CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Repass Research and Strategic Consulting, the firm that produces the West Virginia Poll for MetroNews, announced today that it has been acquired by Research America Inc., a privately held marketing research firm with 12 locations in the United States.
Rex Repass, founder and CEO of the company bearing his last name, reflected on the beginning stages of his career in Charleston while discussing the latest step for his business. Repass started his career in Charleston in 1978 when he joined Charles Ryan Associates as opinion research director. He and Charles Ryan formed Ryan-Repass Research, Inc., the first full-service survey research firm in the state.
“I started my research career with Charlie Ryan in the late ’70s, early ’80s, and Charlie gave me a great opportunity to be an entrepreneur,” Repass said in a telephone interview today.
“As I think about the latter part of my career, the Research America acquisition gives me the opportunity to help grow a national company, and that’s very exciting at this point in my career to help build an organization that is really coast-to-coast.”
Research America Inc. is a nimble, value-based marketing and public opinion research firm that was founded more than 30 years ago. It is based in suburban Philadelphia and has multiple locations coast-to-coast. The company’s services include research design, telephone, online, and mobile data collection, advanced analytics and research-based strategy development.
The Repass firm, which is based in Cincinnati, will remain in place and continue to serve the its client base. The company will also continue to operate under the Repass brand name.
Rex Repass will work with other parts of the company to integrate and dovetail its abilities.
“I am working with the other companies owned by Research America to integrate full service marketing research and consulting services into the portfolio of companies,” Repass said. “My role is beyond just the Cincinnati business. It’s also to integrate and work with the other partner firms to provide full service marketing and research capabilities.
In both 2015 and 2016, the Repass firm was named by Inc. magazine as one of the 5000 fastest growing private companies in the United States.
Research America Inc. president Robert Porter said he is excited to start work with Repass.
“We are thrilled to announce with Rex the acquisition of the REPASS firm,” Porter said. “Rex has built a very successful and respected firm with long-term clients and a talented staff. They will add significantly to our capabilities in quantitative and qualitative research methods and research-based strategy development.”
Rex Repass is a graduate of Marshall University and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.