Passenger Hires Former TNS Innovation Director

In the US, online community provider Passenger has appointed former TNS Global Innovation Director Gaurav Bhalla as Chief Innovation Officer, leading the firm's development of new approaches to customer collaboration, co-creation and market research.

Founded in 2005, with offices in Los Angeles, Palo Alto and New York City, Passenger develops online communities to provide real-time customer insight. Its Software-as-a-Service platform combines social networking, collaboration, media, research and analytics features into a single interface.

Last year, the company secured a $7.5m investment, which it is using to support new product development, marketing efforts and sales.

Bhalla joins with more than 30 years' experience in strategy, innovation, marketing, sales, marketing research and education roles, having served in companies based in Asia, Europe and the US.

Most recently, he set up his own firm, Knowledge Kinetics, where as CEO he focused on customer-driven innovation and co-creation, and offered clients a mix of consulting, training and research/analysis services. Prior to this, Bhalla was a Consultant at financial services organization Capital One, and served as Global Innovation Director at TNS for nearly six years. Earlier, he ran his own marketing strategy and systems consulting company, which he then sold to TNS.

Prior to taking up his current position, Bhalla worked as a Strategic Advisor to Passenger.

The firm's CEO Bahram Nour-Omid comments: 'We are extremely excited about Gaurav joining the Passenger team. He has a wealth of knowledge in innovation and ideation and will further develop our approach to community-driven innovation.'

Web site: www.thinkpassenger.com .