Management Team

Diane founded Clarion Research in 1995, building on the experience she gained over her prior 19 years in market research. She has longstanding expertise in developing custom research designs and nuanced analysis to help clients address important issues.

She has worked extensively in both marketing and communications research, for both corporations and NGOs. She has wide ranging sector and methods experience within the US and globally, helping corporations and other organizations understand their market opportunities as well as vulnerabilities.

Diane values critical thinking, smarts, hard work, dedication to client needs and a results-oriented mentality. The entire Clarion team reflects these values. Several key clients have been with Clarion for many years, demonstrating the value they, in turn, see in Clarion’s approach to the work. That work process is largely horizontal rather than vertical in nature, meaning that the entire cohesive team is involved in a project from start to finish. Our most longstanding clients include a major telecom company (a client in every year since Clarion’s founding), an important NGO in the education space (client for the past 20 years) and a media company that is now a leader in the streaming space (client for the past 16 years).

A quantitative research specialist her entire career, Diane broadened Clarion’s offerings many years ago to include high quality in-house qualitative since this is often an important first step in understanding what needs to be quantified, and can sometimes provide the answers clients need as a standalone method.

Diane is now largely engaged in the management of the company and acts as board chair in addition to CEO. She loves market research and the value it can provide to clients. She consults with senior research staff on research design and interpretation of results when her expertise can help contribute to the success of the project.

Diane graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Hillarie joined Clarion in 2012 as a Vice President and stepped into the role of President in 2023. She considers herself extremely fortunate to spend her days collaborating with a talented team of dedicated and creative researchers, working to solve interesting challenges and deliver meaningful insights in support of Clarion’s clients.

Hillarie has extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative market research. She has a strong background in quantitative analysis and a keen ability to manage complex, large-scale projects. She is equally drawn to conducting qualitative research. She enjoys making a connection with respondents to explore what drives their perceptions and decisions. She has conducted 1500+ qualitative sessions, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, and online discussion forums, with executives, educators, healthcare professionals, and consumers.

Having found her passion for market research right out of college, Hillarie has focused most of her career on supplier-side research. In addition to working at Clarion, she was an Account Executive at Harte-Hanks Custom Research. She also founded and ran a marketing research consulting firm for ten years.

Wanting to understand market research from the client perspective, early in her career, Hillarie held corporate positions in market research, marketing, and product management at AT&T and Global Crossing. She also managed Verizon Wireless’s Brand & Advertising Research Program as a consultant for over two years.

Outside of her professional career, Hillarie has held non-salaried positions in several non-profit organizations. She co-founded and was Vice President of People Funding People, an NGO focused on small-scale development projects in Cameroon. She has served on the boards of the Blacksburg New School (Blacksburg, VA), Community High School (Roanoke, VA), and Girls Rock Roanoke. She was also the Outcomes Director at Girls Rock Roanoke for two years.

Hillarie holds Masters’ degrees from Northwestern University (Cognitive Psychology) and Rutgers University (Educational Psychology), and a Bachelor’s degree (Psychology) from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.

Beverly Escario has been with Clarion for 19 years. Beverly manages all of Clarion’s quantitative logistics planning, survey field execution, data collection, and quality control. In addition, Beverly supervises Clarion’s quantitative division across project functions, including data cleaning, data quality, tabulation, and analysis. Beverly has personally developed several innovative workflow programs at Clarion, ensuring that quantitative studies are executed efficiently and effectively, regardless of study complexity.

Beverly is an expert project manager, particularly on large-scale and complex studies. She has personally overseen quantitative online surveys conducted simultaneously across several countries, and in multiple languages. In addition, she has spearheaded the execution of online, telephone, in-person and mail studies that included the completion, processing, and analysis of thousands of completed surveys.

During her tenure at Clarion, Beverly has also developed and overseen quantitative training and professional development for Clarion’s team of Project Directors and Assistant Project Directors.

Beverly joined Clarion Research shortly after graduating from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Economics.

Linda has more than 25 years of experience in designing and directing a full array of domestic and international quantitative and qualitative research engagements in a wide range of disciplines, including Communications and Branding, Market Assessment, and Customer Experience. Her work has spanned numerous industries including CPG, retail, IT/telecom, financial services, hospitality and gaming, education, manufacturing, and professional services. Linda works closely with clients to understand their business issues and is passionate about designing research that will have an impact.

In addition to directing both basic and sophisticated custom quantitative studies, Linda is also a highly skilled moderator and interviewer, having personally conducted several hundred focus groups, in-person, telephone, and online in-depth interviews. She has extensive experience in executing both B2C and B2B, the latter covering a wide range of constituencies including C-Suite, senior and mid-level executives, customers, prospects, employees, and opinion leaders such as the financial community, media, and government.

Prior to joining Clarion, Linda previously held research positions in market research firms (The Harris Poll, Engine (formerly known as ORC International), corporate research departments (AT&T), and advertising agencies (Y&R, FCB).

Linda received her MBA in Marketing from Drexel University and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Towson State University, with a double major in Business Administration and Communications. She also completed post-graduate work at The University of Pennsylvania.