Senior Shake-up at Synovate

Michalis Michael, former MD of Synovate in Central Europe and Russia, is now head of the company's online and panel business, and former Western Europe CEO Peter Huijboom is the company's new CEO Global Client Relationships. Meanwhile, Bruce Wells and Paul Cooney have been appointed as Chief Information Officers.

Michael has moved to Chicago from Warsaw to become Head of ViewsNet, Synovate's global online and panel marketing & operations division. He joined the former MEMRB (now Synovate) in 1995, and was responsible for bringing online research capabilities to Synovate in Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

His new role will involve setting up a data collection service, including global online panels and a central facility for hosting, analysing and reporting online survey data. He will also be responsible for supplying best practice guidelines and training in online research to all Synovate's global operations.

ViewsNet assumed responsibility for the company's existing US and Canadian panels earlier this year. The number of panel households now stands at 1,450,000, of which one million have Internet access. Under Michael's direction, Synovate is planning to expand its panels in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong. It hopes to have more than 120,000 new panellists in Western Europe by the end of August.

Huijboom previously led Synovate's Netherlands, Belgium and Germany operations, and was the head of international business development for the rest of Western Europe. In his new role, which involves helping service a growing group of multinational clients, he will report to Synovate worldwide CEO Adrian Chedore. He will continue to be based in Amsterdam and remains chairman for Synovate Netherlands.

Wells, the newly appointed CIO for Synovate, was formerly head of ViewsCast - the company's automated data collection division. As CIO, Wells will provide IT leadership, and ensure that technologies are fully integrated across the company. He has 15 years of telecoms and technical marketing experience, having previously worked as an engineer and technical marketing manager for Motorola. He will be moving from London to Chicago to take up the new post.

Cooney, named as CIO Enterprise Solutions, will continue to be based in London. His main responsibility will be to implement Synovate's Wisdom project - a global project database, financial and management reporting system. Cooney has more than 12 years' experience of managing large global projects and previously ran his own consulting business.

The company's web site is at www.synovate.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.