Elaine Riddell and Jim Follett have joined Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips as Senior Advisors. Both Elaine and Jim are Founding Partners of InsightTech Advisors, a growth activist advisory firm enabling Marketing Insights providers and investors to unlock new value and growth in a marketplace undergoing radical change.
Elaine was named 'The Future Maker' by PharmaVoice. She is an Insights industry innovator who transforms established data, analytics and consulting businesses into high-performance market leaders with sustained, profitable revenue growth at more than twice the market rate. She is recognized for anticipating market shifts, championing customer-centric innovation, pursing strategic M&A and building performance-driven cultures. Elaine is a forerunner in digital solutions that enable marketing and commercial decision making.
Before co-founding InsightTech Advisors, Elaine founded Decisio LLC.
As CEO of Kantar Health, Elaine merged TNS Healthcare with other Kantar healthcare assets to create the leading insights-enabled consulting firm. TNS recruited Elaine to become Global CEO with the mandate to integrate three legacy firms, operating across twenty countries, into one global business. Over five years she doubled the company’s revenue and tripled EBITDA.
Additionally, Elaine engineered the formation of NOP World Health. As CEO, Elaine doubled the business over four years through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. She joined NOP World as President of 25-year-old Market Measures, the platform for NOP World Health, and transformed this declining business into a high growth, 31% CAGR, high EBITDA margin company.
Earlier, as VP of Marketing for IMS America, Elaine was among the leaders to transform the business into a value-added service provider. Separately, she led the development of the premier census-level physician database, Xponent.
Elaine began her career at Abbott Laboratories in Canada with roles in Marketing and Sales Operations. She attended McGill University.
Before co-founding InsightTech Advisors, Jim founded Trebuchet Impact Advisors where he partnered with Marketing Insights providers and investors to deliver enhanced growth and value outcomes.
As a global C-level operating executive, Jim re-engineered five companies over a 15-year period leading either to a sale transaction or accelerated growth performance. Before Trebuchet Impact Advisors, he served as CEO of Sutter Hill Ventures’ portfolio company, Authentic Response, where he guided the company’s successful sale to reInvention LLC. As CEO of Providence Equity Partners’ portfolio company, Survey Sampling International, Jim led the strategy development and implementation process that resulted in the company’s successful globalization. He also played a key role as COO of private equity backed Medsite where he enabled the company’s successful sale to WebMD. As acting CEO/COO of UBM’s NOP World division, Jim led the company’s successful sale to GfK. Earlier, as President of Information Resources Inc.’s U.S. Client Services and Consulting Division, he developed and implemented a new go-to-market model that grew revenue in a declining market.
Jim started his career in Sales at Procter & Gamble, after which he moved through a series of Marketing management positions at General Foods (Kraft), Motts USA (a division of Cadbury Schweppes and now Kraft) and Perrier (now Nestle Waters North America) before joining Information Resources, Inc. in 1990.
Since 2000, Jim has served as a Board Member or Advisor for seven different Marketing Information services companies that were either VC or private equity backed or public companies.
Jim holds an MBA in Marketing from Columbia University and a BA in History from Williams College.
