Lisa Bertelsen
Global Director, Research Insights
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Lisa joined Siegel+Gale as global director, research insights, bringing over 16 years of consumer and B2B experience as a usability engineer, interface designer, online strategist and market researcher. Lisa’s primary responsibility is to help uncover innovative research insights in language, cognition, and behavior to inform clear, credible, and compelling brand-building programs.
Lisa has designed and executed complex research projects in virtually every corner of the globe—Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Australia. She is conversant with the production, design and legal issues surrounding foreign-language websites and software, and in 2003 earned her Internationalization (I18n) Certification.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, she ran her own company, LB Research Group, which specialized in market intelligence, human factors engineering, and information design for online applications. Before that, Lisa was vice president of qualitative research at Ipsos, one of the world’s largest market research firms. While at Ipsos, she was responsible for revamping the strategy and operations for a multi-million dollar qualitative research unit specializing in financial services, high-tech, and telecommunications. She has also worked as director of Vividence (acquired by Keynote), a company whose proprietary online research melded qualitative, quantitative and clickstream data. Prior to that, Lisa was director of usability and customer experience at Charles Schwab, where she designed and implemented Schwab’s first user experience metrics and a persona program which resulted in a radical change in the firm’s traditional view of market segmentation.
Lisa’s has worked for clients such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Samsung, Fidelity, AIG, VISA, T. Rowe Price, Merrill Lynch, Nike, FedEx and Cola-Cola.
Lisa graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara, with a bachelor of arts in political science. She also holds a specialty degree in politics from the University of Kent in England and a specialty degree in multimedia from San Francisco State University. Best of all, she is a professionally trained chef!
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Global Director, Quantitative Research
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Rolf brings to his clients more than 37 years of experience. He was executive vice president and managing director of Enterprise IG for ten years. Prior to that, he was with Research International, where, as president of the Customer Research Division, he was responsible for clients in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He was vice president of research for Ziff-Davis Publishing Company and spent six years with Abt Associates, Inc., the Cambridge, MA consulting firm.
Rolf also has extensive experience in working with the Federal Government and related agencies. After serving at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. as a military officer and later as a civilian, Dr. Wulfsberg served as assistant administrator for research and analysis at the National Center for Education Statistics. He was a charter member of the U.S. government’s Senior Executive Service, and has served as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Dr. Wulfsberg also has extensive experience in the mortgage industry. He has served as a research consultant to several of the leading mortgage lenders and servicers before they exited the business, including Prudential Home Mortgage, Citicorp Mortgage and Norwest Mortgage. In addition, he has moderated over 300 groups including dozens in the mortgage processing and mortgage origination/servicing areas.
Rolf holds a Ph.D. and a master of arts degree in statistics from the American University, and a bachelor of arts (summa cum laude) in mathematics and economics from Luther College. He is a former Rhodes candidate and Woodrow Wilson fellow and was named the outstanding graduating senior of his college in 1969.
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Brian Rafferty
Global Director, Customer Insights
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In his role of Global Director, Consumer Insights here at Siegel+Gale, Brian Rafferty brings over 10 years of experience in brand marketing strategy and positioning for both Fortune 500 brands and emerging companies. He has experience in an extensive range of industries, including financial services, professional services, high technology, retail, consumer goods, non-profit, health care and biotechnology.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Brian spent over four years as managing director of research and strategy at The Brand Union, where he led research and strategy projects for client such as BlackRock, Pernod Ricard, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics/Johnson & Johnson, HP, Coca-Cola, and Alcatel-Lucent. Before joining The Brand Union, Brian was co-principal and managing director of Plaid, a boutique research and consulting firm, devising business and product growth strategies for clients such as the United States Postal Service, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Voss Artesian Water. Through previous positions as a research and planning manager for Ferrell Calvillo, a New York advertising agency, and a senior executive with Summus, a research and consulting firm, Brian developed a strong skill base in positioning, branding and both quantitative and qualitative research, to craft innovative solutions for clients such as Pharmacia/Upjohn, Schwab, Credit Suisse and Rite Aid.
Fluent in French and English, Brian has a Math and Physics Baccalaureate from the Lycee Pasteur in France and is a graduate of Princeton University.
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Donna Thacher
Research Director
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Donna Thacher joined Siegel+Gale as a research director in our Los Angeles office. Donna is one of those rare researchers who is passionate about understanding both people and data. She has contributed successfully to many projects by dissecting existing client research, scouring secondary and syndicated sources, and by designing custom qualitative and quantitative research for the specific project at hand. She loves nothing more than immersing herself in research findings in order to uncover the best insights for her clients.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Donna spent 20 years at Dailey & Associates Advertising. She designed, managed, interpreted and executed primary research projects for clients such as Safeway, Supervalu, Baby Ruth, Nestlé Crunch, Carnation Instant Breakfast, Nestea, Lawry’s Foods, Starkist, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Princess Cruises, Legoland, El Pollo Loco, Hilton Hotels, the California State Lottery, QuickBooks, HealthNet, and Neutrogena.
Donna began her career at a full-service marketing research supplier in Orange County, California. She got her hands dirty managing the data processing department, then moved into project management and analysis. Clients included Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr., Air Cal, and Warmington Homes.
Donna graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a bachelor in political science. In her free time, she attends as many LA Dodgers games as possible and watches “court shows” to brush up on her truth or fiction skills.
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Research Strategist, New York
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As a research associate at Siegel+Gale, Emily plays an integral role in the design and execution of research initiatives. She offers meaningful insights into quantitative and qualitative data, informing strategic solutions for clients including AARP, The Boston Globe, The College Board, Comcast, Dominion Resources, Emblem Health, Florida State University, GE Real Estate, Lincoln Center, Merrill Lynch, and USG.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Emily worked as a senior research analyst at Vinson & Company, which specializes in jury research and trial consulting. During her tenure, she planned and conducted over thirty research projects, developing effective communications strategies for legal professionals representing companies in high-stakes lawsuits.
Emily graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in International Relations.
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Asif Khan
Research Strategist, New York
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As a research associate at Siegel+Gale, Asif Khan works on research programs designed to inform strategic solutions for clients including Bank of America, the IRS, Motorola, LexisNexis, and Smurfit-Stone.
Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Asif worked as an account manager for Hall & Partners in New York and a research associate at Research International in Stamford, CT. During his tenure at Hall & Partners, Asif formulated and ran complicated brand health and communications tracking studies – both domestically and internationally – for many of the firm’s largest accounts, such as Macy’s, the Wharton School of Business, Volkswagen, and JetBlue. While at Research International, Asif created a custom, user-friendly data presentation format for PepsiCo that proved so successful, the soft drink manufacturer implemented it for internal use across their organization.
Asif graduated from The University of Chicago with a BA in economics.
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