Business Leaders

Dan is responsible for the overall management of the Retail and Shopper Insights practice area. Prior to this assignment, Dan worked in the client service group supervising client service account groups. Dan’s research and marketing experience is quite extensive, encompassing both client and supplier-side positions. Dan has a strong background in both marketing research (including a variety of research solutions/techniques) and product management in the financial services and automotive industries. Dan has worked for companies such as Fifth Third Bank, Maritz Marketing Research, and Champion Spark Plug.

Dan has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Toledo and a BA from Bowling Green State University in Business and Psychology.

Tom started at TNS is 2006 serving as a member of the Microsoft account team. He currently leads the Technology sector's efforts across North America.  In this role, he works to nurture a thriving Tech sector community. He is an active participant in the markets he serves, working to improve the way research gets done; the amount of insight delivered; and the overall value of research to its users.

In a research career that spans more than 20 years, Tom has led the West Coast team of Research International and TNS North America's relationship with Microsoft. He has also served as vice president, Customer Insights at Telephia, a telecommunications performance research firm.  Tom was also the founder and president of E-valuations Research, one of the first providers of online research services and software.  

Tom received his MBA from the University of Washington and holds a B.S. in Communications from Southern Illinois University.

Curt Carlson leads the North America Stakeholder Management AoE. Returning to TNS after three years at another firm, he is responsible for supporting strategy development and AoE growth. Working with his team and the Account Executives they serve, he focuses on providing clients the new learnings that compel action by changing the way those clients think about their business.

In the 20 years that Curt has spent in satisfaction-related research, he has also held senior positions at Walker Information, J.D. Power and Associates, and Ipsos Loyalty. This breadth of experience provides a broad perspective that translates into value to TNS clients.

Curt received his B.S. in Psychology from the University of Iowa, and his M.A. and Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology) from Kent State University.

Trish joined TNS in the spring of 2004 and currently heads the Financial Services sector for North America. In this position, she is responsible for the P&L of the sector across North America. In this capacity, she oversees all sector activities, including external marketing, client relationship management, and insights delivery across all of TNS' Areas of Expertise (AOEs). Prior to her current position, Trish led the Brand and Communications area of expertise within the North America Financial Services sector, consulting with TNS financial services clients on their advertising and branding research needs across the entire brand development continuum.

Before joining TNS, Trish worked with Knowledge Networks, where she devoted most of her time to working with a global beer client, supporting their advertising, branding, and new product development research initiatives. Prior to Knowledge Networks, Trish worked for MaPS (Marketing and Planning Systems) where she conducted domestic and international research across a variety of industries (CPG, agricultural supplies, TV cable services) and content areas (pricing, segmentation, customer satisfaction, and concept/product studies).

Trish began her research career more than twenty years ago at DRI/McGraw-Hill where she focused on economic forecasting and modeling.

Trish holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

Carl Edstrom, Senior Vice President, holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design (1982) and an MBA (1985), both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a 22-year veteran of the marketing research industry, with a long history of partnering with Fortune 500 packaged goods clients to gain an understanding of consumers and their needs, and to guide strategic and tactical marketing activities as a result.

During his career, Carl has helped clients to evaluate and fine-tune brand imagery, assess new product ideas, improve product and packaging performance, and guide communication strategy.

Carl has held direct responsibility for client account leadership, and has managed sales and service teams, project management staff, statistical consultants, and research product management groups. He joined TNS in 2007, and currently directs all areas of the company’s Product Development and Innovation team.

Emil Morales is Executive Vice President & General Manager TNS Centers of Excellence, and is responsible for our Multicultural, Qualitative, Advanced Analytics & Design, TNS Panel and on-line Communities businesses.   His management responsibilities include specific leadership of the TNS Multicultural practice, including business strategy, marketing research, sales, client service, marketing, new product development, and profitability. This position enables Morales to leverage his passion for business, research and his cultural heritage.

In his twelfth year with TNS, Morales has held several different positions at the company. Prior to his current role at TNS, he served as Senior Vice President and Director of TNS Telecoms Sector from 2003 to 2006, founding and leading the enlarged U.S. telecom sector following the TNS merger with NFO WorldGroup. He also served as President, NFO INCOM division of NFO Worldwide from 2001 to 2003. From 1997 to 2001, Morales was at NFO Research, where he started out as Sales VP Eastern Region and moved up to President of National Yellow Pages Monitor. Prior to NFO, Morales worked at Advanced Marketing Solutions as VP of Sales and Marketing and AT& T in various sales and marketing positions.

Morales holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in economics from Bryant University.

Gary leads the TNS Marketing Sciences Center, a diverse team of  25 experts in statistical methodology, with expertise in all major methodological areas.  This team engages in design of research projects as well as complex statistical analysis and interpretation of results.

Gary is well-versed in the entire research process, from sampling and questionnaire design through analysis and reporting - with a solid quantitative and methodological background and a strong orientation toward design and analysis to yield the most meaningful and actionable results. In particular, he has  wealth of experience in analytics for satisfaction and loyalty research.

Gary has been with TNS since 2001.  Until 2006, he was was dedicated to overall management and development of insight and reporting for all market research and customer satisfaction measurement programs for a key technology client. Before joining TNS, he spent five years at Lucent Technologies, where he was engaged in design, management, and analysis of customer and partner satisfaction research, as well as consumer and business-to-business market research.

Prior to entering the market research field, Gary held administrative and academic positions at Rutgers University, where he also earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. 

Melinda Smith de Borrero has over 20 years of experience in research and consulting. In her current role she has responsibility for the TNS US brand and communications business. She specializes in helping companies and agencies build stronger sustainable brand portfolios and holistic communications campaigns. Melinda has knowledge and experience developing and commercializing both rational and emotional based brand and communications models for national and global brands across sectors including many global $1B+ brands. She is also involved in research and development of integrated brand and communications insight solutions in both digital and in-store components.  

Melinda earned her B.S. in Mathematical Statistics and Ph.D. in Business from the University of South Carolina. She received her M.S. in Statistics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Before starting her consulting career, Melinda was on faculty at Lehigh University and Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota Colombia. Melinda has published in leading refereed journals and presented at conferences globally.

Anita Watkins is a SVP at TNS responsible for all qualitative and omnibus research handled by the company in North America. Anita has successfully grown qualitative in NA at an impressive rate in the past 3 years. Having begun her moderating career in 1996, Anita is extremely passionate about qualitative research. To date, she has moderated hundreds of focus groups and one-on-one interviews for many sectors including telecommunications, technology, healthcare, retail, travel/tourism/ hospitality, manufacturing and financial services. Her talented, nationwide staff conducts thousands of focus groups, in-depth interviews and interactive studies each year including multi-country projects for the world’s leading brands. While at TNS, Anita has successfully launched several new products including TNS Consumer Safari (an ethnographic offering) with the help of leading academics and has developed an innovative moderator training program, Sixth Sense Certified that includes importing advanced techniques employed by leading researchers around the globe.

In late 2007, Anita assumed responsibilities for the company’s Omnibus suite of products and didn’t waste any time in successfully launching a new teen module in early 2008. Anita is the site leader for the Atlanta office and has taken on many special projects over the past two years for executive management. One such project is leading an initiative around Exceptional Service. Anita utilized TNS’ proprietary tool NeedScope to create a completely unique program that seeks to provide our clients with service that anticipates needs and then goes beyond to delight.

Anita is a strategic thinker with a big heart. She has a BS in Marketing, graduating Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Dayton.

Peter Zollo co-founded TRU in 1982 as the first market-research firm to specialize exclusively in teenagers. Since that time, TRU has grown into the world leader in tween, teen, and twenty-something research and insights, boasting a brand presence in 25 countries on five continents. Peter has consulted on and researched advertising, marketing, positioning and new-product launches for a variety of youth brands, including global leaders in food and beverage, media, technology, fashion, retail, and health and beauty.

Peter is the designated "teen audience specialist" on the expert advisory board that consults on the national youth anti-drug campaign from the White House Office of National Drug-Control Policy (ONDCP). He consults for and was part of the core launch team for "truth," the national anti-tobacco advertising campaign from the American Legacy Foundation and has worked on several of the leading state anti-tobacco campaigns.  Peter serves on the Advisory Board for Allstate's Safe Driving Program, working to combat the number-one cause of teen fatalities in the U.S. He also has directed much of TRU's work benefiting the Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, as well as working to educate teens and parents about under-aged drinking, relationship abuse, and internet safety.

As part of both his private-sector and social-marketing work, Peter is a sought-after presenter, speaking about young people all over the country and now the world-from corporate boardrooms to governors' mansions and from industry conferences to the White House.

Peter has been widely published and has appeared on several network news programs, including "The CBS Evening News," "Good Morning America," "The Today Show," "ABC World News Tonight," and the ABC prime-time special "What Makes Teens Tick."

Peter authored the award-winning book Wise Up to Teens: Insights into Marketing and Advertising to Teenagers, originally published in 1995 by New Strategist Publications; an updated edition was published in 1999. A sequel, Getting Wiser to Teens: More Insights into Marketing to Teenagers, was recently published.

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