Optimisa Hires Business Development Specialist

In London, former TNS busdev and research consultant Barbara Wilmot has joined marketing services holding group Optimisa as the firm's new Business Development Director.

She brings 25 years of business and research experience to the role, including the development of commercial opportunities for TNS for nearly 10 years, and subsequently via her own firm BW Consulting, which she launched in 2001. During the past six years, Wilmot has completed a number of assignments for Kantar-owned Research International, Millward Brown, KMR and BMRB, as well as for organisations such as Ipsos-MORI, GfK, Aegis and Censydiam. Her main focus has been on identifying revenue streams and pipelines for new business, and implementing training schemes to improve client service and business development.

Optimisa CEO Simon Dannatt said of Wilmot's appointment: 'That we have been able to attract someone of Barbara's calibre and experience speaks volumes for how far Optimisa has come in a short space of time. With Barbara's proven business development methodologies deployed and put into practice across our research businesses, I'm ambitious about what we can achieve in 2008.'

The Optimisa Group comprises kae: marketing intelligence nxtMOVE, and Andrew Irving Associates, and the recently acquired EQ Group, which itself includes Buckingham Research Associates, Quaestor Research & Marketing Strategists and Summit Studios (www.mrweb.com/drno/news7443.htm ).

Web site: www.optimisaplc.com.