As co-founder and company Vice-President, Vandana Razdan saw joining Sara Parikh in starting Willow Research as her chance to further a lifelong curiosity about human behavior. Having accumulated more than twenty years of experience in social and behavioral science research, Van’s curiosity is rooted in her BA from the University of Chicago in Psychology, which included time as a research assistant in the university’s Department of Psychology and a stint as a mental health counselor in Northwestern Medicine’s Norman and Ida Stone Institute of Psychiatry. Starting her market research career in 1998, Van felt like she’d found her perfect fit.
As an expert in both qualitative and quantitative research—from design to analysis to data inspection to reporting—Van thrives on answering the most difficult questions. To further her goal of giving clients information that drives their strategic direction, she completed an MBA in Marketing and International Business from Loyola University of Chicago.
In addition to her involvement in all aspects of the Willow business, with a focus on client relationships, Van serves as a kind of quality control officer, making sure that the company’s work is reflective of our values and delivers what was promised, and then some.
It is her client relationships forged over the years that Van values most, believing in the mission of giving clients information that they can act on with confidence, while building expertise and knowledge of the client’s business that allows her to add insights that clients sometimes didn’t know they needed.
Away from work, Van’s thirst for knowledge extends into her personal life, where she’s always searching for the next adventure. When she’s not planning her next trip or sampling Chicago’s many and varied dining destinations with friends, you can find her curled up on the couch with a good book.