Daily Research News Online no. 4674 - Gartner Sells Off Custom Research

Gartner Sells Off Custom Research

October 11 2005

Gartner has sold its Custom Research division to Catalyst Acquisition Group. The new company, renamed GCR Custom Research and headed by Catalyst's Chair and CEO, will specialise in IT research and market tracking services. Gartner will focus on other areas of its business, while using GCR for its custom research needs.

GCR will be led by CEO Bob Falcone, who is also Chairman of Catalyst Acquisition Group. Falcone has 36 years' financial and operating experience, including 23 years in the professional services industry with Price Waterhouse, BearingPoint, and ten years as the CFO of Nike and 800.com.

The other key managers of the new company are as follows.

Hans Amell, Chief Strategy Officer. Amell, who is also CEO of Catalyst, has 27 years' marketing and change management experience with McKinsey, Allied Signal, and Ericsson.
Ross Barker, VP of Client Services, who has worked in market research for 15 years.
Joseph Berger, VP of sales and marketing, formerly of Gartner, Grey Advertising and Multex.com.
Scott Evans, VP of Methodology, who has 15 years' experience in consulting and research design.

GCR will offer a full range of custom research - from exploratory qualitative research to complex quantitative data modelling - and will remain in a strategic relationship with Gartner through an eight-year outsource contract.

Peter Sondergaard, Senior VP of Gartner Research describes the sale as 'a winning situation,' which will allow Gartner to 'focus on its core business of research and advisory services, while still using GCR can provide us with the custom research services that we need to support our clients'.

The new company is online at www.gcrinsight.com . Catalyst's web site is at www.catalystacquisition.com.

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