Vincent Barabba

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Barabba was awarded a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1962 from California State University, Northridge and, in 1964, an MBA in marketing from the University of California, Los Angeles.{{cite web|url=http://www.acasa.upenn.edu/barabba.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223074551/http://www.acasa.upenn.edu/barabba.htm|archivedate=2019-02-23|title=Vincent P. Barabba, GM General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Knowledge Development|website=acasa.upenn.edu}} He was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 2012 by California State University, Northridge.{{Cite web|title=Vincent P. Barabba {{!}} CSU|url=https://www.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/alumni/Honorary-Degrees/Pages/vincent-p-barabba.aspx|access-date=2021-09-10|website=www.calstate.edu|language=en-US}}

Beginning as political campaign survey researcher in the 1964 California Republican primary between Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater, Barabba moved on to become a business market researcher (eventually Director of Market Intelligence) for Xerox Corp. and Eastman Kodak. He co-founded and was chairman of Market Insight Corporation,{{Cite web|url=https://www.triarchypress.net/vincent-barabba.html|title=About Vincent Barabba|website=Triarchy Press}} Until 2003 he was General Manager of Corporate Strategy and Knowledge Development at General Motors, where he conceived and devised OnStar and MyProductAdvisor.

He is a Past President of the American Statistical Association, and served twice as head of the US Census Bureau (the only to be appointed by a President of a different political party){{Cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/history/www/census_then_now/director_biographies/directors_1965_-_1976.html#barabba|title=Directors 1965–1976 – History |first=Census History Staff|last=US Census Bureau|website=www.census.gov}} and currently serves as a Commissioner of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.{{Cite web|url=https://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/commission/|title=Background on Commission | California Citizens Redistricting Commission}} He is chairman of The State of The USA, a nonprofit corporation providing quality information to the American public on societal, economic, and environmental conditions.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stateoftheusa.org/about/staff-and-leadership/#Barabba|title=The State of the USA | About | Staff and Leadership|website=www.stateoftheusa.org}}

In recognition of his private and public sector performance, Barabba was awarded:

• Fellow of the American Statistical Association, 1976{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2684138|title=Historical Sketch of the ASA Section on Statistical Graphics|first=Perry D.|last=Haaland|date=February 24, 1990|journal=The American Statistician|volume=44|issue=2|pages=96–98|doi=10.2307/2684138|jstor=2684138 }}
• Lifetime Member of the American Statistical Association, 2013{{Cite web|url=https://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2013/02/01/lifetimemembers/|title=Recognizing the ASA's Lifetime Members | Amstat News|date=February 1, 2013}}
• Induction into the Market Research Council's Hall of Fame {{Cite web|url=https://mrcouncil.org/hall-of-fame/|title=MRC Hall of Fame – Market Research Council}}
• The American Marketing Association’s Parlin Award for leadership (1996) in the application of science to marketing research {{Cite web|url=https://www.ama.org/charles-coolidge-parlin-marketing-research-award/|title=Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award}}
• The MIT/General Motors Buck Weaver Award for individuals who have contributed significantly to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science
• The System Dynamics Society’s Applications Award for the best “real world” application of system dynamics {{Cite web|url=https://systemdynamics.org/system-dynamics-applications-award/|title=System Dynamics Applications Award|date=January 15, 2021|website=System Dynamics Society}}
• The American Marketing Association’s Explor Award granted to organizations that have demonstrated the most innovative uses of technology in applications that advance research{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}
• The Certificate of Distinguished Service for Contribution to the Federal Statistical System from the US Office of Management and Budget{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Barabba has authored or co-authored numerous books and articles, including:

• 1968 “Political Campaign Management: Myth and Reality” The Ethics of Controversy: Politics and Protest. Proceedings of the First Annual Symposium on Issues in Public Communication, held at the University of Kansas June 27–28
• 1983 (With Mason, R.O. and Mitroff, I.I.) “Federal Statistics in a Complex Environment: The Case of the 1980 Federal Census,” The American Statistician, Volume 37, No. 3, Washington, DC: The American Statistical Association
• 1985 “Steel Axes for Stone Age Men” in: Buzzell, R., Marketing in an Electronic Age, 75th Anniversary Harvard Business School Research Colloquium, Boston: Harvard Business School Press
• 1991 (With Zaltman, G.) Hearing the Voice of the Market: Competitive Advantage through Creative Use of Market Information, Boston: Harvard Business School Press
• 1994 “Never Say the Model Says. The Role of Models in Managerial Decision Making” in Wallace, W. Ethics in Modeling, New York: Pergamon Press
• 1998 “Revisiting Plato’s Cave: Business Design in an Age of Uncertainty,” in Tapscott, D. et al., eds., Blue Print for the Digital Economy, New York: McGraw-Hill
• 2002 (With Huber, C., Cooke, F., Pudar, N., Smith, J., and Paich, M.) “A Multi-Method Approach for Creating New Business Models: The General Motors OnStar Project”, Interfaces, 32 (1), pp. 20–34
• 2002 (With Pourdehnad J. and Ackoff, R.) “Above and Beyond Knowledge Management” in Chun, W. C. and Bontis, N. (eds) The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organization Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 359–369
• 2004, Surviving Transformation, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 170–171
• 2011, [http://www.triarchypress.net/the-decision-loom.html The Decision Loom: a design for interactive decision-making in organizations]

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Category:1934 births

Category:California State University, Northridge alumni

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Market researchers

Category:People from Chicago

Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association

Category:Mathematicians from Illinois

Category:Nixon administration personnel

Category:Ford administration personnel

Category:Carter administration personnel