Obituary: Nigel Bradley, marketing lecturer

Prior to joining WBS in 1996, Bradley worked in research – beginning as a research executive at Burke Marketing Research in 1983. He moved to Italy in 1985 and spent 10 months as a product manager for Tecnicam Srl.

He returned to research in 1986 with BJM Research and Consultancy where he built up an agricultural research unit. In 1989 he rejoined Burke, though the business had since been de-merged under the name Research Services Ltd – better known as RSL – which later became part of Ipsos. Here Bradley was responsible for the National Readership Survey and the British Businessman Readership Survey.

Jaafar El-Murad, Bradley’s head of department at WBS, said: “There can be few who have contributed more in his lifetime both in terms of his work in market research and in academia, whilst also an inspirational role-model to us all. 

“To me, he was the ultimate ‘renaissance man’ in that he knew so much about so many disparate things: from agriculture and farm machinery to media research; from marketing to accurate grammar; from graphology to blogging; from recycling to bicycling. He was an excellent colleague and a wonderful friend who was always positive and enthusiastic, but also sensitive and thoughtful and put others first.”

Bradley’s funeral was held last week.