Karim Iskandar

Managing Director, International Syndigo

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

Karim Iskandar runs Syndigo’s international business. Syndigo operates in a part of commerce infrastructure that is invisible to shoppers but decisive for retailers and brands: the management, enrichment, syndication, and verification of product content, the descriptions, specifications, images, and attributes that determine whether a product can be listed, found, and bought across a fragmented set of channels and marketplaces. As Managing Director, International, Iskandar carries a broad remit outside the Americas, covering go-to-market strategy, sales, finance, operations, product strategy, and partnerships. His background is in building the European operations of American information businesses: he was part of the team that launched Forrester Research in Europe and ultimately ran its UK business, and he later launched JRNI in both Europe and the United States.

Career Highlights

• Managing Director, International at Syndigo, heading the international business with responsibility across go-to-market strategy, sales, finance, operations, product strategy, and partnerships.
• Member of Syndigo’s executive leadership team, alongside chief executive Simon Angove.
• Started his career on Forrester Research’s European launch team during the stretch in which the research firm grew from roughly 30 million to 170 million dollars in revenue, rising to UK General Manager.
• Launched JRNI’s customer engagement business in both Europe and the United States.
• Held sales and business development leadership roles at TCC Global N.V., Dun & Bradstreet, LRN Corporation, The Harris Poll, and OneSource Information Services.
• Registered as managing director of Syndigo’s German entity, Syndigo Deutschland GmbH.
• A regular speaker at retail and product data events across Europe, including GS1 Interact and Syndigo’s own European partner and customer programmes.

Professional Journey

Iskandar read psychology at the University of Rochester and went into the information business, joining Forrester Research as part of the team that launched it in Europe. The timing placed him inside a company in the steepest part of its growth curve, expanding from around 30 million to 170 million dollars in revenue, and he came out of it running Forrester’s UK operation as General Manager. That is the formative experience he points to, and the pattern it set, taking an American information or data business and building a European market for it, has recurred throughout his career.

He went on to a sequence of sales and business development leadership roles across research, data, compliance, and retail services companies: Dun & Bradstreet in business information, OneSource Information Services, The Harris Poll in market research, LRN Corporation in ethics and compliance, and TCC Global N.V. in retail loyalty and shopper marketing. The common thread is the commercialisation of information products to large enterprise buyers, frequently in a European context where the product had been designed for a US market.

Immediately before Syndigo he was at JRNI, the customer engagement platform whose product drove shoppers from digital channels into in-store appointments and experiences. There he was responsible for launching the business in both Europe and the United States, which is a less usual combination and put him on both sides of the transatlantic expansion problem rather than only the receiving end of it.

At Syndigo he heads the international business. The company sits at the centre of the product content ecosystem, working with retailers, brands, and distributors on the accuracy and completeness of the data that flows between them, and it is a business in which European requirements diverge meaningfully from American ones, given differing regulatory regimes, retailer data standards, and the influence of bodies such as GS1 on how products are identified and described. His remit is unusually wide for a regional head, spanning not just sales but finance, operations, product strategy, and partnerships for the territory, and he is registered as managing director of the German operating entity, Syndigo Deutschland GmbH. He represents the company publicly across European retail and product data events, including GS1 Interact and Syndigo’s own partner kickoff and customer programmes.

Education

University of Rochester

BA, Psychology