Kantar Names Efrain Ribeiro Chief Research Officer

Kantar has moved Efrain Ribeiro into the role of company-wide Chief Research Officer, replacing Renee Smith who is leaving to join Colorado-based research company GutCheck (see today's DRNO). Ribeiro will take up the new role on November 1st.

Ribeiro (pictured) was previously CRO of Kantar subsidiary Lightspeed Research, where he has worked since 2009. Prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer of Ipsos Interactive Service, Global Head of Access Panels at TNS NFO, and he spent more than sixteen years at Arbitron in operations and data acquisition roles.

In his new post, Ribeiro is tasked with driving both quality and innovation across the group's twelve operating companies, with a particular focus on mobile research. He will also act as a catalyst for the development of new products and solutions across the company.

Kantar President Wayne Levings comments: 'In Efrain, we have the ideal replacement for Renee. He has almost 40 years of experience and will be able to both pick up and continue to drive our research agenda. I'd like to thank Renee for her valuable contribution over the past five years. She has been an inspirational CRO and a very popular colleague and we all wish her well for the future'.

Web site: www.kantar.com .