IDC Leadership

Matt Eastwood

SVP, WW Research

Matt Eastwood is Senior Vice President of IDC’s enterprise infrastructure, cloud, telecom, security, developers, channels and enabling technology research groups. Mr. Eastwood and his team research people, process and technology trends affecting the enterprise technology marketplace worldwide.

Mr. Eastwood first joined IDC in 2000 as part of the server team and his responsibilities have evolved and expanded during his tenure. In his current role, he leads a team of more than 100 analysts providing insights and analysis to IT suppliers, buyers, investors, and distributors through more than 75 syndicated research programs. Mr. Eastwood also leads IDC's BuyerView primary research programs which are focused on defining emerging trends in cloud, developers, service providers, edge, AI and security.

Follow Matt on Twitter @MattEastwood

Lars Goransson

Managing Director, IDC Canada & LATAM

Lars Goransson is responsible for IDC's Canadian operation as Managing Director. IDC Canada's product and services offerings provide the Canadian IT community with market intelligence and market based research across the value continuum of budgeting & planning, marketing awareness and lead generation, and measurement and performance management.

Prior to his role as Managing Director, Lars has held a number of senior analyst and management roles since joining IDC in 1996, most recently as General Manager & Group VP. Previously, Lars managed IDC Canada’s Custom Solutions Group providing proprietary advisory services to Canadian clients. Lars started his career with IDC in the IT outsourcing space and successfully built a very a large IT Services Research Group in Canada.

Mr. Goransson is a graduate of the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Lars is a board member at the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC). He is also a board member at the Canadian Channel Chiefs Council (C4) and chairs the Research Committee. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a member of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants (CAMC).

Shunsuke Murahashi

Managing Director, IDC Japan

Shunsuke Murahashi was appointed Managing Director for IDC Japan in June 2022. Shunsuke has responsibilities for providing guidance and contributing to the development and execution of IDC Japan business strategies across product and functional lines as well as leading sales teams.

Since joining IDC in 1999, Shunsuke started to develop new business among strategic accounts and financial firms as account manager, and he successfully expanded subscriptions with Japanese printer vendors, having dedicated support from analysts based in the US. He also led event business in Tokyo and held technology and CIO events collaborating with global colleagues. He was promoted to Sales Vice President in 2010.

Prior to joining IDC, Shunsuke worked for Japanese electric device company as overseas sales and domestic channel sales. He also experienced sales in system integrator as major account manager and global alliance sales with international partners. He managed projects to replace tens of thousands of PC for large global companies.

He holds a B.A. in Foreign Studies (Spanish and Latin American Studies) from Nanzan University. He promotes global collaborations by understanding challenges of intercultural communications and making use of his experience of an exchange student.

Bob Parker

SVP, WW Research

Bob Parker is a Senior Vice President responsible for several areas of research at IDC. He leads the global industry research teams which includes coverage of healthcare, government, retail, resources, manufacturing, and financial services. Bob also leads our teams covering the enterprise applications and services domain as well as analysts covering customer experience, consumer research, and devices. His group covers a range of emerging technology areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, payment systems, IoT, and AR/VR.

Bob has been conducting industry research for over twenty years including five years at AMR Research before joining IDC. Prior to entering the research field, Bob spent over fifteen years in various technology and operational roles including serving as Chief Information Officer at Eastern Technologies, a defense contractor.

Bob received his MBA with a certification in artificial intelligence from New Hampshire College and a B.S. from Rivier University with a dual major in finance and computer science.

Bob speaks at numerous industry conferences and is often quoted in the technology, industry, and business press.

Follow Bob on Twitter @RobertEParker.

Eric Prothero

Senior Vice President, Data & Analytics

Eric Prothero is IDC’s SVP of Data & Analytics and a member of IDC’s senior management team. He is responsible for managing IDC's global Data & Analytics organization with a team that spans eight regions and 44 countries.

Mr. Prothero oversees the data product teams that define, design, build, and lead the variety of data solutions that IDC develops within the market, vendor, buyer and partner intelligence areas. This includes IDC’s Tracker, Spending Guide, Black Book, Wallet, Contract Database, and Channel Partner Ecosystem products as well as IDC's Knowledge Platform that provides the only 360-degree view of the tech industry.

In addition to leading the product teams, Mr. Prothero oversees the teams that assure data quality and consistency, taxonomy development, tools and data platform evolution, and client satisfaction. These include our data engineering, data analytics, data science, forecast, and web scraping teams, as well as our business development, production, and data delivery teams.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Prothero was responsible for setting up the Latin America business unit for IDC, building business operations across seven countries in the region, and managing the areas of research, consulting, events, sales, marketing, and finance. He joined IDC in 1993 and under his leadership the Latin America region grew to over 120 employees with research coverage in 15 countries in the region.

Prior to IDC, Mr. Prothero was a senior consultant at Windermere Associates, a San Francisco-based strategic planning consulting firm. Mr. Prothero received his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College. He speaks Portuguese and Spanish and some Japanese.

Jonathan Share

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Custom Solutions

As Senior Vice President of Custom Solutions, Jonathan Share leads the IDC global business unit providing clients with influential content marketing and actionable market intelligence solutions. His team provides custom analytics, market insight, content marketing, interactive tools, thought leadership, and sales enablement programs to help clients plan, market, sell, and succeed. Jonathan has extensive experience working with clients to design and apply market intelligence to inform strategic planning, guide decisions, manage operations, and improve performance.

Mr. Share has been a member of the IDC Custom Solutions team since 2006. An experienced market researcher, he has employed both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to study the IT industry. Originally located in the UK, with responsibility for European Consulting, he transferred to IDC headquarters in 2010 managing worldwide engagements for US based IT suppliers. Mr. Share was promoted Group Vice President, Custom Solutions in 2019 before assuming responsibility for the global business unit in 2022.

Mr. Share has acted as an executive mentor to social entrepreneurs as part of Santa Clara University’s Global Social Benefit Institute and is a graduate of Leeds Becket University in England. Prior to IDC, Jonathan held senior research and business intelligence positions with a leading financial publisher.

Brad Thorpe

Chief Sales Officer

As Chief Sales Officer, Brad Thorpe has responsibility for leading all IDC direct sales and customer service to the ICT Vendor, Financial, and End User communities, as well as indirect sales including partnerships. He is IDC's chief customer advocate.

Prior to joining IDC in 1986, Mr. Thorpe was employed at NCR Corporation in both Commercial and Federal Accounts Sales, and before that he held sales positions with Western Microtechnology, a distributor of semiconductors, computer systems, and peripherals.

Mr. Thorpe's first role in 1986 at IDC was as a Unix research analyst and product champion. He then moved into sales, first in California where he was responsible for Western regional and major accounts sales. He was promoted to Director of Major Accounts and relocated to the East Coast to develop IDC's first major account focus, building and implementing its now renowned global account management program. In the NYC area, he led the selling effort for IDC's entry into providing its technology research to equity analysts and investment bankers following technology companies through its successful Investment Research Services.

Most recently, Mr. Thorpe was Group Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Major, Financial, and Sector Sales, leading sales to IDC's largest ICT vendor clients, the financial community, and emerging ICT vendors and supply chain.

In addition to earning a BA in English from Kenyon College, Mr. Thorpe has participated in numerous sales, sales management, and negotiation courses, including the Sales Management and Global Account Management programs at the Columbia University Business School.

Rick Villars

Group Vice President, Worldwide Research

Rick Villars is Group Vice President, Worldwide Research. As part of the management team, he is the chief analyst guiding research on the future of the IT Industry at IDC, the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets operating in over 50 countries.

He coordinates all IDC research related to the impact of cloud and the shift to digital business models across infrastructure, platforms, software, and services. He helps enterprises develop effective strategies for using their diverse portfolio of cloud investments and applications. He supplies early guidance on implications of critical innovations such as the shift to cloud-based control platforms for deploying/managing infrastructure, data, and code delivery as well as the emergence of AI as a critical IT workload and part of all IT products/services.

Mr. Villars is IDC's lead analyst covering IBM and AWS, speaking often at IDC, industry, and user events as a thought leader and influencer on the future of technology. He leads IDC's monthly Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending survey series which enables all of IDC's analysts around the world to closely track IT leaders' expectations related to overall economic outlook, IT spending/spending priorities, and critical issues such as cloud cost management, the impact of Generative AI on IT/business priorities, and ransomware/cybersecurity.

Mr. Villars holds a Bachelor of Science degree in foreign service (B.S.F.S.), with a concentration in science, technology, and international affairs from Georgetown University

Meredith Whalen

Chief Research Officer

Meredith Whalen is IDC’s Chief Research Officer and member of the senior management team. She leads IDC's worldwide research organization, product management, marketing and client services functions. Ms. Whalen sets the direction and agenda for IDC's worldwide research products, fosters innovation, and ensures IDC clients have a valuable, personalized, and engaging experience.

Ms. Whalen’s international team of analysts leverage research and advisory services to empower business transformation for the Global 2000, and counsel technology suppliers on creating effective offerings for the digital economy.

Ms. Whalen regularly presents at CIO and CXO summits in North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America. She oversees the CIO Executive Council, which provides strategic leadership development for transforming the C-suite at the world’s most influential and evolving organizations.

Ms. Whalen was previously Senior Vice President of IT Executive, Industry, Software and Services Research & CIO Executive Council. In her 20 years at IDC, Ms. Whalen has innovated industry research practices with such offerings as the Industry Insights business units, advising vertical industry advising on technology strategy, and IDC's DecisionScape methodology, a portfolio of decision-making methodologies that enable professionals to better plan, deploy and optimize their technology initiatives. Ms. Whalen founded IDC's IT Executive Research programs and architected the industry's first and most comprehensive business use case taxonomy. She holds a B.A. with honors from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. with honors with from Babson's F.W. Olin Graduate School of Management.