High Profile Appointments for MRII Board

Fresh from appointing a new Board President last week, West Dover, VT-based nonprofit insight industry education and training institute MRII has announced the appointment of four Board members: Tatyana Bacon, Katie Gross, Finn Raben and Stan Sthanunathan.

Last week Jonathan Lepisto of U.S. Bank, a Board member since 2017, was appointed to the President's role, succeeding Paul Hunter of Miami University.

Bacon is Head of Consumer Insights at Zaxby's, lectures on research practices at SCAD and UGA and is a graduate of the UGA-MRII curriculum. She comments: 'I have a life-long love of learning which I am excited to share with future generations of insights professionals through my new role with MRII. Consumer expectations are ever-evolving - the education and training that MRII provides can help researchers stay a step ahead, as well as contributing to the growth of the market research field'.

Gross is currently Chief Customer Officer at Suzy, a role which includes managing Center of Excellence teams to provide best-in-class customer service; and earlier in her twenty-year MR career worked at Mintel, Stylus, Avilton Foods, Cint and Toluna. She is also an Insights Association board member. She comments: 'I'm excited to apply my industry experience as a new board member of the MRII, and help to educate and build excitement within the next generation of market research, with a particular lens on digital adoption, automation and AI'.

Finn Raben was ESOMAR Director General for thirteen years and previously held leadership roles at Synovate and TNS. Raben says of his new role, 'I have long been an ardent supporter of MRII's mission, and was an ex-officio Board member during my tenure at ESOMAR. I am delighted to be more involved with the institution as a board member once again. I look forward to helping ensure that the next generation of researcher understands both the traditional tenets of research as well as their fit-for-purpose applications to the digital age - be that establishing simple respondent engagement principles or looking at the ethical ground rules of AI'.

Sthanunathan was previously EVP of Consumer Market Insights at Unilever and is currently CEO of i-Genie.AI Inc. He also served as VP of Marketing Strategy and Insights for The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, heading up the function on a global basis. He brings more than 30 years of international MR experience to his new role, of which he says, 'It's a thrilling time to be in the market research field, with new technology transforming the way we uncover insights. Educating the market research community is going to become more and more critical in the months and years ahead, and I'm looking forward to contributing to this'.

Web site: www.mrii.org .

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