Judges for the Research Live Innovation of the Year Award 2026

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Sarah is a senior researcher at Google in the EMEA Ads Marketing team where she leads award winning programs about shopping behaviour and media.

She has spent the last 12 years working in Insights roles spanning large agencies (Kantar), smaller agencies (Truth), and the last five years clientside. Underpinning it all has been a passionate curiosity about people and a desire to center that in business decision making. Start with the user and all else will follow.

She is a regular speaker on evolving consumer behaviour and represents Google in a range of marketing and research forums.

After more than 20 years in client-side insight roles, including eight years at Virgin Media O2, nine at Sky and six at Royal Mail Group, Claire has founded her own consultancy. She has led B2B and B2C insight teams through major strategic, commercial and organisational change, combining research and analytics to turn customer understanding into practical action. Claire is passionate about embedding a shared customer language across organisations and evolving team capabilities through emerging methodologies. A committed advocate for the insight profession, she has contributed to the MRS through its Client Council, award judging, conferences, and is a long-standing AURA member.

Shane Hanson, PhD, MBA, FCMI, is a senior insights and innovation leader with over 20 years' experience transforming consumer understanding into profitable business growth. Having held leadership roles at Panasonic, Philips, Procter & Gamble and KP Snacks, she has built high-performing research capabilities, shaped multi-million-dollar product portfolios, and developed global brand and innovation strategies leveraging the power of consumer, shopper and market insights. Shane combines behavioural science, human-centred research and advanced analytics to drive evidence-based decision making. A recognised expert in marketing strategy and storytelling with insights, she has trained hundreds of professionals globally and is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.