Meet the ARF Research Team

We'd like to introduce you to the people who put the "Research" in the Advertising Research Foundation. Our stellar team works to bring quality research and thought leadership to ARF members and the industry as a whole. Get to know us, and feel free to contact us if you have questions or would like to be more involved.

Don Gloeckler is EVP and the Chief Research Officer of the ARF. Don joined the ARF in January, 2012, after completing a 33 year career at The Procter & Gamble Company, where he held research management positions in the United States, Canada and Japan. He has been co-chair of the ARF Research Quality Forum and a member of the TrueSample Quality Council. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of disABILITYinsights, a non-profit organization that studies and represents the needs of persons with disabilities. Previously, Don was a member of the Board of Directors of the Media Rating Council, the Board of Directors and Steering Committee of the Nielsen Media Research Council for Research Excellence, and the Advisory Board for NielsenConnect. In 2006, he was recognized by Advertising Age as one of the magazine's Media Mavens. Don was born and raised in Ohio and holds an M.B.A. from The Ohio State University, a B.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati and a Certificate in Lay Pastoral Ministry from the Athenaeum of Ohio, Mount St. Mary's Seminary. He resides in Cincinnati with his wife, Linda. They have four children and one beautiful granddaughter.

Bill Cook is the ARF's EVP of Research and Standards. Dr. Cook also leads the ARF's research quality practice. Bill began his marketing research career at DuPont working to increase the effectiveness of DuPont's corporate image advertising. He later worked on advertising strategy and research for consumer products at DuPont, and, subsequently at Kraft General Foods. At Kraft, Bill led the "Seven Routes to Advertising Effectiveness" program which defined a process for improving the setting of advertising objectives and matching the research with those objectives.

Pursuing better integration between media planning and marketing strategy, Bill became Exec. Vice President at Simmons Market Research Bureau. At Simmons, Bill worked with leading media companies and advertising agencies on ways to increase the return on advertising spending. Subsequently, Bill joined modelers seeking to improve targeting techniques and data-based marketing at Equifax NDS, and then at William Cook & Company.

Ted McConnell joins the ARF as EVP, Digital. The newly-created research position reflects the ARF's commitment to strengthen our focus on digital measurement. McConnell, who recently retired from P&G after 32 years, where he spent the last 15 years presiding over digital innovation, partnering with brands and corporate groups to understand how these new methods could work with packaged goods brands, leads a new ARF program to identify new measurement initiatives to support and validate digital marketing.

David Marans, the ARF's EVP, Media is an industry leader and frequent public speaker. He began his media research career at Young & Rubicam, and served as Media Research Director at JWT and Mindshare. After 25 years on the agency side, David joined IAG Research as an EVP in 2005. During his career, he worked closely with clients such as Ford, Sears, Pfizer, Unilever, winning a citation from the Association of National Advertisers as well. David is taking a leading role in the ARF Forums, and will be hosting the Audience Measurement 6.0 event.

Dr. Todd Powers is the ARF's EVP of Primary Research. He comes to the ARF by way of IBM, where he served as Director of Brand and Advertising Research in the Market Insights organization. Dr. Powers, who joined the ARF in September 2010, provides a strong leadership vision for industry topics including advertising ROI, leveraging data analytics for insight, establishing research-guided roadmaps to better manage decision-making complexity, digital measurement, and the real marketing role of the social media movement.

Dr. Horst Stipp was Senior Vice President, Strategic Insights & Innovation in the Research department of NBC Universal in New York where he oversaw strategic marketing and consumer research for NBCU's TV networks as well as the new digital platforms. Stipp received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University and has been involved in media research for over 30 years. His publications, in English and German, cover a wide range of topics. Recently, he has written in journals and contributed to books on the development of the media in the digital age and he has presented on these topics at conferences in the US and in Europe. Since 2000, he has been teaching a seminar on media metrics at Columbia University's Business School. He joined the ARF as EVP of Global Business Strategy in 2011.

Steve Rappaport, ARF Knowledge Solutions Director, helps member companies build brands through the ARF's Knowledge Center. The ARF Knowledge Center organizes and synthesizes the knowledge generated through ARF activities along with archival sources and trusted third-parties, and then makes them available through a family of self-service sources, such as the ARF's industry leading PowerSearch database, Morning Coffee newsreader, and also through assisted research and consulting services available from the ARF Knowledge Center. Steve is the author of Listen First! Leveraging Social Media for Business Advantage (Wiley 2011), and lead author of the best-selling The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation (Wiley 2007).

Bob Woodard is the EVP, Advertising Effectiveness at the ARF. In September 2011, Robert Woodard, formerly VP, Global Consumer and Customer Insights, Campbell Soup Company, joined the ARF Research team as EVP, Advertising Effectiveness. One of the world's foremost authorities on the knotty subject of "how advertising works," Woodard is a significant expansion to the ARF Research team. As a major contributor to the ARF landmark NeuroStandards 1.0 study, Woodard will continue to work collaboratively on the NeuroStandards 2.0 study, which will expand to include traditional creative testing as well as the emerging biometric techniques.

Catherine Gardner is Managing Editor of the Journal of Advertising Research, the quarterly publication of the Advertising Research Foundation. The Journal encourages dialogue between practitioners and academics to expand the scientific body of knowledge about all facets of marketing and advertising research, and to facilitate translation of that knowledge to support the ARF's mission of 'effective business through research and insights'. Previously Catherine worked at the World Advertising Research Center developing publications for the IPA, UK Marketing Society, Market Research Society and Advertising Association, and edited four academic advertising journals.

Galina Kho is the Strategic Research Manager and manages the ARF's major ongoing research initiatives. She also researches and writes white papers on topics of broad interest to the ARF member companies and the advertising/marketing industry. Prior to the ARF, Galina was a Study Director for Synovate (now IPSOS), providing expertise in quantitative multivariate data analysis as well as overseeing all phases of the market research process to provide actionable strategy to a wide array of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, and non-profit organizations. In addition to assessing the impact of advertising campaigns based on purchase motivation and brand awareness, she also helped develop market simulation models to predict consumer preferences on health insurance products. At Georgetown, she served as an Advanced Statistical Methodology TA for graduate students and conducted usability testing and heuristic evaluations on university websites. Galina holds an M.S. in Strategic Communications from Columbia University, an M.A. in Communication, Culture, and Technology and an honors certificate in International Business Diplomacy from Georgetown University, as well as a B.A. in Sociology from Emory University. Within the realm of market research and consumer insights, she specializes in global brand strategy (Asia-pacific region), and e-shopper trends in the digital world. Galina grew up in Beijing and Hong Kong and studied abroad in Europe. In her free time, she enjoys photography, pilates/yoga, and exploring new restaurants.

Zena M. Pagán manages the Forum programs and the ARF David Ogilvy Awards program for the Advertising Research Foundation. ARF Forums showcase industry best practices and introduce ARF members to new technologies and the latest thinking about all aspects of advertising and marketing research. This program also provides members with a platform where the industry can voice their mutual concerns in a non-competitive platform. The ARF David Ogilvy Awards celebrate the role of research in successful advertising campaigns. The Awards honor breakthrough moments when creative inspiration and research insights combine to produce a spectacular campaign. Currently, Zena attends LaGuardia Community College undertaking a Media Studies major, where she has received Dean's List recognition by the City University of New York. Zena is also an avid Yankees' fan. Keep up with her on Twitter @theadgroupie and Facebook at facebook.com/adgroupie.

Mi hui Pak is a Librarian and Learning Specialist at the ARF's Knowledge Center. The Knowledge Center provides a wide range of knowledge solutions, including PowerSearch, MorningCoffee, Knowledge@Hand, and member Research Requests. She received her Masters in Library and Information Science from Queens College, and has helped ARF members answer questions related to marketing and advertising research since 2007.

Jill Peled, Librarian and Learning Specialist, joined the ARF Knowledge Center in 2007 to assist the ARF community with questions on advertising research and marketing effectiveness. The Knowledge Center is dedicated to providing valuable ARF and industry resources to its members to facilitate more effective business strategies. Jill holds a MSLIS from Long Island University and a MA from NYU.

Sheila Murphy Seles is currently the Director of Digital and Social Media at the ARF, and prior to that, she served as the Research Project Manager at the ARF. Sheila organizes several ARF projects, including the ARF's digital initiatives and the NeuroStandards Project. A former ARF intern, Sheila recently received a master's degree from MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program where she was a researcher with the Convergence Culture Consortium. Keep up with her on Twitter @shelila.