Stocker Returns as BMRA Chairman

Ivor Stocker has narrowly defeated Peter Hodgson in the first ever contested election for Chairman of the British Market Research Association (BMRA). Stocker was Chair in 2001-2, handing over the reins to IDA's Peter Jackling from whom he now resumes the title, thus completing a neat one-two.

The agenda for the election, for which voting closed yesterday, was dominated by attitudes to the proposed closer co-operation between the BMRA and fellow UK organisations the MRS and AURA. Both candidates said they supported the idea of a federated structure but they placed different emphasis on possible outcomes of the talks.

Hodgson, the BMRA's current Deputy Chairman, was quoted earlier this month on Research-Live as saying that a federation 'might in effect be little more than a takeover' since one of the bodies [the MRS] was 'larger and stronger than all the others put together'.

Stocker, a former Chairman of NOP, chose to emphasize the fact that it made sense to put issues such as the code of conduct, data protection issues and employer/employee legislation 'under one roof'. 'I support the Way Ahead Group in the suggestion that legislative tasks are best left to the professional secretariat of the MRS. However, there is also a role for the BMRA to represent the needs of companies'.

Stocker's previous stint in the Chair was marked by closer collaboration with the MRS, notably on directory publication. The BMRA's own annual directory of member agencies ceased publication in 2002 and the Association instead took a major section in the MRS' Research Buyers' Guide - this initiative was led from the BMRA side by Peter Jackling, who has also been a driving force behind the Way Ahead Group.

Jackling will remain on Council for one year in an ex-officio capacity. The BMRA web site is at www.bmra.org.uk

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