A Bunch of Marketers and Strategists

Some of us come from the world of academia, others from ad agencies. Some of us are in a band and others like modeling data in our spare time. The thing that draws us all together, though, is a love for marketing.  In our day jobs over at Collider Lab, we work full time on actual marketing for Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, The Habit Burger and bunch of other really cool brands. But here we just get to mess around with the theory of marketing. And B.S. about marketing. And argue about marketing. Which is fun. And quite often, cathartic.

(Keep in mind, though, that all the views expressed on this site are personal views. They don’t represent the views of Yum! or anyone else except the authors themselves.)

Ken Muench’s take on strategy comes from ten years as an ad agency creative director,  another  ten as a strategy director and a few more on the brand-side. While many accuse him of trying too hard to be cool, he is actually cool.

Greg Dzurik’s strategic superpowers include his uncanny ability to understand monkeys. Nearly 20 years dropping marketing science knowledge at ad agencies, consultancies and within brands helps too. Buut it’s the monkey thing that makes him awesome.

Jessika Gomez-Duarte is an anthro-nerd with a special knack for understanding the depths of Culture beyond just what the cool kids are doing. She knits mediocre scarves, and is an avid yogi who can’t touch her toes.

Jamie Keen is a globe-trotting strategist who has managed iconic brands across the world. Makes great points if you can understand his Kiwi accent.

Shirley Mak is an influencer. And she has more followers than the rest of us do, combined. She creates cool content, finds new trends, and discovers emerging brands that are making their mark in culture. Bonus points if they’re addressing intersectional environmentalism and actively fighting for climate action.

Jack Lettenmair is a strategist with a background in agency account planning and experience building brands all around the world…from  researching consumer trends in Thailand to scoping out the category landscape in Ireland, Mexico and Malaysia. He also thinks he’s funny, but most folks at Collider would disagree.

Laly Ruelas was an intern at ColliderLab throughout highschool (seriously!) and she moved over to strategy after graduating. After 2 years in strategy, she found her true passion in Data and extinguished her fear of numbers.

Lila Faz is a Ph.D. drop out turned strategist who uses a social science lens to look at consumer behavior and marketing strategy. She fills her free time with highbrow cultural pursuits, like watching reruns of The Real Housewives and following all of the Kardashians on Instagram.

Nicholas Gomez is a strategist at Collider Lab. He’s also a legit musician with an actual band on all the streaming services. Other than making him way cooler than Ken, it gives him the ability to read cultural trends like few others.

Emily Leung is a consumer behavior junkie and visual storyteller. Her passion stem from staring unnervingly at people at restaurants as a kid (while getting scolded by her parents). Outside of her role as a strategist, she loves visual design, biblical counseling, and (still) staring at people.

Dominick King ran restaurants in the Bay area for a decade, making him more of a foodie than any of us. We managed to lure him over to the dark world of strategy by offering him limitless Koren Spicy Shrimp Chips. He doesn’t share, but he is awesome at decoding culture around the world.

Abby Batcheller studies brands in culture with a background in advertising strategy and youth culture. She knows a weird amount about chicken nuggets, loves talking sports, and has copped more sneaker drops than anyone else at Collider Lab.

Taylor Leigh comes to Collider with a background in marketing and advertising. She also studied art history with a particular passion for ancient archaeology, so she enjoys digging up cultural artifacts. In her free time, you can find her aspiring to become a Great British Baking Show champion even though she is American and cannot knead dough.

David Medina leads the Data Science team in developing scalable processes that meet Collider’s ever growing research/data needs. He has spent many a years in data across multiple industries and was trained in research methodology by top scholars. David’s ultimate goal is to automate his entire workflow in order to make time for his true passion: playing Nintendo Switch.

Alex Tennis (aka Tennis) has spent the last 6 years of his career building creative strategies and facilitating research for global brands. If he ever appears to be tuning out of a conversation, don’t worry, he’s likely thinking deeply about a compelling and thoughtful response. Or tacos. Or surfing. But probably the thoughtful response.

With a background in trend forecasting, Aarika Hernandez brings a culturally dialed- in and future-focused approach to strategy. When she’s not mining for insights, she’s usually lurking around a museum, getting lost outdoor or adventuring around the world.

Naomi LeDoux has supported and managed teams strategically for the past 10 years.  She is Blessed with 3 Gen Z children who definitely mirror the characteristics of the generation.  She enjoys family time, watching her daughter dance and boys play flag football.