Circling Back

Since last post we’ve seen 2 M&A deals, 1 funding round, 21 people moves & promotions, 4 (or 5) roles, 6 articles, and 1 newly added upcoming event.

2025 recap and review in the works. Be sure to subscribe if you aren’t already.

Plus, last edition’s top clicked link.

M&A

• Norstat acquired Offerwise (LatAm market research).

• Senzing acquired Placekey (location data identifier standard).

*Deals are announced but may not be closed.

Funding

• Pluto (AI-powered lending platform for private markets) raised $8.6M in a Seed round.

People Moves, Promotions, and Appointments

• Devin Basinger was promoted to COO at H1.

• Sheraz Bhatti joined Quartr as Head of Customer Success.

• Samantha Campbell was promoted to Head of Content Solutions, International at Millennium.

• Christopher Cox joined Discord as Head of Data Partnerships.

• Sandeep Earayil was promoted to MD, Head of Data, AI and Research Technology at RBC Capital Markets.

• Sam Edelstein was promoted to SVP, Data & AI at Insight Partners.

• John Farrall joined SymetryML as Chief Commercial Officer.

• Derek Fetzer joined Novartis as Director, Enterprise & Functional Market Research.

• Sebastian González joined DocDelta as Business Development Lead.

• Andrew Jenkins joined John Burns Research and Consulting as Chief Data and Analytics Officer.

• Jeremy Katzeff was promoted to Head of Partnerships at GoldenSource.

• Sally Keeley was promoted to Director at BlackRock.

• Kieran Kennedy joined Rimes as Chief Revenue Officer.

• Shahina Khan was promoted to EMEA Chief Data and Analytics Officer at SMBC.

• Ian O’Neal joined Solomon Partners as Partner.

• Jake Pryszlak joined QuantifyAI as VP, Commercial.

• Alyssa Quinn joined IDR as Chief Revenue Officer.

• Kathleen Ryan joined CP Capital as Head of Marketing, Data Strategist.

• Russ Tarr was promoted to Head of Sales & Partnerships at Prolific.

• Thiago Vieira was promoted to Managing Director at Blackstone.

• Max Warren joined Kadoa as VP of Sales.

*may not have started roles, but roles are announced or updates provided online.

Who’s Hiring

• BlueMatrix is hiring a Head of Marketing.

• Coca-Cola is hiring a Senior Director, Data Strategy Lead ($195K - $226K)

• Fanatics is hiring a Senior Director, Data & Strategy ($193K - $318K).

• System2 is hiring Data Scientists.

• The United States Government is hiring a President, Venezuela.

*salaries only listed where provided by the company and may vary based on location and other factors. See links for specific salary details.

What I’m Reading

• CME, LSEG align on market data licensing in GenAI era by Wei-Shen Wong and Rebecca Natale in WatersTechnology.

• 2025 Developments in the Alternative Data Industry by Michael Mayhew in Integrity Research.

• A perspective on the venture business a/k/a normalizing the insecurities we all experience by Roger Ehrenberg.

• The Buffett Paradox by Bob Casey.

• Meet BlackRock's tech 'translator' spearheading agentic AI at the world's largest money manager by Alice Tecotzky.

• Data & AI Hot Takes for 2026: Four non-consensus predictions about agentic AI, jobs, RTO, and pricing that I’m willing to be wrong about by Jason DeRise.

Upcoming Events

*new events added since last newsletter

• *Low-Key Data Happy Hour, Jan 14, NYC

• Insights Association CEO Summit, Jan 20-22, Hollywood, Florida

• Data Products & platforms Summit, Jan 21-22, London

• BattleFin Discovery Day, Jan 21-23, Miami

• Data Day Texas, Jan 24-25, Austin, Texas

• Samplecon, Mar 16-18, Lake Oconee, Georgia

• QuantVision 2026: Fordham’s Quantitative Conference, Mar 19-20, NYC

• Future Alpha, Mar 31-Apr 1, NYC

• AI in Finance Summit, Apr 15-16, NYC

• World of DaaS Summit, May 7, Washington D.C.

• Monetising B2B Information & Events 2026, May 13, London

Resources

• Deal Tracker for full M&A and funding rounds.

• Job Board for full listings.

• Market Map PDF, PNG, and Spreadsheet.

• Compensation Study Summary. Participate here.

Favor

If you’ve read this far, please click here (always testing out some readership analytics) and connect with me if we’re not already connected!

Views here are the author’s own and not of any employers or companies. The author may be compensated for pieces in this newsletter.