Biography

Robert J. Morais has experience as a marketing researcher, advertising executive, business owner, and business anthropologist. He began his career at Grey Advertising and, after 25 years with ad agencies, in 2006 he became a Principal at Weinman Schnee Morais, a marketing research firm. He has worked with Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, WD-40, Coca-Cola, Post Foods, Danone, StarKist, Johnson & Johnson, Hain Celestial, Benjamin Moore, Safeway, Sabra, Pinnacle Foods, Sunny Delight, Dentsply, Wyeth (now Pfizer), Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel, Hills Pet Nutrition, and Boehringer Ingelheim, among other corporations. Morais holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh, a certificate from NYU's Stern Business School, and was a Fulbright Scholar, National Science Foundation Grantee, and Mellon Fellow. His books include: Ethics in the Anthropology of Business: Explorations in Theory, Practice and Pedagogy (co-editor), Advertising and Anthropology: Ethnographic Practice and Cultural Perspectives (co-author), and Refocusing Focus Groups: A Practical Guide (author). He is currently co-authoring a book on how brands use language. Morais is a Fellow of The Society for Applied Anthropology, on the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Business Anthropology, and a member of the Mentoring Committee of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology. He has been a guest speaker at numerous universities and conferences.