Meet Our Team
We pride ourselves for being directly involved through the entire process from project inception through completion to ensure that our clients' interests always benefit from the broad and diverse perspectives of ESL's highly experienced principals and associates. Our work with C-Level executives and other key stakeholders has helped numerous corporate clients make appropriate business, marketing and branding decisions....from getting the concept right for the target audience to abandoning a potentially unprofitable business solution. Team bios can be found below.
Ellen Sills-Levy, Founder and Chief Insights Officer
Passionate, constantly curious, creative, and practical, Ellen is a senior-level practitioner and consultant in marketing research and strategy across a wide range of sectors and categories, globally. Ellen leverages her lifelong passion for solid research, coupled with a state-of-the-art research toolkit, to get the heart of each marketing or business problem. It is a passion for not only doing, but for actionable insights that provide the perspective of "what’s in it for the customer" and how these findings relate to organizational success.
Ellen brings her extensive “in the trenches” experience and expertise to areas as diverse as advertising testing, brand positioning, brand health, concept development and testing, media and technology adoption, customer attrition and loyalty, corporate reputation, shopper insights, financial services (millennials, women investors, affluent investors, and financial advisors), consumer goods, and healthcare delivery.
A skilled communicator, possessing an uncanny ability to hear what is said and unsaid, Ellen is especially adept at uncovering the underlying motivators that keep consumers and C-Suite executives "up at night". Recognized as a persuasive collaborator and team leader, she forges enduring relationships with C-suite, clients, project teams, and colleagues.
Most recently, Ellen has been an Adjunct Professor in the areas of applied marketing research, branding, marketing metrics and luxury global brand marketing at LIM College, which specializes in preparing students for careers in the business end of fashion. She has also consulted to marketing research and branding firms, nonprofits, and industry as well as continuing to head her own research firm.
Ellen is an advisor to graduate student teams working on their final projects in the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business, MBA Business Consulting Capstone Program and is on the Board of Combo Management, an international business strategy consultancy.
As President of the Market Research Council from 2019-2020 and later as Executive Board Member, Ellen has been instrumental in enabling the organization to pivot to a virtual model for its monthly educational meetings as well as bringing in a more diverse group of research professionals as members and presenters.
Passionate, constantly curious, creative, and practical, Ellen is a senior-level practitioner and consultant in marketing research and strategy across a wide range of sectors and categories, globally. Ellen leverages her lifelong passion for solid research, coupled with a state-of-the-art research toolkit, to get the heart of each marketing or business problem. It is a passion for not only doing, but for actionable insights that provide the perspective of "what’s in it for the customer" and how these findings relate to organizational success.
Ellen brings her extensive “in the trenches” experience and expertise to areas as diverse as advertising testing, brand positioning, brand health, concept development and testing, media and technology adoption, customer attrition and loyalty, corporate reputation, shopper insights, financial services (millennials, women investors, affluent investors, and financial advisors), consumer goods, and healthcare delivery.
A skilled communicator, possessing an uncanny ability to hear what is said and unsaid, Ellen is especially adept at uncovering the underlying motivators that keep consumers and C-Suite executives "up at night". Recognized as a persuasive collaborator and team leader, she forges enduring relationships with C-suite, clients, project teams, and colleagues.
Most recently, Ellen has been an Adjunct Professor in the areas of applied marketing research, branding, marketing metrics and luxury global brand marketing at LIM College, which specializes in preparing students for careers in the business end of fashion. She has also consulted to marketing research and branding firms, nonprofits, and industry as well as continuing to head her own research firm.
Ellen is an advisor to graduate student teams working on their final projects in the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business, MBA Business Consulting Capstone Program and is on the Board of Combo Management, an international business strategy consultancy.
As President of the Market Research Council from 2019-2020 and later as Executive Board Member, Ellen has been instrumental in enabling the organization to pivot to a virtual model for its monthly educational meetings as well as bringing in a more diverse group of research professionals as members and presenters.
Ellen Sills-Levy is the kind of researcher who gives the lie to the notion that research is not a creative act. She has two qualities any great research professional needs: skepticism and curiosity. There’s not much in-the-trenches market research that Ellen hasn’t seen or done." Advertising Icon Phil Dusenberry in his book about his years in the field of advertising, And Then They Set His Hair on Fire.
Claire Tinker, Principal
Possessing a lifelong passion for problem-solving, Claire brings to each consulting assignment the practical lens of her years in operational support and program management in the technology services industry where her specialty was utilizing metrics to assess and then improve operational performance. It is this “real world” perspective that informs each marketing research and business consulting assignment and enables her to dissect and get to the heart of the underlying issues and barriers.
Claire views market research as a “must have” in providing the strategic insights CXOs require as they pivot to new ways of ensuring success in dynamic global marketplace shaped by the realities of the aftermath of a pandemic. In her role at ESL Insights, Claire is responsible for much of the overall research design, managing fieldwork, client interface, and analysis and reporting of research results.
Claire has an uncanny ability to translate research findings into a visual representation of organizational processes and touch points from the consumer and end user perspective or “journey map” and is always looking for opportunities for process optimization while delivering an exceptional customer experience.
Most recently, Claire served as consultant to a nonprofit in creating a strategic roadmap for pivoting from industry funding to an earned revenue business model as well as in an operational support role. She also “cracked the code” for a company seeking to identify a target audience beyond its existing audience of loyal supporters.
Claire continues in her role as trusted advisor to a research firm specializing in sensory science and has recently consulted in the arenas of healthcare services delivery, sustainable and humane production of meats, eggs, and dairy products, technology adoption, professional credentialing for corporate personnel, financial services, the U.S. Covid consumer mindset, and consumer debt relief.
Possessing a lifelong passion for problem-solving, Claire brings to each consulting assignment the practical lens of her years in operational support and program management in the technology services industry where her specialty was utilizing metrics to assess and then improve operational performance. It is this “real world” perspective that informs each marketing research and business consulting assignment and enables her to dissect and get to the heart of the underlying issues and barriers.
Claire views market research as a “must have” in providing the strategic insights CXOs require as they pivot to new ways of ensuring success in dynamic global marketplace shaped by the realities of the aftermath of a pandemic. In her role at ESL Insights, Claire is responsible for much of the overall research design, managing fieldwork, client interface, and analysis and reporting of research results.
Claire has an uncanny ability to translate research findings into a visual representation of organizational processes and touch points from the consumer and end user perspective or “journey map” and is always looking for opportunities for process optimization while delivering an exceptional customer experience.
Most recently, Claire served as consultant to a nonprofit in creating a strategic roadmap for pivoting from industry funding to an earned revenue business model as well as in an operational support role. She also “cracked the code” for a company seeking to identify a target audience beyond its existing audience of loyal supporters.
Claire continues in her role as trusted advisor to a research firm specializing in sensory science and has recently consulted in the arenas of healthcare services delivery, sustainable and humane production of meats, eggs, and dairy products, technology adoption, professional credentialing for corporate personnel, financial services, the U.S. Covid consumer mindset, and consumer debt relief.
Our company. is known for the quality and for the insights of its research. We live and die by our results. As a contract analyst, writer, guide, friend, colleague, occasional mentor, but most of all a colleague, Claire is timely, cost effective, but most important, her work brings us part of the stream of repeat business to which we have become accustomed." Howard J. Moskowitz, world-renowned psychophysicist, Inventor of Mind Genomics and Co-Founder & Scientific Director at World Institute of Competitive Excellence, LLC (WICEINT) of Claire’s work for Moskowitz Jacobs
Edgar C. Britschgi Wang, International Business Strategy & Brand Advisor
Edgar C. Britschgi Wang has over 25 years experience in multi-cultural management, consulting with major corporations on business strategy, brand stewardship and change navigation and intercultural leadership started his career in marketing consulting. Edgar started his career in marketing consulting. With ten years international advisory experience he joined the leading bank in Switzerland as head of global marketing. Back to management consulting he served as a partner and member of the executive team with Accenture, the leading management consulting, technology services and outsourcing provider.
Since 2007, Edgar has served as Chairman of Combo Management, international consultants on business strategy, and advises major global corporations on business strategy, brand stewardship, reputation management and change navigation. He serves on the supervisory board of several corporations.
Edgar C. Britschgi Wang holds an MA and a MBA degree and he is a Visiting Professor at MIM International Business School, Kyiv and a lecturer at Global Brand Academy, Taipei. He previously held teaching assignments at Graduate School of Business / University of Maryland (Europe), Management Centre Europe Brussels, SIB Swiss Institute for Business Administration, Zurich and as guest lecturer at NTUT Taiwan and HSG Switzerland. He has published numerous articles and publications.
Edgar lives in Taipei and Zurich.
Edgar C. Britschgi Wang has over 25 years experience in multi-cultural management, consulting with major corporations on business strategy, brand stewardship and change navigation and intercultural leadership started his career in marketing consulting. Edgar started his career in marketing consulting. With ten years international advisory experience he joined the leading bank in Switzerland as head of global marketing. Back to management consulting he served as a partner and member of the executive team with Accenture, the leading management consulting, technology services and outsourcing provider.
Since 2007, Edgar has served as Chairman of Combo Management, international consultants on business strategy, and advises major global corporations on business strategy, brand stewardship, reputation management and change navigation. He serves on the supervisory board of several corporations.
Edgar C. Britschgi Wang holds an MA and a MBA degree and he is a Visiting Professor at MIM International Business School, Kyiv and a lecturer at Global Brand Academy, Taipei. He previously held teaching assignments at Graduate School of Business / University of Maryland (Europe), Management Centre Europe Brussels, SIB Swiss Institute for Business Administration, Zurich and as guest lecturer at NTUT Taiwan and HSG Switzerland. He has published numerous articles and publications.
Edgar lives in Taipei and Zurich.
John Krubski
John Krubski comes to the table equipped with a well-earned reputation as a mold breaker, status quo challenger, and creative re-inventor. For John, uncovering unapparent connections and arriving at uncommon perspectives isn’t merely a job, it’s his fundamental DNA.
The child of parents displaced by Nazism and Communism to Argentina, John’s first language was Spanish. Once again displaced, this time by the Peronista revolution of 1955, John’s family of four left Buenos Aires for good arriving in the ghetto neighborhoods of Jersey City NJ to begin their American odyssey.
For more than three decades, John has been using original and proprietary research, insights, and disciplines to inspire, precipitate, and actionalize the highest level of creative strategic planning, thinking, and execution. His enviable resume includes Yankelovich Research Partners, The National Broadcasting Company, and a history of breakthrough actionable marketing insights and thought leadership marketing platforms across a broad spectrum of industries – from The Guardian Life Insurance Company and Sneaker Villa to Nissan Motors and Fine Cooking Magazine.
A sensitivity to cultural nuances and lexicons, along with the capacity to navigate seamlessly across a broad diversity of points of view, is the result of a uniquely pan-European (John “manages” in five languages) and pan-American experience.
Not to mention having spent his formative years in a two-bedroom 4th floor walk-up tenement apartment with only a water closet (shared with two spinster grand aunts) in the ghetto neighborhoods of Jersey City NJ. In these circumstances, creative solutions to insurmountable challenges and real dangers of living in a crime-infested neighborhood rapidly became the normal order of business.
John Krubski comes to the table equipped with a well-earned reputation as a mold breaker, status quo challenger, and creative re-inventor. For John, uncovering unapparent connections and arriving at uncommon perspectives isn’t merely a job, it’s his fundamental DNA.
The child of parents displaced by Nazism and Communism to Argentina, John’s first language was Spanish. Once again displaced, this time by the Peronista revolution of 1955, John’s family of four left Buenos Aires for good arriving in the ghetto neighborhoods of Jersey City NJ to begin their American odyssey.
For more than three decades, John has been using original and proprietary research, insights, and disciplines to inspire, precipitate, and actionalize the highest level of creative strategic planning, thinking, and execution. His enviable resume includes Yankelovich Research Partners, The National Broadcasting Company, and a history of breakthrough actionable marketing insights and thought leadership marketing platforms across a broad spectrum of industries – from The Guardian Life Insurance Company and Sneaker Villa to Nissan Motors and Fine Cooking Magazine.
A sensitivity to cultural nuances and lexicons, along with the capacity to navigate seamlessly across a broad diversity of points of view, is the result of a uniquely pan-European (John “manages” in five languages) and pan-American experience.
Not to mention having spent his formative years in a two-bedroom 4th floor walk-up tenement apartment with only a water closet (shared with two spinster grand aunts) in the ghetto neighborhoods of Jersey City NJ. In these circumstances, creative solutions to insurmountable challenges and real dangers of living in a crime-infested neighborhood rapidly became the normal order of business.