Data Driven Insights 2023

Sam Barton, Head of Audience & Effectiveness – Bountiful Cow

Bethan Blakeley, Research Director – Boxclever Consulting

Melanie Courtright, CEO – Insights Association

John Cranstone, Senior Product Manager – Discover.ai
With a passion for innovation and a proven track record of shaping successful products, John is a seasoned Senior Product Manager who has been working at Discover.ai for over 4 years leading both the platform development and R&D side of the business. John began his career as a software engineer, and he draws on his technical proficiency to facilitate data-driven decision-making when developing offers and platform in his role

Sam Gardner, Partner & Director of Analytics, Boxclever Consulting
@Weboxclever
Sam is a founding partner at Boxclever, he heads the analytics team. He is a professional economist and statistician who blends these two skillsets to create analytical solutions which elevate insight to a level that is more engaging and commercially actionable. Expertise include segmentation, market simulation & pricing analysis.

Debrah Harding, Managing Director – MRS
Debrah Harding is the Managing Director of the Market Research Society (MRS).  Debrah also leads the standards, policy and public affairs activities within MRS working extensively with government departments and global institutions on issues which affect research and insight. 
Debrah has a wealth of knowledge of ethical Codes, quality standards and guidelines, data protection/GDPR and on the enforcement of such standards.  Debrah is leading the MRS’ data quality initiative addressing the impact of bot technology on data fraud in research.
Debrah is also currently Chair of the Global Business Research Network (GRBN), Vice-President of the European Research Federation (EFAMRO), a Non-Executive Director of the media regulator IMPRESS, and is Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the RSA.

Chloe Hardwick, Insight Manager – Mitchells & Butlers

Doerthe Jans, Director of Audience Solutions – Yougov
Dörthe Jans is a Director of Audience Data at YouGov, and part of YouGov’s global Activation team that helps brands, and their agencies supercharge advertising campaigns with addressable audiences and unique, highly effective media. Her role is focused on our Audience partnerships and integrations, including the work we are doing with ITV, but also adtech partners, agencies and brands who are looking to enrich and activate their data with YouGov. She has been working for YouGov for the last 8 years, starting as a Product manager for one of YouGov's flagship products and audience analytics tools – YouGov Profiles. Before YouGov Dörthe worked in media agencies on both national and international accounts, including coordinating the European Mercedes-Benz account across 14 markets. Dörthe holds a Master’s degree in International Business and Strategic Marketing from Maastricht University.

Yasmin Kathoria, Brand Growth Director – Kantar SA
Yasmin is the head of Brand Growth Strategy at Kantar Consulting South Africa and comes with depth and breadth of expertise in growing brands. She is a trusted and indispensable partner to some of the world's most iconic brands across a multitude of industries and countries.
Prior to consulting, Yasmin served as Global Brand Director, Unilever UK, leading teams across 6 continents to create pioneering programs on purpose and sustainability models. Yasmin enjoys sharing her views at forums like the Marketing Achievement Awards where she talks about the crucial role of marketing in fuelling business growth.

Hannah Key, Insights Manager – Marketing Comms & Strategic Projects – Boots
Hannah is an insights manager and senior research professional at Boots UK, with a strong background in loyalty, proposition development, communications and market analysis. She leads strategic development through a real obsession with getting to the heart of customer tensions, ensuring the voice of the ‘real shopper’ is represented and championed always. Her dedication and expertise have been instrumental in enhancing customer understanding and engagement for the Boots organisation.

Paul Kingsley-Smith, UK Director  - Qualzy
Paul Kingsley-Smith has been driving growth and development at Qualzy since 2018, with a focus on building collaborative client relationships that can help drive strategic development of the platform and brand. He is fired by a belief that digital innovation can enable inspired change and human connections, as well as build quality insight. His passion for tech and the digital environment has fueled his career and influenced all aspects of his life as a customer service leader, father of three and dedicated runner.

Rachel Leaver, Head of Research & Insight – Dentsu International
Rachel Leaver is a multi-disciplined data professional with over 25 years of experience delivering answers and insights about consumers & shoppers, brands, and media across many global industries. Her expertise lies in several subject areas including marketing analytics, advertising effectiveness, research, and digital & data platforms. Rachel works at dentsu international as a Head of research and insight. Her passion lies in finding innovative insights and solutions through the creative use of (any) data and tech enabled by the collaboration of truly diverse teams. 

Dr Vanja Ljevar, Chief Data Scientist – Kubik Intelligence

Alice Mathews, Associate Director – Project Excellence – Discover.ai
Alice is an Associate Director at Discover.ai, focusing on Project Excellence. With a background in social anthropology and qualitative research, Alice has been with Discover.ai since its inception, drawn by the challenge of extracting deep and meaningful insight from big data.
In her current role, Alice’s interest lies in innovation with a particular focus on maximising the strategic value of agile tech driven insight for her clients, which include some of the world’s leading brands

Cianan O’Dowd, Associate Vice President – WeDig – Quantum Consumer Solutions
Cianan runs the core Digital Intelligence team at WeDig by Quantum.
With a strong background in Product Design & Design Strategy, Cianan has worked to deliver large scale strategy projects at Quantum and beyond over the past decade.
From building technologies at start-ups through to delivering R&D strategies for Fortune 500 clients, his past experience has seen him deliver for clients such as Bacardi, Samsung, PepsiCo, Unilever and more.
His current role overseas the delivery of digital insights & strategy through seamlessly integrating digital data into primary research methodologies across the project lifestyle – for clients big and small.

Karine Pepin, SVP Head of Quant – 2CV
Karine is a seasoned quantitative researcher with over 20 years of experience.   As a passionate advocate for the power of research insights, Karine is committed to improving the health and sustainability of the entire research ecosystem.  Recognizing the potential for AI to enhance  the participant experience and improve data quality,  she is excited for all new tools and innovative solutions that can seamlessly integrate AI technologies into the research process.   

Amrita Sen, Partner – Quantum Consumer Solutions
Amrita is a partner in Quantum Jakarta. Her love of humanities and instinctive inclination to strategic logic have their perfect playground in human-science based consulting work and resulting in flares of innovation across her ten+ years of career. Trained in ethnography, semiotics, culture commentary, psychology, and marketing strategy, she has helped clients solve business questions across markets in South and South-East Asia. Prone to being a magpie when it comes to interests and hobbies, she is currently preoccupied with Chinese historical dramas. Past obsessions include Discworld, BTS, manga work by Junji Ito, Holmes, Poirot, Byomkesh amongst many.

Anthony Shephard- Williams, Director – Mustard Research
Anthony Shephard-Williams is a director and co-owner of Mustard, with approaching 20 years’ experience in London and Manchester based agencies.
Anthony has a BA (with honours) in business and marketing and vast experience of both quantitative and qualitative research.
During his time at Mustard, he has spearheaded the development of Mustard’s online community offer; delivering hundreds of short and long-term insight communities for clients including Transport for West Midlands, Pets at Home, The Money Advice Service, Studio, Deezer and The Royal Parks.
More recently, Anthony has been exploring AI features and tools that can be utilised in market research to improve the quality, productivity and efficiency of research projects.

Jemma Toynebee-Smith, Group Account Lead –DVJ Insights
Jemma Toynebee-Smith has over 15 years of experience in the research industry, having worked extensively in the UK across client, operational and management roles. Jemma is currently Group Account lead at DVJ Insights in the UK where she is responsible for helping to expand the business internationally whilst also leading several key accounts. DVJ Insights is one of the fastest-growing insight companies in Europe with smart innovative thinking and solutions that are founded on and supported by academic and scientific thinking. Jemma is passionate about consumer decision-making, behavioural science and driving Brand Growth.

Mat Watson, Head of Audiences, Online, Interactive & Brands, ITV
Mat Watson is Head of Audiences for ITV, the UK's biggest commercial broadcaster, and one of the world's largest independent TV production companies. Responsible for the insight for the Streaming and Marketing divisions as ITV adapts to a fast moving TV market, and takes advantage of the opportunities it presents. This includes the recent launch of our new VOD service ITVX. This means working equally across traditional research and the fast growing world of data, and bringing both together for a 360 degree view of the market and our viewers, users and customers.

Jack Wilson, Innovation Lead – 2CV
A research specialist with over a decade of experience working with organisations across the private, public and third sectors. As the Innovation Lead at 2CV – Jack is always on the lookout for ways to leverage technology to enhance the quality, depth and efficiency of our research. Applying AI as an assistive tool for research is a particular passion area – Jack has been at the forefront of pushing forwards 2CV’s adoption and assimilation of these tools into everyday research practice.