COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Industry veteran Tom Duffy has been named vice president of member development at the Global Market Development Center (GMDC).  He will focus primarily on expanding the association’s reach within the retail and consumer product industry in order to create the best global network of those in the health, beauty, wellness and general merchandise value chain.

Duffy most recently served as executive vice president of industry affairs at Acosta, a sales and marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods industry, where as a member of the executive leadership team he was responsible for marketing, communications and industry affairs initiatives.

Prior to that, Duffy was vice president of industry services at Nielsen,  where he was responsible for development of client, partner and industry relations, trade strategy and thought leadership development for 10 years.

He has been intricately involved in GMDC through the years, serving as co-chair of the association’s education leadership council, where he was the architect of the GMDC-exclusive GM hierarchy benchmarking initiative – a partnership with Nielsen  and Retail Insights that was launched in 2012 to offer members the first standardized and detailed look into the $202 billion GM industry. The platform showcases 18 major categories including apparel, baby, candy, and housewares, with hundreds of subcategories. The Nielsen coded data, which is reported from thousands of stores across the North American market, can be filtered by various channels for comparison, and includes more than 20 million SKUs. As an enhanced benefit to GMDC members, an interactive dashboard version of the tool was launched this year.

“Tom is a visionary in the industry and has served as a valued member of GMDC, helping chart the future for our association through leading edge initiatives like our Nielsen hierarchy platform that spotlights tomorrow’s trends today,” said Patrick Spear, president and CEO of GMDC. “He has a proven track record of cultivating relationships and creating innovative ‘go-to-market’ strategies that drive market share and brand loyalty with key audiences, influencers and industry communities. We are thrilled to have Tom on our team of thought leaders.”

From 2004 to 2007, Duffy served as director of business and industry partnership of Nielsen division TDLinkx, the store, outlet and account coding structure and source of retail/on-premise channel information. He was also director of marketing for FulTilt Solutions, a commercial software development company, and vice president of marketing and administration for UCCnet, a tech start-up.

“It’s a privilege to join GMDC,” Duffy said. “The association has a rich legacy of driving tremendous value for members and partners for nearly 50 years, and I am excited to join this extremely professional, creative and talented team. I am eager to help leverage GMDC’s vision for future growth and expansion on behalf of our member community.”

Duffy has been a frequent speaker on industry topics, and has written numerous columns and white papers throughout his career.