With over 15 years immersed in UX research and business strategy, Nicole Bacchus excels at harnessing the collective brainpower of a team to uncover profound user insights, shaping user experience, product strategy, and innovation. A Kellogg MBA graduate, she has refined her distinctive approach through roles at American Express, Mars Chocolate, and Meta, complemented by invaluable experiences at design innovation consultancies such as Smart Design. Residing in Brooklyn, New York, Nicole specializes in seamlessly integrating insights and strategy to propel consumer-led product innovation. Her noteworthy achievements include leading research teams in supporting the impactful launches of Instagram Reels, Facebook Shops and Ray-Ban Meta Smartglasses, and crafting an award-winning customer transformation strategy for Amplifon, a leading hearing-aid retailer. As the current Head of Research at Thumbtack, Nicole leads a formidable team of UX Researchers, Market Researchers, and Research Operations, steering impactful projects at the intersection of strategy and user experience.

Amy Wolsey is a Design Research Manager at the BBC, where she leads work to strengthen research practice and embed continuous discovery across product teams. She focuses on helping researchers, designers, product managers and engineers build closer relationships with users, develop stronger learning habits and make better decisions with evidence. Amy is particularly interested in research enablement, coaching and the practical trade-offs required to make research useful in fast-moving organisations.

Nihan Sahan Eren is the Global Consumer & Market Insights (CMI) Director for Unilever Food Solutions, based in the Netherlands. With more than two decades of experience in consumer and market research, she began her career on the agency side in 2003 before joining Unilever in 2010. Throughout her career, she has led insight transformation and innovation across Ice Cream, Foods, Refreshment, Home Care, Beauty & Personal Care and Media & Shopper Insights.
An internationally recognized thought leader and frequent keynote speaker, Nihan has presented at major industry events including ESOMAR, IIEX, Insight Lighthouse, and the Neuromarketing World Forum. She is the recipient of the ESOMAR Best Paper Award (2025) for “Unstereotype with Neuroscience for Lasting Social Change”, an ESOMAR Insight250 Winner (2024), and a member of the ESOMAR Congress 2026 Committee.
Nihan holds an Honours degree in Business Administration from Galatasaray University and has completed executive AI programs at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Erasmus University’s Rotterdam School of Management.