Face Attracts Talent in Asia & USA

Face, the strategic insight agency delivering social intelligence for brands, is attracting international stellar talent to join its teams in the USA and in Asia. Serena Jacob, a key industry player in South & South-East Asia, and a Unilever Accredited Research Lead, becomes Face Asia’s new Head of Singapore, while Leonard “Lenny” Murphy, the well-known research industry advocate in the USA, joins the Face Advisory Board.

Serena joins Face from Insight Asia Research Group where she was Regional Qualitative Director based in Singapore, heading up a team of researchers working across Asia on key regional accounts. She joins Face as its first Unilever Accredited Research Lead, and brings with her more than 25 years of market research, consultancy and business management experience working across all of Asia, as well as India, with international blue-chip brands such as Unilever, Danone, Coca-Cola, Kraft, GSK, Nestle, Akzo Nobel, Cussons and Sara Lee, amongst others. 

At Face, Serena will be servicing the agency’s key clients in Singapore, working alongside Andrew Ho, Managing Director of Face Asia, and Daniel Tompsett, the Global Commercial Director of Face Asia. She will be growing the Singapore team while overseeing Face Asia’s global accounts, drawing on her extensive experience as a regional director with Insight Asia, a founding partner of SHAMAN Marketing Research Associates, and as CEO of Ind’Europe Consulting.

Serena Jacob, Head of Singapore, Face Asia, says: “Face is bringing something new and innovative to Asia, and joining Face is an irresistible opportunity to learn from people who represent leading-edge thinking in the field of research. We all know that today, brands are shaped as much by what consumers say about them as what they do by way of marketing activity, and products are being created specifically for and by consumers. The way that Face interacts with consumers and their world is new and cutting-edge – and their methods will tap into the consumer voice in Asia in a way that ‘traditional qual’ doesn’t.” 

Meanwhile in the United States, Murphy, previously CEO of full-service agency Rockhopper Research and of startup BrandScan360, currently focused on advancing innovation within the research industry as Editor-in-Chief of the GreenBook Blog and GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report in particular, is taking up a position on Face’s Advisory Board as an expert on the US market. Lenny, impressed by the innovation and cutting-edge research products such as recently launched Pulsar TRAC, coming out of Face, has been working with Face since January of this year.

Lenny Murphy, Consultant Advisor to Face, says: “I’ve been following Face for several years and have continually been impressed by their thought leadership, vision of the future, and technological innovation. It’s not an overstatement that Face exemplifies what I believe the insights agency of the future looks like and I am honoured to have the chance to help bring that vision to life in an advisory capacity. ”

Andrew Needham, founding partner and CEO of Face, says: “We are very excited to see how quickly Face is cementing its reputation and growth on the American and Asian markets, attracting some of the best and most successful talent keen to join our teams and help us deliver more socially intelligent research by providing a holistic view of the customer.”

The opening of Face Asia in October 2012, followed the successful launch of Face New York in June 2011.