Grant was most recently in charge of P&G’s $8.5bn retail grocery business and has also served as vice president, general manager and chief channel officer for the company’s North American grocery division. Prior to this she was global buisness director of beauty, market strategy and planning for foods, beverages and pet nutrition.

Parise said: “Winning with retailers is about establishing SymphonyIRI as a differentiated strategic partner. Beverly’s extensive experience working with C-level retailer executives will be essential to enhancing our retail execution value proposition.”

Grant’s appointment comes as SymphonyIRI announces an alliance with digital media technology firm PulsePoint to help CPG marketers plan, buy and measure the in-store sales impact from digital advertising. The deal will enable marketers to design hyper-targeted audience segments based on offline purchase behaviour and then measure how their online ad campaigns helped products move off grocery shelves and into shopping baskets.