Meet the ARF Research Team

We'd like to introduce you to the people who put the "Research" in the Advertising Research Foundation. Our stellar team works to bring quality research and thought leadership to ARF members and the industry as a whole. Get to know us, and feel free to contact us if you have questions or would like to be more involved.

Don Gloeckler is EVP, Chief Research Officer of the ARF.  Don consults with ARF members on research strategy, design and quality; brand research; consumer insights; single-source data; and research organization management.  Don spent 33 years at The Procter & Gamble Company, where he held positions in the United States, Canada and Japan.  He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of disABILITYinsights, a non-profit that studies and represents the needs of persons with disabilities.  Previously, Don was a member of the Board of Directors of the Media Rating Council, the Board of Directors and Steering Committee of the Nielsen Council for Research Excellence, the Advisory Board for NielsenConnect, and the TrueSample Quality Council.  He has been recognized as a Media Maven by Advertising Age.  Don has an MBA from The Ohio State University, a BBA from the University of Cincinnati and a Certificate in Lay Pastoral Ministry from the Athenaeum of Ohio.  He resides in Cincinnati with his wife, Linda.  They have four children and one beautiful granddaughter.

Bill Cook, EVP of Research and Standards, consults with ARF members on research quality improvement and appraisal. He also leads the ARF Research Review practice.  After a stint in academia, Bill began his marketing research career at DuPont working to increase the effectiveness of DuPont's corporate image advertising. He later worked on advertising strategy and research for consumer products at DuPont, and, subsequently at Kraft General Foods.  At Kraft, Bill led the "Seven Routes to Advertising Effectiveness" program which defined a process for improving the setting of advertising and research objectives. Bill led the ARF benchmarking studies on managing marketing assets for sustained returns. Bill guides ARF and other industry forums on marketing ROI measurement and marketing optimization.  Bill received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Florida, Bill and his wife Lynn live in Longboat Key, Florida.

David Marans, EVP, Media, consults with ARF members on a wide range of research issues surrounding Video (once called “Television”), Audio (formerly “Radio”), Print/Digital (magazines and newspapers) and Planning (media/ channel).  David co-hosts the ARF’s Audience Measurement Conferences.  For more than 25 years David worked on the agency side (Y&R, JWT, Mindshare) and then for a research supplier (IAG, now part of Nielsen).  He is a recipient of the Media All-Star and Media Maven honors.  A graduate of NYU, David lives in the ocean community of Long Beach, NY.

Ted McConnell is the ARF's EVP of Digital. The position reflects the ARF's commitment to strengthen our focus on digital measurement. McConnell, who recently retired from P&G after 32 years, where he spent the last 15 years presiding over digital innovation, partnering with brands and corporate groups to understand how these new methods could work with packaged goods brands, leads a new ARF program to identify new measurement initiatives to support and validate digital marketing.

Coreen McGann is EVP, Advertising Effectiveness.  She consults with ARF members on advertising creative qualification and measurement, unearthing insights for creative briefs, advertising tracking, and marketing ROI.  Coreen leads the ARF’s Creative Effectiveness and Measuring Marketing ROI Forums and is co-leading the exploration of Neuroscience.  Prior to joining the ARF, she participated as a judge and member of key ARF panels, including online data quality.  Coreen spent 20 years with Kraft/General Foods, most recently leading the US Beverage Consumer Insights and Strategy team.  She is a passionate consumer advocate with experience across a broad array of categories and research methodologies, with specific skills in consumer and shopper insights, brand strategy, advertising, and innovation.  She won numerous IMPACT awards at Kraft for her strategic thought leadership.  She has also been a key contributor to teams winning the Nielsen Edison award for Innovation, David Ogilvy award for business achievement, and Kraft’s Global IMC award.  Coreen resides in Armonk, NY with her husband.  They have three grown children.

Peter Orban is EVP, Online, Social and Mobile Media and Marketing. He consults with ARF members on marketing and research in the mobile, online and social space.  Peter spent close to 20 years with various IPG & WPP agencies in six countries on three continents articulating research questions and applying the findings to the marketplace.  His passion for technology innovation led him to Deutsche Telekom where he ran the Innovation and Corporate Development practice based in Europe.  After a stint on the Venture Capital side, he cofounded an Internet technology startup where he developed and executed a primary research methodology that enabled the articulation, comparison, and rank ordering of consumer needs regardless of originating domain. His research led to various applications in social media, semantic search & mobile commerce solutions.  Most recently he advised companies across the consumer technology spectrum, especially mobile, on using research to support product development and marketing communications.  He resides in historic Sleepy Hollow, NY, with his wife, Christina and they have three children each born on a different continent.

Todd Powers is EVP of Primary Research. He comes to the ARF by way of IBM, where he served as Director of Brand and Advertising Research in the Market Insights organization. Dr. Powers, who joined the ARF in September 2010, provides a strong leadership vision for industry topics including advertising ROI, leveraging data analytics for insight, establishing research-guided roadmaps to better manage decision-making complexity, digital measurement, and the real marketing role of the social media movement.

Horst Stipp, EVP Global Business Strategy, consults with ARF members on all things media and media measurement, as well as measurement innovation (such as neuromarketing), with a view to both US and international trends.  Horst joined the ARF in 2011 after a long career at NBC where he was Senior VP, Strategic Insights & Innovation.  At NBC, he was involved in all aspects of research, including audience measurement, program and advertising research, and analysis of changes in media behavior.  Horst’s publications and presentations, in both English and German, cover these topics as well as the development of media in the digital age.  He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, where he also taught a seminar from 2000 to 2011 in the Business School.

Steve Rappaport, ARF Knowledge Solutions Director, consults with ARF members on knowledge management, listening, and identifying emerging opportunities for business growth.  Steve helps member companies build brands through the ARF's Knowledge Center which organizes and synthesizes the knowledge generated through ARF activities along with archival sources and trusted third-parties, and then makes them available through a family of self-service sources, such as the ARF's industry leading PowerSearch database, Morning Coffee newsreader, and also through assisted research and consulting services.  Steve is the author of Listen First! Leveraging Social Media for Business Advantage (Wiley 2011 with four international editions) and lead author of the best-selling The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation (Wiley 2007).