Lee Nichols, President / CEO
Lee has held executive positions with several management consulting firms, specializing in sales and marketing issues. His client experience includes almost half of the top 100 advertisers and over 60 of the Fortune 500 industrial companies, and spans an array of industries. This experience has exposed him to over 100 product categories, and most of the sales, distribution, wholesale and retail channels through which consumer products flow.

Lee has facilitated industry share groups and advisory councils, and published numerous articles in leading trade journals and books. He earned his B.S. and M.S. from Loyola University of Chicago.

Ben Ball, Senior Vice President
Ben’s focus is on helping fast-moving consumer goods marketers assess market opportunities and build effective Go-to-Market Strategies. He is published frequently in the business press, is a featured speaker at major industry associations and conference venues and serves as a member of the RetailWire BrainTrust®.

Prior to joining Dechert-Hampe in 1992, Ben was Marketing Vice President at PepsiCo Foods International, Marketing Vice President and Director of Field Marketing at Frito-Lay, Inc. and started his career in Marketing with General Mills, Inc. – where his crowning achievement (at least according to his mother) was getting his picture on the Wheaties® box.

Ben holds a Masters Degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.