GO UPLAND - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Business Operations Associate
Alana brings years of business operations experience and keen problem-solving skills to her role at Upland. She finds great joy in improving efficiency and assisting both clients and coworkers in any way possible. With a positive attitude and a strong work ethic, Alana aims to help individuals and organizations leverage their strengths and realize their potential.
Traveling and exploring new places inspires Alana's innate curiosity. Whether tasting new foods, making new connections, or soaking up any design element around her, Alana is always looking for creative ways to inspire her and loves nothing more than sharing those discoveries with others.
Anna is very excited to join Upland after graduating this May from Fordham University with a degree in Marketing and Theology! Throughout her academics and internships, Anna has conducted extensive market research projects. She is well-versed in presenting her insights and recommendations to support future investments. In addition to her studies at Fordham, she enjoyed nourishing her passion for volunteering by leading many direct service engagement projects in the Bronx community.
Even though she grew up in the Tristate Area, Anna claims to be a Michigander at heart since she spends each summer celebrating the beauty of the Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan. However, since joining Upland, she is having a great time settling downstate in Ann Arbor. Whether it be taking a walk in the woods, exploring local flea markets, or searching each city for the best eats, Anna is continuously using the people and elements around her to drive her work!
At Upland, Audrey applies her entrepreneurial experience to drive companies who are focused on growth for good to succeed. She dives deep into qualitative market research, ecosystem mapping, and innovation planning to help our clients chart paths that are ahead of their industry's curve and come to creative solutions to overcome their current roadblocks.
Audrey finds inspiration in visiting modern art museums, exploring exciting cities, spending intentional time with friends and family, and testing the limits of her sweet tooth. Her perfect Saturday includes starting the day at a farmer's market and spending far too much time making a choice at a local bookstore. Audrey brings her experience growing a business and an open-minded approach to her work at Upland.
Job Titles:
- Foresight Strategy Partner
As Upland's futurist in residence, Elaine empowers clients to envision a better, brighter future - and their role in it. She helped define Upland's proprietary Disruptor ID offering and build the firm's overall approach to growth. With formal Futurist training, Elaine infuses her passion and expertise into shaping client Foresight efforts. The Capital Flow assessments she leads help to enlighten and infuse confidence in clients, while also signaling and supporting key movements in Strategic Planning and Innovation work.
Elaine finds inspiration in the outdoors. Whether roaming the Northern Michigan landscape, skiing with her family, running or hiking a favorite trail, or just enjoying the view from her favorite beach, she is thankful for all the goodness that comes from fresh air and water. Elaine aims to enhance and protect that goodness in partnership with Upland.
Job Titles:
- VP, Consulting Services and Operations
Elizabeth brings marketing, consulting, and operational experience to her role at Upland. She has real enthusiasm for helping others succeed, whether directly assisting clients navigate a constantly evolving market or ensuring her teammates have the right resources to deliver high-quality solutions that best meet client needs. She is driven to ensure Upland is second-to-none in everything we do, with particular focus on building a world-class team, supporting our remarkable clients, and caring for the broader world around us all.
Elizabeth's inspiration and joy most often comes from her family, friends, and community. While grounded in home, she is still intensely curious and is a lifetime learner. Watching her children take on the world makes it even more important to her that Upland facilitates the type of client growth that enables a better future.
Ellie is an experienced brand strategy and insights leader passionate about using the power of storytelling to fuel growth from the inside-out. At UPLAND, she helps companies listen to their employees and customers, build purpose-driven brands, products, and experiences, and implement change in actionable, measurable ways for long-term growth.
Education
BS - University of Chicago
Evan Millman is a student of the consumer psyche, ever curious and analytical about our changing world. He is unafraid to challenge how work gets done, tailoring his approach in pursuit of "eureka" insights that can propel brands into new territories.
Prior to leading innovation projects at Upland, Evan was a brand strategist for ten years, launching and optimizing brands, products, and experiences for industry leaders (e.g., Mayo Clinic, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Sony, BCBS), as well as for challenger brands and startups.
Beyond work, Evan is a father, husband, drone photographer, and lover of all things dystopian movies and novels. Currently residing in Logan Square, Chicago, he's on a mission to chart the city's best hidden eateries and local haunts.
Jacqueline is adept at helping clients to unlock growth and possibility amidst the backdrop of a fast-paced business environment where there is rarely a single right answer. Using a systematic approach, she works with clients to drive the business and grow brands in a practical way given her past client-side experience.
Both professionally and personally Jackie's determination fuels everything she does. Whether she is helping clients, running a marathon (or two!) or hiking around the globe, she is purposeful with her time and energy and her tenacity benefits all around her. Jackie is always up for a challenge and approaches every project as an opportunity to succeed
Katie partners with organizations to clear the path toward service, impact, and common good in an always changing, uncertain world. Throughout her career, Katie has touched every corner of mission-driven organizations and brings her expertise in strategic planning, programs, operations, board management, and finances to all of the clients she partners with. It is her experience successfully weaving together all of these elements that brought Katie to Upland to lead our emerging nonprofit practice.
Since her days as a summer camp counselor leading wilderness trips, Katie always aims to be the "scrappy utility player" who can jump in to guide the group forward or solve the problem. Whether it winds through a grizzly bear or GANTT chart, Katie is always mapping a creative path to a clear outcome. At the end of the trail, her goal is that everyone feels proud not only of getting there, but how we got there together.
Lwam leads the visual lens of our work, translating insights, data, and the intangible into actionable and ownable deliverables. Passionate about design, authenticity and making genuine human connections, she embodies Upland's creativity, taking our rigor and empathy into storytelling and refined outputs that are beautiful, engaging and communicable across an organization. In addition to engagements, Lwam partners with Elizabeth to develop the Upland brand and deliver content strategy.
Lwam lives with her family in the historically multicultural and artistic Lower East Side of Manhattan. While the "outdoors" to her are flea markets and dining al fresco, she loves exploring the world with her husband and children, from Reykjavik to Ulanbaatar to Austin. In addition to her role at Upland, Lwam is also a doula and an advisor to local hospitals and medical organizations, working to drive equity, safety and empathetic medical innovation.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Brand Growth Consultant
Martha is an experienced brand growth consultant and strategic moderator, driven by finding the ‘why' behind the ‘what' to help clients find consumer-centric solutions to their business challenges. With expertise in innovation strategy and brand positioning, she is skilled at uncovering insights within context, and looks both inside-out and outside-in to ensure outcomes are actionable, future-forward, and sustainable.
Martha believes in the power of acting locally and thinking globally and spends time volunteering and connecting with others to improve the lives of those less fortunate. She also enjoys the exquisite shoreline of Lake Michigan, as well as her annual treks to the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest (where much of her extended family resides), where she enjoys hiking, kayaking, fresh seafood, and just taking in the majestic beauty of the region.
Ralph strives to combine 38 years of CMO/Global Innovation and Market Research experience to create new or better product/service ideas, ways to position a brand for growth that brings a brand to life and connects it powerfully with the brand's customers based on forward looking insights.
He splits living in his lake home on Morse Reservoir in Cicero, IN and a condo in Indianapolis near Butler University.
Ralph grew up on a lake in Warsaw, IN and still loves waterskiing, jet skiing, flying ultralights or just enjoying a glass of wine on his pontoon boat.
Ralph is passionate about protecting lakes/our water and other natural resources and has worked with Upland and the Governor of MI to develop the best strategies and arguments to convince voters and businesses to help too. He also works closely with the National Wildlife Foundation to enhance its efforts.
Education
BA - Michigan State University
"I'm in this work to partner with and support the movers, shakers, and leaders who are doing the work every day to fight for a better world to name their ambitions, design their own paths toward their goals, and navigate all kinds of big growth and change along the way."
Taylor is a cross-pollinator, she enjoys applying an interdisciplinary lens to all the projects she touches. Based on her explorations across fields such as sustainability and neuroscience, she engages innovative frameworks and develops imaginative ideas using a whole brain approach. With a love for learning and growing, she brings enthusiasm and passion to each and every project. Her innate curiosity shines through in her Disruptor ID research analysis. Taylor's passion and power shines brightest when she is helping clients inspire and build an emergent Brand Strategy.
Taylor's sun-powered home is nestled in an old growth forest where she enjoys spending time outside with her family, tending to their flock of chickens, honey-bee hives and gardens. Through her experiences working with animals and plants she recognizes how every person and every organization we work with is a on a journey and she is honored to support them on their trek Upland.
Walt brings a great diversity of experiences having worked across many industries and disciplines in his career. His extensive experience in CPG combined with 10 years in the financial services industry brings exceptional value to his client's challenges. Walt's core area of expertise and focus are centered in Consumer Insights, and he infuses his extensive insight expertise to ensure success in new product development efforts. His passion for delivering great innovation and facilitating growth has spearheaded the development of over $500MM in new products across multiple categories
Walt's greatest passion lies with his grandchildren. He is the ultimate in spoiling them, and his full personality is always on high when he is with them. Additionally, Walt loves to travel and has spent a great deal of time traveling in the U.S. and abroad. With his travels comes his interest for the outdoors and he makes sure that they are always part of the itinerary.