Synovate has named Jim Quilty as vice president of its travel and leisure group in the US. He previously led the travel practices at Ipsos and Harris Interactive. He will be responsible for building Synovate’s business in this sector, managing the overall direction of client assignments and consulting with clients on study design.

Julie Dexter Berg becomes the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of US grocery and pharmacy chain Supervalu. Most recently Berg was managing partner of Brandmaking, a brand and customer strategy firm. In her new role she will report to Craig Herkert, CEO and president. Her responsibilities include advertising, research and analytics.

Schlesinger Associates has announced its new client development team. Existing members of the senior management team will work together to “work in partnership with clients and understand their goals”. The team comprises Amber Leila Jones Esco, executive vice president for business development; Debby Schlesinger-Hellman, executive vice president at the firm’s Los Angeles office; Pam Lintner, vice president for client development and research and Sue Maldonado, global marketing director.

Simon Gedman joins McCallum Layton as senior research executive. He was previously in a similar role at Quaestor. McCallum Layton also announced a number of promotions. David Power and Andrew Shaw become senior research executives in the quant and qual teams respectively. Lowri Davies becomes research executive in the b2b team.

Nicole Ndoumbe-Myers has been appointed head of Ipsos ASI for South Africa and the sub-Saharan region. She will be based at the firm’s Randburg office, relocating from her current base at the company’s Paris HQ. She was most recently the tracking director for Ipsos ASI in Europe.

Universal McCann Malaysia has appointed Padma Ramaswamy as associate director for its marketing consultancy service. An ex-Nielsen man, Ramaswamy worked with clients including ING, Microsoft, Vodaphone and P&G.

Andy Roberts has been promoted to project manager at Ci Research. Roberts will be responsible for the ongoing management of research projects and ensuring that they “meet and add value to the clients brief and deliver actionable results”. Roberts was recently involved in the strategy for engaging hard-to-reach groups in the coming census for the Office for National Statistics.