Judges for the Operation Awards 2025

Penny has been the Chair of the IQCS since 2005 and sits on the Market Research Quality Standards Advisory Board and is a Fellow of the Market Research Society with 40 years operational experience.

She has been involved with the MRS/AQR Recruiter Accreditation Scheme Working Party since it was set up and is personally accredited under the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme.

Since the first Oppies Awards in 2015, she has chaired the Judging panel. Previously, Penny has served on the AQR Committee, the MRS Accredited Interviewer Training Scheme and the Respondent Interviewer Interface committee

Deborah brings with her 35 years of global research experience. She started her career at MRB International in the late 80s, specialising in the delivery of multi-country research programmes, then moved into the Operations area at Kantar, where she directed global operational strategies for blue-chip clients, applying the latest operational thinking to achieve significant productivity gains, faster delivery, and cost reductions. She led Kantar's integration of diversity and inclusion best practices into research methodologies and supported both MRS and ESOMAR drives towards inclusivity in research.

She is now working in a variety of voluntary and consultancy roles to set strategy within the context of government policy and oversee operational implementation.

Elaine has been a firm supporter of ‘The Oppies’ from the outset, as a sponsor and for the last few years, judging the awards.

Her career in Market Research spans over 40 years in Field and Operations, starting out as an interviewer in the 1980’s to eventually founding Criteria Fieldwork Ltd. in 1996.

Elaine is an MRS Fellow awarded in recognition of her contribution to improving standards in participant recruitment and qualitative fieldwork. She tirelessly advocates for those in the ‘engine room’ of our sector and as such, Criteria are the first ‘fieldwork only’ agency to become employee owned!

Debrah is responsible for all MRS operations and leads the Society’s standards, policy and public affairs activities. Debrah graduated from Southampton University in the early 90’s with an honours degree in Geography.

She first worked in accountancy and then moved to the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) in 1994. After working in auditing and compliance for ABC, she joined the management of MRS in 1999 to establish a new Standards and Policy department.

Debrah is the co-author (with Peter Jackson) of the book, Quality in Market Research: from Theory to Practice and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Rowland has worked in Research for 40 years at Kantar and Ipsos. An amazing experience which allowed him to work with (and learn from) people from across the world. As a result he has had a substantial ‘end to end’ experience.

Rowland had geographical responsibilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and has been a long-term member of management teams. During his career he played major research and client quality roles and chaired the MRS standards Board and the MRS.

Rowland knows that good quality research is invaluable in telling the truth for society and that excellent, collaborative staff in Operations and Research make it all happen.

Danny set up DJS Research Ltd as a sole trader in 2001. He has helped it to organically grow every year. It now has a turnover close to £8 million with 80+ employees. The company has achieved everything on its own (no external funding) and continues to stand out as something different in the industry - as the MRS says, "One to Watch!"

In July 2021 Danny sold the majority of the company to its employees and transitioned it to become employee-owned ensuring the legacy and independence for years to come - something quite different to the rest of the industry, where independence is rarely seen now.

Chris has been working in market research operations since 1985 and has been a member of the MRS Operations Awards judging panel since their inception in 2014. Throughout his career he has been involved in the development of data-collection quality and training standards, serving on the MRS Telephone Interest Group, Accredited Interviewer Training Scheme, and Respondent Interviewer Interface Committee. In 1998 he joined IQCS Council where he is currently Vice Chairman and member of the inspection panel. Chris also sits on the BSI Standards ISO technical committee for ISO20252 and in 2016 was made a Fellow of the MRS for contributions to fieldwork quality standards.