Nick Leon - Founder

An ethnographic research specialist, strategist and passionate advocate of documentary film making to capture and understand people’s lives. Nick has a BSc in Psychology and MSc Ergonomics degree from UCL. He has managed a range of public and private sector projects for organisations including NHS, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, NESTA, Vodafone and charities including Joseph Rowntree Foundation. His work has been shown to diverse audiences including The Cabinet Office in the UK and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a visiting lecturer to MA Design students at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and has presented papers and led workshops on ethnographic research at international conferences including ESOMAR, EPIC and the Market Research Society.

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Andrea Higgins - Director

Andrea has been an international researcher for 15 years, working out of both London and New York with major advertisers, media agencies, and media owners across 50+ markets. Andrea has presented at conferences around the world on a range of topics including health and wellbeing, the impact of word-of-mouth advocacy, socio-economic classification systems, and how to make sense of multi-country findings. She won the AQR Prosper Riley-Smith Research Effectiveness Award in 2009, and was voted onto the AQR committee in 2010, where she is actively involved in the wider research industry.

Andrea works across the company and client base to enhance the Naked Eye offering, develop client relationships, and support our commitment to providing new and valuable cultural understanding to our clients.

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Annahita Mackee - Account Director

Annahita is an experienced project manager responsible for the delivery of national and global ethnographic research studies for clients across all sectors. Before joining Naked Eye in 2010 she was Group Project Manager for the UK’s number 1 PR Company Bell Pottinger leading on projects for clients including G4S, Domestic & General and BSkyB.

She has a degree in Product Design, and a Masters with Merit in Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London. Annahita is passionate about designing inspiring research methods to understand people’s experiences and visualisation techniques to bring people’s stories to life.

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Amy Ohta - Ethnographic Researcher

Amy joined Naked Eye in 2011 after training as a qualitative and quantitative researcher on the Chime Communications Graduate Scheme, with placements specialising in the Chime Insight and Engagement Division (CIE). During this time she gained valuable experience in qualitative methodologies engaging with diverse audiences from the hard-to-reach to senior stakeholders. Her passion of getting a close up understanding of people’s real life experiences led her to pursue this interest further as an ethnographic researcher. Her research experience covers a wide range of private and public sector projects, including arts and heritage, media, finance, healthcare and consumer research.

Amy has a degree in Classics and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford.

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Richard Gilmore - Director

Richard is a qualitative researcher and entrepreneur. He founded Insight Research Group in the 80’s and grew it to be one of the leading and largest specialist international healthcare agencies in the World. He has presented papers at workshops and conferences around the world including those of EPHMRA and the MRS. Most recently; he was Chairman of the Research and Consultancy division of Cello Group and was responsible for its growth through the acquisition of many different branding and research agencies including RS Consulting, Leapfrog, and 2CV.

Richard is an enthusiastic advocate of ethnography, as a grey beard at Naked Eye he combines this with his experience of growing companies to realise their potential.

Ed Owls - Ethnographer

Ed is a documentary film-maker and visual anthropologist. He has shot and directed documentaries for Channel 4, Al-Jazeera English and Current TV and has also made films across the globe for numerous non-governmental organizations. He runs award-winning film-making workshops for young people from a wide variety of backgrounds and is a visiting tutor in Anthropology at Goldsmiths University. Ed graduated from Cambridge with a first class degree in social anthropology, and also holds an MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths University.

Elliot Manches - Ethnographer

Following a degree in filmmaking and journalism in 2000 at Canterbury Christ Church University College, Elliot’s film work has appeared at the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Showcase for New British Talent, BAFTA, & Sundance. His work as a journalist has been published by The Independent on Sunday. He has worked as a video ethnographer for clients including Channel 4, GSK, News International, The Royal Mail, and The Bank of Scotland.