David Walmsley started his insight journey through a secondment to support a new health and wellness app at Holland & Barrett in July 2021, which introduced him to the insights team.

He became an analyst in January 2022 and one of his first end-to-end projects focused on identifying and prioritising customer wellness missions, helping the business understand what matters to customers and how to act on it. Around the same time, he helped on a new attitudinal segmentation model across the business.

Walmsley has also developed a multi-model custom GPT for his team, designed to accelerate analysis and automate outputs.

A key focus of his role has been helping H&B&Me grow to a recognised platform. In 2024, he was promoted to insight manager and now leads insight delivery for H&B&Me across UX research, behavioural testing, commercial initiatives and product experimentation.

Beyond the day job, Walmsley became a Mental Health First Aider in his first year with Holland & Barrett, then helped launch ‘Manbassador', the company’s first programme supporting men’s health across stores, warehouses and headquarters. He has also joined the MRS &More leadership team.

David Walmsley said: "I came into our industry by accident, but it quickly became the work that pushed me, inspired me and defined the direction I wanted to grow in. This award is a massive honour and reflects that journey and the people who guided it. Now I want to keep developing and help others discover this industry on purpose."

• Jerryanne Hagan-Tetteh and Neve Savage were jointly awarded the Research Live award for young researcher of the year – supplier.
  
• The full list of MRS Awards winners can be found here.