Rudling Replaces Bland as MD at Walnut

UK insight agency Walnut UNLIMITED has named Jane Rudling as its new Managing Director, succeeding Chris Bland. The firm has also appointed two Research Directors - Vanessa Henry to lead its shopper proposition, and Raluca Usery in the Qualitative team.

The company was formed in 2017 when marcoms network the UNLIMITED Group combined four of its existing insight businesses to form what it describes as a 'human understanding' agency, with strengths in neuroscience, behavioural science, qualitative research and data analytics. For the past two years, Rudling (pictured) has served as MD of the Insight & Analytics division and The Human Understanding Lab (she will continue to lead the latter), although she was overall MD of the business for nearly six years previously, having earlier been MD of legacy brand Marketing Sciences Ltd, where she worked for 24 years. She began her career at Honeywell Information Systems, before taking roles at Coca Cola Schweppes and Mars.

In her new position, Rudling takes over from Bland, who joined the group in 2017 as Research Director after a career which included three years at TNS and then nine at SPA Future Thinking, latterly as MD - MMT. He then moved to Basis Research before a brief spell as Head of Quant at The Source Insight. In a LinkedIn post, Bland said that he is 'super excited to start a new adventure in the coming weeks'.

As part of the changes, the data science and analytics consultancy Realise UNLIMITED will be rolled into Walnut UNLIMITED. Rudling thanked Bland for his contribution and energy, and wished him well in his new ventures, adding: 'We have lots of exciting opportunities ahead and I'm so pleased to be working closely with the wider Walnut team once again, dedicating my time to the MD role'.

Separately, Henry joins from IGD, where she latterly served as Head of Shopper Solutions; and Usery joins from GfK, where she was NCE Regional Director, having previously been Senior Qualitative Research Director at Behaviorally and earlier at PRS IN VIVO.

Web site: www.walnutunlimited.com .