Poynter (pictured) will serve in his new role for two years, with Luck serving two years in an ex-officio capacity.

Poynter, who is also founder of NewMR, has worked in the market research industry for more than 40 years at companies such as Sandpiper, The Research Business, Intelliquest, Millward Brown, VirtualSurveys, Vision Critical and Potentiate.

He is the author of The Handbook of Mobile Market Research and The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research and also provides content for the MRII Mobile Market Research course at the University of Georgia in the US.

Poynter is a fellow of the Market Research Society and served as an Esomar council member from 2018 to 2021. 

The elections for the role of chair were held between 23rd February and 10th March 2023, with eight additional council members also voted in for the upcoming two-year term.

The eight new council members include Alina Serbanica, senior vice-president, Ipsos Total Operations in Romania, Jean-Marc Léger, president at Leger in Canada, and Tom De Ruyck, chief growth officer and managing partner at Human8 in Belgium.

Others elected are Martha Llobet, founder at Q2Q Global in Spain, Dr Liubov Ruchinskaya, global consumer insights director at Electrolux in Switzerland, Dharmendra Jain, operations director at Kantar in Kenya, Corrine Moy, consultant, marketing and data science, in the UK, and Alain Mizrahi, chief executive at Grupo Radar in Uruguay.

Earlier this month, Joaquim Bretcha was named interim director general,  after the conclusion of Pravin Shekar’s three-month term. 

Luck said: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome such an experienced and passionate group of Esomar members to the council.

“I look forward to working closely with Ray and the incoming council in my role as ex-officio/past-president.”

Poynter added: “As an Esomar member for over 30 years, I’m passionate about the organisation and am putting forward a program of two elements: continuity and reform.

“I want Esomar to be an example of democracy and accountability, and to focus on boosting communication channels and serving both existing and future members.”