Ekow Mensah

“I was Ekow's business partner at Aspen Dental (ADMI) while he was Vice President of Strategic Innovation and Insights. We regularly interacted on projects, typically where Ekow brought forward new products or services to the company, and our team's job was to attempt to measure how successful those products or services were. While the dental industry is not typically known as being very innovative, Ekow changed the paradigm and brought forward a lot of very forward thinking concepts. Ekow was extremely focused on the patient experience and developed some great concepts like Aspen TV (where we were able to simultaneously entertain patients in the waiting room while receiving supplemental advertising revenue from vendors). Additionally, Ekow spearheaded the "dental practice of the future" concept, which included all aspects of what a modern dental practice could look like. This included all signage and branding layouts, as well as things like interactive features and other welcoming aspects to get patients in a comfortable mindset just prior to their appointments. This was especially important to our patients, given that going to the dentist is often a stressful, unwelcome experience for many people. Ekow was a major asset to Aspen Dental, and any company would be lucky to have him leading initiatives such as these. ”

“"Architect of great solutions" is the first word that comes to mind! Ekow taught me a tremendous amount over the 3+ years at Abbott. He is one of the best insights' leaders I will ever come across - who challenged me to think and do things differently for greater impact. As data is power, he grew into a very strong marketer - he just knew how to convert insights into action better than some of the marketers I've worked with. In addition, I have considered him a smart strategist - someone who can simplify the complex and turn this into a vision. During his tenure many ideas that he brought forth resulted in tremendous growth of brands like Similac, Ensure, etc. When Ekow brought back complex studies, he was able to bring forth ideas and solutions for implementation. He is also a builder of strong teams. He inherited a role to build a strong organization of insights' leaders through influence and he did this with patience and humility, while bringing in tools, disciplines, and very creative approaches that were adopted all over the world and gained him tremendous respect. He was a huge help in helping to set up innovation processes that turned into a well-oiled machine and helped to speed things up in very slow-moving environment. I would hire Ekow for any role that was worthy of his skills and I would recommend him for a senior level position as a marketer, innovator or an insights leader. ”