Generation A-Z Conference 2026

Derin Adebiyi, Head of External Affairs, Duke of Edinburgh Awards

Derin Adebiyi is a public affairs and policy professional with over a decade of experience in advocacy, campaigns, and strategic engagement. He currently leads external affairs for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE), the world’s leading youth achievement programme, working with government, parliament, media, and civil society to champion enrichment and influence policy so every young person can access life-changing opportunities.

Derin began his career in 2013 supporting a Government Minister, and has since held senior roles at leading organisations including the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), Scope, the Royal College for Physicians (RCP), and Save the Children UK. Across these roles, he has delivered impactful campaigns and shaped policy to drive positive change for young people.

Before his career in public affairs, Derin worked as a full-time musician, performing as a guitarist and song writer and continues to mentor at-risk young people through music.

Laura Anderson, Account Director, The Nursery Research & Planning

Laura has been working in market research for over 15 years, starting at various agencies which don't exist anymore (TNS, Future Thinking, Populus) researching various topics from attitudes to accident recovery to zero sugar drinks. She started at The Nursery Research and Planning in 2017 and has been heavily involved in the set up and analysis of this year’s generations thought leadership. She currently resides in Lewisham with her Millennial husband, Gen Alpha children and FIV cat 

Breyner Baptista, Innovation & Culture Director, Blackstar Agency

Breyner Baptista is the Innovation & Culture Director at Blackstar, where he leads strategy at the intersection of music, culture, and audience insight. Previously Head of Marketing and Campaign Strategist at Blackstar London, he has overseen campaigns for major artists and labels. Earlier in his career, he worked in A&R at PMR Records with artists including Jessie Ware, Disclosure and Julio Bashmore, and co-wrote on Ware’s debut album. Alongside his executive work, Breyner occasionally moonlights as a producer, songwriter, DJ, and creative consultant across music and culture.

Hannah Bewley, Senior Research Associate, Ofcom

Hannah is an experienced mixed-methods researcher, focusing on protecting children online in her role at Ofcom. She is deeply committed to ensuring children have an active voice in the policy decisions that affect their lives, and to demonstrating the power of market research in shaping effective outcomes. Keeping children safe online is both a professional priority and a personal mission for Hannah, grounded in both her research practice and lived experience as a parent.

Toby Brown, Head of 10-Year Plan Engagement, DHSC

Toby has 15 years’ experience in policy and communications across government, the voluntary and community sector, and the private sector.

At the Department of Health and Social Care, he has held several senior roles, including leading the largest ever NHS engagement exercise to develop the 10 Year Health Plan and preparing the health system for Brexit. He currently works on pharmacy, eye care and controlled drugs policy. Prior to this, he was a Policy Lead at The King’s Fund, shaping work to influence political parties’ 2024 election manifestos.

Toby previously spent five years leading the public affairs team at Citizens Advice, where he worked with government to secure £1.5 billion to improve the Universal Credit system. He has also worked for both Labour and Conservative health and business ministers, for a healthcare communications agency, and served as a Fellow on President Obama’s 2012 election campaign.

Abigail Bryant, Director, See Research

Abi has 10+ years of qual experience, and has managed research studies focused on the behaviours of Gen Alpha & Gen Z, including a large-scale ethnographic study examining smartphone usage & attitudes. She has also led many longitudinal projects across sectors, sensitively and holistically tracking evolution of behaviours and attitudes over time.?

Greg Burke, CEO & Co-Founder, Tellet

Greg Burke is the co-founder and CEO of Tellet, the AI-moderated interview platform helping leading market research agencies and insights teams run high-quality customer research at speed and scale. 

Based in Amsterdam, Greg began his career as a journalist on UK radio, reporting from Afghanistan, Iraq and Ethiopia. He later became a producer for TV chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver, working closely with insight teams to turn research into content, campaigns and products. 

Today, Greg leads Tellet with a sharp focus on customer outcomes, ensuring the platform delivers clear, actionable insight without losing the human detail that makes qualitative research valuable. 

Barbie Clarke, Managing Director, Family Kids & Youth

Barbie and team have been working with IKEA for the last 10 years. A Fellow of the Market Research Society, Barbie founded Family Kids & Youth 18 years ago. A trained child and adolescent psychotherapist, Barbie’s PhD at the University of Cambridge was in child and adolescent psychosocial development. Her work has focused on children’s online world and their mental health, and the impact of AI on their lives. Barbie sits on the Standards Board of the Market Research Society.

Katherine Clarke, National Development Manager, The FA

Katherine is a National Development Manager at the FA working within the Grassroots Division on women’s and girls football. She is the lead on the Squad Girls Programme. 

Sam Clough, Global Head of Youth Trends and Insight, SuperAwesome

Caroline Cockell, Director, Marketing, Student Roost

Caroline Cockell is Director of Marketing at Student Roost. She brings extensive experience in brand, insight, and customer strategy from marketing roles in the travel, hospitality, and retail sectors. Caroline is passionate about using research and cultural intelligence to help the PBSA sector anticipate generational shifts, particularly as Generation Alpha approaches university age. She champions translating emerging behaviours, technology trends, and student expectations into actionable strategy. Most recently, she has led work preparing Student Roost for Gen Alpha, developing strategies that inform future brand positioning and student living propositions and shape how the organisation evolves to meet the needs of tomorrow’s students. 

Emily Cohen, Associate Director, See Research

Emily is a qualitative researcher with 8+ years experience. She is a trained kids and youth audience researcher, with 5+ years experience in a kids and family agency. Emily particularly enjoys hearing about kids’ passions and getting into the nitty gritty of how they engage with these. As See’s lead on all things kids and youth, Emily supports the team in getting the most out of young audiences. 

Mark D’Souza, Range Team Manager for IKEA’s Global Children’s Offer, IKEA

Mark is Range Manager for IKEA’s Global Children’s Offer, and has worked in Almhult, Sweden (the home of IKEA) since 2014. With a Masters degree in Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mark began his career at Future Group, India, and then worked at HNI Corporation, Mumbai, one of the world's largest office furniture manufacturers. Mark works closely with FK&Y and the IKEA Kids Advisory Board.

Lucy Farrow, Managing Partner, Thinks Insight & Strategy

Lucy Farrow is one of the UK’s leading deliberative research and engagement practitioners with 15 years’ experience involving citizens in the decisions that affect their lives. Alongside her role at Thinks, she is a Fellow of Lancaster University, focusing on participatory climate policy making as part of the Climate Citizens initiative.

Lucy has designed and delivered some of the UK’s largest and most complex consultation and engagement projects from self-driving vehicles to health service reform, water industry pricing to data sharing policy. She is also committed to developing the field of deliberative engagement, from designing one of the early citizens assemblies on climate change, to training civil servants to use deliberative research and participatory engagement methods to transport planners.

Kerry Haxby-Dean, Head of Investment Trust Marketing, J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Kerry Haxby-Dean, Head of Investment Trust Marketing at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, based in London. She joined J.P. Morgan Asset Management in 2021, having come from BMO Global Asset Management (EMEA) where she led the Investment Trust Marketing Strategy. Prior to joining BMO, Kerry worked at Lloyds Banking Group, where she was a Senior Marketing Manager. She holds a BA (Hons) in Business Management with Marketing from Leeds University and post graduate qualifications in both American politics and Marketing.

Holly Hewlett, Vice President, Content Development and Marketing Strategy, National Research Group (NRG)

As NRG’s VP of Content Development and Marketing Strategy, Holly leads NRG's custom content work in EMEA. With over a decade of global entertainment experience, Holly helps brands connect with their audiences and tell stories that resonate.

Andrew Jerina, Head of Research, Flume

AJ is Head of Research at Flume. He has 20 years of experience in market research, starting out with a decade at Millward Brown in a range of local, regional and global roles, culminating in him leading global R&D for their creative development tools. He then spent 4 years leading the internal research team at McCann Central. He now oversees Flume’s research offer, taking a lead on their offer development and point of view on people, culture and brands, as well as keeping his hand in on day-to-day projects for key clients. He has degrees in both cultural studies and marketing, making him perfectly placed to think about how generational shifts might influence people and the brands they buy.

Lola Kaeppelin, Creative Producer, lemontank

lemontank is a Gen Z insights and ideas writers’ room, with a diverse global pool of 18-25 year old creatives who help marketing campaigns to reach young audiences authentically. Lola works on strategic analysis and develops innovative concepts tailored to young audiences for clients including Universal, Sony, Warner & BMG. As a researcher focused on fandom and its relationship to music, Lola has authored dissertations at UCL and King’s College London. She continues to collaborate on fan research projects with leading academics at both institutions. Lola also brings extensive experience in content creation and music video production through her work at Torriano Group.

Fergus Navaratnam-Blair, Vice President, Trends and Futures, National Research Group (NRG)

Fergus conceptualizes and produces thought leadership research at the intersection of content, culture, and technology. He has led research initiatives on topics ranging from the evolution of childhood and the moviegoing habits of Gen Alpha to the impact of AI on creative workers, and has advised some of the world's leading media brands on key strategic questions. His work has earned coverage from CNBC, Variety, Slate, Sports Business Journal and The Hill, among other publications, and he has appeared as a guest on multiple episodes of Matt Belloni's The Town podcast.

Leon Neville, Director of Insight & Innovation, BPI

BPI represents the UK’s recorded music industry, and works to promote and protect British music at home and overseas. Leon Neville is a media entertainment insights specialist with a career spanning over 25 years, having worked across a mixture of both agency and client-side roles, including the music industry for the past 15 years. Leon spent over a decade at Universal Music, including several years heading up the UK insight team. He has also held insight roles in the film & television industry including at Walt Disney International Television and UK cable satellite broadcaster Flextech Television.

Noemi Ponzoni, Head of Research, i2 media research (partner, CoSTAR Foresight Lab)

Noemi Ponzoni is an interdisciplinary researcher focused on helping the creative sector build audience-minded, culturally intelligent strategies. She is Research Lead at i2 media, a spin-out of the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. Before joining the lab, Noemi worked in insights team at Reddit and Penguin Random House, where she led on mixed methods research projects decoding shifts in media, technology, and culture – and how  they interact with current and future audience mindsets. 

Rachel Powell, Research Manager, Research in Finance

Rachel joined Research in Finance in 2023, bringing with her experience in both quantitative and qualitative research within the financial services sector. She leads the Retail Consumer Interests study, an annual large-scale project designed to uncover the motivations behind self-directed end investor investment decisions.

Rachel holds a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Sussex, graduating in 2020. Her academic background, combined with professional experience, has fostered a strong interest in how regulation and legislation shape investment choices and financial behaviour.

Cecilia Puttock, Senior Research Manager, Discovery Research

Cecilia is a Senior Research Manager and a key part of Kids and Youth at Discovery Research. She has a strong passion for research that drives positive outcomes for children and young people and has supported Ofcom across multiple qualitative projects. Cecilia has extensive experience across a range of areas within children and youth, and specialises in in-home ethnographic approaches and creative child?focused moderation, ensuring that approaches are engaging and accessible to participants no matter their age. Cecilia’s work also focuses on underserved audiences, bringing empathy and sensitivity to every project.

Kimberley Rennick, Research Director, Discovery Research

With fifteen years experience in qualitative research, Kim is the Head of Kids and Youth at Discovery Research. Kim is an expert in children's research, and is particularly experienced in designing and delivering inclusive research with children from a wide range of backgrounds. Part of Kim's role is championing innovative approaches within the company - especially important when working on more sensitive topics. She is passionate about ensuring participants feel empowered through their participation, and giving voice to more vulnerable and seldom heard voices. 

Julia Ridpath, Director, Thinks Insight & Strategy

Julia is an all-round insight practitioner, with a wealth of experience in qualitative, quantitative and deliberative research approaches, and behavioural interventions. She specialises in designing innovative approaches that meet complex research challenges, turning research insights into strategic recommendations to inform communications interventions. Her work often includes hearing from individuals living in vulnerable circumstances and sensitive topics such as aging, financial insecurity, living with a disability or long-term health conditions, and being a victim of a crime. She has particular expertise in conducting qualitative research with children and young people, including those living in vulnerable circumstances.

Bill Thompson, President – Head of Growth, Young Storytellers

Rachael Turner, Research Manager, The Nursery Research & Planning

Rachael is an upcoming and experienced Research Manager specialising in quantitative research. She started her research career in Australia before migrating to London and joining The Nursery in 2024. 

She has experience working on a broad range of projects including large and small-scale brand tracking, campaign evaluation, proposition testing, choice modelling and product testing. Her experience covers a range of diverse sectors, including charities, leisure and entertainment, financial services, digital media, and travel. 

Rachael has played a significant role in the Generations and 'This Is Us' series of research from The Nursery. As a Gen Z herself, she takes great interest in understanding what drives this generation and the impact of the world on their thoughts, feelings and behaviour.