Harris Interactive Names Pavan Bhalla as CFO
Harris Interactive, a global market research firm, has appointed Pavan Bhalla as executive vice president (EVP), chief financial officer (CFO), and treasurer. He will report to Kimberly Till, president and chief executive officer (CEO), and will oversee the company’s global accounting, financial planning and analysis, corporate development, treasury, and investor relations functions. He assumes the CFO role from Eric Narowski, who has held the position of interim CFO since November 2009. Narowski will continue in his roles as principal accounting officer, SVP, and global controller.
From December 2008 until its acquisition by Aon Corporation last week, Bhalla served as vice president and CFO of the human resources (HR) outsourcing arm of Hewitt Associates. He also served as Hewitt Associates’ corporate controller from July 2006 to November 2008.
Bhalla held the position of senior vice president (SVP) of finance for MCI, a global telecommunications company, from August 2003 until its acquisition by Verizon Communications. Before joining MCI, Bhalla spent over seven years with BellSouth Corporation, a telecommunications company, serving in a variety of executive positions, including CFO of BellSouth Long Distance from 1999 to 2002. Early in his career, he served as a member of the audit practice at Ernst & Young.
Bhalla holds MBA degrees from both The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Analytic Finance) and Simon Fraser University (Information Systems) in Canada, and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Ravenshaw College in India. He is a certified public accountant (CPA) in Illinois.