John J. Zogby (born September 3, 1948) is an American public opinion pollster, author, and public speaker. He is founder of the Zogby International poll, and he serves as a senior partner at John Zogby Strategies, a full-service marketing and political consulting firm, which was created in 2016 with his sons, Benjamin and Jeremy. Zogby has written weekly articles for Forbes, and he has contributed to a weekly ongoing presidential report card since the beginning of the Obama administration.
In addition to serving on the advisory board of the Arab American Institute, he was on the advisory board of Upstate Venture Connect, and from 2016 to 2018, he was Director of the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship at Le Moyne College.
The author of three books, his latest was published in 2016, We Are Many, We Are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America.
Early years and education
Zogby, an internationally known pollster and author, was born on September 3, 1948, and grew up in Utica, New York. He is the son of Lebanese Catholic immigrants. His brother, James Zogby, is the founder of the Arab American Institute.
Zogby received a Bachelor's degree in history from Le Moyne College in 1970 and a Master's degree in history from Syracuse University in 1974, continued and completed doctoral work (all but dissertation) in 1978. He taught history and political science for 24 years.
Career
In 1981, Zogby ran for Mayor of Utica, New York.
Zogby launched his first polling company, John Zogby Associates, in 1984, conducting mainly local polls for candidates, parties, and the media in northeastern US communities through the 1980s. In December 1991, polling for several radio and television stations in Upstate New York, he published a poll in New York State showing that then-President George H.W. Bush was leading the state's Governor Mario Cuomo by 6 points in that state. Governor Cuomo decided to not enter the 1992 Presidential race the next day. By 1994, Zogby was polling the New York State gubernatorial race for the New York Post and WNYW-Fox 5. Zogby correctly called the winner, George Pataki, the only pollster to do so. Zogby's company was hired by Reuters News Agency to poll the 1996 presidential race. “All hail Zogby, the maverick predictor,” wrote Richard Morin, polling director at The Washington Post, when John Zogby was the only pollster who called the 1996 presidential election with near precision. Zogby achieved the same level of accuracy with his polling in the following two presidential elections.
Zogby has been featured as a live television election analyst for ABC (Australia), BBC, CBC, and NBC News as well as the Foreign Press Center in Washington since 1998. For over a decade, Zogby led his company's political polling on behalf of Reuters, NBC News, C-SPAN, the New York Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Miami Herald, the Houston Chronicle, the Buffalo News, and the Albany Times Union.
Zogby has been a featured speaker for several associations including the Food Marketing Association, the Texas Cattlemen's Association and the Detroit Economic Club. He has also been the keynote speaker at events sponsored by think tanks including the Center for Strategic and International Studies in DC, Chatham House in London, and the French Institute for International Relations in Paris.
His analysis has been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and publications worldwide.
Advisory boards
Zogby was a former advisor at the Belfer Center of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was also a fellow of the Catholic University Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies. He served on the advisory council for Bio-Technology for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and as a Commissioner on the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Smart Power. He previously served on the congressional-created Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World.
Zogby is the former chairman of the educational organization Sudan Sunrise. He was chairman of the capital campaign at Mohawk Valley Community College, where he used to teach. He served on the boards of the Arab American Institute and Upstate Venture Connect. He presently serves as Vice-Chairman of Caritas-Lebanon USA, a philanthropic NGO that offers food, educational, and health care to the people of Lebanon. He is also a member of the Bassett Health Network which offers medical services to an 8-county rural region of Upstate New York and is Chairman of the Friends of Bassett, its philanthropic arm.