Profile

CV

• Education:

  From the age of 11 I went to Culverhay School, in Bath. The school has since closed down but it was here that I first developed an interest in maths, and more specifically statistics, thanks to Mr Fawcus, Mr Waite (my maths/statistics teachers) and Mr Camp (my geography teacher).

  I always enjoyed the problem solving aspect of maths, as well as the magic of statistics which can describe sometimes complicated concepts and socio-economic conditions as a single number.

• Qualifications:

  I studied 9 GCSEs, including Maths, and took my exams in 1995 before moving on to A-levels (Maths, French and Geography).

  In 1997, aged 18, I set off for the University of Manchester where I followed a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics with french. This consisted of two thirds mathematical modules, and the remaining third french. While some of the courses were mandatory, I had freedom to choose others, and I generally opted for statistical courses where available, as well as options in mathematical finance and computer programming. As a four-year degree, I had the opportunity to study as an Erasmus student in France for one year too. I graduated in June of 2001.

• Work History:

  After finishing my degree I spent three months working in a vine yard in Montpellier, France. As well as selling wine in the shop at the chateau, I also compiled sales figures for the commercial team, which I presented as a spreadsheet with a series of charts. This was a simple (but effective) introduction into the power of numbers to show trends and patterns that are otherwise not obvious.

  I returned to Bath (and to my parents) in early 2002 where I spent six months or so working in a call centre at an insurance company. If I said I hated this job it would be an understatement! However, with hindsight, in this position I became better at communicating clearly on the phone and managing administrative information via a database. Both of these skills continue to be important in my day to day working life.

  My first “real” job was at the Department for health (in London) where I was employed as a statistical officer, working on the measurement of access to NHS dentists using a combination of patient data and Geographical Information Systems. Despite finding the job interesting, after about a year I was offered a six-month traineeship at Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Commission in Luxembourg, where I worked on a survey related to the usage of Computers and mobile phone technology by citizens of the European union. In some ways this was a continuation of my life as an Erasmus student, making friends from many different places and enjoying the opportunity to experience a new culture and country.

  By 2024 I was back in the UK again and working at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), where I contributed a range of projects with a focus on local statistics, including an analysis of Census data, published in the 2025 edition of Regional Trends. After two years at the ONS it was time for another change, this time to the Treasury, where I worked in the public sector finance team, crunching data on Government spending and providing numbers for use in the annual budget. It was in this job that I once bumped into Gordon Brown in the lift. I don’t know if this brought him good luck but he became Prime Minister shortly after.

  From the Treasury I changed direction (again!), moving to the Financial Times, where I was as the project manager and statistician responsible for the FT business school rankings. The experience, and confidence I had gained in my other jobs started to pay off in this role, and I was able to hit the ground running, making improvements to data collection systems as well as developing news tools used to present the ranking results. In addition to managing numbers I had the opportunity to write for publication in the FT and even did some original data journalism by combining my computer programming skills with my knowledge of official statistics. I stayed at the FT for almost four years and it remains the best place I ever worked.

  Since my time as a student in France, and the short time I’d spent in Luxembourg, I had  wanted to find a job in an International organisation. After many years and many applications, I finally landed a job at the United Nations in New York, where I moved in early 2012.