Catalyst Investors-backed RI names Bedard as president and CEO

Reputation Institute, which is backed by Catalyst Investors, has hired Jamie Bedard as its global president and CEO. Bedard will be replacing Jonathan Ewert who will transition to serving on the company’s board of directors. Bedard has worked previously at Aberdeen Group and Benchmarking Partners. Reputation Institute, which has headquarters in both New York City and Copenhagen, Denmark, is a global corporate reputation measurement and management firm.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK and COPENHAGEN (November 4, 2014) – The Reputation Institute (“RI”), the world’s foremost research and advisory organization focused solely on corporate reputation, today announced that it has named Jamie Bedard as its global President and Chief Executive Officer. He will replace Jonathan Ewert, who will transition to a role serving on the RI Board of Directors.

Bedard, an experienced executive with proven success in leading organizations such as Aberdeen Group and Benchmarking Partners, joined the company’s leadership team earlier this year. Since then, Bedard has rapidly accelerated the growth of RI’s client membership globally, while overseeing the launch of RI’s syndicated reputation research program that provides industry, benchmark and strategic research on reputation management and measurement. As CEO, Bedard will lead the global organization, and continue to unify RI’s advice, research, measurement, analytics, sales, and marketing teams to build upon the impressive growth and momentum already demonstrated during 2014.

“Jamie has an unparalleled reputation and a proven track record of delivering value to customers through outstanding research and packaged service offerings. Based on his expertise leading global research and advisory businesses, Jamie is exactly the right executive to lead RI forward into its next stage of growth,” said Tyler Newton, Partner with Catalyst Investors and Member, RI Board of Directors. “I look forward to working with him as RI extends its positon as the world’s leading research-based reputation advisory firm. I also want to thank Jonathan Ewert for leading RI through the post-investment transition and setting it up for its next phase of growth.”

In addition to overseeing RI operations globally, Bedard will lead the organization’s expansion and growth initiatives outlined in a recent announcement that highlighted a second round of investment by growth equity firm Catalyst Investors. The initiatives will strengthen Reputation Institute’s business operations, deepen its research program, and expand its go-to-market activities, while RI continues to rapidly expand the membership of its Reputation Leaders Networks (RLN) in the Americas and EMEA. The Reputation Leaders Network includes over 100 of the world’s leading companies as members.

“Reputation management is a top priority for business, government and organizational leaders worldwide,” said Bedard, CEO of the Reputation Institute. “I am excited about the opportunity to further drive our RepTrak® research as the ‘gold standard’ globally for reputation measurement and management. No other organization in the world has the credibility, independence, expertise and proven track record to help CCOs and CMOs and their teams meet these new challenges and drive reputation improvements.”

About the Reputation Institute
Reputation Institute is the world’s leading reputation research-based consulting and advisory firm. The work of RI enables many of the world’s leading companies to make more confident business decisions that build and protect reputation capital, analyze risk and sustainability topics, and drive competitive advantage. RI’s most prominent management tool is the RepTrak® model for analyzing the reputations of companies and institutions — best known via the Forbes-published Global RepTrak® 100, the world’s largest study of corporate reputations – as well as Country RepTrak and City RepTrak studies that look at reputation across organizations within a given geography.