Ipsos MORI Scotland Team

Simon Braunholtz, Managing Director

Simon Braunholtz (email) is Managing Director of Ipsos MORI Scotland. He joined MORI's London office as a trainee in 1985, specialising in research for media and political clients. In 1994, Simon was made a partner of the company and took responsibility for MORI's research for Local Government.

Before moving to Scotland in August 1997, Simon directed MORI's political polling, and also directed research for many organisations operating in the public sector, including the Audit Commission on Performance Indicators, and for the Local Government Commission for England on the review of the two-tier system across the shire counties of England.

Simon has worked as part of several PR and communications teams. He worked with the trade union movement during the run-up to membership ballots on the political levy, assessing opinion and gauging reactions to different campaign messages. He has worked for political parties of all complexions, and continues to have in interest in political polling in his work in Scotland.

Since taking over as Managing Director of MORI Scotland, much of Simon's work has been for local and central government. Simon has played a central role in the management of several of the largest social policy studies in Scotland, including the Scottish Household and Scottish Crime Surveys for the Executive, and the Scottish House Condition Survey for Communities Scotland, now managed by the Scottish Executive. Simon has also worked closely with Glasgow City and the City of Edinburgh Councils for a number of years.

Vickie Chamberlain, Associate Director

Vickie Chamberlain (email) Vickie graduated from Glasgow University in 1996 with a MA degree in Sociology and Social Policy and went on to gain an MSc in Criminology from Edinburgh University. Following this, Vickie spent over three years at NOP specialising in qualitative research, before joining Ipsos MORI in 2002. After spending 4 years working in Ipsos MORI's London office, Vickie joined the Edinburgh team in 2006.

Vickie has particular expertise in local government and crime and policing research and has managed projects of varying sizes, both qualitative and quantitative, for public sector clients including local councils and police authorities. She has set up and managed a number of Citizens' Panels and residents' surveys for local authorities and has experience in researching hard to reach groups such as prisoners, drug users, young offenders and the homeless. Recent clients have included the Home Office, DCA, HMCS and the Youth Justice Board.

Robert Cumming, Associate Director

Robert Cumming (email) Robert joined Ipsos MORI London in 1997 with research experience for a wide range of organisations. While in London, he worked across a number of specialist business areas including New Media, Employee, Transport, Corporate Reputation and Consumer Research.

After five years in London, Robert moved to Ipsos MORI Scotland in late 2002 covering a wide range of research aspects but with a particular emphasis on Employee Research, Local Government and the Corporate Sector. He has recently managed research for a variety of clients in both the public and private sector including the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow City Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Department of Trade and Industry, HBOS, Diageo and Virgin Atlantic. Robert also manages Ipsos MORI's Members of Scottish Parliament survey, the largest survey of MSPs including around 70 face-to-face interviews with MSPs each year.

Robert has a MA (Hons) in Management Studies and Political Economy from the University of Glasgow and a postgraduate diploma in Accounting from the University of Strathclyde and is an Associate Member of the Market Research Society.

Sara Davidson, Associate Director

Sara Davidson (email) Sara joined MORI in September 2001 after gaining a first class honours degree in politics and sociology from Aberdeen University. In 2002 she went on to gain her PhD, also from the University of Aberdeen, on Interpreting Variation in Environmental Opinions: Explanations and Implications.

After just over a year and a half in MORI's London Office, Sara returned to Scotland to work in the Edinburgh office where she has since managed a wide range of both quantitative and qualitative research studies, mainly for public sector clients.

Her particular research interests include local government, equalities, and health and social care. She is also experienced in public sector stakeholder research and has managed stakeholder surveys for the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Funding Council.

Amy Homes, Research Manager

Amy Homes (email) Amy joined Ipsos MORI in 2005, from the Research, Development and Statistics (RDS) directorate at the Home Office where she spent three years conducting both qualitative and quantitative research over a wide range of areas, including offending, criminal justice, immigration and asylum.

She has worked on a variety of small and large scale projects for the private and public sector. The majority of these projects have been in the areas of crime and justice. She has experience of managing face-to-face surveys, online surveys as well as telephone surveys, the largest of which included a telephone survey amongst 14,000 employers and a longitudinal study amongst 4000 prisoners across England & Wales. Amy has also conducted numerous focus groups and depth interviews with a variety of participants including the general public; victims; witnesses; offenders; drug users; gypsies/ travellers; BME groups; crime and justice agencies and service providers. Previous clients have included the Home Office and the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Amy have a Bsc. (Hons) in Psychology and an MSc. in Forensic Psychology. She has several publications in the areas of Crime and Justice and has presented at several Crime and Justice conferences.

Steven Hope, Research Director

Steven Hope (email)

Jane MacLardie, Research Manager

Jane MacLardie (email) Jane joined Ipsos MORI from the Psychological Service of North Lanarkshire Council, where she worked as a Research Assistant. Prior to this, Jane gained a BSc Hons in Psychology from Aberdeen University and an MSc in Research Methods in Psychology (with Distinction) from the University of Strathclyde.

Since joining Ipsos MORI in 2005, Jane has worked on a variety of both quantitative and qualitative surveys for a range of public sector clients. These include two stakeholder surveys, among Scottish Executive stakeholders and Welsh Assembly Government stakeholders, examining their views on the way the Executive / Assembly Government works with them; a mixed methods study for the Scottish Executive on Scotland's International Engagement and the China Strategy; an online survey among head teachers, gathering their views on the initiative, Determined to Succeed; qualitative and quantitative research to feed into the Evaluation of the Relocation Advisory Service for the Scottish Executive; an employee survey for the National Museums of Scotland. In addition she is a key member of the team working on the Condition Scottish House Condition Survey. Jane has a particular interest in online research and is part of the Ipsos MORI Online Research Methods Unit.

Gail McLean, Survey Administrator

Gail McLean (email)

Chris Martin, Associate Director

Chris Martin (email) Chris joined Ipsos MORI from TNS Social in April 2006, where he spent 6 years managing a variety of different research projects. He has extensive expertise of both qualitative and quantitative research methods and has undertaken research on a wide range of topics including education, young people, rural affairs and attitudes to local services He has conducted qualitative research with head teachers, pupils, school leavers, and council officials. Among the quantitative research studies he has managed have been the baseline evaluation of Hungry for Success for the Scottish Executive, a large-scale study into the Central Heating Programme?s Impact on Health, and a study of sectarianism for Glasgow City Council.

He has a particular interest in school education, the environment, rural affairs and political polling. Currently, he is the project manager of the Continuous Scottish House Condition Survey for the Scottish Executive.

Chris has an MSc in Social Research Methods and is a past committee member of the SRA. Previously he worked as a research fellow at the Centre for Educational Sociology, University of Edinburgh.

Lorraine Murray, Research Director

Lorraine Murray (email) Lorraine joined Ipsos MORI in 2005 and has several years experience of social research — mainly for public sector clients in Scotland. She has extensive experience of managing social research projects across a wide range of methodologies including large-scale surveys, qualitative studies and evaluations. She has a first class honours degree from the University of Aberdeen and an MSc in Applied Social Research from the University of Stirling.

Much of her work has been in the fields of education, crime, substance misuse and, more recently, the environment and migration. She is currently managing On Track a longitudinal survey of qualifiers from further and higher education for the Scottish Funding Councils, and an evaluation of the Scottish Executive's Relocation Advisory Service.

Her particular interests include research with the general public on future legislative changes and policy initiatives, and qualitative and deliberative research methods.

Kate Sewel, Research Executive

Kate Sewel (email) Kate has recently joined Ipsos MORI and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Glasgow. Prior to this, she gained a MA (Hons) in Social Policy from the University of Glasgow and an MSc by Research (Social Policy) from the University of Edinburgh.

Kate's PhD examines approaches to drug prevention with young people in Scotland and involved the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Additionally, she has experience of working for the Scottish Executive on alcohol policy and health, housing, and social care partnerships, and for the Health Promotion Policy Unit (University of Glasgow) on Health Action Zones, Drug Prevention and a HEBS European Discussion Paper.

Since arriving at Ipsos MORI, Kate has worked on projects for the Scottish Executive including the Relocation Advisory Service, the Scottish Executive's Scrutiny Review, a project exploring capacity in Scotland's Colleges, and a London-based project concerning complaints procedures.

Steven Treanor, Research Executive

Steven Treanor (email) Steve joined Ipsos MORI after graduating with a BA (Hons) in Marketing and Sociology (First Class) and a Msc with Distinction in Applied Social Research from the University of Stirling. Research work undertaken during this time, exploring the role of the car consumption in the lives of young people, has been published in academic journals and conference papers.

In between his studies, he spent time working as a research assistant in the Department of Marketing at the University of Stirling. His diverse research interests include consumption, marketing communications, youth, and local government.

Vanessa Chan, Trainee Research Executive

Vanessa joined Ipsos MORI in 2008 after graduating with a MA (Hons) in Politics from The University of Edinburgh.

At Ipsos MORI, she has been working on a number of projects covering a wide range of methodologies. These include: a telephone survey of businesses perceptions of transport infrastructure, an online survey of users of the Transport Scotland Website and analysis of consultation responses on the future of National Qualifications.

Carolyn Black, Trainee Research Executive

Carolyn has recently joined Ipsos MORI after graduating with a MA (Hons) Psychology form the University of Edinburgh. Research during this time involved the development and piloting of a questionnaire investigating emotional manipulation and its relationship to emotional intelligence and personality.

Since arriving at Ipsos MORI Carolyn has worked on a variety of projects using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She has taken part in several schools-based research projects including the Evaluation of the Free School Meals Pilot, the Schools Omnibus and School-age sight testing research in Scotland, reflecting her particular interest in research involving young people.

Johanna Mailhot, Data Manager

Johanna joined Ipsos MORI in 2008 from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where she worked as a Research Assistant on a range of survey projects involving physicians, patients, and the general public. Much of her work at Massachusetts General Hospital involved evaluating patients' experiences and satisfaction with health services they received and staff satisfaction with their jobs and working relationships. Prior to this, Johanna earned a BS in Health Sciences Magna cum laude from Ithaca College in New York. She will begin the MSc in Public Health Research programme at the University of Edinburgh this September whilst continuing to work at Ipsos MORI.

Since joining Ipsos MORI, Johanna has worked on updating the Ipsos MORI data management policy and oversees data management practices such as organisation and documentation of metadata, and secure storage and transfer of data for the Scottish Household Survey. Johanna also undertakes data cleaning and validation processes. Her research interests include public health, healthcare, nutrition, substance misuse, and youth issues.

Mark Diffley, Research Director

Mark (email)has lengthy experience in social research and in performance audit studies. Mark joined MORI Scotland in 2000 after several years as a researcher in London, including with the National Centre for Social Research.

Between 2000 and 2004 Mark managed a number of important and research projects for a variety of clients across the public sector. The most high profile of these was the Scottish House Conditions survey of 2002, the largest research project undertaken in Scotland. Other clients the Scottish Executive, Scottish Parliament and a number of councils across Scotland.

In 2004 Mark joined Audit Scotland where he worked as a Portfolio Manager, directing a number of ‘value for money’ studies across a range of public and social policy issues. These include:

• Evaluation of improvements made to the School Estate – large-scale study to examine the effectiveness of extensive recent funding, in new and refurbished schools. (published March 2008)
• Examination of Waste Management Services – review of central and local government work into reducing waste to landfill and promoting sustainable waste management. (published Sept 2007)
• Review of Youth Justice performance - review of progress made by government against key young offender targets (published August 2007)
• Evaluation of the Implementation of the Teachers’ Agreement – evaluation of the cost and value for money of the 2001 agreement between the Scottish Executive, CoSLA and teaching unions over pay and conditions in the teaching profession. (published May 2006)
• Management of Long-term conditions – review of the effectiveness of care received by people with a long-term medical condition. (published June 2007)
• Reducing Delayed Discharges – review of progress made in reducing the numbers of hospital patients subject to delays in hospital at the end of their treatment. (published June 2005)

In July 2008 Mark re-joined Ipsos MORI as Research Director. In this role Mark will be leading on the development of ‘Delivery’ a new specialism from Ipsos MORI aimed at adding value for clients through analysing their research data alongside their existing operations so that they can improve their performance and enhance the services that they produce.

David Myers, Administrator

David Myers, Office Administrator