that delivers and helps those who need it most.
Nominee Name: Rusty Rahmer
Nominee Company: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Nominee Job Title: US Head of Customer Experience Solutions
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Practitioner
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rustyrahmer/
As an analytics leader and practitioner, I’ve been building out and leading digital strategy, UX, Analytics and Customer Experience, and Digital Center of Excellence teams for enterprise scale companies over the last 15 years.
As an industry thought leader, I have published dozens of thought leadership articles, white papers, and blog posts, appeared on industry leading pod casts and webinars, and been featured speaker and/or key note and numerous conferences and industry events including; Adobe Summit, eMetrics, DAA Symposia, Marketing Evolution Experience, and DA Hub.
As a member of the DAA, I have served on the DAA Board of Directors for the last 4 years leading Membership, Peer to Peer, and Corporate Member committees, serving as board liaison to local chapters, and on the Board’s Executive Committee as Secretary, President Elect, President, and now currently as Chair of the Board.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
This is a significant and pivotal period in the evolution of our industry and the DAA must continue to evolve.
My focus on the board will continue to be empowering local chapters and chapter leaders to play a larger and more significant role in helping the DAA evolve and achieve necessary success in its many strategic and critical initiatives.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
As a practitioner, corporate member, and member of a local chapter, I feel that I can bring focus and understanding as to how the industry is evolving, the challenges of our roles and leadership in the ever -hanging times, and clarity/vision as to how our practice fits with the broader evolving ecosystem of connected customer experiences.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
Being the only professional organization in the world with 15 years of experience, I believe over the next 2 years the DAA must flex its experience and muscle in helping the world understand how digital analytics as a practice fits inside the ever evolving landscape of connected and orchestrated customer experience. I believe the world sees many of these new roles such as Data Science, Customer Experience, Product Owner, Experimentation Lead, etc. as confusing, potentially conflicting and perhaps even redundant, however, the DAA is uniquely positioned to help the world see how all of these pieces are not only necessary but complimentary within their organization, and the bring forth the best practices in organizational design and ways of working between these roles/groups/teams.
Finally, I also believe the DAA has a very unique value proposition and differentiator in the industry... community. As such, I believe the DAA must recognize this unique differentiator and find new mothods, formats, channels, platforms, and structures to force multiply the incredible value community offers to it’s membership, sponsors, and partners.
I believe my history and experience serving on this board will continue to help this community and the DAA find the right path to achieving these critical outcomes.
At-Large
The at-large consists of two Board seats. Members will vote for two nominees, the nominees with the highest number of votes pursuant to existing election guidelines and policies will be elected to the Board of Directors. The nominees for the at-large seats are below, please click a name to expand or collapse the nominee information.
Nominee Name: Mike Grehan
Nominee Company: Acronym Media
Nominee Job Title: CMO & Managing Director
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Consultant
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegrehan/
Mike is CMO & Managing Director with the digital marketing industry’s longest established, and largest independent search marketing agency. He’s a seasoned marketing professional, international conference speaker, published author and largely regarded as an industry thought leader. He’s former publisher of Search Engine Watch and ClickZ, two of the industry's longest serving and most popular resources for digital marketing professionals, as well as former producer of the SES international Conference & Expo series.
Former Chairman and ten-year board member of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), the industry's largest global trade association Mike is also Senior Member of ACM, the world's largest educational and scientific computing society advancing computing as a science and a profession. Within ACM Mike is a longtime member of the special interest group for information retrieval science (SIGIR).
Coming online back in 1995 Mike formed the UKs first internet marketing consultancy. By 1998 the firm was focused entirely on search. In 1999 he wrote the fist comprehensive book on search engine optimization. The updated version in 2002 was a best-seller worldwide. Also, in 2002, he sold his SEO consultancy to Fredrick Marckini, founder of iProspect, now the words largest Performance Marketing agency employing more than 3,500 worldwide.
Formerly Mike was a popular professional radio and TV broadcaster in the UK. He was the first independent radio personality in the UK to build an audience of over one million listeners. He is an accomplished communicator (both verbal and written) and frequently appears on webinars, hangouts and industry videos and blogs.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
As a prominent figure, industry leader and commentator within the search marketing industry, Mike is perfectly positioned to help transition members of the former search marketing trade association (SEMPO) into the new special interest group within the DAA. Heading up the new leadership group of the SIG he will help stimulate new interest with existing members, bring in new members and act as evangelist for search analytics and search marketing generally within the organization and externally with press and the community at large.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
By helping to form a SIG within the DAA and assisting in broadening the reach into the digital marketing industry, the DAA community will grow and become more diverse. As the remit within the digital marketing industry increases the community will grow. More knowledge will become available and shared providing much greater opportunities for professional and personal development throughout the membership.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
In two years from now the DAA should have a consolidated group of SIGs representing the entire digital marketing industry, supported by corporate sponsorships from the major tech marketing organizations. The growth in specialist areas of membership should also be reflected in the training and educational content at in person meetings, events and conferences at local, national and international level. By creating and developing the a system and process for seamlessly integrating and growing new communities within the overall membership, we can create a “SIG in Box” model.
Nominee Name: Michael Helbling
Nominee Company: AJL Analytics, LLC
Nominee Job Title: Owner
Country in which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic / Consultant / Practitioner / Vendor): Consultant
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mymotech/
Michael Helbling is a seasoned digital analytics leader. After entering the industry in 2004, he quickly rose to prominence as an industry contributor, blogger, and speaker. He has spent time as both a practitioner and consultant, working at and for many global brands. After joining Search Discovery in 2012, he took on the leadership of the Analytics Practice there in 2013. In 2019 he started his own company, AJL Analytics, where he advises executives on digital analytics strategy. Michael is a co-host of the highly rated Digital Analytics Power Hour podcast.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
Michael brings a pragmatic sense of what it means to fulfill the promise of digital analytics. For an individual this means understanding what it takes to move their career, expertise, and development within their chosen career path. For organizations this means a strong sense of how an Analytics Ecosystem must be developed so that analytics can flourish in the context of their organization.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
Now more than ever what it means to progress as an analyst and grow in your profession is changing and growing. The DAA at its finest is a place where our community is engaged in ways that foster growth for all of us. My passion is for the people of analytics. As analysts we desire to make an impact in our work and want to be trusted and understood in the businesses that we support. Further, the technologies and systems for pursuing analytics are evolving, and the role of the digital analytics professional is expanding beyond just digital data. I am passionate about leading that evolution wherever I am. Embracing and encouraging the use of skills and technologies that will propel us forward is something I care about deeply. My experience leading teams of people in the work of analytics, encouraging their growth, and learning from them is at the heart of what I bring into the DAA as a board member.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
Much of what we do as digital analysts can feel threatened today by the rapid changes of browsers and government regulation. I believe that in times of potential hardship that is when our creativity and innovation can really rise to the top. In the next two years we are going through an exciting evolution as an industry. This is a challenge to be enthusiastically engaged in as an industry. The skills required to execute as a digital analyst are changing dramatically as the de facto tools become less monolithic and are able to be accessed by their individual services: data collection, data storage, data manipulation, and data presentation and visualization. This will require even more thoughtfulness and planning at a strategic and governance level and the increasing maturity of practice across the analytics landscape makes me highly optimistic for what is on the horizon. I am excited to participate in a Digital Analytics Association that is embracing that future and providing guidance and education to our members and the broader community so that more and more people can participate in this amazing industry.
Nominee Name: Hannah Hutchison
Nominee Company: Neo Media World
Nominee Job Title: Manager, Insights & Analytics
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Consultant
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahhutchison/
Hannah Hutchison, currently a Manager of Insights and Analytics at Neo Media World has been a member of the DAA for the past 3 years and in the past year been a chapter leader for the NYC chapter. Prior to working at Neo Media World, Hannah had worked on Vidaris’ Marketing and Communication team helping to set-up Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing tools to help support Business Development. Hannah has a BS.BA in Marketing from the University of Tulsa and a Graduate Certificate in Information Science, Business Analytics from the University of Arkansas.
To say that Hannah is an extremely valuable asset to Neo would be an understatement – she has been critical to delivering results across numerous clients and driving agency-wide analytics initiatives. Hannah leads media analytics initiatives across many of Neo’s largest clients, and she has expertise in web analytics, data management, data visualization, tagging, attribution, and cross-channel media measurement. Hannah is a collaborative and trusted teammate, always willing to roll up her sleeves to help out. Not only does Hannah have strong analytical and technical skills, but she applies a strategic way of thinking, always seeking opportunities to drive more efficiency or improve the quality of results.
Despite being very busy with client work, Hannah has a strong passion and commitment for learning and development and spreading knowledge of analytics. She somehow finds the time to create content and lead company wide training sessions, contribute as a DAA chapter lead, and attend and participate in several industry conferences per year.
These qualities, and above all her passion for analytics, would make her an excellent candidate for a position on the DAA Board. The DAA would be incredibly lucky to have Hannah on its Board, and I have no doubt she would dedicate the same enthusiasm and work ethic to the DAA Board as she has contributed to Neo.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
As a member of the board, I would bring the dedication to this industry and passion for data to help grow the membership base with my experience as a Chapter leader to help provide support to these hard-working teams. The goal would be to provide the right resources to equip our chapter leaders to plan events that engage with the DAA and network to grow the life-blood of the industry and then helping to expand our offerings for training and industry resources.
Since transitioning to her role as a Chapter leader last year, Hannah has grown even more passionate and committed to growing the connection to the industry. She has been an active contributor to the DAA and sought opportunities to share her ideas to improve the overall involvement and quality of content across the association. Hannah has grown interest and involvement in the DAA across our agency, and I’m confident that if given the opportunity to participate on the board, she would be able to increase the scale of her outreach. The work that she’s already done with the DAA, as well as the outreach across our own analytics team, would translate extremely well to this position. She’s not afraid to speak up with new and creative ideas, and has a very good sense of needs/topics that are extremely relevant for the industry.
As stressed quite frequently throughout this nomination, her passion and work ethic are among two of her greatest qualities, which would be tremendous assets to the DAA!
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
The DAA has continued to evolve from the WAA to be a place for Analysts to continue to grow and learn across the industry. With the inclusion of SEMPO in 2020 it has started to prove out the desire to be a larger force in the industry at large. With my experience working alongside our Analytics counterparts who are utilizing the Web Analytics tools and then applying additional data sets I believe I can help expand the training certifications and focus on the wider industry ultimately helping to grow the association membership.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
The DAA will not continue to grow unless it continues to be a forefront in the communities. This means helping to equip chapter leaders with easy to access tools and services in planning events. For a Digital first community the website and interactions with the community are behind the times and a focus should not just be on the membership perks but on the brand that the DAA can showcase itself to be. This would be identifying was to utilize the budget and resources in the community to create content beyond the “cookbook” that they can provide to those not directly in the industry to help promote the work the community is doing.
Nominee Name: Lynn Lanphier
Nominee Company: U.S. Bank
Nominee Job Title: Senior Director, Marketing Analytics
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Practitioner
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-lanphier-29a2961/
Core Qualifications & Strengths:
- Analytics thought leader with track record of creating strategic vision to enable data-driven decision making
- Ability to identify data trends and develop analytic solutions
- Ability to analyze, interpret and identify actionable insights from various data sources
- Ability to drive change throughout an organization
- Proven leader adept at leveraging individual team member skill sets and talents
- Ability to enhance collaboration among team members and across business units
- Effective communicator and influencer across all levels of the organization
- Proven ability to adapt to changing technologies and business priorities
Lead, manage and mentor a team of marketing technologists and analytics professionals responsible for analytics strategies, customer targeting and segmentation for digital and direct marketing channels. Responsible for targeting strategies, advanced segmentation, measuring marketing performance, generating customer insights, identifying emerging trends and providing actionable recommendations. Act as change agent for digital transformation and an advocate for the customer.
- Built Retail Payment Solutions digital analytics practice from the ground up through the hiring, training and mentoring of analytics talent, revamping of processes and implementation of new technology
- Create customer-based strategies using analytical insights, AB test results and consumer research
- Measure multi-channel campaign performance, analyze results and translate information into data-driven marketing strategies
- Led the development of multi-touch attribution and digital propensity models designed to increase conversions and reduce marketing costs
- Business owner of acquisition database used for direct mail targeting and analytics as well as a privacy compliant marketing analytics platform that integrates online and offline data used for analytics and audience development for digital targeting
- Chapter Leader for the local chapter of Digital Analytics Association in the Twin Cities
- Digital Analytics Hub Huddle Leader (2018)
- Member of Forrester Research Customer Insights and Analytics Council
Defined vision and set the strategic direction for Enterprise Digital Analytics capability. Led a team of 25+ resources who were responsible for data collection, reporting, analysis and optimization of digital interactions across the web. Championed the use of data analytics across the organization for business planning, performance evaluation and customer experience improvements. Synthesized data and presented analysis to various levels of stakeholders. Managed vendor relationships with a variety of analytics providers, consultants and contractors. Oversaw multi-million dollar marketing and technology budget. Led the Enterprise Digital Data Governance team focused on developing policies to secure and protect digital data, maintain data dictionary and monitor data quality, approve new tag requests and provide guidelines for proper usage of digital data and metrics. Selected to facilitate the Women Employee Network (WEN) Mentorship Circle mentoring emerging professionals. Provided strategic direction on Digital Analytics Job Competency Framework for Digital Analytics Association.
Industry involvement:
- Digital Analytics Association Retail SIG (Founding Member)
- Adobe Analytics Customer Advisory Board
- Experian Consumer Insights Client Advisory Board
- Hitwise Client Advisory Board
- Digital Analytics Hub Huddle Leader (2016)
- xChange Huddle Leader (2012, 2013, 2014)
- Public Speaking: eMetrics, Accelerate, Internet Retailer, eTail West
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
The major contribution I can bring to DAA and its membership is my track record and leadership in developing and evolving analytics capabilities and teams. And it all starts with the people. My goal as an Analytics Leader has always been to hire smart people and get out of their way. Business moves fast, so I must enable the team to make decisions and not be afraid of mistakes. I also know that if I invest my time and energy in their development that they will move on to bigger roles elsewhere. It is a risk I am willing to take to grow new leaders who will amaze when given the chance. For me, it has always been about the people.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
I can help the DAA meet the objectives of its mission by first and foremost listening to the Community. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? What is getting in the way of analytics success? Understanding what they need will help in developing new and/or refining existing programs, research, and events. One area I am very much interested in is the update of the DAA Competency Framework. I was involved in the creation of the original framework and found the process as well as output extremely valuable when developing job descriptions. Not only has the digital analytics industry evolved since the original framework was developed, my perspectives from being in a new industry (moved from Retail to Financial Services) and expanding my responsibilities beyond digital analytics to include direct mail and digital targeting, and the competencies to succeed in Analytics have evolved as well.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
Just as Analytics teams will continually evolve over the next two years to meet the demands of the business and technology changes, so must the DAA evolve. In my experience, Analytics teams are no longer doing just digital analytics. Many data topics are being integrated to complete the 360-view of the customer for marketing purposes as well as managing operations and improving the customer experience across all touchpoints. Companies will continue to invest in digital transformation activities that are focused on improving the customer experience, identifying monetization opportunities and exploiting new data sources. The analytics landscape continues to grow and change, and just as it did in 2012 when the Web Analytics Association chose to update its name to Digital Analytics Association, the time may be upon us to undergo another re-branding to again reflect the ‘full gamut of the data analytics field’ the DAA strives to support. In addition, while digital data will continue to be important data in the toolbox, customer privacy regulation and the eventual death of cookies, will result in the data being less valuable. Now is the time for DAA to seek feedback from its membership on potential name changes. Possible updates to the Digital Analytics Association name could be Customer Analytics or Data and Analytics. DAA could still be used for Data and Analytics minimizing the impact to brand awareness and possibly save some money on re-branding efforts.
In addition to evolving the name, as a DAA Board Member, I can provide thought-leadership as the conversation shifts from analytics technologies to building a culture of analytics through data literacy programs focused on outcomes and business benefits. Analytics teams are challenged with determining the value of data and analytics, and providing proven methods for building analytics cultures and data literacy programs would benefit even the most established Analytics programs. I would provide the members with best practices that leverage research from industry consulting (Gartner, Forrester or McKinsey, etc.) as well as input from Analytics practitioners who have built a culture of analytics and/or have established data literacy programs.
Nominee Name: Katinya Lilly
Nominee Company: OptumRx
Nominee Job Title: Manager, Digital Analytics & Intelligence
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Practitioner
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katinyalilly/
Currently, I am a manager in the Digital Analytics and Intelligence organization at OptumRx which is the Pharmacy Care division of UnitedHealth Group. My team is comprised of data analysts and data engineers that manage the reporting, data storytelling, and client engagement analytics for clients that utilize the OptumRx digital properties as well as perform data storytelling for the executive suite. Prior to OptumRx, I worked as a Manager of Digital Analytics for Hilton where I helped to establish a digital analytics center of excellence. I am an active member of the Digital Analytics Association and have mentored four upcoming analytics practitioners through the DAA Mentoring Program. I have been working in digital through various industries for over 20 years and specifically in analytics for 12 of those years. I have degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science. Currently, I am the Vice President of a brand new middle school in the Prosper Independent School District. I have had the privilege of establishing a PTO process for a new school and am having fun setting up a new program.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
My goal is always to help those in need. This would be an ideal position for me to do that in my industry while volunteering for a worthy cause.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
I am an avid parliamentarian and visionary. I love organization, and I think that would help the organization to grow in our digital association footprint.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
Previously, the organization shifted from web analytics to digital analytics. It is now time to shift again to encompass data science, marketing analytics, etc. Helping to develop the analytics landscape and how we all fit into that landscape is a passion of mine.
Nominee Name: Corey Morris
Nominee Company: Voltage
Nominee Job Title: Vice President of Marketing
Country is which nominee is located: United States
Nominee Sector (Academic/Consultant/Practitioner/Vendor): Consultant
Nominee LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreymorris/
Corey serves as Vice President of Marketing for Voltage. He has spent 15 years working in strategic and leadership roles focused on growing national and local client brands with award-winning, ROI-generating digital strategies. He's a recent recipient of the KCDMA 2019 Marketer of the Year award. He started digital marketing as a service at Voltage and most recently has led the agency overall to 54% year-overyear growth in 2019.
In addition to his role at Voltage, he has served on the global board of SEMPO as the VP of Cities and ran the successful local events-driven program He previously led the local SEMPO Cities initiative in Kansas City upon founding the KC Search Marketing Conference. His role in establishing the conference was recognized by being presented the SEMPO Skyscraper Award.
Corey is also a thought leader in the search marketing industry as he is a VIP contributor to Search Engine Journal, a contributor to Forbes, speaks locally and through North America on SEO and digital marketing topics including at SMX events, and formerly served as co-host of a monthly tech radio show.
All of his roles, the work he has done, and his focuses in digital marketing work toward a business goal. That’s how nearly every prospect and client meeting starts–asking about goals and starting the process of working backwards and crafting a measurement plan. Analytics is woven into everything he does, his agency does, and in how marketing success is measured.
Beyond the day-to-day work, Corey has demonstrated his passion for learning and sharing knowledge in the digital marketing industry and seeing people connect and make meaningful relationships. He’s big on giving back which is evidenced through is past work on local marketing club committees and boards, in founding a conference, on a global board, and serving others as an advisor to Northwest Missouri State University among institutions.
What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
Through past experience, I’ll work to help support and strengthen chapters bringing insight from running the successful SEMPO Cities program. Wearing both an analytics hat and a search marketing one, I’ll help bridge the gap between chapters and the new Search SIG. This will include connecting volunteer leaders at the local level, helping support chapters with programming and structural ideas, and further integrating marketing thinking to the analytics focus of the organization.
My experience serving on a global board, being a local community organizer, and someone who speaks/writes in the industry will be valuable in brining new energy to the DAA board. I’m big on giving away helpful content and ideas and would be willing to do webinars and workshops to educate on basics and advanced tactics in digital marketing, plus measuring the efforts.
I have pitched to speak at the October OneConference and would be interested in helping with networking and recruiting speakers for it as well based on my relationships and experiences with the national search marketing speaking circuit.
I believe that when looking at the criteria listed for the “most qualified” candidates for the board that I meet many of them including:
• Being a member–My organization is a corporate member due to the large amount of financial and hours donated to SEMPO that transferred over for the first year with DAA (thanks recognizing and honoring that)
• Substantial engagement with the DAA–This is just starting and carrying over from my commitment to SEMPO as I am involved now in the Search SIG and am pushing to connect chapters with SEMPO Cities leaders
• Time in the industry using analytics–I have 15 years of industry experience utilizing analytics in all roles I have had in digital marketing
• Ability to provide strategic direction–I went through both positives and negatives on the global SEMPO board and in local organizations. I want to leverage this and share where I can and am given the opportunity with DAA.
• Previous board experience–beyond SEMPO and local marketing groups + founding and running a conference, I serve on advisory boards with universities.
• Teaching, presenting, writing–I do all of the above in the search community as I present free and paid workshops in the US and Caribbean, write for Search Engine Journal and Forbes, guest lecture at schools, and present at local and national conferences.
• Additionally, I believe I do possess the communication skills and management experience noted as well as have the ability to commit to monthly hours and travel to face-to-face meetings.
How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?
I think I can use my experience (both positive and negative) to help expand the reach of the organization. That will be primarily through outreach to digital marketers who all rely on analytics. There are many agencies and companies (like my own) that don’t yet have analytics or data teams or dedicated roles in their organizations yet.
Through content, learning opportunities, chances to connect at a local level, and having a go-to resource like DAA will be important and I want to contribute to “advancing” the use of data.
I specifically want to focus on in-person events whether one-off DAA events in locations that are not yet chapters or supporting chapters in engaging the broader digital marketing community, I think there’s a lot of value in having a marketer’s mindset and my track record to leverage the mission and expand the audience while staying focused on the mission.
Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?
The DAA needs to continue to leverage the fact that everything online is measurable and drives toward analytics for validation. Taking and maintaining the lead in the industry for best practices, the technologies available, being the leading neutral/trusted resource for the industry, and fostering in person networking are all important.
Two years from now the DAA should be stronger by continued expansion of key audiences while staying true to the mission. That means continuing to welcome SIGs, other organizations (like SEMPO), and to continue to broaden the call to join and get involved. A larger membership base, more sponsors, and continued value offered to members will be key to remaining the leader and an engaging organization to be part of.