Fiona Blades

Chief Experience Officer

Fiona started her career in petfood marketing then moved into advertising, joining Leo Burnett. Before setting up MESH Experience in 2006, she was Planning Director at an Omnicom agency in London.
Fiona founded MESH to fill a gap in the market - to understand every interaction people have with brands – the whole customer experience. In the days before apps and Twitter she started capturing people’s experiences with brands using mobile phones.
Fiona has enjoyed 10 years working with Professor Hugh Wilson and Professor Emma Macdonald (Warwick Business School). Work using MESH’s Real-time Experience Tracking approach was a finalist for the Innovate UK award and includes an article in Harvard Business Review.
In 2021, together with Brian Jacobs, Hilary Woods and David Beaton, Fiona founded Crater Lake & Co to help clients create a clear performance narrative with their measurement. In 2022, she founded Diversity Unlimited, a collective of award-winning diverse-owned insight consultancies to help corporates with a one-stop shop.
Fiona is a Fellow of the Market Research Society, sits on the editorial advisory board for ESOMAR’s Research World magazine, is a mentor for The Marketing Academy and is President for the Market Research Council in New York.
She is also honored that MESH Experience won The Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards for Marketing Research Supplier of the Year 2022 as well as Delta Air Lines Women-Owned Business of the Year 2017. Other awards include the International Business Excellence Award, 2021 for helping Fidelity International increase revenue by +350% and the IBX Award, 2020, for helping LATAM Airlines to monetize NPS, reducing churn and increasing customers.
As the CEO of a women-owned business, Fiona is passionate in supporting an inclusive agenda. She lives in New York with her husband.