John Gerzema is Chief Insights Officer for Young & Rubicam Group. One of the earliest founders of account planning in American advertising agencies, John has designed brand strategies for clients for almost twenty—fi ve years, guiding campaigns to international strategic and creative recognition that resulted in The One Show Best of Show award, numerous EFFIE’s and several gold lions from The Cannes Advertising Festival. Prior to joining Y & R, Gerzema oversaw the international network for Fallon, and founded offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sâo Paulo. He holds a master’s degree in integrated marketing from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a B.S. in marketing from The Ohio State University.

Ed Lebar is CEO of BrandAsset Consulting Group. Ed manages BrandAsset Consulting around the world. He has helped grow BrandAsset Valuator into the largest brand model and database in the world, which now includes input from over 500,000 customers on 38,000 brands across 48 countries through 250 studies.
Before his career in marketing and advertising, Lebar was a professor of economics at CCNY and Finch College. He holds advanced degrees in economics from NYU and the University of Denver, and a B.A. from Syracuse University.