GfK Custom Research North America Welcomes New Executive Vice President
of its Research Center for Excellence
NEW YORK – GfK Custom Research North America today announced that Derek Allen is joining the company as Executive Vice President of the GfK Research Center for Excellence where he will be responsible for managing the Sampling & Design, Online Strategy and Marketing Science divisionsgroups. In this capacity, his primary objectives will be to maximize the deployment of advanced methods solutions to our clients and strengthen our research support for all sectors and practice areas in the statistical analysis, sampling and online design areas. In addition, he will also serve as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and North American Board.
Dr. Allen brings an extensive background in marketing research consulting focused on applied multivariate statistical analysis and the design of brand equity, customer satisfaction and market segmentation studies. His expertise transcends multiple market sectors including: CPG, financial services, manufacturing and technology across both B2B and consumer populations.
He comes to GfK from Research International where he held the position of Senior Vice President, Marketing Science for the past three years. In that position, he served as a global expert in research methodology, psychometrics and advanced analytics. His efforts yielded an integrated marketing sciences group to provide worldwide thought leadership and product development for the Research International network. Prior to his tenure at Research International, Derek served for over 10 years as Senior Vice President and Director of Research for Market Probe, Inc., a global market research firm with offices in Asia, Europe and the Americas. His marketing research experience also includes several years on the client side with both Kohler Co. and General Electric.
Dr. Allen is the author of three recent books on customer satisfaction research and analysis. His fourth book, to be released next year, is titled Cross-Cultural Psychometric Issues in Marketing Research. Derek holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration/Mass Communication Research from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a BA in Communication from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication.
“Derek’s expertise and reputation in Marketing Science as well as his experience within the global research industry make him a key addition to our leadership team,” says Debbie Pruent, Chief Operating Officer.
Based in the company’s Chelsea Market office in New York City, Allen replaces the former head of the GfK Research Center for Excellence Simeon Chow, Ph.D. who now serves as Director, Trend Scanning & Research Methods Philip Morris USA.
About the GfK Research Center for Excellence
The GfK Research Center for Excellence—the in-house think tank of researchers expert in Online Strategy, Statistical Sampling and traditional Marketing Science of GfK Custom Research North America —has developed a set of proven best practices for research and project design that help ensure survey results are accurate and reliable. As a member of the GfK Group, GfK Custom Research North America can access MRI’s database, which may be used to establish sampling distributions as well as examine category and brand usage across the on-line and off-line populations.
About GfK Custom Research North America
Headquartered in New York, GfK Custom Research North America is part of the GfK Group. With home offices in Nuremberg, Germany, the GfK Group is the No. 5 market research organization worldwide. Its activities cover five business divisions: Custom Research, Retail and Technology, Consumer Tracking, Media and HealthCare. The Group has115 operational companies and a current total of 8,400 employees who offer market research services for 90 countries. .
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