Meet our Team

Laila is an experienced CEO and board director. She joined Material after serving as a Blackstone-appointed board chair of the company. Prior to joining Material, Laila served as COO and CEO of Aricent, a KKR-owned product design and engineering company. She was instrumental in Aricent’s $2 billion sale to Altran Technologies to create the largest digital design and engineering company in the world. She then served as CEO, Altran Americas. Previously, she served as one of the seniormost partners in BCG’s private equity practice and held several operational leadership roles at Accenture. Laila remains an active public and private company board director. Laila is passionate about working with our clients to drive growth, innovation, and competitiveness. Laila has an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS). She was appointed an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, where she taught strategy and led Harvard Business Review Global as CEO. She was awarded a prestigious David Rockefeller Fellowship by the Partnership for New York City and serves on the Advisory Board of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Sudhakar brings more than 20 years of experience and demonstrated leadership driving growth in a rapidly changing business environment. Prior to joining Material, Sudhakar held finance leadership roles for leading tech companies including IBM and AppViewX. He holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MS from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He lives in New York City.

Oscar is a seasoned insights and strategy executive with more than 20 years of experience leading both agencies and marketing organizations. In his most recent role, Oscar served as CEO and president of Ipsos Strategy3, the company’s marketing, brand and innovation consultancy business, which he developed and grew into a leading global consulting organization with offices in 21 markets. Prior to Strategy3, Oscar was a founding partner and head of brand at Kantar Vermeer, where he led client engagements in the travel, financial services, technology and CPG industries. Oscar has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an economics degree from Stanford University and is a frequently requested speaker on brand building. Oscar grew up in Los Angeles, has worked and lived in Europe and now resides in New York. He speaks Chinese and French, and enough Spanish to order something delicious in Puerto Vallarta.

As a trusted advisor to executives across leading brands, Jeremy is known for helping organizations transform insights into a strategic capability for meeting human needs and driving growth. He leads all market strategy and customer and consumer insights across client partnership, capability and delivery. Jeremy’s knowledge is founded on a 25-year career, including a Ph.D. in social psychology focused on human decision making as well as years as a leading director, inventor, strategist and client growth partner. Jeremy is a keynote speaker on the future of insights, how to avoid decision biases in business and how to use behavioral science and strategy to grow demand. He is a member of YPO, the Young Presidents’ Organization.

Caroline leads marketing, external affairs and market expansion teams at Material. Over the course of a career in agency and consulting roles, she developed a track record for helping organizations harness the power of creativity, market positioning and strategy to drive value. She’s worked with brands and institutions across many categories and is a thought partner to both colleagues and clients.  Caroline has a B.A. from Calvin University. She was born in Dubai, grew up between the UK and the American Midwest, and currently resides in Philadelphia. Caroline has served in leadership roles on major cultural institution boards and currently serves as a member of the Bermuda Stock Exchange Council.

Since joining Material in 2010, Andrew has become one of the company’s most successful client development leaders. In his current role, he heads revenue units that lead growth across design, technology and integrated marketing portfolios. Andrew has helped grow businesses for B2C and B2B research and consulting in over 80 countries for financial services, technology, retail, CPG, communications, pharmaceuticals, travel and entertainment. He was the leading developer of Material’s M+ ImpliCT™ ad testing system, which utilizes methods rooted in cognitive and evolutionary psychology to provide deeper insight into the creation of effective advertising. Andrew holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of California and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

A highly effective coach and strategic business partner for our people, Shelley oversees our global talent and people activities. She holds a professional coach certification from Co-Active Training Institute, which is considered the global gold standard of coaching. Shelley approaches her role with the belief that human resources plays a critical role in aligning our people with our business objectives. She works to create a culture of growth and learning and ensures everything her team does comes from a place of dignity and respect. While Shelley has been at Material, she has expertly led notable improvements to processes that impact our people’s experience and our ability achieve key business results – including growth and performance, change management and hiring. Shelley lives in sunny Los Angeles with her husband, son, and four rescue dogs. She’s a self-proclaimed coffee aficionado.

Saurabh is focused on establishing standardized systems, improved efficiencies and streamlined execution for delivery. His extensive global experience in both product and service organizations driving digital transformation makes Saurabh the ideal leader for product development and technology services.   Saurabh previously served as the global head of product and platform for the privately held digital technology services firm, Brillio. Saurabh has a master of computer science from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, where he currently lives.  

Susan focuses on creating solutions that enable creativity and collaboration. She has led large-scale strategic initiatives across the company, including guiding the integration of multiple acquisitions, partnering across IT and data security advancement initiatives, overhauling back-end research operations and orchestrating staff resource management.   Susan, who has worked in talent and marketing at Red Bull and The Walt Disney Company, joined Kelton Global in 2010 and helped establish the company as a widely recognized insights agency before being acquired by Material.  She received a BBA in finance from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and now lives in Portland, OR.