CHICAGO – Prophet announced today that Kristen Groh has joined the global consultancy as a senior partner in its Chicago office. Kristen will be a part of Prophet’s North American Leadership Team as well as its Transformation Solutions practice, applying her extensive expertise in digital and customer-centric transformation to help Prophet clients drive growth and advance the firm’s portfolio of transformation accounts.

Previously, Kristen was the Industry Lead for Consumer Products in North America at Publicis Sapient, where she had been advising clients on how to leverage digital capabilities to drive transformative growth. Kristen brings expertise across a broad set of topics, including digital strategy and transformation, brand and experience strategy, design and strategic planning, in addition to strong client relationships and account building.

“We are thrilled that Kristen is joining the Prophet team,” said Chiaki Nishino, President of Prophet and Head of North America. “Her experiences and expertise as a digital native in professional services will undoubtedly help our clients leverage the capabilities necessary to drive truly transformative growth.”

Prior to Publicis Sapient, Kristen held leadership positions at DesignKitchen, VSA Partners, and Ogilvy & Mather, where she led engagements with leading companies such as Estee Lauder, IBM, Caterpillar, Polaris, SC Johnson, J.M. Smucker and Unilever. Her unique career combines practical experience in digital product, marketing, technology, design, with a deep emphasis on relationship building with clients.

“I have long been an admirer of Prophet — its work, people and values,” Kristen said. “I couldn’t be more excited to join this outstanding team and look forward to partnering with clients on their transformation journeys to creatively grow and expand their businesses.”

SHANGHAI – Prophet, a leading global growth and business transformation consultancy, was recognized at the Transform Awards Asia 2021  for excellence in brand development, verbal identity and visual identity design.

This is the fifth consecutive year Prophet’s work has been recognized at the Transform Awards Asia. This year, the firm received six awards across six categories for its work with Josun Hotels & Resorts, Vantage FX and beflo.

“For over 10 years, the Transform Awards has been rewarding the most innovative creative and successful brand work across APAC so, we are thrilled to be once again recognized in this prestigious scheme,” said Young Kim, partner and executive creative director at Prophet. “We are lucky to work with diverse clients across the region who continue to inspire us through their determination to evolve and drive uncommon growth. We are honored to have been a trusted partner in their exciting transformation journeys.”

Prophet’s award-winning work included the following:

• Gravity – Prophet worked with Josun Hotels & Resorts to develop the new, award-winning hospitality brand, Gravity, to capture attractive opportunities in the South Korea market.
• Vantage FX – Prophet was recognized in the work done with Vantage FX, repositioning and reinvigorating the brand’s identity for its next wave of growth.
• beflo – Prophet’s verbal identity experts were recognized for the development of the clear and thought-through name, beflo, for one of China’s leading B2B manufacturers’ new B2C technology brands.

Prophet is committed to helping its clients unlock uncommon growth that is purposeful, transformative and sustainable. The firm is a different kind of consulting partner and clients appreciate its genuine allyship.

Are you ready to grow your business? Partner with us.

About Prophet

BERLIN – Prophet, the global growth and transformation consultancy, announced that Andreas Back, former head of brand at Zeiss Group, has joined the firm as a partner in Berlin.  

Back, who worked at Prophet between 2004 and 2007, will support driving further digital marketing and transformation excellence for Prophet clients in the region. The move comes as Prophet continues to bolster its presence and expertise in Germany, hot on the heels of its acquisition of the Munich and Hamburg-based management consultancy, KEYLENS, earlier this month. Back will bring his wealth of global experience to Germany’s growth-focused companies in the industrial sector. 

“We are excited to welcome Andreas back to our ever-growing team in Germany and particularly as we begin this critical next chapter in our growth story,” said Tobias Bärschneider, senior partner and EMEA regional lead at Prophet. “His profound knowledge of the market along with his breadth of expertise and leadership experience will be a hugely valued addition and we have no doubt Andreas will prove an indispensable ally for our clients on their customer-centric transformation journeys.” 

While at Zeiss Group, Back developed and implemented a global brand management system as part of the firm’s digital transformation agenda. Prior to joining Zeiss, Back set up his own international consulting firm to help B2B companies maintain and cultivate growth by defining the right marketing and sales strategies and organizational infrastructures to generate profitable gains. His former consulting clients include BMW, Philips, Siemens and Sony. 

“It’s such an extraordinary time in Prophet’s history and I’m thrilled to be part of it, working with such a reputable team of talented and remarkable individuals,” said Back. “SME businesses in Germany are facing a multitude of challenges putting a strain on their competitiveness. Prophet is uniquely positioned to help these businesses defend their role as economic drivers of innovation and technology and I’m excited to help define the transformation roadmap to ensure long-term resilience and maximize uncommon growth for these firms.”  

About Prophet

AUSTIN –Springbox, a Prophet company, received recognition from the 2021 MarCom Awards for excellence in digital experience design. The Marcom Awards is one of the largest and most prestigious international creative competitions, with over 6,500 entries annually and entrants ranging from Fortune 500 companies to individual creatives.

Springbox received a gold distinction in the Digital Media category among non-profit websites for its work with the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.

“The team came together to build a digital solution that would stand the test of time like LBJ’s legacy,” said Stephen Brooks, director of engineering at Springbox. “Using a specialized combination of experience design technologies, we were able to help not only digitize the library but also provide flexibility, allowing interactive exhibits to come to life on any device.”

Springbox was retained to improve website navigation and user experience while digitally connecting both archivists and visitors to the rich history held by the library. After an experience strategy was established, the Springbox team created a custom digital website that would allow the library’s site administrators to easily add and optimize autonomous content.

About Springbox

Springbox is Prophet’s digitally powered, creatively inspired agency that helps companies become digital leaders and realize the potential of transformative ideas to achieve uncommon growth. Its portfolio of services includes behavioral insights, go-to-market planning, performance media, creative, experience design and integrated analytics.

Springbox.com

About MarCom Awards

MarCom Awards honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work, and generosity of industry professionals. MarCom is administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). The international organization, founded in 1995, consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, digital, and web professionals. AMCP administers recognition programs, provides judges, and rewards outstanding achievement and service to the community. Entrants are not charged entry fees for work they create pro bono for nonprofits. In the past few years alone, AMCP has contributed more than $250,000 to charitable causes.

marcomawards.com 

Global consultancy expands capabilities and footprint in Germany

BERLIN/ MUNICH – Prophet, the global growth and transformation consultancy headquartered in San Francisco, is further expanding its business in Europe, and particularly its footprint in Germany, with the acquisition of KEYLENS, a Munich and Hamburg based management consultancy owned by Dr. Jörg Meurer and Dr. Stephan Schusser.

With the acquisition, Prophet aims to better help its German-speaking clients across all sectors by expanding capabilities in human-centered transformation and digital end-to-end solutions.

“The KEYLENS team is completely aligned in our customer-centric approach to transformation and joining forces will deepen our ever-growing multidisciplinary and multicultural firm,” said Michael Dunn, Chairman and CEO of Prophet. “It’s thrilling to welcome new talent and bring fresh perspectives to fuel creativity and innovation. We are very much looking forward to working with our highly skilled colleagues in Munich and Hamburg and accomplishing great things together.” Dunn has been instrumental in shaping the expansion of Prophet’s global presence and high growth in recent years, the firm now counts 14 offices worldwide.

“In this digital age, it is not enough to just develop digital strategies. The line between strategy consulting and execution has become fluid. As part of Prophet, we will be able to broaden our value proposition and go further in the creation and deployment of digital business models, products and services for our clients,” said Dr. Stephan Schusser, KEYLENS’ Co-Owner.

Voted among the 40 best German consultancies in the field of strategy development by the German business magazine ‘brand eins’ for the third time in a row this year, KEYLENS has an excellent reputation and track record of serving reputable organizations in the DACH region and deep expertise in the construction, fashion, lifestyle, luxury, retail and travel industries.

“We will remain true to our KEYLENS DNA,” said Dr. Jörg Meurer, KEYLENS‘ Co-Owner. “Our team will continue its unwavering commitment to servicing our clients in the German market for whom we can now bolster our digital expertise by offering comprehensive brand, design and data science competencies as well as a more international presence, with significant reinforcement from our Berlin-based Prophet colleagues.”

The KEYLENS brand will come under the Prophet umbrella of companies and see Dr. Jörg Meurer and Dr. Stephan Schusser assume Partner roles on Prophet’s EMEA leadership team, with special focus on the German market.

“As our clients reimagine their businesses in order to transform and achieve new growth, the addition of KEYLENS with their particular expertise in strategy consulting, analytics and transformation will increase our ability to be true end-to-end impact partners,” said Tobias Bärschneider, Senior Partner at Prophet and EMEA Regional Lead. “I’m excited to see our two firms join forces. KEYLENS’ in-depth knowledge of the German market coupled with the global reputation and reach of Prophet will open a new growth chapter for Prophet in Europe”

Joining forces to help businesses drive uncommon growth in Germany, Dr. Jörg Meurer, Dr. Stephan Schusser and Tobias Bärschneider provide further valuable insights on Prophet’s acquisition of KEYLENS in this interview and look to what’s coming next.

About KEYLENS (www.keylens.com)

KEYLENS is a strategy consultancy. Founded in 2000, we work for German and international medium-sized companies, SMEs and hidden champions. With expertise in positioning, growth, transformation, digitalization and efficiency, we start with the big picture and support our clients all the way on their journey.

Our passion for people, communication and change is as great as our passion for analytics, ideas and concepts. It is this duality that defines us at our core. For us, this is the definition of modern, “end to end” strategy consulting.

Press Contact

Daniela Maczassek

Tel: +49 89 2131930

daniela.maczassek@Keylens.com

KEYLENS Management Consultants

Redwitzstr. 4

81925 Munich

Germany

About Prophet

BERLIN – Prophet, a global growth and business transformation consultancy hires Layla Keramat as a partner in its Berlin office. The design expert will be responsible for helping to drive the expansion of the firm’s Experience and Innovation practice in EMEA.

Prior to Prophet, Layla held executive creative director roles at frog and Interbrand– defining and designing innovative digital solutions with her teams – as well as Sony and Deutsche Telekom, serving a client-side role.

“We are thrilled to welcome Layla to Prophet and have her exceptional capabilities and stimulating thinking drive the development and growth of our Experience and Innovation practice in the region,” commented Tobias Bärschneider, EMEA Regional Lead & Partner. “Prophet is going through a period of exceptional growth in these disruptive times and this particular area of our business is seeing high demand as clients look to sustain competitive advantage through innovative business solutions. Layla’s human-centered approach will undoubtedly help our clients drive truly transformative growth.”

With more than 25 years of experience working both client and consultancy side in Germany and the U.S., Layla’s subject matter expertise and multidisciplinary work in product and service design has delivered breakthrough solutions for brands such as BMW, IKEA, Samsung and Siemens.

“I’m excited to join Prophet as this period of unprecedented demand to accelerate the pace of digital transformation continues. Businesses have an amazing opportunity to shape their future rather than react to it and I’m looking forward to helping clients explore the capabilities needed, identifying the best experience design solutions and bringing them to market,” said Layla.

Layla is a jury member of ADCE and formerly the UX Awards, as well as an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She can also be found regularly speaking at universities and industry events.

NEW YORK – The non-profit group, C200 announced that Prophet Partner Melissa Goldner will be the newest member of its C-Ahead program.

C-Ahead is an exclusive development program created to support and celebrate female leaders while providing specific actionable content that focuses on the skills and experience necessary for women to succeed in significant positions at major corporations. New members require nominations and those accepted participate in a 6-month virtual program that aims to build leadership skills by providing educational and networking opportunities with other C200 members.

“One of my passions is to empower other women in the workplace. I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to join this wonderful program,” said Goldner. “My goal is to apply these learnings and share them with my fellow female leaders to help them become more successful both in and outside of Prophet.”

Goldner, who joined Prophet as a partner in January, has many years of leadership experience at client services organizations, including Slalom and Ogilvy & Mather where she was known for helping clients reinvent their business from top to bottom. She has worked with clients across consumer goods, finance, insurance, media and entertainment and other industries to drive organization-wide transformations, enhance digital collaboration and create high-performing teams. The C-Ahead program will help her further development in these areas and grow in her leadership role at Prophet while offering networking opportunities, access to exclusive events, and other educational programs.

“C200 and its programs are designed to grow and inspire future women leaders,” said IBM Senior Partner Kelly Watson, mentor to Goldner and member of C200. “Since connecting with Melissa, I knew she was in the position to impact the advancement of female business leaders. Her passion to learn and share her wisdom makes her a terrific addition to the program.”

Goldner has already learned important lessons in her first few weeks as a C-Ahead member and couldn’t be more thrilled about the support she’s received from not only her C-Ahead peers but also Prophet.

“Supporting women leaders is something that I’m extremely passionate about said Prophet’s President Chiaki Nishino. “As the executive sponsor of DEI and one of the founders of the Prophet’s Women in Leadership effort, which aims to harness the power of women leaders and help them thrive at Prophet and beyond, I am thrilled for Melissa to bring her learnings to our team and continue to grow as a leader at our firm and help us grow as a firm.”

Goldner says that even if she can be a small piece of another person’s success, it makes the entire experience worthwhile.

SHANGHAI – Prophet, a leading global growth and business transformation consultancy, has been recognized with two awards at the Digital Impact Awards Asia 2021. The consultancy received a gold award and a silver award in the “Best Use of Digital in the Financial Services Sector” category for its work with AXA and MB Bank respectively.

With over a decade of experience in Europe, this was the first Digital Impact Awards to have taken place in Asia, celebrating the creativity and innovation of digital work across the region.

Prophet’s distinctions are a testament of its excellence in creating impactful digital experiences and strategies for clients in the region. The project awarded the gold award was the innovative digital customer experience Prophet developed for AXA, which saw its first humanized user interface called Emma. Prophet’s work with MB Bank, which transformed it into becoming a digital-first, customer-centric bank in Vietnam, was given a silver award.

“We are thrilled to have been recognized for two awards at the Digital Impact Awards Asia 2021,” said Alan Casey, Partner and Asia Regional Lead at Prophet. “Companies in Asia are transforming at a fast pace to meet the evolving demands of the local consumers. We are honored to have worked with many of these clients to help them drive uncommon growth and are excited to see the impact our work has had on their businesses.”

AUSTIN, Texas – For the second year in a row, Springbox, a Prophet company, has been recognized by the B2B Marketing Elevation Awards for excellence in multiple categories. These awards acknowledge the exceptional talent, achievement and success in the B2B marketing space across the U.S. – solidifying Springbox’s position as a premier digital agency.

The firm was awarded a silver distinction in the “Best Use of Account-Based Marketing” category for an ABM pilot program designed to revolutionize demand generation and nurturing capabilities for Cigna.

“We had a wonderful partnership with Cigna to collaborate on how best to move their capabilities forward while generating near-term results,” said Angie Gette, vice president of strategy and insights at Springbox. “It’s difficult to drive change in such a large organization, but everyone embraced the opportunity. We’re glad for the impact our planning had on their business and demand generation function overall.”

In the “Best Brand Initiative” category, Springbox’s reimagining of the Amazon Business brand was honored with the silver distinction.

“We are proud to have helped bring the Amazon Business brand to life and played a small part in its immense global growth,” said Darcy Munoz, partner at Prophet. “From articulating the global strategy to activating it in a campaign across channels, we partnered with our Amazon Business colleagues as one integrated team committed to the best strategic and creative outcomes.”

These awards stand as a testament to the hard work and innovation the Springbox team dedicates to every client.

About the B2B Marketing Elevation Awards

The U.S. Elevation Awards is an incredible B2B marketing event that brings together and recognizes the best of the best programs across all channels. This event delivers B2B marketers the opportunity to learn from each other, to share best practices and to see new techniques.

CHICAGO – Prophet announced today that Kristen Groh has joined the global consultancy as a senior partner in its Chicago office. Kristen will be a part of Prophet’s North American Leadership Team as well as its Transformation Solutions practice, applying her extensive expertise in digital and customer-centric transformation to help Prophet clients drive growth and advance the firm’s portfolio of transformation accounts.

Previously, Kristen was the Industry Lead for Consumer Products in North America at Publicis Sapient, where she had been advising clients on how to leverage digital capabilities to drive transformative growth. Kristen brings expertise across a broad set of topics, including digital strategy and transformation, brand and experience strategy, design and strategic planning, in addition to strong client relationships and account building.

“We are thrilled that Kristen is joining the Prophet team,” said Chiaki Nishino, President of Prophet and Head of North America. “Her experiences and expertise as a digital native in professional services will undoubtedly help our clients leverage the capabilities necessary to drive truly transformative growth.”

Prior to Publicis Sapient, Kristen held leadership positions at DesignKitchen, VSA Partners, and Ogilvy & Mather, where she led engagements with leading companies such as Estee Lauder, IBM, Caterpillar, Polaris, SC Johnson, J.M. Smucker and Unilever. Her unique career combines practical experience in digital product, marketing, technology, design, with a deep emphasis on relationship building with clients.

“I have long been an admirer of Prophet — its work, people and values,” Kristen said. “I couldn’t be more excited to join this outstanding team and look forward to partnering with clients on their transformation journeys to creatively grow and expand their businesses.”

NEW YORK, (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Prophet, a global consultancy announced the expansion of its brand activation expertise through the hiring of Greg Erdelyi, Sarah Tosques, and Damien Peraino to enhance the firm’s creative capabilities.

The new group brings a diverse set of experienced, high-caliber, transmedia creative expertise to Prophet to develop brand and marketing ideas for clients. They will work as a cross-platform, multi-disciplinary team to develop innovative programs that can be quickly executed.

“We believe there is significant demand from clients for bold ideas, executed with speed in market,” said Marisa Mulvihill, partner and global head of Prophet’s brand and activation practice.

Greg Erdelyi joins Prophet as a partner and executive creative director. He brings with him more than 20 years of experience and has worked with brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Oscar Health and Land Rover. Prior to his role at Prophet, Erdelyi held several leadership positions at agencies including J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam and McCann and most recently led agency sales at the marketing-tech platform, VidMob.

Sarah Tosques, Prophet’s new associate creative director, brings both strategy and storytelling capabilities. With a fine arts background, she joins Prophet from Beekman Social and has worked at Untitled and TBWA/Chiat/Day. Her brand experience includes Spotify Premium, Oscar Health, TD Bank, PepsiCo, Accenture and Estee Lauder.

Damien Peraino joins as Prophet’s first executive producer. A seasoned integrated production leader, his award-winning work includes digital, TV and experiential. He has held similar roles at Dentsu McGarryBowen, IBM’s Resource/Ammirati and Ogilvy, working on such brands as General Motors, Kraft, Clorox, Marriott, Hershey’s and BlueCross BlueShield.

This new team enables Prophet to deliver even better:

• Activation concepts that deliver bold ideas to bring brand and marketing strategies to market
• Brand-building campaigns that shift perceptions through awareness activities
• Brand moments and experiences that build notoriety and reinforce a client’s brand strategy
• Content programs and thought leadership that activates a new brand, builds authority and generates demand

“We know our clients are especially hungry for big ideas now,” said Mat Zucker, senior partner and co-lead of Prophet’s marketing and sales practice. “Along with our existing design and verbal capabilities, including Prophet’s digital marketing agency, Springbox, this new group is built to be a new resource for concepting, collaboration—and magic. We plan to grow this team to keep up with demand.”

NEW YORK, NY – Prophet announced today that Michelle Bottomley will serve on the global consultancy’s board of directors. Michelle will serve as a strategic growth advisor – helping guide Prophet’s leaders in making impactful decisions that will better the organization and its clients.

“Prophet’s unique ability to steward purpose-led business transformation from strategy to digital execution provides an advantage to clients seeking growth and to more fully live their purposes,” said Michelle. “I couldn’t be more excited to join the Prophet board given our shared values and commitment to growth acceleration via branding and modern tools.”

Michelle has an extensive background in growth vision, strategy, and execution, as well as digital innovation and commercialization. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer at Modern Growth Exchange, a tech-enabled growth acceleration business that provides customer-centric growth tools that allow clients to visualize their customer portfolios and align marketing, sales and service programs to drive profitable revenue growth.

Prior to Modern Growth Exchange, Michelle served as Chief Marketing Officer for New York Life, Staples, Mercer and Barclaycard. Before that, Michelle worked in the marketing agency world – holding leadership positions at Bronner Slosberg Humphrey (now Digitas), Epsilon and Ogilvy. Outside of her primary roles, Michelle has years of experience advising and coaching business leaders across categories and sectors. She has served on the boards of Bose Corp and Blue Planet Training (Own The Room). In addition to Prophet, she currently serves on the boards of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Susan G. Komen.

“It’s rare to come across a leader like Michelle who has the depth and breadth of relevant industry expertise that she does, and also brings a servant-leader mindset with humility and grace to be a teacher in her field,” said Michael Dunn, CEO and Chairman at Prophet. “We are excited to continue to learn from her as she advises our firm around modern growth, transformation and data-driven growth marketing trends that will propel our business forward.”