Fiftyfive5 Hires Two for Melbourne Team

Australian insights consultancy Fiftyfive5 has hired former Kantar ADs Sharon Blair and Roger Kong as new members of its Melbourne team.

Fiftyfive5 was launched in 2010 by three former directors of The Leading Edge: Karen Phillips, Mark Sundquist and Darren Kemp. Two years ago, the firm merged with brand development and consumer insights agency GalKal, and the combined business now has a team of more than 135 staff, based in offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore.

Blair joins with more than twenty years' experience in the market research industry, including both client and agency insights roles and customer strategy positions in Australia and South Africa. At Kantar, Colmar Brunton and Research International, she tackled a range of client issues, and her experience included commercial, not-for-profit, social and market research in multi-country project environments. Kong is a quantitative researcher with skills in managing customised projects and ongoing performance monitoring across a variety of industries. He also recently worked for Kantar as an Associate Director, specialising in services sector research, having begun his career at Colmar Brunton, where he worked for more than five years.

Commenting on the appointment, Matt Pearce, who leads the Melbourne business, said: 'Our business has significant traction in Melbourne and we're confident that will only increase as the road to recovery continues. We're very proud of our talented and growing Melbourne team'.

Web site: www.fiftyfive5.com .