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Effective September 13th, Kantar has appointed Guillaume Bacuvier as Global CEO of its Worldpanel Division. Bacuvier will lead the $ 300 million business after most recently serving as CEO of dunnhumby – a customer data science company, where he led a technology transformation of the business.

Kantar Group is a British service company founded in 1992. It employs more than 30,000 people in 100 countries. The company’s Worldpanel team has a panel of more than 1.5 million buyers around the world and helps Kantar share the growth strategies of the world’s leading CPG / FMCG brands and retailers.

The appointment of the division’s new head follows news that former Worldpanel CEO Josep Montserrat has been promoted to non-executive chairman of the company. After joining Worldpanel in 1994, he became CEO of the Worldpanel business in 2007 – and over the next 14 years has built a business that serves as the industry currency standard in nearly 50 countries.

Regarding Montserrat’s contribution to Kantar, particularly last year, Deputy CEO and CFO Ian Griffiths said, “Under Josep’s leadership [during the pandemic] The Worldpanel team worked tirelessly to keep customers informed of the unprecedented changes in consumer behavior. The data and insights generated by Josep and his team literally helped supermarkets fill their shelves during the pandemic. We thank Josep for his incredible contribution to Kantar and look forward to his continued leadership in his new role. “

Guillaume Bacuvier will assume the role of CEO and will use his expertise and experience to help oversee the next phase of growth in the Worldpanel business. This new era of development is heavily influenced by technology and advanced data analysis, and Bacuvier specializes in these areas in particular.

Most recently, he was Group CEO of dunnhumby, which works in customer data science for the retail and CPG / FMCG industries. There he led a commercial and technological transformation of the company, which included significant investments in the company’s product portfolio as well as acquisitions and disposals to strengthen the company’s competitive position. This helped the company improve its operational performance and expand its customer base around the world, while increasing employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

Before joining dunnhumby for four years, Bacuvier spent more than a decade at Google in various senior positions, including Vice President, Advertising Solutions, EMEA, where he was responsible for all aspects of key online advertising in the region, including commercial P&L for Google’s Doubleclick and Analytics business. He also brings notable consulting experience to the company after starting his career as a strategy consultant in BoozAllen Hamilton’s TMT practice before moving to the Orange Group, where he was responsible for messaging services for all Orange OpCos.

Commenting on his appointment, Ian Griffiths, Vice CEO and CFO said, “He is a seasoned international CEO who combines world-class technology credentials with a deep understanding of consumer behavior and the retail and media landscape. He also has a proven track record of transforming a data business and has excellent relationships with retailers and FMCG / CPG brands around the world. “