Our President

Kirk Jackisch, MBA

Kirk Jackisch is the global President of Iris Pricing Solutions. He is responsible for all aspects of the firm’s strategy, team, and operations across all Pricing Solutions offices and leads the firm in its mission to deliver the best client results in pricing. Kirk has over 10 years of strategic pricing experience and 20 years of consulting experience, including nine years leading value-based pricing projects for international companies in the high-tech (hardware, software, storage, services), healthcare, manufacturing, consumer products and BPO industries. He has also held senior management positions in pricing, strategic marketing, and sales support in companies like McKesson Health Solutions, Boston Beer Company and Stream Global Services.

Kirk has assisted companies design and implement: Pricing strategies for both new and existing offerings; Pricing training, processes, policies and capabilities (product management through marketing, finance, sales and contracting; Customer value research, starting with the end-result in mind and understanding what is valuable to the customer; Price negotiation strategies for his clients’ largest customers.

In the past, Kirk spent 5 years as a Senior Manager at a major consulting firm as a member of the firm’s strategic pricing practice. In addition, early in his career, Kirk was involved in business re-engineering, IT and business development consulting.

Kirk has an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a BA in International Relations with Honours from the University of British Columbia.

Global & North American Pricing Leadership Team

Paul Hunt started the company in 1995 and over the course of Paul’s 20 year career, he has had the pleasure of working with leading companies on a global basis.

As a pricing strategist, Paul has developed a vast array of proprietary methodologies that go straight to the heart of the problem. He has helped clients with such pricing issues as: bundling/unbundling, competitive pricing, customer categorization, new-product pricing, perceived value, price complexity vs. simplification, pricing policy, price structure, price wars, price/volume relationship, and value-added pricing.

Paul has a particular interest in helping companies implement the cultural changes necessary for them to become more effective value-based pricers. In this capacity, he has helped companies make significant changes that have led to substantial bottom-line improvements.

Paul also does a great deal of lecturing and writing on pricing strategy. He regularly conducts in-house training for corporate clients, speaks at industry conferences and works with leading MBA Programs.  Paul has also written articles for leading publications and associations such as Marketing Magazine, American Marketing Association, Marketing Research Industry Association and the Professional Pricing Society.

In her role as Vice President of Pricing Research, Carys Papageorgiou, leads the project & team management of the research components of our customer engagements; from design, execution, analysis to delivery.  As a growing number of our projects integrate our three pillars of expertise, Pricing Research, Pricing Analytics and Pricing Strategy, Carys ensures that each client engagement benefits fully from the value offered by our core specializations. She serves both as an external and internal liaison for key client accounts.

Carys’ research experience spans 20 years and broad geography from North America, to Europe and the MENA regions.  She has held client-facing roles from business development and BU management, to setting up a start-up research organization in the Middle East. She has worked across a wide range of industries and stakeholder groups, but has particular expertise in the healthcare sector, focusing on MedTech and Medical Devices. Open-minded and creative, she is well attuned to the cultural differences that underpin value perception. Carys is fluent in French, English, Spanish and Greek. She leads our qualitative interview process which sets the foundation for more complex modeling research.

Carys holds an Honors Degree in Psychology from McGill and a law degree from Université de Montréal.

Roberto Rivera is the Vice President of Pricing Strategy at Iris Pricing Solutions.  He is a highly experienced pricing executive with over 23 years of pricing strategy and execution experience. He has an extensive background in developing and implementing successful pricing strategies for various B2B industries, including, hi-tech, healthcare, manufacturing, distribution, associations, and professional services.  Roberto has also held senior consulting and management positions in pricing, strategic marketing, and sales support in companies like Zilliant, LeveragePoint, and Roche Diagnostics.

He is an expert in managing and resolving complex pricing challenges, by applying advanced analytics and customer research techniques to uncover value-capture opportunities. He leverages his deep domain knowledge and analytical skills to help clients realize significant revenue and profitability gains by implementing a full range of pricing, value management, and monetization strategies.  In addition, Roberto is an effective communicator and collaborator and has the ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams.

Roberto’s passion for pricing and his impressive record of success has earned him the respect of his peers and colleagues alike. He is an invaluable asset and is always willing to provide his expertise and guidance to ensure the success of pricing initiatives.

Roberto has a BA in Economics and an MBA from Clark University where he has lectured future pricing professionals on the transformative impact of pricing.  He has also spoken at various product marketing events and has published multiple white papers on pricing strategy through the Professional Pricing Society.

Benjamin Garden leads the Pricing Analytics practice at Iris Pricing Solutions. He provides oversight and management for all analytic projects conducted by the firm. He is an expert at leveraging data, developing models, and distilling actionable insights for world-class brands. As a seasoned analytics professional, he has worked closely with clients across international markets to deliver data-driven solutions for restaurants, retail, real estate, financial, CPG, automotive, and not-for-profit.

With a decade of experience between the private sector and academia, he has helped Fortune 500 brands with their analytics, research, and strategy. Benjamin has previously optimized retail networks across the US, developed customer/product segmentation for the Big Five banks and major credit unions in Canada, advised target marketing campaigns across AMER and EMEA, and deployed autonomous business intelligence solutions for markets around the world. He has been both architect and developer for rapid solution prototyping and brings interdisciplinary acumen to every application.

He has implemented a range of analytical techniques including supervised/unsupervised machine learning, regression, decision trees, discrete choice, clustering algorithms, and spatial analysis. Through interdisciplinary experience, he combines proven methodologies with the necessary business acumen to solve real industry problems. He now focuses his efforts on the development of world-class pricing recommendations, menu price optimization tools, and cloud-based reporting solutions to empower businesses.

Previously, he has held senior roles at organizations like Environics Analytics, IHS Markit, the Center for Spatial Analysis and TransLAB at McMaster University. While completing his graduate degree, he co-founded a tech startup to solve dynamic routing problems for businesses managing large numbers of fleet vehicles. Benjamin earned an M.A. degree in Social Sciences specializing in Spatial Analysis and an Honours B.A. degree from McMaster University.

Greg Thomas has worked with leading organizations in industries as diverse as packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, financial services, high technology and media.

The typical payback on a pricing research project is at least 10:1.  Greg consistently achieves these types of returns by bringing a unique blend of experience in research, pricing, economics, sales and finance to bear on clients’ pricing problems.

Prior to joining Pricing Solutions, Greg spent several years as both a market researcher and a sales & marketing director. Since joining Pricing Solutions, Greg has spearheaded many important initiatives.  He has developed a world-class competency at accurately forecasting the impact of implementing different pricing strategies.  This has been achieved by developing creative proprietary methods in survey design, modeling and quality assurance processes that generate more accurate forecasts and lead to better business results.

Greg graduated in 1998 with a Masters of Science in Economics from the University of Guelph. His research thesis examined the economic returns gained from investments in research. The study’s findings were published in the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Currently, Greg assists in the teaching of a Pricing Management course that is offered at the University of Guelph.

UK & Europe Pricing Leadership

Ed Heskins is responsible for leading Iris Pricing Solutions’ UK business, including Project Management, Client Engagement, and Strategy Development.  Along with the UK team, Ed works on client engagements across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East.

Over 7+ years as a consultant, Ed has worked with a range of B2B and B2C businesses to improve their level of pricing sophistication.  Successful pricing projects have included work in Medical Devices, Information Services, Leisure Sites, Education, Transport, Publishing and Restaurant businesses, among others.

Ed is accredited by the Market Research Society, and has experience designing, conducting and analysing both qualitative and quantitative pricing research studies, including conjoint and price sensitivity analysis.  He also has experience with price elasticity modelling, probability modelling and discounting analysis. Prior to joining Pricing Solutions, Ed worked in Financial Services, where he was responsible for implementing analytics and reporting technology across a major investment bank.

Ed has an MSc in Behavioural Economics from City University London, and a BA in Economics from the University of Leeds.

Pricing Strategist, Speaker and Pricing Capabilities Expert

15+ years as a pricing consultant, working across a diverse range of sectors, both B2B and consumer

5 years as Global Pricing Director for one of the world’s largest logistics companies

Pricing Strategy: Developing Pricing Strategies for clients to maximize both profit and growth

  • Segment pricing strategies
  • New product pricing development
  • Mature product pricing management
  • Price structure migration

Pricing Management: Passionate about helping companies develop their capabilities and infrastructure to better manage pricing

  • Implementation of data-driven, metric-measured processes to overcome the emotions, opinions, and cross-functional barriers that often prevent organizations from optimizing price
  • Development of Key Pricing Performance Measures
  • Development of price change processes to optimize profits, leading to project ROI >10X

Pricing Research:

  • Committed to delivering key insights to drive pricing strategy through quantitative and qualitative research
  • Expert at understanding client needs and translating them into appropriate research programmes to inform pricing strategy
  • Specific expertise in researching the impact of innovative price structure changes

Pricing Training: Provides bespoke training to leading global companies, and is a regular facilitator of public training courses

Pricing Tools: ‘Software agnostic’, but able to provide guidance on appropriate pricing tools, or facilitate a custom build as needed