Deborah Mattinson Named as Next MRS President

In the UK, professional body the MRS (Market Research Society) has appointed market and opinion researcher and political strategist Baroness Deborah Mattinson as its next President.

She takes over the role from Saj Arshad, as his four-year term comes to an end.

Mattinson (pictured) was an advisor to Tony Blair prior to his 1997 election victory, then served as chief pollster to Gordon Brown throughout his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer and as Prime Minister. She co-founded insight consultancies Opinion Leader and BritainThinks (now Thinks Insight & Strategy), with Viki Cooke, and prior to the UK's most recent General Election, spent three years as Director of Strategy in the office of Keir Starmer. She was nominated for a life peerage by Starmer in December 2024 and was created Baroness Mattinson of Darlington (County Durham) on 3rd February 2025.

Celebrating its 80th year this year, the MRS is the world's oldest professional body for research and insights, based in the world's second largest research, insight and analytics market, where the top 100 agencies grew by 4% on average in the last financial year.

Mattinson comments: 'This is an exciting time to be joining the MRS team - with its 80 years of success in guiding us through a hard-to-predict future. Our sector's remarkable resilience is due to our continued relevance, and, right now, our unique skillset is needed more than ever.' MRS CEO Jane Frost adds: 'We are delighted that Deborah will be taking on the President role. As we celebrate MRS' 80th year, it is fantastic to have someone so widely respected and experienced who will bang the drum for this great profession and continue Saj Arshad's excellent work.'

A lot of water under the bridge, clearly, since the Nuclear Bust-Up of 2008, in which the MRS' Standards Board (MRSB) found Opinion Leader in breach of its Code of Conduct for the part it played in a Whitehall consultation on nuclear energy, prompting Cooke to respond that 'We do not believe that the MRS is competent to assess these new forms of deliberative engagement.' - Ed.

Web site: www.mrs.org.uk .