Susan Schwartz McDonald, Ph.D.
President & CEO

As President and CEO of National Analysts and leader of the firm's healthcare and consumer practices, Susan consults with clients on strategic marketing issues including demand forecasting and optimization, pricing, positioning, portfolio strategy, and brand equity assessment.

Susan is a specialist in the application of healthcare market forecasting techniques, having supported the launch of many pharmaceutical products and medical technologies in a wide range of therapeutic areas. Other categories in which she has extensive experience include OTC pharmaceuticals, food and beverage products, and mass media. In those settings, she has contributed to the development of advanced research techniques that support market segmentation and brand extension strategy.

Susan also directs National Analysts' litigation support practice, a context in which she is frequently called upon to conduct surveys and testify as a marketing and market research expert in cases pertaining to trademark confusion and dilution, unfair advertising, and other issues under the Lanham Act.

Most of Susan's 30-year marketing career was spent at Booz•Allen & Hamilton, a worldwide management and technology consulting firm of which she was a Vice President for over five years. Prior to that she was a journalist, contributing regularly to a number of major magazines and newspapers including National Review and Harper's. Susan is also coauthor (with Alfred Goldman) of a standard text on qualitative research methods, The Group Depth Interview: Principles and Practice. Susan lectures and writes frequently on marketing issues and market research techniques and has contributed to medical journals and marketing texts.

Susan holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School, where she was trained in communications theory and social psychology. Her B.A. was awarded magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Smith College in 1969.