Bill Hoffman is an Associate Partner with Gallup’s Minneapolis office. He helps clients better understand their markets and competitors, as well as the factors that drive differentiated and sustainable competitive advantage. Hoffman advises clients, particularly in the financial services and retail sectors, on competitive intelligence and strategy and on marketing strategies targeting various consumer segments.
Before joining Gallup in 2006, Hoffman was Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at National City Corporation in Cleveland, where he directed strategic planning for the Wealth Management division. Prior to that, Hoffman served as Senior Vice President of Segment Strategy at Bank of America in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he led segmentation strategy for Premier Banking & Investments (PB&I), a $3 billion dollar division. Hoffman also created Bank of America’s Competitive Intelligence and Strategy Unit, and as the unit’s Senior Vice President, he directed a 10-person team responsible for competitive intelligence (CI) collection and analysis across the bank. This team was responsible for driving breakthrough revenue growth from product and service innovations derived from their work.
Before joining Bank of America, Hoffman worked in the Operations Strategy and Effectiveness Practice at McKinsey in Chicago; as a financial services industry analyst with Ernst & Young; and as a Financial Analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He began his career as an intelligence officer with the CIA in Langley, Virginia.
Hoffman earned a bachelor’s degree in both economics and international studies from DePaul University in Chicago and a master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is a Lieutenant Junior Grade (Intel) in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force.