UK-based research agency Acritas has appointed JULIANA GARCIA as director of strategy and business development for the Americas, SARAH CHISMAN-DUFFY as business development manager in the UK and MICHELLE NESBITT-BURRELL as marketing manager. Garcia, who will be based in New York, has previously worked with law firms including NautaDutilh and Allen & Overy.

Principles Research in the UK has hired CHRISTIANA WRIGHT as senior research executive, RACHEL BAILEY as senior researcher and recent graduates NICOLE KENDRICK and LAUREN ELLIOTT as research executives. Bailey was previously market research manager at Provident Financial while Wright worked in the customer loyalty department at eBay International in Germany.

THORSTEN PETER has joined the management team of German agency ServiceRating, alongside Oliver Gaedeke. He previously spent 10 years with GfK, working on loyalty research. The agency specialises in analysing and rating service companies.

RAFAL GAJDAMOWICZ has joined UK marketing insight agency Fast.Map as a director. His experience includes a three-year spell as executive vice president at Ugam Research and eight years at Ronin Corporation, where he was most recently general manager.

UK marketing agency CleverTouch has appointed JAMES SMITH as head of data analytics. Smith was previously a project manager at research agency Canadean.

Indian research agency MMRSS has hired two new ex-clientside managers to work in its banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) teams in Asia and the Middle East. The firm said that PANKAJ KATERA used to work for the UAE arm of one of the Middle East’s largest investment banks while KUNAL PANCHAMIA worked in one of Asia’s largest banks.

TIM MACDERMID has been appointed vice president of global sales at QSR International, which makes the NVivo survey tool. He will be based in Australia and focus on expanding sales of NVivo in the Americas, EMEA and Australasia.