Interview | Understanding the Why: The Necessity of Insights

First off, how do you define insight? I define insight as understanding the deeper dynamics of what is going on: why it’s happening and how it’s happening. Insight means getting at more of the story, understanding especially why exceptions happen. Insight goes deeper than just telling you there are differences in a specific topic; it […]

Avoiding Bias in Market Research: Types of Bias

Bias happens. Just being human means you have many biases. They’re inherent in our preferences, our likes and dislikes, our expectations and experiences. Biases are underlying factors that cause prejudices that can lead us to favor one thing over another, even though the thing in question may have little or no material difference. In a […]

Interview | Insight Can Clarify Our Observations 

How do you define insight? For me, insight is most easily defined as information that reveals something or someone’s true nature. It penetrates below the surface layer, not only to confirm and/or defy our observations, but to clarify them. Clarification is the key differentiator between information and insight. What is the difference between information and […]

Interview | Insight Lies Beyond Information

How do you define insight, and how is it different from information? Insight is a broad term. It could have many definitions, but for the sake of our conversation, let’s focus on “insight helps businesses make better, more informed decisions.” When you unpack this premise, you get to an “insights value chain” that goes from […]

The Problem of Bias

Bias distorts truth. It is wrapped up with our humanity, a bug in the system that we don’t often recognize. Bias can be as straightforward as unconscious preference and it can be simple or sinister. But, however they manifest, the biases we harbor interfere with our ability to understand the real environment around us. Facts […]

Interview | Insight Is Novel, Actionable, and Valuable

First off, how do you define insight? I define insight as information that has been made actionable. There’s an “aha” factor to it. If the insight is very powerful, it’s probably something that is not immediately obvious; it’s not merely an observation. An insight can transform the way you look at the world around you: […]

Pardon Me, Your Bias Is Showing: How to Avoid Bias in Survey Design

We are all susceptible to bias. Our preferences, upbringings, and experiences all leave us predisposed to thinking and feeling a particular way. The good news is that there are proven ways to either avoid bias in your surveys or, at the very least, minimize its impact on your survey results. Our biases are ingrained in […]

Interview | Market Research Should Strive for Insights, Not Just Information

How would you define insight? Insight is knowledge that makes a difference. Knowledge is ubiquitous in business. For example, sales have gone down this quarter by 5%; our brand awareness in the U.S. is 20% higher than in APAC. These would be just facts and numbers. In and of themselves, there’s nothing wrong with facts […]

Speaker Biographies

Hilary Malone PhD, has over 25 years of experience in global drug development, regulatory &government affairs, manufacturing and commercialization within the biopharma industry. Hilary hassignificant board level and executive committee experience including large scale organizationalrestructuring/transformation/integration, major M&A, biotech start-up, capital raising, investorrelations and pre-IPO.​

Hilary is currently CEO of Stylus Medicine, a private genetic medicine biotech company. Previously sheserved as CEO of a Series-A neuroscience company. Prior to these roles, Hilary served as COO & EVP atValo Health Inc., Chief Regulatory Officer & SVP at Sanofi Inc., and Chief Regulatory Officer & SVP atPfizer and Wyeth. Previous experience also includes senior regulatory and drug development roles atReata Pharmaceuticals Inc., AstraZeneca plc and GlaxoSmithKline plc.​

Hilary also serves on the Board of Directors of Hansa Biopharma and Adthera Bio. Hilary holds a PhD inMolecular Neuropharmacology and a BSc in Physiology.

Dr. Thomas Lönngren is Director at his own company PharmaExec Consulting AB. He is the Chairman of the Board of directors at Egetis Therapeutics AB, Sweden. Dr Lönngren also serves as board member at Compass Pathways PLC, London UK and NDA Group, Sweden. He acts as advisor to the following companies and organizations: NDA group, Sweden, Sweden, Artis Venture, San Francisco, US, Fujimoto Japan, Skin2Neuron Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia, US, Special advisor to the Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science (CIRS), London UK. From 2001 until2011, Mr.Lönngren served as the Executive Director of the European Medical Agency. He was previously Deputy General Director of the Swedish Medical Product Agency until 2000. He has a degree in pharmacy and MSc in Social and Regulatory Pharmacy from Uppsala University. He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Great Britain, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala, Honorary Doctorate from University of Bath, UK.

Speaker Biographies

Marie-Anne Aymerich

Marie-Anne has built a portfolio of senior advisory and non-executive roles, following a successful international career in the FMCG and Luxury sectors. She is a non-executive director of Haleon, a FTSE100 company listed in 2022 after the demerger from GSK. She is also chairwoman of Haleon Environment and Societal Sustainability committee. She is the executive director of the Pierre Fabre Group where she also sits on the Strategic Committee, and she is a Board Member of The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, one of the world’s most prestigious chamber orchestras. She is also an angel investor and focuses her time and investments on start-ups with the strongest purpose and impact.

Marie-Anne is also a regular lecturer at HEC Paris on purposeful leadership, and she has created a serious game called “Planet Purpose” to upskill people on sustainability and purpose. Throughout her 35year executive career she delivered a strong track-record of business performance and growth in brands and portfolio in both developed and emerging economies.

As a senior leader with Unilever, she led a number of different personal care categories across France, Spain and the USA – including managing the Dove brand worldwide and culminating in leading Unilever’s global Oral Care division. She also worked for LVMH as Brand General Manager of Dior Perfumes and Cosmetics worldwide. Marie-Anne was also Vice-President of Imagine for Margo – Children with Cancer for ten years, a charity she helped found in 2011 with the goal of eradicating children’s cancer. The charity is the #1 charity focused on child cancer in France and has fundraised more than €14m since its creation. Marie-Anne is a graduate from HEC Paris. She is married and has two children aged 29 and 26.

Patrick Jephson

Patrick Jephson is a consultant, journalist, broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author, based in Washington D.C. He is a published authority on corporate and personal branding and crisis communications, addressing conferences worldwide as well as events at the U.S. State Department, the American University and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

With more than twenty-five years’ experience in the government, luxury and family office sectors, Patrick’s portfolio has included globally admired brands as well as national agencies and NGOs. He has also worked on reputation and legacy briefs with European, Middle Eastern and Asian families, including royalty. He now writes, presents, and advises on factual and drama TV programs, appearing on every major American and many international networks. He was recently an expert consultant to the award-winning Netflix series The Crown and provided live commentary on the Coronation of King Charles.

Patrick owes much of his practical communications and protocol experience to Princess Diana, who chose him to be her equerry and only private secretary/chief of staff. He served the Princess for eight years, responsible for all aspects of her public life, global humanitarian initiatives, and private organization. Having worked for an internationally high-profile woman (and as the father of two professionally successful daughters) he feels a special affinity for cross-cultural, gender and perception issues.

Patrick was born and raised in Ireland and holds a master’s degree in political science from Cambridge University. As an officer in the British Royal Navy, he served all over the world before being selected for royal duty. He is a citizen of the U.K., U.S.A., Ireland, and Canada.