Thomas joins the company from Asahi, where he was global head of insights, planning and performance.

Prior to joining Asahi in 2018 he held client-side roles at Diageo and Ferrero and agency positions at Ipsos Mori and Nielsen.

Catling was previously head of analytics at Relish Research, where he spent over six years, and prior to that, worked at FreshMinds.

He specialises in quantitative research and analytics and will broaden the company’s analytics offer, with a focus on segmentation. 

Kirsty Yeomans, director of the Forge, said: "We’re thrilled to be welcoming Paul and Joe to the team. Both strengthen our growing consumer and customer strategy practice.

"Paul’s client-side experience leading insight and innovation teams, and Joe’s background in data, analytics and modelling will set us up even better as we help our clients navigate the ongoing changes in the consumer landscape."