Our senior team

Jocelyn co-leads Verian in New Zealand. With more than 25 years’ experience working with public sector clients, Jocelyn consults on a broad range of policy areas and is recognised as an expert in delivering complex methodologies and tackling sensitive topics. Jocelyn and her team have won a number of awards for helping clients deliver meaningful impact, most recently the gold award at the global 2022 ESOMAR Research Effectiveness awards for research on youth and porn (conducted for the Classification Office) that had global impact.

Mike co-leads Verian in New Zealand. For more than 25 years, Mike has advised clients in both the private and public realms delivering deep insight into how people think and behave. Mike works across a wide range of policy areas. He especially relishes tackling the seemingly impossible whether that be measuring the ROI of a public intervention, or using theory and multiple data sources to predict how many people will act or where society or a market is headed next.

Rachel leads our Cultural Insights Practice. With more than 17 years’ advisory experience, Rachel has a strong track record in working with the public and private sectors, including Kaupapa Māori organisations and iwi. She is a strong advocate and practitioner of Kaupapa Māori research, and facilitates engagement that builds deep insight into te ao Māori values and perspectives. A career highlight for Rachel was the award winning work she pioneered during her time at Whakaata Māori (Māori Television) for successfully isolating and measuring the impact of the broadcaster on the revitalisation of te reo Māori, a world-first for indigenous broadcasters.

Kathryn is a senior strategist and consultant, with 20 years’ experience specialising in communications and behavioural insights. Kathryn advises a range of clients in the public sector, with especially deep expertise in the areas of risky behaviours and family violence. Prior to joining Verian (formerly Kantar Public) in 2018, Kathryn held senior creative agency positions in both the UK and NZ including, most recently, Planning Partner at FCB in Wellington.

Céline heads up our qualitative insights offer at Verian. Whether Céline is listening to the stories of our most vulnerable New Zealanders, or interviewing senior Government ministers, she is driven to truly understand the reality of people’s experiences and worlds. For more than 20 years, Céline has used this understanding to shed new light on complex problems in the public realm. Céline’s advisory work has been recognised globally at the ESOMAR research effectiveness awards for behaviour change research that led to a reduction in New Zealand’s growing student loan debt.

Jamie leads our Evaluation Practice in New Zealand. Jamie is an evaluation and impact assessment specialist with over 25 years’ experience both as a consultant and a senior government official. He has designed and delivered complex evaluation studies for public sector clients across a wide array of subject matters including gender equality and social inclusion, skills and employment, business support, science and innovation and international development. Jamie was previously Head of Policy and Economic Development for the Falkland Islands Government, driving forward a broad range of issues including minimum wage legislation, immigration policy and fisheries regulation.

With 10 years’ experience in qualitative research and behavioural insights, Tom is passionate about surfacing rich insights that enable clients to see the world through the eyes of their audience. Prior to joining Verian (formerly Kantar Public), Tom was a strategist and research consultant advising global clients on behaviour change in the healthcare setting. With his background, he brings deep knowledge of the healthcare sector and behaviour change within complex multi-stakeholder systems.

Jay is a seasoned quantitative specialist with over 15 years’ research experience spanning New Zealand, the UK, and Canada. He has led national and global studies for a diverse portfolio of public sector and commercial clients. Jay is driven by a client-centric approach to research and has a particular interest in helping public sector agencies build their reputations – Jay leads Verian New Zealand’s Public Sector Reputation Index. His background also includes valuable client-side experience, having served as the Research & Analytics Lead at Sport NZ.

Susan has more than 25 years’ experience in the private and public realms advising a wide range of clients. She has a deep expertise in the transport sector. Susan especially enjoys the challenges of projects involving complex methodologies and needing specialised quantitative techniques such as segmentations and modelling.