Country Managers

Christian Michael is Managing Director, Germany at SSI. He joined SSI from CODE-No.com, a direct marketing firm, where he served as Partner and Director, Sales. Prior to CODE.No.com, Christian spent almost seven years at Google Germany, first as Sales Manager and later as Industry Head, Retail. Before joining Google, he was Head of Cooperations for Tomorrow Focus Sales. He has also held key sales and account management positions at DoubleClick Deutschland, RMS Radio Marketing Services, IP Deutschland and Target Radio.

Chris Watson is Managing Director, UK at SSI.  Watson has spent more than 25 years in the market research industry, most recently at Greenfield‐Ciao Surveys, where he managed sales for the UK and Dutch markets. Prior to Greenfield‐Ciao, Chris jointly led one of the fastest‐growing international market research agencies in the UK.  For the majority of his career, Chris worked at BMRB International, part of the KANTAR group of companies. While at BMRB, he held a variety of operationally‐focused positions and established several commercial business units.

Joost Philips is the Managing Director for SSI in the Benelux region. In this role, he is responsible for all client relationships in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Prior to SSI, Joost held roles at Unilever, Dataview, and Bloomerce. In 2005, Survey Sampling International purchased Bloomerce, and Joost became Sales Director Benelux. Joost studied Business Administration at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Renaud Farrugia is SSI’s Managing Director, France, Spain and Italy. Farrugia joined SSI in early 2006 to open the Paris office and grow SSI’s presence in the French market. In 2009, Renaud took on sales director role, before being appointed Managing Director in 2010. Prior to joining SSI, he worked as a management consultant for four years at Eurogroup. Before Eurogroup, Renaud served as an account manager at Xerox France. He studied business (MBA) at ESSEC in Paris.

Ulf Bjornermark is Managing Director for SSI in the Nordic region. He joined SSI in 2007 with the goal of increasing SSI's presence in the Nordic region.  Prior to joining SSI, Ulf worked as management consultant for Deloitte Consulting in both Stockholm and Copenhagen. He specialized in strategic consulting, innovation management and interim management in both the private and public sectors. Ulf holds a Bachelor’s degree from the International University of Monaco and a Master's degree from Copenhagen Business School.

Derek Nash is Country Manager of Australia and New Zealand at SSI.  Prior to SSI, Derek served as General Manager at Netway Networks, an IT consulting, support and web services company. Before Netway, he was Group Director Australia and New Zealand for GfK. He also served as Marketing Manager at ACNielsen. Derek has a Bachelor of Business & Management (Marketing Major) from the University of Technology, Glasgow, Scotland.

Eric Gu is Country Manager of China at SSI. He has more than 10 years of experience in the market research and data service industries in China. Prior to SSI, Gu worked for GfK as Global Service Director. Before GfK, he worked at BDA, a leading telecom consulting firm in China, as Senior BD Manager. Eric has a Bachelor’s degree from Beijing Second Institute of Foreign Languages.

Ryan Hong is Country Manager of South Korea at SSI. Ryan has more than nine years of experience in the online research industry. Prior to joining SSI, he was Vice President of Lightspeed Research. He also served as Sales Director at GMI, responsible for managing the Korean market from the APAC headquarters in Sydney. Ryan has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney.