GeoPoll Names First Chief Research Officer in US

In the US, mobile survey platform GeoPoll has hired long-time RTI International exec Charles Lau as its first Chief Research Officer.

Launched in 2013, GeoPoll gathers real-time data via mobile phones from a network of 300 million users in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Through partnerships with telecom providers and a multi-modal platform powered by text, voice and web-based communications, the firm enables companies and organizations to gather insights on anything from preferences on consumer goods to election transparency and access to basic government services.

Lau (pictured) joins after more than twelve years at non-profit research institute RTI International, latterly as Director, International Survey Research Program. During his time with the organization, he conducted surveys in more than 30 countries for clients in the international development and commercial sectors, and managed public opinion surveys with the general public and special populations for the US State Department, USAID, and the Pew Research Center. With the US CDC, he helped Ministries of Health in ten countries use mobile phones for disease surveillance; and he also led a program of nationally representative surveys on technology adoption with more than 200,000 respondents in twelve countries.

In his new role, Lau will support GeoPoll's mobile device-driven data collection projects.

Web site: www.geopoll.com .