BzzAgent Founder Dave Balter to Leave dunnhumby?

In Boston, Dave Balter is said to be leaving his role as Global Head of Investments at Tesco-owned data company dunnhumby, to become CEO of jobseeker skills testing service Smarterer - a company he co-founded.

Before joining dunnhumby in 2013, Balter (pictured) set up social media marketing and analysis company BzzAgent, which Tesco acquired in 2011. After the takeover, Balter continued to work at BzzAgent as Executive Chairman, and more recently he launched seed-stage investment fund dunnhumby Ventures, to support companies ''embracing data for innovations along the consumer's path to purchase'. Earlier in his career, Balter co-founded training company Intelligent.ly, and helped launch WOMMA (the Word of Mouth Marketing Association).

Separately, at the beginning of the month, Sky News reported that venture capital firm TPG has approached Tesco with a c.£2bn bid to buy dunnhumby. Tesco is currently being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Financial Reporting Council, to find out how the retail giant managed to overestimate its first half profit by £263m, and pending this investigation, payoffs to former CEO Phil Clarke and Finance Director Laurie McIlwee have been withheld.

Web sites: www.dunnhumby.com and www.smarterer.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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