Our History

Charlie Kline & 1959

Our founder, Dr. Charles Kline, would be impressed but likely not surprised by today’s size, scope, and success of his namesake company. Charlie was a bright, confident, and engaging business entrepreneur when he started Kline in 1959 – a two-man shop comprised of himself and employee number two, a research librarian from Hungary. A Princeton educated chemist (both undergraduate and Ph.D.), he left a research position at the then leading chemical company – American Cyanamid (Shulton) – to fill a void he encountered in his day-to-day work – market and competitive data on the specialty chemical industry built via a rigorous underlying research process. Charlie and his growing team of consultants went on to create a substantial portfolio of industry leading market research reports in areas such as personal care ingredients, synthetic latex polymers, surfactants, and more, eventually expanding to other adjacent and allied industries, and into advisory services.

Dr. Charles H. Kline, founder of Kline & Company, Fairfield, NJ office.

Kline Today

Today, as a global firm with over 200 employees, the Kline name continues to stand for best-in-class industry research and expertise – whether through one of our database or forecasting products, or from our strategic advisory services. While Kline has come a long way from the small office space in Fairfield, NJ in 1959, we remain true to Charlie’s basic principles of delivering deep industry expertise backed by research and analytic excellence. Whether you are a research analyst in Shanghai, a UX designer in Gurgaon, or head of the M&A practice in London, this is the very essence of Kline’s DNA.

Kline US staff, Parsippany, NJ office