THE PCG TEAM

Norman Kaiser

Director of Finance and Operations

Mr. Kaiser has over 25 years’ experience in operations in fast-paced, high pressure environments with a demonstrated history of building successful teams, leading change management and technology implementations.

Prior to Pacific Consulting Group he was the Vice President of Operations for Pasha Automotive Services in San Diego responsible for P&L for all terminal operations, and labor relations overseeing 450 employees. Previously he was proprietor of NK Maritime Consulting where he spearheaded analyses on automation and led product development for a software provider. Mr. Kaiser served as the Vice President and General Manager of Operations for Ports America, starting up and leading operation. .He has extensive experience in logistics and transportation, P&L management and human resource management which he leverages to manage daily operations, finance, HR and contracts for PCG.

Mr. Kaiser has a bachelors in Chemistry from Lake Forest College and also attended Northwestern University for extended studies.

Kate Brinker

Customer Insights

Katie is a research consultant with over a decade of experience in the field. Her previous projects have spanned a number of industries including government, technology, CPG, healthcare and finance and she has an extensive background in designing studies, uncovering insights and managing projects in the U.S. and internationally as both a client and supplier.

On the client side, Katie recently led the consumer insights practice at the Port of San Diego. She was responsible for developing a data driven citizen and customer intelligence competency at the Port. In her role, she effectively led the research design, execution and insight delivery related to projects aimed at improving District experiences.

On the supplier side, Katie was with Ipsos for nearly ten years. She was Vice President at Ipsos SMX, a division of the third largest global research agency. Her focus within SMX focused on consumer research via online communities (studies that combine quantitative and qualitative research within one platform in order to provide robust data paired with deep insights). However, in addition to communities, she has also led numerous surveys, focus groups, individual in-depth interviews (IDIs), in-home interviews and ideation / brainstorming sessions. Clients such as Coca-Cola, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, iHeartRadio, Dell, Lyft, Chase, Bank of America, Samsung, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer and others have consistently relied on her ability to identify consumer insights and turn them into actionable recommendations.

Prior to joining the consumer research field, Katie served as an officer in the United States Navy and was stationed aboard ships based out of San Diego, California and Yokosuka, Japan. Her military experience gives her a unique perspective in the critical areas of project and personnel management, as well as plan implementation.

Expertise

• Report Writing & Storytelling
• Focus Group & IDI Moderation
• Survey Design
• Social Media & Online Community Research
• Persona Development
• Ideation Facilitation

Education and Affiliations

• Marquette University, BS (Marketing and Naval Science)
• Naval Reserve Association Commissioned Officer’s Sword (Top-ranked MU Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) Midshipman entering the Unrestricted Line Community)
• Navy Achievement Medals for outstanding leadership
• Navy Unit Commendation
• Global War on Terrorism Medal
• Sea Service Ribbon
• Trident Honor Award

“All decisions should start with the customer…”

Tom Cooper

Director, Client Solutions

Tom has more than 35 years experience in the customer success industry, serving a wide range of public, private, and nonprofit organizations. He is deeply involved in innovation and improvement projects, turning customer information into actionable initiatives that ultimately boost revenues or improve customer service. He’s led over 100 projects to understand customer satisfaction drivers and develop solutions that improve both customer and business results. Tom co-developed the Net Impression^® technique for identifying customer service improvements with highest leverage impact.

Tom specializes in identifying customer investments with the greatest return. He led multiple engagements during his 17-year relationship  with the Internal Revenue Service, all aimed at improving taxpayer satisfaction and business results. This includes overseeing data analysis and predictive projects across the agency, and developing transactional customer and partner satisfaction surveys for each IRS division. Other notable clients include Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Veterans Administration, Department of Commerce, Export-Import Bank, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Expertise

• Founder and leader of Net Impression methodology
• Expert in understanding customer satisfaction drivers and developing solutions to improve both customer and business results
• Specializes in identifying customer investments with the greatest return
• Has directed projects in the fields of health care, consumer services, computers and internet technology, education, financial services, telecommunications, utilities, professional services, transportation, and non-profit groups

Education and Affiliations

• Stanford School of Business, MBA
• Princeton, AB in Economics
• Member, Stanford Business School Alumni Consulting Team (ACT)
• 10-year tenure as Coach coach of Stanford Business School students
• Former Service Marketing Instructor, Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Board, Palo Alto YMCA

 “Asking ‘why not’ leads to great outcomes.”

Peter Webb

Senior Research Fellow

Pete has 35-plus years of experience in communications, social marketing, customer experience, marketing and survey research, and quantitative methods. He has applied his expertise to government, health and human services, education, financial services, housing, energy, telecommunications, and advertising. He has directed projects that measured and improved passenger satisfaction at Boston Logan International Airport, Massachusetts Port Authority, and the three major New York area airports, as well as for numerous airlines including American, United, Continental, and Southwest.

Pete co-developed PCG’s Net Impression^® Leverage Analysis and Service Innovation processes, as well as the Net Optimizer-Communications model, an innovative communications concept testing program that prioritizes combinations of media and messages for achieving specific behavioral objectives. As an active member of the Innovations in Social Marketing group (ISM), Pete helped organize and conduct global social marketing conferences that brought together social marketing practitioners and academic experts. He’s taught marketing at the University of Illinois and at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Expertise

• Specializes in service design, survey research, quantitative analysis, and marketing communications that encourage behavior changes
• Founder and developer of proprietary analysis technique for prioritizing service improvements processes
• Co-developer of Net Impression^® leverage analysis and service innovation
• Co-developer of the Net Optimizer-Communications for determining best message campaign

Education and Affiliations

• Stanford, PhD, Marketing
• University of Chicago, MBA
• Yale, BA, Mathematics and Economics
• Innovations in Social Marketing Group (ISM), Member
• Steering Committee of Innovations in Social Marketing and Conference Group
• Contributor to Social Marketing by Philip Kotler and Nancy Lee

“Analytics is actually a creative endeavor.. because when done well it reveals opportunities.”

Katherine Danilchenko

Data Analyst & Statistical Programmer

Katherine has years of experience in Consumer Credit Counseling fields mainly focused on post counseling process improvement. She analyzed post counseling information, monitored and evaluated compliance of counseling practices with company policies, creditor agreements, State and Federal Regulations, and developed manuals for the internal post counseling audit process.

Katherine has an academic background in understanding complex datasets and building trustworthy prediction models using traditional statistics and machine learning methods for more informative business decision-making.

Expertise

• Statistical Data Analysis with SAS, R
• Data Visualization with SAS, R
• Database Management with MySQL
• Predictive Modelling with SAS, R

Education and Affiliations

• B.S. in Language and Literature, S.Seyidi State University, Turkmenistan
• M.S. in Data Science (Former MS in Predictive Analytics), Northwestern University, Illinois

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

Kavita Jayaraman

Director, Customer Insights

Kavita is a user obsessed insights researcher and consultant, a story teller with proven track record of developing consumer driven ideas and getting them ready for market. Her goal is to use a visual narrative to inspire design and marketing to help stakeholders shape their products and services to resonate with end customers’ needs.

Prior to joining PCG, Kavita has over 12 years of experience in managing and delivering actionable user focused insights across industries, primarily in telecommunications, consumer technology and financial services. She strongly believes that all insights start with empathy. In a fast paced innovation, improvement, and delivery cycle, users often take a back seat to business goals and technology. With her work in user insights, Kavita has successfully managed to bring a customer focused approach to enable stakeholders to “walk in customers’ shoes” and understand how elevated emotional and functional customer experience matters in meeting long term business goals.

Expertise

• UX: Evaluative and generative research approaches
• CX: customer experience and journey mapping
• GTM: Usage and behavior studies, positioning/channel research
• Research methods: Contextual interviewing and modified in home/mobile ethnographies, Focus group moderating, Diary studies, IDIs, shop-alongs, Survey based research that involve different sampling and data weighting techniques

Education

• MA Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Masters in Commerce and Economics, Mumbai University
• Diploma in French, Alliance Française

Susan Siford

Director, Healthcare

Susan has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry. As a pharmacist, she has worked in a variety of settings, including inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care venues.   She has recently served in administrative and business support roles, and also has a strong clinical pharmacy background. Additionally, Susan has served in multiple healthcare roles, including patient safety officer, medication therapy management, operational performance improvement, emergency management and healthcare system accreditation. Her vast experience in a variety of healthcare and deep understanding of the industry allows her to provide clients a multi-faceted perspective.

Susan specializes in the integration of operational performance improvement in the quest for safer patient practices and medication management across the healthcare spectrum.

Expertise

• Aligning strong clinical values with business insights to provide meaningful and actionable goals in healthcare improvement
• Leads PCG’s work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which analyzes Part D Prescription Drug Events and Payment Process
• Oversees modeling and detailed research across Part D claims, financial transactions, and detailed savings analyses

Education and Affiliations

• University of Maryland, MBA
• University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Doctor of Pharmacy

“Business and healthcare can be combined for the greater good.”

Cesar Villanueva

Data Analyst and Data Security Compliance Manager

Cesar is responsible for safeguarding sensitive client information, as well as managing and implementing data security procedures within PCG’s information systems for projects involving sensitive customer data.  His other duties include working with auditors, ensuring regulatory compliance, and computer troubleshooting tasks.

As Research Analyst, Cesar has managed and performed analysis on complex datasets for research projects in industries such as private schools, nonprofit organizations, commercial firms, and government agencies for more than 12 years.  His experience includes handling survey administration, data collection in various professional fields, as well as responsibility for all of PCG’s Spanish translations. Cesar is also responsible for programming and administration for online surveys administered in-house by PCG.

Expertise

• Government standards for physical and cyber data security
• Large scale online survey fielding and data validation
• Spanish-language surveys and help desk support
• Text coding and thematic analysis

Education and Affiliations

• San Jose State University, BS Industrial Technology, Computer Electronics and Network Technology (CENT)
• CompTIA Security+ certification from IT University

“Interestingly, years of customer data analysis reinforces the human element…that customers are people, and people have a lot of common needs.”