Advisory Council Members

Alun Evans CBE is a political historian and consultant. He is a former senior civil servant who worked for ministers of all three main political parties. He served as Principal Private Secretary to three Secretaries of State, as a senior adviser to the Prime Minister (Tony Blair), as well as to the Deputy Prime Minister (John Prescott). He was head of the UK government department, the Scotland Office, during the period of the independence referendum of 2014. He had been on the board of three government departments and, for four years, was a Non-Executive Director of the Wales Office.

On leaving the civil service, he spent four years as Chief Executive of the British Academy, and he also completed a PhD, part time, on the role and history of the private office in British government. It was subsequently published as a book – The Intimacy of Power – in 2024. He has appeared regularly on the media discussing politics and the civil service.

Charlotte Vere (Baroness Vere of Norbiton) is a former Minister in the UK Government, and served four Prime Ministers from 2016 to 2024. For much of that time, she served as Parliamentary under-Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, where her portfolio included aviation, maritime and security matters. She also served as Parliamentary Secretary at HM Treasury.

Charlotte’s professional career includes roles in investment banking, social enterprise, and education. From 2007 to 2009, she served as CEO of Big White Wall, an online mental health service. She was the Executive Director of the Girls’ Schools Association between 2012 and 2016, and also held the position of Interim General Secretary at the Independent Schools Council from 2014 to 2015.

Her political career includes roles as the Executive Director of Conservatives In, advocating for the UK to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum, and Finance Director of the No to AV campaign for the 2011 referendum on the alternative vote. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemical Engineering from University College London and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Margaret Jay (Baroness Jay of Paddington) is the daughter of former Labour prime minister, James Callaghan. Her career began in television, where she worked on current affairs and educational programs for the BBC before becoming a Labour politician.

She was appointed a Life Peer in 1992 and acted as an opposition whip in the House of Lords. After Labour’s 1997 election victory she became a Minister in the Department of Health and in 1998 Minister for Women and Leader of the House of Lords with a seat in the Cabinet.

Bob Wigley is the chairman of UK Finance where he represents the UK banking and finance sector with HM government and regulators. He has spent 25 years in the banking industry, most recently as the chairman of Merrill Lynch for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and as a court member of the Bank of England during the global financial crisis.

He supports entrepreneurs and is passionate about growth businesses; especially in digital and disruptive technology sectors. He also advises governments and chairs commissions for governments, most recently including the Green Investment Bank Commission for the UK Government.

He is a Visiting Professor at the Digital Futures Institute of Kings College London, a visiting fellow at Oxford University’s Said Business School, an honorary fellow at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, and he chaired the More Music Campaign at the Royal College of Music raising £25m.

Dan Snow is a BAFTA award winning historian, broadcaster and television presenter. Dan makes programmes around the world on a range of historical topics, from the abandoned Viking churches of Greenland to war damaged sites of Timbuktu. He regularly works with the live events team at the BBC presenting national commemorative events, such as the 75th anniversary of VE-Day and VJ-Day in 2020. He is the host of one of the world’s biggest history podcasts, Dan Snow’s History Hit.

In 2018 he published the best-selling ‘On This Day in History.’ He is the Founder and Creative Director of History Hit TV, a digital history television channel described by the Times as ‘The Netflix of History.’ In early 2022 Dan took part in the expedition to find Shackleton’s shipwreck Endurance, which was discovered 3,000m below the ice of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.

Raymond Asquith (Earl of Oxford & Asquith OBE) is a British former diplomat and the great-grandson of former Liberal prime minister, H. H. Asquith. He served in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1979-1997) with postings in Moscow, the Cabinet Office and Kyiv, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for diplomatic services.

Iain Anderson is a business founder, experienced NED and Board advisor who brings strong expertise in macro political and regulatory risk. He is exited Founder and former Chair of H/Advisors Cicero. He is Chair of the John Smith Centre which seeks to empower and inspire new diverse voices to get involved in politics and public life. He serves as a Non-Executive Director at the Department for Business and Trade, the University of St Andrews and fintech body Innovate Finance.

Iain Stewart has over 25 years’ experience working at the top levels of public life in the UK. He was a Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes South (2010-24), a Government Minister (2018-22) and elected Chair of the influential, cross-party Transport Select Committee (2022-24). He now works as a self-employed transport consultant and holds a number of NED positions.

He has a track record of thought leadership, having worked with the private, public and third sectors to initiate, shape and communicate strategy and policy. His particular specialisms are transport, ‘levelling up’ and Scotland.

John Godfrey is Managing Director, Public Affairs, Policy and Research at TheCityUK. He has worked in the City of London for over thirty years, including for US, Japanese and European financial institutions.

From 2016-17 John worked at Number Ten Downing Street as Head of Policy for Prime Minister Theresa May, where his team was responsible for advice on a broad range of UK domestic and Brexit-related issues.

Laura Emily Dunn is an experienced digital and communications leader, with over a decade of experience working in Westminster, Washington DC and Cardiff Bay, specialising in political communications, public affairs and digital. She has worked with a former Prime Minister, several Secretaries, government Ministers, senior backbench MPs and Peers, providing strategic communications and digital advice, as well as working on 3 General Election and 3 leadership campaigns.

She is a regular media commentator, appearing on the BBC, Sky, ITV, LBC, Times Radio, MSNBC, GB News and Talk TV, as well as featuring in The Spectator, Politico, Bloomberg, The Times, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail. She writes the popular Political Pixels blog and is the Founder of Winning Women, a website featuring interviews with women leading the way in work and society.

She is passionate about encouraging more women to become involved in politics and has a track record of mentoring and providing practical advice for women wanting to stand for public office.

A firm fan of American history and presidential politics, it is Laura’s goal to visit all of the Presidential Libraries!

Lionel Zetter is a communications specialist with more than forty years’ experience working in-house and with agencies. His main areas of expertise are public affairs and public diplomacy, and he is a published author.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and its former President. He is also a Fellow of the Public Relations and Communications Association, and a former Chairman of its Public Affairs Board, and of the Government Affairs Group. He has won multiple awards, including several ‘Lifetime Achievement’ and ‘Outstanding Contribution’ awards.

As well as working with a string of UK and international communications agencies, Lionel has worked within the UK government as a special adviser, policy adviser and Policy Fellow. He is currently Vice Chairman of the Enterprise Forum, Vice President of Public Affairs Asia, and an Advisory Council Member of Scottish Business UK and the Social Care Foundation. He is also Senior Counsel at Atticus Partners.

Mark McInnes (Lord McInnes of Kilwinning CBE) has been a member of the House of Lords since 2016 having served as the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on constitutional matters at No. 10 Downing Street. His special interest is in designing and implementing strategies to strengthen the constitutional settlement in the United Kingdom and his wider interests include international development, humanitarianism and post conflict stabilisation.

Lord McInnes, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh, was Director, Chief Executive, and Political Strategist of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party for 18 years until 2021. He currently works as European Research Director for Project Tempo a political and economic think tank.

Kenneth O. Morgan, Lord Morgan of Aberdyfi FBA, was Fellow and Tutor of The Queen’s College, Oxford from 1966 to 1988, and Vice-Chancellor in the University of Wales from 1989 to 1995. He has also taught at Columbia University, NY, Witwatersrand, South Africa, Texas, and many French universities.

His 36 books include Wales in British Politics 1868 – 1922, (1963), The Age of Lloyd George (1971), Conflict and Order (1979), Labour in Power 1945 – 1951 (1984), Revolution to Devolution (1984) and Ages of Reform (2015), biographies of Lloyd George (1973), Keir Hardie (1975), Lord Addison (1980), Lord Callaghan (1997) and Michael Foot (2007).

His edited Oxford History of Britain (1984 has sold over one million copies). He is an Honorary Fellow of the Queen’s and Oriel Colleges, Oxford, was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1984 and entered the House of Lords as a Labour peer in 2000.

Louise Goodall is former Deputy Head of Fundraising at the Conservative Party (2007-2025). She was awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours and is currently a freelance Fundraising Consultant.

Lucy Noakes is a former Downing Street Press Secretary and has 6 years’ experience at the top of the British Government. She has also advised senior business leaders on communications at a global PR firm, and led corporate affairs at British Tennis and England Rugby.

Malcolm Tyndall is a highly experienced Director across a range of charities with a proven track record in transformation. His experience ranges beyond income generation, to organisational transformation, creating or improving internal communications, innovative marketing campaigns and increasing substantially profile and reach.

He has extensive experience of building, or re-building, teams giving them renewed focus and direction and ensuring they go on to achieve measurable and sustainable results, and has significant personal expertise in Trust fundraising, project work, legacy income and promotion, marketing, media work and policy research and lobbying.

Mike Chattey has been the director of fundraising at the Conservative Party since 2001. After a successful career in advertising, he was hired by Lord Ashcroft to join The Conservative Party’s Treasurers’ Department. In June 2016, Mike was awarded an OBE in David Cameron’s resignation honours list for “political service” in his role as head of fundraising.

Polly Mackenzie is a British policy expert, writer, and former political adviser with extensive experience across government, media, and the non-profit sector. She served as Director of Policy to the Deputy Prime Minister during the UK’s 2010–2015 Coalition Government, playing a key role in shaping and delivering Liberal Democrat priorities at the heart of Whitehall.

Following her time in government, she founded the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a pioneering research charity focused on the link between financial hardship and mental health. From 2018 to 2022, she was Chief Executive of Demos, one of the UK’s leading cross-party think tanks, and subsequently served as Chief Social Purpose Officer at the University of the Arts London, embedding social impact into institutional strategy.

Mackenzie is also a regular media commentator and contributor to national debates on policy, mental health, and social change. Her work reflects a commitment to pragmatic reform and public service innovation.

Bernard Donoughue (Rt. Hon. Lord Donoughue) is a Labour politician, academic, businessman and author.

Penny Mordaunt was a Parliamentarian for 14 years, holding nine ministerial roles, four in Cabinet, including Secretary of State for Defence – the first and only woman in the UK to hold this role and the role of Minister for the Armed Forces. She was the UK’s first cross-government defensive cyber lead, rebuilt the UK’s civil contingencies, and was UK Governor at the World Bank. She was a Royal Navy Reservist and is now an Honorary Captain affiliated to the UK’s mine hunters. She came to the public’s attention as Leader of the Commons and Lord President of the Council, presiding over the Accession Council following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and at the coronation of King Charles III. She now works in Defence, Development and philanthropy and was recently honoured by the Global Thinkers Foundation for her contribution to improving the lives of women around the world.

Conor Burns is a member of the Conservative Party who served as Minister of State for Trade Policy from 2019 to 2020 and again in 2022 and Minister of State for Northern Ireland from 2021 to 2022.

Elected to the House of Commons in 2010, he held several PPS positions in the Northern Ireland Office, Treasury and BEIS. He served as PPS to Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary between 2017-18. Prior to his election to Parliament, he had a career in financial services and communications.

David Lidington was elected Member of Parliament for Aylesbury in 1992 and served as Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (2010-2016).

David was Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (2016-2017) and Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (2018-2019) in which capacity he also acted as deputy to the Prime Minister.

David worked for BP and RTZ Corporation before spending three years as Special Advisor to Douglas Hurd in the Home Office and Foreign Office.

George Robertson (Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen) served as the 10th Secretary General of NATO and Chairman of the North Atlantic Council from 1999 to 2003, and was the UK Secretary of State for Defence from 1997 to 1999. He was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in the Shadow Cabinet from 1992 to 1997, and Principal Opposition Spokesman on Europe from 1983 to 1992. He received the title of Joint Parliamentarian of the Year in 1992. He was a Member of Parliament for Hamilton and subsequently Hamilton South from 1978 to 1999, and joined the House of Lords in 1999. He became a member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council in 1997.

Shailesh is a former Conservative MP (2005 – 2024) and served as a Minister under 3 Prime Ministers. As well as being a Government Whip, he was a Justice Minister and a Minister for Work and Pensions. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Shailesh was the UK’s first Hindu MP and the last person to be personally sworn into the Privy Council by the late HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Shailesh is also a Trustee of The Norfolk Charitable Trust and is a former instructor of Tae Kwon Do, in which he has a Black Belt (3rd Dan).

Shalini Khemka is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of E2Exchange, which champions and connects entrepreneurs, creates communities, invests equity capital and recruits non-executive directors for SMEs.

As a board member of UK Export Finance, a ministerial department of the UK Government, Shalini supports the Chief Executive and Ministers in developing strategy and overseeing its operations by providing advice, challenge and assurance.