The company has appointed Won Jung as client development director. Most recently employed by local research agency Idea Network, his prior experience includes TNS Korea.

Miseon Lee and Songmi Kim are also joining as project managers. Lee was previously senior researcher at Nielsen Korea, with experience in online project management and marketing, while Kim has a background in fieldwork, including online domestic work and qualitative offline.

The new team, launched to meet the needs of local research clients, will be supported by Lightspeed’s existing Korean team, based in Sydney. Singapore-based Siddhartha Dutta, general manager for South East Asia and India at Lightspeed APAC, will head up the team.

Dutta said: “This is an exciting time to bring a local presence to our Korean clients. Recruiting great local talent to complement our existing team will bring substantial benefit to our clients on the ground. The added skillsets of the new hires and their presence in Seoul will better support clients to develop their insights and data needs in these times of great opportunity.”