Peter Zandan

Early life and education

Born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Zandan received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Massachusetts in 1975. In the latter half of the 1970s, Zandan moved to Mexico to pursue international studies. After several years abroad, he returned to the United States and earned an MBA and Ph.D. in Evaluation Research in 1983 from the University of Texas.

IntelliQuest

Zandan founded his first major company in 1984 under the name of IntelliQuest. IntelliQuest focused on changing the way companies performed market research by pioneering ‘disk-by-mail’ methodologies, and later utilizing internet based electronic surveys. Zandan served as the company’s chairman and CEO for 15 years. IntelliQuest was the fastest growing market research company worldwide through the 1990s as it provided new product, marketing, and branding services to corporations such as Apple, IBM, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard. IntelliQuest provided marketing information to technology companies and direct marketing services to Internet marketers. Additionally it supplied information about tech markets on a subscription and proprietary project basis. Under Zandan’s leadership, IntelliQuest grew to over 500 employees with offices in Austin, Silicon Valley, New York City and London. Zandan took the company public in 1996 on the NASDAQ exchange, and it was acquired by WPP in 1999. In 1998, before the company was bought, Zandan stepped away from day-to-day management and operations of the company to pursue other interests.

Zilliant

In 1998, Peter Zandan founded Zilliant Inc, another Austin-based corporation. Zilliant developed into a leader in strategic pricing management, providing software solutions to enable corporations to outline and manage their e-commerce pricing. Having understood that “the Internet allows companies to better understand their customers [and] their preferences,” Zandan helped develop the flagship product called Zilliant Intelligent Pricing solution (ZIPS) which tested real-time customer pricing behavior and monitored activity and market opportunities. Offering business-to-business predictive pricing and sales applications, Zilliant grew quickly and continues to operate successfully.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Peter Zandan is currently the Global Vice Chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies and has developed the firm’s reputation management and communications research offerings. Zandan has provided assistance with international brand development for clients in the financial services, energy, technology, healthcare and retail industries. More specifically, Zandan leads the Research+Data Insights (RDI) corporation underneath the umbrella organization of Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Zandan has helped RDI yield data-based insights that deliver metrics and counsel in brand health, communication, and data analytics.

Other ventures

In June 2013, Zandan was selected to be a member of the President’s Circle of the National Academy of Science. The purpose of the President’s circle is to engage with leaders of various scientific disciplines from engineering to medicine in an effort to ensure that they have the intellectual and financial resources to sustain/enhance their research. The President’s Circle is an honorary association and membership is acquired through invitations from the presidents of the three Academies.

Along with being honored in 1998 as a lifetime member of the McCombs Business School’s Advisory Council starting, Zandan has served on the board of public television station KLRU since the same year. He has also invested in and advised new media companies including Wize, Inc., Klout (sold to Lithium Technologies), and Next Big Sound (sold to Pandora). Peter Zandan’s angel investing in such companies as Next Big Sound has allowed him to continue to remain an active part of the startup company scene.

Community involvement

Peter Zandan has impacted the Austin community through his social analytics work and external involvement. The Zandan Poll is an annual report that surveys Austin-area residents to assess their attitudes on the community, economy, health, and transportation of the city. As a longtime citizen of Austin, Zandan has watched the community grow over the years and wanted to create an objective tool to measure how Austinites felt their community was evolving. Zandan provides this as his gift to the Austin community. With the help of KLRU, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, RDI, and Cambia Information Group, the poll has expanded into other areas such as “cultural identity” and affordability in order to increase understanding and dialogue on key community issues.

Zandan has also received Austin’s “Soul of the City” business award for his contributions to the community and is the co-chair of the Austin 360 Summit, a one-day issues conference for Austin’s high-tech executives. Additionally, he chairs the Austin City Limits committee as a member of the board of directors of KLRU-TV.

Awards/recognitions

For growing IntelliQuest into one of the fastest-growing market research firms in the 1990s, Peter Zandan received the Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1993 for High Technology and Electronics. The award represents an elite corp of men and women who have been recognized for their exceptional entrepreneurial achievements. Due to his extensive work in the Austin area, Peter Zandan was also awarded the “Best Visionary” Award by The Austin Chronicle, a weekly newspaper in Austin, Texas.