Dr. Martin Lautman is the former Chairman and CEO of GfK Custom Research North America (Nuremburg, Germany), the fourth largest information company in the world, with offices in over 60 countries. While at GfK, Dr. Lautman was responsible for the integration of one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the information industry, NOP Worldwide, into GfK North American Custom Research operations. Prior to joining GfK, Dr. Lautman was the Senior Managing Director of ARBOR in Media, Pennsylvania, where over a 25 year span he was the Engagement Director for 500+ branding, new products, marketing effectiveness assessment and strategy projects for numerous multi-national clients including AT&T, The Henkel Dial Corporation, Kraft, McDonald’s, Bristol-Myers, Campbell Soup, Nestlé, Marriott, General Motors, P&G Gillette, Dell, Brown-Forman, Avon and Merck.
Dr. Lautman also served as the President of Numex Corporation, a public company which marketed health care products through infomercials and helped found Stonemor (NASDAQ: STON), a public master limited partnership, where he currently serves on the board. Recently, Dr. Lautman has focused on venture capital and works as a Venture Partner in three early stage venture funds, Eastern Technologies Fund, First Round Capital and Mentor Tech (Wharton and Penn) where he helps evaluate new investments and provides marketing support for portfolio companies. He also serves on the boards of three large family-owned companies and as Chairman of the Board of FirstFlavor, a product sampling marketing company.
Dr. Lautman received his B.S. degree in Political Science from Brooklyn College and Ph.D. degree in 1975 in Mathematical Psychology (Behavioral Economics) from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a graduate of the Executive Education Program of The Harvard Business School and is a member of World President’s Organization (WPO), the successor organization to the Young President’s Organization (YPO) where he is chairman of the mentoring program for young entrepreneurs. Dr. Lautman has lectured on marketing strategy, marketing research, advertising and new products at the Cornell University Hotel School, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Columbia University Business School. He also is a consulting editor on several academic journals.
