RocSearch appoints David O’Brien as Executive Chairman

November 04, 2007 [New Delhi / London]: RocSearch Limited, the UK-based Research and Analytics firm, has announced the appointment of David O’Brien as Executive Chairman. David’s broad role at RocSearch will encompass execution of a new strategic plan, Executive and Management coaching, strengthening of the executive leadership team, exploitation of new markets and channels, and development of a global delivery environment.

David is a veteran of the IT and IT / Business Services sector with a career spanning over 30 years. Starting his career as a technologist within insurance and banking, David rapidly moved into management and strategic business development roles with a desire to influence and affect change. He has held leadership positions in many of the industry’s leading companies such as Siemens, Unisys and for the past 5 years, Accenture, where he had been deployed extensively across Europe, The Americas and Asia.

“We have been very fortunate in finding someone of David’s caliber who we strongly believe can lead us to achieve the vision that’s now within our sights. David has enormous hands-on experience in running and advising huge corporations in many different fields that are all highly relevant to RocSearch, our people and our future”, commented Russel Fischer, Co-Founder of RocSearch.

David’s early vendor career spanned roles as Sales Director and then Managing Director of the US-based software firm Candle Corporation, a spell of 5 years running his own Sourcing Advisory Consultancy in the UK before joining Siemens Business Services, where he enjoyed a number of years selling multi-hundred million dollar transformational outsourcing deals.

From Siemens, David accepted the challenge of running the outsourcing arm of Unisys in EMEA during a period of great change and evolution for this global technology firm. One of his many roles was inaugural CEO of the US$ 1 Billion joint venture BPO company ipsl, owned by Barclays Bank, LTSB Bank and Unisys.

In 2001, David was invited to join Accenture as a senior partner focusing upon large scale transformational change programs. For a period of 5 years, David continued to travel extensively, advising, coaching and leading teams in pursuit of some of the world's most challenging outsourcing deals. David became a regular faculty member in Chicago teaching Accenture executives the art of negotiation.

In business development roles, David was directly responsible for acquiring over US$ 5 Billion of new business, and more in advisory and coaching roles. David is a strong advocate for offshore services - where access to talent, skills and work ethics clearly compliment the obvious labor arbitrage benefits.

On being asked about his arrival at RocSearch, David said, "I am very pleased to take up the position of Executive Chairman of RocSearch at this time. The company has played a pivotal role in shaping the emerging industry that is Knowledge Services. In raising the bar in respect of quality of Research and Analytics, it is heartening for all our people that the Black Book of Outsourcing (2007) ranked RocSearch No. 3 globally for Advertising Analysis / Media / Market Research”.

He also added, "There is no doubt a lot that has been achieved in the past two years – and from this platform we can look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm. My role will be to support the management team and all our people to ensure that services are delivered in a highly professional and efficient way in accordance with the standards of quality that our clients have come to expect from RocSearch”.

About RocSearch:

RocSearch provides business, market, financial and emerging markets research and analytics services with a focus on fact-based problem solving. It helps support business development, client engagement, product development and thought leadership initiatives of clients globally. Its India-based knowledge centre is equipped with a 100-member analyst team capable of fulfilling dynamic custom research requirements and adapting to client-specific processes.

For more details, please contact:
Ms. Gayatri Ojha
Senior Associate - PR & Corporate Communications
Email : gayatri.ojha@rocsearch.com
Mobile : +91 98730 89705
Direct : +91-120-40171159

Corporate website: www.rocsearch.com