About

Ken is the cultural strategy guru at Collider. His unique ability lies in distilling consumer culture for brands and helping apply those insights to craft powerful marketing strategies and innovations.

Previously, Ken led Strategic Planning at Draftfcb OC and all of Draftfcb's North American Multicultural offices. Prior to that, he led strategy at the creative boutique Grupo Gallegos — where he won several Clio's, Cannes Lions and Effies.

For the first several years of his career Ken was a Creative Director. This past creative experience gives Ken a fresh, idea-based perspective on marketing strategy.

Greg leads Collider’s team of strategists. He infuses his expertise in Human Behavior, Behavioral Economics, and System 1 Research to break down the behavior behind cultural trends, and to craft disruptive strategies that instinctively connect with consumers.

As head of R&D, Greg works with leading academics to develop innovative research approaches.

Before joining Collider, Greg was VP of Strategic Planning at Draftfcb OC, Brand Planning Director at The Richards Group, and a member of the 4A’s Account Planning Committee.

Jessika has a special nack for understanding Culture beyond just what the cool kids are doing. She loves figuring out how values, worldviews, and traditions become deep-rooted and influence consumer behavior.

Before Collider, Jessika worked with academics at Georgetown University, multicultural marketers in Austin, Texas, and now helps Yum's international markets make its three global brands culturally-relevant across the world.

Jessika loves cooking but isn't very good at it, and likes the outdoors but has poor survival skills.

David Medina leads the Data Science team in developing scalable processes that meet Collider’s ever-growing research/data needs.

He has spent many 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.

Jack is a brand strategist and curious researcher with 8+ years of experience in the world of marketing and brand strategy. Jack has a breadth of experience consulting internationally for brands across Southeastern Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and more.

When in doubt, you can find Jack asking "why" over and over again, peppering projective techniques into qualitative research, visualizing data, or writing deck headlines in sharpie on index cards.

Prior to joining Collider Lab, Jack worked as an Associate Account Planner at BVK, a top 25 independent advertising agency in the U.S

Native "Santanero", Nicholas, utilizes his Journalism background by investigating, collecting and presenting information to fit each brand's specific story.

With an immense passion for the music industry, he is dialed in on emerging trends arising from both the underground and mainstream scenes and looks to extract strategic marketing value from them.

Prior to Collider, Nicholas assisted on-air personalities at CBS Radio in San Francisco and specialized in Social Media Marketing for multiple concert venues within The City.

When not at work, Nicholas continues to devote an abundance of time to pursue his passions of photography, fútbol, guitar and songwriting.

Xitlaly Ruelas is a recently graduated UCI student with a degree in Cultural Anthropology and a certificate in Medical Anthropology.

Her bicultural upbringing sparked her interest in cultural influence. She enjoys reading and studying about different world cultures and how their origins and backgrounds affect their current behavioral patterns.

Recently she has become interested in East Asia and is studying Mandarin in her free time. When not working or studying, Laly can be found improving her serves on the tennis courts or eating a Dole whip at Disneyland.

Emily is a visual storyteller and loves using her background in design and journalism to craft the most convincing and inspiring story to clients.

She grew up a curious child (and a not so covert people watcher)—which later stemmed into a more productive interest in psychology and consumer behavior and led her to study Marketing at UC Irvine.

Emily also has a huge passion for food and grew up in a multi-cultural, Chinese American home—getting a taste of the best of both worlds. Her dad introduced her to the world of baking and the two bonded over episodes of “Unwrapped”, a behind the scenes show on how iconic American foods are made.

Her mom’s family has a rich history in food as her grandpa opened his own Chinese restaurant when their family immigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in the 70’s. She loves translating this passion for food into her work by forecasting rising food trends and hanging out with local food bloggers in Indonesia.

Outside of work, you’ll most likely find Emily spending time with her church family, reading at local coffee shops, or finding something new to DIY. Other passions of hers include biblical counseling, wedding planning, and interior design.

Chase Skelton is a pattern-finder and storyteller with a passion for consumer psychology and qualitative research.

Chase joined Collider with a background in communication and retail strategy working with brands such as Proctor & Gamble, Mondelez, Coca-Cola, Beam Suntory, TracFone Wireless, and Bose to create meaningful and memorable activations with many of America’s largest retailers.

As a queer professional, Chase is an enthusiastic supporter of corporate DEI&B initiatives and advocate for LGBTQ+ workplace belonging.

Outside of work, you can find Chase hiking, kayaking, or brewery hopping around the Bay Area.

Hailing from the great state of Arizona, Cole is keen on identifying cultural trends that exist “beyond just the coasts” and truly shape entire markets.

After graduating from Chapman University with a degree in Advertising, Cole spent 5 years immersed in the world of Media, equipping big brands with media strategies rooted in a deep understanding of their consumers. With a background in the Automotive, Financial Planning, and Alcoholic Beverage industries, he is particularly fascinated by the universal truths of marketing, and how those truths can be applied across categories.

When Cole isn’t busy attempting to convince his coworkers to let him use more PowerPoint animations, he enjoys playing piano, home bartending, and rooting for the Phoenix Suns.

Born and raised in Southern California, Savannah has always had a natural curiosity and sense of adventure - she could never stay in one place too long. She’s ventured from SoCal to the Pacific Northwest to New England to the coast of Australia looking for home.

Savannah’s background in cultural strategy has run the gamut. She spent her early career working at independent, female-founded agencies - helping brands like Netflix, Amazon, Care Oregon, and Denver Public Works create purpose-driven work. Later, she dabbled in the sports world (a place she absolutely didn’t belong, but enjoyed nonetheless) as a strategist at Chiat Day, developing 360 campaign strategies for brands like Gatorade, G Zero, and Adidas. Her love of storytelling and desire to build brands from the ground-up brought her to strategic consulting where she worked directly with founders of VC-backed start-ups to bring their vision to the masses.

She is deeply passionate about three things in life - food, sleep, and books (in that order!)

Beth joins Collider with a background in strategic and tactical product and brand marketing.

Spanning 10+ years of experience in media planning and buying as well as leading marketing for prominent beauty and CPG brands, she is passionate about working on disruptive and impactful strategy across various brands and markets.

In her free time, Beth enjoys taking hot yoga classes, traveling to new places, devouring pasta and cheering on the New York Jets.

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. She lives and breathes the internet (unfortunately...but fortunately for us) so the intersection of internet culture and Gen Z is where she thrives.

With a background in sociology and marketing but a passion for creativity, she found the perfect space at Collider Lab. She tackles muddy questions with ease, distilling them into straight-forward recommendations using strategy and design.

If she’s not filming or editing photos and videos, you can find her lost in a book, planning out her next trip, or sucked into another endless TikTok scroll.

Naomi 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.

Taylor 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.

Hailing from the “mitten” state of Michigan, Liza is a recent graduate from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business where she completed a degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Marketing.

Her time in business school, combined with an undergraduate degree in psychology ignited an interest in crafting marketing strategy based on how culture drives consumer behavior.

During a semester studying abroad in Madrid, Liza developed a passion for travel and exploring different cultures and cuisines.

She is a self-proclaimed foodie and is often found daydreaming about her next cooking or baking endeavor.

When she is not at work, she enjoys spending time outdoors, binging her latest streaming obsession, reading novels and browsing through recipes online. 

Shayni is a recent graduate from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business with a focus in Marketing and Strategy. Shayni started her career as a brand strategist on the agency side before finding her way to Collider.

Shayni’s interest in strategy stems from learning about network theory in school. She loves to learn how our networks impact our behaviors; figuring out how brands can tap into the network.

When she’s not at work you’ll probably find Shayni at her local knitting store finding yarn to add to her knitting addiction.

Inspired by cross-cultural experiences from growing up in both the Midwest and abroad in Shanghai, Jessica loves to learn about diverse cultures to better understand the world around us and the human truths that underpin our behaviors.

Prior to joining Collider, Jessica was an Account Executive at Outcast, an integrated marketing agency, helping to shape brands such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), SoFi, Miro, One Medical, GoodRx, and Cameo. She graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in Economics and minor in Management.

Outside of work, you can catch Jessica trekking through San Francisco hills to find the best bakeries and newest coffee shops to fuel her caffeine addiction.

Angel is a born and raised San Franciscan who moved down to Southern California for her undergraduate at UC Irvine as a Business Administration and Education double major. She started out at Collider in college as a Strategy Intern before joining the data team full time as an Associate Data Strategist, where her passion for discovering and understanding the nuances and drivers of consumer behavior was sparked.

When Angel isn’t working, you can find her in the kitchen at home baking up a storm to share sweets with friends or fine tuning her recipes in pursuit of opening up her own bakery one day. Specifically, she loves experimenting with Asian flavors (such as matcha, ube, black sesame, etc.) that are nostalgic to her upbringing up as an Asian American and exciting as she can incorporate them into all sorts of baked goods to share her culture with her community. Other hobbies of hers include traveling, snapping photos on her film camera, and sipping on a good cold brew.

Kristi is a recent graduate from the University of California, Irvine with a major in Business Administration and minor in Psychology. She has always enjoyed learning about marketing and management but has found her current passion in data science after joining the Collider team.

In her free time, Kristi loves to do hula and Tahitian dancing, bake the sweetest desserts, and spend time with her family and friends. Kristi also enjoys traveling and exploring the outdoors. She would like to visit many different places around the world including South Korea, Africa, and Europe to experience the unique cultures, food, and people.