Our People

Gracechurch has a growing team of senior, experienced consultants who've worked as advisers to, and decision-makers within, the sectors we advise. With both an internal and external perspective, we appreciate the art of the possible and can offer advice that will put you ahead of the pack.

Ben Bolton

Managing Director

Ben graduated with a degree in Politics and began his career at Taylor Nelson working on a range of institutional finance and blue-chip corporate research projects and several large takeovers, including Allied-Distillers and Hanson as well as running many corporate reputation programmes for large corporate and financial institutions. He also set up several successful and high profile city syndicated studies, notably on the privatisation of the water industry, TV franchises and the demutualisation of building societies.

Ben then moved client side, setting up and managing strategic research departments in Lombard, NatWest and PPP, later becoming MD and part-owner of CSS, a business that sold syndicated studies and consulting to major professional and investment institutions. Clients included major accounting firm, law firms, actuarial, investment banks and advertising agencies. After 8 years the company merged with TNS.

Ben then founded Gracechurch in 2001 and has since focused on building a mix of research and advisory projects for clients in commercial insurance, legal, accounting, pensions, banking as well as a number of professional and trade bodies. He is a full member of the Market Research Society, a regular speaker at industry conferences and leader of training and development programmes.

Penelope Mantzaris

Director

Penelope pursued a Business Science Honours degree in Marketing and Economics at the University of Cape Town, where she received a Distinction in her Honours thesis on Consumer Behaviour.

After university, Penelope began her career 10 years ago in Consumer Insights at Unilever in South Africa, before moving agency-side to TNS, working in both quantitative and qualitative research for a wide range of industries, including Finance and Professional Services. Following a move to London in 2012, she worked at GfK Global, specialising in B2B research for Financial and Telecoms clients, before joining Gracechurch in 2013.

Penelope’s primary role is to ensure that all insights delivered to clients help them to make better strategic decisions and she works closely with them to achieve this. She manages the Research team, coordinates Consultants across the business, focuses on New Product Development, and leads Gracechurch’s Business Development activities.

Alastair Bell

Analytics Director

Alastair is an analyst and software developer with nearly 20 years of market research experience. He has broad experience in the technical aspects of market research. His specialities include, employing 'trade off' methodologies to explore decision making behaviour, using multivariate statistics to identify trends and 'key drivers' in data, as well as development of interactive software tools.

Over his years in market research, Alastair has worked across a wide range of consumer and business categories, particularly retailers and consumer goods businesses. His more recent project work has focused primarily on range optimisation and price structure research for retail goods.

In 2011 Alastair joined Gracechurch as a consultant, providing analytical and data support to the research team. He has now joined the team full-time, extending the scope of his responsibilities to quantitative research reporting and insights. Alastair brings his enthusiasm and curious intellect to the Gracechurch team. His keen eye for data, combined with his development of analytical architecture, is central to Gracechurch’s approach to research insight.

Chantal d’Offay

Research Analyst

Chantal began her tertiary education at the University of Cape Town where she pursued a B.A. with a double major in English Language & Literature and Classical Studies and then in 2012 a B.A. (Honours) in English Studies. Subsequently she went on to read an M.Phil. in English Studies at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Chantal joined Gracechurch in 2016, after returning to the University of Cape Town where she worked as an Undergraduate Tutor and Research Officer in the Department of English Language & Literature. During this time she designed and instructed a number of seminars and research colloquiums.

At Gracechurch Chantal’s main focus is syndicated and ad hoc qualitative research, with a combined investment in quantitative reports. As well as research, she is also responsible for the website, on which she manages content and oversees design. Chantal brings her background in scholarship on board to ensure that each research project is both coherent and rigorous, delivering insights of the utmost quality.

Ed Horrocks

Senior Consultant

Ed has 20 years international experience in brand, design and communication, having graduated in 1996 with a B.A. (Hons) in Packaging, Design and Communication. Since then he has pursued his investment in brand and identity development, in both creative agencies and in-house roles, helping clients to harness the power of their brands.

Ed has steered strategic brand activities and creative teams in some of the world’s leading professional services firms, including EY (Australia), PA Consulting Group and Deloitte (UK). In 2013/14 he was responsible for the design, development and implementation of PA’s refreshed identity - their first logo change in 30 years. He also lead the recent evolution of Deloitte’s global brand identity for the UK firm of over 14,000 employees.

Ed believes in putting purpose and brand at the core of business. He works to define brands that help translate business ideas into impactful, creative communications. He has a proven track record of working closely with senior leadership at a strategic level, while offering hands-on creative direction, design and production management.

Duncan MacCallum

Senior Consultant

Duncan brings to Gracechurch 30 years of marketing and commercial skills drawn from the world of fast moving consumer goods at Nestlé. He is an experienced branding consultant and workshop leader and enjoys working alongside business leaders to help them re-define their commercial proposition, thereby building their reputation in a competitive context.

At Gracechurch Duncan is responsible for working with many of our top clients to help them grow and develop their businesses.

Keith Wells

Strategy Consultant

Keith specialises in corporate strategy, culture and communications helping clients drive for radical performance. He has developed unique brand methodologies, and believes that all great brands are built from the inside out.

Keith has worked across the widest industry spectrum in both private and public sectors, international and domestic. Having begun his career in advertising account management and planning, he moved into corporate identity and consultancy and has since held senior management positions with responsibility for client delivery, team development and business performance.
He has written many articles and spoken at a range of international conferences on brand issues.

Jenna Wheeler

Creative Brand Consultant

Formerly at The Brand Union, Jenna has over 10 years’ experience in leading design agencies, working with brands of all sizes both in the UK and globally.

She specialises in visual brand strategy and design, believing the most creative and compelling solutions come from a thorough strategic understanding of the brand and the world they live in.