Ruth Bergan
Director at the Trade Justice Movement
Ruth leads the UK’s civil society trade network and has twenty years’ policy experience in the voluntary sector spanning climate change, trade policy, gender and labour rights. She has written on issues including climate and trade, and investment protection, participates in a number of government advisory groups and regularly gives evidence to parliamentary committees.
William Bowes
General Counsel at Conde Nast
William is one of the leading figures in publishing, having worked as a lawyer and policy advisor to Penguin, Informa, Cambridge University Press, the Publishers Association and now in his current role as General Counsel at Condé Nast. He holds a Postgraduate Degree in Intellectual Property Law from King's College London and has previously chaired the Copyright Committee at the International Publishers Association in Geneva and served as a Director at the Federation of European Publishers in Brussels.
Amar Breckenridge
Senior Associate at Frontier Economics
Amar works on trade policy analysis and modelling, support to dispute settlement and litigation, and trade negotiations. Amar writes extensively for Trade Knowledge Exchange, which was set up to help businesses and officials navigate the new trading landscape which has come about due to the UK’s departure from the EU.
Jonathan Brenton
Head of International Trade for Pernod Ricard’s 3 UK Businesses
Jonathan joined Pernod Ricard in 2021 . Prior to that, he was Head of International Trade with the Confederation of British Industry in London from 2019. He worked previously in the UK’s Foreign Office, with postings in Moscow, Berlin, and Brussels, and was UK Ambassador to Belgium between 2010 and 2014.
Creon Butler
Research Director and Director at Chatham House
Creon leads the Global Economy and Finance Programme and is Research Director for trade, investment and new governance models at Chatham House. Creon has served in the UK Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the Bank of England and was the British deputy high commissioner in New Delhi from 2006 to 2009.
Josie Cohen
Head of Policy & Campaigns at Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK)
Josie studied politics and has spent twenty years working as a campaigner for a range of NGOs. For the past decade she has focused on tackling social, environmental and human rights issues associated with large-scale agriculture, leading ActionAid UK’s biofuels campaign and working on land rights for Global Witness. She has been a trustee at Sustain since 2019.
Ben Cropper
Director of Analysis and Chief Economist at the Department of Business & Trade
Prior to joining the Department in 2022, Ben worked in the Cabinet Office as Director of Analysis at the Covid-19 taskforce, at the Department for Exiting the EU, and held multiple roles at HM Treasury including as Deputy Director of Growth and Productivity.
Gareth Davies
Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business and Trade
Gareth Davies was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Trade in January 2023 and is now Permanent Secretary of the newly formed Department for Business and Trade. He was previously Second Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport, with responsibilities including decarbonising transport, technology, international and security. Prior to this, Gareth was a Director General in the department. He has also been Director General in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He has led the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and been a Private Secretary in Downing Street. He started his career in PricewaterhouseCoopers and has worked for AIA, the life insurance company based in Hong Kong.
Victor Dukelow
Chief Economist and Head of Analytical Services, Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland
As head of Analytical Services, Victor is responsible for developing the evidence base upon which Northern Ireland economic policy is built. Prior to this, Victor worked as Director of International Trade and Migration Policy within the Department for the Economy and in the Department of Finance leading on tax policy matters.
Tracey Epps
International lawyer and trade policy consultant
Tracey has extensive experience working in international trade and investment law and policy, including as a senior legal advisor and negotiator for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and heading the International Trade Law Practice at Chapman Tripp, a leading New Zealand law firm. As a lawyer and consultant based in Wellington, New Zealand, she works with both the private and public sectors. She also teaches international trade and investment law at the University of Otago.
Peter Foster
Public Policy Editor at the Financial Times
Peter covers all aspects of UK policy, including the implementation of Brexit, the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the economic and 'levelling up' agendas of the Rishi Sunak government. He joined the FT in April 2020 from the Telegraph Media Group and has more than two decades of experience covering global affairs.
Sophie Hale
Principle Economist at Resolution Foundation
Sophie joined the Resolution Foundation in 2021, focussing on Brexit and trade policy. Prior to this she worked at the Department for International Trade, leading analysis to support the negotiation of new free trade agreements. She has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
David Henig
Director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)
David serves as Expert Adviser to the UK Trade and Business Commission and House of Lords International Agreements Committee. In a regular column for Borderlex, he examines the economic and trade implications of Brexit and broader UK policy, and has written a series of short papers for ECIPE on globalisation and analyses of major developments. David’s previous work for the UK Government includes three years on Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks between US and EU, and establishing the Department for International Trade after 2016.
Faisal Islam
Economics editor of BBC News
An award-winning journalist, Faisal’s career has included working as political editor of Sky News, business correspondent and economics editor of Channel 4 News, and economics correspondent for the Observer newspaper. He has covered every leg of the financial, Eurozone and rolling UK political crises.
Sally Jones
UK Trade Strategy and Brexit Leader at Ernst and Young (EY)
Sally is a leading specialist in trade policy from both a global and UK/EU perspective. She advises organisations across multiple industries and has frequent contact with the UK Government and the EU Commission. She holds a BSc in Astronomy and Astrophysics from University College London.
Jodie Keane
Senior Research Fellow within ODI’s International Economic Development Group
She is an experienced trade economist and project manager working with multiple governments across the developing world to advance trade and development aspirations. From 2015-2020 Jodie served as Economic Adviser to the International Trade Policy Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat. She has a PhD in Economics from SOAS University of London.
Sam Lowe
Partner at Flint Global
Sam advises clients on UK and EU trade policy, with a particular focus on regulatory barriers to trade, customs, trade in services and Brexit. Prior to joining Flint, Sam was a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform. He has also held positions as a member of the UK government’s Strategic Trade Advisory Group, a senior advisor to the Blakeney Group, and the Brexit and trade lead for a prominent environmental charity.
Euan MacMillan
Director Digital Markets Unit at Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA)
Euan has held various roles within government including at the Department for International Development (DFID), The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and most recently as Head of Digital Trade Negotiations at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Strathclyde and an MSc in Economics from the University of Edinburgh.
Angus MacNeil
Scottish National Party MP, Chair of the International Trade Commons Select Committee
Angus has been a member of parliament since 2005. He has served as chair of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee and the International Trade Select Committee and is a member of the Joint Committee on National Security. His professional background is as a Civil Engineer and teacher.
Bronwen Maddox
Director and Chief Executive of Chatham House
Previously Director of the Institute for Government, Bronwen was also editor and chief executive of Prospect and served as chief foreign commentator, foreign editor and US editor at The Times. She writes frequent op-ed columns for the Financial Times and broadcasts widely.
Philippa Makepeace OBE
Director of Global Supply Chains in the Department for Business & Trade
Philippa leads the department’s work on strengthening resilience in supply chains. She has been a civil servant for more than a decade and was Head of Consular Assistance in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for four years and received an OBE in 2020 for services to British nationals overseas.
Marianne Schneider-Petsinger
Senior Research Fellow, Global Economy and Finance Programme
Marianne is responsible for analysis at the nexus of political and economic issues, and project lead for the Global Trade Policy Forum. Before joining Chatham House in 2016, she managed the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, an international membership body representing consumer organisations in the EU and US.
Adrian Smith
Professor of Management at University of Sussex
Adrian has led research projects on the role of labour provisions in trade policy and currently holds a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship for a project focused on the employment consequences of technological and scientific developments in glasshouse agri-food supply chains. Before joining Sussex he held a number of leadership positions at Queen Mary University of London.
Ben Westerman
Head of Policy at the Aldersgate Group
The Aldersgate Group is an alliance of businesses championing a competitive and environmentally sustainable economy. Ben is responsible for Aldersgate’s work covering industrial decarbonisation, energy, green finance, trade, and several other areas of the green economy, and sits on Government’s Green Jobs Delivery Group, Green Technical Advisory Group and Transition Plan Taskforce. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.
Nick Von Westenholz
Director of Trade and Business Strategy at the National Farmers Union (NFU)
Before joining the NFU in 2017; leading their policy work on international trade and the implications of leaving the EU, Nick previously worked for a London-based public affairs agency and trained as a lawyer, being called to the Bar in 2007. From 2013 to 2016 he served as Chief Executive of the Crop Protection Association, representing the UK plant science industry. He has been a member of the government’s Strategic Trade Advisory Group, and currently sits on the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission and the UK’s Food and Drink Export Council.