
Ruth Preston
Managing Director, Peppermint Research Ltd
United Kingdom
Ruth has 25 years experience in qualitative research during that time has worked with a number of impressive companies and organisations such as Unilever, Bacardi Global Brands, Johnson & Johnson, HMRC... as well as numerous smaller companies and agencies. Ruth also works in the arts and charities sectors, for example working with Southbank Centre and Smoke Free North East. She brings her creativity to bear in her qualitative research, always exploring and experimenting with new tools and techniques from a variety of fields: NLP; anthropology; psychology and behavioural economics. Ruth has fully embraced the need to focus on System 1 [fast] thinking to understand behavioural drivers as well as to encourage good, in depth, System 2 thinking to enable self-analysis and innovative thinking within groups and depths. She also runs moderator training courses for the AQR and other agencies (marketing and research agencies) and for client companies looking to connect directly with their consumers.
AQR Membership
Ruth has been a Member of the AQR since January 2005
Notable achievements and contributions
- 1990: Graduated from Reading University with a 2:1 in Philosophy
- 1998: Began qualitative research career with Wardle McLean
- 2001: Director at The Big Picture conducting global design research
- 2007: Attended AQR's Advanced Course: Applied Creativity
- 2007: Set up own agency, Peppermint Research Ltd
- 2008: NLP practitioner (18 day) course
- 2008-2009: Tutored on AQR's May Moderating Skills Workshop
- 2009: Working with energy (1 week's course)
- 2009-present: Wrote and ran AQR's Moderating Skills Workshop
- 2010-2012: Tutored on AQR's Advanced Moderating Skills
- 2014: Attended AQR's Workshop Workshop
- 2015: Full accreditation as a research lead & moderator from Unilever
- 2017: Attended AQR Breakfast Bites Infographics
- 2019: Attended AQR Neuroscience course