Stevens (pictured) was most recently in charge of the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) team at Simpson Carpenter, which he joined in March this year. He previously spent “several years” at Research International, where he was global account director for Vodafone and led the financial services team after the firm was merged with TNS.

At Vision Critical he will be responsible for growing the UK team and assisting clients with full-service research design, analysis and data interpretation.

Ed Morawski, Vision Critical’s president and chief operating officer, said: “Mike will bring an added dimension to our already strong team here in London. He understands this is a new era for market research – one that requires better, more engaging methods of collecting customer data and researchers that are adept at identifying real customer insights.”