BMG Research promotes Simon Wood to MD

Dawn Hands was previously managing director, and has subsequently become chief executive officer at the company.

Wood (pictured) has been at BMG Research for four years as head of research, and will be focused in his new role on building the company’s data-led insights and public sector research work.

According to Wood, BMG Research will look to expand its current sector specialisms, including business-to-business, evaluation, education and crime and justice, as well as issues such as energy and net zero, industrial strategy and transport.

Other prior roles held by Wood include head of commercial strategy and offer/head of design and insight at Kantar, as well as the company’s UK head of customer experience, and other positions at public sector consultancy Pye Tait and GfK.

Birmingham-headquartered BMG Research has a team of almost 100 researchers based in Birmingham, Glasgow and London, and was acquired by engineering and environmental consultancy RSK earlier this year.

Wood said: “We were the fastest growing individual agency in 2022, and I intend us to continue that trajectory through expanding both our client footprint and the depth of our relationships.

“We are strongly committed to a level of technology-driven innovation, which enables us to develop new platforms and approaches in support of client goals, including semi-automated solutions, video surveys and artificial intelligence.

“We recognise, however, that the crucial review of data and insights can only be reliably achieved with the human factor and its critical judgement, so our analysts and client teams will remain at the core of everything we do.”