Port Washington, NY, June 12, 2007 – The NPD Group, Inc., leading provider of consumer and retail information, announced the promotions of Martine Ringwald, Natalie Seidman, Julie Stewart, and Karl Werner each to vice president.
Martine Ringwald, who has led NPD’s beauty tracking service in France since its inception in 2003, has been named vice president of the rapidly growing business. Recently, Ringwald spearheaded expansion of NPD’s beauty tracking service into Italy, following the acquisition of TNS’s Italian Perfumery business in 2005. In her new role, Ringwald is continuing NPD’s expansion to other countries in Europe. She previously worked for TNS, OsMoz.com, and as a freelance consultant for the beauty industry.
Natalie Seidman has been named vice president, Financial Services Business Development. Seidman started her career at NPD in 2001 as director of beauty tracking. Since 2001 she has held various positions, including managing the FragranceTrack service and leading the client development team for NPD’s Beauty business. In 2005, Seidman joined the Financial Services team as director of product marketing. Before joining NPD, Seidman worked at Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Booz, Allen & Hamilton.
Julie Stewart has been named vice president, Custom Research Services. Stewart joined NPD in 1994. She has held positions from associate account executive to director of client development and custom. Stewart now leads the custom research effort for Technology, Beauty, Fashion and Sports. She counts the development of attitudinal-based products within Fashion and Sports, among many of her accomplishments. Stewart previously worked for CB & A Research in North Carolina, a full service marketing research company.
Karl Werner has been named vice president, Commercial Technology where he is responsible for managing three lines of business: Technology Distribution, Commercial Resellers and the newly launched Office Supplies service. He came to NPD in 2006, following his tenure at Tech Data, most recently as director of their Advanced Technology Group. Werner’s career evolved through many retail positions at Staples, HSN, Rite Aid, and Priceline.com.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,600 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. NPD helps our clients to identify new business opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising, and other functions. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, commercial technology, consumer technology, entertainment, fashion, food and beverage, foodservice, home, office supplies, software, sports, toys, and wireless. For more information, visit www.npd.com.