Obituary: Dr Alex Gofman

Dr Alex Gofman, VP and CTO of US brand research and consulting firm Moskowitz Jacobs, has died at the age of 54, after a long battle with cancer.

Dr Gofman, who was born in the industrial region of the Ukraine, gained an MS degree in Computer Science from Donetsk National Technical University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1981. He later completed a full doctorate at Makeevka R&D Institute, before moving to the US in the early 1990s.

Describing himself as a 'hands-on' technology-oriented consumer marketing research executive, Dr Gofman joined Moskowitz Jacobs in 1992. During his nearly 20 years with the firm, and while serving as VP and CTO of subsidiary i-Novation, he developed new methodologies and applications, and become known for his work in the field of psychophysics and computer science. In 2008, he was named among The 20 Global 'Pioneers of Research' at the 61st Annual ESOMAR Congress in Montreal.

He also served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing at Pace University (Lubin School of Business, Graduate Center), where he taught MBA classes in marketing, marketing research and new product development.

Dr Gofman authored and co-authored more than 30 papers, contributed to several books, and presented papers at multiple international conferences around the world. In 2007, he and colleague Howard Moskowitz achieved recognition for their book 'Selling Blue Elephants', which describes how many of the world's best known products came about not through focus groups and polling, but through research and development labs. At the time of his passing, Dr Gofman was working on a new, edited volume bringing together authors and applications in the world of 'mind genomics'.

In his spare time, he enjoyed traveling and recently experienced diving with sharks and hiking in the virgin jungles of Borneo. He was an amateur jazz piano player, who claimed never to be able to play the same melody twice in the same way.

Former colleague Bert Krieger, who is EVP and Chief Research Officer at Moskowitz Jacobs, commented: 'Always an innovator, Alex will be missed. He was insightful and visionary, pushing the limits of technology to allow researchers a better understanding of consumer decision making.'

Dr Gofman is survived by his mother Revekka, wife Irene and children Allison and Matthew.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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