Ipsos Business Consulting appoints Per-Henrik Karlsson to head of Singapore

Ipsos Business Consulting has named Per-Henrik Karlsson as its new head in Singapore, following a six-year stint in the corresponding role in Korea.

The global market research agency Ipsos has appointed Per-Henrik Karlsson to head up its Business Consulting practice in Singapore – one of its 20 business consulting hubs worldwide. Karlsson has been with Ipsos and its acquired predecessor Synovate since 2004, starting off as a business development manager in Korea after switching from the hospitality and tourism sector.

Prior to its £525m acquisition by Ipsos in 2011 (at the time creating the world’s third largest market research firm), Karlsson went onto serve as Synovate’s Business Development Director for Central Eastern Europe and the Middle East based out of Dubai, before returning to Korea as the local head of Ipsos Business Consulting – responsible for the branch’s establishment.

After six years heading up operations in Korea, Karlsson has effective from the beginning of July crossed to the equivalent role in Singapore, where he’ll be tasked with overseeing the firm’s growth and market entry offerings in one of the business world’s most important strategic centres – a move that has been described as a relaunching of its local practice under new leadership.

Peter Snell, Ipsos Business Consulting’s Global CEO said; “I have known Pelle (Per-Henrik) for many years and seen his excellent work in growing practices in the Middle East and South Korea. We are fortunate to have someone of Pelle’s calibre, a very experienced professional, with a record of accomplishment of leading teams that provide market leading advisory services to clients around the world.”

Karlsson responded in kind; “I’m very excited about the challenge of leading the Ipsos Business Consulting offering in Singapore and helping to grow the team, and the client base, here. Having worked with Ipsos in the Middle East and Korea I have seen how the company’s consulting offering helps clients to improve both the top and bottom line… I look forward to working with our existing and new clients based in Singapore and growing the Singapore.”

Ipsos, which in addition to Singapore and Korea has Asian offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and multiple sites across China, has had an active presence in Singapore since first establishing the business in Hong Kong nearly a quarter of a century ago in 1994 – working across numerous sectors including healthcare, energy, automotive, construction, industry, media, travel, and retail.

“I believe that our methodology is best suited to those clients that are looking for help uncovering blue ocean opportunities, as opposed to the red ocean type of reporting that you get from syndicated reports and consulting that places too much emphasis on data from “off-the-shelf” reports,” Karlsson said on what sets Ipsos apart. “A fundamental belief at Ipsos Business Consulting is that knowledge empowers organisations and enables them to create opportunities and generate growth.”