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Our Team
Douglas Shifflet, Chairman & CEO
Doug is a Marketing Psychologist with over 30 years' experience as a counselor in marketing and planning with specialization in applied market research. Prior to establishing his own company, his professional career covered new product market research for The Pillsbury Company, five years as one of the three group directors of market research and planning for General Mills, Inc. and Corporate Vice President of Marketing Services for Marriott.
Doug has held national office, participated in several corporate and association task forces, and is active in national and international management, marketing and marketing research organizations. Some of these organizations include: Travel Industry Association, American Hotel & Lodging Association, The Conference Board, PATA, the American Marketing Association, ESOMAR/WAPOR. CASRO research organizations and VITA providing international technical assistance. He is a consultant, author and lecturer on marketing, trends in the travel industry, and the practical application of market research for business development and quality assurance.
He has contributed to over 200 articles in various publications over the past 5 years. Doug is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences.
George Harmon, President
He began his marketing research career with M/A/R/C where he was Executive Vice President of client services and was responsible for two research divisions over his 13 years there. He also served six years with the National Dairy and Promotion Research Board as Senior Vice President for Marketing and Economic Research planning marketing programs and conducting evaluations of advertising programs such as the Got Milk?, Milk Does a Body Good, Cheese Glorious Cheese and the Milk Mustache programs. George also supported the Board’s strategic planning activities and issues management program. In 1997 George joined the fledging research company Digital Marketing Services (DMS) and helped build the company to more than 120 employees. He was responsible for account services to leading research agencies and assisted their migration to online methodologies. After AOL acquired DMS in 1999 he served as president for six years. George has served the research industry in a number of capacities including three terms as a CASRO board member. He served as a member of CASRO's Internet Standards Committee that established the initial standards for Internet sampling, permission-based interviewing, and protecting respondent confidentiality. He served as a Founding Fellow of the George H. Gallup International Institute, an advisor to The University of Texas-Arlington's Master's in Market Research program, and as an advisor to the congressionally established National Institute for Commodity Promotion Research and Evaluations.
Jayant Shukla, Chief Financial Officer
Jayant B. Shukla is Chief Financial Officer of DKSA. He oversees both the Finance and Corporate Administration departments at DKSA and reports directly to Douglas K. Shifflet. Jayant joined DKSA in 1989. Starting as an Accountant, he was promoted to Comptroller within two years. In 2004, he was promoted to his current position as CFO. Duties involve day to day and strategic financial management of DKSA in close consultation with the President. He oversees the Human Resources department and interacts on many corporate and legal matters with the attorneys and CPAs retained by Co. Formerly, Jayant served at Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T), in its Calcutta headquarters from 1971 to 1989. L&T is one of the top engineering companies in India's private sector with an annual turnover of over $5 billion. Starting as an assistant in 1971, Jayant rose to an Accounts Officer. He led a team of 7 staff members. Jayant received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calcutta, India in 1970. He has attended In-company training programs in Communication skills, Human Relations Development and Public speaking. Jayant is fluent in Gujarati, Hindi and Bengali. Jayant attended the Alliance Francaise de Calcutta for more than a year and speaks passable French. Jayant is involved in Sports, Music, Philosophical activities and the practice of Yoga.
Cheryl Schutz, Vice President, Account Services
Cheryl has worked in market research for over 20 years, currently as Vice President of Account Services at DKSA where she is member of the senior management team and leads the research accounts group. Her expertise is in syndicated and custom qualitative and quantitative market research methods as well as consulting with clients on all aspects of research and analysis. Before coming to DKSA she was Vice President of Research at PERQ/HCI, a Nielsen company specializing in syndicated and custom media research in the health care industry. Cheryl holds an MS in Industrial Psychology from California State University at Long Beach and a BA in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Nandini Nadkarni, Vice President, Operations
Nandini joined DKSA in 2004. She has an extensive background in consumer behavior and the application of statistical techniques to model customer behavior, assess brand effectiveness and conduct target segmentation. Her statistical analysis and expertise includes data management, mining and analysis using statistical procedures including univariate and multivariate analysis (analysis of variance, regression, factor, discriminant, logit and cluster analysis, multi-dimensional scaling), as well as econometric and forecasting. She has also developed customer sales response and next purchase likelihood models and has extensive experience with list scoring and leading a direct marketing operations team. Prior to joining DKSA, Nandini worked as a Senior Statistician for Best Buy Co., and was Associate Director for Research at the National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce, Department of Leisure Studies, University of Illinois. Nandini holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Restaurant, Hotel, Institutional and Tourism Management from Purdue University.
Chris Klauda, Vice President, Quality Services
Chris joined in 1986 and is a senior member of the DKSA team. Ms. Klauda provides lodging data and analysis to hotel chains and brands as well as full service market research and marketing consultation to a broad base of clients in the travel industry. Ms. Klauda is frequently called upon by major hotel companies to assist them in applying market research information to their marketing efforts and to present research to top management. Her responsibilities as a Vice President for Quality Services include formulation of research needs, designing of research studies, analysis of data, client support, and presentation of research findings.
Ms. Klauda is part of the original team that developed and syndicated the DIRECTIONS®Travel Intelligence SystemSM. This system provides large scale integrated, continuous tracking and forecasting information to all sectors of the travel industry.
Earlier, Ms. Klauda managed the data processing operation for Wirthlin International, a political and market research firm in Washington, D.C. She began her research career with Custom Research, Inc. in Minneapolis. Ms. Klauda is involved in the Travel and Tourism Research Association, the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the American Marketing Association. She is an author and lecturer on marketing, trends in the travel industry, and the practical application of market research for business development and quality assurance.
Jim Caldwell, Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Jim is a hospitality industry veteran with over 30 years experience in marketing, research, operations and consulting (specializing in concept development, new product development, and product positioning). Jim has served on the Board of Directors of CREST (Chain Restaurant Eating Share Trends) Research Study.
Specific prior positions held include:
Jeffrey Eslinger, Director, Account Services
Jeffrey joined DKSA in 2006. He has been working in market research for over 10 years, with 8 of those in the travel industry. His responsibilities as Account Manager with DKS&A include formulation of research needs, designing of research studies, analysis of data, client support, and presentation of research findings. He is the lead account manager for AAA, Southwest Airlines, and ASTA. Jeffrey is also responsible for the State Tourism Offices of Texas, Florida, Maryland, Tennessee, Delaware, and Iowa as well as the CVBs of Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale, and Washington DC.
Before joining DKSA he worked for US Airways as the Manager, Customer Insight and Research. Jeffrey was also Director, Research for NORTHSTAR Travel Media, publisher of Travel Weekly. Prior to travel industry experience, he worked for Standard and Poor’s and Citibank Private Bank in New York City.
He holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Dayton and has completed graduate work in advertising and communications at Astor College, London, and in History and Political Science at the Austro-American Institute, Vienna.
Sindy Köhler, Research Manager
Sindy joined the DKSA team in 2004. Prior to working for DKSA, Sindy served as a Research Assistant for the International Institute of Tourism Studies and the European Tourism Institute. Her areas of work experience include primary travel behavior research, personal in-depth interviews, feasibility studies, competitive range analysis, development of tourism master plans and tourism marketing plans.
She holds Master Degrees in Applied Geography from the University of Trier/Germany and is currently enrolled in the Master’s program in Tourism Administration at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She received a Fulbright Non-U.S. Scholarship, a Fulbright Professional Enhancement Grant Award, and a scholarship from the Network of Executive Women in the Hospitality Industry.
Sindy's account responsibilities include the regional areas of Arizona, Maryland, New York State, Utah, Durham, Raleigh, New York City, and Baltimore. She also oversees the Research Analyst group and manages the internship program at DKSA.
James Garulski, Research Manager
James joined DKSA in 2007 with over 15 years of survey research experience conducting surveys for clients in the commercial and non-profit sectors. His expertise is in the operational and methodological aspects of custom data collection. He is versed in several data collection methods including telephone, mail, in-person, Internet, PAPI, CAPI, and CATI. James also has experience in creating discussion guidelines and moderating and reporting on focus groups. Prior to joining DKSA, James held positions at FGI Research/Yankelovich, the RAND Corporation, and The Washington Post.
Earnest Smith, Research Analyst
Earnest Smith began working for D.K. Shifflet & Associates in June 2008, as a Research Analyst. He performs an array of tasks, from creating and writing reports to verifying data and supporting theories using a program called DIRECTABS®. Prior to working for DKSA, he was employed for one year as a Front Desk Associate at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Richmond, Virginia. There he developed organizational skills, multi-tasking and detailed oriented abilities. While in Richmond, Virginia, Earnest received his Bachelors of Science Degree (Honors) in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a member of the International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma, Golden Key International Honor Society and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. In his spare time he enjoys remaining active by attending his local gym regularly and participating in basketball and flag football games.
Carl Kaufmann, Senior Information Processing Analyst
Carl has considerable experience with the practical use of advanced statistical methods including general linear models (ANOVA, regression), generalized linear models (logistic, probit, Poisson, log-linear, survival-time), time-series models (ARIMA, VAR), linear and non-linear system-of-equations models (two- and three-stage least squares, partial- and full-information maximum likelihood), and structural equations models (LISREL, nth-order factor analysis), and data preparation in support of these analyses.
Carl joined DKS&A after working as statistical consultant for the Faculty of Social Science, University of Western Ontario where he consulted on programming and statistical issues at all levels. He was also consulting statistician for a number of studies in the Faculty of Nursing, University of Western Ontario including development and analysis of questionnaires for workplace satisfaction and treatment regimen adherence.
Carl holds a BA in Economics and Statistics from the University of Western Ontario, and took advanced studies in statistics at the University of Waterloo.
Susan McElheny, Senior Data Processing Analyst
Susan has worked in market research for over 20 years. She began at DKSA in February of 1990 and previously worked at The Wirthlin Group (now part of Harris Interactive). Susan is responsible for producing all cross tabulation tables needed by the Research Department using Quantum software on a UNIX format. Susan has her B.S. in Business Administration from George Mason University.
Jinson Erinjeri, Senior Information Processing & Modeling Analyst
Jinson joined D.K. Shifflet and Associates in February 2006 as a Data Processing Intern. Subsequently, he was hired as an Information Processing/ Modeling Analyst in December 2006 and promoted as Senior Information Processing/ Modeling Analyst in April 2008. His responsibilities include processing, generation, and analysis of travel volume estimates, data checking, and ad-hoc programming/analysis. He is a SAS certified programmer with a strong background in various Operations Research /Statistical tools. His research interests mainly include data mining, linear optimization, forecasting and decision support systems.
Jinson holds a PhD in Engineering and a MS in Industrial Engineering from Louisiana Tech University.
| Executive Management | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chairman & CEO | ||
| President | ||
| Chief Financial Officer | ||
| Vice President, Account Services | ||
| Vice President, Operations | ||
| Vice President, Quality Services | ||
| Vice President, Sales & Marketing | ||
| Account Services | ||
| Director, Account Services | ||
| Research Manager | ||
| Research Manager | ||
| Research Analyst | ||
| Operations | ||
| Senior Data Entry Manager | ||
| Senior Data Entry Associate | ||
| Senior Information Processing Analyst | ||
| Senior Data Processing Analyst | ||
| Senior Information Processing & Modeling Analyst | ||
Douglas Shifflet, Chairman & CEODoug is a Marketing Psychologist with over 30 years' experience as a counselor in marketing and planning with specialization in applied market research. Prior to establishing his own company, his professional career covered new product market research for The Pillsbury Company, five years as one of the three group directors of market research and planning for General Mills, Inc. and Corporate Vice President of Marketing Services for Marriott.
Doug has held national office, participated in several corporate and association task forces, and is active in national and international management, marketing and marketing research organizations. Some of these organizations include: Travel Industry Association, American Hotel & Lodging Association, The Conference Board, PATA, the American Marketing Association, ESOMAR/WAPOR. CASRO research organizations and VITA providing international technical assistance. He is a consultant, author and lecturer on marketing, trends in the travel industry, and the practical application of market research for business development and quality assurance.
He has contributed to over 200 articles in various publications over the past 5 years. Doug is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences.
George Harmon, PresidentHe began his marketing research career with M/A/R/C where he was Executive Vice President of client services and was responsible for two research divisions over his 13 years there. He also served six years with the National Dairy and Promotion Research Board as Senior Vice President for Marketing and Economic Research planning marketing programs and conducting evaluations of advertising programs such as the Got Milk?, Milk Does a Body Good, Cheese Glorious Cheese and the Milk Mustache programs. George also supported the Board’s strategic planning activities and issues management program. In 1997 George joined the fledging research company Digital Marketing Services (DMS) and helped build the company to more than 120 employees. He was responsible for account services to leading research agencies and assisted their migration to online methodologies. After AOL acquired DMS in 1999 he served as president for six years. George has served the research industry in a number of capacities including three terms as a CASRO board member. He served as a member of CASRO's Internet Standards Committee that established the initial standards for Internet sampling, permission-based interviewing, and protecting respondent confidentiality. He served as a Founding Fellow of the George H. Gallup International Institute, an advisor to The University of Texas-Arlington's Master's in Market Research program, and as an advisor to the congressionally established National Institute for Commodity Promotion Research and Evaluations.
Jayant Shukla, Chief Financial OfficerJayant B. Shukla is Chief Financial Officer of DKSA. He oversees both the Finance and Corporate Administration departments at DKSA and reports directly to Douglas K. Shifflet. Jayant joined DKSA in 1989. Starting as an Accountant, he was promoted to Comptroller within two years. In 2004, he was promoted to his current position as CFO. Duties involve day to day and strategic financial management of DKSA in close consultation with the President. He oversees the Human Resources department and interacts on many corporate and legal matters with the attorneys and CPAs retained by Co. Formerly, Jayant served at Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T), in its Calcutta headquarters from 1971 to 1989. L&T is one of the top engineering companies in India's private sector with an annual turnover of over $5 billion. Starting as an assistant in 1971, Jayant rose to an Accounts Officer. He led a team of 7 staff members. Jayant received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calcutta, India in 1970. He has attended In-company training programs in Communication skills, Human Relations Development and Public speaking. Jayant is fluent in Gujarati, Hindi and Bengali. Jayant attended the Alliance Francaise de Calcutta for more than a year and speaks passable French. Jayant is involved in Sports, Music, Philosophical activities and the practice of Yoga.
Cheryl Schutz, Vice President, Account ServicesCheryl has worked in market research for over 20 years, currently as Vice President of Account Services at DKSA where she is member of the senior management team and leads the research accounts group. Her expertise is in syndicated and custom qualitative and quantitative market research methods as well as consulting with clients on all aspects of research and analysis. Before coming to DKSA she was Vice President of Research at PERQ/HCI, a Nielsen company specializing in syndicated and custom media research in the health care industry. Cheryl holds an MS in Industrial Psychology from California State University at Long Beach and a BA in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Nandini Nadkarni, Vice President, OperationsNandini joined DKSA in 2004. She has an extensive background in consumer behavior and the application of statistical techniques to model customer behavior, assess brand effectiveness and conduct target segmentation. Her statistical analysis and expertise includes data management, mining and analysis using statistical procedures including univariate and multivariate analysis (analysis of variance, regression, factor, discriminant, logit and cluster analysis, multi-dimensional scaling), as well as econometric and forecasting. She has also developed customer sales response and next purchase likelihood models and has extensive experience with list scoring and leading a direct marketing operations team. Prior to joining DKSA, Nandini worked as a Senior Statistician for Best Buy Co., and was Associate Director for Research at the National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce, Department of Leisure Studies, University of Illinois. Nandini holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Restaurant, Hotel, Institutional and Tourism Management from Purdue University.
Chris Klauda, Vice President, Quality ServicesChris joined in 1986 and is a senior member of the DKSA team. Ms. Klauda provides lodging data and analysis to hotel chains and brands as well as full service market research and marketing consultation to a broad base of clients in the travel industry. Ms. Klauda is frequently called upon by major hotel companies to assist them in applying market research information to their marketing efforts and to present research to top management. Her responsibilities as a Vice President for Quality Services include formulation of research needs, designing of research studies, analysis of data, client support, and presentation of research findings.
Ms. Klauda is part of the original team that developed and syndicated the DIRECTIONS®Travel Intelligence SystemSM. This system provides large scale integrated, continuous tracking and forecasting information to all sectors of the travel industry.
Earlier, Ms. Klauda managed the data processing operation for Wirthlin International, a political and market research firm in Washington, D.C. She began her research career with Custom Research, Inc. in Minneapolis. Ms. Klauda is involved in the Travel and Tourism Research Association, the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the American Marketing Association. She is an author and lecturer on marketing, trends in the travel industry, and the practical application of market research for business development and quality assurance.
Jim Caldwell, Vice President, Sales & MarketingJim is a hospitality industry veteran with over 30 years experience in marketing, research, operations and consulting (specializing in concept development, new product development, and product positioning). Jim has served on the Board of Directors of CREST (Chain Restaurant Eating Share Trends) Research Study.
Specific prior positions held include:
- Director of Advertising - Supermarkets General Corporation
- Regional Advertising Manager - McDonalds Corporation
- Vice President Marketing - Marriott Corporation
- President - J. M. Caldwell & Associates
- President - Mid-Atlantic Innkeepers, Inc.
Jim holds a BS in Science and an MBA in marketing and finance both from Penn State University.
Jeffrey Eslinger, Director, Account ServicesJeffrey joined DKSA in 2006. He has been working in market research for over 10 years, with 8 of those in the travel industry. His responsibilities as Account Manager with DKS&A include formulation of research needs, designing of research studies, analysis of data, client support, and presentation of research findings. He is the lead account manager for AAA, Southwest Airlines, and ASTA. Jeffrey is also responsible for the State Tourism Offices of Texas, Florida, Maryland, Tennessee, Delaware, and Iowa as well as the CVBs of Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale, and Washington DC.
Before joining DKSA he worked for US Airways as the Manager, Customer Insight and Research. Jeffrey was also Director, Research for NORTHSTAR Travel Media, publisher of Travel Weekly. Prior to travel industry experience, he worked for Standard and Poor’s and Citibank Private Bank in New York City.
He holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Dayton and has completed graduate work in advertising and communications at Astor College, London, and in History and Political Science at the Austro-American Institute, Vienna.
Sindy joined the DKSA team in 2004. Prior to working for DKSA, Sindy served as a Research Assistant for the International Institute of Tourism Studies and the European Tourism Institute. Her areas of work experience include primary travel behavior research, personal in-depth interviews, feasibility studies, competitive range analysis, development of tourism master plans and tourism marketing plans.
She holds Master Degrees in Applied Geography from the University of Trier/Germany and is currently enrolled in the Master’s program in Tourism Administration at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She received a Fulbright Non-U.S. Scholarship, a Fulbright Professional Enhancement Grant Award, and a scholarship from the Network of Executive Women in the Hospitality Industry.
Sindy's account responsibilities include the regional areas of Arizona, Maryland, New York State, Utah, Durham, Raleigh, New York City, and Baltimore. She also oversees the Research Analyst group and manages the internship program at DKSA.
James Garulski, Research ManagerJames joined DKSA in 2007 with over 15 years of survey research experience conducting surveys for clients in the commercial and non-profit sectors. His expertise is in the operational and methodological aspects of custom data collection. He is versed in several data collection methods including telephone, mail, in-person, Internet, PAPI, CAPI, and CATI. James also has experience in creating discussion guidelines and moderating and reporting on focus groups. Prior to joining DKSA, James held positions at FGI Research/Yankelovich, the RAND Corporation, and The Washington Post.
Earnest Smith, Research AnalystEarnest Smith began working for D.K. Shifflet & Associates in June 2008, as a Research Analyst. He performs an array of tasks, from creating and writing reports to verifying data and supporting theories using a program called DIRECTABS®. Prior to working for DKSA, he was employed for one year as a Front Desk Associate at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Richmond, Virginia. There he developed organizational skills, multi-tasking and detailed oriented abilities. While in Richmond, Virginia, Earnest received his Bachelors of Science Degree (Honors) in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a member of the International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma, Golden Key International Honor Society and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. In his spare time he enjoys remaining active by attending his local gym regularly and participating in basketball and flag football games.
Carl Kaufmann, Senior Information Processing AnalystCarl has considerable experience with the practical use of advanced statistical methods including general linear models (ANOVA, regression), generalized linear models (logistic, probit, Poisson, log-linear, survival-time), time-series models (ARIMA, VAR), linear and non-linear system-of-equations models (two- and three-stage least squares, partial- and full-information maximum likelihood), and structural equations models (LISREL, nth-order factor analysis), and data preparation in support of these analyses.
Carl joined DKS&A after working as statistical consultant for the Faculty of Social Science, University of Western Ontario where he consulted on programming and statistical issues at all levels. He was also consulting statistician for a number of studies in the Faculty of Nursing, University of Western Ontario including development and analysis of questionnaires for workplace satisfaction and treatment regimen adherence.
Carl holds a BA in Economics and Statistics from the University of Western Ontario, and took advanced studies in statistics at the University of Waterloo.
Susan McElheny, Senior Data Processing AnalystSusan has worked in market research for over 20 years. She began at DKSA in February of 1990 and previously worked at The Wirthlin Group (now part of Harris Interactive). Susan is responsible for producing all cross tabulation tables needed by the Research Department using Quantum software on a UNIX format. Susan has her B.S. in Business Administration from George Mason University.
Jinson Erinjeri, Senior Information Processing & Modeling AnalystJinson joined D.K. Shifflet and Associates in February 2006 as a Data Processing Intern. Subsequently, he was hired as an Information Processing/ Modeling Analyst in December 2006 and promoted as Senior Information Processing/ Modeling Analyst in April 2008. His responsibilities include processing, generation, and analysis of travel volume estimates, data checking, and ad-hoc programming/analysis. He is a SAS certified programmer with a strong background in various Operations Research /Statistical tools. His research interests mainly include data mining, linear optimization, forecasting and decision support systems.
Jinson holds a PhD in Engineering and a MS in Industrial Engineering from Louisiana Tech University.