Lake began her career at Synovate eight years ago, as senior study director, and has held the role of senior vice-president and global director of Synovate's product design and development division for the last two years.
She was responsible for integrating the business globally and introducing statistical approaches to provide clients with a better understanding of how their products would fare in the market place.
MarketQuest, which relaunched as a practice in its own right last month, guides clients through the product development process from initial concept development to pricing, packaging and ongoing performance monitoring.
Lake has more than 20 years of experience in product evaluation research, including work for a major consumer packaged goods food company.
Adrian Chedore, global CEO of Synovate, said: "Mary Beth has helped hundreds of companies realise the untapped potential of their product. We are thrilled that she will be spearheading our global efforts in this arena."