Janelle Zurek, Knowledge Creation & Innovation Leader, Tremor

Janelle Zurek has a sincere interest in learning about people, continuously seeking to understand why people talk, or more specifically, what makes them advocates, and relishes in learning about a wide variety of consumer categories.

A 22-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, Zurek has served as Knowledge Creation and Innovation Leader of TREMOR, Procter & Gamble’s word of mouth marketing capability, since 2007. She is responsible for the management of consumer market research, business intelligence and word of mouth research and development functions. In July of 2009, Zurek was appointed a trustee of the Marketing Science Institute, representing Procter & Gamble. She joined TREMOR in January of 2004 as Business Intelligence Manager.

Prior to TREMOR, Zurek held a wide variety of marketing, analytic and information technology roles in her Procter & Gamble career. Her experiences include leading information technology for the company’s Commercial Products Division and leading marketing analysis for the Food & Beverage Division. She began her career at Procter & Gamble in 1987 after graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in operations research and industrial engineering. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Gary De Jesus, Vice President of Marketing, Tremor

Gary De Jesus loves continuously driving innovation in the word of mouth marketing arena. He believes this field is consistently evolving and enjoys leveraging new thinking in cognitive science and applying it to how his organization does their work.

A 15-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, Gary joined TREMOR™, the company’s word of mouth marketing capability, in 2003 as the Head of Marketing. He is responsible for all of TREMOR’s marketing efforts, managing how clients and consumers view the organization.

Prior to joining TREMOR, Gary created an entirely new brand for Procter & Gamble’s Elations, a dietary liquid supplement for joint health. As Director of Marketing for New Business Development, Food and Beverage, Gary was responsible for developing a brand from a blank slate, without any existing data or knowledge on the product or target audience.

Before this position, Gary served as a brand manager within the marketing development, new markets team. In this role, he created a new capability for Procter & Gamble, around the company’s desire to drive product and marketing to lower-income consumers in the United States. Gary researched urban and rural environments and then developed marketing efforts appealing to these consumers, establishing a new way of thinking against this underserved audience for Procter & Gamble.

Prior to this, Gary revitalized Crisco, an aging franchise. As a Senior Assistant Brand Manager of Crisco, he generated the highest copy scores in the category and reduced costs by more than $30 million by being more efficient with media and trade spending. Gary also generated 7 percent growth with a brand that was indexed at an 8 percent decline for five years in a row.

Gary began his career with Procter & Gamble as an Assistant Brand Manager in the away-from-home cleaners division after graduating with a master’s degree in business administration from New York University Stern School of Business. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University.

Along with Gary’s many professional accomplishments, he counts the birth of his two children, Matthew and Jessica, as his most proud and formative personal accomplishments. He resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his children and significant other, Patti.