About: Directors

Neil Thorington
Managing Director, YouGovAlpha.

Neil began his career in IT, working as a consultant for companies such as Anglo American, SAS Institute and GlaxoSmithKline. He moved to IMS Health in 1998, heading up the Primary Care Consulting Group, before being recruited by Information Resources to run their UK Analytical Consulting function in which capacity he worked with many of the major FMCG companies. Neil joined YouGov in August 2005 and was involved in a variety of major new business initiatives before moving to YouGovExecution (YGX) as Co-CEO in January 2006, through to the transition of the business to YouGovAlpha in August 2007. Neil holds a bachelors degree in Economics and Information Technology from the University of Natal at Pietermaritzburg.

Nadhim Zahawi
Co-founder and CEO, YouGov plc.

Nadhim is responsible overall for the corporate direction of YouGov, and has operational control for both organic growth and the prospective acquisition strategy. Before founding YouGov, Nadhim was European Marketing Director for Smith & Brooks Limited with responsibility for merchandising brands such as Warner Bros, Disney and Barbie. He was a councillor with the London Borough of Wandsworth and has in-depth experience of public sector consultation and research within local government. He was campaign manager for Jeffrey Archer’s Mayoral bid. He has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from University College, London.

Stephan Shakespeare
Co-founder and Chief Innovations Officer, YouGov plc.

Stephan played a key role in inventing and implementing the YouGov model. He is responsible for YouGov's commercial development and strategy and in charge of research and development and creating new business tools. Stephan has been an educationist, writer and political campaigner. Stephan was also founding Principal of Landmark West Preparatory school in Los Angeles. Stephan has written extensively on education policy for the national press, has had research published in academic and Think Tank journals, and was a policy director for Jeffrey Archer's Mayoral bid before founding YouGov in 2000. He has an MA in English Language and Literature from Oxford University.

Katherine Lee
Chief Financial Officer, YouGov plc.

Katherine is Chief Financial Officer at YouGov. She is responsible for the day to day financial stewardship of company resources and facilitates external and internal financial reporting. She previously worked at Grant Thornton UK LLP where she worked in Transaction Services, Corporate Finance. Prior to joining Grant Thornton Katherine worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney and Leeds. Katherine has a BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology from the University of Sheffield. Katherine was appointed to the board on 25 July 2005.