Our team

Teamwork generates more output in terms of ideas and action, and on this premise, Abacus Insight has been created to offer clients a wide range of skills to serve their research, and ultimately organisation goals.

We work closely with specialists who bring skills in strategy, marketing, business development, sales and creative design expertise in assisting clients to formulate and implement actions plans as a result from research findings.

We have an in-house qualitative group, offering recruitment as well as full-service projects, and we have specialist mystery shoppers with experience in an extremely wide range of tasks.

Jill Carter

Each market research project has unique objectives and needs an approach that is tailored to the client’s business goals and philosophy. My research experience spans a wide variety of markets, a range of techniques and continues to prompt creative thinking.

I draw my experience from:

• A degree in Deep and Rational Thought (Philosophy) and
  Understanding People (Psychology)
• Two years with a high-profile international research agency
• Twenty years developing my own business from a one-woman band to a full service company with its own field force and CATI telephone unit
• Four years as an independent consultant working with high-profile clients including the British Heart Foundation, Deloitte, Hewlett Packard, Horsham District Council, RBS Insurance and West Sussex County Council as well as smaller, growing organisations

Outside of research, I have an eclectic taste in books and music, ring church bells, walk the dog and enjoy creative play and laughter with my little grandchildren.

Alan Brooks

I specialise in evaluating the outcomes of a research project and advising clients on the implications for strategy within their organisation. For clients who want this extra level in their research project, our team can also devise a tactical plan for implementation, assisting with the delivery of the plan if needed.

I draw my experience from:

• A sound theoretical marketing background as a fellow of the Chartered Institute
  of Marketing
• Ten year’s “blue-chip” marketing experience with Unilever and United Biscuits
• A thorough understanding of the professional services and consulting market through running my own business, as a Board – member of an Accountancy LLP and having been UK head of marketing for PricewaterhouseCoopers’s Corporate Recovery / Advisory practices
• Working as Director of SME support organisation Sussex Enterprise, which gave me a deep understanding of the challenges faced both by young and fast-growing businesses, and by organisations in the not-for-profit and Government-funded arenas

As an avid Southampton FC supporter, I’m a glutton for hard work (some might say punishment!). When not at St Mary’s I enjoy discovering something new, which at the moment includes vegetarian cooking, the hidden gems of the national trust and various GCSE subjects my daughter is studying (some more enjoyable than others!).

Philip De Jong

With experience in the UK and the rest of Europe, the Far East, South Africa, Australia and the United States, Philips is multi-lingual and has hands-on experience in a wide variety of industries of new business development and marketing, company reorganisation and turn-round and problem-solving. He has experience of FMCG brands, multi-site retail, manufacturing and engineering, financial services and IT development.

To find out more about our team, or to discuss a potential research requirement, please contact Jill Carter