People on the move

In the UK MMR Research Worldwide has hired former Design Perspectives research consultant Stergios Bititsios to lead its new end-to-end packaging research offering.

JRA Research (UK) has promoted Stuart Green, Mark Lasbury and Sarah Jones to associate directors.

Synovate has appointed Darlene Lee as managing director of retail and lifestyle research in Greater China. She joins from TNS.

Meta Brown has been appointed general manager of the text analytics division of LinguaSys (US).

The NPD Group has promoted Tim Bush to group president for the Asia Pacific region. In the US, Lora Morsovillo moves up to executive director of the office supplies data business. Kevin Gilbert, ex-SymphonyIRI, joins the firm as director of home improvement.

Consumer trends specialist Iconoculture has appointed Greg Hodge as director and marketing strategist for global retail, based in London, while Michael McCune becomes director and marketing strategist for Asia Pacific, based in the US. Hodge joins from Planet Retail; McCune was previously an independent consultant.

BritainThinks has appointed graduate Zoe Tyndall.

PSL Research London has appointed Emma Middleton, ex-Synovate Healthcare, as an account director.

RS Consulting Group (UK) has hired Niall Baker, formerly of MVA Consultancy, as senior research executive.

Ci Research (UK) has appointed Jo Iaconianni as client development executive, Helen Powell as research executive and Emma Gardiner as a research assistant.

Nurago has hired Julie Locklear as research director for North America and Caroline Henne in the same role for southwest Europe.

Tyler Douglas has been appointed vice president of business development at Vision Critical in Canada. He was previously director of strategic partnerships at The Active Network.

Brand Potential (UK) has hired Melissa Jackson as brand and innovation consultant. She was last at global branding agency 1HQ.

MarketVision in the US has promoted Lynn Leszkowicz and Prasad Samala to research managers within the marketing sciences group.

Shiona Davies and James Myring have been appointed to the board at BDRC Continental in the UK, with Davies responsible for B2B and finance, and Myring responsible for media and internet research. The firm’s operations business, Perspective Research Services, has also added new board members in the shape of Ger-Jan van der Maten (finance and management) and Tom Stacey (operations).

Confirmit has opened a new office in Cologne, which will be headed business development director Dan Starkey. He has been with the firm since 2007.

Research outsourcing firm Annik Technology Services has opened new offices in London and Sydney. The London office will be headed by VP of business development Alex Happe while business development manager Meena Kumari will take charge in Sydney.

Steve Bale has been named non-exec chairman for Greater China at WPP-owned brand specialist Added Value. He joins from Bates 141.

US online agency Invoke Solutions has added Julie Altman and Wayne Goodreau to its research team. Altman joins from Bernett Research while Goodreau was last at Communispace.