Alistair Leathwood Joins IRI as APAC CCO

TNS Australia's Chief Commercial Officer Alistair Leathwood has left the company to join consumer data giant IRI as Chief Commercial Officer (APAC), based in Sydney.

Founded 40 years ago, Chicago-headquartered IRI claims to have the largest repository of disconnected purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on its on-demand cloud-based predictive analytics and insights platform, IRI Liquid Data. Leathwood (pictured) joins after five years at Kantar TNS Australia, where he latterly ran the whole business, with line management of 110 employees across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

His background includes senior roles in the UK, USA and Australia, having worked for UK firms Thomson Publishing and Datamonitor, then served as MD at UK firm FreshMinds Research before moving to Australia and joining Colmar Brunton as Joint MD. He joined TNS Australia, part of WPP's Kantar Consumer Insights group, in early 2014 as Executive Director in charge of the Sydney team.

In his new position, Leathwood is responsible for all IRI's client interaction across the region; working closely with a team of insight professionals with clients in the FMCG, OTC healthcare, retailers and media sectors. President and CEO Andrew Appel commented: 'Alistair is a passionate people leader who has dedicated his career to combining data, expertise and consultancy approaches to build strong and mutually valuable client relationships. He will be a valuable addition to our organisation, and we look forward to benefitting from the expertise and experience he will bring to our business.'

Web site: www.iriworldwide.com .