People

James McLintock is associate director at Crowd DNA. He takes a 360 degree perspective over live projects and business development, working with clients like Guardian News & Media, Holiday Inn, MTV, Global Radio, Captain Morgan and Sony PlayStation. He is equally at home creating research programmes, developing brand strategy, or even blogging. Before he was at Crowd DNA, James worked at Ramp Industry in a similar capacity, helping the agency to secure major clients and delivering creative project solutions. Further back in time he worked at a leading contract publishing agency, building their business development department from scratch and winning major clients from the public sector, leisure and travel industries. When he’s not in the office James likes to play records (which he does quite well) and play squash (which he does quite badly).

Paul Byrne is a senior account manager at Crowd DNA, working, among other things, on research projects for Channel 4, Kiss, FHM and Q (with a particular focus on managing online research communities and co-creation tools), and content/community initiatives for River Island, Sony Music and EMI. Previously he worked within the digital sector, developing entertainment content channels, including overseeing syndication deals with content rights holders and managing partnerships with third parties. Before that, he served in the music industry for ten years, working on Underworld's million selling 'Born Slippy', signing hit records, managing numerous artists/producers and producing tracks for the likes of Lily Allen and MIA.

Sarah is a research account manager at Crowd DNA. A psychology graduate, she's experienced in both consumer and B2B projects across a wide range of sectors. Prior to working at Crowd DNA, she spent a number of years working in the brand strategy team of international marketing research consultancy Illuminas, but her chequered past also includes two years as a media planner/buyer, working in the editorial department of an academic publisher - oh, and selling accidental death insurance to Australians. All of this has been interspersed with two years of travelling, mainly around South America, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. When she’s out to play, Sarah likes music, playing pool badly and thinking about where her next trip will take her.

Paul Allen is a research account manager at Crowd DNA, primarily looking after the quantitative side of things on projects for clients including Channel 4, Global Radio and Oakley, to name just a few. Before joining Crowd DNA, Paul spent three years at the Newspaper Society, the trade organisation for local media, where his work included overseeing the Wanted Ads and Local Matters research projects. He has a degree in Social Policy with Politics from the LSE, which he managed to complete while working as a chef at department store Selfridges. His first job was in a traditional East End pie and mash shop; he remains involved in the world of food, running a pop-up restaurant with a friend. Paul is also a keen triathlete and will complete his first marathon in 2010.

Jessica Street is a senior account executive at Crowd DNA, working across projects for Kiss, Channel 4, The Body Shop, Dorothy Perkins, Global Radio, River Island and Sony PlayStation. She graduated from Bournemouth University in 2008, where she studied Advertising And Marketing Communications. Previous work experience includes working as an account executive at direct marketing agency, Tullo Marshall Warren, in summer 2007. When free of the office, Jessica enjoys scuba diving and has so far dived in Turkey, Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef.

Kelvin Amos is an account executive at Crowd DNA, providing support across a variety of live projects for the likes of the DCM, MTV, Lacoste, Metro, River Island and the COI, plus working on new business opportunities. Previously he worked in a number of advertising and marketing agencies, maintaining contacts and helping to win new business. He also manage's Crowd DNA's gamer panel, Gamer DNA. In his spare time, he works towards a Social Sciences with Media Studies Bsc, with an emphasis on youth culture. Outside of work he enjoys music, learning new instruments, and remains a bit too keen on videogames. He also tries to visit his family in Australia and Spain as often as he can, though not quite as often as he'd like…

Jenny works for Crowd DNA providing audience insights and trends analysis for our clients. She started her career with a grounding in strategic communications planning at Naked, working with clients including the UK Dept of Health (COI), Nokia, Mars and Coca Cola. Realising that research should be at the heart of all communications solutions, she has pursued a career that matches this with her skills gained from a Psychology BSc, a keen interest in Cultural Anthropology with a great grasp of brand strategy. Her strong points are providing trends analysis in the competitive context and writing that exposes brand-related insight into human behaviour. She likes cycling, ice cream, continually discovering London and British camping. She hates enforced fancy dress.

With experience on brands like Nike, Absolut, Sony PlayStation, Channel 4, The Guardian, Puma, Penguin, Innocent, River Island, Lacoste, Diesel and Sony Music, David has joined us to consult on Go Crowd, our new social communications wing. He began his career in fashion, working across departments such as marketing, PR, retail and buying. Next, he moved agency side (Ramp Industry, Soup, The Fish Can Sing) working in Europe and North America in areas such as media planning, events, PR, trend forecasting, research and marketing initiatives. Most recently, David was at Sony Music, overseeing activity across Columbia Records digital department.

Kevin Braddock has collaborated with Crowd DNA on research, planning and content projects for Orange, Sony PlayStation, BMW and Topman, among others. He works across journalism, consultancy and digital. His extensive experience includes reportage for GQ magazine, where he is Contributing Editor, and he has been published on social trends, health and fitness, business, technology, youth culture, relationships, music and travel in all leading British magazines and newspapers. Brand-wise, he has consulted for the likes of Absolut Vodka, Nike, Grolsch, Johnny Walker and Motorola. Kevin graduated with a First Class degree in European Languages from Goldsmiths College and was nominated as PPA Writer Of The Year in 2007. He enjoys triathlon, cyclosportive events and mountaineering, and is a qualified spinning instructor. His resting heart rate is 47bpm.

Grace Jacobson works on research and planning, with Kiss and River Island among the Crowd DNA clients she's lent her insightful skills to. In previous lives she's been a journalist, a radio plugger and a promoter. She's coordinated press campaigns for clothing labels and she once danced in her underwear for an MTV channel launch in the window of HMV on Oxford Street. Money was tight that month… Grace loves three-inch heels, riding on the back of a Ducati and singing Fleetwood Mac songs at Japanese Karaoke bars (though not all at the same time.)

Sunita has been a researcher for over 10 years, beginning her career as a social researcher, later moving in to market research, and retaining a children and young people theme throughout. She's worked on projects for PepsiCo, GSK, Marvel Entertainment, Target Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Sega, Eidos, Disney, Hilton Hotels, London Museum, Vodaphone, Egmont, Jetix, Tesco, BBC Trust, England and Wales Cricket Board, Kellogg’s, Masterfoods, Cabinet Office, Department for Children Schools and Families, Department of Health, Foods Standards Agency and the Home Office. An expert in a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and a full member of the Market Research Society, Sunita believes it is time for a change, especially when conducting research with children and young people. They respond better to innovative and creative methodologies. For Sunita research is about creating an experience for clients and participants alike that lead to actionable insights.

Samina Virani travels the world, investigating street culture and unearthing fresh creative behaviours. Graduating from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service with a degree in culture and politics, as well as for Crowd DNA, she has consulted for WGSN, Sky TV, Youth Intelligence, Anomaly and Lowe, and has been published by Wallpaper, British Airways High Life, BPM, Remix and Time Out (she served as the editor-in-chief of Time Out Istanbul). Born in London, now based in New York, she’s also lived in Madrid, Istanbul, Washington DC and Houston, and has worked regularly in South America and Asia. She consumes copious amounts of salmon and is obsessed with following an elusive white rabbit wherever she travels.

Gavin Renz works with Crowd DNA on film content for brands like Sony PlayStation, Channel 4, Christian Aid, Bauer and River Island, bringing insights to life and putting research findings into sharp context. He made the switch from graphic/motion design to film five years ago, forming Frizbee Films. 2010 will see Gavin moving further into the realm of broadcast projects.

David Holly works with us on digital strategy and online analytics/tracking. With years of experience consulting within the business, creative and digital spaces for agencies, brands, music and green organisations, he's a Jedi of online research techniques and recently helped BT segment their audience using his own data analysis method, called ViaSearch. He's researched peoples' attitudes to nuclear power for EDF, helped Lexus Hybrid enter social media and worked on improving Levi's EMEA e-commerce solutions. Fuzzy strategy, he calls it.