People on the move

Financial services provider AXA UK has appointed CHERYL TONER as group marketing and communication director. Incumbent director OLIVIER MARIEE has been moved to France to take up the role of group marketing and distribution director. Toner is currently the firm’s strategic marketing director in the UK and will take up her new role in November.

HETTIE HAN has been named director of healthcare research at KantarHealth’s office in Beijing. She was previously at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she was global oncology marketing research manager.

US customer intelligence systems firm Detectent has appointed MICHELLE KEIM as senior scientist, where she will be responsible for developing the firm’s advanced analytical solutions. Keim was previously head of the advanced analytics group at mobile provider T-Mobile.

CHRISTINE SVOBODA has joined International Communications Research in the US as vice president of business development. She previously held the same role at GfK Roper.

ComScore CEO MAGID ABRAHAM has been named as the recipient of the 2009 American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award. Recipients of the award are individuals in the industry who have demonstrated “outstanding leadership and sustained impact on advancing the evolving profession of marketing research over an extended period of time”. Previous winners include Art Nielsen, David Ogilvy and Daniel Yankelovich.

UK-based Marketing Sciences has hired ANNA HERRON as an associate director in the consumer research team. She previously worked for Bread & Butter Research in Australia and SGA-Research International in London. Marketing Sciences has also hired ANDY SCOTT as senior research executive, and PENNY SCOTT, SADIE BUCKINGHAM, KATE BARKER and NATALIE JARED as research executives, working across the consumer, retail and healthcare teams.

TOM O’DWYER has left The Futures Company to take up the position of account director at trend-based market research agency SCB Partners in London. He will be working on key accounts including Burger King and British Petroleum, heading up research projects and providing strategic recommendations.

MMR and Qubiq-Online have made a number of hires and promotions following the merging of the previously separate businesses into one earlier this year. CHARLOTTE AMBROSE joins as a trainee research executive, while JEN DUNSTER and JONATHAN OAKELEY have been appointed trainee project executives. PAUL ROBSON joins as a trainee survey creator, ROMAN LUTKIEWICZ has been named trainee database spec writer and MICHAEL BAKER joins as office assistant. CHRISTINE BARNAGAUD has been promoted to head of sensory research; JAMES GODFREY has been promoted to solutions developer; ROSIE PRAGNELL and CLARE FRANKLIN have been promoted to research manager. MICHELLE DA SILVA, SUSANNAH CROUCHER and SIMON HARRIS move up to senior research executive; HOLLIE BOYD and JOANNA ROGOWSKA have been promoted to research executive and CLARE JONES has been promoted to project executive.

Heinz has hired Jim Beam marketer PAULA JORDAN as marketing director for its beans, kids and meals products. She will also lead the consumer insights team.