Kantar Fills Senior Strategy Roles

WPP's insight division Kantar has appointed panel specialist Renee Smith as Chief Research Officer in the US, and has moved Tim Kelsall to the role of SVP, Client Strategy, Innovation and Delivery at its brand research division Millward Brown, in the UK.

In her newly created position, Smith will play a central role in the development of Kantar's research capabilities. She joins from Ipsos where she worked as SVP, Global Operations. For the ten years prior to this she was VP, Panel Quality at Harris Interactive, where she developed operational processes and implemented best practices for increasing respondent participation, combining data from mixed mode studies, and improving data quality and panel management.

Kelsall was previously Global Business Leader for PepsiCo, at Kantar firm Millward Brown. He joined the company in 1996, since when he has held several senior roles within Kantar.

His new responsibilities include leading development of Kantar's client service strategy; partnering with group operating companies; and working with Smith to identify areas for 'offer innovation' and develop integrated working models for those clients that use multiple group services.

Both report to Kim Dedeker, Chair of Kantar Americas.

'Tim has a detailed knowledge of client needs and expectations through his extensive experience in senior account-handling roles,' states Dedeker. '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.'

Web sites: www.kantar.com and www.millwardbrown.com .