Stephen Whitten

Stephen Whitten is a market research and asset management specialist with agency and client-side experience.
He started his research career at Kantar and Synovate (Ipsos), before moving into financial services and asset management research.

He spent 12+ years working client side at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, firstly building a European market research team before setting up and leading the Global Market Research Centre of Excellence.
 
Stephen’s team was responsible for leading the firm’s market research across Institutional and Wealth businesses, covering both continuous and ad hoc research
 
Stephen personally set up several programs in support of strategic initiatives, which are still running today, including;

• Global Institutional CX Survey among BlackRock’s largest institutional clients, to inform the CX roadmap and service proposition enhancement
  
• Global Investor Pulse among advisors and end investors, in 20+ retail markets. The survey was used to understand end investor needs, build relationships with distributors, and support a program of external comms to grow BlackRock’s presence in retail markets
  
• Annual Global Insurance Report, proprietary thought leadership to support BlackRock’s high growth client initiatives within the insurance sector

 Ad hoc research would include diverse topics such as:

•  Market sizing and competitive positioning work for Private Markets
•  Brand and reputation deep dive among industry stakeholders and opinion formers
•  Measuring ESG understanding, and ESG campaign testing
•  Content audit and testing of ETF educational programs
•  Comms testing to meet the FCA’s Consumer Duty regulations (UK)

With a deep understanding of global distribution landscapes and target audiences, Stephen specializes in conducting research among difficult-to-reach Institutional and Wholesale audiences. Primary targets would be investment professionals within pension funds, insurers, consultants or family offices, as well as within retail distributors, ranging from fund selectors through to retail advisors.
 
Stephen has an analytical mindset, and his priority is always to deliver research which is of the highest quality. This is essential for earning internal stakeholder buy-in, so any research can drive action.