People on the move

The National Readership Survey in the UK has appointed Craig Houston as head of client services and Julie Gannon as account manager. Houston was previously business development director at TalentNation while Gannon was research project manager at the Periodical Publishers Association.

German research agency MSR Consulting has promoted Torben Tietz to the role of partner with responsibility for customer intelligence. He has been with the firm since 2002.

Rishi Varma has been appointed president and CEO of US pharma marketing research agency AlphaDetail. Varma co-founded the firm nine years ago and has held a number of senior roles there since.

The Outdoor Media Association in Australia has appointed Charmaine Moldrich as its new chief executive. She joins from the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority where she was executive director for marketing and events.

UK customer insight and database management firm Transactis has hired Peter Thompson as commercial director, Lisa Chittenden as data strategy director and Barry Smith as client development director. Thompson was previously at Experian, Chittenden joins from Acxiom and Smith was formerly at JaywingDMG.

Alex Grist has been appointed research manager for the commercial sector at eDigitalResearch in the UK. She joins from Screwfix where she was responsible for multi-channel research. The firm has also promoted Steve Brockway to associate director in retail, Kat Hounsell to associate director for technology and media, Lloyd Viney to associate director for commercial and Duncan Grist to associate director in the technical team.

Kristen Darby has been appointed interim CEO at the Marketing Research Association in the US, following the departure of CEO Larry Brownell. She has been with the association since 2007 as chief operation officer.

Synovate France has hired Marc Papanicola as managing director. He has spent 12 years in the industry and was most recently a director at TNS Sofres.

Full-service US agency Burke has promoted Jeff Miller to president and CEO, replacing Michael Baumgardner who is retiring later this year. Miller has been with the firm since 1987 and has previously served as chief operating officer.

Qual researcher and former florist Sally Page has launched a new agency dedicated to the garden and flower sector – Blooming Research. She has written five books about gardens and flower shops.

Rebecca Ray has joined the analyst team at US business research and analysis firm Common Sense Advisory. She was previously managing editor at the Localisation Industry Standards Association.

UK report automation agency E-Tabs has appointed Ken Brewster as a director. Brewster, who will eventually lead the firm’s North American office, previously worked as director of data delivery at Ipsos Mori.