Rita Clifton named as president of MRS
The Market Research Society (MRS) has named its next president as Rita Clifton, chairman of Interbrand.
She will take up the appointment in April following the completion of Jeremy Bullmore’s five-year term.
Clifton began her career began at DMB&B then J.Walter Thompson. She joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 1986, progressing in 1992 to director of strategic planning and in 1995 to Executive Planning Director and Vice- Chairman.
During her time with the company she worked with a wide variety of prominent clients including Procter & Gamble, British Airways, Visa International, PowerGen and British Telecom.
Clifton joined Interbrand as chief executive in 1997 and became chairman in 2002.
MRS Chairman and managing director for logistics at Ipsos MORI, Rowland Lloyd, says: “Extending the MRS brand values of professionalism, research excellence and business effectiveness more widely into the client community of research users is high on our priority list – as is building on the new discipline of insight management which integrates data from multiple sources. Rita Clifton’s extensive experience combined with her knowledge of market research will be invaluable in positioning MRS to achieve its full potential.”
David Barr, MRS director general, adds: “Over many years, MRS has benefitted enormously from the contribution to strategic direction made by distinguished Presidents. We have been extremely fortunate in many key debates of the last five years to have had access to the knowledge, wisdom, and humour of Jeremy Bullmore. Now we look forward to having Rita Clifton as our President during the next important phase of our development.”
Clifton says: “I am delighted to have been invited to take up this role and I have great respect for the work of the MRS. I very much look forward to getting formally involved, although stepping into Jeremy’s rather large shoes will be a test! It does seem to me that there are some big challenges and opportunities for the research world over the next few years and it will be exciting to be able to contribute what I can”.
