SurveyMonkey Hires Former WaPo Polling Chief

Palo Alto, CA-based DIY research specialist SurveyMonkey has appointed former Washington Post (WaPo) polling chief Jon Cohen as Vice President of Survey Research. He will take up the new role on January 6th, 2014.

SurveyMonkey, which last week announced plans to open an office in London's Tech City, provides online subscription-based tools that enable individuals to create surveys, collect responses and analyze results. Last month, the firm launched an Enterprise version.

Cohen (pictured) will join after a brief spell at the Pew Research Center, serving as VP of Research. Before this, he led WaPo's separate Capital Insight polling arm, after a long spell as the newspaper's Polling Director and Polling Editor, leading its polling operation through two presidential campaigns and four congressional cycles. Earlier, Cohen was Assistant Polling Director at ABC News in New York, and Associate Survey Director at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco.

In his new role, Cohen will help guide the company's strategic direction and work with the SurveyMonkey team to build new products beyond the current core services. This will include expanding on previous polling efforts, such as the company's predictions of the 2012 US presidential and 2013 gubernatorial elections.

SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg comments: 'We're excited to have Jon on board, especially as research and data analytics continue to rapidly evolve. His success in the field will undoubtedly extend SurveyMonkey's industry expertise and expand the ways we help customers make better, data-driven decisions.'

Web site: www.surveymonkey.com .