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Andy Garvin, President of Garvin Associates, Inc., is an accomplished executive and former CEO with more than 35 years of broad private and public company experience in all areas of management.
He is currently providing management consulting and advisory services to a variety of large and small businesses, as well as individual coaching and mentoring. In addition, he is a partner in several entrepreneurial ventures.
Mr. Garvin is the founder of FIND/SVP, Inc, a leading business intelligence, market research and advisory firm.
It later merged with Guideline, Inc, was acquired in 2007 by Infogroup, and then merged with Opinion Research Corporation. Mr. Garvin retired as Chief Executive Officer of the company in 2004, but remained active in a consulting capacity until 2010.
Started by Mr. Garvin with just $12,000 in capital, FIND/SVP grew organically and by acquisition to be a $50 million publicly-held firm. It served the research needs of more than 1,000 retainer client organizations. The company is known for pioneering in the U.S. the concept of quick question-answering through telephone consultations with expert professionals and, later, via the Web. Operating now as ORC International, the firm remains a leading market research company.
A major shareholder of FIND/SVP until its acquisition, Mr. Garvin also served as its CEO until his retirement. He guided the Company’s growth and public offering, as well as its first acquisitions. He created and then successfully sold a $5 million publishing division. His main operating responsibilities were in marketing and sales, but his experience extends to all areas of corporate management.
Mr. Garvin is the author of The Art of Being Well Informed (Avery Publishing 1996), a book written to help business executives improve their understanding and use of information resources. He is an expert in the use of integrated methods to conduct research.
Prior to founding FIND/SVP, Mr. Garvin ran his own small public relations and marketing firm and was also briefly a correspondent for Newsweek.
Mr. Garvin has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Information Industry Association, and remains an active member of the American Management Association, and the American Marketing Association. From 1987 to 1996 he was a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and is now a member of the World Presidents’ Organization (WPO). He has been the moderator of his WPO “Forum” group for several years.
Mr. Garvin has served on the board of a publicly held legal services company and on the Advisory Board of Strategic Research Institute, Inc., a privately-held company in the conference and symposium business.
In addition to his advisory roles for Guideline, Inc., Mr. Garvin has been participating in and/or consulting for various ventures, including a firm that provides facial skincare products sold via the Internet, a fee-based medical service, and a financial management firm. He was also a partner in PreRetirementLife.com, and 50plusdeals.com, both Internet start-ups. He manages a number of investment portfolios and enjoys coaching and mentoring younger executives and individuals seeking to achieve their career goals or life ambitions.
While his main strength is his broad range of experience as both an entrepreneur and company chief executive, Mr. Garvin’s has specific skills and experience in the following areas:
- Marketing, especially business-to-business
- Sales, including sales force management, telemarketing and telesales
- Advertising, promotion, public relations, web-based marketing
- Market Research (both consumer and business)
- Strategic Planning
- Management of Growth in Entrepreneurial businesses, including establishment of systems, procedures and controls
- Business Services, generally
- Business Publishing
- Financial Management
- Organizational structure
- Human Resources
- Websites and Internet Marketing
Mr. Garvin holds a B.A. in political science from Yale University and an MS. in journalism from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He is a native of New York City, where he lives with his wife and two children.
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