Who we are

John Raglan - Chairman & Co-Founder

John was previously a director of Metro Radio Group which owned and operated 7 radio stations in the North East and Yorkshire. His main sphere of operation was in sales and marketing in the London marketplace where he made his mark as part of a team that formed the hugely successful Radio Advertising Bureau, which subsequently grew radio's share of advertising revenue from 2% to 9%. In 1993, John left Metro shortly after its sale to Emap.

After a 3 year period of consulting radio groups and other media owners on marketing and revenue development, John co-founded Dipsticks Research Ltd. Dipsticks broke the mould of research agencies by offering lower cost and quicker turnaround times to media owners, agencies and direct clients.

Despite the current global recession the group is enjoying its best trading period in its 14 year history because it finds creative solutions to media owners research problems; making research a profit generator not a cost centre.

John is a keen cricketer; opening the batting for his local club Allendale, watching his 2 teenage sons playing at a much higher standard than he ever did, and following England on various overseas tours. John also enjoys high-level trekking and has climbed in the Andes and Himalayas.

Fiona Raglan - Director & Co-Founder

Fiona left her job with ad agency Robson Brown and co-founded Dipsticks Research in 1997.

Her extensive experience in every single aspect of marketing and advertising proved to be the perfect foundation for the emergent research agency.

It was the negatives that made her realize that there was a gap in the market; every research company she’d dealt with had unclear rates, slow turnaround times and a London bias that didn't seem to make sense. Fiona, together with John, soon established a niche - a clearly costed service with quick turn-around.

It’s a simple premise that has served them, and their clients, well for more than a decade.

The whole thing has been on a bit of an upward trajectory that shows no signs of stopping - in 2003, Fiona won North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award. Panelbase.com, an in-house online consumer panel, is constantly adding to its 170,000 active members in the UK; Other lines of enquiry is even more niche, targeting high-end media research and consumer insight projects. Then there's Public Knowledge, designed to take Dipsticks’ unparalleled expertise into public and third sector organizations.

Fiona’s works on both Dipsticks and Public Knowledge and, even though that’s a full-time job on its own, she finds time to do qualitative research all over UK as well. She's still hands-on and still really enjoys working with focus groups and dealing with everything from tourism to alcohol to decorating concepts.

Outside work, Fiona enjoys cooking for friends and exploring Northumberland. For the past 3 years she's also been a trustee of Goodfund, a charity that provides support for poverty relief, children's wellbeing, and environmental conservation.

Ivor Knox - Managing Director

Ivor oversees all aspects of CATI, Field and Data Management at Dipsticks and brings a wealth of experience with almost 20 years working in market research. Having kicked off his career with 5 years learning all about top quality data collection as an interviewer, supervisor and centre manager in one of NOP’s CATI units, he then spent more than a decade as a client-facing researcher, as an AD responsible for international major projects and then a team-leading director operating primarily in the public sector. As well as understanding operations inside out, he knows exactly what clients expect at the end of projects, and how it feels to stand in front of an audience presenting results and justifying methodologies.

Angus Webb - Technical Director

Angus is a highly motivated Information Technology professional. Having studied Information and Communication Management at Northumbria University, he subsequently completed Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) accreditation. He has worked for Dipsticks Research since 2002 and has been a member of the Board since 2004, having a hands-on involvement with many projects' technical requirements and heading our IT team.

Angus has a passion for improving respondent engagement and survey design. He is instrumental in evaluating new technologies and developing the range of research tools that are deployed across a growing range of clients' research requirements.

He also leads our in-house research panel www.panelbase.com of over 170,000 UK members. Panelbase.com has grown rapidly over the last 2 years and has held the top position in the www.surveypolice.com global leader board since August 2008. As a member of Esomar he’s also responsible for ensuring the company’s ongoing adherence to quality standards. His responsibilities include being designated Quality Manager for the company which has helped him to secure ISO 9001:2008 accreditation year on year since first being awarded this in 2002. He is also working towards ISO 20252 and aims to fulfil the requirements in 2010.

Mark James - Research Director

Mark James is a director of Dipsticks Research Ltd and heads up the media research brand Other lines of enquiry. Mark has over 7 years media research experience, having previously completed a Masters Degree in Marketing with Distinction. Over the years, he has developed extensive experience of running and delivering large and highly complex projects (e.g. 14 countries, 16k+ sample). In 2008 Mark delivered the first ‘recession evident’ project within the Property, Motors and Jobs sectors (no mean feat given the state of the economy!). He’s also a tracking and benchmarking specialist and has tested in excess of 100 radio ad campaigns in past 12 months.

Dominic Barnes - Finance Director

After a 2 year spell in practice in Horsham, West Sussex, he moved back to the North East and into industry. Dominic spent 8 years as Financial Accountant at a small market-leading plc with a turnover of £5-£10m within the electrical industry. He joined Dipsticks Research Limited in 2004 from Europe's leading supplier of lead related products, a business with a turnover of £65-£70m, where he spent 7 years as Financial Controller of the UK arm, responsible for a £15-£20m business.

Helen Mather

Helen joined Dipsticks Research as Research Manager in 2001 and now works across a variety of sectors with national clients such as the BBC, CBS Outdoor and The National Magazine Company, as well as more local clients such as the Cumberland Building Society.

Helen graduated from Durham University with a degree in Economic History. Prior to working at Dipsticks Research, Helen spent 13 years working in the radio industry gaining experience of radio audience tracking, music testing and RAJAR analysis for Metro Radio Group, EMAP, The Radio Partnership and The Wireless Group.

Recent radio research experience for Dipsticks Research includes a three year radio advertising tracking study, music testing and work on several successful radio licence applications.

Currently Helen is specialising in analysing online consultation responses on behalf of the BBC Trust. This involves handling large amounts of detailed open ended question responses, which require sensitive and thorough data coding, analysis and reporting. Helen is a Full Member of the Market Research Society.

Helen now works part time and spends one day a week doing voluntary work at the local Hospice helping in the Fundraising Department. She also enjoys fell walking in the nearby Lake District – WHEN IT ISN’T RAINING!

Penny Browell

Penny joined Dipsticks Research in 2007 and is now Head of Otherlines.tv, a division of award winning media brand other lines of enquiry, which specialises in TV research solutions ranging from small, quick turnaround on-line surveys to highly innovative, multi-methodology projects.

Recent successes include a major survey for ITV entitled 'Event TV' which involved filmed in-home viewing and follow-up interviews all around the UK. Penny has also worked on a range of projects for clients such as the BBC, ITV, C4, Living TV, ESPN and Thinkbox.

Penny is responsible for qualitative and quantitative project design and costing, project management, questionnaire design and analysis and reporting with a focus on TV projects for both advertisers and media owners.

Before Dipsticks, Penny was Research Manager for BBC1 where she played a central role in the strategic development of the channel's branding, content and scheduling. She was also a key figure in the BBC's Creative Future project, taking content beyond television and into the online and mobile markets. She has extensive experience of international research as well, having managed European research for Discovery Channel and co-ordinated pan-European projects.

Most of Penny's spare time is taken up by looking after her three small children. She also enjoys being out in the countryside, either walking the dog, on horseback or skiing and loves spending time in the Alps (where she lived for 3 years) and the Lake District.

Sarah Bulman

Prior to working at Dipsticks Research, Sarah spent 5 years within the retail sector analysing sales, developing trading strategies and forecasting margin growth.

Sarah is a Research Manager and manages every aspect of her research projects. Her role begins with developing an understanding of clients needs, continues through to questionnaire design and culminates in report writing where she ensures that decisions can be aided by the research and that the data is interpreted, explained and commented upon, not just delivered.

Sarah built her initial research experience up within media advertising effectiveness research. Sarah’s creative diagnostic experience allows her to advise media clients and contextualise results. In addition to this she focuses her attention on the retail sector specialising in brand positioning and marketing strategies.

Sarah is continuously undertaking industry courses to ensure that her knowledge and skills are developing and up to date in an ever changing market; the most recent of which was a Market Research Society course ‘Turning Data into Action’.

Since leaving London and moving to the Northumberland countryside, Sarah has relished the lifestyle; she is dedicated to renovating a converted brewery into a modern home, she makes the most of the rural area with her two Springer Spaniels and enjoys her new found pleasure, yoga.

James Dickie

James Dickie is a physics graduate who began working in media research in 2005. Since then, he has learned about both traditional and innovative research methodologies. So much so that he now specializes in project planning and management, delivering new and innovative projects to high profile, media-based clients. James has extensive experience of working with the D.A.L.I. engagement meter and manages the award winning RadioGauge UK tracking study.

Andreas Thorslund

Andreas is a politics graduate from Sweden who joined Dipsticks Research in 2008. Since then Andreas has gained an in-depth understanding of both traditional and innovative research methodologies. Recently Andreas has specialised in large-scale mixed methodology TV projects. Working closely with Penny his focus as a Research Manager is on project planning and management, delivering new and innovative projects to an array of high profile TV clients and other media owners.

Prior to joining Dipsticks Research Andreas studied in Durham as a carefree exchange student and it was here he developed a soft spot for the Northumbrian way of living. After utilising his language skills during a brief stint in after-sales for a large manufacturing company, Andreas decided that he wanted back to his research roots and jumped at the opportunity to join the Dipsticks family.

On weekends Andreas loves to get out in Northumbrian countryside, pitch tent and get the bacon sandwiches started on the grill before the rain inevitably starts falling. Andreas also has a passion for travelling, as an active member of the Newcastle couch surfing community he loves extending the Novocastrian hospitality to travellers from all around the globe.

Andrew Richardson

Andrew joined Dipsticks Research in January 2010, following a long engagement as a business analyst on a major IT project for a government agency. Andrew is a data management expert, with extensive Excel and database experience and a background in workflow design and process optimization.

Reporting to Ivor Knox, the Operations Director, Andrew is responsible for ensuring the timely delivery and accuracy of all survey scripts and data output. To achieve this Andrew manages a team of five full-time members of staff, and can also call upon a number of external specialist consultants.

Outside of work Andrew is keen motorcyclist and hardly ever crashes into the back of scaffolding lorries.

Nicola Turnill

Nicky joined Dipsticks Research in 2007 and divides her time between Dipsticks and Public Knowledge, which specialises in public sector and charity research.

She's been involved in running quantitative studies for an extremely wide ranging client base including the BBC, Feather BrooksBank, Karmarama, Associated News and CBS Outdoor. Nicky's public sector clients have included the NHS, County Councils, Regional Development Agencies and Criminal Justice Boards.

Nicky is responsible for quantitative project design and costing, project management, questionnaire design and analysis and reporting across a range of sectors.

Prior to working at Dipsticks, Nicky gained a First Class Honours degree in Psychology from Swansea University in 2002 and then completed a PhD. She also worked briefly as a Project Analyst for a large international IT company before deciding that IT was not the way forward and jumping ship to Dipsticks!

In her spare time Nicky is a bit of a bookworm and is part of a local book group, she enjoys the challenge of growing vegetables in her garden and has recently learned how to ski.

Alex Banks

Alex joined Dipsticks in the summer of 2009. He originally worked as part of the Data Management team where he utilised his numerical skills developed in a previous job role as an Accounts Assistant.

Alex quickly discovered that he was keen to progress in a researcher role and subsequently joined the research team. He now has a portfolio of clients from a whole host of industry sectors. Alex is an enthusiastic and hands on researcher, he likes to involve himself in every aspect of the research process. Always keen to expand his knowledge, Alex has recently completed a Market Research Society course 'Creating Presentations with Impact'.

Alex graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2007. Throughout his time at University he was involved in a variety of clubs, primarily the Volleyball club where he represented the University at a national level. He is a keen skier and has a few bumps and scrapes to prove it! Being a keen footballer, he enjoys life in the North East; and is even known to have an occasional swim in the North Sea.

Jamie Dodd

Jamie joined Dipsticks in 2009, originally as part of the CATI team and has now recently moved on to a research position with the company to put his analytical skills to the test.

Before joining Dipsticks, Jamie has had a varied career path. Since graduating from Newcastle University in 2007 with a BA in History, Jamie has worked across a number of sectors including; market research, telecommunications, technical support and education, including a really rewarding role volunteering at a local primary school.

In his spare time, Jamie has a keen interest in a variety of sports, especially tennis and football, which he plays every week, with mixed results!