Ashley Grayson
VP, Business Development, Criteria

Ashley Grayson is Vice President of Business and Product Development at Criteria, LLC, a market intelligence firm in Los Angeles. Three years ago he led Criteria in undertaking the first strategic analysis of the buying behavior of Generation Y and discovered how these 70 million consumers make buying decisions. The resulting Criteria report whyPod? - The New Buying Paradigm and How Apple Found it, co-authored by Ashley Grayson and Dr. John Barnes, explains how the iPod rose from an expensive entry in a developing market to dominating that market and crushing all competition. Today, Grayson and the Criteria team help organizations align their product development and marketing efforts to engage this New Buying Paradigm.

Grayson has bridged the gap between traditional methods and technology for a long time. He was the first marketing person to visit the initial sites of the ARPAnet and all key artificial intelligence laboratories in the 1970s.  Grayson founded Criteria in the 1980s, and he and the staff of Criteria have been on the cutting edge with new buyers and new markets, advising such clients as Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sharp, Digital Equipment, and Xerox.  Grayson also manages an active intellectual property management business, whose corporate clients have included GT Interactive.