Client Conference 2024

Bethan Blakeley, CX and Research Manager, SimpliSafe UK
Bethan has worked in research and analytics for over a decade, constantly striving to bridge the gap between the two. She spent most of this time agency side, but has recently taken her first client side role at SimpliSafe UK, an emerging brand in the UK home security space. Here she'll be setting up the research function from the ground up. 
She is a keen member of the MRS Advanced Insights & Analytics team, and also wrote the MRS Impact analytics column. Now that she’s on the other side, she’s keen to do what she can to improve working relationships between agencies and clients, and to truly foster a collaborative way of working between them.

Austin Dorsett, Head of Insight, In house Research, Tesco

Libby Eastwood, Insight Lead, UKHSA

Richard Ellwood, CMO, Head of Customer Partnerships & Marketing, Crown Estate
Richard is the CMO and Head of Customer Partnerships at The Crown Estate (£16bn capital) responsible for all commercial leasing for 10m sq ft portfolio, establishing a new brand strategy and architecture, representing the corporate purpose and values to UK consumers and business partners. He is accountable to drive footfall to multiple retail and leisure destinations such as Regent St, increase commercial success for retail, office and energy stakeholders and increase The Crown Estate brand awareness and engagement. Prior to TCE, Richard led Marketing Strategy for Disney EMEA, running commercial high ROI campaigns across multiple markets. Richard’s background is insights and is a Fellow of the Market Research Society and a Trustee of Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation.

Stephan Gans, Chief Consumer Insights and Analytics Officer, Pepsico

Ruth Hinton, Group Head of Customer Experience & Insight, Vue International

Margaret Jobling, CMO, NatWest

Sarah Jousiffe, Director of Consumer Research, Sky

Georgia Lewin, Senior Customer Insight Manager, AA

Nikki Quast, Senior Market Research Manager, Research + Insights, Microsoft 

Claire Rainey, Head of Insight, Virgin Media O2
Claire Rainey is the Head of Insight at Virgin Media O2. Over the last 20 years, Claire has held roles in Sky and Royal Mail Group, prior to Virgin Media O2. Claire has extensive client-side experience in leading consumer and business teams within large corporates, navigating organisational complexity. Claire champions the customer in commercial decisions and, in her current role, has established a single customer language embedded in corporate culture that focuses on customer needs. In a large corporate, providing a unifying voice is key to mobilising customer led activity in a broad and consistent manner. Claire is always looking to trial new methodologies and evolve the team’s capabilities both in terms of techniques and ways of working.

Becky Ray, CEO and High Performing Cultures Consultant, Culture Kick
Becky Ray is the passion and driving force behind Culture Kick, which partners with  Leaders to empower them to create High Performance Cultures through an operational-focused approach. The unique framework, the Culture Kick Culture Cake, is designed to make this transformation impactful and empowering more people to Be Better.
Because Better People 
Become Better Leaders 
Building Better Cultures. 
With a diverse and fascinating background, Becky has become an expert in empowering Leaders to create High Performing Workplace Cultures. She began her career as an Engineer, experiencing firsthand the fast-paced dynamics of operations. After a decade on the tools, she transitioned into Health and Safety Leadership in High-Risk industries such as Rail, Construction, Manufacturing, and Military Aviation. Her hands-on experience in these fields has given her a deep understanding of the important role Leaders have in achieving High Performance and an environment where people thrive. 
A passionate advocate for personal and professional growth and the role it plays in positivity impacting people, leaders and businesses.  Becky has a unique talent to transform knowledge into actionable and engaging ideas you can easily operate to   by to become a Better Person, Better Leader and to Build Better Cultures. 

Nick Rich, Client-Side Insights Leader

James Sallows, Head of Global Marketing Effectiveness, LEGO

Nicole Smyth, Customer Insight, Holland & Barrett
Nicole Smyth is an experienced Insight leader, having worked client-side within a number of UK and Global retailers, including ASDA, George Clothing and Debenhams, and most recently leading Strategic Insights at Holland & Barrett. With a passion for ensuring research is inclusive and representative, Nicole is involved with a number of EDI initiatives, including recently working alongside Clare Woodward (BT) to update the MRS client-side EDI Best Practice guides. Alongside this, Nicole is also leading EDI initiatives within Holland & Barrett to create insight team and agency guidelines focussed on improving representation in all areas of research and analysis.

Georgie White, Chief Customer Officer, Holland & Barrett
Georgie White is Chief Customer Officer at Holland & Barrett.  Her focus is on empowering teams to be brilliant business partners by driving action to deliver commercial results. Georgie is an experienced insight leader having established impressive teams at brands such as BT/EE, British Gas, Hive, Capital One & Merrill Lynch. She has held roles In the UK and globally covering Insight, Data and Commercial within both B2C and B2B environments.

David Woodley, Head of Qualitative Research and Marketing Insight, Barclays
David, is the Head of Qualitative Research at Barclays.  He brings 20 years of experience across the financial services, automotive, and entertainment sectors.  With senior insight roles both agency and client-side, he is adept at curating new insights to devise compelling strategies for communications, products, audiences, and customer experience.  His work with brands such as Standard Life, RAC, Co-op, and Universal Pictures has been instrumental in shaping their strategic direction. At this year’s conference, David will share his journey of building an in-house client-side team of qualitative researchers from scratch, highlighting the challenges and successes along the way. 

Clare Woodward, Enterprise Insight Manager, BT
Clare Woodward is an experienced clientside research currently working for BT across B2B and B2C research projects. With a focus on ensuring research and the research industry are inclusive across both practices and culture, Clare is the original author of the MRS Clientside EDI Best Practice guides first published in May 2022 (and believed to the first of their kind!). Working alongside Nicole Smyth (Holland and Barrett) the guides have recently be reviewed and updated and will be relaunched following the MRS Clientside Conference. Clare is also a part of the MRS People and Talent workgroup and chairs the New and Returning Talent subgroup.