Crescent Communities Announces New Consumer Research Position

Charlotte, N.C.—Crescent Communities has named Kendra Speed consumer research director, a newly created position in the company.

Speed began her career with The Proctor & Gamble Company, where she spent six years in consumer and market knowledge strategy, holding associate and management positions. While at P&G, she managed consumer and market research programs for product development, product launches, target audience analysis and shopper insights.

She also spent five years as divisional director with Data Systems & Technology, where she managed the test and evaluation contract division and corporate strategic plan development. Speed comes to Crescent from Michelin North America, where she served as senior business intelligence manager, leading market forecasting functions for the North America passenger car and truck organization.

As director of consumer insights at Crescent, Speed will work with the company’s development teams to bring the voice of the customer to the planning, design, positioning and marketing processes. Her in-depth experience with demographic research, and the ability to translate that into psychographics and provide insights on lifestyle preferences, will help further fuel growth in Crescent’s business. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Crescent has multifamily, residential and commercial communities in planning or under development in more than one dozen high-growth markets throughout the mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Southwest.

Speed holds her bachelor of science degree in business management from South Carolina State University and her M.B.A. from Purdue University. She earned a project management professional certification from the Project Management Institute and completed executive leadership programs through Dartmouth University and Northwestern University.