Kantar Appoints Renee Smith as Chief Research Officer

LONDON, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Kantar has appointed Renee Smith, the former senior vice-president, global operations at Ipsos, as chief research officer. Smith will be based in the US and report to Kim Dedeker, chair, Kantar Americas.

In this newly created position, Smith – a recognised advocate of data quality and research innovation – will take a central role in the development and sustainability of Kantar's research capabilities. Working with Kantar's operating companies, she is briefed to improve the standard of deliverables and provide enhanced levels of actionability and added value to the group's clients.

Kantar has also announced the appointment of Tim Kelsall, previously global business leader for PepsiCo at Kantar company Millward Brown, as senior vice-president, client strategy, innovation and delivery. He will be based in London and also report to Dedeker.

Kelsall's primary responsibilities include taking a leadership role on Kantar's client service strategy development; partnering with Kantar's operating companies and Smith to identify priority areas for offer innovation; and developing integrated working models for those clients that use multiple Kantar services.

Kantar chief executive Eric Salama commented on the appointments: "As Kantar continues to evolve, we need to ensure that we innovate ahead of our competitors and that clients can access the best of our capabilities in a seamless, integrated manner.  

"Renee is recognised as one of the top industry experts in the strategic application of research to improve business decision-making. She will play a pivotal role in helping us achieve our goals for an integrated offer that adds unique competitive advantage," he said.

Dedeker added: "Tim has a detailed knowledge of client needs and expectations through his extensive experience in senior account-handling roles. Coupled with Renee's depth of technical expertise and commonsense approach to solving business challenges, we have a formidable team to help us identify and implement our strategy across a number of key issues."

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 95 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com

SOURCE Kantar