Management
 Dr. Kumar Mehta (CEO) - Kumar has spent about two decades in the US market research industry. Prior to joining Cross-Tab, Kumar spent over 13 years at Microsoft in a variety of senior positions including Director of Market Research and Senior Director of Strategy and Finance. As one of the earliest market researchers at Microsoft and within the software industry, he has helped shape how research is conducted within the technology marketplace.
Kumar has a career in market research playing leadership roles as a research supplier, a corporate research director, and an internal corporate user of research. In these roles, Kumar has directed over a quarter billion dollars of market research.
He was one of the first individuals in the world to study the impact of the Internet on consumers and businesses and collaborated on some of the largest groundbreaking research studies on the evolution of the Internet. As a senior leader of one of the largest global portals, Kumar engineered the first “panel deal” by a major portal thereby helping create one of the first significant online panels in the US.
Kumar is passionate about the role market research can play in shaping businesses and has spoken about market research transformation at a number of events. His goal is to have the Cross-Tab group of companies help shape how research is conducted in tomorrow’s increasingly competitive and increasingly flat world.
Kumar has a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and leads Cross-Tab from the US Headquarters in Seattle.
 Ashwin Mittal (President) - Ashwin manages the market research process outsourcing business of Cross-Tab based out of Mumbai. Ashwin is a serial entrepreneur and led the Mittal Group’s investment into Cross-Tab in December 2003 and subsequently joined the company’s Board and the Management Team. Prior to this Ashwin had established, and managed Inditech Solutions, growing it from start-up to a 200-person organization providing BPO services in the logistics and government verticals.
He has past work experience in corporate treasury at Reliance Industries in Mumbai and strategy consulting with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, in New York. Ashwin’s articles on India’s Knowledge process Outsourcing industry have been published in leading global publications such as ‘Research World’ and ‘Quirks’. He received the “Star Entrepreneur" award at the Indira International Innovation Summit in January 2009. Ashwin is a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization’s Mumbai chapter. Ashwin is also a founder member of the “Band of Angels” – India’s first organized Angel investor group and is on the screening committee.
Ashwin has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Commerce, is a qualified Chartered Accountant, and holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and the London Business School.
 Praveen Gupta (President) - Praveen is a co-founder of Cross-Tab and leads the corporate research services team based out of Bangalore. Praveen is passionate about research tool design, development and evangelism and has led various initiatives that push the boundaries around market research. He encourages his team towards becoming trusted advisors to clients through research rigor and out-of-the-box thinking. His team and work has driven the company’s growth manifested through three consecutive Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards.
Praveen is a Board Member of the Entrepreneurs Organization’s Bangalore chapter and a speaker in the management academic circuit.
Praveen has a Bachelors and a Masters degree from BITS, Pilani and a PGDM from IIM, Lucknow.
 Kedar Sohoni (President) - Kedar is the President of Informate Mobile Intelligence, a Cross-Tab subsidiary that has an integrated solution for providing comprehensive consumer intelligence for the mobile industry.
A dynamic individual with an illustrious career, spanning almost 14 years, Kedar is one of the co-founders of Cross-Tab. He has also held several leadership roles with some of the popular brands of Nestle India.
An IIT-Bombay and IIM-Lucknow alumni, he has also worked for Business Consulting Group (BCG) in the area of Industrial Market Research. Kedar has been an active member of business forums like Mobile Entertainment Forum and IAMAI. BA.
 Ruchika Gupta (President) - Ruchika is the President of Borderless Access Panels, a Cross-Tab subsidiary managing the highest quality proprietary panels in the fast growing BRIC markets. Ruchika has several years of work experience in advertising and marketing. She has worked with JWT, 3M, and EuroRSCG. Ruchika has done her Masters in Management Science from BITS, Pilani.
Ruchika is one of the co-founders of Cross-Tab. She manages all Panel initiatives for the company.
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 Aditi Bhonsle (Analytics) - Aditi has over 12 years of experience in market research and research analytics. She has been at Cross-Tab for over 6 years and presently leads the analytics practice, servicing client initiatives that require focus on in-depth analysis and deep understanding of market research. Prior to joining Cross-Tab, she worked with TNS Mode (now TNS India) for 6 years as Senior Analysis Manager. Aditi has extensive experience working in the technology research space on multivariate techniques such as key driver analysis, market segmentation, etc.
Aditi holds a masters degree in Science (Physics) from University of Mumbai.
 Ajith Sankaran (Research) - Ajith has over 10 years of experience in market research and business consulting. Prior to joining Cross-Tab, Ajith was the head of the Software and Services Research team at IDC India, and also worked with Deloitte Consulting. Ajith manages the Secondary and Business Research team at Cross-Tab.
Ajith is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), and holds a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA.
 Amit Gupta (Client Services) - Amit has over 12 years of experience spanning a wide spectrum of roles. At Cross-Tab, he leads the client services function and manages new process transitions. Prior to joining Cross-Tab, Amit lead the market research practice at WNS, Mumbai where he served as an Account cum Operations Director for a 120-FTE market research relationship before moving into a more strategic role. In his previous roles he has worked as a quantitative researcher at TNS, IMRB (part of Kantar), and The Nielsen Company.
Amit graduated in Economics and then went on to complete his MBA.
 Bharati Eligar (Research) - Bharati has over 12 years of working experience in marketing research in various streams of primary research locally as well as internationally. She has been with Cross-Tab for over 5 years. Her previous work experience includes head of research at Shining Strategic Identity Pvt. Ltd., a leading brand consulting company in Bangalore and managing research at UTV, Mumbai.
Bharati completed her PGDM in Marketing after completing her graduation in Electronic Sciences from University of Pune.
 Gary Nearn (Client Services) - Gary is a seasoned market research professional with 12 years experience. He has a fully rounded view of the research industry, having spent 6 years as a research supplier with a London, UK based agency, and 6 years as a client-side researcher for a leading financial institution in the US.
Gary is an expert in large scale, quantitative customer satisfaction studies and has helped many clients drive greater value from their research through insights, data analysis, and continuous process improvement.
Gary holds a BA in Economics and is based in Seattle.
 Prashant Bhatt (Finance) - Prashant leads the Finance & Accounts functions at Cross-Tab and its subsidiary companies. He is a Chartered Accountant with 15+ years of work experience. Prior to Cross-Tab, Prashant was CFO at Fractal Analytics. He has also worked in senior positions with companies like Garware-Wall Ropes, Arvind Brands, Goldmohur Foods & Feeds, and Godrej Agrovet.
 Venu Bendapudi (Client Development) Venu is a senior manager with a global outlook and has extensive experience in sales, marketing and operations, mostly in the IT and Market Research industries. He is now based in New York and is responsible for Cross-Tab’s business development and client relations in North America.
Prior to joining Cross-Tab, Venu was an Associate Director for Pulse Group in Malaysia where he was responsible for sample and MRPO business from North America. Before moving to Kuala Lumpur, he was heading a 50 member India operations team for Market Tools Inc. At Market Tools he was also responsible for sales of Zoomerang, an online survey tool. He also has nearly 10 years of entrepreneurial experience, having run an IT solutions and multimedia training company out of Hyderabad, India, which he has since sold. Before starting his business he handled PC sales and marketing for one of India's leading IT companies, HCL Limited (now HCL Technologies).
Venu received his MBA (Marketing) degree from Osmania University in India and is also a ‘Gold Award’ recipient for a diploma in marketing research and internet marketing from the Marketing Institute of Singapore (MIS).
 Vivek Shetty (Research Operations) - Vivek has over 15 years on experience in market research. He has worked with NFO India (now TNS-Kantar) for around 9 years and with an Indian market research outsourcing provider before joining Cross-Tab. He leads the operations for all large relationship clients and the IT team at Cross-Tab.
Vivek is a Graduate in Commerce and has a Diploma in Computer Applications.
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 Simon Chadwick - Simon is one of the principals of Cambiar LLC, a strategy consulting firm. Simon was Global CEO of NOP World, now a part of Gfk NOP. Simon is active in the leadership of the market research and marketing industries; he was the 2004 Chairman of CASRO, and continues to serve on their Board and Executive Committee. He is a Fellow of the Market Research Society. He holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University, England and has done post-graduate studies at both Columbia and Harvard business schools in Change Management and Strategic Management.
Simon advises Cross-Tab in the areas of - corporate strategy, business development, specific client engagements, and process improvement.
 Dr. Russ Winer - Russ is a global marketing thought leader and has authored several books and more than 60 papers in research related topics. He serves on the editorial boards of several market research journals including the International Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and the Journal of Consumer Research. He is currently serving as the Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is on the board of R.A.B. Food Group, The Fall Collection, and a number of start-up companies. Russ is the William H. Joyce Professor of Marketing at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He received a B.A. in Economics from Union College (NY) and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University.
Russ guides Cross-Tab in developing its marketing sciences practice, including data analytics and consulting offerings.
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