President and Founder, Isabelle Albanese grew up thinking she could write better commercials than what she saw on television. But she discovered in college that she actually had a better head for business, so she headed to University of Chicago B-School and went on to spend 16 years in the agency business, mostly at the New York and Chicago offices of JWT, but also at Ted Bates and Clinton E. Frank, mastering the fine arts of account management and strategic planning on businesses like Kraft, Kodak, M&M/Mars, Pfizer and Unilever. Isabelle launched Consumer Truth® in 1999 and has written a highly-regarded book on effective communications, The 4Cs of Truth in Communication®. She is a speaker and lecturer and critiques TV ads in appearances on ABC–TV’s Chicago Morning News. Isabelle also serves on the DePaul University Marketing Advisory Council as well as co-chairs a committee for the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) to establish an award for excellence in qualitative research.
Co-President, Ken Quaas has never missed an episode of “Madmen”, his all-time favorite TV show. After graduating from Bucknell, Ken made a bee-line for Madison Avenue, forging an 18-year career at leading ad agencies like Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (now Saatchi), Lintas and Ted Bates, followed by a move to manage D’Arcy’s Chicago office. He was educated in the classics of marketing by working with some of the worlds’ most consumer-focused companies, including Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, M&M Mars, Miller Brewing Company, Diageo and Burger King. Ken is especially proud of the myriad of new product positioning and product re-staging work he has helped his clients accomplish during his years at Consumer Truth®.
Senior Project Manager, Valerie Mandarino gets it done. As a former long-time administrative head for a major Chicago law firm, Valerie has mastered the complexities of managing people and projects. For the past five years, Valerie has managed communications, project set-up, contracts, logistics and billing with consumer research facilities and has developed strong working relationships with facility managers and recruiters across the U.S and in Europe. Valerie’s on-site assistance during qualitative research is especially valuable to clients, for providing "on the spot" summaries of consumer feedback.
