John Zogby

John Zogby, former president and CEO of Zogby International, remains by all accounts the hottest pollster in the United States today. "All hail Zogby, the maverick predictor who beat us all," proclaimed the Washington Post in November 1996 after Zogby alone called that presidential election with pinpoint accuracy. In the recent razor-thin 2000 elections, daily national tracking polls conducted by Zogby International in the last few weeks foretold a tightening of the race for president while nearly all other polling firms projected an easy victory for Gov. George W. Bush. Zogby International instead was the first to observe the gap closing significantly between Bush and Vice-President Al Gore in the waning hours of the election. In his post election 2000 review, the acclaimed Godfrey Sperling, columnist for the Christian Science Monitor called John Zogby "Champion Pollster." "In 1996, John Zogby came within one-tenth of 1 percent of the presidential result - the best performance turned in by any of the pollsters. This year Mr. Zogby was the first pollster I heard being cited on TV as finding that Gore was pulling out slightly, by 2 percent, ahead of Mr. Bush. But when I talked to Zogby a few days ago, he was elated with how close he had come this year to predicting the final outcome - and rightly so." Zogby continued to rank in the top tier in 2004 both in the nationwide polls for Reuters and in the 20 states that he polled. Since 1996, Zogby has polled for Reuters News Agency, the largest news agency in the world, and in 2000 polled for NBC News, the network news watched by most Americans. His clients also include MSNBC, the New York Post, Fox News, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Gannett News Service, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Albany Times Union, the Buffalo News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cincinnati Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Syracuse Herald, and nearly every daily newspaper in New York State, as well as television stations throughout the U.S. He has been praised as "the most accurate pollster" (Seattle Post Intelligencer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, USA Today), "respected" and "pioneering" (Albany Times Union), "the pace setter in the polling business" (New York Post), and "the big winner in 1996" (Campaigns and Elections, L. Brent Bozell, and the O'Leary/Kamber Report). Zogby regularly appears on all three nightly network news programs plus NBC's "Today Show," ABC's "Good Morning America" and is a frequent guest for Fox News and MSNBC special programs, along with CNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews." He also is a regular political commentator for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation. He has been spoofed on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the Late Show with David Letterman. He has been profiled in the New Yorker, Fortune Magazine, Inc., and Investors' Business Daily. The highpoint of his life was his October 28, 2004 appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His analytical expertise has been published on the opinion pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday and the Boston Globe. Following his correct call in the 1997 New Jersey gubernatorial election, the Houston Chronicle exclaimed, "and the winner again is John Zogby." Mary Matalin, host of her own national radio show, calls Zogby the "prince of pollsters," and Barry Farber has declared him "America's Pollmaster General." He has also distinguished himself in Canada where he alone called the popular vote victory of the Liberals over the Parti Quebecois in the Quebec election of 1998. He was the first pollster to see a victory for Vicente Fox in the 2000 Mexican election, and triumphed in the 2001 Israeli election being the only pollster to call the 26-point margin victory of defense minister, Ariel Sharon. Zogby further distinguished himself by polling the Iran Presidential election closer than even the Iran News Agency. Zogby holds degrees in history from Le Moyne College and Syracuse University. He has taught history and political science at the State University of New York, Utica College, and at Hamilton College's Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. In addition he is a member of the Board of Trustees of Le Moyne College. He received the distinguished Alumni Award in June 2000. A frequent lecturer and panelist, he is listed with Leading Authorities and the Capitol Speakers Bureau in Washington, DC and the National Speakers' Bureau, in Chicago. He continues to lecture all over the world. He also serves on the Advisory Council for Bio-Technology for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He has polled, researched and consulted for a wide spectrum of business media, government, and political groups including Coca Cola, Microsoft, CISCO Systems, Philip Morris, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, MCI, Reuters America, and the United States Census Bureau since 1984. Zogby continues to poll extensively throughout the world - at last count in 62 countries. Zogby has polled and conducted focus groups throughout the United States. He has polled in Canada, Brazil, Latin America, Eastern Europe, South Korea, along with the Middle East. He is married to Kathleen Zogby, a special education teacher, and has three sons, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Jeremy.