Farnsworth Group names new Executive Director of HIRI
The Farnsworth Group announced this morning that Dave King has joined the firm and will work in two roles.
King will serve as vice president of insights at the Farnsworth Group while serving as executive director of the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI).
HIRI is a market research organization for more than 100 of the largest names within the home improvement industry. Since 2017, HIRI has been managed by The Farnsworth Group
“HIRI can be understood like a co-op. Member fees are pooled to fund the breadth and depth of market research studies that are commissioned on behalf of all the members,” Pam Heidel, operations director of HIRI, said in a press release issued by the Farnsworth Group. “If each individual member commissioned all this research on their own, we’ve calculated that they would be spending a million dollars annually on market research rather than a tiny fraction of that cost as a HIRI member.”
The Farnsworth Group said part of its 2023 investment into "energizing the efforts of HIRI" is incorporating King.
The executive has spent the past two decades in the strategy, research, and advanced analytics space. For nine years, King was focused directly on the home improvement space as vice president of strategy, research, and analytics for EnerBank USA (now Regions Bank), a home improvement lender.
“I am thrilled to serve as Executive Director of HIRI,” King said. “I’ve loved the mission and vision of HIRI from the very beginning and believe we can build upon the current foundation.”
Prior to joining EnerBank, King spent four years as chief statistician of the Cicero Group, a strategy and research consulting firm, while also teaching numerous graduate courses in data science and advanced business analytics.
King has also been a HIRI member and a volunteer on the HIRI board for the last several years.
“Information without a voice is largely unheard,” King said. “We’ve had this sense that what HIRI was providing has been somewhat akin to academic research; there’s a lot of data and information out there, but how much of that is used to act? Very little. And we, as HIRI, don’t want to be a data publisher; we want to influence the strategies organizations are taking because of the quality of insights, not just information, provided to members.”
Based in Indianapolis, Ind., the Farnsworth Group is a market intelligence and consulting firm serving manufacturers and suppliers in the building products, home improvement, and lawn and garden industries.
