Business policy expert, economist and lobbyist. Two decades professional experience in membership group settings, local economic development and research. Currently working on Coronavirus business impacts and economic renewal plans in the UK. My areas of policy expertise include business growth, infrastructure, area-based investment and regeneration.Before founding my consultancy, PolicyDepartment, in early 2020, I was Director of Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce. I spent a decade there representing the interests of business to government. I led policy campaigns that achieved changes across all areas of business life. I also oversaw BCC’s research and economics programmes. This included the UK's largest private poll of business sentiment on the economy.While at BCC, I won a grant from the UK government in 2011 to set-up the LEP Network – the association for Local Enterprise Partnerships in England. I served as its programme director until it became self-financing and self-governing in 2013/14.Before BCC, I worked as Senior Strategy Executive at Regional Development Agency EEDA. There I project-managed the East of England's last Regional Economic Strategy review. The process consulted hundreds of stakeholders. The resulting strategy directed resources for economic development across the region. I also oversaw impact evaluations and appraisals of multi-million-pound projects and programmes.I started my career as an economist at leading forecaster Cambridge Econometrics.