Founding Partners

Liz Nickles

Liz Nickles is a nationally-recognized expert in strategic marketing, creative development and communications and President of Black Label Brand Development.  She has been a senior marketing executive at corporations including FTI Consulting, Credit Suisse First Boston and Mattel as well as an award-winning Creative Director at three major advertising agencies. She is the author of numerous articles and 15 books. Her consulting experience spans numerous global firms, including JP Morgan, U.S. Trust, Bank of America, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Encyclopedia Britannica, Hearst, Meredith, Time Warner, and numerous others.  Her book on digital marketing, BrandStorm (Palgrave Macmillan) was named one of the top 20 marketing books in the world for 2012 by Expert Marketer magazine.

Liz holds a B.S. from Northwestern University and an M.A. from DePaul University.

Laurie Ashcraft

Laurie Ashcraft is an acclaimed marketing researcher who has served as vice Chairman of the Research Industry Coalition and Vice President and on the Board of Directors of the International American Marketing Association, as well as chairman of the AMA’s Marketing Research Division Council.  She has served a 6-year term on the U.S. Census Advisory Committee and has held management positions in marketing research for major corporations such as SC Johnson Wax as well as founded and headed two significant research firms. She has discussed survey results on national TV shows such as Today and CBS Morning.  

Laurie holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and has studied at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.