Sandy Wax, the former president of NBCUniversal-owned Sprout, has joined market research firm LRW (Lieberman Research Worldwide) as executive vice president and chief operating officer at a time when the firm said it is growing internally and via acquisitions. Wax's hiring comes as Jeff Reynolds has been promoted to president and COO of SWHoldings, the holding company for LRW businesses, continuing to report to long-time chairman and CEO Dave Sackman. Wax reports to Reynolds, who said in a release: "Sandy is a proven leader that will add strength to our management team and bring fresh perspective to our business. Most importantly, as a consumer of consumer insights throughout her professional career, she will have a sharp perspective on helping to make sure LRW remains focused on driving business impact for our clients, which is at the core of our strategy.”
Wax, who was the top executive at Sprout from soon after its launch as a joint-venture owned, pre-schooler network and through its full acquisition by NBCU in 2013 until leaving in 2016, will oversee key operations and administrative teams at Los Angeles-based LRW and guide operations integration with future acquisitions, the company said. Prior to Sprout, Wax held leadership positions at Disney including senior vice president, brand strategy and research. She also spent seven years as VP of research and planning at Discovery Communications Inc.
LRW said Reynolds joined the company in 2003 as a research director and quickly moved through the ranks to VP, general manager and ultimately president of LRW in 2010.
LRW also has offices in London, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Orange County. In 2015, with capital raised with Tailwind Capital Partners in New York, LRW has made three recent company acquisitions so far as part of a planned series of deals. Sackman said in the release: “Jeff’s well-earned promotion supports our goal to become the leading consulting firm utilizing integrated data analytics in the market research industry. Our vision includes rapid organic growth along with carefully targeted strategic acquisition, and Jeff’s expanded role will deliver the collaboration and alignment needed to bring our brands and a diversity of data streams together to provide greater action-oriented recommendations for our clients.”
