Mary Hargreaves founded Hargreaves Holden in 1994. In 1978, she began her career in advertising and becoming one of the youngest board directors of Bates Dorland. By the 1990s, having enjoyed the great days of British advertising during 1980s she decided to return to her roots. Mary has been a qualitative researcher since 1994 and at last she has found what she really enjoys

Listening to customers
Getting people to explore what they take for granted
Exploring with them why they behave in the way they do

Whilst working at Hargreaves Holden, Mary has worked for many client companies as

Web team leader at Smile (the internet bank)
Head of web team at Co-operative Financial Services
Head of research and analytics at Swinton Insurance
Member of The Strategic Review team Skandia Wealth Management (UK & International)
Head of Customer Experience, South African Revenue Service

Mary is an Associate member of The Market Research Society: a member of the Association of Qualitative Research; a member of the Southern Africa Market Research Association and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketers. Mary is a part time academic at Lancaster and Bournemouth University. As an academic Mary ran the Advertising and Marketing degree scheme for 16 years at Lancaster. In 2010, Mary founded the MSc in Psychology of Advertising at Lancaster and was the course director for two years. Academic work allows her to work with the young; influence the next generation of marketers and keep current with the latest academic thinking.