Amanda Osenton

Amanda’s research career started in the UK at Quest International and then Unilever Research, but her love of research started before that at university in France, studying first hand the language development path of a bilingual child.  Moving to sunnier climes, she worked for Nielsen in Cyprus, then HQ for the Emerging Markets, managing the largest customised research account which consisted of annual trackers, product and pack testing, U&As, advertising research and customer satisfaction as well as Qualitative research.  Since 2002, she has been working in Australia, with Synovate consumer goods as well as with specialist food & beverage sensory and shopper research companies, joining Direction First in 2010 motivated by wanting to be in a position to be able to deliver valuable insights and recommendations that make a difference to Direction First’s clients.

Benjamin Edwards

Since leaving England to build a career and life in Australia, Ben took the opportunity in May 2008 at Direction First to be a survey programmer and graphic designer. With over 6 years' experience after completing a Computer Science degree his skills have developed as a Flash technology expert and more recently HTML5 and CSS2.
He continuously adapts to the latest trends and changes in the web industry and ensures that Direction First is always on the forefront with this.

Charles Miravite

Has more than 3 years of experience in providing Information System Processes services. Charles loves working on the Izatso Panel making sure that members are happy and keeping everyone informed on what is happening and going to happen in the future as a member of iZatso

Chi Nguyen

Website Developer experience developing, maintaining websites as well as hardware and software support, client support and IT operation management. Graduated at University of Wollongong with a degree in Computer Science majoring in Secure Distributed Systems.
Started with Direction First in March 2010 and is currently still working as a Web Applications Coordinator where Chi is mainly responsible for programming Web Surveys and developing Database warehousing.

Erica van Lieven

Erica has an extensive background working client side in key innovation, business and marketing leadership roles in the Food and Beverage industry from the mid 80s. A passion for excellence in innovation and insights lead her to open her own agency in 1997. Since then, the agency has built a broad team of researchers focused on giving clients the best possible outcomes for their research investment. Direction First engaged in online research early in its development and has remained at the forefront working now with Insites Consulting Research to offer Consumer Consulting Boards and innovative Structural Collaboration techniques with online communities. Many of Direction First clients have been with the business in excess of 15 years.

Ira Rustandi

Ira started her research career in 2005, working primarily as a quantitative researcher but has also some qualitative experience. Prior to joining Direction First. Ira started her research career in 2005 after graduating from University of Sydney.

Over the years in research, she has gained extensive experience in concept testing, package evaluation and sensory research. Her experience also cuts across other areas such as tracking studies, customer satisfaction, brand and advertising research. She has worked with a range of clients in the private and public sector.

Lykke Carlsen

Lykke started her career in Research in 2011 as a part of the research team at OMD in Denmark. During this time she gained experience primarily in quantitative research.  Additionally her Bachelor in psychology and business administration and Masters in Marketing and Communication management from Copenhagen Business School have given her extensive insights into qualitative research. Lykke moved to Australia in January 2013 and Started at Direction First in February.

"So glad I moved to Sydney! The people are so friendly here and the weather is great.  My colleagues at Direction first are the best! Everyone are really talented and passionate about their work and have really made me feel at home."

Mark Atty

Born and raised in Manchester UK, Mark started working within Hospitality Management and Culinary Arts from just 16 years old. Since moving to Sydney Mark has broadened his love of food, customer service and skills by working within Market Research, focusing on the FMCG sector.
Mark's vibrant personality, attention to detail, professionalism and enthusiasm for Market Research has improved the operations of all central location projects and in home projects, creating an efficient and professional field team.

Marko Tosovic

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Michelle Ner

Michelle joined us from TNS in the Philippines.  She has 9 years market research experience and has previously been involved in many tracking, product tests, triangle tests and shelf tests.  Michelle fell in love with Market research when she had a part time gig as a field interviewer while at Uni.  Later that same year, she worked as an intern in a flavour house and decided that she would like to be part of this crazy world!

She’s a proud mother of three (two boys and one girl) who gets three hours of sleep every day, loves watching movies and eating (a lot!). Michelle also loves to plan her kids’ birthday parties and is an amateur baker.

Ben Wright

Since graduating in 2002 with a BPsyc (Hons) Ben started his research career conducting contract-based social research in the private sector, teaching econometrics to MBA students in the tertiary education sector, and undertaking behavioural research for local government.
He then moved into market research and has worked across a highly diverse range of industries and clients, developing an advanced analytical toolkit and passion for innovative research. 
Ben is a lateral thinker with a strategic and creative way of approaching things and ‘out of the box’ problem-solving style.

Carli Portman

Carli's UK market research career started 12 years ago after graduating from Nottingham University in 2000. She started out in an independent FMCG agency researching everything from pizzas to mobile phones before moving to MMR where she spent the next 6 years conducting consumer sensory food & beverage research. Her specialties are choice based methods and models, segmentation and NPD research. It was here that she also developed a passion for consumer sensory research. Looking for a new challenge she decided to make the move client-side and from FMCG to finance by working at Visa Europe. Her main responsibilities where to manage Visa’s multi market tracker, evaluate marketing campaigns and develop Visa’s e-wallet offering. Carli fulfilled a lifelong dream and moved to Australia in 2012, spent some time at Galaxy Research learning about PR research and joined Direction First in 2013. Carli likes to partner closely with her clients to develop an in-depth understanding of their business.  This allows her to translate research findings into effective solutions and deliver insight that is both pertinent and actionable.

Carolina Hernández

Carolina’s passion for sensory science started during her graduate and undergraduate studies in Food Science, having conducted sensory academic research in Mexico and France. She began her career in the Mexican food industry client side, moving on to explore sensory from a different perspective for personal and homecare products at Colgate Palmolive, having developed quantitative and qualitative skills while conducting sensory research for regional and global developments. After a few years, she decided to give the supplier side a try, leading the sensory team at McCormick Mexico. Carolina joined Direction First in 2013, keen of working close to clients and providing them with custom sensory solutions.

Alex Stewart-Moore

Alex is a Design and Technology graduate from the University of Western Sydney. With his Ten Years in the hospitality and retail industries and his double major in innovation and design management he has learnt the importance between product and their consumers.
He is the newest member of the iZatso team and is looking forward to finding the right respondents and nurturing them to achieve maximum results.

Angela Mitchell

Ange’s interest in research started at university where social research methods were part of her course; market research seemed like a good way to continue this interest.  After 6 years working for key research agencies in the UK she moved to the sunnier climes of Sydney and seven years later she’s still here.  This has led to a wealth of experience across a broad range of industry sectors, research challenges, research approaches and techniques and target audiences.

Naturally curious (nosey?), Ange has a first love of Qualitative research but also has direct Quantitative research experience and is confident working with mixed methodological approaches.  She is passionate about ensuring that the ‘so what’ factor is addressed in reporting in a manner relevant to the business in question so that the research means something to the client.  She also strives to make research findings accessible to the range of stakeholders who will be using them, seeking ways to optimise output delivery in a manner appropriate to the client and appreciating the time-poor nature of many stakeholders. 

Ange is a full member of AMSRS and has QPMR accreditation