Tessa Baron

Market research leader with 19+ years of experience delivering research and advising senior clients, with a strong track record on global FMCG and consumer brands. Currently leads SMG’s Research Communities function, with accountability for team leadership, capacity, outsourcing budget, quality and delivery. Works directly with Sales on pitches, proposals, renewals and expansion projects, contributing to wins with Nestlé CPW, BP, Coca-Cola, Medik8, Yeo Valley and Greencore.

Has led a team through integration and consolidation while protecting client confidence, and reduced outsourcing spend by 90% through capacity management and process redesign. Built KLA’s online qualitative offering from scratch. Based in South Africa (UTC+2), working with international teams and clients, and open to remote-first roles.

Head of Function, Research Communities - Service Management Group (SMG)

(2026)

• Lead the Research Communities function, setting the vision, strategy and operating model. Led a team of 16 through integration and consolidation to a team of 6, embedding new ways of working, role expectations and performance standards while maintaining delivery quality and client confidence.
• Own the team’s outsourcing budget, reducing external spend by 90% from a £200K annual baseline through tighter capacity management and new AI-enabled and human processes.
• Work directly with Sales on pitches and proposals for new clients, renewals and expansion projects, contributing to wins with Medik8, Yeo Valley and Greencore.
• Manage workforce planning, capacity and resourcing across the project portfolio, alongside coaching, capability development and succession planning.
• Track and report function KPIs, including time to value (TTV), projects completed and project types, using Smartsheet, Jira and Excel.
• Own methodological governance and quality across research design, participant experience, evidence quality, analysis and client-ready outputs.
• Partner with Product, AI, Insights, Client Success, Sales, Marketing and Operations to shape platform capabilities and commercially useful research propositions.
• Lead the research innovation roadmap, including AI-enabled workflows.

Research Director - Service Management Group (previously Bulbshare)

(2023 - 2025)

• Led a team within the Research Communities function, combining people leadership with senior client delivery, research quality and operational oversight, and guided the team through integration and change.
• Managed the team’s outsourcing budget (£200K per year) and resourcing, and scoped projects within SMG’s subscription and project-credit commercial model.
• Worked directly with Sales to build out the research detail in proposals, including methodology, sample and costing, to win renewals and new projects including Nestlé CPW, BP and Coca-Cola.
• Acted as research lead on complex or high-risk engagements, building trusted senior client relationships and balancing methodological rigour with commercial outcomes.
• Designed and delivered qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method research, turning ambiguous business questions into actionable recommendations and executive-ready storytelling.
• Contributed to capability development, process improvement and the evolution of the Research Communities client offering.
• Selected clients: Mars, LEGO, Coca-Cola (Sprite and Fuze Tea), Reckitt Benckiser (including Durex), Coty (Rimmel), Nestlé, Asahi, Pandora, Nike/RGA and Wolverine

Account Director, Qualitative - KLA Market Research

(2013-07 - 2022-12)

• Built KLA’s online qualitative offering from the ground up, including Online Insights Communities, Chat Labs and live groups, and developed a qualitative UX testing methodology.
• Led the end-to-end research process, from proposal, project costing and objective refinement through data collection, moderation, analysis, strategic synthesis and executive presentation.
• Managed and grew client relationships including Burger King, VW, SuperUnion, Absa, FNB, Discovery, Telesure and Fedhealth.
• Managed, mentored and developed researchers and moderators.

Senior Researcher - Columinate (now Human8 SA)

(2011-11 - 2013-06)

Research Executive - KLA Market Research

(2010-03 - 2011-10)

Research Executive - TNS Research Surveys (Kantar South Africa)

(2008-01 - 2010-02)

Researcher and Lecturing Assistant - Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Pretoria

(2007 - 2007)

MA - Research Psychology - University of Pretoria (2008)