Dr Ian Cesa PhD
President and Director - Americas Operations
Ian specializes in strategic marketing research and consulting for clients in a variety of industries. Prior to founding Horizon, Ian was a senior officer for two prominent marketing research firms. Highly expert in a range of sophisticated research techniques, Ian has developed a strong 'practice' at Horizon in the areas of corporate and product positioning, segmentation, brand equity, new product development, customer satisfaction and marketing/advertising effectiveness. In addition to his work at Horizon, Ian is an instructor in research methods in the Department of Psychology and School of Business Administration at USC.
Ian has a B.Sc. (Hons) from Melbourne University Australia, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Southern California (USC), and has pursued a career in the application of science to challenges in the business world.
Ian enjoys growing heirloom tomatoes, fishing, camping and hiking. He owns a property on the upper Murray river, which is probably some of the best pasture land in Australia, and has visions of using it for organic farming.
Michael Feely MBA
Director - Asia Pacific Operations
Michael has spent time in each of Horizon's offices in Melbourne, Los Angeles and London. In the UK he headed up our growing European business, where he helped to establish a strong reputation for Horizon in the travel, retail and FMCG industries. More recently, Michael has returned to Australia to build and develop Horizon's business in the Asia Pacific region. Michael is an expert on consumers around the globe, having helped our clients solve their marketing problems. Michael has built and continues to manage an impressive client base of leading global companies.
Michael has a B.Sc. in Psychology from La Trobe University in Australia, and an MBA from Deakin University.
Michael enjoys soccer, rock climbing, snow boarding, and playing the guitar.
Dr Jan Muska PhD
Director - Statistics and Analysis Techniques
For analyzing data, Jan was not satisfied with the standard data analysis packages available, and has successfully written software to provide "robust statistics" using bootstrap techniques. Jan has also written tools to help in the analysis and tabulation of data, which he uses on the data we collect to provide business insights. Jan's software is used throughout the company, and he has been responsible for the ongoing analysis of our 'International Retail Traveler' reports, which has provided many insights into the purchasing behavior of the various nationalities, and the success of various brands in the duty free arena.
Jan obtained a BA at Long Beach State and an MA from the University of Southern California (USC). He also gained a Ph.D. in Psychology from USC, specializing in statistical analysis.
Jan plays hockey and ice hockey, and likes to read books on science fiction, philosophy, politics and finance.
Michael King BSc
Director - Technology and Innovation
Michael started his career in software engineering in control and communications systems, and after many successful projects, joined Horizon, initially to develop a mobile interviewing system. Michael evolved this system into a distributed web based interviewing system, which is currently being used by research universities to conduct large scale diagnostic interviews, and by management organizations for 360 degree feedback systems. He has also developed advanced software for data warehousing and online data analysis.
Michael has a B.Sc. (Hons) in Engineering Science from Warwick University, and a Diploma of Education from Melbourne University.
Michael enjoys playing squash, cycling, swimming, surfing, gardening and reads extensively.
Cathy Riley
Vice-President - UK & Europe
Cathy heads up the European region for Horizon from London. Cathy is an experienced international researcher with a particular focus on the service industry sector: the travel sector (travel retail, airlines, holidays, hotels and hospitality), the finance sector (cards, financial services, insurance and pensions). She also has extensive experience in the energy sector (oil and related energy fields).
She has an in-depth understanding of consumer and b2b research, from both client and agency research perspectives, having held senior management positions in client research management at American Express, Thomson Tour Operations and British Caledonian – as well as interim management work at Shell International Petroleum and British Airways. She began her career in the agency world and has held senior posts in three agencies, including Research International.
Cathy holds a joint honours degree in Politics and American Studies from Keele University in the UK.
In her leisure time, she enjoys swimming, yoga, country walks with family, eating out – and when she can, loves to ski in winter and to go snorkeling in summer.
Mo Zheng PhD
Statistics and Analysis Techniques
Mo has a BS in Psychology from Peking University in China. Mo has also obtained a MS in Statistics and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Southern California. Mo specializes in psychometrics, research methods, multivariate statistics and structural equation modeling. He is an expert in statistical programming, using programs including SAS, SPSS and S-plus. Mo provides statistical consulting and has been especially involved in our marketing research projects in Asia Pacific region.
Mo enjoys playing basketball and soccer, and is a diehard Trojan football fan.
Jon Ammerman
VP - Information and Software systems
Jon Ammerman has a decade of accompishments with system administration and networking projects focused on POSIX operating systems. He over a decade of commercial software and database development experience. His management background includes oversight on small and large scale projects for foreign and domestic corporate and government clients. Before joining Horizon he worked with various military intelligence organizations in the development of web delivered training and simulation software.
Jon is an expert waterman and one of the nations top competitive freedivers. You will find him in the water surfing or diving on the weekends.
Dr John W. Carter PhD
Project Director
John is based in the Los Angeles office, having recently returned to HCS after a stint in academia. He serves multiple roles within the company directing and conducting client projects, including research and questionnaire design, statistical analysis, generating statistical tables and charts, and client development. John has over 5 years of experience with HCS focusing in the areas of travel-retail, destination travel, produce, and lender industries. He has directed projects in concept testing, traveler profiling, theme-oriented surveying, market-share tracking, and methodology testing.
John has a BA in Religion from Pomona College and a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Southern California.
John enjoys being a father and husband, hiking, problem-solving, thinking about weird things, teaching, and intends to once again play music and ski.
