Who we are
The Archive was set up by a number of senior members of the research industry, concerned that the knowledge gained over the preceding 70 years was in danger of being lost to future researchers. The charity is overseen by our Board of Trustees, and the day to day management of the AMSR is the responsibility of the Executive Committee.
President and Executive Committee
President: Professor Denise Lievesley CBE
Executive Committee:
Chief Executive: Adam Phillips
Treasurer: Raz Khan
Contents: Phyllis Macfarlane and Phyllis Vangelder
Development: Ian Brace and Richard Asquith
AMSR Honorary Trustee
Dr. Elizabeth Nelson is a Founder Patron of AMSR and was a trustee of AMSR from 2016 to her retirement at the end of March 2022. In appreciation of her guidance, support and commitment to building the Archive into the substantive resource that it is today, the Trustees have appointed her as an Honorary Trustee, to take effect on 1st April 2022. Click in the panel below to find out more about Dr. Nelson’s work.
Dr Elizabeth Nelson OBE
Dr. Nelson has held numerous prominent positions including chairman of the Marketing Group of Great Britain, chair of the South West National Health Service Trust, chair of Stargate Capital Investment Group and vice-chair of the Open University. She is a recipient of the Market Research Society (MRS) Gold Medal in 1993 for exceptional service to the market research profession and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women Who Make a Difference International Women’s Forum in 2011. In recognition for her distinguished career, the MRS launched the Liz Nelson Award in 2019, a new prize to recognise projects that have benefited deserving causes, had a positive impact on society and demonstrated the power of research outside of the commercial sphere. Nelson is a Founder Patron of the AMSR.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 19/04/2016.
“Five years ago, a group of retired market researchers were talking about the records of the past and immediately sensed that a systematic collection of information from the 1940s onwards for the UK market research industry was needed. And so, the archive was born. I think AMSR is important because Market Researchers in the UK were the pioneers.”
AMSR Trustees and biographies
Professor Patrick Barwise – Chairman of the Board
Patrick (Paddy) Barwise is an Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School which he joined in 1976 after an early career at IBM and has published widely on management, marketing and media. He has been Vice-chairman of AMSR since 2018 and became Chairman in early 2020.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 15/02/20.
“I am proud and delighted to have been elected as Chairman, and I look forward to working with all the other trustees and volunteers. I think the archive is going to be an important resource for many people, probably in unexpected as well as expected ways as we show the value of it for research and article writing over the next few years.”
Peter Bartram
Peter Bartram has had a varied career in both research and marketing with NOP, Thomson Newspapers, and the Harris Poll firm in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Back in the UK in 1978, he was a Marketing Director at American Express Europe, MRS Chairman in 1989, and finally President of the City Research Group. With 41 others, he set up the Research Network in 2002, which is still going strong.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 19/04/16.
“An early participant in the creation of the Archive of Market and Social Research, and now a Trustee, I strongly believe that any well-established industry or profession should make the history of its technical development and its widening market applications available for use by future generations of students, historians and research practitioners.”
Ian Brace – Secretary and Governance
After more than 40 years as a market researcher, mostly within research agencies, Ian is now retired from full time work. Originally trained as a statistician, he spent most of his career in project design and analysis and project management before ending up as Director of Research Methods at Kantar TNS UK. He is a Fellow of the MRS, author of many published papers and two books and is chairman of the industry’s charity, the Market Research Benevolent Association (MRBA)
Date of appointment as Trustee: 19/04/16.
“Market research has had a huge influence on the lives of all of us over the last 60 or 70 years, affecting what we buy, what we eat, how we bank, where we go on holiday and how we get there. It has had a similar impact on the formulation of government and social policy in all spheres of our lives. Much of this has gone unrecognised and unrecorded, and there is a real danger of its contribution to society over this period being lost forever. As well as providing a rich source for historians of the period, the people who made this impact on society should not have their work forgotten, and the Archive provides the opportunity for this.“
Jane Frost CBE – Vice Chairman
As CEO of the Market Research Society (MRS) and with over 30 years of experience at board level in marketing and strategy positions at blue-chip organisations, Jane comes from the ‘client’ side. She is currently leading radical change at MRS and provide an important link between the industry’s association and its archive.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 20/07/16.
“Our sector has questioned, observed and explained people’s attitudes and behaviours both as citizens and consumers for nearly 75 years. Tim Harford has identified the sector as one of the 25 things that made the modern economy, as such we are an integral part of the social development of post war Britain. Not only is the archive a vital resource for social historians, there is much to be learned from it for current practitioners, brand strategists and modern policy makers.”
Raz Khan – Treasurer
Raz Khan is treasurer of the AMSR and has been a Trustee since its inception, originally acting as a liaison with the MRS Board. Raz is Chairman of Cobalt Sky, an operations support company which he has been managing since 1989. He started in MR operations in 1977 at Pritchard Brown and Taylor before moving to Quantime in 1982 where he managed the DP and Support department. He joined AGB in 1988 for a brief spell where he was part of the Superpanel team.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 19/04/16.
“Documenting the history of the MR industry and capturing the wide range of data that has been collected over many years in the AMSR digital archive is important, otherwise we are in danger of losing these important documents forever.”
Claire Langhamer
Claire Langhamer is Director of the Institute of Historical Research and Professor of Modern History at the University of London. A social and cultural historian of modern Britain with particular research interests in feeling, experience and everyday life, she has published on children’s writing, courtship, happiness, home, emotional politics and women’s leisure. Recent publications include Class of 37 with Hester Barron (2021); Total War: an Emotional History edited with Lucy Noakes and Claudia Siebrecht (2020); and The English in Love. The Intimate Story of an Emotional Revolution (2013). She is currently writing a book called Feelings at Work in Modern Britain for OUP and is also a trustee of the Mass Observation Archive.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 14/10/2023.
“The Archive is an absolute treasure trove for researchers interested in the practices of everyday life and I am particularly keen to promote its use amongst historians of modern Britain.”
Phyllis Macfarlane – Contents Committee
Phyllis is a lifelong Market Researcher, former Managing Director of GfK NOP and immediate past Chair of the Market Research Society (MRS). She was previously Global Training Manager at GfK UK and has spent several years delivering, and expanding the offering of, market research education and training in Africa and Asia. She believes in bringing the global market research community and the non-profit sector together to learn from one another and achieve best results for all – mainly through her role as Treasurer of ESOMAR Foundation. She has won both the MRS Silver Medal and, in 2008 and 2018, the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research Excellence Award.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 14/09/2019.
“I have had a most enjoyable and productive career in market research. The sector has made a huge difference to both the consumer economy and the social agenda in the UK and globally. It’s really important that we preserve the history and experience of researchers – to learn from – and because it will be critical to future social and business historians – and researchers – to understand how it all came about. I’m very glad to be able to give something back.”
Colin McDonald
Colin McDonald spent over 40 years in the research industry, first with Reckitt & Sons, then in agencies BMRB and Communication Research Ltd, finally running his own consultancy. He joined the Market Research Society in 1967, holds the Society’s Gold Medal and was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1998. His many papers, articles and books include, with Stephen King, “Sampling the Universe”, commissioned for the Market Research Society’s 50th anniversary in 1995. He co-edited the Media Research Group Guide to Media Research (1995) and the ESOMAR Handbook of Market and Opinion Research, 4th edition (1998), and has edited Admap and the International Journal of Advertising.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 14/10/2023.
“John Downham invited me to join the AMSR volunteers team early on, and I have been closely involved with ContentDM, the website which holds our digital archive. Like others, I deeply believe in the importance of preserving this unique material from being lost and of making it freely available to all, academics, practitioners, new researchers, everyone.”
Simon Patterson
Simon is CEO of QRi Consulting which he founded 10 years ago. An international qualitative researcher: Simon is a Chartered Psychologist, Fellow of the MRS and Board member (and former Chair) of the AQR (Association for Qualitative Research). He moderates ECGs®, Groups and IDIs in-person and online. Formerly MD at CRAM International he worked with its founder Peter Cooper for 25 years. Simon has written papers and presented at conferences on the Origins of Qualitative Research and the Psychology of Branding and Communication. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Manufacturing (IfM) at Cambridge University since 2010.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 19/04/2016.
“Looking at and knowing our past helps us navigate our future. AMSR will be an invaluable tool for generations to come.”
Adam Phillips – Chief Executive
A research consultant and Managing Director of Real Research, Adam has over 40 years of experience in the industry and has been involved in media measurement, public opinion research, brand development as well as product and pricing research. An MRS Fellow, past Chairman of the MRS, a former Chairman of the Professional Standards Committee and a Council Member at ESOMAR, he began his career at Unilever and went on to hold very senior positions at AGB Nielsen UK, Euroquest, BMRB, Mass-Observation, Research International and Winona Research in the US.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 19/04/2016.
“I was invited by John Downham to attend the first meeting of the 17 people who agreed to set up an archive of market research. I was attracted by the idea of preserving what had been learned by the research and insight sector before all of it was lost in the transition to paperless offices. I thought it would be a worthwhile project, since it is only by recording what we know and building on past knowledge that the most valuable insights emerge.”
Sue Robson
Sue gained a solid grounding in all types of market research at BMRB, but then joined MBL to focus on qualitative research with John and Mary Goodyear. She worked at MBL for 10 years, ending up as Managing Director. In 1981 Sue started her own business, The Qualitative Consultancy, TQC. Sue also ran training courses for the MRS including developing, in 1983, the very first course offering practical hands-on experience of moderating group discussions. This led to the book she wrote and co-edited with Angela Foster, Qualitative Research in Action, published in 1989. She was a member of MRS Council from the 1980s and a founder member of AQR, to give qualitative researchers their own strong voice. She was made a Fellow of the MRS in 1998.
After closing TQC in 2002 Sue worked as a consultant until retirement. She does various volunteer roles and was an MRBA committee member for 10 years and then joined AMSR in 2019, chairing the Marketing Committee.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 14/09/2019.
“The Archive is an important collective memory for British society over the past 70+ years, not just for the market research world. It is important to preserve our history and the huge impact it has had on 20th century culture. It is therefore a very worthwhile volunteer job for me.”
Phyllis Vangelder – Contents Committee
Phyllis Vangelder was an Editor in the market research industry for many years, accumulating knowledge and contacts in all aspects of market and social research. She was in charge of publications at the Market Research Society for over 25 years including the MRS Newsletter (the forerunner of Research), the Journal of the Market Research Society (now the International Journal of Market Research), Market Research Abstracts and Survey magazine, as well as being heavily involved in many committees. She has been Editor of ESOMAR Newsbrief, ESOMAR Research World, BMRA Bulletin and BMRA’s MR Business. Phyllis has also co-edited various Handbooks.
Date of appointment as Trustee: 19/04/16.
“I feel very privileged to be involved with AMSR and believe passionately that the written contributions of some of the most brilliant minds in the industry should be available to future generations.”
Jim Whaley
Jim Whaley is CEO of global marketing insights agency, OvationMR, located in New York City. A second generation market researcher who started his professional career at IBM, Jim has invested over three decades of work life focused on solving big market research problems. He was at the forefront of the transition to online research and the advancement of advanced analytics and data mining enablement while at SPSS and helped introduce – and bring to reality – market research online communities in our industry while at Globalpark USA. He has built and successfully sold three MR/Services/Tech firms. Jim is also a member of the Board of Directors for: Market Research Institute International, Significant Insights, and the Market Research Education Foundation.
Date of appointment as Trustee: May 01, 2024.
“I first became aware of the AMSR because I was looking for a place I could help do some good by making a modest donation. Then Adam Phillips reached out to me and invited us to get more involved. Once we had an opportunity to meet the people at AMSR and learn about the vision and see the impact they were making, there was no turning back. I and my team are fully committed.”
AMSR Former Trustees
The AMSR wishes to express its appreciation of the contributions of the following Former Trustees (in chronological order):
- Geoffrey Roughton; 19/04/16–28/07/17
- John Downham; 19/04/16–30/03/19
- Judith Lannon; 15/02/17–30/07/19
- Bryan Bates; 22/11/17–31/03/21
Note: AMSR registered as a charity on 19/4/16, though the organisation has existed since 2015.
Volunteer help is given by a number of other people and organisations. Our thanks go to particularly to Ipsos MORI for providing office support facilities and to Jane Frost, CEO of the Market Research Society for her advice and support and that of her staff. Administrative support is provided by Gill Wareing.
AMSR Patrons
As one of the significant post-war business sectors that changed the economy and our society, our Patrons believe in the importance of the work done over the past 70 years by market researchers and their clients. They are determined it should not be lost or destroyed but stored safely for use in the future.
Thank you to:
- Dr. Elizabeth Nelson OBE*
- Ben Page
- Sir Robert Worcester*
* We would like to pay particular tribute to our Founder Patrons, who not only had the wonderful idea of creating an Archive for market and social research but also made this happen, encouraging others to join in their efforts to put the Archive on a secure footing.