Thornton Takes Chairman's Role at Ops Firm Ayda

In London, all-in-one research operations platform Ayda has appointed former Cint exec Richard Thornton as Chairman and Advisor, following a successful investment round.

Ayda promises to streamline the end-to-end participant experience and address growing concerns around data privacy. The platform allows users to manage participants, documentation and incentives, and has been designed with the participant experience in mind, for agency teams of all sizes.

Thornton (pictured) joined Cint in 2009 and served over the next dozen years as its UK MD, Global Commercial Director, Global Sales and Operations Director, Deputy CEO, COO and Chief Commercial Officer, while the company grew from EUR 4m to EUR 100m in revenue and from 30 to 400 employees. He left a year ago for some 'planned time off with the family', and last month joined the backers of New York-based in-home product testing platform Highlight, alongside MR industry names including Momentive CEO Zander Lurie and Kelton CEO Tom Bernthal. Thornton also serves on the board of Manchester, UK-based consumer insights business Vypr, is an Operating Partner at Nordic-based seed investment fund J12 Ventures,and is the founder of Claret & You Consulting Limited, an advisory and services firm working with early-stage companies.

Ayda CEO and founder Shifra Cook welcomes the appointment of 'an industry heavyweight of Richard's calibre and experience' adding, 'His experience and knowledge of the industry will be exceptionally important as we continue to grow as a business'. Thornton comments: 'Through its best-in-class SaaS platform, Ayda gets to the heart of one of the great problems in qualitative research, the participant experience. With an amazing founder in Shifra, a very capable operational team, and a brilliant culture and significant market opportunity: it was a no brainer to join as Chairman and Advisor'.

Web site: www.helloayda.com .