Former Nielsen and The Cambridge Group Executives Join Marketing Management Analytics to Support Continued Record Growth

MMA hires top analytic and consulting executives as company expands presence in Chicago to support growing client base

WILTON, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Marketing Management Analytics (MMA), a leader in helping companies plan, execute, forecast and optimize their brand portfolios, marketing, pricing and product innovation investments, today announced the hiring of Paul Straub, PhD, and Tom Stroud to key leadership positions at MMA.

“For our clients, analytics are the key to unlocking solutions to their most pressing marketing and operational issues”

Paul Straub and Tom Stroud will be working together in the Ipsos MMA Chicago office, where they will be responsible for managing the company’s Midwest client base and supporting its innovation agenda. Straub has been named Senior Vice President of Analytics, while Stroud’s title is Vice President, Strategic Accounts.

Paul Straub has more than 20 years of experience teaching economics and statistics and applying advanced analytic techniques to solving business challenges at Fortune 500 companies. He has played a leadership role in designing and developing semi-automated analytic, marketing, pricing and forecasting solutions enabling companies to scale analytics to support enterprise-wide business planning and evaluation needs.

Straub comes to MMA from Nielsen, where he was Vice President of Research and Development. Previously, he had been President of Marketing Analytics, Inc. He has taught economics and statistics at the university level, including at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Straub brings a deep understanding of how to apply advanced and predictive analytics to solve real-world business challenges in marketing, pricing and forecasting and is particularly skilled in the area of retail analytics. Straub holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois and an MA and BA in Economics from Eastern Illinois University.

Tom Stroud has more than 11 years’ experience consulting to the food, beverage, retail, healthcare and financial services industries. He has focused on developing growth strategies for his clients by combining deep analytic expertise with consumer insights to identify white space opportunities in the marketplace. He brings broad experience with marketing mix analysis, price and promotion optimization, consumer segmentation, targeting, value proposition development and new product innovation, as well as brand and portfolio strategy development.

Prior to MMA, Stroud was Vice President of Advanced Analytics at Nielsen, responsible for overseeing delivery of analytic consulting projects to a broad range of clients. Before that, he led client initiatives at The Cambridge Group, managing consulting engagements in growth and portfolio strategy. He has also worked at A.T. Kearney, where he specialized in operations improvement and large-scale program management.

Stroud holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, with concentrations in Strategy, Marketing, Finance, and Analytic Consulting. He also earned a BS in Business from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

“For our clients, analytics are the key to unlocking solutions to their most pressing marketing and operational issues,” said Patrick Cummings, CEO of MMA. “Paul and Tom have direct experience in applying advanced, predictive analytics, but more importantly they understand and have experience solving the challenges our clients are facing every day. We are thrilled to have this extremely talented analytic consulting duo joining our team.”

By the close of 2012 MMA is projected to double in revenue since 2010. To keep pace with that growth the company has more than doubled its operations and delivery teams, as well as its entire workforce. With continued global expansion forecasted, MMA is projecting to aggressively hire top talent through 2013.

About MMA

MMA is a unit of leading global custom market research company Ipsos. MMA provides leading predictive analytics services for companies in consumer products, retail, restaurants, pharmaceuticals, durable goods, financial services, automotive, beverage & spirits, telecommunications and media & entertainment. For more information on MMA, please click here.