Verdict's analysts

Analyst Biographies

At Verdict, we know that our people are the most valuable asset we have. Without the dedication and ability of our teams we simply wouldn't be able to provide our clients with the high standard of service they've come to expect.

Nick Gladding, Senior Retail Analyst

Nick heads up Verdict Research's economics and home team. His primary responsibility is Verdict's Retail Futures forecasting reports, which are widely used within the retail sector to guide strategic development. He has steered the development and launch of Verdict's new quarterly Retail Futures, the industry's only forecasting service to provide retailers with regular updates on the outlook for their markets.

Nick also leads Verdict's research and analysis of home and DIY retailing, manages cDNA, Verdict's annual consumer research programme and its e-retail and home delivery consumer research. He represents Verdict at the Ernst & Young ITEM Club and regularly presents Verdict’s views to senior industry audiences.

Prior to joining Verdict, Nick worked as a research manager and consumer goods analyst at Datamonitor. He has a degree in economics and geography from the University of Exeter.
 

Maureen Hinton, Senior Retail Analyst

Maureen leads Verdict Research’s clothing, footwear and health and beauty reports. She is also responsible for UK and European department store analysis. She also contributes to Verdict’s sector-specific forecast and consumer research reports. Maureen previously worked in Verdict’s consultancy division on a range of client-defined projects. She is a frequent commentator on the industry in the media and at conferences and trade groups.

Prior to joining Verdict, Maureen worked in design and manufacturing roles before managing the home shopping department of National Magazines. She subsequently spent three years in Italy working for an Italian Buying Office that specialised in European Home Shopping clients before moving to Littlewoods International’s sourcing division as a Product Manager.

She has a degree in Fashion and Textiles from Nottingham Trent University and an MBA from Kingston University.
 

Alastair Lockhart, Senior Retail Analyst

Alastair Lockhart leads Verdict’s grocery, electricals and location analysis team. He is responsible for Verdict’s reports on out-of-town, town centre and neighbourhood retailing and also manages research on the grocery and electricals sectors. He also contributes to Verdict’s sector-specific forecast and consumer research reports.

He previously spent a number a years in Verdict’s consultancy division where he worked on and managed a wide range of specialist tailored projects for major retailers, manufacturers and financial institutions. During Alastair’s earlier Verdict career he was a Retail Analyst focusing on location and forecasting.

Before joining Verdict, Alastair developed his knowledge of the retail sector through a variety of store operations management roles with CWS and as an industry consultant with ICL Retail Systems. He has a degree in Retail Management from the University of Surrey.
 

Daniel Lucht, Analyst

Daniel Lucht works on Verdict’s European retail reports and ad hoc projects.

He previously spent a number of years at Euromonitor International as a Senior Research Analyst, where he worked on and managed a wide range of specialist tailored projects for major retailers, manufacturers and financial institutions, focusing mainly on FMCG and related industries.

He has a Masters degree in Political Theory from Birkbeck, University of London.

Carol Ratcliffe, Analyst

Carol Ratcliffe is an analyst in Verdict’s clothing, footwear and health and beauty analysis team. Before joining Verdict, Carol was a Senior Analyst in Datamonitor’s consumer goods division where she managed a project assessing domestic and international markets for food, drink and personal care products.

Prior to this, Carol spent several years managing a number of research projects on the consumer goods and retail sectors, including company profiling and best practise case studies. She has a degree in International Management with American Business Studies from UMIST/University of Manchester.

Harsha Wickremasinghe, Analyst

Harsha Wickremasinghe is an analyst in Verdict’s location and forecasting team, working on a diverse range of reports including Verdict’s forecasting series, annual consumer research programme and its e-retail and home delivery reports.

Prior to joining Verdict, Harsha developed his knowledge of the retail sector through store operations roles with Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury and Comet and store management roles with Faith Footwear. He has a degree in Retail Management and an MSc in International Business Management from the University of Surrey.

James Flower, Analyst

James Flower is an analyst in Verdict’s grocery and home analysis team and also works on its location and channel reports.

James has worked within Verdict’s research & analysis division for two years. Prior to joining Verdict, he worked in a variety of store management roles at Toys R Us. He has a degree in Business Studies from the University of Glamorgan, South Wales.

Kate Murphy, Junior Analyst

Kate Murphy is an analyst in Verdict’s clothing, footwear and health and beauty analysis team.

She previously worked for Diageo in its account management team, having graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in History.

Paul Bashford, Junior Analyst

Paul is an analyst in Verdict’s grocery and home analysis team.

He previously worked for Sainsbury in its Financial Head Office and as a trainee store manager for Tesco, having graduated from University of Surrey with a degree in Retail Management.