Overview

Aaron Powers is a Managing Director at SYLVAIN, and leads the company’s business growth in the United States. With a background spanning business strategy, innovation, brand strategy, design and advertising, Aaron specializes in business transformation and bringing consumer-facing brands fully to life. At SYLVAIN, he’s guided the evolution of a diverse slate of key clients, including Spotify, Viacom, Diageo, American Express, BlackRock, L’Oreal and more. Aaron is also the host of SYLVAIN’s weekly podcast, Critical Nonsense. He brings a personal passion for the culinary, music, gaming and pop culture worlds to every project (whether you ask him to or not).

Alain is the Founder and CEO of SYLVAIN, a strategy and design consultancy that provokes progress for companies, people and society at large. Clients include Google, American Express, Spotify, Airbnb, Blackrock, New York Times, Apple, Diageo, GM, the NBA, UBER and others. Founded in 2010, the company is headquartered in NYC, with offices in Amsterdam (NL), Los Angeles (CA) and Richmond (VA) and is a Certified B-Corporation.

Alain is a partner and investor in several ventures, including Master + Dynamic, a design-driven, premium audio brand, So Choice Softworks, a mobile gaming company, Lilo, an açai bowl company, and PetMio, a smart pet food startup. He is on the board of Plus Pool, an ambitious project to build the world’s first floating, filtering swimming pool in NYC harbor, a Founding Member of Kindred, and a member of the New York City Mayor’s Creative Council. Alain is also an active contributor to various non-profit initiatives around the world including the Lower East Side Girls Club, The Bowery Mission and Anseye Pou Haiti.

Ben Cheney is a Principal and Managing Director at SYLVAIN. As part of the founding team, Ben has led long-term strategic engagements across a variety of clients and challenges—from future-focused product and service innovation, to brand strategy and design, to nebulous cultural explorations. Some clients include GM, American Express, Spotify, AB InBev, Google, and more. In every challenge, Ben strives for essentialism; identifying the elements that really matter and making them actionable and applicable for companies and their stakeholders. In his free time, Ben is tireless in his pursuit of CrossFit, and playing with his three kids. He’s also a dedicated denim enthusiast.

Chris Konya is a Principal and Managing Director at SYLVAIN. By applying a deep curiosity about human behavior and a desire to create surprising offerings, Chris helps brands envision their futures through innovation, brand and consumer-led strategy. At SYLVAIN, Chris leads key relationships with clients including Diageo, MoMa, Amazon, Pepsico, Chanel, Dr. Jart and more. Beyond in-market growth, she also grows innovation talent – whether for a client company or for her own team, building tightly knit groups with strong innovation capability. In her spare time, Chris loves to experiment. Her favorites have been her ramen pop-ups and in the pottery studio.

Joey is a Principal and Managing Director at SYLVAIN. After escaping from the world of neuroscience and psychology, Joey became part of the founding team at SYLVAIN in 2010. Here, he’s led innovation and brand strategy work for clients including Google, GM, Afterpay, Waze, VF Corp, Bloomberg and many more. Joey is, unavoidably, a systems thinker— assessing problems in context, making creative leaps, and intuitively connecting far flung dots. He approaches the gnarliest of challenges with a preternatural calm and focuses on the big picture. In addition, Joey serves as the host of SYLVAIN’s podcast, Critical Nonsense, and Editor in Chief of Progress Report, the non-traditional business intelligence platform created by SYLVAIN. He also spearheaded the production of our book The Dots, an in-depth study deconstructing influence for brands and institutions in contemporary culture, and our documentary Instafame, an exploration into the psychological impact of digital fame on young people.

Merideth Bogard is a Principal and Managing Director at SYLVAIN. With a passion for patterns and decoding complex problems, Merideth has applied her natural strategic tendencies to transform brands at SYLVAIN for nearly a decade. Here, Merideth has led key brand and innovation development across a range of clients and industries including Chobani, PepsiCo, Google, Credit Suisse, Colgate Palmolive, Hilton and Airbnb. From managing global research that crosses multiple continents to building innovation pipelines that span 5-10 years, Merideth is constantly in pursuit of solutions to the dynamic challenges brands face today. Her Myers Briggs is an INTP - which definitely puts her on par with either Einstein or Ben Stein (both famous INTPs) so take your pick.

As Chief Design Officer and Principal, Michael drives bold ideas with meticulous craft. He provides clear direction, ambitious vision and the cultural insights that drive teams and processes. He’s worked with brands across categories, including Target, Microsoft, Marriott, AB inBev/Stella Artois, Diageo, Oscar, IBM, Wired, Calvin Klein, IMG New York, Fashion Week and American Express. Michael specializes in culturally insightful strategies, dynamic marketing platforms and innovative creative executions that ground brands in culture and move them forward. He is most well-known for his iconic designs for Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, which have left an indelible impression on American culture.

Sherry (Sherzad) Rahmatian is a Managing Director at SYLVAIN. Based in Amsterdam, though a California native, she leads SYLVAIN’s business growth across Europe. Sherry has built her career client-side in the tech industry, most recently with Uber where she led marketing strategy across Europe, Middle East and Africa. At SYLVAIN, she leads key clients including Nike, Uber, WhatsApp and Spotify. Coupled with her background in psychology and a passion for global cultures, Sherry brings a wealth of knowledge on agile thinking, experimentation and fast-growing brands from the tech industry. And when she’s not working, she’s traveling as much as she possibly can, and has touched down in nearly 50 countries.

System thinker. Design-driven. Mama bear. These traits along with over 10 years of program management experience, Tony has built his career by tackling a diverse range of projects and initiatives—all at different scales, challenges, and locations around the world. Tony lives for designing organizational systems and processes to help teams work smarter and better. His previous roles in Business Operations and Program Management have strengthened his ability to marry creativity, strategy, and culture to launch new practices and tools.

Prior to joining Sylvain Labs, Tony was Global Program Manager at SYPartners. There, he worked alongside company leaders and projects teams at IBM, Amex, Huawei, OWN, UnitedHealth Group, Campbell’s and AARP in the planning and scaling of various global initiatives. As a fiercely competitive child, Tony dreamt of being a top-level pianist on the pro circuit scene. Yes, this does exist. This passion led him to Syracuse University, where he earned a B.M in Music Industry and Piano Performance.