Discovery Hires Quant Head from Virtual Surveys

In the UK, Discovery has appointed Alan Bredee as Associate Director, with specific responsibility for the agency's quantitative research services.

Founded in 1995 by researchers Ken and Trish Parker, Discovery comprises three businesses: research firm Discovery Research, viewing facilities Spectrum, and qual research tool The Thinking Shed.

The company recently reported a 28% increase in half year profit to £175k, and a 6.5% rise in turnover; taking the group's revenues to £1.46m in the first half of 2010.

Bredee joins with 13 years' experience of running complex large scale surveys, customer satisfaction research and segmentation across numerous sectors, including financial, social and government, transport, business, telecoms, retail and FMCG.

Most recently, he worked at Virtual Surveys, where he was responsible for project management of various online communities in the mobile telecoms, financial services and airline industries. Prior to this, he held senior positions at GfK NOP and MVA Consultancy.

'Quantitative research and integrated qual and quant has been part of Discovery's offering for some time now, but the appointment of Alan to head up this area is hugely significant, as it will really enable us to expand the services we offer our clients.' states MD, Trish Parker. 'It's great to welcome Alan to the team and we know that he will be a tremendous asset to the business.'

Web site: www.discoveryres.co.uk .