[ Executives ]
PHIL ABRAHAMSON
Senior Vice President, Project Management
Menlo Park
Dr. Abrahamson has twenty-two years of market research experience spanning consumer and B2B markets; he is well versed in segmentation, choice modeling, and customer loyalty, among other issues and techniques. Prior to joining Knowledge Networks, Dr. Abrahamson led the market research and analytics group at Blue Shield of California; he also has been a Principal at Applied Decision Analysis, a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a Director at Standard & Poor's. His client work at these companies focused on product/service design and pricing across many sectors, including the health insurance, medical device, automotive, electric utility, and technology industries. Dr. Abrahamson holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Stanford University.
LYNNE ARMSTRONG
Senior Vice President, Talent Management
New York
Ms. Lynne Armstrong is responsible for maintaining a deep and well-rounded talent pool at Knowledge Networks. She oversees recruiting, training, employee communication, coaching, and organizational development. Her background includes extensive experience in business unit and human resources management. Prior to joining KN, Ms. Armstrong was President of Human Capital at NPD and Ipsos-NPD. She was heavily involved in the integration of the NPD Custom Research employees when Ipsos acquired that business in 2001. She was also a Managing Partner with the Somerset Group, the largest of the executive recruiting firms that focus exclusively on the marketing research sector. Ms. Armstrong earned her B.A. from Hanover College; she also attended Indiana University Law School and the Kellogg MBA program at Northwestern University.
TIMOTHY BIGLOW
Senior Vice President, Software Development
Menlo Park
Mr. Biglow manages Information Technology and Engineering at Knowledge Networks. He draws on a software development career of twenty-three years in the Electronic Design Automation, Financial Market Analysis and Trading, and Market Research industries. His areas of expertise include risk management, offshore team management, project management, software QA, interaction design and the software development lifecycle. Before joining Knowledge Networks in October, 2000, he was a developer, project manager and team manager of the Analog Workbench™ product at Analog Design Tools, Valid Logic Systems and Cadence Design Systems, respectively; and later plied SQA and project management for Tibco Finance Technology and Brokat Technologies. Biglow holds a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences and an A.B. in Music from The Leland Stanford Jr. University.
KATHERINE BINNS
Senior Vice President, Business Insight
New York
Ms. Binns currently heads the Pharmaceutical Custom Research group at Knowledge Networks. She has overseen all of the research engagements KN has conducted in behalf of KN clients in the US and Europe since joining the firm in May 2008.
Ms. Binns has more than 15 years experience in health care market research; with extensive experience in the areas of pharmaceutical landscape mapping, branding and positioning; sizing and segmentation; new product introductions; and competitive analysis. Her client work has spanned consumer, patient, physician and payor research on behalf of the bio-pharmaceutical, medical device, and managed care sectors.
Prior to Knowledge Networks, Ms. Binns held a variety of positions with Harris Interactive, most recently leading their Health Care Practice where she also led Strategic Health Perspectives, an environmental scanning and forecasting service for the health care industry and health policy leaders. Ms. Binns holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Master of Business Administration from The Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University.
RICH CATRONE
Chief Operating Officer
New York
Mr. Rich Catrone brings over 20 years of operations- and client-side experience to Knowledge Networks. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President, North American Operations, at Ipsos ASI, and oversaw all of the functions supporting data collection. His key responsibilities included identifying and integrating new technologies, defining opportunities for added efficiency, and evaluating the feasibility of product business plans. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Catrone headed Online Panel and Operations for Ipsos Interactive Services, guiding the management and growth strategies for the company's online panel assets. His accomplishments included integrating three online operations groups into one and aligning project management expertise with Ipsos research specialties. Mr. Catrone also spent 15 years at The NPD Group, rising to Vice President, Corporate Operations and Panels, a position he held from 1997 to 2001. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Analysis from St. John's University.
MAURA CLANCEY (1960-2010)
In Memoriam
J. MICHAEL "MIKE" DENNIS
Executive Vice President, Government & Academic Research
Menlo Park
Dr. Dennis is responsible for managing Government and Academic Research for Knowledge Networks. Joining Knowledge Networks in February 2000, he has been responsible for managing the Survey Research Department, with oversight of panel recruitment, survey sampling, maximizing response rates, and survey methods research. More recently, Dr. Dennis has managed numerous surveys for academic and Foundation-based customers and for the Research Triangle Institute. A frequent presenter at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, his current areas of methodological inquiry are nonresponse bias, panel conditioning, and data collection mode effects. Prior to joining Knowledge Networks, Dr. Dennis was a Senior Scientist at Abt Associates, where he managed several large-scale Federal Surveys and was Associate Project Director for the National Immunization Survey (CDC). Dr. Dennis has also been active in the area of medical ethics and biomedical politics, having served on the Ethics Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing and written a dissertation on The Politics of Kidney Transplantation.
CHARLES A. DiSOGRA
Chief Statistician
Menlo Park
Dr. DiSogra is Knowledge Network's Chief Statistician and heads the statistics unit at the Menlo Park office. He brings over 20 years experience in survey research, sample design, data analysis, and administration. Charles comes to KN from Field Research Corporation in San Francisco where he was vice president and senior research director. He formerly directed a peer-review research grant program for the University of California. Prior to that position, he was a senior scientist and an associate director at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research where he was the founding director of the California Health Interview Survey, the largest on-going telephone health survey in the country. Before UCLA, Charles was the senior consultant for survey research and statistics at Freeman, Sullivan & Co. in San Francisco; director of the Behavioral Risk Factor Survey for the State of California; and an epidemiologist and researcher at the California Cancer Registry where he founded and directed their telephone survey research laboratory. His experience also includes malaria eradication work with the Peace Corps in Southeast Asia where he worked and traveled for five years followed by a six-month motorcycle journey through Europe. Charles has a Master's degree in public health and a doctorate in nutritional epidemiology with an emphasis in biostatistics and policy analysis from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the American Statistical Association, Survey Methods Group; the Statistics Section of the American Public Health Association; and the American Association of Public Opinion Research.
JUSTIN EDGE
Executive Vice President, Healthcare Research
Chicago
Mr. Edge currently co-heads the Custom Research group at Knowledge Networks, a leading independent research advisory firm. He has spent the past 16 years advising clients in consumer, professional and B2B markets on new product introductions, brand health and international marketing strategies. He has worked across many industries and brands but much of his focus has been on health care, including pharmaceutical and device companies, health care providers and payors. He is equally comfortable with qualitative and quantitative insights, and with consumer and professional audiences.
Prior to Knowledge Networks, Mr. Edge held a variety of positions with Opinion Research Corporation and the Martec Group. Before settling in the U.S., Mr. Edge worked with HSBC in the UK and with the Irish Trade Board in Sweden. He started out his career as a teacher in Ireland.
Mr. Edge has been a featured presenter at numerous conferences and client seminars. He was educated at The Smurfit School of Business, University College Dublin (UCD), the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the National University of Ireland.
PATRICIA GRAHAM
Chief Strategy Officer
Chicago
Joining Knowledge Networks in 2001, Ms. Graham has held several senior executive roles at KN with responsibility for managing large parts of the organization, both in the line and corporate functional parts of the business, most recently as Chief Marketing Officer. In her current role as Chief Strategy Officer she is responsible for identifying the strategic direction of the firm along with capabilities, alliances and partnerships that drive future growth.
Ms. Graham brings depth of senior executive experience in general management, strategic marketing and product development, operations, and expanding profitable client relationships in information and technology based businesses. Over the past 34 years she has built successful businesses and evaluated the marketing plan performance and advertising effectiveness of hundreds of new and established brands.
As Executive Vice President, Consulting Services at Nielsen, Ms. Graham led a 1000+-person organization that grew revenue to $280 million and had hands-on business involvement with Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods clients, most notably, Kraft. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President at IRI establishing the introductory, and stage two, sales and marketing success of BehaviorScan & Media Services.
In the six years prior to joining Knowledge Networks, Ms. Graham applied her expertise on the client-side as Executive Vice President/Operating Chairperson, of INTERLINQ Software, driving double digit revenue and profit growth, and President & COO of start-up R2R, Inc. She holds a Master's in political science from Rutgers University.
NEAL HEFFERNAN
Senior Vice President and General Manager
Cincinnati
Mr. Heffernan has more than 16 years' experience and an in-depth understanding of consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry trends and their impact on the consumer and retail industries. Prior to joining Knowledge Networks, Mr. Heffernan was at Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, Business and Consumer Insights. While at IRI, he executed high-profile partnerships, developed new products, and managed strategic sales teams. Mr. Heffernan is an expert across many advanced research methodologies, including new product forecasting, in-market testing, price and promotion, marketing mix, and market structure. His focus is fixed on strategic planning to meet CPG company needs, as well as developing a range of offerings that utilize our National Shopper Lab (NSL) asset and in-store testing expertise. Mr. Heffernan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University's School of Business.
FLORIAN KAHLERT
Senior Vice President, Business Insight
New York
Mr. Kahlert has been instrumental in growing startup companies in the Online Media technology field since 1997. In 2008 he joined Dimestore (now a part of Knowledge Networks) as Vice President of Product and Operations and has led the product development and market introduction of its real- time campaign effectiveness measurement and optimization solution. Previously Mr. Kahlert was Vice President at Right Media, building the client services and training teams and establishing Right Media's international presence, opening the office in London in 2006. Between 1999 and 2005, he was one of the initial executives at InsightExpress, responsible for developing an online recruitment methodology, for which he received a patent, and building a custom panel practice that grew to more than 15 custom panels in the first year alone. Florian holds an M.A. from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in Communications and Psychology.
SIMON KOOYMAN
Chief Executive Officer
New York
Mr. Kooyman brings a track record of growth and innovation to his work as Knowledge Networks' Chief Executive Officer. From 2001 to 2005, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ipsos North America and Chairman of Ipsos-ASI worldwide. During his tenure, through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth, Ipsos North America revenues nearly quadrupled. While at Ipsos, Mr. Kooyman led the company's worldwide efforts to move market research to the Internet, including the development of a leading North-American Internet panel.
Mr. Kooyman also was the first President of the VNU Marketing Information Entertainment Group, bringing the Group within three years to its leading position. There he pushed the Internet-based collection of data about consumer use of entertainment products and implemented online delivery of the Group's products.
Before moving into marketing information, Mr. Kooyman served as President of Campina Melkunie's Industrial Ingredients Division, one of the world's largest dairy ingredients companies; he was Corporate Controller of Royal Wessanen; and he started his career with Arthur Andersen Management Consultants (The Hague).
ETHAN RAPP
Senior Vice President, Business Insight
New York
Mr. Rapp has been a leader and innovator in the field of marketing accountability, Internet advertising and consumer market research for over 15 years. Starting with a specialty in online advertising effectiveness measurement, Mr. Rapp was responsible for many industry firsts in the Internet advertising research arena. He was a founding member of DoubleClick, Inc., where he built one of the first online advertising research departments and developed many of the earliest online advertising effectiveness and online consumer studies.
In 2001, Mr. Rapp went on to build the research team at America Online and its related media network; there his team supported one of the largest advertising sales organizations in the U.S. In 2003, Mr. Rapp helped found Marketing Evolution, where he focused on developing innovative cross-media measurement methodologies that redefined marketing accountability and gave insights on the role of online advertising in the media mix. Most recently, Mr. Rapp was Director of Custom Research at Conde Nast Publications, managing all marketing effectiveness studies for major clients and partners.
AUDREY ROSEN
Executive Vice President, CPG/Retail
New York
Ms. Rosen brings over 20 years of client management and market research experience to Knowledge Networks where she is responsible for strategic account planning and development for the organization. She joined the company from AC Nielsen, where she was Vice President Group Account Director, responsible for the management and revenue growth of AC Nielsen's New York office. While there, she held a number of key positions and played a critical role in new business development in addition to her client service responsibilities.
Prior to AC Nielsen, Ms. Rosen was a Project Director at NPD where she specialized in consumer panel analysis. She began her career as an Analyst at McCollum/Spielman, a copy testing company. Ms. Rosen received a BA in Psychology from SUNY Stony Brook, and an MBA in Marketing and Management from Adelphi University.
ELLEN VECCIA
Chief Research Officer
Menlo Park
Dr. Veccia brings over twenty years of experience applying quantitative techniques to solving measurement and marketing problems in both consumer and B2B research. Prior to joining Knowledge Networks, she was a Principal at Marketing & Planning Systems (MaPS). Earlier in her career, Dr. Veccia was an Associate Group Director with National Analysts, Inc. Ellen has managed several departments throughout her career including: Client Service Teams, KN Operations, and Advanced Analytics. She has extensive experience in conducting research and consulting assignments, covering both strategic issues and tactical implementation, and is well practiced in a variety of methodologies, including: segmentation, satisfaction tracking, brand image modeling and tracking, discrete choice analysis, conjoint analysis, and qualitative research. Dr. Veccia has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Northeastern University in Boston and a B.A. in Psychology from Florida Atlantic University.
JIM VIELEE
Senior Vice President, Business Insight (Pharma)
Mt. Arlington, NJ
As leader and cofounder of KN's Mt. Arlington office, Mr. Vielee has managed over 500 quantitative physician research projects, including patient chart studies, ATU, concept and journal ad testing, message recall, positioning and tracking studies. These studies have primarily made use of Physicians Consulting Network (PCN®), KN's high-quality online panel of over 70,000 physicians, pharmacists, dentists, nurses and technicians.
Mr. Vielee spearheaded the office's efforts in the oncology market and co-developed its MD-diary® service with Roma Maksymowych. Mr. Vielee has worked in most therapeutic categories, most recently, oncology, depression, anticoagulants, diabetes, and pediatric vaccines. Mr. Vielee's main responsibilities include overseeing all projects, managing senior staff members, client service, and sales and marketing. In addition, he is responsible for strategic planning, business development, and budgeting of projects.
Mr. Vielee started his market research career in 1996 at Market Measures. He graduated from Farleigh Dickinson University in 1992 with a BS degree in Marketing.
WENDY WALLNER
Senior Vice President, Business Insight
Menlo Park
Ms. Wallner brings 20 years of marketing and market research experience to Knowledge Networks. She began her career at Procter & Gamble where she spent eight years in brand management, responsible for Beauty Care brands including Secret, Prell, Head & Shoulders and Oil of Olay.
Following P&G, Wendy worked at ACNielsen where she held a number of key client service and business development positions, working with top CPG clients such as ConAgra, Clorox, Tree Top, Nestlé, Dial and Dr Pepper.
Prior to joining Knowledge Networks Wendy worked in business development at Instill Corp., a foodservice technology company, and managed client service for Lewis & Partners advertising agency.
At KN, Wendy leads a custom research team managing client relationships, matching business issues and research needs to KN capabilities, bringing together the right KN resources, and managing project work teams to fully deliver on those needs. Wendy holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from University of Chicago.
JEAN YIN
Controller
Menlo Park
During her 13 years in finance and accounting, Jean has overseen audit, tax and general accounting, SOX, and payroll. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and started her career as an auditor at Deloitte & Touche. She is a CPA and has worked at various start-ups and publicly traded companies. Most recently, Jean was Controller of a publicly traded company at Alvarion, Inc.
