Partner Spotlight: Get to know Jennifer Williams - Associate Director

Partner Spotlight will be running as a monthly series. We all want to get to know our brilliant community a little better and find out the things that make them tick in and out of work.

What is your role and how long have you worked at The Nursery?

I’m an Associate Director on the qual team.  I’ve worked at the Nursery for 10 years, first on a  freelance and contract basis, covering maternity leave. A permanent member of the team since 2016.

What did your journey before The Nursery look like and what led you here?

Before the Nursery I worked for 7 years at Arnold + Bolingbroke on auto product development, positioning and ethnographies and 3G telecoms innovations.   Before that I worked at Navigator Research and Planning where I worked on many global projects in the alcohol, gaming, media, airlines as well as UK government sector.

My first job in research was at Davies Riley Smith Maclay, an advertising research specialist, where I gained experience of researching every step in the creative development process.

What brought you to The Nursery?

Initially it was the work and clients: we have lots of interesting and challenging projects from ambitious clients who are responding to cultural change.  

What has kept you here for so long?

Working with an intelligent and supportive research team.  It’s also a business that’s continually growing and evolving.  It’s a place with a lot of opportunities.

If you could switch your job with anyone else within The Nursery whose job would you want and why?

There’s no one I would want to switch with.

What is your proudest moment or biggest accomplishment?

Achieving the highest mark in my year for my dissertation on Semiotics, being the first in my family to study a degree, travel, living in London, living and working in another country, being a mum and having interesting work, surviving a horrific house renovation. These are things I’m proud of. Most of all I’m proud of my two sons.  Feels like an accomplishment that my fifteen year old occasionally hugs me.

What would you do (in your career) if you weren’t doing this?

I’d be creating art, or designing gardens.  

Tell us something about yourself that may be surprising

I used to be attention seeking.  When I had a lead role in a theatre production I did it on roller skates, my gymnastic displays for the local community show were cringe-inducing OTT and I was a bit of a show off at speed ice skating in my teens.   I’m thankful I grew up without social media.

What’s your go-to Karaoke song?

Something easy that others sing along to, like Hey Jude.  I once sang a Whiter Shade of Pale solo in Hong Kong. It must be upbeat, and ideally not in a piano bar.

You can only choose one:

Art or Science?

Art

Mountains or Sea?

That’s not an easy choice to make. I enjoy both. If I had to choose it’d be the sea, but it would have to be somewhere hot like Corfu or The Maldives.

Cats or Dogs?

A year ago I would’ve said dog, but mornings would be dull without a ginger cat on my chest when I wake

Pizza or Pasta?

Pasta