In Memoriam…
Researcher Bob Lavidge died on Dec. 15 at the age of 94. Lavidge joined the American Marketing Association (AMA) in 1947, where he served as president of the Chicago AMA Chapter, vice president of marketing research and president of the AMA board of directors. Lavidge also helped launch the AMA Foundation and served as its first chair. In 1951, he co-founded with Bob Elrick research and consulting firm Elrick and Lavidge, which was sold in 1978. The Robert J. Lavidge Global Marketing Research Prize was established in his honor, which recognizes marketers who have devised and implemented research/insight procedures that have practical implications for use by others. Lavidge was also a recipient of the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award and the Naples Award.
Researcher Toluna has appointed Marco Pasqualina as vice president of sales, based in the Wilton, Conn., office, and Mark Daniel as vice president of digital solutions, based in the firm’s Dallas office. Additionally, the firm has promoted Patricia Chapin Bayley to vice president, head of enterprise solutions.
Warren, N.J., health care data firm Lightspeed Health has appointed Matt Titus as vice president, business development – Americas. Additionally, Franco Esposito has been promoted to head of business development – EMEA. The firm also named Mary Andrews as senior vice president, global operations.
Atlanta-based insights and consulting firm CMI has added Sharita Farhana to its technology services team as senior DBA, while Brian Lunde has been promoted to senior vice president of client solutions.
Ken Østreng, current CFO for Oslo, Norway, researcher Confirmit, has been named president and CEO following Henning Hansen’s decision to resign from the role.
Research software company Dapresy, headquartered in Sweden, has named Beth Rounds as CMO and Brin Moore as vice president, strategic partnerships. In addition, Fredrik Osterberg has been promoted to managing director, Europe.
Cincinnati-based firm MarketVision Research has appointed the following: For its health care insights team, Richard Vitali has joined as vice president and Tami Salmi has joined as senior research director. Brittany Smith as been appointed as a research assistant for the firm’s marketing research online communities team; Ashley Paulson and Paige Brown as research assistants for its qualitative team; Derrick Kaliney as a research assistant for its information services team; and Kelsey Tesdahl as a research assistant for its client services team.
MFour Mobile Research, Irvine, Calif., has added Neil Byrnes as a quality assurance analyst and added Sam Soto to its sales team as a solutions development representative.
Circle Research, London, has promoted Graeme Cade and Chris Wells to its management board.
Researcher Kelton Global, Los Angeles, has promoted Alison Servi and Amy Snow to partner. They will both continue in their roles as senior strategic consultants.
Mike Moran has joined the board of directors for Wakefield, Mass., digital marketing nonprofit organization SEMPO.
U.K. researcher BrainJuicer has promoted Alex Hunt to run its market research business worldwide. Hunt will also join the company’s board of directors.
Canada-based data and analytics company Engagement Labs has hired Rick Larkin as vice president of analytics.
In New York, David Albert has expanded his role at GfK in North America, becoming managing director of both the Digital Experiences and Shopper and Retail Strategy teams. Albert also acts as the region’s director of data insights and integration.
Survey automation technology company Survox Inc., San Francisco, has appointed Khozema Ujjainwala as VP of engineering.
Aimpoint Research, Columbus, Ohio, has appointed Missy Graham as director of marketing and communications.
Nielsen, New York, has added David Rawlinson, president of online business for W.W. Grainger Inc., to its board of directors and member of the audit committee.
Bethesda, Md., researcher Abt Associates has established a new regional structure to improve company support to its international health projects, appointing two new regional managing directors. Catherine Thompson will serve as regional managing director for Eastern, Central and Southern Africa and Cristine Betters will serve as regional managing director for West Africa, Middle East, Asia/Near East and Latin American and the Caribbean.
Research firm Marketing Systems Group, Horsham Pa., has appointed Kelly Lin as survey sample statistician/analyst.
Richard Frazita has joined Rhinebeck, N.Y., research and consulting firm Phoenix Marketing International as executive vice president and client advisor.
Columbia, Md., marketing agency Merkle has appointed Michael Komasinski as global COO for Merkle services. Based in London, he will also serve as the general manager for media services, Europe.
Media investment company GroupM, New York, has appointed Jim Meyer as CMO for North America.
Anna McClafferty has joined Philadelphia-based online health community platform Health Union as senior vice president, insights.
In New York, researcher ORC International has appointed Ana Mackay-Sim as CMO.
New York-based language strategy firm maslansky + partners has hired Joe Baumann as senior vice president of R&D and product strategy.
As part of a larger expansion of its analytics and data science business, Kantar TNS UK has named Matt Dodd managing partner and head of analytics for Kantar UK and Ireland.
Researcher Strategy Analytics, Boston, has promoted Paul Brown to director of user experience projects.
Richard Jameson has joined U.K. research firm Kynetec as executive director of global custom research. The new role was created to reflect the firm’s recently-expanded custom research capabilities, which followed the acquisition of Ipsos Agriculture and Animal Health in North America.