AQITY RESEARCH & INSIGHTS - Key Persons
Andrea Gruver, Research Analyst | 847-424-4171 ext. 220 | a.gruver@aqityresearch.com
Andrea joined aQity Research & Insights in May 2021. As a Research Analyst she has quickly contributed to a variety of research projects, from financial services tracking studies to highly customized park district community surveys. Andrea assists with various stages of the research process, including survey design and programming, data collection, and analysis.
Jeff has been designing customized survey solutions and delivering actionable research insights for over 30 years. He started with Richard Day Research (RDR) in 1983, which was acquired by Market Probe in 2011. Jeff launched aQity Research & Insights in early 2015 to continue serving long-standing clients and provide new customers with innovative approaches and solutions.
His areas of research expertise include:
Financial services (particularly retirement, investments, advice).
Needs assessments and community surveys for Park and Forest Preserve Districts.
Public policy issues such as open space, education, politics and referenda (pre-election surveys, voter focus groups).
Not-for-profit research such as member and donor surveys and strategic plan consulting.
Jeff has contributed to two books on Chicago mayoral politics and has written articles for several publications, including Public Opinion Quarterly. He has a BA in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois-Urbana.
Job Titles:
- Data Collection Supervisor
Jim is responsible for the aQity Research call center and data processing team. He has been with aQity Research (and formerly Market Probe and Richard Day Research) for 10 years. Jim is an expert interviewer and an excellent teacher and mentor who trains aQity Research's other executive interviewers.
Jim holds a BA in Speech and Communication from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Marie has over three decades of custom market research experience with the last 16 years concentrating in the wealth management and retirement industries. Before joining aQity Research, her role at Market Strategies International was Vice President, Research and Consulting. She also headed the Retirement Research unit at LIMRA (a global trade association for financial services companies). And, prior to LIMRA, she ran retirement research studies at Fidelity Investments. She effectively leverages her strong strategic, analytical, interpersonal, and leadership skills to deliver actionable and strategic outcomes.
Marie's clients include some of the world's largest retail and institutional asset managers, retirement providers, insurance companies, and banks. She has conducted hundreds of domestic and international surveys among:
Retail investors.
DC/DB plan sponsors and participants.
Financial advisors across all channels.
Institutional investors.
Consultants.
Asset managers.
She has personally moderated dozens of focus groups and hundreds of in-depth interviews. Recent studies include:
Brand, value proposition and message testing.
Voice of the customer.
Thought leadership.
New product development and product positioning.
Tablet app and website testing.
Business delivery and service model analysis.
Competitive analysis and positioning.
Over the past 12 years at Richard Day Research, Market Probe, and now aQity Research & Insights, Michelle has managed the research process end-to-end. She started by conducting phone interviews including executive interviewing on complex win-loss studies. She then became a data analyst, coding manager, and is currently a project manager. In this role, Michelle oversees all aspects of research studies and manages the data collection and reporting process.
Her expertise is in financial services studies (especially win-loss and client-attrition studies). She has worked on numerous B2B and B2C client and loyalty studies, as well as public policy surveys. Michelle has a BA in Sociology and an MA in Gerontology, both from Northeastern Illinois University.
Since 2008, Tessa has worked on numerous projects across a range of industries and topics. She has been the lead project manager for several financial services studies, including client satisfaction and loyalty studies (both B2B and B2C), employee satisfaction research, brand tracking studies, win/loss studies with retirement-plan sponsors and third-party advisors.
Tessa has also directed numerous resident surveys for park districts and similar organizations, overseeing everything from the initial design stage through analyzing the results and writing the final reports. She is experienced in all types of data collection for these studies - phone, mail, web, and hybrid approaches. Tessa has a BA in Music Education from the University of Illinois-Urbana.
Zoe joined aQity Research & Insights in July 2021. She is responsible for multiple stages of s research projects, including survey programming, data collection oversight, coding and data processing, analysis and creating reports. Zoe has helped manage financial services tracking studies, satisfaction research, and community surveys for several park districts.
Zoe holds a BA in Economic Studies from the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Germany, where she also worked for GfK SE Germany. She has also studied abroad at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina.