GfK Names CEE-META and APAC Regional Leaders

GfK has named four senior leaders for its operations in the CEE-META (Central and Eastern Europe Middle East, Turkey and Africa) and APAC (Asia and the Pacific) regions.

Sujata Mehta joins the company as Managing Director of GfK Consumer Experiences Malaysia, from Nielsen, where she was Regional Director for Brand Health Studies, responsible for the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa markets.

In Singapore, Stephen Potts (www.mrweb.com/drno1k/news1814.htm ) joins as Regional Lead Healthcare for Asia, tasked with developing a team to build health research solutions specifically for the region. Most recently, he worked at Kantar Health for a decade, latterly as MD of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions, while also serving as the company's Global Head of Market Research. Prior to this, Potts worked at TNS Healthcare, Synovate and NOP World.

Sara van der Wildt has been promoted to the role of Head of GfK Consumer Experiences Middle East, having previously served as Regional Operations Director CEE-META since joining the firm in 2010. Before this, she held consumer insight management roles at Unilever, Kraft Foods and Reckitt Benckiser.

Finally, Caroline Henne has been named as Regional Business Development Director Digital Market Intelligence for CEE-META. She was previously responsible for opening the first London office for usability research specialist nurago (acquired by GfK last summer), and then joined the International Client Services team, which launched GfK's digital strategy into markets across South and West Europe.

Debra Pruent, who is COO and responsible for the Consumer Experiences sector, comments: 'These appointments give an important indication of our commitment to further strengthen our activities in Asia and the Middle East, and to support the shared utilization of our existing data, research solutions and resources. In 2012 for example, group sales of the APAC region already showed 29.7% growth. With 17 percentage points, it is the strongest region in terms of organic growth.'

Web site: www.gfk.com .