MARCIA BALLARINY

A graduate from the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Marcia has been working in communication planning since 1989, with a specific focus on branding. She has a strong expertise on the development of internal communication strategies, the use of communication for HR management and also on the launch and repositioning of products and services.
In 2001 Marcia was voted Planning and Research Professional of the Year by the Brazilian Advertising Association and in 2002 she won the Colunistas Award for Promotional Marketing Professional of the Year.
Aside from being a founding partner at Planning, Marcia is also a university teacher: she is an MBA teacher and the Head of the Planning for Branding (P4B) course at the School for Marketing and Advertising (ESPM/Rio de Janeiro).
Guest lecturer for the MA in Marketing Management at the Portuguese Institute for Administration and Marketing (IPAM), Lisbon/Aveiro/Matosinhos, 2008.

BRANCA LEE

Before joining Planning in 1999, Branca worked in several local advertising agencies, after graduating from the Catholic University/RJ with a major in advertising and media studies.

She is currently a director and a partner at Planning, where she is responsible for several key accounts and clients, making the interface between the company and its numerous partners and supliers. Branca has a strong interest in direct marketing and the use of conferences and events as a relationship building tool for her clients.

Branca is also a teacher at the School for Marketing and Advertising (ESPM/RJ).

TAMAR MESSER

The first 10 years of Tamar’s career were spent in London, where she worked in a number of market research agencies looking after clients such as IBM, 3M, Coca Cola, Mastercard, BBC, Shell and Levi's.

During that period she developed and managed both qualitative and quantitative research projects, a large number of which were multi-country studies.

Due to her particular interest in branding and the way products and services need to adapt and change to successfully enter new markets (geographical, cultural, etc) the move into strategic planning was not a difficult one to make.

Since moving back to Brazil in 2003 she has been a Senior Consultant at Planning where she manages a number of clients and accounts.