Thornton to Lead UK Entry for Cint

Former Ciao Europe MD Richard Thornton has joined Sweden-based panels firm Cint as UK MD, managing its expansion into the UK market. He will start by opening an office in London and recruiting sales and support staff.

The firm's range of online research solutions include Cint Panel Exchange (CPX), a marketplace for trading sample access. The company launched its first overseas office in Atlanta, Georgia in January 2008 and since then has opened six further offices in the USA, Russia, Germany, Spain and Denmark. Its 1.5 million panelists span more than 30 countries.

Thornton resigned from Ciao Surveys last month after five years at the firm, saying that 'it was a natural time to move on'. He joined in 2003 as a Senior Research Sales Consultant, charged with establishing the London office, and was promoted to Director for Client Development, UK/Ireland/Australia shortly after and VP Client Development Europe in 2007. In November of that year he became one of two MDs of Ciao Surveys, responsible for sales. Before Ciao he worked for research and marketing consultancy CAP Ventures. He graduated from London Metropolitan University in HR and International Marketing.

Cint CEO and founder Bo Mattsson says the appointment is 'an exciting opportunity for Cint to become one of the major providers of online research solutions in the second biggest research market in the world. We expect Cint software to become the main platform for efficient online research in the UK, as it already is in Scandinavia and Russia.'

Thornton described the move as 'a fantastic opportunity to work with an extremely ambitious company that genuinely wants to change the face of the online research industry through innovative and unique survey tools and technology.'

Web site: www.cint.com .