Darryl Nelson
BA (Hons), PhD
Managing Director
Dr Nelson is a very experienced consultant with a career spanning more than 25 years in research consulting and media roles, across corporate and public sectors. He has very strong research and project management experience at very senior client levels, including workshop facilitation, research design and analysis and C-level and ministerial in-depth interviews.
Darryl has led numerous large, end-to-end consulting engagements and his research insights have informed decision-making, strategic directions and policy settings for corporate, government and non-profit clients. With a background in both commercial and social consulting roles, Dr Nelson is uniquely experienced to help organisations identify common ground with stakeholder communities.
As lead consultant on high-level stakeholder engagement projects, Darryl’s recent clients have included the Australasian Railway Assoc, the City of Melbourne, Yarra Trams and the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).
Darryl founded Polity in March 2014, as an independent and specialist social research consultancy, after leaving social research agency Auspoll, where he was senior managing partner. At Auspoll, Darryl’s consulting clients included Screen Australia, the National Prescribing Service, CBA, the GCCSI, the Business Council of Australia and the Lowy Institute.
Prior to Auspoll, Darryl worked as research manager and senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan, and was lead analyst for digital media in the Asia-Pacific region, specialising in business strategies for digital content and marketing. He conducted ICT industry research and B2B consulting with CEOs and other C-level executives. In his early career, Darryl worked in the media, encompassing editorial, journalism and advertising roles.
Dr Nelson is a full member of the Australian Research Society (professional industry body). He gained his PhD at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Framing Theory in 2019, and has a first-class honours degree in Communication studies with Politics from London Guildhall University.