Ceril Shagrin
Ceril Shagrin, who worked at Univision for 24 years and retired four years ago as EVP of Corporate Audience Measurement, Innovation, and Analytics, died in Miami at the age of 89.
A pioneer in the media measurement business as it is known today, Shagrin always advocated against the underrepresentation of the US Hispanic sample in ratings. Prior to Univisión, she served for 26 years at Nielsen – until 1999 – and spent a significant portion of her time and energy driving standards of excellence within the Media Rating Council (MRC) and the Council for Research Excellence, among other forums.
Roberto Ruiz, EVP of Research, Insights, and Analytics at Univision, who worked with Shagrin for 10 years, highlighted that she was a “mentor and friend.” He said that at Univisión she was a pioneer and promoted Hispanic measurements. “Without her and without her efforts, the Hispanic media and advertising industry would not be what it is today.”
Shagrin was so admired at Univision that when she announced her retirement, they decided to create an intranet portal with all the information and wisdom that employees would normally receive from Ceril… “They had a contest to name the site, and “Ask Ceril.com” won… What a fitting tribute!” Ruiz said.
George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of MRC said: “Shagrin was a pioneer in many areas, both at Nielsen during her long career and later at Univision, where she fervently demanded better measurement of Hispanics (and better general measurement). Today I use many of her sayings and thoughts. She was a great and influential member of MRC. She received one of the only awards we’ve given for service to MRC – there have only been four such awards in over 50 years – plus I nominated her for and she was bestowed with the NAB’s Beville Award for her contributions to the television investigation.”
“Ceril was a truly remarkable woman whom I was fortunate to have as a mentor and friend. She has patents with Nielsen and was quoted last week by George Ivie of MRC at a meeting on the future of measurement, so the legacy she built at Nielsen and Univision continues to make an impact,” said Kathleen Bohan, Head of Audience Research at Univision.
