Meet the Team

Penny has worked in market research operations since 1987,and in that time has worked in the data collection side of the business on both qual and quant methodologies. She is a Fellow of the MRS, Chair of IQCS and also serves on the Market Research Forum, MRQSA Council and the MRS Company Partner Advisory Board. In the past Penny has served on the AQR Committee as Field Representative, the MRS Accredited Interviewer Training scheme and the Respondent Interviewer Interface committee.

Chris has worked in market research operations for over 30 years, having begun his career in 1985 with one of the early UK telephone research agencies, Audience Selection, (part of AGB). He went on to head up telephone operations at TNS, IntelliQuest Inc., Millward Brown and Harris Interactive before joining Kudos Research as Managing Director in 2006.

Chris has always been a staunch supporter of benchmark quality standards and over the years has invested a great deal of time and energy to help develop data-collection quality and training standards throughout the research industry.

Chris became a Full Member of the Market Research Society in 1995, was voted onto the Council of the Interviewer Quality Control Scheme in 1998 and became and ESOMAR Member in 1999.

During his time on IQCS council, Chris has worked with Chairman Penny Steele and Council members to ensure the Standards were continually reviewed to reflect current working practices and methodologies.

Chris has worked closely with the MRS on a number of taskforces from early 2000s including the Respondent Interviewer Interface Committee. Through his involvement and input Chris helped to promote and raise industry-wide standards in data collection and interviewer training and developed the materials for the MRS benchmark Accredited Interviewer Training Scheme.
In 2002 Chris became Vice Chairman of the IQCS and a member of the inspection panel and in 2016 was awarded an MRS Fellowship in recognition of his contribution to industry quality standards, and is also a judge on the MRS Operations Awards panel.

Gill Wareing has been the IQCS Administrator for some years. Previously, she was Secretary/Treasurer of the Market Research Benevolent Association. This role began when she was with the Market Research Society where she held the position of Assistant Secretary-General and continued when she left the Society, due to family commitments. At the MRS Gill was involved with the organisation of the annual conference, lunches, evening meetings and tasks related to MRS Council and Professional Standards Committee.

Her other current industry involvements are as Secretary/Treasurer of the Research Network, the association for experienced long-standing researchers, and Administrator of the Association of Market & Social Research (AMSR) which is developing a comprehensive market research archive.

A results orientated Research & Operations Director with over 20 years’ employment at some of the most influential and creative agencies. Approachable, fun and with certificates in individual and group work and Internal Auditing and now on the MRS CPS Board.

Jackie is the Regional Quality Assurance Director for GfK NCE – providing guidance on compliance, legislation, industry guidelines and standards affecting market research, both in the UK and internationally.

Jackie is the appointed Data Protection Officer for GfK UK and is a member of the GfK Supervisory Board and also:

• Full Member of the MRS
• An IQCS Council Member
• Member of the UK BSI (SVS/3) Technical committee for the review of ISO 20252 standard
• MRS Market Research Quality Standards Advisory Board member (MRQSAB)

Jackie has overall responsibility for the GfK UK Research & Quality Department which oversees the implementation of ISO 9001 and ISO 20252 standards within GfK. Her wider responsibilities means assumes the role of Quality Assurance Director for GfK Northern, Central and Eastern Europe (NCE). Jackie regularly contributes to standards review changes in industry guidelines for the MRS and ESOMAR

Volker has worked in market research since 1999 in the UK and in Germany. During this time he has always been heavily involved in the data collection process both interviewers driven and online. In his career in research he was responsible for operations, as well as industry standard counselling, and spearheading QC through all departments. Volker is a certified MRS member, a council member of the IQCS and serving on the Strategy sub-committee that is responsible for the development and update of the IQCS Website. Volker is also a member of the BHBIA awards committee.

Daniel is highly experienced in the strategic operations of research businesses from sales through to delivery.

B2B International is a global business-to-business market research and market intelligence firm.

Operations Director, Watermelon Research Ltd, 3 Henwood Industrial Estate, Ashford, Kent, TN24 8FL. Adam started out in research as a 20 year old executive in the field team at Sample-Surveys Ltd, more latterly known as Synovate. In those early days he learned some harsh lessons about quality, quickly recognising its importance and making it central to what he does now. Several years down the line, he has worked his way up through the ranks gathering a wealth of invaluable field management experience and contacts along the way.

In his role at Watermelon Adam oversees both a call centre of circa 100 booths and a remote team of 13 regional directors and a core team of 800 interviewers – so maintaining a focus on quality is a challenge, albeit one he’s extremely passionate about.

Xavier Fonder has been in the research industry since 2013 and is Delivery & Compliance Director for RONIN International, taking overall responsibility for compliance, policy and process development as well as robust service delivery to time, budget and cost – internally and externally. Having had a range of roles across fieldwork capabilities, experienced in CATI and Web methodologies, he looks after pragmatic ways to use best practice for good business and how to make this a pre-sales and post-sales value adding tool, rather than an obstacle.

The remit is focused on designing policy and implementing strategy to support individuals at every step of the research process, building confidence in all teams to take the right decisions for improved outcomes and ongoing knowledge-sharing, and supporting client-facing staff in suggesting commercially-viable solutions to compliance challenges.

In addition to his seat on the IQCS Council, Xavier is BHBIA Fieldwork Forum Chair and a member of the BHBIA Ethics & Compliance Committee on the Training Team.

Gaynor’s interest in market research began as a respondent in 1980 when she was recruited to attend a Martin Hamblin Research sensory test. Having had experience of interviewing when working on trade newspapers before having a family she was particularly interested in the interviewer’s professional way of handling the questionnaire and asked her how she became involved in market research.

Within a few weeks, she had been interviewed by the Martin Hamblin area supervisor and was invited to an interviewer training session, where she was accepted as an interviewer. Gaynor thought this was something she would do until she returned to work and got a “proper job”.
In fact, she stayed with Martin Hambin for twenty five years. After a couple of years as a consumer and healthcare interviewer she was appointed as London deputy supervisor and in 1985 took over the role of London area manager.

In 1988 she accepted the position of IQCS Administrator based in Martin Hamblin’s London office in Smith Square,. She held this position until 1993 when she was made field manager and in 1997 field director, responsible for all UK and international face to face and telephone work.
Gaynor was invited to join the Martin Hamblin Board in March 2000. From then until the end of 2005 as Director of Operational Services she was responsible for five departments UK Face to Face, International Field, Telephone Operations, Data Production and Quality and Efficiency.

Looking back I seem to have spent most of my working life in market research with forays into teaching, careers guidance, elderly care management and inspection of residential care homes in between. My first MR experience was as a student in Bristol in 1970 interviewing bus passengers on whether smokers should sit only at the back of the bus. (How times have changed on that one!) My next exposure was from 1978 when, with a baby and no job, I had a thorough interviewer training with Public Attitude Surveys for whom I interviewed for 7 years, during which time I first encountered IQCS via accompaniment and backcheck reports.

In 1993 I returned to the business as Field Manager for Marketing Sciences in Winchester, and there I stayed for more than 16 years until I retired in 2010, managing both face-to-face and telephone research. What a great job being a Field Manager is! Juggling all the balls, being asked for, and asking, the impossible and getting it, and having conversations with thousands of interesting people. The best part is the interviewers, as there would have been no job without them.

The very difficult side of a Field Manager’s job is maintaining quality standards of data collection, especially with a dispersed workforce. It requires endless vigilance, careful record keeping, a recognition of its importance by the field and supervisory teams, and an acceptance of its role, and cost, by the company. I wholeheartedly believe that for market research to have credibility each company must police itself thoroughly and continuously, setting and adhering to data collection standards in order to remain above reproach. Being inspected annually ensures that this does not slip to second place, and in my view the IQCS inspection is by far the most rigorous and satisfactory. I am delighted to be part of the IQCS inspectorate, making a continuing contribution to the maintenance of standards in market research.

Away from IQCS, I’ve recently moved to a brand new house and have developed my brickwork and path-laying skills to landscape the large garden! I love to grow plants (I’m a plantaholic, can’t go past a few plants without buying at least one, to my husband’s despair), walk, cycle and have holidays – don’t we all! – and I spend a bit, but not too much, of my time with my 4 grandchildren! Life is busy, and good!

I joined the world of market research operations in 1998 straight out of university with my Business Studies & German degree, it was never meant to be a career but that’s exactly what it has ended up being! I have carried out a number of roles within Field from Field Controller, through to Field Manager, with a short stint overseeing Pay & Admin and now oversee the Quality team. The various roles conducted have provided me with a well-rounded insight and overview into how quality can work with other key priorities to achieve the same end goal. I am a trained internal auditor and was until recently involved in the Business Excellence team, made up of champions that help spread developments and updates on all things relating to Quality & Compliance.