James S. McLeod-Warrick, Managing Partner
Phone: 978.897.4414 x11
Email: jim@beacontech.com

James S. McLeod-Warrick, is a founding partner of Beacon Technology Partners LLC., a highly acclaimed market research firm serving the electronics and computer industries. Prior to his experience at Beacon, Jim was a principal at McLeod-Warrick Research. From 1992 to 1995, he served as the Director of Research at Cahners Publishing Company. Prior to that, he served as the Research Director at the Christian Science Monitor. He previously worked as a consultant to a wide variety of media companies including Knight-Ridder and Scripps-Howard.

Through his work at Cahners, The Christian Science Monitor, and McLeod-Warrick Research, he has developed considerable expertise in application of various quantitative and qualitative market research techniques to help leading electronics companies better understand the needs of their customers and prospects. An experienced focus group moderator, Mr. McLeod-Warrick has conducted over 1,000 focus group sessions during his career.

While at Cahners Publishing, Mr. McLeod-Warrick developed "The Mind of the Engineer," the industry's first and only psychographic analysis of the design engineering community in the electronics industry. He has also developed a proprietary Web site survey-and-comparison methodology called Netrics which allows companies to compare the attractiveness and utility of their Web site to those of their competitors.

In collaboration with fellow BTP founder Steve Leibson, Mr. McLeod-Warrick has introduced several new analytical techniques to studying customer/supplier interactions and brand choice modeling in the EOEM. Such techniques include large scale conjoint or "trade off" analysis as well as more traditional multivariate segmentation methods and qualitative research approaches. Mr. McLeod-Warrick is responsible for designing the survey methods used for various EOEM brand studies, including the Customer Needs Initiative and AAA+ studies, performed in partnership with CMP's OEM Group.

Jim holds a BS from the University of Michigan and is a frequent lecturer at the Boston University School of Communications as well as making numerous appearances at industry events.

Manisha Sharma, Research Manager
Phone: 978.897.4414 x12
Email: manisha@beacontech.com

Manisha brings eight years of marketing research experience to the company. Her core research skills - problem definition, study design recommendation, project execution, analysis and interpretation of data - were honed over numerous consumer and business-to-business studies. Her work across a range of product categories, in India and the United States, provides her with a unique marketing research perspective.

Prior to Beacon Technology Partners, Manisha worked in a research director capacity at Blackstone Market Facts Mumbai, India, carrying out project management as well as business development functions. She was responsible for the sales and management of a proprietary product testing methodology and contributed significantly to the adoption of that particular technique by key clients. Manisha also worked with Taylor Nelson Sofres Mode Mumbai, India, where she handled the National Readership Surveys 1997 and 1999 - a nation wide sample survey that helps determine advertising rates for the print medium. Additionally she worked with multinational companies on several market definition, segmentation, concept and product testing studies during her five year stint with Taylor Nelson Sofres.

Manisha holds a bachelor’s degree in life sciences and specialized in marketing while earning a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Calcutta. 

Tricia A. Sofia, Research Manager
Phone: 978.897.4414 x15
Email: tricia@beacontech.com

Tricia has more than 12 years of professional experience in all phases of market research. She spent two years managing her own market research company, developing and conducting quantitative, as well as qualitative studies in the healthcare industry. Clients included several hospital systems and long-term care facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

She spent several years managing quantitative research projects for Smith, Bucklin & Associates, the world’s largest association management company based in Chicago. During her time there, she sharpened her research and project management skills by developing and managing many different types of research studies including: annual compensation tracking studies for two major medical associations, along with a cost-of-doing-business study and consumer consumption benchmarking study for the car washing industry. In addition, she conducted multiple tracking studies for the following industries: health and beauty aids, steel distribution and coil coating.

Prior to joining Beacon, Tricia worked as a free-lance market research consultant for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois conducting its quarterly satisfaction study and for several major consumer-packaged goods companies including Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble handling multiple branding and print-advertisement testing studies. She also worked for the US Department of Labor compiling and tracking pricing data for the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the United States’ main economic indicator.

Rounding out her professional experience, Tricia spent a few years managing direct marketing campaigns for Cendant Corporation, a major US direct marketing company. While at Cendant, she added to her skill set both the knowledge of and application in promotional print design, data base modeling, and business development.

Tricia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with concentrations in market research, marketing and biology.

Linda Wu, Research Manager
Phone: 978.897.4414 x13
Email: linda@beacontech.com

Linda is experienced in all stages of the B2B market research process. Prior to joining BTP, Linda worked at Marketing and Planning Systems, a market research/consulting firm in the Boston area. Before that, Linda worked at MarketVision Research, a company based in Cincinnati, OH and was an internal market researcher at S.C. Johnson in Bentonville, AR. She has completed pricing and competitive positioning studies for clients including Pfizer, The Home Depot, Ernst & Young, Disney, Frito Lay, and Wal-Mart.

Linda holds Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Psychology from Cornell University.