CrowdLab Founder Joins Firefish as Head of Innovation

London-based strategic insight consultancy Firefish has appointed Richard Owen as Group Head of Innovation, with a seat on its Board.

Founded in 2000, Firefish combines traditional and tech-enabled methods to answer clients' business challenges. In addition to the original qual unit it includes quant division the numbers lab, kids and family specialist The Pineapple Lounge and the recently launched Healthcare unit.

Owen (pictured) established the Hall & Partners' Chicago office from scratch in 2001, turning it into a $10m business and then founding his own mobile research platform, CrowdLab, in 2011. He returned to Hall & Partners and was Chief Transformation Officer from 2015 to 2020, and sold CrowdLab to Dynata in 2020. Since then he has launched and run his own research tech consultancy, Frictionless Insight, advising agencies and platforms on tech strategy, go-to-market narratives and M&A activity among other areas.

Owen cites his experience of Firefish's work in helping to incubate CrowdLab as one of the reasons for joining the Group now, while Firefish Group CEO Jem Fawcus comments: 'Firefish was founded on the basis that there are better and more interesting ways to explore life and understand people, and, as the world gets more complicated, culture moves faster, and data sources grow, so have our clients' need to make sense of it all - in service to their business and brand goals. First working with Richard back in 2011, we knew that he shared that vision and so we are delighted to have him in the fold full time, bringing his years of global tech transformation experience and passion for making things better, clearer and easier for all'.

Web site: www.firefish.ltd.uk .