Representation in Research steering group

 

The MRS ‘Diversity and Inclusion Programme’ comes together under the umbrella of a ‘Manifesto for Opportunity’. This means giving everyone an opportunity to participate, both people working within research companies and participants in research.

MRS is committed to providing practitioners with the necessary tools to ensure inclusive research, insight and data collection. In line with this, MRS has issued an update about its current best practice guidance and plans to expand and update its guidance.  More information, including links to current guidance, is available here.

"How can we give “People a voice to Power”, as a British Cabinet Minister once defined our mission, if we exclude some people from the chance to be heard? How can we claim to be a profession if we are not always striving to ensure our methodologies are the best they can be, to help our clients get the clearest insight? Real inclusion is no longer something that can be brushed away. Voices are rising, our job is to ensure they are heard and get to be understood.

If this sounds rather farfetched and idealistic, think about this: Good, profitable repeat business is based on trust and, as a speaker at Impact 2021 commented, that means we must work hard and work constantly at being trustworthy. Being true professionals and real experts in providing a platform for the diverse voices of our markets is what clients want. More and more of them are coming forward to ask tough questions about how we perform on this issue. The UK has always been a global leader in research and insights. This work on the fundamentals of how we design samples, and how we challenge the briefs that we are given, will help us stay that way.”

Jane Frost CBE,
CEO, MRS

MRS is committed to ensuring that minority groups are appropriately represented in research samples for both quantitative and qualitative research in line with the national landscape in the UK. To this end, as part of the MRS Diversity and Inclusion strategy, a steering group has been set up with the following aims:

  • Understand and measure current sampling practice
  • Devise and communicate clear benchmarks and targets for progress for the sector
  • Provide support and resources to the sector to enable progression in this area and overcome potential barriers

We are currently working on a combination of qualitative and quantitative research projects that will be used to inform a series of MRS reports on this topic. Our aim is to publish these reports throughout 2021 and beyond.

If this topic is something that you are interested in, and would like to discuss it further, please contact rebecca@cobalt-sky.com

We appreciate this is a sensitive subject. mind.org.uk offers guidance and support if your mental health or that of someone you know is or has been affected by it. Alternatively, please contact codeline@mrs.org.uk who will be able to signpost you to further support resources.

Rebecca Cole is Managing Director of Cobalt Sky, an award-winning market research operations company specialising in online data collection and data processing. She joined Cobalt Sky as a graduate in 2006 and is a highly experienced web scripter and quantum programmer. As well as being on the main board of the MRS, Rebecca has spent almost 10 years on the board of the Association for Survey Computing (ASC) which delivers conferences on the latest technologies being used in market research.

Caroline Frankum, Global President, Profiles Division, Kantar
Caroline is a multi-award-winning CEO with a high-level of expertise in Media, Digital, First Party Data, Brand & Comms Strategy, Tech-Driven Automation, and Change Leadership.

Kantar is one of the world’s leading Market Research agencies and, as part of the Kantar Exco and Global President of the Kantar Profiles Division, Caroline is responsible for helping clients understand people and inspire growth. This includes running the multi-million-dollar first party data division that powers insight delivery and analytics for world-leading Consumer, Media, Tech, Publisher, Consultancy, Healthcare, Market Research, and e-commerce brands via compliant, programmatic access to over 100m+ respondents across the globe - including Kantar’s exclusive LifePoints and Healthcare panels.

Caroline joined Kantar in 2016 and prior to this worked client-side in Media for 15 years in influential roles at leading Media companies, including: Classic FM, The Mirror Group, Five, Disney, ITV, UKTV and Sky. This was followed by 7 years at Omnicom where she was EMEA CEO for Brand & Comms specialist Agency Hall & Partners.

One of Caroline’s biggest passions is helping businesses transform and grow in profitable and purposeful ways by creating more inclusive and diverse environments, where the only barriers to success are personal choice and professional competence. She holds herself accountable to being a role model for women in tech and the C-suite, and an active ally for underrepresented groups. This includes being the Global Exec Sponsor for Kantar’s Pride@Kantar community supporting LGBTQI+ employees across the globe, an ambassador for Ethnicity Mentoring Programmes, providing sponsorship and mentoring for both Kantar employees and young individuals externally who don’t get the support or opportunities in business they deserve, and a Sponsor for Leaders Plus, a social enterprise supporting women leaders with babies and young children stay in the career progression pipeline.

This has led to her being recognised as:

- A 2021 and 2020 Businesswoman of The Year by CEO Today
- A 2021 top 250 Global Pioneer for Insight Innovation by mTab
- A Top 100 HERoe Champion of Women in Business in 2020, 2019 and 2018
- The 2019 winner of the Forward Ladies ‘Corporate Leader’ Award for London & The South
- A ‘Highly Commended’ Corporate Leader at the Forward Ladies 2019 Businesswoman of The Year Awards
- A Top 10 Market Research Diversity Champion by WIRE (Women in Research) in 2017

Jane is responsible for the leadership of MRS. Jane was previously at HM Revenue & Customs where she developed and led the individual customer function and the behavioural evidence and insight unit.

Before moving to HMRC in 2006, she held senior roles in both public and private sector organisations including Shell, Unilever, the Department of Constitutional Affairs and the BBC, where she was responsible for the iconic 'Perfect Day' campaign which, as well as winning advertisement of the year, raised £2.5m for Children in Need.

With a rich background in terms of research methodologies and sectors, Sania believes strongly that well designed research can help clients meet even the most challenging strategic objectives.

As well as delivering research to major corporate clients, for more than a decade, Sania has specialist expertise in running projects for government and intergovernmental bodies. She is passionate about using research for the enhancement of public good. One of her main areas of specialism relates to minority, and lesser heard groups, and optimising methodologies to ensure that research more accurately represents their experiences/views.

Sania has lived and studied in both the UK and the US, obtaining her policy and research methods-focused Masters Degree from University College London. She is a regular guest radio broadcaster for the BBC, sharing evidence-based knowledge on a range of topics.

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.

Tony is an experienced General Manager with over 25 years of building businesses and teams within the Market Research landscape. He has worked across many different industry sectors and currently holds a range of responsibilities within the Ipsos organisation:

• Global Strategy Lead for Ipsos Omnibus Services – providing clients with access to more than 100 markets around the World using a variety of different approaches
• Service Line Leader for the Observer UK business – giving clients direct access to Ipsos’ vast operational infrastructure, always ensuring the optimal approach for their needs and price value thresholds
• UK Board Sponsor for the Compliance and Quality functions – responsible for ensuring we maintain the high standards and integrity that clients have come to expect from Ipsos MORI
• UK Board Sponsor for Ipsos MORI’s Customer Satisfaction Monitor – ensuring that we seek and listen to the views of our many clients whenever we work with them, in our search for continuous improvement
• Business Lead for our Global Translations Solution – where we have leveraged the huge amounts of material routinely translated by Ipsos and combined that with Translation Memory technology in order to bring greater efficiency to any multi-country work we conduct for clients.


Ben Hogg is Managing Director, EMEA and APAC, for Lucid, where he provides the strategic and operational direction for the company’s sales and marketing initiatives. In this role, Ben is responsible for leading and managing Lucid’s sales, post-sales, and global marketing teams to drive further growth and support revenue expansion for the company. Ben’s career has spanned more than 20 years working across the online market research and passive measurement industries as a leader and entrepreneur. He is an expert in identifying new market opportunities and in laying the foundations for long-term business growth through his strategic direction, operational execution, and team management.

Prior to Lucid, Ben was the MD, EMEA for Research Now's Portfolio Companies, following their acquisition by e-Rewards, where he was responsible for launching their European business in 2006. Ben is a Fellow of the Market Research Society (MRS), MRS Accredited Company Partner Council Member, and MRS Award winner.

Graham Idehen is a Director of Customer Success, EMEA responsible for the post-sales delivery teams at Lucid. He has over 20 years of operational experience within the industry across CAPI, CATI and Online methodologies and is also a co-founder of Colour of Research (CORe), which aims to increase diversity & representation in the Market Research space.

Ruth is Founder and CEO of award-winning insight localisation agency, EMPOWER Translate. Currently leading on a national vision as Chair of the UK’s Association of Translation Companies, and with 25 years’ experience optimising global research localisation operations for the world’s biggest insight agencies, Ruth has proven experience in developing and implementing roadmaps to tangible, industry-wide change.

Ruth also serves as a Member on the MRS’ Accredited Company Partners Council, where she advises on the creation and implementation of standards, accreditations and best practice for insight operational partners. Ruth’s well-known drive for inclusion, diversity and equality has led to a role in the MRS’ Inclusivity in Sampling Working, and she is currently an active member of the Cardiff University Mentor Programme.


Matt Reynolds, the creator of Vitreous World, the Voices4all Initiative is also the Chairman of the PRCA Research Best Practice Committee. A change marker and champion client service excellence, his background spans 15+ years working in Public Relations, Marketing and Market Research.

Zeeshan Siddique is UK Panels Director at GfK, managing one of the largest Media Measurement Panels in the UK. The TV & Radio Panel delivers over 10,000 surveys every single day of the year. Zeeshan has over 20 years of experience in Operational Management across all methodologies including CATI, CAPI, CAWI and Panels and he has extensive experience in Project Management and Pricing. Zeeshan is a big champion of equality and diversity within the MR Industry and is currently part of GfK’s ‘Fast Forward’ network for diversity and inclusion and is also part of the Mentoring programme run by Colour of Research (CORe).

Sabrina Trinquetel (she/her) heads up UK sales at Measure Protocol, who provide the fastest access to unique behavioural data.

Over the past 10 years she's been instrumental in driving growth of new offers, including communities, strategic loyalty insights, and behavioural data.

Passionate about driving more inclusive, ethical and accurate research she is part of the MRS Pride steering committee, and uses the platform to amplify minority voices, build empathy and celebrate stores to enable industry wide change.

Sabrina has a strong desire to accelerate EDI across the industry and showcase its commercial benefits and consults with MR agencies to develop their EDI strategies in line with the CEO Inclusion Pledge.

 

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