Title: Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Company: 22inc.
Location: Westerville, Ohio, United States
David T. Kollat, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at 22inc., has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in Marketing and Business Administration.
Dr. Kollat has established a distinguished career spanning more than six decades, marked by leadership in academia, corporate strategy and board governance. Since 1987, he has excelled as the founder and chief executive officer of 22inc., a business consulting firm he established in Miami Beach, Florida. Under Dr. Kollat’s direction, 22inc. has provided strategic guidance to a diverse portfolio of clients, drawing on his extensive expertise in marketing, consumer behavior and corporate development to support retailers and consumer goods manufacturers.
Before founding 22inc, Dr. Kollat was the president of Victoria’s Secret Catalog, a division of Limited Brands, from 1984 to 1987. In this capacity, he oversaw the expansion and operational management of the catalog business during a period of significant growth for the brand. Dr. Kollat’s tenure at Limited Brands began in 1976, when he was appointed executive vice president.
Over the next decade, Dr. Kollat played a pivotal role in shaping Limited Brands’ marketing and strategic planning initiatives. He was instrumental in developing and implementing brand positioning strategies for Limited Stores, Limited Express, Victoria’s Secret and Lane Bryant. Dr. Kollat’s contributions were integral to the company’s transformation into one of the most prominent retail organizations of its era.
Between 1972 and 1976, Dr. Kollat served as the executive vice president of Management Horizons, a research and consulting firm specializing in marketing and retailing. There, he was responsible for doubling the size of the business through innovative approaches to market analysis and strategic planning. Dr. Kollat notably co-founded the Retail Intelligence System, which became a syndicated research program serving more than 200 companies. He also developed the first computerized database of all publicly held retail companies and pioneered demographic, psychographic, and store-positioning techniques that have since become industry standards.
Dr. Kollat began his professional journey in academia as a professor of marketing at the College of Administrative Sciences at The Ohio State University in 1965. For over five years, he taught courses in marketing, advertising and consumer behavior while advancing scholarship in these fields through research and publication. Alongside colleagues James F. Engel and Roger D. Blackwell, Dr. Kollat co-authored several influential texts, including “Consumer Behavior,” which became a foundational resource for business universities across the U.S. and held a market share exceeding 60 percent for several years.
In addition to his executive roles, Dr. Kollat has served on approximately 25 boards of directors throughout his career. He was the lead director at Wolverine Worldwide, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 2007 to 2022, and continues to serve on its board since joining in 1992. Dr. Kollat’s board service also included Sleep Number Corporation from 1994 to 2015, Big Lots Stores between 1991 and 2012, Cone Mills Corporation from 1988 to 2000 and, among numerous others, Midwest Pipeliners, dating back decades.
Dr. Kollat’s academic foundation began at Western Michigan University Haworth in Kalamazoo, where he earned both a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing and finance and a Master of Business Administration after his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army Finance Corps. Dr. Kollat initially attended law school at Indiana University, but soon redirected his focus toward business studies before ultimately earning a Doctor of Business Administration with majors in marketing, finance, management, economics and psychology from the business school on its Bloomington campus.
Among his earlier educational pursuits, shaped by his experiences as a student-athlete at Elkhart High School in Elkhart, Indiana, Dr. Kollat graduated as the vice president of his class while lettering in cross country, basketball (where he played guard on the 1956 team) and baseball. At Western Michigan University, he continued his athletic involvement on a basketball scholarship while serving as the student council treasurer and as a member of Delta Chi fraternity.
Throughout his career, Dr. Kollat has been recognized for his commitment to professional and civic engagement and philanthropy. He was instrumental in founding both the Association for Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Research, initiatives that helped define consumer behavior as an academic discipline. He has also contributed his expertise as a member of the marketing committee for The Columbus Foundation, served on the oversight board for The Blackwell at The Ohio State University and participated on the dean’s advisory board for Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. Dr. Kollat’s dedication to children’s health is reflected through his roles as a trustee for Columbus Children’s Hospital, where he is also a member of its budget and finance committee, and as the chair of the Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Dr. Kollat’s scholarly output has included authorship or co-authorship of six books and more than a dozen articles addressing various aspects of consumer behavior as well as corporate and marketing strategy. Besides “Consumer Behavior” with its second and third editions published in 1968, 1973 and 1978, he released “Research in Consumer Behavior” in 1970, edited with Roger D. Blackwell and James F. Engel, “Strategic Marketing” with Roger D. Blackwell and James F. Engel via Holt Rinehart and Winston in 1972, and “Strategy,” published by 22inc. in 2008. Dr. Kollat has also contributed additional volumes that have influenced generations of students and practitioners alike.
In recognition of his success, Dr. Kollat was honored with induction into the Kelley School of Business Academy of Alumni Fellows at Indiana University. He was also elected to the Hall of Fame at Western Michigan University. Dr. Kollat credits much of his success to formative advice he received early in life: never look back with regret, but instead pursue ambitious goals without hesitation. This philosophy has guided him through pivotal moments. His legacy endures through his contributions to business education, corporate governance, civic leadership and thought leadership within marketing strategy and consumer research worldwide.
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