Our Partners

We work with an established range of associates (the knowledge network) and strategic partners. Associates are long standing and experienced colleagues.

Opinionpanel and Ben Marks
Chris Taylor
Actual Marketing: Stephen Thorn and Jeremy Wallis

 

Opinionpanel, and Ben Marks

We work with OpinionPanel on many of our projects because they are experts in the field of large scale student polling. Because of their quality and their synergy with our own field of research, we have worked with them on many projects. David Roberts of The Knowledge Partnership is also now a director of OpinionPanel.

Ben Marks, Managing Director, set up OpinionPanel in January 2004. He has nine years’ market research experience at Hobsons (Research Manager) and Client Knowledge (Research Director). Ben is a graduate of Manchester University and City University (MBA), a full member of the Market Research Society (MRS) and a Fellow of the RSA.

 

Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor is a long-standing associate of The Knowledge Partnership, bringing with him expertise in both higher and further education marketing. He has considerable experience in market research, strategy and management having worked at director level in two universities and has lectured at HE level; he is also a governor of a large FE college.

Chris started his career in academic research and progressed through market research, policy analysis, lecturing and marketing management. He has worked in education, the NHS, local government and the private sector and has membership of both the CIM and MRS. In recent years Chris has led major research and review projects for many education clients including, Anglia Ruskin University, Aston Business School, Harrow College, Kingston University, Northumbria University, The Open University, Oxford Brookes University and the University of Westminster.

 

Actual Marketing: Stephen Thorn and Jeremy Wallis

We have worked with Active Marketing for three years – projects included strategic plan and stakeholder engagement for HERO and various client universities and reputational research for the FE sector.

Stephen Thorn

Stephen founded the innovative b2b telemarketing start-up Blue Donkey as Marketing Director, and then moved to become Sales & Marketing Director of the publishing company, Woodmansterne. Since 2005, Stephen has been a marketing, PR and recruitment consultant and in education he has advised, and led initiatives, for Oaklands, West Herts, Chelmsford and Lancashire Colleges Consortium as well as projects for the Universities of Manchester and Salford. Stephen is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (ACIM) and holds the Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing (DipM).

Jeremy Wallis

With a degree in Politics from LSE Jeremy is a versatile and articulate qualitative researcher. His background in education, having taught in the primary and secondary sectors, gives him much practical expertise in face to face dialogue and dynamic interaction. He has also worked in the voluntary sector, as a fundraiser for charities and campaigning organisations including Shelter and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), and has written many books, including biographies of Coco Chanel and Henry Moore, and guides to careers in the health sector and the media. He now combines writing with qualitative research (mainly by telephone) for educational and commercial clients.