IRI Announces Google Executive and CPG Advertising Leader Kirk Perry as Next President and CEO

Andrew Appel to transition to role as Board Director and Advisor

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IRI^®, a fast-growing, innovative, global provider of technology, data, and predictive analytics for the consumer, retail, and media sectors, today announced the appointment of Kirk Perry, Google’s President of Global Client & Agency Solutions, as President and CEO and a member of its Board of Directors, effective May 17, 2021. Mr. Perry succeeds Andrew Appel, who has successfully led a transformation of IRI for nearly a decade. Mr. Appel will remain an Advisor to the Company and member of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Perry joins IRI from Google, where he has served as President of Global Client & Agency Solutions since 2013. In that role, Mr. Perry was responsible for driving Google's global revenue with the world’s largest advertisers and advertising agencies, helping the company’s biggest global partners grow their businesses more effectively and efficiently. Prior to joining Google, Mr. Perry spent more than two decades at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in leadership and marketing roles, including most recently as President of P&G Global Family Care, a multi-billion dollar global business which included the Bounty, Charmin and Puffs brands. He also served as Vice President of P&G U.S. Operations and North America Marketing, P&G’s biggest region, with responsibilities that included oversight of the region’s marketing and sales operations organizations. Mr. Perry serves on the Boards of The J.M. Smucker Company and e.l.f. Cosmetics.

“The IRI team, under the leadership of Andrew Appel since 2012, has transformed the Company and developed an excellent track record of partnering with clients to leverage data, technology and cutting-edge ideas for accelerated speed of insight generation, helping clients achieve better business results," said Jeffrey Ansell, Chairman of IRI. "On behalf of the Company and Board of Directors, I'd like to thank Andrew for his outstanding contributions and lasting impact. I'm delighted to welcome Kirk as IRI's next President and CEO. He's an impressive, well-respected leader whose background makes him uniquely suited to understand both the evolving needs of our clients and the power of harnessing data, insights and technology to enable better decision making and superior performance."

Mr. Perry said, “I am honored to lead IRI and its immensely talented team. Having managed and supported some of the world’s largest consumer brands in both the consumer packaged goods and technology industries, I have deep appreciation for IRI’s advanced capabilities and its critical role as an insights leader in the industry amidst a dynamic and evolving consumer and marketing landscape. I look forward to building on IRI’s success, market position, and competitive advantages to deepen its connection with clients, ensuring the Company becomes an even more valuable partner to companies seeking to drive growth.”

“It has been a great privilege to lead this incredible company for nearly a decade and work alongside the most talented, hard-working and good-hearted colleagues,” said Mr. Appel. “I’m tremendously proud of what the IRI team has accomplished to date, and I am certain that the Company’s best years are ahead as IRI builds on its strong momentum. I look forward to contributing to this future as an Advisor and Director while ensuring a smooth transition. I’m confident IRI will be in terrific hands with Kirk, given his impressive track record of client leadership, deep experience in technology and media and passion for people.”

Over the last decade under Mr. Appel's leadership, IRI has undergone a significant transformation of its technology, data and predictive analytics offerings to become the insights partner of choice for leading retailers and CPG manufacturers. Since 2013, the Company has more than doubled revenue. Other key company accomplishments during this time include democratizing Liquid Data, which has become the industry’s leading technology, automation and insights platform; expanding the world’s largest repository of anonymized consumer data; creating the IRI partner ecosystem; transforming IRI’s relationships with retailers; launching a media business; pioneering solutions that leverage AI and machine learning; and strengthening the Company’s ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including launching efforts to provide pro bono services to minority-owned CPG start-ups.

About the IRI Partner Ecosystem

IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for clients requires deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry leaders across multiple industries and sectors to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to capabilities to help its clients more effectively collaborate and compete in their various markets and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its open ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions and affiliations. The IRI Partner Ecosystem includes such leading companies as 84.51°, Adobe, The Boston Consulting Group, Comscore, Data Plus Math, Experian, GfK, Gigwalk, Google, Ipsos, Mastercard Advisors, MaxPoint, Omnicom, Oracle, Pinterest, Research Now, Simulmedia, SPINS, Survey Sampling International, Univision, Viant, Yieldbot and others.

About IRI

IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers, financial services and media companies grow their businesses. A confluence of major external events — a change in consumer buying habits, big data coming into its own, advanced analytics and personalized consumer activation — is leading to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers, collaborate with key constituents and deliver market-leading growth. For more information, visit www.iriworldwide.com.