David Coletto
Adjunct Professor and CEO of Abacus Data
| Degrees: | Ph.D. (University of Calgary) |
| Email: | David.Coletto@Carleton.ca |
| Website: | Biography, Arthur Kroeger College |
Dr. Coletto founded Abacus Data, one of Canada’s leading polling firms and leads the team of research consultants and strategists, delivering strategic advice and research design expertise to some of Canada’s leading corporations, advocacy groups, and political leaders. Abacus Data specializes in helping organizations to connect and engage with millennials and Gen Z (Canadians born after 1980) and to develop evidence-based strategies to enhance corporate consciousness and responsibility.
Dr. Coletto has conducted research studies for organizations in many sectors including pharmaceutical, transportation, educational, telecommunications, natural resources, media, arts and cultural, tourism, and retail. He has also advised elected officials and senior-level decision-makers at the federal, provincial, and municipal government levels.
Earning a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Calgary in 2010, Dr. Coletto’s dissertation research examined candidates who run in Canadian general elections and looked at how the qualities of candidates and the local conditions in which they run affect the outcome of campaigns. He is also one of Canada’s leading scholars on party and election finance. His research on Canadian elections and political parties has been cited in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Hill Times, and the Toronto Star. He wrote a chapter with Munroe Eagles on local party organization in Lisa Young and Harold Jansen’s edited volume Money, Politics and Democracy: Assessing the Impact of Canada’s Party Finance Reform UBC Press, 2011 and a forthcoming article on the impact of election finance reform on political party organization in the Canadian Journal of Political Science (with Lisa Young and Harold Jansen).
He is currently a regular columnist with The Hill Times, and his research with Abacus Data has appeared in print, on the radio, and on television. He is a board member of the Ottawa Board of Trade and the Forum for Young Canadians.
He is also a proud Carleton alumnus, earning a BPAPM and MA in Political Science.