Thought Leaders
Jeff Zabin
Research Director
A bestselling business author, influential research analyst and former technology marketing executive, Jeff Zabin serves as a Principal Analyst and Research Director. Until December 2009, when he committed to making his vision for Gleanster a reality, Zabin served as vice president and research fellow at Aberdeen Group.
Ian Michiels
Principal & Managing Director
Ian Michiels is a seasoned research analyst, strategic consultant, and business executive with a strong background in analytical and creative marketing. Prior to joining the leadership team at Gleanster, Michiels was the VP of Advisory Services at Marketsphere Marketing, a leading professional services firm, where he helped companies such as Nike, Sears Holdings, T.Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton, Ceasars International, and Adobe maximize success in marketing operations.
Chris Bentley
Research Associate
Chris Bentley joined Gleanster in April, 2012. His responsibilities include supporting content development for the Vendor Landscape sections of the Gleansight benchmark reports. He has a masters degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University, where he was a Comer scholar for environmental reporting.
Ellis Booker
Editor-in-Chief
Ellis Booker comes to Gleanster from BtoB, the Magazine for Marketing Strategists, where he served as editor-in-chief from 2000 until June 2010. The only publication devoted exclusively to the intersection of business marketing and business strategy, BtoB is published monthly by Crain Communications and reaches an audience of more than 45,000 readers.
David Carr
Research Analyst
With subject matter expertise in such areas as business intelligence, information security, social media and database management, David F. Carr comes to Gleanster with more than 15 years of experience as an IT research analyst and technology writer. His recent research has been published in Forbes, CIO magazine, Information Week, and many other leading business and technology publications.
Amanda Forgash
Research Analyst
Amanda Forgash began her career at Gleanster as a summer intern and became research associate in October 2010. Two years later, she was promoted to Research Analyst. Her responsibilities include content development for the Vendor Landscape sections of the Gleansight benchmark reports and managing Gleanster's team of research associates. She can be reached at amanda (dot) forgash (at) gleanster (dot) com.
Bob Hayes
Contributing Analyst
Bob Hayes, Ph.D., is a recognized expert in customer feedback and customer experience management. He shares his knowledge through his presentations, articles and books, which include Beyond the Ultimate Question and Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty.
Jeffrey Hayzlett
Research Fellow
Jeffrey Hayzlett is a global business celebrity, former Fortune 100 c-suite executive and bestselling business author. He is a frequent television guest and commentator, having appeared on shows including MSNBC’s Your Business, Fox Business News, and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump. He is executive producer of a number of global television projects and Celebrity Editor of the largest circulation social media and business magazines in the world. He is recognized as one of the Top 10 c-suite Twitterers.
Rich Karpinski
Research Analyst
As a writer and analyst, Rich Karpinski has covered everything from networking and e-commerce to telephony and supply chain management. He is currently editor-in-chief of Connected Planet (formerly Telephony). Karpinski has written for such publications as NetGuide, Internet Week, Communications Week, Information Week, Advertising Age and BtoB magazine and also worked in corporate marketing at E2open.
Barry Libert
Research Fellow
Barry Libert is recognized as an industry leader and visionary within the social technology space. He has published five books on the value of social networks and human interaction. He is a regularly featured keynote speaker and has delivered speeches to audiences of 20,000+ globally. He co-founded Mzinga, a leading provider of social software, services and analytics.
Russ Maney
Research Fellow
Russ Maney has sat on all sides of the table: as a research analyst (Forrester Research), a strategy consultant (McKinsey), an industry practitioner (P&G) and a product marketing executive at various technology solution providers. Maney's 25 years of experience includes deep expertise in business-to-business marketing, channel development and technology marketing.
Tim O'Brien
Research Analyst
A popular speaker and well-known book author, Tim O'Brien is a contributor to O'Reilly Radar where he has covers a wide range of topics from Big Science to Big Data. His is currently focused on the evolution of enterprise computing in the face of increasingly decentralized innovation coupled with a maturation of several approaches to open source collaboration. At Gleanster, he covers IT Infrastruture and Business Intelligence.
David Raab
Contributing Analyst
A globally-recognized thought leader, research analyst and consultant on marketing technology, David Raab has written hundreds of articles for publications including Information Management, DM News, Target Marketing, and The Journal of Database Marketing. He is the author of Marketing Performance Measurement Toolkit (Racom Books, 2009) and the B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool.
Kevin Ryan
Principal Analyst
Kevin S. Ryan is a social media and digital marketing leader. Until January 2010, Ryan served as vice president of social media at Barnes & Noble. In nearly 10 years at bn.com, he built the online book clubs, a vibrant community for readers and writers; launched the B&N Studio multimedia program; and defined the social media strategy, including successful campaigns on Facebook and Twitter.
Edward Prewitt
Research Analyst
Edward Prewitt comes to Gleanster with more than 20 years of experience as an editor, writer and research analyst. For 6 years, Prewitt served as executive editor of CIO magazine, published by IDG and averaging 140 pages with a circulation of 140,000. There he wrote and edited cover stories on the CIO role, process methodologies, budget agility and outsourcing research.
Andrew Salzman
Research Fellow
Andrew Salzman is a 25+ year marketing veteran known for his innovative thinking and work in supporting business transformations at Global 1000, mid-market, and emerging consumer and technology firms. He previously served as CMO at E2open in SaaS-based SCM, Saba in on-premise/SaaS HCM, Informational Resources (IRI) in consumer-retail insights, and Siebel Systems during its period of meteoric growth in creating the CRM category.
Josh Schonwald
Research Analyst
Josh Schonwald comes to Gleanster with more than fifteen years of experience in digital media strategy. An award-winning journalist, his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Crain's and The Huffington Post. He is the author of The Taste of Tomorrow (HarperCollins, 2012). He has worked as managing editor for CBS.com’s New York affiliate and as senior editor of the University of Chicago business school’s alumni magazine.
Kelly Shermach
Research Analyst
Kelly Shermach has extensive experience as a research analyst and business writer covering everything from CRM to mobile commerce. She previously served as managing editor at Marketing NPV and Colloquy and in marketing communications at Maritz Loyalty Marketing. She has written for such publications as 1to1, BtoB Marketing News, Brandweek CRMBuyer.com, Direct Marketing Association TechNewsWorld.com and TheWiseMarketer.com.
John Tenore
Contributing Analyst
John Tenore has more than twenty years of strategic market research experience. At Gartner, he provided clients with research and intelligence in the areas of telecommunications and internet infrastructure; product development; customer care; and content management. John led market research and analyst relations for Akamai Technologies from its pre-IPO stage through its dominance in the CDN market.
Ian Turvill
Contributing Analyst
Over the past 15 years, Ian Turvill has focused on the application of data-driven strategies through technology, with a particular emphasis on marketing and operations. He has written extensively about such topics as decision management and predictive analytics, and his experience encompasses many industries, including financial services, telecom, healthcare, retail/CBG, and transportation.
W. Jeffrey Rice
Research Analyst
W. Jeffrey Rice comes to Gleanster from MarketingSherpa, where he covered best practices in email marketing and authored a number of influential publications on the topic, including the firm's 2012 Email Handbook and The Email Benchmark Report. His research is frequently cited in leading publications.
Jake Wengroff
Research Analyst
Jake Wengroff is a leading social media marketing analyst whose experience includes serving as global director of social media strategy and research for Frost & Sullivan, where he provided industry practitioners with strategic guidance through Frost & Sullivan’s Market Engineering, Market Insights and Best Practices research reports. In addition to his work at Gleanster, he is the founder of JXB1, a social media and social business consulting firm.
Lynn Whylly
Research Analyst
Lynn Russo Whylly has spent most of her career as a business writer and research analyst uncovering technology trends and reporting on issues in direct marketing, customer data analytics, and customer relationship management, as well as in environmentally sustainable marketing. She previously served as executive editor of publications for global consulting firm Peppers and Rogers Group.
Scott Wilder
Research Fellow
A well-known thought leader in social media, online communities and ecommerce, Scott K. Wilder brings to Gleanster a wealth of experience as a marketing executive at Fortune 1000 companies. Until the end of 2010, he served as senior vice president at Edelman Digital, leading the firm’s technology practice in the Bay Area. Before that, he was general manager of social media / online communities at Intuit.
Board of Directors
Gleanster, LLC is privately owned by members of the management team and outside angel investors as well as by two private equity investment partners: Synetro Capital, based in Chicago, Illinois, and 1in10 Ventures, based in the Silicon Valley, California.
Jeff Zabin
As the CEO of Gleanster, Jeff Zabin oversees the company’s strategic direction and growth as the leading provider of research that benchmarks best practices in technology-enabled business initiatives. He also serves as research director. Until December 2009, when he committed to making his vision for Gleanster a reality, Zabin served as vice president and research fellow at Aberdeen Group, building the Customer Management Technology practice, leading various strategic initiatives and hosting the annual CMO Summit. Prior to joining Aberdeen in 2007, Zabin headed up product marketing and led the thought leadership program for the Global Marketing Solutions division of Fair Isaac (FICO) and served as vice president of marketing at Seurat Company, which was acquired by FICO in 2003. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Pantelis A. "Pete" Georgiadis
Pete Georgiadis is the founder and CEO of Synetro Group, a private investment and strategic advisory firm. Since founding the firm in 2000, he has been an active investor and contributor to the success of multiple software and business services companies and has had an ongoing advisory role with Fortune 500 manufacturing and distribution companies. He currently serves on the boards of Corporate Synergies Group, CrossCheck Compliance, LLC, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, LLC, Knowledge Advisors, Inc. and Promisec Ltd. Prior to founding Synetro Group, Georgiadis was the COO of Lante Corporation, an internet consulting firm, which he helped transform and prepare for a successful IPO. He joined Lante from McKinsey and Company, where he was an Associate Principal and a leader in the firm’s Marketing, Sales & Channel Management, Product Development & Commercialization practices. Prior to McKinsey Georgiadis worked for Hewlett-Packard and Orco Ltd in several marketing and general management roles. He holds a B.Sc. in Electronic Engineering from the University of Sussex (UK), an M.Sc. in Computer Science from London’s Imperial College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Kirk McInerney
Kirk McInerney is a seasoned entrepreneur, executive and attorney with a proven track record of organizational improvement, entrepreneurship and intellectual asset management. He is an investor in Gleanster and the President of IP Transactions Group, a consulting firm maximizing returns on intangible assets. His experience includes serving as the CEO of Dennemeyer North America, an IP asset services and software company, the COO of Arthur Andersen’s Research & Innovation Group, Asst General Counsel of a Fortune 500 company and founder of three successful start-ups. McInerney holds a BSc. in Chemistry (cum laude) from the University of Notre Dame and a JD from George Washington University, Washington, DC.
About Us
Research Advisory Board
Gleanster benefits from the participation of outside thought leaders with a diversity of backgrounds and expertise. These individuals play an instrumental role in ensuring that Gleanster's research remains timely and relevant and that our analysts stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in markets of rapid change.
Current members:
Pete Blackshaw, Global Digital Chief, Nestle, and Co-founder, WOMMA
Stephan Chase, Vice President, Customer Knowledge, Marriott International
David Cliche, Senior Vice President, Aon
Thomas Davenport, Professor, Babson College, and bestselling business author
Margo Georgiadis, Vice President, Americas, Google; formerly, CMO, Discover Financial Services
Al Magg, Chief Communications Officer, Avnet
Ian Michiels, Director, MarketSphere; formerly, Research Director, Aberdeen Group
Dan Parker, Vice President, Marketing, CVS Caremark
Lou Ramery, Senior Vice President, Relationship Marketing, Sears
Sylvia Reynolds, CMO, Wells Fargo
Mohanbir Sawhney, Professor,
Kellogg
Graduate School of Management, Northwestern
Matt Smith, Vice President, Marketing, Best Buy
Timothy Teran, Senior Vice President, Consumer Insights, Macy's
Peter Weedfald, President, Gen One Ventures; formerly, CMO, GE, Circuit City and Samsung
Additional members to be announced