The AMA Foundation (AMAF) is thrilled to name both Monica Wood, VP of Global Consumer & Member Insights at Herbalife, and Venkatesh Shankar, Professor of Marketing and Academic Director, The Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University, as recipients of the 2024 Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award!
Given to leading scholars and practitioners, the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award is the oldest and most distinguished award in the field. Recipients of this award have demonstrated outstanding leadership and sustained impact on advancing and evolving the profession of marketing throughout their careers. Monica and Venky have distinguished themselves in both industry and academia with their exceptional accomplishments, credentials, and contributions to the advancement of marketing research. You can view a list of past winners here.
VP of Global Consumer & Member Insights at Herbalife
Monica Wood has earned recognition as a leader in the market insights field for her transformational work for some of the world’s best-known brands, and for her tireless advocacy for innovation.
Monica is Vice President of Global Consumer & Member Insights at Herbalife, where she established its global research department, whose awards include two David Ogilvy Bronze Awards from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), and Market Research Team of the Year from Quirk’s.
Monica’s recognitions include Quirk’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, Quirk’s 2023 Courageous Leader Award, Market Research Society’s 2022 Research Hero, and Direct Marketing News’ 2017 “Woman to Watch.”
At Novartis, Monica championed the use of online research communities. Other pharma companies, traditionally conservative about market insights methods, adopted this method after seeing Novartis’s success, and it is now part of industry standard practice.
At Wyeth, she led research for Advil, Robitussin, and Chapstick, increasing profits by repositioning Advil as an “everyday pain” solution as well as helping develop and launch Advil liquid gels, one of the world’s best-selling painkillers.
As EVP of Edelman Public Relations, she founded Strategy One, the company’s research arm, leading the development of a pioneering 360 media tracking system. Monica’s achievements as Director of Market Research for Campbell’s Soup were featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s New York Times bestseller, What the Dog Saw, which documented Monica’s work driving the reinvention of the Spaghetti Sauce Category.
Monica’s work in 1989 with Nielsen resulted in the industry’s first marketing mix model.
Monica has served as a leader for the industry’s leading associations, including Past President, Market Research Council (MRC), Past Committee Leader, American Marketing Association, Past Grand Ogilvy Award Judge, ARF, Current Hall of Fame Chair, MRC, Current Industry Research Committee, Chair, Direct Selling Association, and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board Member, Herbert Business School, University of Miami.
Harold M. Brierley Endowed Professor of Marketing and Academic Director, The Brierley Institute of Customer Engagement, Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University
Venkatesh (Venky) Shankar is the Harold M. Brierley Endowed Professor of Marketing and Academic Director, The Brierley Institute of Customer Engagement, Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University. He is also the Chair of Marketing Accountability Standards Board Advisory Council. His areas of specialization include Digital Business, Marketing Strategy, Innovation, New Product Management, Retailing, Services Marketing, Pricing, International Marketing, Branding, Mobile Marketing, and Artificial Intelligence. Shankar has a Ph.D. in marketing from the Kellogg School, Northwestern University and has corporate experience in the areas of marketing and international business development. He has worked in diverse countries.
He has been recognized as one among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds, as one among the Top 1% of Marketing Scientists, as a Top 10 Innovation Scholar, and as a Top Retail Influencer. He is a winner of the 2023-2024 American Marketing Association (AMA) Fellow Award, 2024 Institute for Study of Business Markets (ISBM) Distinguished Reserach Fellow Award, 2022 Margaret Blair Award for Marketing Accountability, 2017 AMS/Cutco Vector Outstanding Marketing Educator Award, 2015 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2013 Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2013-2014 Retailing Lifetime Achievement Award, 2012 Vijay Mahajan Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Strategy, 2006 Robert Clarke Award for the Outstanding Direct and Interactive Marketing Educator, 2014 EMAC-IJRM Steenkamp Award for the article with long-term marketing impact, 2020 and 2014 Best Services Article Awards from AMA, 2001 IBM Faculty Partnership Award, the 1999 Paul Green Award for the Best Article in Journal of Marketing Research, the 2000 Don Lehmann Award for the Best Dissertation-based Article in an AMA journal, and the 2008 Sheth Award for the best paper in the Journal of Academy of Marketing Science. The Shankar-Spiegel Award from the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation is named in his honor. He has published in academic journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Marketing Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Harvard Business Review, and Sloan Management Review, and in business periodicals such as Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.
He is ex-President of the Marketing Strategy SIG, AMA and serves on the Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) council and Business-to-Business (B2B) Leadership Board. He is a 15-time Faculty Fellow of the AMA Doctoral Consortium. He is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Interactive Marketing and is an ex-academic Trustee of the MSI. He is also ex-associate editor of the Journal of Marketing Research, ex-associate editor of Management Science, and ex-Area Editor, Journal of Marketing. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Journal of Retailing and Journal of Interactive Marketing. He has been a keynote speaker in several conferences and has delivered over 500 presentations in countries ranging from Australia to the Netherlands.
He is a three-time winner of the Krowe Award for Teaching and has taught Marketing Management, Digital Business Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Analytics, Customer Value Management, Innovation and New Product Management, Marketing Research, and International Marketing. He has been a visiting faculty at Stanford University, MIT, INSEAD, Singapore Management University, SDA Bocconi, Chinese European International Business School, and the Indian School of Business. He is co-editor of the Handbook of Marketing Strategy and the author of Shopper Marketing. He has served as a Research Fellow of Northwestern University’s Retail Analytics Council.
Shankar has consulting or executive teaching experience with organizations such as Allstate, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Colgate Palmolive, Deloitte, GlaxoSmithKline, Halliburton, Hewlett Packard, HSBC, Humana, IBM, Infosys, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Lucent Technologies, Mahindra, Marriott International, Medtronic, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, PepsiCo, PNC Bank, Philips, and Volvo. He has made several appearances on CNN, C-SPAN and Voice of America. He is/has been on many advisory boards, including, Alert Innovation and Ingenium Corporation. He has served as an expert witness in legal cases.
Congratulations to the 2024 Parlin Award Recipients!