Director of International Polling
Gallup
Richard W. Burkholder Jr. joined Gallup in 1984. Currently, Richard serves as Director of International Polling. He is also the Regional Research Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and other predominantly Muslim countries throughout the world for the Gallup World Poll. This groundbreaking project will measure global well-being for the next 100 years, polling a representative sample of 95% of the world's adult population on an ongoing basis. The initiative is the most extensive proprietary source of key world data available, providing access to the voices, hearts, and minds of citizens in more than 130 countries and areas.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Burkholder designed and directed the 2002 Gallup Poll of the Islamic World, an unprecedented public opinion survey of the both the urban and rural adult populations of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, Kuwait, Morocco, Jordan, and Indonesia. Fieldwork was conducted December 2001 through January 2002, and the study's findings were released in February 2002. He is currently repeating this project in conjunction with the Gallup World Poll, an undertaking that will eventually survey about 40 predominantly Muslim nations.
In the summer of 2003, he designed and directed the 2003 Gallup Poll of Baghdad, the first comprehensive, probability-based survey of Iraqis conducted in the wake of the invasion. This was followed by the Gallup Poll of Iraq, an exhaustive nationwide survey conducted in spring 2004.
In January 1991, Burkholder negotiated the letter of agreement that established Gallup China, Ltd., the first foreign-owned company licensed to conduct survey research throughout the entire People's Republic of China. In 1994, he helped direct the first nationwide survey of China's entire adult population, the Gallup Poll of China. Subsequent surveys of China have been completed in 1997, 1999, and 2004.
A specialist in international affairs and electoral behavior, Burkholder has conducted many pre-election surveys in developing countries. In 1991, he designed and directed the first exit poll ever conducted in Mexico, based on more than 25,000 interviews conducted at 350 voting stations throughout the country. He has designed and executed many successful pre-election surveys in developing countries, including contests in the Dominican Republic in 1994 and 1996. He also assisted with Gallup's pre-election surveys in Costa Rica's 1995 presidential election, in which Gallup forecasts were by far the most accurate of any polling firm, as well as with recent elections in El Salvador and Panama.
Prior to joining Gallup, Burkholder combined doctoral research in international affairs with instruction of undergraduates at Harvard College, where he taught courses in American politics, constitutional theory, and international law. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of New Hampshire. He received a master's degree in government from Harvard University and has passed doctoral qualifying examinations there in the fields of U.S. electoral behavior, international relations, political development, and modern political theory. Burkholder served on the staff of Harvard's Center for International Affairs from 1981 to 1984 and was a member of multiple faculty study groups at Harvard's Institute of Politics.
Burkholder has spoken at many conferences in the United States and abroad. He has appeared on television as a social and political analyst in North America, Europe, Central America, China, and the Caribbean.
