Verve ‐ new partner and further expansion of senior London team London, 22nd April 2009. Verve Partners announce Emma Morioka (née Smith) as Partner for Proposition Development, Ailean Mills as Consultant, Qualitative Community Engagement, and Clare McHatton as Associate Account Director. Verve Partners, the specialists in customer advisory panels and online brand communities, today announces the expansion of the London team. Emma Morioka joins as Partner, Proposition Development. Emma’s role will be to develop Verve’s products and services, focusing on delivering clients best‐in‐class technology for cost and business‐effective marketing and market research. Working alongside Jon Gumbrell, Partner of Technology Progression, Emma will work to adopt the most successful technologies and methodologies from around the globe into the Verve technology platform. The platform is at the core of Verve’s strategy of taking the best of Web 2.0 and online research to provide actionable, meaningful and cost‐effective intelligence to companies engaged in understanding their current and potential customers. Emma was previously Group Marketing Director at online fieldwork specialists, Research Now, and prior to that, Research Director at Synovate Healthcare. Clare McHatton also joins Verve as Associate Account Director, responsible for developing new and existing clients. Clare was previously at Research Now, joining over five years ago as client development manager and employee number six. Her remit extended beyond the UK, to look after client needs and business development in the USA and Australia. Clare left Research Now in October 2008 for a five month tour of India and Latin America and decided to join Verve for a new challenge on her return. Clare McHatton has a first class honours degree in Psychology from Leeds University. Verve Partners Limited Linton House |164‐180 Union Street | London | SE1 0LH | Tel: +44 (0)20 7928 4314
Ailean Mills will also work with Verve as a Consultant for Qualitative Community Engagement. Ailean will work with the team to develop the qualitative, engagement and two way dialogue elements of its online community proposition. Mills’ specialist focus is on the impact of the internet and social networking in particular on peoples’ changing relationships with brands, bringing expertise from a career working with some of the world’s leading brands and companies, including Nestle, Cadbury, Unilever and the BBC. Jeannie Arthur, Partner and UK Managing Director for Verve comments: “Ailean helps make sense of the heaps of qualitative data that online research communities create. This is essential for utilising the output of this rich discourse so that it goes from being “interesting” to providing clients with actionable insight for decision‐making.” Andrew Cooper, Partner and CEO comments “With Emma, Clare and Ailean, we continue to invest in a cross functional team which is built to be the unrivalled specialist in delivering customer advisory panels and online brand communities which really fulfil their potential for clients.” Verve’s website can be found at www.haveverve.com
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Verve Partners Limited Linton House |164‐180 Union Street | London | SE1 0LH | Tel: +44 (0)20 7928 4314
Background to Verve Verve specialises in building and managing customer advisory panels and online brand communities. These are built to deliver companies not only more cost‐effective research, but better business returns from their greatest business asset, their customers. Verve is different from other agencies in that it is technology‐savvy rather than tied to one particular solution, harnessing best‐in‐class technologies from around the globe to build a world‐leading platform of market research and marketing tools for better, more commercially‐focused decision‐making. Verve delivers through a world‐class team of innovative, entrepreneurial professionals with proven track records. The team includes: •
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Andrew Cooper: Partner & CEO ‐ Co‐founder of Research Now Plc ‐ building the business over the last six years to an international business with 400+ staff in 15 offices across the globe. Previously a Chartered Accountant with PwC. Mike Hall: Partner, Development ‐ Founder of Hall and Partners. Seminal name in advertising research. Built a highly successful Market Research business in the UK and USA before selling to Omnicom. Peter Chopra: Partner, Strategic Finance & International Development ‐ Former CEO Synovate UK, Global CFO Synovate and Deputy Group Finance Director of Aegis ‐ delivering market‐leading organic and inorganic growth for both businesses. Experienced financier with over 40 successfully integrated mergers and acquisitions. Trained accountant, barrister‐at‐law and corporate financier. Jeannie Arthur: Partner & UK MD ‐ Managing Director of FreshMinds for the last five years (UK Best Agency for two years running). Previously with PA Consulting Group – one of the UK’s leading management consulting firms. Jon Gumbrell: Partner, Technology Progression ‐ Technology entrepreneur and founder of ID Factor which was sold to a UK listed company.
Verve Partners Limited Linton House |164‐180 Union Street | London | SE1 0LH | Tel: +44 (0)20 7928 4314
Enquiries: Emma Morioka, Partner, Proposition Development e.morioka@haveverve.com T:+44 (0)20 7928 4314 M:+44 (0)7801 414596 Andrew Cooper, Partner and CEO a.cooper@haveverve.com T: +44 (0)20 7928 4314 M:+44 (0)7718 588399
Verve Partners Limited Linton House |164‐180 Union Street | London | SE1 0LH | Tel: +44 (0)20 7928 4314