Biography
Don is an experienced industry leader in both the automotive industry and the world of automotive market research. He started his nearly 20 year career at General Motors in manufacturing engineering and has held a variety of positions in areas as diverse as product planning, brand management, and sales forecasting.Don spent the next nearly 18 years working on the agency/supplier side of the business. He left GM to join Allison Fisher - a leader in US automotive demand and brand equity research. After Allison-Fisher was acquired by eventual parent, GfK - the 4th largest market research agency in the world based in Nuremberg Germany.Don became the Managing Director of the Automotive unit in the US as well as the Global Lead for Automotive. As Global Lead for Automotive, he oversaw the automotive business of GfK across 100 countries with nearly 300 associates. With a passion for employee development, Don moved over to join the Global Human Resources team as Global Lead for Training and Development with responsibility for all training activities for GfK's nearly 13,000 employees.Don holds a BS in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and a Master's in Management from Northwestern University which he attended on a GM Fellowship. He served on the Advisory Board for the Michigan State Master of Science in Marketing Research Program.
