Douglas Rivers, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Douglas Rivers is one of the world's leading experts on survey research and a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He has taught at Harvard University, Caltech, UCLA, and, most recently, Stanford University, where he is Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Rivers has founded two successful technology companies, Preview Systems and Knowledge Networks. Preview Systems pioneered the field of digital rights management, conducted a successful IPO in 1999, and was sold to Aladdin in 2001. Knowledge Networks introduced probability sampling to the Internet in 1998 and is currently ranked as the 25th largest market research company in the U.S. according to Marketing News. Rivers was CEO of Knowledge Networks from 1998 to 2002 and currently serves as its Chairman. He was named Executive of the Year in 2000 by Research Business Report and awarded the Innovator's Award by the American Association of Public Opinion Research in 2001 in recognition for his work at Knowledge Networks.

He also is a consultant to CBS News and has published numerous academic papers in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Econometrics Journal, and the Journal of Econometrics. He holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. TOP»

Len Cardone

Vice President of Finance

Len Cardone leads the finance organization where he is responsible for planning YouGovPolimetrix's financial strategies and managing its overall financial health.

He brings more than seventeen years experience leading finance organizations in technology companies, including Compaq Computers, Nortel Networks, ATMI and most recently Knova Software, where he served as Director of FP&A.

He earned a BS in Economics with a concentration in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a MS in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University. TOP»

Ted Marzilli

Senior Vice President of the Brand Group

Ted Marzilli leads the newly created Brand and Syndicated Products group within YouGovPolimetrix. Ted's responsibilities include the development and launch of BrandIndex in the U.S. (click here to visit the UK site), the first daily tracking service measuring the brand equity of 1,000 major commercial brands across 40 industry sectors. He brings more than 15 years of experience in the market research, media and CPG industries to YouGovPolimetrix.

Ted was most recently Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at The Nielsen Company, the world's largest market research company, operating in over 100 countries. At Nielsen, he developed global strategy and launched innovative services related to loyalty marketing, in-store media and the financial services industry. He also led numerous partnership, joint venture and acquisition efforts, both domestically and internationally. These included businesses focused on retail measurement, pricing and promotion software, shopper tracking and marketing mix modeling.

Prior to Nielsen, Ted was a senior associate in the New York office of Booz | Allen | Hamilton. While at Booz | Allen, he consulted to senior executives of major media companies, including Universal Studios, EMI, MTV, Reuters, EM.TV and Primedia. Ted's areas of expertise include pricing strategy, mergers and acquisitions, the Internet, Hispanic market opportunities, television and movie studio operations, print distribution and content development.

Ted earned an MBA, with honors, in Finance and Management from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He also earned a BA, magna cum laude, in Economics and Philosophy, from Boston College. Ted has served on the board of directors of innovative market research companies, such as GuestMetrics and The Luxury Goods Intelligence Network, and has also served on the Alumni Council at the Stern School of Business. TOP»

Pam Batalis

Vice President of Business Development

Pam Batalis leads the development and management of new corporate clients for YouGovPolimetrix. She brings 19 years of business development experience, encompassing both brand-side and agency positions in corporate, start-up, e-commerce, and consulting environments.

Pam was most recently the Vice President of Business Development for Brand Keys, Inc. At Brand Keys, she led the marketing and sales efforts for the agency, in addition to leading corporate client consulting projects in the CPG, Financial, Media, Telecom, Travel/Hospitality, Retail, and Sports/Entertainment sectors. She is also credited with successfully developing and executing the go-to-market strategy for the agency's engagement measurement system. Pam has presented on the topics of customer loyalty and marketing roi measurement at numerous conferences, both internationally and domestic.

Prior to Brand Keys, Pam led the strategic marketing and business development efforts of four new business ventures in the Sports and Entertainment industry. Most notably, she led the development and launch of the Women's Team Sales Division for Reebok International; and then served as a founding General Manager in the (former) American Basketball League (ABL) - the first national women's pro basketball league in the U.S. Pam was named by Sports Business Journal as one of the "Top 50 Women's Sports Executives," having built the first profitable women's professional basketball team franchise in history.

Pam earned an MS in Sports Management from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She also earned a BA from Saint Michael's College (VT), where she served on the Board of Trustees, and is in the college's Athletic Hall of Fame. While attending Saint Michael's, she was a Rhodes Scholar Candidate Nominee; an NCAA Collegiate All-American Honorable Mention (Basketball); and was selected to the USA East National Team (Basketball) as a first alternate. TOP»

Michel Floyd, Sc.D.

Chief Technology Officer

Michel Floyd is responsible for providing technology leadership to YouGov plc group worldwide. His portfolio includes application development, IT, global voice and data networks, and all aspects of YouGov's online experience for clients, employees, and respondents.

Michel Floyd has been a Silicon Valley technology leader for over 22 years, having served at the director through EVP levels in both early stage start-ups and public companies, including Knowledge Networks; Preview Systems (IPO then acquired by Aladdin Systems); Optimal Networks (acquired by Compuware); Systems and Networks (acquired by Cadence Design Systems); Xsoft (now Inxight); and Integrated Systems, Inc. (IPO then acquired by Wind River Systems). As an expert in distributed computing, high availability Web applications, e-commerce, networking, and enterprise software, he is occasionally called upon perform technology due diligence for investors and others in support of financings, acquisitions, and partnerships.

Dr. Floyd holds B.S., M.S., and Sc.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as a U.S. Patent on e-commerce security, with several more pending. Michel is on the board of directors of the MIT/Stanford Venture Laboratory VLAB and serves as its web-chair. TOP»

Jamie Turner

Vice President of Information Services

Jamie Turner leads the team that develops software and provides infrastructure to support YouGovPolimetrix's ambitious technical goals.

He has been designing Internet-based software for more than ten years, spanning such diverse fields as video games, peer-to-peer networks, CRMs, and online mortgage-processing systems. His contributions to open source software have been used by thousands of individuals, universities, companies, and state departments. His areas of expertise include distributed systems and cluster management, multiprocessing with asynchronous message-passing, and web framework design.

Jamie studied Computer Science and English at UCLA before dropping out to accept a position in a software consultancy. TOP»

Brian Stults

Senior Vice President of Operations

Brian Stults joins YouGovPolimetrix after several years working with non-profit organizations. Most recently, he was National Voter File Director for one of the largest get-out-the-vote drives in history. In this capacity, he constructed voter files and managed data processes for fifteen states.

Prior to working with non-profits, Stults independently constructed voter files and performed database enhancement work for clients including various state parties and candidates. Stults holds two summa cum laude degrees from Dartmouth College, one in Quantitative Political Analysis and the other in Mathematical Social Sciences.

His Honors Thesis research on economic voting won the College's prize for best piece of research written by an undergraduate 2001. Stults research has been presented at professional conferences and is under consideration at various peer-reviewed journals. TOP»

Jeffrey Stewart

Vice President of Operations

Jeff Stewart joins YouGov with more than nine years of online market research experience. Prior to joining the company he worked at MarketTools, Inc as a director in sampling, panel management, and product development.

He now directs YouGov's operations group which is responsible for executing key aspects of online research — programming, fielding, sampling, and panel management.

Jeff earned a Masters in Business Administration from University of San Francisco and a BA from Fairfield University, in Fairfield, CT. TOP»

Ashley Grosse, Ph.D.

Vice President of Client Services

Ashley Grosse brings over 10 years of experience in survey design to the YouGovPolimetrix team. Her interests in polling and survey design extend back to early work as a reporting manager for Voter News Service. After working at VNS, Grosse became Director of Studies for the American National Election Studies (NES), the nation's largest and most celebrated time series data set for research on American Politics.

NES is financed by the National Science Foundation and has been the national record of political behavior and opinion for more than 50 years. As director of studies for NES, Grosse fielded several important studies of campaigns and elections in the U.S. and across the globe.

Most recently, in 2002 and 2004, she helped to design and manage campaign studies for the Center for the Studies of Elections and Democracy that have been widely cited by the New York Times and lawmakers interested in the impact of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. She earned a B.A. at Texas State University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Washington State University. TOP»

Samantha Luks, Ph.D.

Vice President of Special Projects

Samantha Luks studies a wide range of topics in political behavior and political psychology. She has published articles on presidential elections, African American partisanship, trust in government, attitudinal ambivalence, and welfare dynamics and her work can be found in outlets such as Political Psychology and Presidential Studies Quarterly.

Additionally, she has collected extensive data on voting technology and elections over time and has developed techniques for analyzing administrative data and records. Luks previously held an appointment at the University of Minnesota. She earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern University. TOP»

Lynn Vavreck, Ph.D.

Consultant, Cooperative Congressional Election Study

Lynn Vavreck studies campaigns and elections and has read every campaign stump speech, advertisement, and leading newspaper article about each election since 1952. She comes from a background in practical politics, starting her career as a Media Advance Representative for The White House in 1991 and did the same during the 1992 presidential campaign.

During her tenure as an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College, Vavreck studied the nation's first primary, appearing on numerous radio and television programs discussing her research on "retail politics" and why it works. Now a professor at UCLA, Vavreck is researching the effectiveness of political advertising on cable television.

Her work can be read in the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and in Campaign Reform: Insights and Evidence (University of Michigan 2000). Vavreck holds a B.S. and an M.A. from Arizona State University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. TOP»