People on the move

ActusMR, a sales management consultancy aimed at market research agencies, has appointed Jay Gordon as executive vice president and chief financial strategist. Gordon comes to the Texas-based firm from PhoneBase Research where he was general manager. He will work with ActusMR clients on the analysis and streamlining of their operational processes.

Atlanta marketing research company CMI has hired Jodie Santaniello as senior business development representative. She previously worked for focus group technology firm FocusVision Worldwide, where she spent more than five years as sales and client relations manager.

Hispanic news and information provider ImpreMedia has moved Olga Casabona to the newly-created role of vice president of audience and market insights, putting her in charge of all proprietary and syndicated research for the print and online publisher. She has been with the firm since 2003, latterly as corporate director of research.

Harris Interactive has appointed Mike de Vere as senior vice president of sales and marketing. He will report to Frank Forkin, Harris’s president of North American client services. De Vere joins the agency from Radius Financial where he served as chief operations officer. Prior to that he was executive director of proprietary research at JD Power & Associates.

London-based strategy consultancy Cognosis has promoted John Hosking to partner, joining Richard Brown, Michael Laird and Mark Mathews. Hosking has been with the firm for four years and previously held marketing roles at Guinness, Diageo and Barclays.

E-Tabs, maker of report automation software for research agencies, has added to its sales teams in the US and UK. Steven Werner has been appointed vice president of business development in Chicago, while Paul Morgan has joined the company in London.

Illuminas associate director Gordon Smith is relocating from the UK to the US to join the agency’s team in New York.

Interactive marketing agency R/GA London has hired Jonny Longden as director of analytics and accountability. He was previously analytics director for Syzygy UK.

Former GfK Starch senior vice president Phil Sawyer has joined Conversion Associates, a Massachusetts-based business intelligence firm, as a strategic partner focused on advertising performance measurement.

Database marketing agency Merkle has named Sandeep Kharidhi as analytics practice leader for insurance and wealth management clients. He joins the firm following stints at Acxiom and ChoicePoint.