Change at the Top for RI

Mark Cranmer, who replaced Roger Banks as Global CEO of Research International only last year, will himself be leaving the post by the end of 2007. Bob Meyers, currently completing his term as CEO of Millward Brown, will replace him.

Cranmer is a veteran of ad agencies including BBH, Publicis and Starcom. At the time his appointment to RI was announced, in February '06, Kantar CEO Eric Salama described him as 'passionate about developing talent within his businesses and intolerant of average work'.

His short time in charge at RI has been controversial, and included a major restructuring exercise in November in which a number of UK-based directors were made redundant.

Meyers announced back in April (DRNO www.mrweb.com/drno/news6658.htm ) that he would be relinquishing his CEO role at Millward Brown (MB) to Eileen Campbell but at the time said he was likely to take another role within Kantar - Salama described him as 'a superb CEO and as good a colleague as you could hope to find.' Meyers led MB for a decade, having joined it in 1986 when the US company Ad Factors, which he ran for 11 years, became part of the MB Group.

On 1 October Campbell will assume sole charge of Millward Brown and Meyers will take up the RI role, based in Chicago. Cranmer will leave the company at the end of the year after a period of transition.

Salama says RI has 'changed for the better' over the past 18 months, becoming 'more client-centric, more entrepreneurial' and delivering more consistently to its clients; and that the process will now accelerate. 'Bob has demonstrated his leadership skills and ability in all of these areas as he steered Millward Brown to being one of the most successful companies in the industry and has the added benefit of being based in the US where RI's business and brand are not as strong as they deserve to be.'

Meyers comments: 'I am delighted to become a part of one of the world's great research brands and look forward to working with a superb team to the benefit of RI clients.'

RI is online at www.research-int.com and Kantar at www.kantargroup.com.

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

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