In Memoriam...
Pat Heakin of Venice, Fla., passed away on March 29, 2020, at the age of 98. Heakin founded Heakin Research Inc. in 1963. When she sold the company 36 years later, Heakin Research employed 2,900 in 26 cities across the U.S. Heakin won the MRA Service to the Industry Award twice and went on to serve as president of the association – in 2000, she was named a Lifetime Honorary Member. Heakin also served on two White House Commissions promoting consumer education. After retiring from Heakin Research, she worked with SCORE and the SBA to support and guide the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Angus Webb, managing director and founder of Panelbase, passed away from COVID-19 on April 8, 2020, at the age of 45. He joined U.K.-based full-service research firm DRG in 2002 and was named to its board of directors in 2004. In 2005, Webb set up Panelbase, DRG’s online research panel firm. To take on leadership of Panelbase, DRG’s board of directors has appointed client service director Paul Wealleans.
Margaret Imai-Compton passed away on April 12, 2020, in Toronto. She studied library science at the University of Toronto and went on to work in market research. She founded Imai-Compton Consulting Inc. and later worked for Research Management Group. As a researcher, Imai-Compton was honored as a fellow by the Market Research Intelligence Association and the Canadian Research Insights Council.
Al Angrisani passed away on April 23, 2020, at the age of 70 in Plainsboro, N.J. Angrisani served as the assistant secretary of labor under Ronald Reagan from 1980-1984 and later led a number of companies in the market research industry, including Harris Interactive, Greenfield Online and Total Research, through times of change.
• • •
Marketing software provider artegic AG has appointed Elena Schmidt as head of operations.
Analytics firm TapClicks has hired Kevin Thompson as chief financial officer and Marielle Smith as vice president of people success.
Video feedback company Voxpopme has added Eva Tsai, executive director of Google Cloud Marketing, to the company's board.
NPR has named Michael Smith as chief marketing officer.
Application development company OutSystems has appointed Robson Grieve as chief marketing officer.
Impact, a provider of partnership solutions, has appointed Michael Head as chief partnerships officer.
AI-driven marketing company Symphony RetailAI has appointed Daniel Lyons as head of CPG enterprise sales.
Creative Medical Research, a medical device market research company, has appointed Matt Higgs as head of insights.
According to Variety, Virgin Fest has named Steve Levy as chief marketing officer.
Research automation platform PureSpectrum has become a Diamond-Level Sponsor of the Marketing Research Education Foundation (MREF), a foundation dedicated to enhancing educational opportunities for children. Additionally, PureSpectrum’s CEO and founder Michael McCrary has joined the MREF board of directors.
Newton, Mass.-based Strategy Analytics has added Lisa Cooper as director, user experience strategies.
London-based marketing researcher Purdie Pascoe has added Stephen Potts as director.
According to AdExchanger, Dentsu Aegis Network has appointed Wendy Clark as global CEO beginning in September.
ESOMAR has appointed Jean-Marc Léger, CEO of Leger, and Rob Berger, managing director of Maru/Blue, as its new Canadian representatives.
Advertising technology company Adform has appointed Troels Philip Jensen as CEO.
Dallas-based ThinkWhy has added Jay Denton as senior vice president of business intelligence and chief innovation officer.
aptihealth, a behavioral health engagement company, has appointed Kori-Ann Taylor as chief marketing officer.
Marketing Resources Inc. has promoted Matt Early to director of client strategy.
Trinity Life Sciences has appointed former Decision Resources Group CEO Peter Hoenigsberg to its board of directors.
Women in Research has added three new members to its 2020 advisory board: Babita Earle, head of strategic partnerships at Zappi; Dyna Boen, previously COO of Survata; and Lynette Cooke, global CEO, health division at Kantar.
The Insights People has made a number of new hires and appointments. Dan Lucas becomes chief technology officer and Richard Craig, who formerly held the position of CTO, becomes chief data and information officer. Juha Remes joins as senior developer and Harrison Drew joins as IT support engineer. The company has added Tanya Sarakinis as U.S. business developer director and Rob Legnar joins later in April as European business development director. Finally, Rajan Sundavadra has been added as research executive in addition to Jenny Ryan as office manager and Dominic Holmes as junior content executive.
Publishers Clearing House has added Kurt Kendall as chief analytics officer.
Insurance company Pacific Life has appointed Kevin Kennedy as senior vice president, sales and chief marketing officer of the company’s retirement solutions division.
Consumer insights firm Ignite 360 has added Marie Becker as senior vice president.
Technology solution provider Veriglif has added Scott Miller, former CEO of Vision Critical, to its board of directors and Tiffany Johnson, senior director of data analytics and technology at Wunderman Thompson, to its advisory board.
According to Adweek, WeWork has named former Sprint exec Roger Solé as chief marketing officer.
Technology provider Cint has promoted Jessica Murdoch to vice president of sales and customer success for Australia and New Zealand. Murdoch will be based in the company’s Sydney offices.
Data collection company Schlesinger Group has acquired 20|20 Research, a qualitative research company based in the U.S. 20|20 CEO Isaac Rogers will become chief innovation officer for Schlesinger Group.
Marketing services provider Infogroup has partnered with Speedeon Data for its life event data. Additionally, the company has added Robert Konkos as vice president of its enterprise division.
Consulting firm Impendi Analytics has promoted Mark Perez and Chris Talbot to the role of principal.
Shopper intelligence company Catalina has added Robert Reich as chief financial officer.
Mobile insights firm Embee Mobile has appointed Michael Steinberg as vice president, client development for the company’s custom data division.
Merkle, a data-driven marketing company and part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, has appointed Craig Dempster as global CEO, effective June 1, 2020.
Medical technologies company Covalon Technologies Ltd. has added veteran researcher Martin Goldfarb to its board of directors.
Consumer insights platform Zappi has added two new client leaders to its team: Elena Protopapas, based in London; and Marek Slodyczka, based in New York.
GlobaLexicon, a market research and health care translation provider, has appointed Paul Williams as director, commercial and James Heneghan as director, client services.
Walmart has named former Target exec William White as chief marketing officer.
Burke, Inc. has promoted John E. Thomas to senior vice president, head of client services. Thomas will continue to serve as managing director of Burke’s health care practice.
Insights firm Kantar has hired Justin He as business development director to lead Kantar's Profiles division. He will be based out of Tokyo and will manage the Japanese team.
Data analytics company Nielsen has appointed Andrea Borelli as managing director for Nielsen Hong Kong and Macau.
Research consultancy Basis has launched in Chicago, adding Katie Buckley as managing partner for the Chicago office.
Vision Critical has added Christopher Chadwick as vice president of value engineering.
Marketing researcher GLocalMind Inc. has added Matthew Brown as senior vice president.
The Royal Statistical Society has appointed Stian Westlake as chief executive officer, effective July 2020.
Data analytics company Nielsen will appoint Jonathan Miller to the company's board of directors, effective June 2020.
According to Media Update, the Marketing Research Foundation has appointed Johann Koster as CEO.