Hunter Knifton
Director, Advanced Analytics & Senior Research Manager
Hunter is an experienced quantitative and qualitative research professional with a strong background in business and politics as well as extraordinary expertise in cutting-edge analytics and data science techniques. He is passionate about applying these talents to both the design and analysis of every research project, in order to provide our clients with clearer understanding and direction, and to uncover the key motivations and insights that lie deep within every dataset.
Although Hunter leads the execution of research projects for clients in a wide range of sectors, he has developed specialities in the financial services, energy, health care, telecommunications, gig/app worker, consumer packaged goods, alcoholic beverage, and political sectors. He has also worked as a pro-bono consultant for various charities, as a research analyst at a think tank, and in various research and communications capacities for a number of municipal, provincial, and federal election campaigns.
Hunter is Pollara’s Director of Advanced Analytics, applying his expert use of a wide array of industry-leading advanced statistical techniques to most Pollara projects. Holding a specialized skillset, he is always eager to leverage cutting-edge analytical methods in order to provide a deeper, more accurate, and more strategic lens onto the data.
Prior to joining Pollara, Hunter worked at a national public affairs and crisis communications agency, where he led public opinion research studies and advised clients based on his analysis of their custom survey research, relevant social media, and available primary and secondary datasets. He is a regular guest lecturer at the Ivey School of Business and Carleton’s Political Management program.
Hunter is a graduate of Western University, where he graduated from the Ivey School of Business on the Dean’s Honours List after having spent his first two years studying towards an Honours Bachelor of Finance. He is also a graduate of MIT’s Applied Data Science program and the University of Michigan’s Understanding and Visualizing Data with Python course. Hunter is fluent in Python and SQL.