We are Rival.

Eric is an entrepreneur who builds businesses through modern marketing, management, and innovation practices. Over the last 15 years he’s been lucky enough to help build some of the biggest brands in the world, from billion-dollar start-ups to Fortune 50 enterprises, and learn from some amazing people along the way. He spent 10 years in the agency world and was a first-15 employee and MD of EMEA for VaynerMedia, founded by Gary Vaynerchuck. He was the Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer for 11:FS, a global fintech consultancy that builds digital banking and insurance propositions from scratch. As co-founder and CEO of Rival, his main job is to hire the smartest people in the industry and get out of their way!

Dubose is a strategist with over 15 years experience working in strategy across consulting, media & creative agencies, such as VaynerMedia, JWT & Mindshare. With experience that spans marketing strategy, brand planning, communications & creative planning and consumer insight, DuBose’s focus has been on helping brands to grow by being more valuable and relevant to the consumers they speak to. His clients have spanned sectors from FMCG to Finance, including Volvo, LG, Samsung, Shell, American Express, Pepsi, UNICEF, NatWest, WeWork and TikTok.

Jenna is a global leader in media and marketing with over ten years’ experience agency side, working in London, Singapore and New York on some of the largest and most innovative brands in the world. She met her cofounders as the VP, Media for EMEA and was one of the first ten employees on the paid media team at VaynerMedia. Prior to joining Rival, she was the global capability lead and VP for Media Strategy & Planning at Jellyfish, a marketing performance company operating in 20+ markets.

Catherine is a Senior Consultant in performance marketing at Rival. Her background is in media buying and strategy, with experience planning and running campaigns across FMCG, telecommunications, real estate, and finance verticals for SMB and enterprise clients globally. She spent 5 years at VaynerMedia splitting her time between London and Singapore, where she was the first employee of VaynerMedia APAC. She has extensive experience delivering paid media training for marketing teams and was invited by Campaign Asia to contribute to their Crash Course learning series.

Frank is an accomplished technology leader and entrepreneur with a unique blend of software engineering and product management expertise. With over 15 years of industry experience, Frank has a proven track record of driving innovation in the financial markets. As the creator of the first App Store for the Financial Markets, Frank modernized TradeStation's flagship platform, led innovation teams using AI and ML to simplify trade idea generation, and contributed to numerous features of the TradeStation Trading Platform. During his time at TradeStation, Frank held various leadership positions, including VP of Product Strategy & Innovation and Director roles, showcasing his ability to effectively strategize and execute on product development. Frank's background as both a software engineer and a product person enables him to approach challenges from both business and technical perspectives, a key asset in his role as the Head of Product for Rival. As an entrepreneur with a keen interest in AI, Frank is passionate about leveraging cutting-edge technology to build world-class products and shape the future of the industry. In his role at Rival, Frank is committed to driving innovation, fostering a culture of excellence, and delivering exceptional value to customers.

Adam brings over 12 years of marketing & consulting experience to Rival, across agencies, in-house and as an independent consultant. He has had the opportunity to work across all sectors with leading roles in performance, strategy and brand development - as well as building marketing teams and capabilities at agencies and in-house. His specialism has been working with challenger brands in challenger businesses, through which he has been fortunate enough to work with smart, talented people looking to do things differently.

Jess has built her career empowering industry leaders and their teams to succeed in fast-scaling Marketing and Tech environments. Previously, she was Operations/Business Manager during key growth periods at VaynerMedia, founded by Gary Vaynerchuck and then at 11:FS, a global fintech consultancy that builds digital banking and insurance propositions from scratch. Most recently, she supported the Co-Founders of Permutive, as they secured Series C funding to be the privacy-first infrastructure for programmatic advertising. As Operations Director at Rival, she is passionate about building our tools, processes and thriving culture – anything that will help drive success for the team and the business!

Eniko previously worked as an in-house performance marketer across several small businesses, most recently handling paid media at London based tech startup. She is currently pursuing a marketing MSc at King’s College London.

In a career that has spanned 33 years, Dean Aragón has worked on developing, activating and commercialising market-leading, global brands. Dean is the CEO & Vice-Chairman of Shell Brands International AG. He is also Global Vice-President – Brand, for the entire Shell group, leading the development of overall brand strategy, brand policies and brand standards. As a marketer, Dean focuses on leveraging the power and potency of a brand by harnessing its ‘humanity’. It ensures customers or stakeholders buy into a brand’s ethos and buy its value propositions. This comes from a belief that whether it’s B2B or B2C or B2B2C, it’s really all B2Humans. Prior to Shell, Dean spent 15 years in senior Brand Development roles at Unilever, across a range of categories and markets. Dean is involved in various industry forums: Board of Directors – ANA (Association of National Advertisers), Adweek Sustainability Council, Facebook Client Council EMEA, Steering Group for BRIM (Black Representation In Marketing).”

Gonçalo previously worked in the scientific sector, specifically developing mathematical and statistical models to study animal and human behaviour, specifically focusing on social behaviour. His experience includes approaches and methodologies of several scientific disciplines, including economy, psychology, and evolutionary biology, in world-leading institutes like the University of St Andrews and the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. He brings his analytical and scientific skills and knowledge to the marketing and technological world, where he aims to bring positive change to challenger brands that want to be competitive and be part of tomorrow's future.

Rajesh serves as an Advisor to Rival and contributes to Rival’s research series (Spark). He is Associate Professor of Marketing at Imperial College Business School and thought leader on consumer psychology. Rajesh has leading publications in marketing, organisational behaviour, and psychology. His work has examined how consumers’ evaluations and decisions are influenced by their social context, both online and offline. He has studied how people use digital tools and technology to evaluate options and ultimately to “pull the trigger” to make decisions.

Ian is a highly experienced commercial professional with a background in both services and software spaces. He has over a decade of experience, partnering with marketing teams at over 200 companies, across more than 20 global markets, supporting with driving their marketing strategies to success. Ian's career began by supporting brands in crafting international content and campaigns, and he has since broadened his expertise to encompass paid media, partnerships, customer acquisition, and data acquisition. Throughout his journey, Ian has worked with some of the most reputable names in various industries, as well as pioneering startups seeking to revolutionise their respective sectors.

Jenna brings over 15 years experience working in agency, platform and in-house roles leading brand marketing work and building capabilities for some of the largest global brands including GE, the Olympics, HBO, Netflix and Amex. Her expertise is rooted in experiential marketing with proven capabilities in data and analytics, strategy, brand design and development, and digital spaces. After nearly a decade in New York City, Jenna hopped the pond to sharpen her global experience leading teams and work in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Oceania and is now based in Barcelona.

Aurora is an undergraduate business student currently working at rival as an internal. She is enjoying learning how the business sector is dealing with the challenging prospect of technologies and customers’ demands. She intends to graduate in 2024 and she would love to keep progressing in her business career.