Brand Potential has appointed Charlie Skinner as client director for insight and brand strategy. He joins from Haines McGregor where he was head of insight.

The Times Union newspaper has named Patti Hart as cross-media business development director. She was previously director of web analytics for Times Union publisher Hearst Newspapers.

Specialist child, youth and family research agency Platypus has hired Kate Siddall as associate director and Phil Cliff as research manager. Siddall was previously with Optimisa Research while Cliff was a detective with the Police Child Protection Unit.

Penny Mesure, a former director with pharma and biotech research agency Observant, has joined Philips as project manager for brand research.

Cint, a research software and service firm, has named Stefan Hök as senior vice president of Cint Direct.

Data collection and fieldwork agency Schlesinger Associates has promoted Eric Hellman to business development director for online solutions, Jason Horine to director of online qualitative solutions and Jeffrey Taylor to San Francisco facility director. Debbie Schlesinger-Hellman, an executive vice president, takes on responsibility for the firm’s operations in Phoenix.

Ipsos Health has appointed Mike Holland as research director in the pharmaceutical practice. He joins from Metro Research, and previously worked for Harris Interactive, ORC International and BDRC.

GfK Custom Research North America has hired Angelina Villarreal as vice president of multicultural research. Villarreal previously served as vice president of research at Creative Response & Research, where she led Hispanic market and multicultural consulting and research projects, and as vice president of research and development at Safeco Insurance.

Double Helix has appointed Hollie Durrance and Gavin Harper as research manager and trainee research executive within the strategic market research team, headquartered in London. Durrance spent the past four years at Insight Research Group while Harper is a recent graduate.