The Government Communication Service is made up of 7,000 communications professionals who work across 20 ministerial departments and more than 300 other public bodies. Our work includes media, marketing, insight, external affairs, strategic, digital, and internal communications. The role of the central GCS team is to ensure communication is joined up and aligned with the Prime Minister’s priorities and to modernise the profession so that it has the talent, skills and capability it needs for the future. We also run major cross-government campaigns such as the GREAT campaign, and we build the communication capability of UK allies overseas through GCS International.

I am a Trustee and Board Director at The Civil Service Retirement Fellowship. The CSRF is a charity whose work is rooted in friendship, support and community for former civil servants and their dependents.

I was Director of Communications at the Home Office - the lead government department for crime and policing, borders and migration, and national security.I led the Home Office’s communications response to the Covid-19 pandemic, working with the Police and Border Force to explain and encourage compliance with new regulations. I also led the Home Office’s communications response to terrorist attacks and riots.

I was responsible for communications and engagement at DExEU. I led the "Get Ready for Brexit" campaign which helped to prepare businesses and citizens for the UK's departure from the EU.

My wife and I took a career break to go travelling. Here’s why:1. A long period of work followed by a long retirement feels out-of-date. There were things we wanted to do without waiting until our seventies.  2. Gap-years are wasted on 18 year olds! We appreciated every day we weren’t in work, renewed and refreshed, and became energised for the next big challenge.  3. My step-brother fell ill and died suddenly when he was 41. Time is the scarcest resource we have. Don’t assume you can do it next year.Over 11 months we went backpacking across SE Asia from Hanoi to Singapore; skied in Utah and Colorado; visited India and hiked in the Nepalese Himalayas; drove across Southern Africa; and travelled through Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

I was the senior official adviser on communications and strategy to the Secretary of State for Transport.The Communications Team is responsible for media relations, external affairs, and digital and marketing campaigns, such as the THINK! road safety campaign. I was also responsible for professional communications standards across the DfT Group.In 2017 I was also asked to lead the Department’s strategy function. The Strategy Team is responsible for developing cross-modal thinking on the big transport challenges the country faces. For example, it works on policies such as how to prioritise transport investment or respond to technological or demographic changes. It analyses the latest data and evidence available, identifies policy goals, and makes recommendations to Ministers on how to use the levers and resources available to achieve desired outcomes.

I was a communications director at the UK's largest airport company (formerly BAA) with specific responsibility for group media relations, corporate and financial communications, consumer PR, filming and location management, communications planning and crisis management. I led the airport's campaign for new runway capacity and its communications planning for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

I was communications director with specific responsibility for internal, digital and brand communications. I was also a member of Heathrow’s Operations and HR leadership teams.

I helped secure planning permission for Heathrow’s new Terminal 2. I was also communications lead on the Crisis Management Team during high-profile events such as the 2006 liquid bomb plot and opening of Terminal 5.

I was a member of the management team at a successful corporate communications and public affairs consultancy. My clients included Nationwide Building Society, RAC, BT, and the CAA.