Our team and culture
Our expertise and experience ensure that your research results will provide you with in-depth understanding of your customers, stakeholders, and staff.
Simon Worthington
Managing Director
Simon is the Managing Director of Research First and also leads the Strategy Consulting arm of the business. Prior to joining Research First, Simon had senior management roles in a number of international blue-chip companies. His particular expertise is in helping organisations navigate complex and uncertain environments.
Carl Davidson
Director of Insight
Carl has spent his life in the research industry, crafting a reputation as an expert in consumer behaviour, research design, and behaviour change. He is the author or editor of eight books about research in New Zealand and is currently working on his ninth.
Ian Mills
Director of Research
When the history of market research in New Zealand is written there will be a chapter dedicated to Ian. At Research First Ian runs the Research Team but there is little in the industry that he has not done. As well as being one of the industry’s pacesetters, Ian is an expert in understanding and measuring customer motivation.
Ann Thompson
Director of Research
Ann is our Voice of the Customer expert. She has worked in the field of Customer Experience Management in the UK, Europe, throughout Asia Pacific. Few people know more about stakeholder engagement, customer journey mapping, insight dissemination and activation, than Ann. She has over 25 years’ experience in the research industry, on both the client and agency sides.
Vanessa Simpson
Operations Director
If the currency of research is data, then Vanessa is Research First’s Reserve Bank Governor. She is responsible for ensuring Research First remains an industry leader in terms of its data collection processes, team, and culture. Whatever your data collection need, Vanessa will have the solution.
Barry van Beurten
Director of Partnerships
Working with an insights company is all about building effective partnerships, and Barry knows more about how to build those partnerships than most. He has been inspriring, connecting, and engaging organisations about research before the turn of the century. He previously worked as the research manager of a multinational and was the founding partner of The Research Broker.
Scarlett Moody
Senior Researcher
Scarlett Moody is a Senior Researcher at Research First. She is particularly adept at running large complex evaluation projects that involve large scale primary data collection and mixed method designs.
Scarlett led the evaluation of the RedCross’s CEARP at Research First and took the lead of the HPA alcohol purchasing work.
Pip Aimer
Senior Researcher
Pip is an innovative and successful social science and health researcher who specialises in pragmatic ‘lived experience’ research. With a strong knowledge base and extensive project management experience spanning over 15 years, Pip has been responsible for undertaking independent research projects that have ranged in size from small qualitative studies to larger scale quantitative surveys.
Liz Morley
Senior Researcher
Liz manages the Southern office for Research First and leads delivery for our Otago Southland clients. Liz has worked in research for around 15 years and, having joined Research First from the UK’s Government Social Research Unit, has considerable experience in all aspects of public sector research.
Nika Creutz
Senior Researcher
Nika is our quantitative research expert. Prior to joining Research First, she has worked for some of the leading market research companies in Germany, Australia and New Zealand, where she managed research projects for major international clients. She is particularly skilled at advanced quantitative research techniques and analyses and has a lot of experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
Sav Cran
Researcher
Sav has a passion for human behaviour and communication. Her background is in marketing, psychology and religious studies.
Tess Martin
Executive Assistant
In addition to running the office, handling communications, scheduling meetings and maintaining complex filing systems, Tess also somehow finds time to manage our executive team in order to keep everything running smoothly.
Jude Davis
Call Centre Manager
Jude is a highly experienced fieldwork manager with 25 years of experience in the market research industry. Over the course of that time she has developed a strong and loyal fieldwork team who know how to get the job done. Jude’s passions outside of work are golf, golf and more golf and family.
Gareth Heta
Data Analyst
Gareth is responsible for survey programming, data cleaning and analysis for quantitative surveys.
He has been involved with many large and complex analysis projects; both commercial and social, as well as ongoing projects requiring trend analysis.
Brad Wallwork
Visual Storyteller
Brad calls on his 20 years of graphic design experience to make our research reports accessible and visually compelling.
Sarah O’Connor
CFO
Sarah is a Chartered Accountant and brings to Research First her experience gained from previous senior finance roles with international blue chip companies.