Former Arbitron CEO Joins iPinion Advisory Board

In the US, Arbitron's former President & CEO Michael Skarzynski has returned to the market research industry as a member of the iPinion Advisory Board of consumer insight firm Dexterity.

Dexterity's iPinion app was launched last year and enables panelists to participate in surveys, in-store and ethnography studies, and mystery shops from their iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.

Skarzynski is currently the CEO of venture capital firm Red Lion Technologies, and also sits on the advisory boards of Cloudtran, me2youmobile, and Mobile2Metrics.

He resigned from ratings giant Arbitron a year ago, after it was alleged that he had told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the firm was ramping up training for those who use its PPM, and then falsely claimed to have attended a focus group which dealt with this training.

As part of the settlement relating to his resignation, Skarzynski received a $750k cash payoff, his health costs paid until the end of the year, and the offer of $100k to use for attorney fees and costs 'in connection with matters that culminated with his resignation'.

Before joining Arbitron, Skarzynski spent nine years in executive positions at Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs and AT&T Network Systems and five years at Motorola. Before this, he was the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development.

Pala Kuppusamy, founder and CEO of iPinion, comments: 'Michael's technology background and experience as a top executive in both market research and technology industries bring great value to the company. At iPinion, we are determined to work with great minds in the industry.'

Web site: www.ipinionsurveys.com .