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HPI Blog Series
Tanya Thampipop is a M.S. Applied Psychology candidate at University of Southern California (USC). She has a B.S. in Physiology and Neuroscience, a B.A. in Psychology, and a minor in Business from University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She has 7 years of experience in youth leadership development, 5 years of experience in research settings, and 4 years of experience in clinical applied behavior analysis settings. Her interests lie in human behavior and using big data in order to make objective and informed decisions. Recent research projects that she has worked on include efficacy of therapies such as LEGO therapy and GI treatment on children with autism, as well as examining fMRI scans to evaluate the effects of nicotine on young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
In her free time, she likes to lift heavy things at the gym so that she can eat more. She also enjoys playing basketball, dancing, looking at typography, and binge watching tv shows.
Partner and HPI’s President, Harry Hiner has held senior positions in several of the most prestigious research firms in the U.S. An accomplished researcher with over 30 years of experience, Harry has been a Vice President and Western Region Director at Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, Director of Strategic Research at Opinion Research Corporation and Political Research Director at American Marketing Services. Harry is an accomplished branding, product development, and targeting strategist with additional expertise in customer satisfaction, engagement, and operational performance.
His current and past clients include some of the largest brands in the U.S.: Microsoft, Levi Strauss, Anheuser-Busch, Beckman Coulter CITGO Petroleum, ITT Cannon, GE, Apple, Rockwell Collins, Jenny Craig, Southern California Edison, Home & Garden TV (Scripps), Bank of America, among many others.
Partner and HPI’s Executive Vice President, Dr. Steven Westberg is an expert in both quantitative and qualitative research methods with experience in both consulting and client-side positions in marketing research. Previously, Steve was the Manager of Market Research at Southern California Edison, responsible for all of SCE’s marketing research including customer satisfaction and value analysis, segmentation, new program and rate development, and communications. Prior to joining SCE, Steve was a Senior Research Executive for Wirthlin Worldwide, where he worked in consumer products, beverages, telecommunications, financial services, and others.
Dr. Westberg has been a contributing author and presenter in several conference proceedings, and he is an adjunct faculty member teaching consumer psychology and research methods in the University of Southern California’s psychology department. Dr. Westberg has a B.S. in Business Administration from U.C. Berkeley, and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Marketing Science from the University of Texas at Dallas. He also served as a Naval Officer, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander before attending graduate school.
Steve is married with two daughters. His oldest is a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. His youngest is heading to Texas A&M to study genetics, and raises pigs in Future Farmers of America (FFA). Steve’s wife, Yelena, is a nurse and clinic administrator serving the homeless and uninsured in Orange County. In his spare time, Steve likes to ride his bike, practice his culinary skills, and discover exotic new micro-beers.
Senior Vice President with HPI, Paul Caracciolo has held both client-based and supplier-based market research positions. He draws from those complementary experiences to ensure that research objectives and findings resonate with corporate initiatives and maximize actionability within the corporate environment. Before his five years as Senior Vice President/Senior Consultant at HPI, Paul had gained broad insights into marketing, branding and operations as Director of Consumer Research and Insight at 21st Century Insurance; Director of Global Market Research at Herbalife International; and Director of Brand Strategy & Research at marchFIRST, the Internet consulting company. He began his career in Primary Research at The Los Angeles Times. His fact-based findings and recommendations have shaped strategies and tactics, and guided operational planning for clients in insurance and financial services, retailing, health and wellness, home security, gaming, utilities and more.
Paul’s MBA, Marketing emphasis, is from U.C. Berkeley (Haas School of Business) and he earned his A.B., Literature, from U.C. Santa Cruz. His interests include archeology, travel for pleasure, and football, particularly the sometimes-resurging 49ers and California Bears. He continues work on a detective novel that he writes in his spare time.
Dr. Luke Thelen is the Director of Advanced Analysis & Study Design with HPI and an experienced statistician and methodologist. He serves as a consultant to both his co-workers and clients on issues related to statistics, data analysis, data management, and research methods. His expertise includes conjoint, finite mixture modeling, structural equation modeling, factor analysis, regression, and ANOVA, as well as many other inferential and descriptive statistics. He also conducts qualitative one-on-ones and in-depth interviews. He has over 25 years of experience in research, both within the fields of marketing and psychology. Prior to joining HPI in 2000, Luke was Research Faculty at the University of California, Irvine for the NICHD Study of Early Child Care where he served as the on-site statistician. Earlier in his career, he was a telephone research interviewer and supervisor for Abt Associates’ telephone research facility in Amherst, MA.
Dr. Thelen earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1992, and his Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 1997. He has presented at national and international conferences and continues to publish in leading academic journals. He has given lectures on statistics and research methods in marketing research.
Luke grew up in the quaint college town of Amherst, Massachusetts and moved to Orange County, California in 1992 for graduate school and the great weather. He enjoys long walks on the beach, visiting his family on the East Coast, cooking and baking for family and friends, wine tasting, international travelling, and trying new and different foods.
Chris Guth is an exceptionally skilled, veteran Senior Project Manager. Chris earned his M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University, New York, NY. Prior to joining Hiner & Partners Inc., Christopher was with Maritz Marketing Research for over six years, serving as a Senior Research Manager and an associate with the retail consulting firm of McMillan|Doolittle in Chicago.
With over twenty years in the industry, Chris has managed studies that employed some of the most technical of research methods including conjoint-based product development, customer satisfaction, brand/ad image, pricing, usage and attitude studies, and segmentation / targeting.
Originally from the east coast (N.J.), Chris relocated to California in 1992 to attend graduate school. When he’s not conducting analysis or programming a web survey, you can find Chris mountain biking in one of several Southern California mountain ranges.
Blake Sweeney joined HINER & Partners immediately after graduating from college in 2006. Blake is quite experienced in data management and analysis with the majority of the work coming from data cleaning and cross-tabbing. He also assists in project management, report creation, and field coordination/quality control.
Mr. Sweeney earned a B.S. in Statistics from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and completed extensive coursework in the Applied Statistics masters program at California State University, Long Beach. He is also member of the American Statistical Association as well as the American Marketing Association.
Blake was recently married to his long-time girlfriend, Katie. The happy couple enjoys taking hikes with their one year old cockapoo and snowboarding when the weather permits. Blake’s hobbies include coed softball, wine tasting, and cheering for the Lakers with any remaining time.
Ms. Walker has been in marketing research for 30 years. Her expertise includes all aspects of the customer experience (operational strategy and performance), marketplace intelligence, new product development including product naming, communications, UX testing, and trademark litigation. Ms. Walker is an expert in all quantitative and qualitative methods.
While at Southern California Edison for 16 years, she led deployment research for the nation’s most advanced metering system, Edison SmartConnect®. Her insights supported product development, communications, web site design, and meter installation experience for Residential and Business customers
Lori holds a Master of Marketing Research from Southern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from California State University, Long Beach.
