New MRA President Looks for Partnership

The USA's Marketing Research Association has announced a new President, Joe Ottaviani. Already strongly involved in MRA's Partnership initiative with other MR associations, Ottaviani sees progress towards 'a single voice representing the profession' as a key objective.

Ottaviani, who is Senior VP / General Manager of Burke, Inc., officially took office at the trade organisation's Annual Conference in Boston earlier this month and says his number one objective is to look at ways of consolidating the number of associations: 'The ultimate goal is to have a single voice representing the profession'. This comes at a time when leading MR association CASRO has withdrawn from the joint initiative CMOR over differences in response to privacy legislation.

Other items high on the new leader's agenda include implementation of the new Strategic Plan and a proactive stance on protecting the MR profession, along with the continuing development of MRA's Certification Program which is of personal interest to Ottaviani as an advocate of higher education: 'I think that certification is a very important thing in the upcoming year and years ahead. It's very important to get that program up and running'.

Ottaviani has been an MRA member for 20 years and has served on MRA's Board of Directors.

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