MRS, Kantar TNS and Cando among Ginny Valentine winners

The 2017 six award winners are:

• Dan Foreman, of Hatted for risking reputation and investment in the cause of innovation
• Michael, Arnie and the Middle Eastern teams of Kantar TNS and their affiliates, for perseverance and determination to tell the stories that need to be told
• Steve Lacey of SLS Strategy for the pursuit of minority voices
• Julie Fuller, of the Fuller Research Group for sticking her head above the parapet to challenge recruitment status quo
• Marc Brenner of the MRS, Lisa Edgar of the Big Window and Wendy Mitchell, for giving a platform to people who are normally not heard
• Pravin Shekar, of Cando for taking positive discrimination towards disability to awesome levels

The Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage Awards celebrate those who fought long odds and showed exceptional determination to produce great market research. The awards recognise researchers on both the client and supplier side.

Ginny Valentine, a UK-based semiotician and researcher died in 2010; she had a distinguished career in which she challenged traditional market research and evangelised for the adoption of new thinking to improve the discipline.

John Griffiths from the Research Liberation Front who founded the awards in 2011 said: “Six years on, it is encouraging to see how individuals are pioneering diversity. This is a dominant theme of the bravery awards this year, just as the research industry is waking up to diversity as an issue.

“The political uncertainties of the past year has shown that research plays a unique role in representing outliers too. Research that contents itself with aiming for the average is simply not good enough. Ginny Valentine would be so proud to see the legacy she put in place.”

The judges were Gayle Fuguitt (Foursquare), Clark Jones (Coca-Cola), Joel Rubinson (Rubinson Partners), Priscilla Tavares (LATAM Airlines) and Annelies Verhaeghe (Insites Consulting).