INNOVATIONISTS INTERNATIONAL

INNOVATIONISTS INTERNATIONAL helps companies move innovations from concept to commercial sale in the United States and internationally.  We offer comprehensive, unmatched expertise in product innovation, market analysis, consumer research, sales and marketing strategies, export promotion funding, and international trade operations.

The partners of Innovationists International hold more than 100 years of combined experience in product innovation, consumer research, market analysis, and sales and marketing strategy.  Our careers have spanned a range of industries, including Food & Beverage products and Consumer Packaged Goods.  We have helped companies such as Procter & Gamble, Perfetti Van Melle, Hasbro, and Cadbury Schweppes achieve exceptional growth both in the U.S. and internationally.

Our Partners

Dave Siegel is the former President of LaunchForce, a premier Insight and Innovation consultancy serving consumer package goods, services and B2B companies such as Kellogg’s, Purina, Sara-Lee, Nestle, ConAgra, General Mills, Kao Brands, Anheuser Busch, Kraft, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, PNC Bank, Fidelity and others.

Mr. Siegel has spent the past 30 years immersed in new product development and in Youth & Family marketing.  He has advised top corporations in the fields of Food & Beverage, Household Cleaning Products, Health and Beauty Aids, Toys, Entertainment, Clothing, Retailing, Technology, Business to Business and others.  He is an AMA Gold Effie Winner for his work in marketing the #1 leisure product of the 1990s, the SuperSoaker.

Mr. Siegel has also spoken at or chaired dozens of conferences on new products and services, and on Youth & Family marketing.  These include such organizations as the United States Olympic Committee, Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (Executive Summit and Sales and Marketing Leadership Conference), Color Marketing Group, SHOPA, Specialty Retail and Merchandising Conference, American Marketing Association, National Camping Association and several National Credit Union Associations.  He also has keynoted conferences in the US, Canada, London, Paris, Singapore, Australia, Netherlands, and just recently, Brazil.  Currently, Mr. Siegel is touring chapters of the American Marketing Association with presentations on his most recent book, Innovation—Myths & Mythstakes, a Top-20 read recommendation by Business Week magazine.

Mr. Siegel is sought as an expert by the national and international media, and is co-author of the Great Tween Buying Machine (Deerborn Publishing), Marketing to the New SuperConsumer—Mom & Kid (Paramount Publishing), Market Smart Design (HarperCollins), and Innovation—Myths & Mythstakes (Paramount).

Barbara Rugen, Ph.D., is widely acknowledged for her consulting on insight and innovation across industries.  Understanding that innovation success involves meeting the target user’s needs and expectations, Dr. Rugen leads customer research from initial discovery and business plan through product launch.  By ensuring that concepts fit with overall business strategy and customer key purchase criteria from start to finish,  Dr. Rugen helps client companies achieve more effective marketing, a knowledgeable and prepared sales force, and faster customer acceptance at a reduced cost.

Dr. Rugen has conducted more than 1,000 studies and programs for companies that include many of the world’s most recognized global brands, including BASF, Brown-Forman, Chiquita Brands International, ConAgra Foods, Gateway Computers, GE Lighting, General Motors Corporation, Giant Stores, HJ Heinz Company, HSBC National bank USA, Kellogg's, LG Electronics, Macy’s, McDonald's, Nestles, Newell Rubbermaid, The Procter & Gamble Company, Quaker Foods and Beverages, Samsung, Sears and Xerox Corporation.

Dr. Rugen is an Approved Moderator for Procter & Gamble, a Burke network moderator, Preferred Moderator for Xerox Corporation, and Preferred Moderator for WonderGroup.  She has lectured in market research for Burke Market Research, the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, Xavier University, University of Cincinnati, and the Asia Business forum (in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore), and has also published articles on consumer research in Quirk’s Marketing Research Review and QRCA Connections.

Sandy Ping has delivered breakthrough solutions to business and technical problems for the past 25 years.  A certified Knowledge Engineer and trainer of Systematic Innovation Systems, he ranks among the top inventors within the Procter & Gamble Company, developing such breakthrough products and market-changing innovations as Swiffer WetJet® and Cascade Action Pacs®.

Mr. Ping currently holds 11 US patents and 46 international patent publications.  He has been training and facilitating project teams in applying state-of-the-art innovative systems for the past two decades to deliver an enviable track-record of market-changing business innovations.  Mr. Ping founded Targeted Innovation Services with a vision of applying his coaching and innovation process to client companies and organizations in such areas as Knowledge Management & Decision Sciences; Product Design & Engineering; Innovation, Creativity & Problem Solving; Statistical Quality Control (SQC); Quality Functional Deployment (QFD); P&G Technical Engineering; and economic modeling.

Mr. Ping’s clients include Herman Miller, Tempur-Pedic, Kraft Foods, Lexis Nexis, Medsite, Hill-Rom, Procter & Gamble, Convergys Systems, Coors, Perusahaan Otomobil Nassion Berhad, Petronas Dagangan Berhad, Petronas Gas Berhad, Redtone Technology Sdn. Bhd., TechSolve and Senco Fasteners.

Pete Healy has helped companies build international brands that captivate consumers and drive profitable growth by leveraging the new global wave of social media and mobile technologies, generational and cross-cultural changes, and shifting consumer behaviors.

Long fascinated by the confluence of commercial innovation and socio-cultural change, Mr. Healy has led groundbreaking initiatives in several industries around the world. In 2008, he led development of new social media services at WonderGroup, a nationally recognized advertising agency in Cincinnati, and played a central role in developing new principles of consumer motivation and behavior in the 21st-century social media landscape. Prior to that, he served as VP of Marketing at Perfetti Van Melle USA, Jelly Belly Candy Company, and Trade Pacific International, building innovative international marketing programs for those and other companies.

Mr. Healy has taught classes on marketing and international business at the University of California Berkeley, as well as seminars on international trade operations for UNZ & Company and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Elected as the 2009-10 president-elect for the Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association, Mr. Healy also speaks regularly at marketing and trade conferences. He has resided in Sapporo, Japan and San Francisco, and is a graduate of San Francisco State University.