Our team

Beaufort’s executive team contains a blend of researchers who have worked both in the public and private sectors and across the agency and client-side organisations.

They are supported by skilled technical and support staff and can draw on an extensive field force.

Fiona McAllister
Managing Director
Fiona McAllister

Fiona has worked in research and marketing for more years than she cares to remember! She has substantial experience in qualitative and quantitative techniques from both a private and public sector perspective, with the added dimension of a strong marketing background.

She started her career in marketing, working on the Dulux paint brand at ICI and then in retail marketing at BP Oil (UK), before starting to specialise in marketing research. Her client-side experience includes four years at the RAC as Research Manager, where she was responsible for consumer and business-to-business research for motoring services and insurance divisions. On the agency-side, prior to joining Beaufort Research in 2002 Fiona spent six years as Director of mruk Wales, heading the Cardiff office.

Fiona now heads Beaufort’s qualitative team, as well as running the business, so does not have a lot of spare time. When she does, Fiona likes nothing better than pottering around her garden, watching obscure foreign films at Chapter or cheering on Cardiff City on a Saturday afternoon.

Chris Timmins
Director
Chris Timmins

Chris has worked as a buyer and provider of market research services across both the public and private sector over the last 25 years.

His career began at Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), spending seven years in the Consumer and Media divisions. Clientside experience includes European Brand Research Manager at Mars Confectionery and immediately prior to joining Beaufort in 2003, Head of Research & Evaluation at the Sport Wales.

Chris leads the quantitative team at Beaufort taking overall responsibility for the design and reporting of ad hoc and continuous research. His work includes many national studies which have examined societal and legislative change over the past two decades including the smoking ban, single-use plastic bags and organ donation legislation.

Outside of work, Chris has a passion for almost any sport and is a keen runner. He recently fulfilled a lifelong ambition of completing a marathon (never again!) but now prefers the regular, much shorter, Saturday morning parkrun.

Owen Knight
Associate Director
Owen Knight

Since joining the Beaufort team in 2001, Owen’s career has been devoted to quantitative survey research. He is a vastly experienced researcher with highly developed skills in questionnaire design, sampling, data analysis and interpretation.

His broad-ranging experience spans an extensive range of sectors and methods – be it leading on large scale programs of tracking research conducted with tens of thousands of research participants, to more niche projects such as stakeholder engagement among particularly hard to reach audiences including MPs, AMs and peers.

As a fluent Welsh speaker, Owen has managed research studies on behalf of numerous prominent Welsh language organisations and builds bilingualism into any research study with ease.

When not at Beaufort, Owen spends much of his time making the most of the natural environment, and is particularly keen on mountain biking, skiing, or walking in the Alps (or more often, in the more modest mountains and forests of South Wales)!

Adam Blunt
Associate Director
Adam Blunt

Adam has amassed a wealth of experience across sectors and research techniques since beginning life as a qualitative researcher.

He developed his qualitative craft with Reflexions Communication Research, focusing mainly on public sector communications / advertising related studies. Keen to experience life at a large agency, he then moved to GfK, spending time in the Social Research division before joining the Business and Technology division.

Adam’s specialisms centre on communications, behaviour, public health related research and business to business research. He won the MRS/BIG Business Research Effectiveness Award for his paper which assessed bulletin boards in a B2B context, and provided an ‘important contribution to best practice’.

Away from the office Adam helps out at his local taekwondo club and with running a junior football team. Any remaining free time is spent making the most of South Wales’ beaches for surfing and hills for cycling.

Catrin Davies
Senior Research Executive
Catrin Davies

After graduating in History from Cardiff University in 2012, Catrin began her career working at a Welsh secondary school in Cardiff.  During her time at Ysgol Plasmawr, Catrin organised work experience for pupils in years 10 and 12. She also handled varied administrative work within the Progress Department, which specialised in pastoral care. She joined Beaufort in 2014 to develop a career in research.

As a first language Welsh speaker from North Wales, Catrin enjoys interacting with the Welsh Society in Cardiff and has a particular interest in Welsh contemporary art.

Mary Geldart
Operations Manager
Mary Geldart

Mary oversees fieldwork, including managing interviewers and qualitative recruiters, provides ongoing project support and ensures the office runs smoothly.

As a millennial, she is on a mission to educate the world about the benefits of sustainable pens, particularly fountain pens. It is also a good excuse to indulge her stationery habit.

Her spare time is quickly filled: Mary is an active member of her local church community and is a member of the worship team and youth provision. Mary is also a violist and committee secretary for the City of Newport Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys cycling and sea swimming, alongside the pursuit of language learning, especially Welsh!

Shaazna Ossen
Operations Manager (Maternity cover)
Shaazna Ossen

Shaazna holds an MBA and MSc in strategic marketing. She has over a decade of progressive leadership roles in enhancing customer experience via different platforms within the insurance and financial sectors in multinational companies. Shaazna brings with her a proven track record of achieving effective client and customer outcomes and driving continuous improvement. She specialises in process optimisation and project management and has experience in leading cross-functional teams and implementing lean practices.

During her free time, Shaazna enjoys a swim, good book, movie, or a nice walk in nature. She also loves to experience different cuisines and experiment with food.

Jane Bullock
Operations Executive
Jane Bullock

As Beaufort Research’s Operations Executive, Jane is responsible for a range of duties within the Operations department. One of her responsibilities is the overall supervision of the telephone interviewing team, allocating work to suitably trained telephone interviewers to ensure all projects are completed successfully and on time. Jane also leads on in-house recruitment of senior level participants for stakeholder and B2B projects.

Jane has a passion for literature, writing and the theatre. On the very eve of taking up her place at university, she received an unexpected offer to join the stage management team at the Liverpool Playhouse. Jane grabbed the opportunity with both hands and, so, ‘ran away with the circus’ for the next 25 years. Highlights included numerous West End productions and a residency in New York.

During her time at Beaufort, Jane finally made it to university. With thanks to the OU, she was able to explore two of her much-loved passions, Shakespeare and Creative Writing.

Cynthia Mason
Quality and Training Manager
Cynthia Mason

Cynthia is our Quality and Training Manager and ensures that all the quantitative interviewers and qualitative recruiters are working to a high standard. She regularly runs refresher workshops for our fieldforce as well as training staff from scratch based on MRS and ISO20252 requirements. A highly experienced interviewer, Cynthia has been with Beaufort since the company was formed and began her career as a field interviewer, before becoming a supervisor and trainer.

On the rare occasions Cynthia isn’t working, she devotes much of her time to family, her dogs, cooking and gardening.

Our nationwide field team
Our nationwide field team

We carry out UK quantitative fieldwork  through our network of experienced  field interviewers. We take personal responsibility for the training of our Wales wide field team which includes fluent Welsh speakers.  We are also supported by our UK network of qualitative recruiters and again only work in Wales with recruiters who we have personally trained.

Our phone interviewing team
Our phone interviewing team

We have an in-house phone interviewing team (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing – or ‘CATI’ as the industry calls it) based in our Cardiff office, overseen by experienced supervisors.  The team scales up when required meaning we can handle any size phone interviewing project.