Hunter (pictured) has been a board member at MRII since 2016 and will succeed Mariette Stark, who will remain on the board.

Outside the MRII, Hunter is a professor at Miami University in Ohio, US, and a principal at Oxford Analytics, with a focus on secondary research and emerging research technologies.

Hunter also has prior roles as head of operations at Dunnhumby and chief operating officer at BzzAgent, a Dunnhumby company.

Four new members were elected to the MRII board of directors for two-year terms, including Laura Barajas, chief research strategy officer at YPulse.

Stephanie Hutchison, senior manager, strategic market research at Health Care Service Corporation, Tim Kunkel, vice-president, strategy, Aspen Finn at Schlesinger Group, and Brian Lamar, chief insights officer at EMI Research Solutions also joined the board.

MRII was set up in 1996 and is a non-profit educational institute offering educational courses in cooperation with the University of Georgia to people working in the marketing research profession.

Ed Keller, executive director at MRII, said: “With the market research industry undergoing significant change as new technologies and methodologies are introduced, we are particularly fortunate to have the leadership of Paul, who is an innovator in this area.

“Paul is well familiar with our mission, having served on our board for the past six years, and will bring invaluable vision and guidance as we move forward with our mandate of advancing education within the industry.”