Obituary: Michael Kenyon

Michael Kenyon, who died aged 72 in December after a long illness, spent nearly fifty years in the research industry and was MrWeb's Director of US Operations between 2003 and 2008, helping to establish the site and the Daily Research News service Stateside.

Born in 1943 in Brooklyn, NY, Michael left Northeastern University with a BS in Marketing and Advertising in 1966, and spent the next dozen years working in a variety of research and analytics roles. He rose rapidly in these early days in New York - after two years as a Research Analyst at Cunningham & Walsh Advertising Inc. he joined Market Facts, Inc. (now part of Ipsos) as a Senior Study Director, and just three years later became a Vice President at Decisions Center, later part of RI. VP / Director roles followed at MR firm Herbert Epstein and at Aulino Baen, but by this time he was ready to try his own venture, and in 1978 he formed full service firm Projections, Inc. Marketing Research & Counsel, which he ran for the next 23 years, working from Keene, New Hampshire.

He married Eve (pictured) in Vermont in 1975, and they were together for forty years.

Michael was also active in US research associations, in particular CASRO, where he served as Board and Executive Committee member and chaired several committees. These roles, together with his interest in b2b and international research, resulted in many visits to ESOMAR Congresses in Europe, and to BIG conferences in the UK.

Peter Jackling, then Chairman of the UK trade association ABMRC, became close friends with Michael. He recalls: 'Michael was just a lovely person, easy to laugh with, and with a great sense of humour and a keen mind. At ESOMAR conferences he was known affectionately as 'The nice little American with the big smile'. He was passionate about improving the profile and quality of research internationally - and equally passionate about having fun with Eve and his dogs'.

In 2001 he returned to corporate life as VP in the Custom Research division of technology consulting giant Gartner in Portland, Oregon, and two years later he joined MrWeb as Director of US Operations. During the next five years, Michael worked with MrWeb's staff in London and with then-Editor Nicky Hardy, and was instrumental in raising the US profile of DRNO from a little-known publication with perhaps a few hundred subscribers, to a widely read and much-quoted daily source, with around half as many subscribers as it had in the UK. The momentum he established has continued and the two audiences are roughly equal today.

From 2008-13 Michael again worked as an independent, before forced into retirement by illness - he was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia and given about six months to live, although with typical stubbornness he survived two more years.

Steve Cook, EVP of Target Research Group, comments: 'Michael was one of my oldest and closest friends. I worked for him at Market Facts, starting in 1968. We became good friends, and he was the best man at my wedding. Despite the distance between us, we kept in touch on a regular basis'.

MrWeb's Nick Thomas says, 'I'd describe Michael as 'irrepressible - mostly in a good way'. I hope he'd laugh at that because his complex sense of humour was certainly irrepressible. A gentleman, but with plenty of opinions, he had a few sharp things to say about some of the people he'd worked with and for, but they were delivered with such subtlety and cheerfulness that it often took me a few seconds to realise they weren't entirely compliments. That made them funnier...

'He had a lot of time for us Brits, and made many long-lasting friendships with UK researchers, extending beyond his time in research, although his roots were firmly Over There. Just the combination you need to establish something as a transatlantic service, so we were lucky to have him on board when we did'.

Following the tragic death of their son just over a year ago, Michael is survived by Eve, who teaches art and looks after the dogs. He is also survived by a daughter from a previous marriage, a stepson, and four grandchildren.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.