Janet Hoek
joined University of Otago Marketing Department in 2009; she was formerly a
Professor of Marketing at Massey University. Her first degrees were in
English Literature, with minors in Botany and Zoology, and her Masterate
examined irony in Beowulf, a very early medieval poem. The weak
employment market for medievalists prompted her move from the Dark Ages to the
Dark Side, and she subsequently completed a post-graduate diploma in marketing
and a PhD.
Janet’s main research interests are in marketing and public policy and she is a
Principal Investigator in the Centre for Translational Research into Chronic
Disease – Obesity at the University of Otago. She is a PI in a research
consortium evaluating the Ministry of Health’s Healthy eating, healthy
action strategy and was appointed an expert advisor to the Health Select
Committee Enquiry into Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity. As well as examining
marketing regulation in relation to obesity, Janet is involved in tobacco
control research with colleagues in the Department of Public Health and she is
a member of two HRC project teams that are exploring the effects of alcohol
marketing and noise induced hearing loss. Her PhD explored variations in
question wording and she maintains a strong interest in survey research, where
she has acted as an expert witness in several intellectual property
proceedings.
Janet is a member of the Ministry of Health’s Tobacco Control Research
Committee, the Smokefree Vision Steering Group, and she co-chairs the
sub-committee that deals with tobacco marketing. She served on the ANZMAC
executive from 2003-2008, including two years as Secretary, three years as
chair of the Awards Committee, and two years as Vice President.