Don DePalma
Chief Research Officer
Don DePalma has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of technology, language services, and market research. He co-founded Interbase Software, served as vice president of corporate strategy at translation technology supplier Idiom Technologies, and was one of the first analysts at Forrester Research, where he consulted to senior management at Global 2000 companies.
While at Forrester, Don launched the firm's coverage of various sectors, including content management, application development for strategic internet systems, digital marketing technologies and customer relationship management, ethnic marketing, knowledge management, and business globalization. His book, Business without Borders, is widely used at university and business training courses.
As the company’s original founder, Don continues to lead Common Sense Advisory’s research into the best practices, technology, and professional services that support business globalization. He lectures, writes, and is frequently quoted on the topics of online marketing, content management, multicultural marketing, localization, return on investment, and website globalization. He focuses on shaping the strategies of many of the world's largest technology firms and the industry's most influential language services providers.
Don holds a PhD in Linguistics from Brown University with specializations in generative grammar, computational linguistics, and the historical phonology of Slavic languages. He has also studied at Moscow State University and Moscow Linguistic University in Russia, Univerzita Karlova in the Czech Republic, and ELISA in Costa Rica. As a linguist, Don studied a range of Indo-European languages and has visited 40 countries.