Meet the Team
Authentic Catholicism, Industry Expertise
Vinea Research is built on a team of experienced market research experts and deep knowledge and understanding of Catholicism. Our mission is to support Church leadership, apostolates, parishes, and other organizations by helping them better understand those they serve through expert market research and insights.
Hans Plate, Founder & President
Hans has more than 25 years of experience providing professional market research to industry-leading companies such as Pfizer, Medtronic, and Genentech. His research experience includes qualitative moderation and quantitative research design, encompassing varying levels of research complexity and business issues explored.
Hans is a lifelong committed Catholic. His involvement at his local parish includes starting the Greeters Ministry and two different men’s groups (both are active), as well as having served as an RCIA team member, Confirmation catechist, and small group leader.
Matt Christ, Senior Research Analyst
Matt has more than six years of experience running statistical analyses to inform educated predictions and recommendations. He strives to meet research with Catholic values. Matt received a bachelor of science in psychology from Mount St. Mary’s University, and a master’s degree in media psychology from Walden University.
Cathy Boyd, Moderator
Cathy has spent more than 20 years in market research. She has designed, managed, and executed hundreds of projects in healthcare and for NGOs, such as food policy and hunger organizations. She is the product of 12 years of Catholic schooling, and has a degree in drama criticism from Marymount College of Fordham University. She is passionate about Catholic social justice in the tradition of Pope Francis and Dorothy Day, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to use her market research skills to help advance the mission of the Church.
Karen Deaver, Moderator
Karen has nearly 30 years of project management experience spanning both public and private sectors. She performed consulting and market research in the foods/beverages and healthcare fields, and served in senior statistical and senior program analyst positions for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Census Bureau. Throughout her career, she has helped organizations achieve their strategic goals by listening to their users' needs. Karen has her undergraduate management and marketing degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a master of public health in biostatistics and epidemiology from Morgan State. She is a RIVA trained moderator and a certified project management professional. Karen is a lifelong Christian who converted to Catholicism in 2000. You can often find her working with youth through volleyball, Scouts, and helping out with school activities wherever she can, and she really enjoys cantoring in her local parish.
Mike Karchner, Moderator
Mike spent 30 years in corporate marketing and marketing research. He has held senior marketing positions at Shell Oil Company and Capital One, and is a deeply experienced moderator. He has industry experience in consumer products, B2B, financial sectors, and healthcare. He is a RIVA Certified Master Moderator, and he earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. In following God’s call, Mike finds conducting research on behalf of not-for-profits, including religious organizations, to be particularly satisfying and rewarding. Born and raised Catholic, he is active in the Knights of Columbus, local parish prayer groups and serves as an extraordinary minister.
Bruce Johnson, Ph.D., Statistician
Bruce has more than 30 years of survey research experience. He has direct experience creating and analyzing surveys related to product perceptions, market characterization, forecasting, and segmentation across a variety of respondent groups. Bruce is particularly adept at modifying well-known methods to fit specific research problems. Bruce is also a devout Christian.
Krishna Tateneni, Ph.D., Statistician
Krishna has more than 18 years in the development and application of quantitative techniques. He devoted 12 years to quantitative market research in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector, spanning a wide variety of study types and therapeutic categories. He has a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology and an M.A. in cognitive and experimental psychology, both from The Ohio State University.