Asia Pacific

Richard Lowe is leaving his position as managing partner of The Leading Edge to launch his own marketing company.

United States & Canada

Laura Winn has been promoted from qualitative manager to vice president of client solutions at CMI. She has been with the firm for nine years. CMI has also hired Valerie Deaton as qual manager and Bill Douglas in an account management role. Deaton has previously worked for Roper Starch/Response Analysis Corporation, Matthew Greenwald & Associates and Zaicom Research Plus USA. Douglas was last at Envision Research where he was president. Lastly, the firm has hired Ryan Kocher, formerly of Ipsos, as VP of analytics.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has hired Frank Boulben as chief marketing officer. He was last at Vodafone Group where he was global director of commercial strategy.

Lieberman Research Group has appointed Sabera Hyderally as vice president responsible for sales and client service. She has previously worked for Ipsos, Synovate and IMS/DRSI.

Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro has joined the scientific board of advisors at Relevant Data Corp, where he will serve as senior technology strategist. He is the founder of Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.

The Retail Feedback Group has named Brian Numainville as a principal. He joins from food distribution company Nash Finch where he was senior director for research and public relations.

Kristi Lowe has been promoted to vice president at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. She joined the firm in 2003.

United Kingdom

Optimisa Research has hired Jo Smith as qualitative associate director. She was previously at environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy where she held the role of head of research.

Tom Skilbeck has been appointed head of online communities at River Research, joining from InSites Consulting. The agency has also promoted Zoe Best to research director, where she will head up the firm’s brand strategy and innovation offer.

Bax Interaction has appointed Pippa Corbett as marketing projects director. She joins from Fresh Results in Marketing.