Contact:
Ann Kohut
Kohut Communications Consulting
770-913-9747
annielk@bellsouth.net
or
Angela Mattoon
CMI
678-805-4000
amattoon@cmiresearch.com
CMI Grows Client Development Team,
Adds Veteran Executive Mike Gray to Focus on the Midwest
ATLANTA, July 12, 2007 – Marketing research firm CMI has added a second senior vice president of sales to its growing group of new and existing client development executives. Mike Gray, a marketing executive with more than 25 years of client development experience in the Midwest, will focus on increasing CMI’s profile among and bringing in new business from large companies in the Central United States.
Gray joins a group of nine others at CMI who spend all or part of their time on new or existing client development.
"Mike’s background in marketing research and client development along with his contacts in Midwest-based Fortune 500 companies make him ideally suited to help us develop new business in this CMI target growth area," said Ellen Mowbray, vice president of marketing and sales, to whom Gray reports. Mowbray noted that some of CMI’s clients in the Midwest include Allstate Insurance Co., Ameren Corp and Teva Neuroscience.
Gray came to CMI from Research Now, a European online fieldwork and panel specialty organization, where he was vice president of client development in the firm’s Chicago office. Before that, based in Chicago he held the same title in the Consumer Packaged Goods Marketing Solutions Group at comScore Networks, a global Internet information provider. Earlier, he was vice president of sales in the Chicago regional office of Market Tools, a full-service custom online marketing research company.
Gray also has managed the marketing services divisions with three Minneapolis-based advertising agencies and earlier worked in marketing research for MCI and 3M.
"I came to CMI because the firm offers its clients a unique selling proposition," Gray said. "Unlike most marketing research companies, CMI offers more than full-service marketing research services. The company’s senior people take a consultative approach with their clients, providing strategic marketing insights and actionable recommendations that are aligned with company initiatives and contribute to bottom line profitability.
"CMI is a great fit for me because of the global trend among large corporations to look for senior executive involvement from their marketing research companies,” Gray continued. "The CMI approach combined with the team’s vast scope of knowledge will greatly facilitate my client development role in the Midwest."
Gray is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Marketing Research Association and the Business Marketing Association. In addition, he is actively involved in the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and ESOMAR (formerly the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research).
Gray attended Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he earned his bachelor’s degree with a double major in business administration and psychology.
About CMI
Founded in 1989, CMI is a rapidly growing, full-service service marketing research company that provides clients with strategic and tactical marketing insights. Its consultative approach helps its Fortune 500 clients gain an in-depth understanding of how to align their products and services with customer/client needs. The firm’s capabilities encompass the full range of marketing research and analytical services – qualitative and quantitative – customized to meet the unique requirements of each project.
CMI was selected by MetLife Institutional Business as its 2005 Supplier of the Year in recognition of the firm’s consultative approach, creativity, strength in analytics, focus on the client relationship and providing the client with value-add. In 2006, Chet Zalesky, CMI founder and president, was recognized by Catalyst magazine as one of 50 who are leading Atlanta’s best performing small to mid-sized companies. Zalesky is chair-elect of CASRO, the Council of American Survey Research Organizations. For more information about CMI, visit the firm at www.cmiresearch.com.