Independent research company Fiftyfive5 today announced that it has added 14 new staff across three offices following significant growth from local and global client demand.
Boasting a roster of more than 100 clients, spanning Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the U.S. and Europe, Fiftyfive5 will add staff in its Sydney, Auckland and Singapore offices.
In Sydney, Estelle Gohil and Philippa Dougall join the team, bolstering the businesses’ qualitative capabilities, in the roles of senior qualitative consultant.
Gohil has more than 12 years’ experience across a broad range of client categories and research methodologies and re-joins Fiftyfive5 after living overseas.
She has worked on projects for some of Australia’s most iconic brands including Telstra, Tourism and Events Queensland, Network Ten and Commonwealth Bank.
Dougall was previously an account director at Vivid Research and joins the senior qualitative team bringing with her more than 20 years’ experience in communication development, strategic positioning, brand equity and new product development having worked across many sectors, including FMCG, media, kids and health care.
Further strengthening the team as Qualitative specialists are consultants, Alice Hacker and Loren Watling.
Hacker has 13 years of qualitative research experience and has worked at domestic and international agencies both in the UK and Australia and was most recently worked at Ipsos and Pollinate.
Also with a UK and Australian pedigree, Watling, who was previously a senior consultant at The Leading Edge, brings a wealth of experience covering multiple aspects of market exploration, brand positioning, NPD, creative development and UX testing.
New faces are also joining Fiftyfive5’s account teams with the addition of Andrey Fedoseev, Jarrod Rust and Jordan McVaigh in new senior account manager roles, and Ian Height and Robin Gale in account manager positions.
As part of the grassroots recruitment program, the business has also hired its third marketing research intern welcoming Molly O’Brien to the team.
Since the launch of Fiftyfive5’s Social and Government team offer with the appointment of Mat Densten 12 months ago, the business has achieved significant growth, with strong client demand in this sector.
Richard Kumar joins the team in a dualist qualitative and quantitative account manager position to further support this growth.
In Asia, Ken Choi has been appointed as director, Fiftyfive5 Singapore.
Choi previously worked in the Sydney office and has relocated to head-up the Asia operations, where the business has been increasingly working with local and global clients to understand and capitalise on opportunities in this market.
In New Zealand, Lucia Henare recently made the move back to Auckland following a two-year stint in Canada, where she worked as a research consultant with NRG Research Group, to join the expanding team in a consultant role.
She brings with her a wealth of experience in advanced analytics, further strengthening the Auckland team’s consulting and quantitative capabilities.
Supporting the business globally, Elise Bliss has been hired in the newly created role of chief financial officer and Natalie Briski in a business administration role.
Fiftyfive5 partner Mark Sundquist said: “We are delighted to welcome these talented practitioners with skills that genuinely enhance and extend the business.
“We’re working with clients at a senior level who look to Fiftyfive5 to provide growth opportunities for their organisations and brands, so our focus is on continuing to build a team that thrives on challenging conventional thinking and delivering insights that drive growth.
“With growing client demand and teams now across three countries, we are looking forward to continued growth across the Asia Pacific Region.”
