Management Team

Andrew Appel is president and chief executive officer of IRI. Appel joined IRI in June 2012.

Appel has held a number of senior leadership positions for Chicago-based professional service firms. As chief operating officer at Aon, Appel developed and implemented a successful revenue growth plan for the company. He also led the team responsible for the $5 billion acquisition of Hewitt, solidifying Aon's leading position in human resource consulting and outsourcing. Prior to this, Appel was chief executive officer of two of the firm's three global divisions: Aon Consulting, a leading benefits and human resources consulting firm, and Aon Benfield, the world's largest reinsurance broker. Under his leadership, the divisions achieved operational excellence and improved financial results.

Prior to joining Aon, Appel was a senior partner at McKinsey and Company, where during a 15-year career, he advised leading global financial institutions on a wide array of operational, strategic and organizational issues. Appel joins IRI from Accretive Health, where he was senior vice president of Revenue Operations.

Appel holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, where he was the Henry Ford II scholar. He is an active board member at the Joffrey Ballet.

As the chief financial officer (CFO) for IRI, Mike Duffey is responsible for fiscal balance and operational growth during the company’s transformation period and beyond.

Duffey is a seasoned financial leader and has several years of industry experience in professional services, manufacturing, distribution, communications and banking. He is a creative, performance-driven leader, who focuses on applying leading-edge financial techniques to meet operational needs and enhance competitive positioning in domestic and international markets.

Before joining IRI, Duffey was the executive vice president and CFO of COVANSYS, a $400 million global information technology services provider. During his time with COVANSYS, he upgraded internal infrastructure through the implementation of SAP in India, and crafted the implementation of Hyperion planning, forecasting and consolidation modules for global planning and reporting. He also was responsible for the execution of a four corner redundant data center and communications configuration.

In addition, he served as senior vice president and CFO for APW, Ltd. and M.A. HANNA Company. He began his accounting career at Price Waterhouse.

Duffey holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Loyola University of Chicago. He also earned his master’s degree in economics, finance, and international business from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Jane Altobelli is the executive vice president and chief people officer of human resources for IRI. Continuing the company’s efforts in building a high-performance culture, Altobelli is responsible for global human resources efforts, talent and performance management, organizational change efforts, staffing, benefits and compensation.

Prior to joining IRI, Altobelli was senior vice president at Culligan International, a consumer products company that provides water treatment services and solutions. Prior to Culligan, she held a number of human resources executive positions with the premier provider of print and related services, RR Donnelley, where she led organizational development, talent and performance management in her various roles.

In addition to her human resources background, Altobelli has led transformational change efforts, aligning a company’s strategy, structure and culture. She has also implemented human resources strategies across Europe, Asia and South America. Her global and transformational change work has been featured in such publications as Newsweek, Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business.

Altobelli earned a master’s degree in industrial relations and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Piyush Chaudhari is IRI’s president of the Americas and Global Strategy. He is a 20-year veteran of client service, operations and technology and has a proven history in driving technology and overall corporate strategies. As president of the Americas, he has responsibility for Client Insights, Client Service and Pre-Sales. He focuses on bringing IRI’s strategy to life with clients in North America as well as with select multi-national, global clients. He ensures collaboration between the client insights and service organizations, and the company’s Centers’ of Excellence to help clients achieve fundamentally enhanced performance and growth through new capabilities.

Chaudhari joined IRI in 2012 as executive vice president of Strategy. In this role, Chaudhari worked with IRI’s leadership teams and colleagues across the company to refine strategy, direction, and related priorities, including new organic growth areas and acquisitions, and was instrumental in executing these strategies.

Before joining IRI, Chaudhari was a member of Aon Hewitt's Executive Committee, involved in setting the firm's direction and areas of priority. During his six years with Aon, he held many different roles, including management of different regional businesses, such as Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He also held global roles, such as guiding Aon Hewitt's global consulting businesses and thought leaders, and acting as chief operating officer for the consulting organization. His primary area of client responsibility focused on multi-national clients.

Prior to Aon Hewitt, Chaudhari was with McKinsey and Company, where he focused on technology and technology strategy. He is an engineer with multiple U.S. patents and worked for many years at Motorola and IBM in product development and support before moving into consulting.

Chaudhari earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a board member of Metropolitan Family Services and Chicago Media Board and a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Beverly A. Grant is chief client strategy officer and president, retail.

Before joining IRI, Grant spent 26 years at Procter & Gamble in various roles, including vice president, general manager and chief channel officer, North America Grocery Channel; and global business director of Beauty, Market Strategy and Planning, Food, Beverage and Pet Nutrition.

Most recently, she led Procter & Gamble’s $8.5 billion retail grocery business, which is a recognized leader in traditional retailer category management and the emerging discipline of shopper execution. Grant also gained experience in the food and beverage channel at Kroger, as well as in the healthcare, oral care and beauty categories.

Grant is actively involved in multiple industry trade associations, serving on the Food Marketing Institute’s advisory board and the Industry Affairs and Trading Partner Alliance committees for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. In these positions, she has been instrumental in identifying and addressing issues of common interest between retailers and manufacturers in the rapidly evolving food channel.

Grant has also received multiple distinctions in the areas of leadership and development. Most recently, she was recognized as a Top Woman of Influence in the grocery industry by the Griffin Report. In 2010, she was awarded the YWCA Career Woman of Achievement Award, which recognized her professional and community accomplishments. She also is the recipient of the distinguished John E. Pepper Diversity Award at Procter & Gamble for her many contributions in advancing diversity at Procter & Gamble and within the industry.

Grant holds an executive master of arts degree from Webster University in St. Louis and a bachelor of science degree from Tennessee State University.

As managing director for IRI, Dr. Davey leads the company’s strategic consulting practice and is focused on developing and applying innovative marketing solutions to solve a variety of business problems and providing strategic insight and direction to IRI’s clients. Bringing to this role more than 22 years of experience at leading consulting, media/advertising, syndicated research and custom market research companies, Dr. Davey is focused on generating even further growth for the CPG and retail consulting practices at IRI.

Prior to joining IRI, Dr. Davey was a Partner at the global consultancy, Oliver Wyman where he worked with leaders in technology, media, leisure and entertainment industries on a variety of marketing strategy engagements.

Dr. Davey’s work experience spans the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Dr. Davey has overseen several large-scale strategic marketing engagements for many of the world’s leading consumer goods and services companies over his 22 years of consulting career. He has led engagements in demand assessment and offer design, pricing, marketing spend allocation and optimization, customer profitability improvement, corporate and brand repositioning, brand portfolio optimization, sales effectiveness, channel management, new product launch, and marketing capability building. He has worked with a wide variety of survey and syndicated data, internal and external databases, marketing research tools and methodologies, and marketing science models. Prior to his role at Oliver Wynman, Dr. Davey was the general manager at WPP’s Grey Global Group and MediaCom, where he built the Marketing ROI Practice. Prior to that, he held management positions in the marketing consulting practices at Knowledge Networks, McKinsey & Company, ACNielsen and ORC.

Dr. Davey holds a Ph.D. in marketing modeling from Vanderbilt University. His dissertation on choice modeling won the coveted best dissertation award in 1991. A recognized thought leader, Dr. Davey has published articles in leading journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Pricing, Strategy and Management, Mercer Management Journal and McKinsey Quarterly and has spoken at a number of industry conferences, including those of the Marketing Science Institute and the Advertising Research Foundation.

Robert Holston is executive vice president of Symphony Analytics, North America. He is an 18-year veteran of the products and service industries and has a long history of experience in shopper-centric predictive analytics and client value creation. Leading the North America analytics practice, he is focused on enabling clients to achieve high-impact business outcomes through a unique combination of predictive analytical techniques, proprietary rapid-modeling platforms, leading-edge automated solutions, and experienced analytics consulting talent. He previously led the analytics business relationship with some of IRI’s largest global clients.

Prior to joining IRI, he was the practice leader for Shopper Marketing at Deloitte Consulting LLC within its Strategy & Operations - Consumer Products Service Line. Previously, Holston was the global director of Shopper Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company where he was responsible for the development and deployment of The Coca-Cola Way of Shopper Marketing to the global business operating units and customer teams.

Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, Holston worked for a tier-one management consulting firm in their Brand Strategy and Customer Relationship Management Practice where he supported the development and growth of the brand analytics business.

Previously, he spent five years with Mobil Oil Corporation where he gained considerable retail experience in roles of increasing responsibility in finance, retail brand development, store operations and franchise management.

Holston is a frequent contributor to publications and his analysis and points-of-view on retail marketing and the commercialization of brand strategy have appeared in AdAge, Brand Week, Fortune and The Financial Times.

He has an undergraduate degree in finance and marketing from Drexel University and a master’s degree in business administration from The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Nigel Howlett is president of IRI International.  In this role, Nigel is focused on continuing to aggressively grow the market content, solutions and technology businesses throughout IRI’s international operations as well as expand the company’s international innovation practice.

Prior to IRI, Howlett was previously Executive Vice President (global) at OgilvyOne Worldwide and a member of the company’s board of directors. At OgilvyOne, he was responsible for the company’s Global Consulting Practice, which included building global alliances and partnerships, acquisitions, attracting significant new consulting engagements, and tailoring the firm’s services to its international clients.  In this role, Howlett more than tripled the size of the firm’s consulting operation during the last four years. Major contracts signings under his leadership included international assignments with Nestle and Unilever.  He was also responsible for creating a global consulting alliance with IBM and launching a global E-mail Marketing and Digital Dialogue Practice across three continents.

Howlett started with OgilvyOne Worldwide in 1991 as managing director of Ogilvy & Mather DataConsult. He became chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne U.K. in 1996 and was named to his latest position in 2003.  Before OgilvyOne, he served as client services director at The Computing Group from 1988 to 1991.  

Howlett began his career at GKN plc, earning a university scholarship in 1976 prior to graduating in 1980 with roles in sales as a special projects team member. He later served as a product manager and group product manager (1982 to 1984), marketing manager (1984 to1985), and finally, group head of marketing, GKN Vending Services (1985 to1987). 

Howlett earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in business and marketing from UWE Bristol.

As senior vice president of marketing, John McIndoe is responsible for IRI’s marketing efforts, including corporate branding, communications strategy, thought leadership, events, media and analyst relations and marketing communications supporting the company’s ongoing transformation, innovation and growth initiatives.

McIndoe possesses more than 15 years of experience in achieving superior marketing results.  He joined IRI to lead the company’s U.S.-based communications efforts and was later promoted to vice president of global media and analyst relations, and was then elevated to global vice president of corporate marketing.

Before joining IRI, McIndoe was with InstallShield Software Corporation, a leading enterprise software firm, where he helped the company transition from a world-renowned tools provider to that of a recognized enterprise-class software solutions company. Earlier in his career, he led communications and Internet development for FARGO Electronics, a Minnesota-based developer of specialized computer hardware equipment.  At FARGO, he was part of the team that led the business expansion into the consumer space and launched the industry’s first digital color photo printer line, which created an entirely new space of printing. Prior to FARGO, he held marketing and communications positions in the high-tech agency sector with Ruder Finn, Inc. and Parallax Technology, Chicago-based public relations and integrated marketing firms, respectively. He worked with such clients as ACI, Ameritech, CCH (Wolters Kluwer), Challenger Gray & Christmas, Comdisco, Paul Stuart and Stouffer Foods (Nestle).

McIndoe earned his bachelor’s degree in communications with a concentration in business and marketing from Bradley University and is a member of the Marketing Executive’s Networking Group (MENG), the Business Marketing Association and Executives’ Club of Chicago.

Bernhard Nann leads IRI’s technology operations and focuses on generating value from existing and new technology solutions, ensuring client satisfaction with technology deliverables and strengthening technology alliances.

Nann, who has more than 20 years of experience, has a wealth of technology expertise in the areas of integrated technology, product management, operations and implementation.

Most recently, Nann was senior vice president and chief technology officer for Fair Isaac (NYSE:FIC). Nann joined Fair Isaac in 2003 after the company purchased NAREX, founded by Nann in 1995.  At Fair Isaac, he held numerous positions during his five year tenure there, starting as vice president, collections and recovery analytics solutions and ending with his current position as senior vice president and chief technology officer.

Nann founded NAREX in 1995 and developed highly-innovative analytics and collection agency placement management platform products and a proprietary artificial intelligence-based scoring and optimization technology. Before founding NAREX, he held several positions at TRW Inc. 

Nann earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical and industrial engineering from Universitaet Stuttgart in Germany. He also earned his M.B.A. from The Ohio State University.

President, Consumer & Shopper Marketing, IRI

As president, Consumer & Shopper Marketing, IRI, Robert Tomei oversees growth, development and management of the company’s Consumer & Shopper Insights, Test Marketing, Digital Media, Shopper Segmentation & Targeting and Shopper Marketing businesses. He also oversees product managment.

Tomei is a recognized industry luminary and market research veteran with more than 25 years of experience in the CPG industry.  He has a distinguished track record in general management and global marketing, developing innovative client solutions and creating strategic partnerships to drive profitable revenue growth, both in the United States and internationally.

Joining IRI from TNS, a leading global market insight and information group, Tomei served as president, TNS-U.S. Areas of Expertise & Marketing and global head of TNS’ 6th Dimension Access Panels. In this role, he oversaw Brand and Communications, Product Development and Innovation, Stakeholder Management, and Retail and Shopper Insights practices. In addition, he managed and directed TNS’ online access panels in the U.S. and internationally.

Prior to his tenure at TNS, Tomei spent 13 years at ACNielsen, leaving the firm as president of Nielsen’s Homescan consumer panel business.  At ACNielsen, he drove the development and management of its consumer purchase panel in the United States and led product and service innovations around consumer and shopper insight applications.  Earlier in his career at ACNielsen, Tomei served in a variety of senior-level positions at ACNielsen-VNU, including chief marketing officer for the VNU Marketing Information Group and senior vice president for ACNielsen-U.S. Product Management and Marketing organization.

Before ACNielsen, Tomei held senior-level marketing positions at Bristol-Myers and Philip Morris USA. 

Tomei earned his master’s degree in business administration/social sciences at the University of Chicago and his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Fordham University. He is also the founder and acting chairperson of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Online Research Quality Council.