J. Walker Smith

1. Walker Smith is the Knowledge Lead for the global consulting and strategy practices of Kantar, a role in which he oversees key client relationships and company strategy. With a career marked by significant contributions to market research and consumer knowledge, he consults on trends, futures, marketing, growth, and business strategy across a broad range of industries.

Smith is recognized as a leading authority on consumer trends and the marketplace's future, having been described by Fortune magazine as "one of America’s leading analysts on consumer trends." His expertise is regularly featured in major publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week, and he has appeared on media outlets including CNN, ABC, NBC Nightly News, CBS, PBS, and Bloomberg TV. He has also participated in notable interviews and projects, such as being interviewed by Tom Brokaw for the CNBC special "BOOMER$" and narrating the “Generation Boom” bonus content for the "Mad Men" Season 7, Part 2 DVD.

An active contributor to academic and professional discourse, Smith co-authored "Rocking the Ages" (1997) and authored "Life is Not Work, Work is Not Life" (2001), the latter of which was selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the ten best work-life books of 2001. His achievements include being a 2021 inductee into the Hall of Fame of the Market Research Council and a 2020 recipient of the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award for lifetime contributions to market research. He has also won the WPP Atticus Award multiple times for his thought-leadership in Strategy and Consumer Insights.

In addition to his professional endeavors, Smith is a lecturer at the annual School of Marketing Research at Notre Dame and serves on numerous corporate, professional, and university boards. He holds a doctorate in Mass Communication from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His sustained engagement with the public includes nearly twenty years as a blogger and columnist for Marketing Management and Marketing News, and almost a decade as a weekly radio commentator on Smart City, a public radio show about cities and community life.