iSpot Hires Leslie Wood As Chief Research Officer

TV measurement company iSpot, has named Leslie Wood its chief research officer. He will lead new currency initiatives across linear and streaming and oversee the data science department responsible for the company’s always-on TV and video measurement products.

Wood comes to iSpot after a long time partnership at Media Trust LLC and Leslie Wood Research, where she spearheaded research into internet reach and frequency, market mix modeling, radio listening patterns and TV reach optimization among other crucial industry flashpoints for major advertisers

A multi-decade veteran with a Ph.D. in machine learning, Wood is credited with accelerating innovation in brand measurement, notably for her tenure as chief data officer for NCSolutions (formerly Nielsen Catalina) where she spent over a decade developing new approaches to using data for incremental measurement and targeting and oversaw innovation for all NCS products.

In her new role at iSpot, Wood will drive the development of products, solutions and methodologies that underpin iSpot’s cross-platform measurement suite.

Wood said: “My passion for decades has been empowering consumer brands with better measurement and data science to deliver greater return on investments that can deliver better products and services for everyday people. Putting my passions to work for iSpot gives me an opportunity not just to innovate at the measurement platform of choice for brands but to help ensure the very same metrics brands use to justify, optimize TV investments can also be the metrics they transact upon.”

Wood was just awarded the 2023 American Marketing Association’s Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Award for her achievements helping brands understand the business and brand impact of advertising.

Wood has also received The 2019 Erwin Ephron Demystification Award, The 2016 Market Research Council Hall of Fame Award, The Advertising Research Foundation’s 2015 Great Minds Award and the 2016 Great Minds Award for best paper and the 2013 Worldwide Research Award for best paper.

Wood received a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Hunter College and earned a Ph.D. in information science from the University of Albany (SUNY).