MRSpride SHOW UP! Insights Summit 2024

Mariline Alsuar, Global Insights Director, Reckitt
Mariline Alsuar is the Global Insights Director on Sexual Wellbeing. In her 5 years in the role, she has experimented with new research technologies to uncover the truth about people’s sex life and to determine how to help them enjoy a pleasurable sex life, safely. She believes sexual satisfaction is a critical component of overall wellbeing. She is interested in finding new ways to represent and celebrate the diversity that exists within the LGBTQ+ audience. 

Alessia Cavallini, Brand Manager, Kantar
Alessia Cavallini, also known as Vi, has always been a powerhouse of creativity, innate passion and empathy. From a young age, Alessia immersed herself in photography and visual arts, developing a keen eye for detail and a profound appreciation for the world around her. Her interest in psychology further fuelled her understanding of human behaviour, making her an empathetic and insightful individual. Alessia's zest for life and commitment to self-improvement have been evident throughout her personal and professional journeys. She has always been guided by her core values of authenticity and honesty, principles that have shaped her interactions, work, and approach to every challenge she has faced. Alessia's commitment to these values and her way of connecting with intention has not only defined her character but has also inspired those around her.

Matt Baker, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of BAMM
Matt is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Strategic Insight Agency BAMM.  With his background in photo-journalism, Matt has always been a passionate storyteller dedicated to the delivery of compelling and impactful living insight to BAMM’s clients. Matt began his career in planning at DLKW and M&C Saatchi following completion of a degree in psychology at the University of Nottingham.  He then studied Photojournalism and freelanced for a number of years before co-founding a new breed of insight agency harnessing the power of imagery and film to situate consumer insights in its broader cultural context and inspire creativity among brand owners across the world.

Michael Brown, Partner, UM, Co-Chair, MRSpride

 Dr. Rodney Collins, Co-Director of Intelligence, Outvertising
Dr. Rodney Collins is the Co-Director of Intelligence at Outvertising, the not-for-profit, volunteer led and run LGBTQIA+ advertising and marketing advocacy group in the UK. At Outvertising, he is the co-lead and lead author of the group's Outvertising Consumer Report. 

Raga D'silva
Raga D’silva is an author, TEDx speaker, columnist, entrepreneur and an LGBT+ rights activist. She has worked in numerous geographies, including India, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore over the last 30 years in media, entertainment and advertising. Born and raised in India, Raga struggled with her sexuality, making headlines when she came out as a lesbian at the age of 50 through her debut book ‘Untold Lies’. Since then, she has been a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and has dedicated her efforts to championing the rights of the community.
Raga’s personal coming out journey has been documented across various media channels including BBC India & BBC One. She has also appeared on other media channels such as ITV, BBC, Sky News, Channel 5 for her fight to prevent Diabetes Type 2. Finalist at the ‘Woman of the Year’ by the Asian Achievers Awards 2022, Raga has become a voice for older LGBTQ+ people, striving to ensure global equality for all. Raga was an intervenor in the marriage equality rights in India & has been relentlessly fighting for this basic human right. Raga was shortlisted amongst 90k nominations and voted for the prestigious National Diversity Awards 2023.Raga speaks on various topics including intersectionality, Diversity & Inclusion, Entrepreneurship, Personal Branding and Ancient Wisdom & Modern Solutions. Raga is the recipient of the Woman of Courage award at the UK Houses of Parliament.
Recently, Raga set up the UK’s first speaker agency for LGBTQ+ Queer women and those who are non-binary, OUTspoken Speakers. Apart from writing the next two books, Raga regularly writes for several publications, including Diva Magazine.

Dominique Escorce, Recruitment Specialist at Research Opinions, Acumen Fieldwork
Dominique is a Queer, Manchester-based Recruitment Specialist, specializing in market research, and has been recognised for contributing to a high-profile research project. With a strong dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion, she actively seeks to create equal opportunities in the workplace. Dominique helps her work place build more inclusive strategies, for participants and the team, to allow all voices to be heard. Outside of work, she will be at protests that focus on equality and human rights, then spend her evenings song-writing as a form of create expression and storytelling. Driven by activism, inclusivity and diversity, Dominique is always looking for ways to learn and make positive differences.

Chris Hutchings, Senior Director Ipsos

Hannah Key, Insights Manager, Boots
Hannah has done various roles as part of the Boots UK Commercial Insights team since 2018, where she is currently the research lead on overall brand strategy, ESG and communications testing. She has a real passion for people and believes everyone should have the right to be their authentic self in all aspects of life. She’s a Mental Health First Aider and Forum Rep within Boots, meaning when she’s not in hot debate with the Marketing team about upcoming measurement plans, she’s advocating for fellow colleagues to make the absolute best of their 9-5 experience.
Outside of work she’s a doting dog mum, Disney parks enthusiast and tells us she bakes a mean chocolate chip cookie after well over a decade of perfecting the recipe. Despite being a total introvert she’ll be happy to talk your socks off on any of these topics.

Ignacio Labayen De Inza: Controlling Chemsex
Ignacio Labayen de Inza is one of those unique people who has distilled his own past life traumas into a force for good to help others—in this case, his past dependence on chemsex, the term used to describe sexual activity that happens while under the influence of drugs, taken before or during this activity, with the purpose of sustaining, enhancing, disinhibiting, or facilitating the experience. Today, Ignacio is the chief executive of Controlling Chemsex, an online charity developed in 2020 to provide online chemsex support to anyone needing it.

Victoria Landell Mills, Senior Insight Executive, BAMM 
Victoria is a qualitative research specialist at Strategic Insight Agency BAMM since January 2023 with expertise in semiotics, ethnography and social trends. She has contributed considerably to The Drop 2023 FANDOM, as well as BAMM RAW. Victoria studied International Relations at King’s College London with a particular focus on Human Rights and the European Union. Since commencing her career in the insight industry she has always sought to surface the stories of those who are least well understood and heard. She is committed not to telling stories on the behalf of others but rather to have other people’s stories heard. 

Hannah Litchfield, Client Director, Bulbshare
Hannah Litchfield is Client Director at Bulbshare and has dedicated her career to placing consumers at the heart of decision-making processes for major retailers and brands globally. She is passionate about ensuring all voices are elevated through true collaboration and believes community-led insights are the route to achieving this. Her approach is rooted in the belief that true success comes from fostering real connections and she is committed to bridging the gap between brands and their consumers, ensuring that every voice is heard and valued.

Phil McCann, Research Director, Verve
Phil has worked at Verve for nearly a decade, leading their work with Boots and the No7 Beauty Company – taking in all things retail, healthcare and beauty. He’s come a long way from his first project, where he told his client “I don’t know anything about lipstick”, and now happily spends hours chatting about full coverage, the joys of a double cleanse and the importance of daily SPF. Phil’s passionate about ensuring authentic voices cut through in research – from uncovering the effects of the Cost-of-Living crisis to illuminating the lived experiences of trans and non-binary consumers. You can chat to him about films, music, football and the c.67 different daily puzzle games he plays.

Merry Martyn, Comedian
Merry is a comedian with a statistics PhD and inflicts maths on her audience with flashcards, a ukulele and a rubik's cube. Her clever wit won her Queerovision Comedy Competition at Edinburgh Fringe '24, shortly after being named a finalist for West End New Act of the Year '24. When she's not on stage, she's buying tiny hats for her pet lizard.

Virginia Melis, Karo Healthcare
Virginia Melis (she/her) is a passionate marketer with over 17 years of experience in consumer healthcare. She currently leads the Healthcare Professional (HCP) strategy and programmes for the Skin Health category at Karo Healthcare. Throughout her career, she has had the opportunity to work with incredible teams at companies such as Haleon, GSK, Nestlé Skin Health, and Galderma, where she has successfully driven impactful brand strategies and led campaigns that make a real difference.
Originally from Italy, she has spent the past 20 years in the UK, with a few fantastic years in Switzerland. Outside of her professional life, she’s also a full-time mum to two wonderful kids, aged 4 and 6, who ensure there's never a dull (or quiet) moment!."

Rich Miles, Diversity Standards Collective

Rachel Pound, Senior Recruitment Specialist at Research Opinions, Acumen Fieldwork
Rachel is a Senior Recruitment Specialist in market research. She brings a unique perspective to her work, ensuring inclusivity and fairness are the front-focus of the recruitment process. Blending her academic background with a passion for equality and justice as she holds a degree in Sociology and a postgraduate in International Human Rights.  Outside of her profession, Rachel lives in Manchester, with her wife, and spends time looking up and staying informed on global human right issues. Rachel’s dedication to inclusivity extends beyond her professional work, as she strives to create a positive impact in and out of the workplace.

Shafeeq Shajahan, VP Product, Streetbees
Shafeeq is the VP of Product at Streetbees. A product leader with over 7 years of Machine Learning experience in the FMCG and TMT sectors, Shafeeq has contributed to the growth of zero-to-one AI products in APAC and EMEA, specialising in chatbots, voicebots and other Natural Language Processing applications. Shafeeq has been innovating in the Market Research space for three years now, empowering traditional research use-cases with AI (e.g. conversational surveys, multi-media classification and insight generation):

Sabrina Trinquetel, Co-chair MRS Pride and EDI Changemaker

Jane Rowe, Program Manager, YouGov and Committee Member, MRSpride