Vince Barabba

Chairman

Kings County Ventures and the Marketing Insight Corporation

Vince Barabba is the chairman of Kings County Ventures and the Market Insight Corporation. He retired in 2003 as the general manager of corporate strategy at the General Motors Corporation. He was recently appointed chairman of the State of the USA, a non-profit corporation with an educational mission to provide quality information, including quantitative indicators, to the American public on key changing societal, economic, and environmental conditions.

Mr. Barabba twice served as director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census and is the only person to have been appointed to that position by U.S. Presidents of different political parties. Between his government service and GM assignments he served as the manager of market research for the Xerox Corporation and director of market intelligence for Eastman Kodak. Mr. Barabba was the co-founder of Decision Making Information and from 1969 to 1973 provided electoral information to political campaigns from City Hall to the Presidency. He has also served on the board of directors for the Marketing Science Institute and the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago.

In recognition of his performance in the private and public sectors he was recently inducted into the Market Research Hall of Fame. He also received the American Marketing Association’s Parlin Award for leadership in the application of science to the discipline of marketing research, the MIT/GM Henry Grady Weaver Award for individuals who have contributed the most to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science, and the Certificate of Distinguished Service for Contribution to the Federal Statistical System from the Office of Management and Budget.

He is the author of Surviving Transformation (2004 Oxford) and Meeting of the Minds (1995 HBS Press). He is the co-author of Hearing the Voice of the Market (1991 HBS Press) and The 1980 Census: Policy Making Amid Turbulence (1983 Lexington Books).

Mr. Barabba is a past president and a fellow of the American Statistical Association, has served as U.S. representative to the Population Commission of the United Nations, Board Member of the National Opinion Research Center, and Chairman of the National Research Council Panel to review the statistical program of the National Center for Education Statistics.

(Biography by http://www.diamondconsultants.com)