Who you get to work with

Aaron Kechley is the CEO of Zappi, where he is focused on driving the company's growth strategy, expanding its global presence, and enhancing its platform to deliver transformative consumer insights solutions. At Zappi, Aaron’s leadership supports the company’s vision of building a connected insights ecosystem while empowering brands with data and insights that enable consumer-centricity at scale.

With over 25 years of experience, Aaron has led high-growth technology companies across industries, from start-ups to enterprises exceeding $1B in revenue. Prior to joining Zappi, Aaron was President at Inmar Intelligence, where he launched and scaled their Retail Media platform to over $165M. He also played a pivotal role at DataXu, where he spearheaded the transition from managed-service to self-service in AI-driven media optimization, contributing to the company’s acquisition by Roku in 2019.

Aaron has applied data at every stage of the customer journey, from leveraging pre-launch insights that help brands create work consumers love, to driving targeted programmatic media buying through demand-side platforms. His expertise spans product development, marketing, and customer success, with a deep focus on harnessing the power of data to solve complex business challenges.

Aaron holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. When he’s not spearheading hypergrowth for Zappi, Aaron enjoys staying active through hiking and outdoor activities, and spending time with his family. He's also passionate about exploring new technologies and how they intersect with marketing to drive business growth​.

Steve Phillips is the co-founder, Executive Chairman and Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of Zappi, where he collaborates with the global product and engineering teams to deliver technology-first solutions that empower brands to bring consumers into every strategic decision. A visionary entrepreneur, Steve founded Zappi in 2012 with the mission of revolutionizing market research to empower brands with consumer insights that inspire and validate their ideas.

Steve has lived and worked across four continents, demystifying consumer insights and enabling brands to access data that informs their next moves. He has been recognized by the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR), the UK Market Research Society (MRS), and the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) for his leadership and innovation in the market research industry. He regularly speaks at major industry events about the evolving role of consumer insights. Steve also chairs the Market Research Society’s (MRS) Sustainability Council, advocating for a sustainable future in the insights industry.

Before founding Zappi, Steve led research teams at Tonic Insight, Tuned In Research, and Spring Research, where he worked to uncover new insights into consumer behavior worldwide. He is a founding member of the Supper Club, a London-based organization for entrepreneurs.

When Steve isn’t building the world’s leading consumer insights platform, he can be found on the cricket pitch or diving deep into history. He is also deeply passionate about the transformative potential of data and artificial intelligence, believing that these technologies can unlock new possibilities for understanding consumers and driving innovation across industries.

Melissa Clucas is the Chief Financial Officer of Zappi, where she leads our global finance, accounting, legal and business intelligence operations. She oversees all aspects of financial reporting, forecasting, and operational and investment strategy, with a focus on scalability to enable Zappi’s continued growth.

A financial systems architect, Melissa brings over 10 years of experience in scaling high-growth SaaS businesses to Zappi. Prior to joining Zappi in May 2023, Melissa was the Chief Financial Officer of Dynamo Software, an alternative asset management platform, where she built the company’s first financial model, set reporting standards, and championed a successful strategic growth investment in the company by Blackstone and Francisco Partners.

She began her career at Deloitte in the assurance division before holding a variety of other management roles for other public and private SaaS companies, including EnerNOC and Buildium. At Buildium, she was the first accounting employee, where she laid the foundation and processes for efficient scale to meet the demands of a high-growth SaaS business.

When she’s not helping Zappi reach new heights, you can find Melissa exploring the outdoors – likely near a body of water – with husband and two children.

Mike D’Aloia is Chief Revenue Officer at Zappi where he leads global teams across sales, account management, customer success and professional services. He is responsible for driving scalable revenue growth, aligning go-to-market strategy, and ensuring Zappi delivers measurable value to its customers around the world.

With over 25 years of experience in enterprise sales, data and analytics, and SaaS, Mike brings deep expertise in building high-performing teams and transforming commercial organizations. Prior to joining Zappi, he held senior leadership roles at Quid, Brandwatch, and Forrester. He played a key role in Brandwatch’s acquisition by Cision and led the global transformation of Forrester’s data analytics business, scaling it 3X.

Mike is passionate about mentoring talent, instilling operational rigor, and building cross-functional alignment to support sustained growth. He believes commercial success starts with clarity in how we operate, sell, and serve our customers.

When he’s not leading Zappi’s commercial strategy, Mike is a lifelong Massachusetts sports fan and enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids. You can often find him on the golf course – though he’ll be the first to admit he’s no pro.

Nataly Kelly is the Chief Marketing Officer at Zappi, where she leads the global marketing strategy to drive awareness and demand for its consumer insights platform. A seasoned business leader and international marketing expert, she brings decades of experience helping companies scale and expand globally.

Before joining Zappi, Nataly spent nearly a decade at HubSpot in executive roles including VP of Marketing, International Operations and Strategy, and Localization. She played a key role in the company’s global expansion and also held leadership positions at Smartling and CSA Research.

Nataly is a recognized thought leader in international marketing and global business. She is a longtime contributor to Harvard Business Review and writes regularly for Forbes and leading marketing trade publications. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and is the author of Take Your Company Global, as well as the co-author of Brand Global, Adapt Local.

Her work has earned recognition from LinkedIn’s CMO 50 list (2024), Pavilion’s Top 50 CMOs to Watch (2025), and Remote’s Work Influencers list (2022). When Nataly is not helping tech companies achieve global scale, you can find her exploring new cultures with her husband and two daughters.

Jody Goodall is Chief Product Officer at Zappi, where he leads a team of product experts to drive growth and scale for our platform and solutions. He drives product-led growth for Zappi by delivering a platform that users can trust, is easy to use and tailored to customers’ specific needs.

Jody brings over 20 years of experience in running product and engineering divisions for B2B technology companies. He’s played an integral role in innovating how businesses interact with their customers, including helping Autotrader launch its very first mobile app.

Prior to joining Zappi in 2021, Jody was the Chief Technology Officer at Financial Wellness group, where he led the product and engineer teams to develop technology geared to help vulnerable populations access personal finance resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Jody isn’t leading the evolution of our products and suites for customers, he can be found at his family’s modern art gallery, where he combines three of his passions: family, art, and music.

Julio Franco is Chief Customer Officer at Zappi, where he leads a global team of research and customer success experts to ensure customers maximize their value on the platform. Julio is passionate about putting the customer at the center of everything we do – and works to empower our global partners with data to validate and inform their best ideas.

A consumer insights lifer, Julio brings over 20 years of experience in scaling digital transformation for leading global brands, helping them adopt new ways of working and understand the value of systematic and connected insights.

Before joining Zappi, he was Americas Director of Consumer insight at AIG, where he led insight generation and identified key customer growth opportunities. Julio was also a vice president at Ipsos, where he managed domestic and global custom research projects.

When he’s not helping our customers succeed, Julio enjoys spending time with his family and going around tracks, both on foot and in cars.

Babita Earle is Managing Director, International at Zappi, where she oversees Zappi’s international business and growth strategy in all markets outside the United States. Before this, Babita served as Executive Vice President of Global Enterprise Partnerships, ensuring that global customers drove value and growth on the platform. Additionally, she catalyzed and currently leads the Insight Alliance, where she brings together the world’s most progressive insights leaders to drive the transformation of the insights industry.

Before joining Zappi, Babita spent over a decade with Gfk, where she led global client development for its UK business and established its digital research function.

With more than 20 years of experience in technology consumer insights, Babita is a leader and advocate for the future of insights. She is a highly active member of the Market Research Society (MRS), having served as a Main Board Member, chaired the ED&I Council, and set up their annual Equality Summit. She is also an advisor to the board of the Women in Research (WIRe) international insights community and a member of the U.K. WIRe executive group.

Babita won Gold MRX Diversity Champion from WIRe and has been listed for 2 years running as the Insights Top 250 by the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR). In 2023, the Market Research Society recognized Babita as a fellow for her numerous contributions.

When she’s not powering digital transformation for the insights industry, Babita enjoys spending time with her family and friends.

Tom Holliss is the Chief People Officer at Zappi where he leads hiring, retention and a culture driven by values for a distributed team of over 300 people in 13 countries. He is a People Leader and Coach with a background in Product Development and Agile Coaching. He is passionate about nurturing Zappi’s culture through trust, empowerment, compassion, transparency and continuous improvement.

Since joining Zappi, Tom has been Head of People & Culture, Product & Development Director, as well as Global Development Manager. He joined from Spring Research, where he was a qualitative researcher and brand strategist.

He is a regular speaker at conferences and events focused on the future of work, building sustainable work cultures and progressive leadership. In addition, he is a trustee for Camden Giving; an organization disrupting the traditional model of philanthropy with a community-led approach.

When Tom isn’t leading our distributed team, he’s an avid drummer, known to make an appearance in our Zappi band: Led Zappelin. Tom also enjoys spending time with his family, outdoor swimming, or hanging out with his favorite animals – his bees!

Zachary Clevenger is Chief of Staff at Zappi. He is passionate about using data to drive decisions and planning, with a specific focus on strategic enablement of Zappi's people towards our vision. Zachary grew into this role via multiple project management focused roles within the defense and technology industries, along with obtaining a Master's of Business Administration from Indiana University/Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Zachary has been involved in landing our price packaging revision, supporting activating PepsiCo across their key markets, and improving strategic connectivity across the business.

When he’s not building alignment across our global team, Zachary enjoys spending time with friends and family, seeing live music, and doing what he can to combat climate change.