Image credit @creafarrar
I’m the co-founder of Public Digital, a global consultancy specialising in digital and AI transformation, state capacity and institutional reform. Since August 2026, I have also been an unpaid advisor to the Government’s Pathways to Work Innovation Fund.
I’ve published three books - Digital Sovereignty: The Power to Decide, Bluffocracy and Digital Transformation At Scale. With Tom Loosemore, I wrote an influential report in 2024 called the Radical How, which made a case for the reforms needed to deliver more effective government.
My writing on government and public service reform has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, CityAM, The New World, The Spectator, Civil Service World and Nature. I also write stuff on Substack.
Before starting Public Digital, I worked as a senior civil servant in the UK. From 2012 to 2014, I helped establish the Government Digital Service of the United Kingdom, and led the team that delivered the first government digital service standard and design manual, among other things. In roles outside GDS, I ran a government review into applications of the Internet of Things, commissioned by then-Prime Minister David Cameron in 2014.
I was a non-executive member of Council at the University of Exeter between 2019 and 2025, and a member of the university’s Finance and Investment Committee. I was also a school governor in Haringey.
I live in London, but not in the winter.