Leadership

Ravi Dhar

George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing, Yale School of Management; Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Yale University; Director, Center for Customer Insights

Professor Dhar has been involved in pioneering work in understanding the different factors that influence how consumers think and decide. He has also served as a consultant to dozens of Fortune 100 companies in a wide variety of industries, including CPG, health care, high tech, financial services and luxury goods on developing best practices for generating and using customer insights.

Ravi has published more than 75 articles and serves on the editorial boards of several of the leading marketing journals. His research and teaching has been honored with various awards including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the Society for Consumer Psychology, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Management, and the Yale School of Management Alumni Association Teaching Award. His work has been frequently mentioned in Business Week, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, USA Today, and other popular media.

Nathan Novemsky

Professor of Marketing, Yale School of Management;  Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Yale University

Professor Novemsky is Professor of Marketing at the Yale School of Management and has an appointment as Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Yale University.  As part of the YCCI, he actively partners with practitioners to develop new insights into customer behavior that are both relevant to practitioners and new to the academic literature. 

He is an expert in the psychology of judgment and decision-making, an area that overlaps heavily with behavioral economics and consumer behavior. His research examines how people know what they like, how the ways in which they frame decisions affect the choices they make, and how their goals influence their behavior, among other topics.

Treeny Ahmed

Executive Director, Center for Customer Insights; Lecturer in the Practice of Management

Treeny joins the Yale Center for Customer Insights with over 15 years of experience in strategy, brand building, and successfully launching new products at Fortune 500 retail and franchise companies.
 
Prior to her role at Yale, Treeny was the Senior Director of Marketing at Edible Arrangements where she led national and local marketing efforts across 1200 stores. She headed Edible’s brand transformation from a Gifting heritage company to a Gifts and Treats brand. She spearheaded their retail channel growth strategy by segmenting store groups and creating specialized tools for each segment, driving increased sales and profitability. While at Edible she also developed the marketing launch plan for a new line of immediate consumption products that are sold across the Edible footprint of stores today.
 
Her prior experiences include leading an innovative media campaign that was profiled in the New York Times for a leading chain of convenience stores, and the relaunch of Bath & Body Works’ Home Fragrance business. Prior to business school, she worked as an investment banker in the technology group at Morgan Stanley.

Treeny grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, and speaks 5 languages. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University where she was a member of the Radcliffe Pitches and the Hasty Pudding Club. 

Dan Blanchard

Senior Associate Director, Center for Customer Insights

Dan Blanchard serves as the Associate Director of Research at the Yale Center for Customer Insights, where he is responsible for a wide array of initiatives, including managing a portfolio of strategic partnerships and insights research programs. Dan crafts the Center’s quantitative/qualitative research solutions, and synthesizes consumer behavioral insights from a multitude of sources to provide our partners with actionable recommendations.   

Prior to joining the YCCI, Dan worked in the Publicity Department of Yale University Press, where he contributed to hundreds of book projects and landed placements in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Review of Books. Most recently, he supported the Center for Customer Insights as an Assistant Director.

Dan graduated magna cum laude from Quinnipiac University in 2010, where he received a B.A. in Public Relations.

Jenna Kalkwarf
Associate Director of Events, Center for Customer Insights

Jenna Kalkwarf serves as the Associate Director of Events at the Yale Center for Customer Insights (YCCI) where her mission is to execute the center’s programming.

Jenna comes to Yale with close to a decade of experience in event management and engaging and building communities in both academia and for corporations. Spending a majority of her career at Washington University in St. Louis, Jenna led the planning and execution of alumni programs across key territories, managed strategic working groups, and worked closely with the Alumni Board to strengthen relationships that ensured continued success and growth. Jenna has a passion for creating unforgettable experiences, turning ideas into reality, and creating spaces where people can gather to make new connections, foster relationships, and enhance their professional career.

In her capacity at YCCI, Jenna will spearhead conferences, executive speaking engagements, executive education, and various other programs to amplify the collaborative work of academics and industry.

Jenna graduated from Illinois State University with a B.S. in International Business and minor in Germanic Languages.