Magid M. Abraham (born April 13, 1958) is an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and expert on

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...

, consumer modeling, and information systems. He has held several executive positions, two of which were within companies he founded. Abraham authored articles in academic and industry journals, including the ''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...

'', ''

Journal of Marketing Research ''Journal of Marketing Research'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Marketing Association. It was established in 1964 and covers all aspects of marketing research. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', ...

'', and '' Marketing Science''. He is a speaker at marketing industry conferences.

Early life

Abraham was born in Machghara, a small town in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, where he was raised on his father’s fruit farm. As a child, his interests in school included math, science, and physics. He attended high school in

, followed by Paris’ engineering university,

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

. He went to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to attend the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (branded as MIT Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree progra ...

, where he graduated with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

in 1981 and later a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

Career

Abraham joined Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) in 1985. He served as IRI president and chief operating officer from 1993 to 1994, and vice chairman of the board of directors from 1994 until 1995. At IRI, Abraham designed marketing applications that eventually became standards of CPG marketing practice, as referenced in his articles 'Promoter: An Automated Promotion Evaluation System', 1987, Marketing Science and 'An Implemented System for Improving Promotion Productivity Using Store Scanner Data', 1993, Marketing Science. Abraham was founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Paragren Technologies in 1995, which became part of

Siebel Systems Siebel Systems, Inc. () was an American software company principally engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management (CRM) applications—notably Siebel CRM. The company was founded by Thomas Sieb ...

. In 1999, Abraham co-founded

comScore Comscore, Inc. is an American-based global media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, advertising agencies, brand marketers, and publishers. History Comscore was founded in July 1999 in Resto ...

, an Internet market intelligence company where he served as CEO for 14 years and took public in 2007. comScore was selected as a “Technology Pioneer” by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

before the forum’s annual conference in Davos in 2007. In 2016, Abraham stepped down as executive chairman and resigned from comScore's board of directors and became the executive chairman of APX Labs (later renamed Upskill). Linda Abraham became vice chair. During the same year, Abraham became a visiting scholar at Stanford and taught for three years at the Graduate School of Business. In January 2008, Abraham joined the board of directors of Milo.com, a company founded by his son Jack Abraham which was acquired by eBay in 2010 for $75M. Abraham co-founded NeuraWell, a mental health therapeutics company, where he currently serves as CEO.

Awards and recognition

In 1996, Abraham was awarded the Paul Green Award by the AMA for an article that he co-authored in the Journal of Marketing Research in 1995 described as showing “the most potential to contribute to the practice of marketing research and research in marketing." That award was validated 5 years after the initial publication, with the AMA William F. O'Dell Award in 2000 recognizing research which made a significant, long-term contribution to the marketing discipline. *''2016 :'' Advertising Research Foundation's Great Mind Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award''.'' *''2011'' : MIT Sloan's Buck Weaver Award, for theory and practice in marketing science *''2009'' :

American Marketing Association The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States. The AMA was formed in from t ...

, Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award *''2008'' :

Ernst and Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms. The EY network is composed of member firms ...

, Entrepreneur Hall of Fame *''2008'' : World Economic Forum, “Technology Pioneer” *''2000'' : American Marketing Association, William F. O’Dell Award *''1992'' : "Top 40 Under 40" awarded by Crain’s Chicago Business, given to 40 business professionals in Chicago annually.

Personal life

In April of 2022, Abraham and his wife purchased a 5,968 square feet condo at Jeffery Soffer's Turnberry Ocean Club in Iseles beach for a reported $14.3 million.

References

External links

Forbes interview with Dr. Abraham
CEO Spotlight
Magid Abraham - Video clip of Davos Debates in China
2009. 11 September 2009.
Photograph: Dr. Abraham at the World Economic Forum on Latin America
2009. Rio de Janeiro. Flickr.com 14 April 2009.
Photograph: Dr. Abraham at the DLD Conference 2010.
Munich. Life.com. 25 January 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Magid 1958 births 21st-century American businesspeople MIT Sloan School of Management alumni Living people American people of Lebanese descent