Paula Sonkin
Executive Director, Real Estate Industries

Paula Sonkin is Executive Director of the Real Estate Industries Practice at J.D. Power and Associates, which includes syndicated and proprietary Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Studies. Previously, she was instrumental in starting up and expanding the firm's syndicated and proprietary airline, rental car and hotel customer satisfaction studies. She has also served a number of clients on a proprietary basis in various industries including food service, telecommunications, mass transit and consumer products.

Ms. Sonkin was recently named by Builder magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in the home building industry.

Ms. Sonkin has over 25 years of experience with both the supplier and client sides of marketing research. Prior to joining J.D. Power and Associates, she was manager of consumer market research at The Disney Channel. Earlier, she served as a marketing research consultant for McKesson Water Products, Inc. and Asher/Gould Advertising; was a senior project director with Lieberman Research West; and spent over 10 years with Lawry's Foods Inc., a division of The Thomas J. Lipton Co. and Unilever International, where she managed the market research and sensory evaluation departments. Prior to that, she was a research scientist in the product development department at Stouffer's Frozen Foods, Inc.

Ms. Sonkin earned a bachelor's degree in food science from Baldwin-Wallace College and an MBA from Pepperdine University.