Laura Bunt Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

London, Gb

Ewell, Surrey, Gb

Samaritans' vision is that fewer people die by suicide. Samaritans is a national volunteer movement with over 201 local branches providing telephone, online and in-person support for people when they need it most. We work with Governments, industry and public services to reduce the risk factors associated with suicide. We are the only 24/7 suicide prevention charity working across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

London, England, Gb

Public Digital helps organisations to thrive in the internet era, working with leaders to change how organisations work, build and develop teams and deliver transformation at scale.

London, Gb

With You is a national charity providing free, confidential support to people experiencing issues with drugs, alcohol or mental health. With You provides evidence-based support and treatment and develops communities and peer networks to help people sustain recovery. We also influence decision-making and practice to reflect trends and raise awareness around the challenges people face.As Deputy Chief Executive, I was responsible for strategy, business development, digital, data and technology. I led the design, engagement and implementation of a new strategy and proposition for the charity, reflected in the introduction of a new name and brand to make it easier for anyone to ask for help. I raised new funding to invest in our digital capabilities and developed and launched new online services that grew our reach and sustained operations through the pandemic. I led the redesign of our mental health services, moved technology operations to a modern, cloud-based infrastructure, and instituted new corporate practices for business planning, performance and learning. I represented With You in the media and in our advocacy work, engaging with others to influence markets and policy. Between 2019-2020 I led With You as Acting CEO, working with the board to develop the leadership team, launch our new brand and strengthen our culture as a collaborative, human-centred organisation.

London, Gb

Leading a newly recruited team, I designed and introduced new processes across the whole bid cycle from local influencing through to service design, modelling and tender writing and quality assurance. I built dynamic planning and forecasting tools that brought greater visibility to our pipeline across the organisation and supported collaboration across departments. I was responsible for multi-million pound bids and partnerships and £60m+ of contractual income, working closely with operations.

London, Gb

As Chief Digital Officer, I led and grew Citizens Advice's digital products and services to help millions of people solve problems through accessible, actionable digital content and services. This included all public and advisor facing digital services and Casebook, a new product to support case management designed and built in-house and implemented across over 300 in-person local services. I led a multidisciplinary department and developed in-house capabilities across design, user research, product management, engineering and delivery, and embedded user-centred design practices and agile working cultures both within digital teams and across the wider organisation. This work facilitated a major and lasting shift in how Citizens Advice worked as a network, helped people get quicker and easier access to advice through a range of different channels and formats, and gave us new, real-time data and insight into the issues people experience.

London, Gb

I designed, grew and led a multidisciplinary policy and communications department of 35+ people including a 24/7 press office, internal communications and events teams, public affairs, digital, brand and design. With our design team and external support, I was the design authority for our new brand identity for Citizens Advice and led brand implementation across 3,000 physical locations and online. Our high profile media work, combined with a modernised brand, influential research and policy arguments increased our impact to help win Citizens Advice Charity Times 'Charity of the Year' for 2015-16.

London, Gb

I built a new policy team as part of a transformation of Citizens Advice’s advocacy strategy that raised the profile and influence of the service. I strengthened primary research and data analysis capabilities within the organisation, forging a stronger link between data gathered from frontline delivery of advice services, local influencing efforts and our national policy research agenda and recommendations. I was one of Citizens Advice's lead broadcast and media spokespeople across a wide range of policy issues, including on Today, Channel 4 News, BBC Breakfast, BBC News, Radio 4 You & Yours and others.

London, London, Gb

I led research projects and developed policy positions and recommendations on the case for innovation in public services and the social economy, drawing on Nesta's practical programmes to demonstrate opportunities, examples and results. I built extensive international networks of practitioners and researchers in the field, including people working within institutions and in start-ups or social ventures with a mission to find new solutions to public and social challenges. I was Nesta's lead for the Social Innovation Exchange (SIX) and regularly spoke at events, and led workshops and learning sessions. In 2013, I designed and hosted a major international research conference on social innovation - Social Frontiers - in partnership with the Young Foundation, SIX and Glasgow Caledonian University and with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. The conference had keynote speeches from leading thinkers including Roberto Unger, Francis Westley, Geoff Mulgan and Marianna Mazzucato as well as contributions from practitioners and researchers from Brazil, Australia, India and all over Europe.

London, London, Gb

I joined Nesta as a Policy Advisor working alongside the new Public Services Innovation Lab, designed to build the case and demonstrate methods for innovation in public services. I researched and authored multiple publications drawing on lessons from the Lab's work and wider research, including some that would become definitive of Nesta's future programme design and innovation practice.

London, England, Gb

Bethnal Green Ventures is Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good VC. BGV runs an accelerator programme and invests in ambitious and diverse founders on a mission to use technology for scalable positive social impact. I worked with BGV in my role at Nesta to raise co-funding to scale its model and joined the team on secondment for the course of its summer accelerator programme.

London, Gb

I was initially part of a new, exploratory team at the RSA, funded by Nesta, to explore ways of engaging the RSA Fellowship to get more involved in the RSA's work and become a dynamic, active network of social change-makers and innovators. This evolved into a permanent RSA Networks team with Fellowship support, events, peer to peer connections and funding for Fellows' projects.

Gb

As an intern I provided research and editorial support across a range of projects, particularly looking at networks and models of organisation within the creative industries and the cultural sector. I continued working with Demos and its alumni network on various projects as a freelance researcher.

Ba (Hons), Classics

Diploma, Economics