John Zogby

For his brother and president of the Arab American Institute, see James Zogby.

John Zogby
Born	1948 (age 63–64) Utica, New York
Occupation	Chairman of the Board and Chief Insights Officer IBOPE Zogby International
Website
http://www.zogby.com/

John Zogby (born 1948) is an American political pollster and first senior fellow at The Catholic University of America's Life Cycle Institute. He is the founder, president and CEO of Zogby International, a polling firm known for both phone polling and interactive, Internet-based polling.

Biography

Early years

Zogby grew up in Utica, New York, the son of Lebanese Catholic immigrants. His brother, James Zogby, is the founder of the Arab American Institute, and is also employed by Zogby International.

Zogby received a Bachelor's degree in history from Le Moyne College in 1970 and a Master's degree in history from Syracuse University in 1973. He taught history and political science for 24 years. A trustee of Le Moyne College, Zogby received the Alumni Award in June, 2000. In 2005, he was awarded Honorary Doctorate Degrees from State University of New York and the Graduate School of Union University. In 2009, Zogby received an honorary degree from the College of St. Rose.

Career

An interpreter of the political scene, Zogby had a brief stint as an aspiring politician himself in 1981, when he ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Utica, New York. He describes himself as a Democrat, while his polling firm is "independent and nonpartisan."

Zogby International

Main article: Zogby International

Zogby founded the polling firm Zogby International in 1984. Since then, he has conducted polls and focus groups around the world, though he has gained the most publicity for his polls of United States Presidential elections.

He first gained attention in the 1992 presidential election when he released a survey showing the New York State Governor Mario Cuomo would lose in his home state to incumbent President George H. W. Bush. That poll is widely thought to have pushed Cuomo from the race. Later, he gained more national attention in the 1996 Presidential election when his final poll came within a tenth of a point of the actual result. Zogby also correctly polled the cliffhanger result of the 2000 presidential election won narrowly by George W. Bush, in contrast to most other pollsters who had expected Bush to win easily.

He has been known as an industry innovator, making it standard practice to weight his political polls using party identification, which was not a common practice when he began to do so. Today, it is widely accepted as a best practice for the industry. Zogby himself credits this as one key reason his political polling has been so accurate over the years.

Another key reason for the Zogby success stems from his decision to maintain an in-house call center using live operators in Upstate New York. But, with the dramatic changes in the telephone industry in recent years, Zogby in 1998 began developing an interactive online polling methodology using a massive database of respondents that closely represents the national population at large.

Zogby International has also had success with elections in countries outside the United States. He correctly called the 2001 Israeli election for Ariel Sharon, the 2000 Mexican election for Vicente Fox and again in Mexico with the victory of Felipe Calderón in 2006. Also, Zogby has made a sideline of polling Arab attitudes toward the United States, particularly in regard to Lebanon.

Zogby has penned a comprehensive review of the process of polling the volatile 2008 Democratic Party nomination race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

On January 18, 2010, on the Hannity Show, when asked by the host to make a prediction in the next day’s special election in Massachusetts, Zogby said that he thought Martha Coakley would win “not much, just barely, one or less points” over Scott Brown. He clarified within one hour of this show airing that his statement was "a hunch" and was not based on a specific poll since his company was not polling the election in Massachusetts.

Sale of Zogby International

A majority interest in Zogby International was sold to IBOPE Inteligência, a subsidiary of the IBOPE Group, a Brazilian multinational company specializing in media, market and opinion research. It was announced in March 2011 that the company would be known as IBOPE Zogby International and would be managed by Chief Executive Officer, Kjell de Orr, and a five-member Board Directors, including John Zogby, Márcia Cavallari, CEO of IBOPE Inteligência, Kjell de Orr, Marcelo Kac, Latin American Business and Operations Executive Director for IBOPE Inteligência, and His Highness Prince Turki bin Khalid al Saud.

Other activities

Zogby also hosted a weekly show called "Zogby's Real America," which debuted on XM Satellite Radio's POTUS 08 Channel 130 in September 2007. Daily radio vignettes were heard on POTUS 08, where Zogby's Real America co-host Fritz Wenzel also provided commentary and analysis on fresh Zogby polling data though the Presidential election in November 2008.

He also writes a weekly column for Forbes.com and is in the U.S. News and World Report's Washington Whispers with a weekly "Obamameter" report.

He writes a regular, standing political analysis column for Campaigns and Elections' Politics Magazine. Since May 2005, he has also been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Zogby previously hosted a weekly show called "Zogby's Real America," which debuted on XM Satellite Radio's POTUS 08 Channel 130 in September 2007. Daily radio vignettes were heard on POTUS 08, where Zogby's Real America co-host Fritz Wenzel also provided commentary and analysis on fresh Zogby polling data though the Presidential election in November 2008.

Zogby is also a Senior Advisor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and serves as the first Senior Fellow of The Catholic University of America's Life Cycle Institute in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the board of directors of the prestigious Advertising Research Foundation, based in New York City.

He also serves on the Advisory Council for Bio-Technology for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and is a Commissioner on the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Smart Power.

In 2006, he was honoured as a "Living Legend of Oneida County" (NY) for his community service work and his founding of a groundbreaking worldwide company.

He is the author of The Way We'll Be, published by Random House in August 2008; it is an optimistic portrait of the new American consumer based on his polls.

John is weighing in on President Barack Obama's job performance and popularity on the new "Obamameter" featured on the revamped Washington Whispers home page from U.S. News and World Report. He also writes a weekly column for Forbes.com

Personal life

Zogby has three sons with his wife, Kathleen, a retired special education teacher. His interests include golf, basketball, and soccer coaching.

Bibliography

• Zogby, John (1990). Arab America Today: A Demographic Profile of Arab Americans (First edition ed.). Washington, D.C.: Arab American Institute. OCLC 24357334. 
• Zogby, John (2003). Public opinion and private accounts: measuring risk and confidence in rethinking social security (First edition ed.). Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. OCLC 52641051. 
• Zogby, John (2006). Iran versus America? (First edition ed.). Utica, NY: Zogby International. OCLC 71340360. 
• Zogby, John (2008). The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (First edition ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 9781400064502. 

External links

• Zogby International
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• John Zogby on Charlie Rose
• John Zogby at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about John Zogby in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• John Zogby at the Notable Names Database