Management
Retention, Inc. has an experienced team of operating management and advisors, that have considerable breadth and depth of experience in analytics and market research in diverse categories.
Managing Partner
Shailender Khitri, Principal Consultant
Shailender has 20 years experience in market research, digital analytics and advanced marketing analytics. He has consulted with Pepsico, The New York Times, The Absolut Spirits Company, Showtime, IFF, Shutterstock, and additionally has worked on businesses of several Fortune 500 companies, including McDonald's, Burger King, Pfizer, Old Navy, Bayer, Dell, Cox and many others through advertising, media, and digital agencies.
He has experience with web analytics including implementation, A/B testing, reporting, and advanced analytics of visitor level data. Additionally, he has considerable background in market research and marketing analytics. His experience includes research support for launch of successful new products, development of customer acquisition frameworks through primary research and analytics, and marketing mix optimization in various categories.
Shailender holds MBA in Marketing from State University of New York at Buffalo and B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Varnasi, India.
Senior Consultant
Al Mercado, Sr. Consultant
Al Mercado has an extensive background in various industries from Chemicals to E-commerce. Al has been advising on cloud infrastructure, data analytics and machine learning models for clients ranging from enterprise e-commerce, CPG, to scientific research institutions.
He has conducted primary research for a major instrumentation systems manufacturer, to develop growth and partnership strategies. He has recently worked on providing end to end data and ML solutions for projects on major cloud services from AWS to GCP. Al has the expertise to be a cloud architect, data engineer, and ML engineer from the certifications he has acquired.
Al holds an MS in Optics from the University of Rochester, an MS in Chemistry from New York University, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Senior Consultant
Vivian Song, Sr. Consultant
Vivian Song is a versatile researcher and moderator based between New York City and Shanghai.
She has 10 years experience in conducting research in cultural and brand world, blending experience in research, journalism, urban study, ethnography and cultural content production. Vivian has developed methods to help clients understand cultural and consumption habits and develop strategy for innovation in services and products.
Vivian had worked with cultural institutions, international corporations and brands including TED, Mercedes Benz, International Airway companies, Pepsico, NIKE, Beijing Design Week and Go West Project. She holds a Masters in Urban Sociology from Goldsmiths College, London.
Senior Advisor
Dr. Suresh Divakar, Ph.D, Senior Analytics Advisor
Suresh is a senior Analytics executive with 25 years experience in marketing analytics roles, most recently as VP – Decision Analytics at Bristol Myers.
Among his strengths are helping organizations make resource allocation decisions that enhance top and bottom line using advanced marketing analytics, with considerable experience in marketing mix models, CRM modeling, sales analytics and forecasting. He has extensive experience in CPG, Financial Services and Pharma sectors with multinational organizations like Kraft, Pepsico, Citibank, Avon and Bristol Myers.
Suresh holds Ph.D. in Marketing from University of Iowa and B.S – Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay.
Senior Advisor
Dr. Sanal Mazvancheryl, Ph.D., Senior Market Research Advisor
Prof. Mazvancheryl is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at American University. His previous academic appointments were at Wharton School of Business, Georgetown University, George Washington University and the State University of New York. Prior to that, he has several years of work experience in advertising, market research and brand management.
His primary work is in the area of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty and its' impact on firm performance. He has won the Best Paper Award in a competition sponsored by the Marketing Science Institute. His research has been presented and published in several journals and conferences including Journal of Marketing, Advances in Consumer Research and Marketing Science Conference.
Prof. Mazvancheryl holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He also received an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, and B. Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, India.