Tomei named president of IRI's insights division

CHICAGO Information Resources, Inc. on Wednesday named market-research veteran Robert Tomei president of its consumer and shopper insights division.

“Bob is a leading strategist and innovator in our industry with a history of success in developing world-class panel offerings and creative new approaches to using consumer and shopper intelligence to drive performance,” stated IRI president and chief executive officer John Freeland. “His experience will be extremely valuable as we expand our leadership position in our traditional and custom panel businesses while simultaneously leveraging our emerging Shopper Insights Explorer technology platform to deliver unprecedented, differentiated value to our clients.”

“As the U.S. economy undergoes a major transformation, CPG manufacturers and retailers alike are grasping to understand consumer and shopper thinking and behavior at a granular level,” Tomei said. “Leveraging its highly-precise and detailed consumer and shopper information assets, IRI is poised to help the marketplace develop the products, assortments, marketing plans and other consumer-driven strategies that will create new opportunities to generate consumer trust and loyalty. I look forward to joining the IRI team and helping lead this important charge.”

Tomei will report directly to Freeland.

Tomei was most recently worked as president TNS-U.S. Areas of Expertise & Marketing and global head of TNS’ 6th Dimension Access Panels. He will assume growth, development and management responsibilities for IRI’s expanding Panel, Testing and Loyalty businesses.

Prior to his tenure at TNS, Tomei spent 13 years at ACNielsen, leaving the firm as president of Nielsen’s Homescan consumer panel business. Before ACNielsen, Tomei held senior-level marketing positions at Bristol-Myers and Philip Morris USA.

Tomei is the founder and acting chairperson of the Advertising Research Foundation Online Research Quality Council.