Meet The Team
Find out more about our team of researchers

Dr Lucy Howells
Director
Lucy has a BSc in Microbiology, a Ph.D. in Immunology and has worked as a research assistant studying rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and Crohn’s disease. Lucy has worked in market research for almost 20 years and has a particular interest in quantitative research including segmentation, patient flow mapping and pricing. Lucy received the 2021 BHBIA Award for Best Business Impact, the 2008 BHBIA Award for Best Sales/Marketing Effectiveness Research and was short listed for ‘Improving the management of PHN: Patient voices and GP perspectives’.
Lucy has another full time job looking after and entertaining both her daughter Emily and son Thomas. When she has the time, Lucy enjoys playing golf, reading murder mysteries and baking.

Charlotte sugden heron
director
Charlotte has been working at Synergy for 15 years after graduating from Cambridge University with an MA in Natural Sciences. She is particularly interested in mixed methodology and quantitative research, and has a wide-ranging experience of many therapy areas, with particular focus on rheumatology, dermatology and rare disease.
Charlotte has had outputs of her research submitted to Parliament and has presented research findings to NICE. She won the 2016 BHBIA Best Business Impact Award and was in the winning team for the 2019 BOBI Challenge.
Charlotte is always looking for a new craft project and particularly enjoys sewing bespoke outfits for herself. She is a keen gardener and cook, and enjoys growing her own fruit and vegetables. At the weekend she can often be found exploring one of London’s museums.

Sue Thamia
Non-Executive Director
Sue has a first-class degree in Pharmacology and an MBA. Her first market research experience was on well-known consumer brands at Rowntree Mackintosh, and Johnson and Johnson. She then moved into HealthCare, which culminated in becoming Managing Director of Insight Research prior to setting up Synergy Healthcare Research Ltd with Jon Freeman in 2000. Sue has contributed to seminars and training courses on both qualitative and quantitative research and has won a number of BOBI Awards.
Sue is particularly interested in research which seeks to understand customer behaviour, placing the pharma company in a better position to challenge and influence decision making to the benefit of patients.
Sue enjoys walking, with and without her dog, going to the gym and the theatre and helping in different volunteer groups. She has just started learning to play the guitar.

Jon Freeman
Non-executive Director
Jon Freeman has worked in market research since 1987 at Taylor Nelson Sofres and Insight Medical Research prior to setting up Synergy Healthcare Research Ltd. Jon has worked extensively researching new product development, rational and emotional needs, branding and positioning, communication, segmentation and pricing. He has presented papers on the quality of research design, the validation of research outputs and has run seminars on new product development, rational and emotional customer needs, branding, advertising research, conjoint and pricing research.
Jon has particular interests in developing research approaches which combine the deep understanding of issues provided by qualitative approaches with the rigour and objectivity ensured by quantitative methodologies to add value to both qualitative and quantitative research.
When he’s not researching the latest developments in healthcare, Jon enjoys reading, photography and listening to the latest sounds from the 1980s.

Jenna Griffiths
Senior Associate Director
Jenna graduated with a first class BA in Sociology and has worked in healthcare market research for 15 years. She is particularly interested in patient research, customer motivation research and segmentation research. Jenna has experience working across a wide range of therapy areas including dermatology, oncology, orthopaedics, psychiatry, rheumatology and genito-urinary. Jenna also has extensive experience running many international projects across Europe, the US and Australia. She received the 2022 BOBI Award for Best Customer Insight.
Outside of work, she is usually running around after her two young children but also enjoys live music and comedy, cooking, and watching true crime documentaries.

Rachael Stallwood
Research Director
Rachael graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry and joined Synergy from Kantar Health, bringing with her 13 years’ experience dedicated to multi-national healthcare market research.
Rachael is vastly experienced in conducting ad-hoc qualitative and quantitative research covering a wide repertoire of therapy areas including rheumatology, dermatology, CV/diabetes, oncology and orphan diseases. She has strong project management and analytical skills which she uses to deliver insightful, high-quality research which gets to the core of the business issues in hand.
In her spare time, Rachael enjoys spending time walking and cycling in the great outdoors, baking for friends and family and singing in her local choir.

Patrick dalton
associate director
Patrick joined Synergy after graduating from University College London with an MSc in the History and Philosophy of Science. While at Synergy, Patrick has worked on a wide variety of therapy areas with particularly experienced in conducting communication and market understanding research. Additionally, Patrick has also led the delivery of training workshops to clients. He enjoys working on both UK and international projects and gaining further understanding the inner workings of healthcare systems in the UK and abroad.
Away from Synergy, Patrick enjoys playing football and captains his team in South London. He also enjoys making the most of living in London by exploring food markets, visiting comedy clubs, and trying to find London’s best Guinness.

Amy Page
SENIOR Account Director
Amy joined the team at Synergy in 2017. She has a first class BSc in Sociology, an MSc in Web Science and an MPhil in Health Sciences. Her MSc dissertation focused on the dark humour used by healthcare professionals in online forums, and her MPhil researched the experiences of patients with diabetes using the Web to support their self-management. Amy is particularly interested in qualitative research and has experience in a wide range of therapy areas. She has worked on a number of patient research projects, including the impact of treatment on quality of life for patients and their supporters, experiences of the menopause and vaccine hesitancy. She also has experience in oncology, dermatology and neurology.
Away from the office, Amy is usually spending time with her husband and small children or revising for her next Dungeons and Dragons game.

ALISHA PATHANIA
SENIOR research executive
Alisha graduated with a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Health Psychology from UCL. Her MSc dissertation focused on developing and evaluating materials on Nicotine Replacement Therapy. After graduating, she joined NatCen as a Research Assistant, where she primarily worked on the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Public Confidence in Official Statistics (PCOS) survey.
Alisha joined Synergy from Transport for All where she led on the design, execution, analysis, and reporting of multiple research projects encompassing transport accessibility issues such as concessionary travel schemes, cycling infrastructure, and inclusive footways. She has a particular interest in health inequalities, which is driven by her previous role at a Disabled People’s Organization.
Outside of work, Alisha is a big fan of dogs, Eurovision, and instant noodles.

cherie peng
research executive
Cherie joined Synergy having graduated from Imperial College London with a Joint Honours degree in Medical Biosciences and Management.
Cherie has experience in various therapy areas, including haematology and oncology. Her research projects undertook a variety of both quantitative and qualitative methods, ranging from lab-based investigative work into the role of endothelial cells in COVID-19 related coagulopathy, to assessing the applicability and relevance of competitive analysis frameworks within the contemporary pharmaceutical industry.
Away from work, Cherie can be found wandering around London’s markets, catching shows at the theatre, and cycling wherever she goes.

rowan gow
research executive
Rowan joined Synergy with a first class BA in Human, Social, and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, specialising in Sociology, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Research Methods from UCL.
Rowan’s research investigated how early environments influence family formation and cohabitation over the life course, conducting longitudinal data analysis with national cohort studies. His background in social research includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, and he is particularly interested in applying a range of approaches to understand patient and HCP motivations and experiences.
Outside of work, Rowan enjoys going to the theatre, trying new board games with friends, and exploring London’s parks and second-hand bookshops.

Ali Hayes
Operations manager
Ali joined Synergy in 2003 having spent the previous 8 years at Insight where she met Sue and Jon. Ali is often the first point of contact for visitors and any new enquiries to Synergy.
In her spare time, she can be found reading, walking and baking (but not usually at the same time!). She is also rather partial to K dramas, Japanese Anime and spends far too much time gaming.