Former Toluna Exec Named COO of Birdie

In the US, AI-based insights platform Birdie has appointed long-time industry exec Ted Clark as Chief Operating Officer, charged with overseeing operations, leading the Client Services team, and driving the firm's growth and business development.

Founded in 2018 by Alexandre Hadade and Patrícia Osorio, Birdie uses AI and natural language processing to help CPG organizations understand millions of consumers' comments, reviews and other online conversations, converting unstructured data into insights about category trends, potential product crises and promotional opportunities across retail channels, in real time. Last month, the company raised $1.6m in a seed funding round, which it is using for US expansion of its sales and marketing teams, and to accelerate the development of new features relating to its integration with other data sources.

Clark (pictured) joins with more than nineteen years' experience managing operations, client service and solutions consulting, on both the agency and supplier sides of market research. For the past six years, he worked at consumer intelligence platform Toluna, latterly as SVP of Client Solutions, leading the company's Digital Solutions Group, developing growth strategy initiatives, and providing pre-sales consultation and post-sales customer success support. Prior to this he was VP, Operations at consumer research and consulting firm The Pert Group; Director, Client Services at Survey Sampling International (SSI); and he held senior roles at Greenfield Online and JD Power & Associates.

Commenting on the appointment, Hadade said: 'As Birdie continues to work toward our mission in helping CPG brands optimize their market research through our AI-based insights-as-a-service platform, we look to bring in leaders who share the same commitment we do. Ted is an accomplished and trusted leader with a proven track record in the market research industry of driving business growth, and we are thrilled to welcome him to our team. We look to Ted to help guide our corporate and client strategies and execute against them'.

Palo Alto-headquartered Birdie, which also has offices in Miami and São Paulo, is online at www.birdie.ai .