YouGovCentaur Ready to Roll with New MD at Helm

In the UK, the new venture announced in January by partners YouGov and publishing house Centaur has gathered momentum with the appointment of Alki Manias as Managing Director.

Manias joined from GfK Roper where for the last four years as Global Director he headed sales and marketing for the firm's Roper Reports Unit. Prior to this, he was MD UK and European VP for Internet usage measurement firm NetValue. His client side experience includes founding online recruitment site taps.com, and holding product management roles at The London Stock Exchange and AT&T. Manias has a degree in Economics and an MBA from Aston University.

The 50:50 YouGovCentaur venture was announced in March (www.mrweb.com/drno/news6507.htm ) and will tap into Centaur's publications and exhibitions subscriber list to establish specialist business panels in digital marketing, the legal profession, financial services and engineering. Manias explained that each month, the partnership will be polling around half a million UK professionals to conduct research on hot industry topics and measure opinion on issues such as careers and green issues.

YouGovCentaur's stated aim is to build the most 'prestigious, respected and engaging' industry communities in the UK.

'We've already run three career surveys among subscribers of The Lawyer magazine, and the response has been fantastic,' stated Manias. 'This service provides us with immediate access to senior professionals such as barristers and judges, who just couldn't be reached so effectively using traditional recruitment means.'

The company is online at www.yougovcentaur.com.