SymphonyAM Hires Nieslen's Buchwalter as CEO

Cross-media measurement and ad effectiveness specialist Symphony Advanced Media (SymphonyAM) has appointed Nielsen veteran Charles Buchwalter as President and Chief Executive Officer. He replaces Manish Bhatia, who recently joined US ratings giant Arbitron.

SymphonyAM is part of Symphony Technology Group (STG) whose portfolio of companies includes Symphony IRI, Symphony Health Solutions, Symphony Teleca and EYC. It was formed last year following STG's acquisition of cross-media brand measurement specialist Factor Technology Group.

The firm's solutions provide an integrated view of consumer media consumption, purchase behaviors and brand attitudes, while its analytic methods deliver insights on ad performance across all media including online, TV, print and mobile.

Buchwalter (pictured) joins after a 30-year career in the information services and media measurement industry, with the last 13 years spent in various leadership roles at Nielsen. Most recently, he was SVP, Online Campaign Ratings, prior to which, he served as Chairman/CEO of Nielsen Online Japan, and SVP of Research and Analytics at Nielsen Online. Buchwalter joined Nielsen in 1999 as an early member of the AdRelevance management team.

He began his career with DRI/McGraw-Hill where he led the financial information group, after which, he joined CMP Publications (now CMP Media) where he helped conceive and implement electronic publishing strategies. Later at ParaMarketing, Buchwalter assisted in the development of channel strategies for the Internet business units of IBM, Digital Equipment, Novell, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.

In his new San Francisco-based role, Buchwalter will oversee day-to-day operations and set strategic initiatives to develop the company's media measurement and ad effectiveness businesses. He will also advise other companies within parent company STG's portfolio.

STG founder, Chairman & CEO Romesh Wadhwani comments: 'I'm delighted to have Charlie on board. His track record in media analytics and consumer insights, deep industry connections and his proven organizational and motivational abilities make him the ideal leader to take SymphonyAM to the next level.'

Bhatia left SymphonyAM earlier in the year, to take up the position of EVP, New Product Innovation at Arbitron.

Web site: www.symphonyam.com .