Carter was previously managing director of Kantar’s US Worldpanel business and has also worked in key account leadership and general management roles with The Nielsen Company, IRI and TNS.

She will report directly to Vision Critical’s UK managing director Mike Stevens and will be responsible for helping the firm achieve its objective of doubling its UK revenue year on year.

Alongide managing teams, she will also directly lead specific European and global key accounts for the firm, which recently announced a $20m investment from OMERS Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Canadian pension funds giant OMERS.

Vision Critical’s new CEO Scott Miller estimates that currently money spent on online community panels accounts for between 2% and 3% of global market research spend worth $33.5bn. He told Research that rather than spending the private equity cash on establishing local offices in each country, the firm’s strategy will continue to focus on finding and working with local partners to sell their products – as it has already done successfully in Asia and Latin America.

Miller was recently promoted to the role of group CEO from October. Founder Andrew Reid will continue to lead the firm’s innovation and software development activities.