NEWS14 May 2019

Obituary: Tiziana Del Bene

Europe News UK

On 5th May, at the age of 54, Tiziana Del Bene passed away after a sudden short illness in her hometown of Pesaro, Italy.

Tiziana Del Bene_crop

Tiziana arrived in the UK in the late 1980s after a brief period in Paris. She had a love of linguistics and on her arrival was keen to master the English language. To anyone who had the good fortune to meet her, it is fair to say she excelled at it.

In the late 1980s, CATI was starting to get traction as a data collection tool and Tiziana began her career in NOP as a telephone interviewer. The merger of NOP and MIL fuelled a rapid expansion of CATI with multiple call centres and Tiziana was at the heart of the management of the operation and the drive to establish quality in this embryonic sector.

I first met Tiziana in 1990 at NOP and little did we know then that we would spend 25 of the next 28 years working together building successful data collection companies in both CATI and online.

In 2000, she joined me in the start-up ICM Direct and over the next 10 years it became the largest independent CATI data collection business in the UK with over 300 seats. Tiziana embraced the challenge of this with daily fortitude and incredibly always knew every detail of every survey. She had an encyclopedic knowledge of samples and could always rescue the most challenging of surveys. Our motto was ‘quality data on time’ and the professionalism of Tiziana was the beating heart of this.

In 2010, she left ICM Direct to join me in another start-up called Populus Data Solutions. Her skills were equally at home in online and CATI data collection and as deputy managing director she was a major driving force behind the success of this multi award-winning business.

Tiziana touched the lives of so many people over 30 years in our industry. Her professionalism allied with warmth and humility were character traits that drew universal respect. She had the ability to bond with colleagues of all ages and backgrounds and was always the life and soul of any social get-together.

On a personal note, Tiziana was my right-hand woman and rock for so many years. It’s hard to comprehend she is gone at such a young age.

Patrick Diamond, formerly managing director, Populus Data Solutions

@RESEARCH LIVE

2 Comments

5 years ago

What a lovely tribute to one of the unsung heroes of this industry.

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5 years ago

I wish i had gotten to know so much more about Tiziana as she still had so much to give. Words can not express the loss I felt and continue to feel today - she has left a big hole in my heart.

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