Dhruba Gupta - Managing Director and Principal

• BComm ( University of Western Australia) 1979
• MComm - Market Research ( University of Western Australia) 1982
• Fellow of the Australian Market and Social Research Society
• Qualified Practising Market Researcher (QPMR)

Twenty years in the industry and extensive research experience firstly in Scandinavia and then in Australia. Held senior research positions as Manager, Market Research for Telecom-Queensland and as Project Director with Frank Small & Associates (now TNS) and Reark Research (now ACNielsen).

He is considered a leading specialist in quantitative methods, having published and presented at research symposiums overseas and in Australia. Over the last 20 years, he has been engaged by some of the largest corporations in the Asia Pacific region. In 1992, he co-founded DBM Consultants, which has now become one of the fastest-growing companies in Australia. He has led the establishment of the professional accreditation scheme for Australian market researchers (QPMR) and is an executive of the Market Research Quality Assurance (MRQA) council. He was awarded the Fellowship of the society in recognition of his contributions to the industry.

Maria Claridad - Director

• BSc - Statistics (University of the Philippines) 1980
• Member of the AMSRS and Qualified Practising Market Researcher (QPMR)

Over twenty years in the market research industry in the Philippines and in Australia. She has held positions as a buyer for the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria, as well as supplier of research services at Consumer Pulse (now ACNielsen) and Trends Inc (now TNS) in the Philippines and at Reark Research in Australia (now ACNielsen). She co-founded DBM Consultants in 1992, where she has established industry best practice in research teams, operations and quality control to enable the company to achieve its success.

Maria has extensive experience in managing and conducting large-scale quantitative and qualitative studies in the business and consumer markets in financial services, investment banking, FMCG, telecommunications and media. Her research interests focus on services marketing, new product development, forecasting, customer experience research and pricing. Her clients have included some of the largest corporations in the Asia Pacific region.

Russell Blamey - Group Account Director and Head of Advanced Analysis

• BSc Hons1 (Griffith University) 1991
• PhD in Stated Preference Surveys ( Australian National University ) 1995
• MBA - currently completing (Southern Cross University)
• Member of the AMSRS and Qualified Practising Market Researcher (QPMR)

Russell has over ten years experience in market and social research, specialising in the government and services sector. He is a leading research expert with over 60 publications including international journals and books. He has also been appointed by the World Health Organisation to advise on international projects. He has consulted to various Australian organisations on technical design and analysis. At DBM, Russell is responsible for leading complex projects, developing leading edge techniques and providing in-house consultancy to various DBM teams on complex sampling, research design and analysis issues.

Prior to joining DBM, Russell was the Director of Consumer Research at the Australian Department of Health and Ageing in Canberra. Russell also worked for other government agencies in a research capacity, and as an academic at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales focussing on social market research. He has consulted in various capacities to a range of service organisations.

Katherine Whiteley - Group Account Director

• BA first class honours in Philosophy and Political Science (Monash University) 1982
• Graduate Diploma of Marketing, David Syme Business School (Monash University) 1987
• Australian Market and Social Research Society
• Qualified Practicing Market Researcher (QPMR)

With more than 15 years experience, Katherine has held senior research consultant positions with Reark Research (now ACNielsen), Frank Small and Associates (now TNS), DBM Consultants, Open Mind Research and Millward Brown Australia. She rejoined DBM in 2004.

Katherine is an experienced qualitative and quantitative researcher with expertise across a range of industry sectors. She specialises in communications development and monitoring, customer service measurement, demand estimation, concept testing, market segmentation and customer usage and attitude studies.

Katherine has held senior client management roles for large accounts across the FMCG, financial services, communications technology, utilities and government sectors.

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