Sydney: 18 January 2023: Kantar Australia has supercharged its Australian commercial and sustainability leadership with four key national appointments. To drive commercial development, Olly Reid has joined as Head of Business Development and Jo Brockhurst is promoted to Client Engagement Director; while to support the fast-growing sustainability needs of clients, Ryan France is expanding his brand strategy role to lead the company’s sustainability practice while Kim Ruyten will implement the company’s ESG commitment.

Bringing 20 years of experience including 15 with Kantar, Olly Reid has helped shape some of the world’s biggest brands and returns to Australia from London to take on a key role in the Australian leadership team and as strategic partner to Kantar’s Marketplace platform. He says being back in Australia “feels like coming home. Australia holds a leading position as a hotbed of building great brands, and I’m incredibly excited to support client growth, leverage my global brand experience and get to know the best and brightest brand leaders and gamechangers in Australia.”

Kantar’s Australian clients will also benefit from Jo Brockhurst’s 15 years of CX, media measurement, comms and brand research experience as she leverages her “natural passion for getting under the skin of business with creative thinking” in her newly created role helping brands get to the right tools and experts more quickly. She’s thrilled to take this passion for people and business to the next level, “connecting clients with our fabulous experts and being challenged to think on my feet to solve our challenges differently and strategically.”

Since launching a local sustainable transformation practice last year, Kantar has seen extraordinary growth in sustainability work in Australia as a business-critical issue for clients wanting to meaningfully define and powerfully activate their sustainability and brand strategy. Given the intrinsic link between the two, Head of Brand Strategy Ryan France will expand his remit to lead the local practice along with Head of Strategic Projects Kim Ruyten who’ll drive the ESG capability. They’ll be supported by a multi-disciplinary Sustainability Council.

Kantar Australia’s Managing Director Jon Foged says that with brands facing the headwinds of multiple challenges at unprecedented scale, all four appointments are critical to helping Australian businesses accelerate their growth in the years ahead.

“We know that businesses that invest in their brands outperform the market, and that investment in marketing remains the most powerful form of defence in times of economic crisis. Strong brands simply retain more economic value during tough times and recover more quickly when market conditions improve. As such, our own investment in the triple threat of commercial, brand and sustainability will help our clients immensely.”

Kantar Australia Chief Commercial Officer Jonathan Sinton adds that these appointments “are testament to the strong growth trajectory of the business in Australia and the exciting capability developments that Kantar is developing that will be gamechangers for clients grappling with a turbulent economy.”

-ends-