Tell us about your journey since graduating from LSE
Well, surprisingly enough, after studying Government, I went into…Government (after completing a one year master’s degree in Diplomacy at Oxford University - where I met my wife!). My first career before LSE had been in the armed forces, and after a few stints in a range of jobs I knew that what really got me out of bed in the morning was a sense of public duty and service.
I was really interested in politics and government but never wanted to become a politician. So I joined the FastStream, the UK Government’s flagship graduate scheme, to become a UK civil servant. In those days it was an intensive four year programme that cycled you through policy, operational, and corporate functions across Government.
I had a wonderful experience working on cultural heritage policy at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, coming face to face with my first international treaty and parliamentary bill. Switching to a more operational focus, I joined the Ministry of Justice to help them with their Electronic Monitoring Programme.
When Brexit happened, like many of my colleagues in government I felt a strong desire to take on this once in a generation challenge and get the best possible outcome for the UK. So I plunged head first into the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU).
After preparing for the EU negotiations and working on the Article 50 Bill, I ended up coordinating a programme of negotiations with the EFTA states (some of our closest trading partners) with the ever looming possibility of no deal and its implications. My time in that role taught me a lot about diplomacy, and I took part in different negotiations on a weekly basis, learning about a vast range of policy areas. At this point I came off the FastStream and started managing teams.
I then moved to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office where, next to working on UK-Swiss negotiations, as part of the COVID Repatriation Crisis Response I led the data and intelligence work to find and help bring millions of UK residents and citizens home by any means possible.
The Brexit negotiations had sparked my interest in international trade, so I made a small leap over to the Department of International Trade to become a trade professional and lead their trade strategy work for a couple of years. I then led the Ukraine Crisis Team, before taking on a team working to protect the UK against foreign Market Distorting Practices - which is where I am today (albeit it’s now called the Department for Business and Trade).
I’ve been lucky to have had a very fulfilling career in the Civil Service so far where I enjoy every day and walk into the office with a spring in my step. I get to work with extraordinarily bright, friendly, and committed colleagues from all backgrounds, and work with some really engaging ministers priorities that could affect millions.
If you could tell your younger student self one piece of wisdom, what would it be and why?
Don’t chase other people’s dreams and swim against your own tide. Everyone has different things that make them happy, and society’s popular projection of “the good life” (total career focus, money, fame) can be illusory. By all means be ambitious, challenge yourself to be better and learn new things, but don’t do something that in your heart you know you will never enjoy.
How has studying in the Department of Government helped you since graduation?
Studying Government was like a bomb going off in my head. I remember this feeling in my head of walking down a familiar but imaginary street lined by elegant edifices, but I could now peer behind what turned out to be mere facades and see what was propping them up. I studied political science, theory, international relations and history - and it was all absolutely formative, both personally and professionally.
On a personal level my entire outlook and relationship with wider society, my sense of justice and values, and even the sense of purpose I have in life have all been influenced by political theorists like Rawls, Locke, and Mill (as well as many others). It’s why I’m in the career I’m in right now.
On a professional level, my education at LSE has given me important frameworks to recognise and think through difficult policy choices. It didn’t take long for me to need them. At the very start of my career when I was working for a particular Secretary of State, to my astonishment, they began a briefing session on a controversial policy issue with their most senior officials with the fundamental question: “so, tell me why a state should intervene at all?” I felt excellently equipped to navigate the arguments and engage with them.
Another example was when I had to make a decision about the extent of police enforcement powers in a bill, and I could almost hear political philosophers like old friends sitting on my shoulders arguing about reason of state and proportionality. In my current job, I draw on international relations theories daily to try and understand how the world is evolving around me and what strategy might be best to adopt.
Political science taught me how to critically analyse evidence, some advanced statistical methods - and consequently not to believe anything in academic papers! I have also regularly drawn on what I learned about public administration to understand why e.g. organisations (or even whole states) might behave in a certain way, or the common reasons for policy failure - although I can’t say I’ve quite cracked what to do about it yet.
What’s the one piece of career guidance that has most impacted you?
Careers aren’t linear, and whilst keeping a general goal in mind you often need to think in terms of “stepping stones” in getting there rather than going straight for it. You will also fail - a lot. And the most successful people out there are the ones that can pick themselves up time and again, learn from it, and just keep going. I think that’s probably an amalgam of advice given to me over the years but I’ve found it extraordinarily accurate.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far?
I think it was my part in running the UK-Swiss agreements negotiations programme. It was an incredibly fulfilling role where I knew my work (and that of my far more brilliant colleagues) would affect thousands of people and £billions worth of trading relationships. It’s where I really got put through my paces in international diplomacy and leading huge programmes and networks of colleagues in complex and ambiguous environments. Every time I get on one of the 150 daily flights to and from Switzerland I still allow myself a little smile when I think about the Air Services Agreement that we’re all riding on.
What is your fondest memory from LSE?
Definitely the social life and feeling of community at Passfield Hall. Crush is a close second.