Leo Paas

Professor, Marketing, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
After studying Social Science Research Methodology (MSc) and Social Science Informatics (MSc) at University of Amsterdam, I worked at a large Dutch bank, Postbank (ING group). The role at Postbank addressed database marketing, data mining, marketing research activities and supporting direct marketing and reporting was done directly to the CEO next to second and third tier management. In 1999 I started working as a consultant for Da Vinci Group in Amsterdam, applying the knowledge gained at Postbank for various other firms.

In 2001 I joined Tilburg University, first as a research assistant and in 2002 as Assistant Professor at the Marketing Department. I joined the marketing department of VU University Amsterdam in 2005 taking on the role of Associate Professor in 2006. In 2014 I started as Professor in Marketing at the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing (Massey University – Auckland). In February 2019 I joined The University of Auckland as a Professor in Marketing. In 2020 I took on the role of Department Head and also became Program Director for the newly launched Master of Business Analytics.

Central to my current academic research is (big data) analytics, with a focus on segmentation and respondent attention in online panels. Other research areas I work on are: Consumer reactions to human advertising models and entrepreneurship in developing economies. Papers have been published in top-ranked marketing and statistics journals, i.e.: International Journal of Research in Marketing (A- on the ABDC list), Journal of Economic Psychology (A), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (A-Series), Marketing Letters (A) and various other ABDC journals.

I have taught various courses at BSc, MSc and postgraduate level on marketing communications, marketing research, services marketing, cross cultural marketing and customer insights. I have contributed to various academic committees, been a programme leader for a Master of Business Analytics and have been involved in NUFFIC projects for capability development at African universities.