Gemma Stephenson

Experience

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  Alexis Medical Ltd

  Aug 2004 - Dec 2006

  Senior Field Operations Executive

  A hands-on and varied position within a UK healthcare fieldwork agency, encompassing the four key skill areas of sales, marketing, administration and customer service.Key accomplishments included* Recruiting and managing international respondent panels of over 5000 NHS clinicians and pharmacists in the UK, being the primary point of contact via both telephone and email.* Taking a leading role in the creation of content for the company brochure and website, as well as other standard documentation, mailshots and literature for training workshops. Show less

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  Medefield

  Feb 2007 - Mar 2011

  Internal promotional transfer to a new business unit with the organisation. My role involved taking the leading role in the development, commercialisation, and delivery of an innovative new web based online qualitative research tool.Key accomplishments:* Full product lifecycle management from concept to post-launch, with direct responsibility and ownership for the sourcing, piloting, and implentation of online technological solutions best suited for the business aim, as well as to successfully engage healthcare professionals.* Ongoing design and embedding of best practice project management and workflow procedures, as well as all other requirements relevant to the commercialisation of the MedeQual service, such marketing material design, operations team training, and financial planning.* Initial mentoring and subsequent support to global operations team to ensure commissioned projects completed to specification and to time and budget, demanding the need to implement new strategies where appropriate, as well as take a direct hands-on project management role if needed.* Support to sales and business development teams through regular attendance at client meetings and sales conferences to instil confidence and champion the product. This support also included ongoing training of personnel as regards product knowledge, as well as business development input through conducting of live presentations of the service to clients. ** In 2010, I conducted in excess of 100 global client demonstrations. Show less A field project management position, taking responsibility for the smooth running of fieldwork for global healthcare market research studies.Key accomplishments:* Upon project commission, setting up and allocation of work with relevant resources, as well as implementation of all necessary problem solving strategies to ensure data delivered to time and to a consistently high quality.* Carrying out sample feasibility assessments and desk research, ranging from basic to more complex technical thereapy areas, as well as obtaining costs from external suppliers where necessary to advise and provide guidance on sample sizes to Account Directors.* Negotiating volume discounts to maximise company revenues and monitoring cost to ensure budgets are adhered to at all times, as well as alerting project personnel to changes from proposals. Show less

  • Senior Product Manager - MedeQual

    Aug 2008 - Mar 2011

  • Senior Fieldwork Executive

    Feb 2007 - Aug 2008
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  E-Rewards

  Jan 2011 - Jan 2012

  New Product Manager

  Within the Group Product Development & Innovation team, full responsibility for post launch development of new products (including online behavioural measurement, social media, and mobile technology) to support sales and operations, deliver new product P&L, as well as provide outstanding levels of client service.Key accomplishments: * Management of all aspects of PD&I portfolios in Europe and APAC with particular focus on marketing materials, training, and ongoing sales and business development for online ad tracking and mobile app technologies* Maintaining and enhancing the commercial relationship with the relevant internal and external clients, partners and suppliers * Champion of the new product in aspects of product understanding, training, competitive landscape, sales positioning and technology * Strong stakeholder management of senior individuals across the business, with responsibility for regular company wide communications announcing new product features, languages and geographies Show less

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  ActiveGroup Ventures, Inc.

  Mar 2012 - May 2013

  Business Development Manager - EMEA

  Within a global market research technology specialist, responsible for selling and communicating ActiveGroup’s value proposition to new and existing prospects across Europe and Asia Pacific, as well as undertaking associated account and project managementDuring my time with the business, I significantly increased ActiveGroup's EMEA and APAC client base, as shown by account growth of 115%.Key accomplishments:• Seeking out of contacts and developing new business across multiple regions, client types and industry verticals (predominantly Pharmaceutical and FMCG), resulting in a significant increase of ActiveGroups' European client pool in 2012. • Implemented client specific strategies and built relationships amongst key decision makers in both procurement and insight so as to maximize usage and awareness of ActiveGroup.• Offered a consultative approach to client requirements, as well as identified all opportunities to up-sell additional services, using tools such as Salesforce CRM.• Prepared and presented complex cost proposals and contracts, as well as travelled domestically and internationally to represent the business at client meetings and conferences. development. Show less

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  Watermelon Research

  Nov 2013 - Mar 2021

  Project Director

  A senior commercial project management role supporting in the growing and development of client accounts through the full project lifecycle, across a range of industry verticals (both B2B and consumer), global markets and project types, including large scale trackers as well as ad-hoc.My achievements within this role included:• Working as the project lead on the inaugural Healthy Ageing in Scotland (HAGIS) study, a major social research project speaking to a large representative sample of Scots over 50, with the aim to help improve their lives through better understanding of the stresses, strains and successes. (https://www.hagis.scot/reports)• Winning and delivering a £300K per annum tracking contract (top #3 client) for a major retail consultancy, the business for which was retained for 7 consecutive years.Key responsibilities:• Taking a leading role in the day-to-day management of multiple UK and international research projects across all major data collection modes (particularly online, CATI and quantitative face to face) to ensure their successful delivery to time, scope and budget, as well as ensuring a high quality of deliverable.• Building of strong relationships with both new and existing clients through a high level of client service, communication with both internal and external senior stakeholders, as well as a proactive and solutions focused response to any project challenges.• Direct line management of 5 junior to mid level team members and more widely, a “go-to” individual within the client team for budgetary sign off and best practice project advice.• Generation of project feasibility, quotations and proposals and full accountability for profitability and tracking of project performance versus budget (both net and gross costs), taking actions to improve these wherever possible to ultimately increase business revenues. Show less

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  Further - The Human Insight Company

  Mar 2021 - Aug 2022

  Operations Director

  Reporting into the CEO, I head up research operations, procurement and management of 3rd party vendors, financial performance and project management for both internal and external clients across 2 full-service agency business units (Further and Versiti).Whilst in this role, I have rolled out a scalable and method neutral commercial operations function, introduced minimum gross profit targets and achieved a 25% increase in actual gross profit versus budget for the financial year 2021-2022.My responsibilities include:• Developing a scalable operations function and implementing a strategy to ensure best practice, continuous improvement and process efficiency, including templates, training kits, and project management tools.• Day to day leadership. managing online and offline research projects on behalf of agencies and end brands, including commercial costings, resource allocation and troubleshooting as appropriate to ensure adherence to required timelines and budgets.• Monitoring project financial performance and gross profit margins for the business in close collaboration with the Head of Finance, with figures reported weekly to the management board.• Procuring and maintaining a global supplier database (including fieldwork agencies, freelancers, researchers and other service products), with full responsibility for supplier management, setting and monitoring of KPIs, negotiation of preferred rates, and auditing to ensure maximum return on investment.• Managing wider business operations in conjunction with other teams, including contractor SLAs, data protection and compliance, contract review and negotiation, client billing processes and team training Show less

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  Versiti

  Mar 2021 - Aug 2022

  Operations Director

  As part of my role at Further, I also lead the Operations Function for Versiti, a sister agency within the business specialising in full-service research around diversity and inclusion.

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  Advantage Group International

  Aug 2022 - now

  Director of Operations, Global Custom Solutions