Kim Dedeker to join Kantar in new role as Chair, Americas

Kim Dedeker will be joining Kantar this month in a new role as Chair, Americas. She recently retired from P&G after spending 29 years in a variety of senior roles, most recently as VP, Consumer and Market Knowledge External Capability, where she was instrumental in leading a variety of industry body initiatives around data quality and industry transformation. Prior to that, she served as VP, Global Consumer and Market Knowledge for seven years.

Dedeker will report to Kantar CEO, Eric Salama, and be based in Kantar’s Cincinnati office.

In her new role she will focus on three areas:

- Leading Kantar’s global initiatives with respect to research quality and industry transformation.

- Helping shape the company’s offer and go-to-market strategy based on an understanding of clients’ existing and future needs. This will include piloting a new approach to the supply chain designed to deliver greater added value (capabilities and services), higher impact and improved speed.

- Having direct oversight of US based Kantar HQ staff functions including Kantar client, business development and privacy roles.

Salama said: “In the industry debate around ‘change or more of the same’, I’m firmly in the camp of needing to change. We do great and wonderful things but we need to do them more consistently for all clients everywhere.

“I’ve long admired Kim’s vision and the way that she and colleagues at P&G have led the industry in so many ways. I’m thrilled that she is joining us and believe that we can harness her passion, leadership around data quality issues and desire to increase the value that agencies add to their clients to help Kantar achieve its goal. We don’t just want to be the biggest. We want to inspire our clients to act on the insights we develop for them and Kim can be a big catalyst in accelerating our progress.”

Dedeker said: “I’ve said in many forums that this is a pivotal time for our industry and that transformation is imperative. In my view, Kantar is proving itself to be a role model for the collaborative spirit and commitment required. I have great respect for the capabilities and talent at Kantar. Simply said, I am honoured to join the Kantar team.”

For further information please contact Lindsay McMurdo at Kantar on +44 20 7656 5486 or at lindsay.mcmurdo@kantargroup.com


About Kantar
Kantar is one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of more than 20 specialist companies – including the recently-acquired TNS – the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of inspirational and actionable insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 80 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

About WPP
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