David for Council: development, collaboration and elevation of our industry’s profile

This is an election statement by David Bakken, candidate for ESOMAR Council 2017-2018. 

I am a candidate for re-election to Council for the 2017-2018 term. I hope you will consider supporting me. Here’s a little about me and the reasons I’m standing for re-election:

I began my professional career teaching psychology at a small college in the US but I have spent most of my professional life in the market research industry. I have worked on both the client and supplier sides of our business. Prior to founding Foreseeable Futures Group in 2014, I held senior executive positions at Harris Interactive (now Nielsen) and KJT Group.

I’ve been involved with ESOMAR since 2002. Over that time ESOMAR has become a resilient and robust organization that is the global voice of market research. I was honored beyond imagination to have my 2010 Congress papers, “Riding the Value Shift in Market Research: Only the Paranoid Survive,” chosen to receive the Excellence Award for best paper presented at an ESOMAR conference. I’ve also served on juries for the Research Effectiveness and Excellence Awards. I presented a workshop on the cognitive aspects of survey design (“Think Like a Respondents”) at the Summer Academy in 2013, and I most recently presented a paper at Congress 2015 in Dublin.

Over the past two years I’ve seen just how much the Council contributes to ESOMAR’s success. In that time we’ve made great progress towards the Growth Initiatives we set at the beginning of our term, progress that can be seen in expanding corporate membership, the Young ESOMAR Society, and the revised code of conduct that addresses the challenges facing market research in the digital age. My own personal efforts on this Council have been focused on growing membership through new acquisition, retention of existing members, and recapturing lapsed members.

I have three particular areas of interest that support ESOMAR’s overall mission of encouraging, advancing, and elevating market research throughout the world. These areas are: professional development (especially for younger researchers), increased collaboration with other organizations representing different parts of the research industry, and promoting market research as a vital and relevant activity as the world continues to evolve around us.

It’s been a privilege to represent the Membership over the last two years and I hope to continue contributing to the fulfillment of the Growth Initiatives by returning to council for a second term.

Thanks for your support!