Who we are
Our team has served at the highest levels of government and advised public and private sector leaders in the UK, USA, and globally.
Carol Daniels
Associate
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Carol is a senior organisational development consultant for transformational change.
Carol has over 20 years’ experience consulting in Europe, North America, North Africa, and Asia. She has worked with a broad range of organisations in the public and private sectors, including government departments, the NHS, banking and financial services, extractive industries, pharmaceuticals, construction, manufacturing, charities, higher education, and telecommunications.
Carol helps organisations learn lessons from past negotiations. She brings clarity and rigour to data collection, works closely with the client to interpret and make sense of information, and facilitates capability development.
Professor Carole Longson MBE
Associate
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Carole has a 30-year Executive and Board career in life sciences and is a respected international leader in health technology assessment.
After a career in drug discovery at GSK, she pioneered the development of NICE’s HTA programs as an Executive Director for 18 years before serving as Chief Scientific Officer at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. She is former President of Health Technology Assessment International, was on the Exec Committee of the European Network in HTA and has served on Scientific Advisory Committees at the European Commission and the WHO. She is currently Vice Chair of the Medicines Discovery Catapult UK.
She is a life-long champion of collaboration between the public and private sectors, with deep experience of conflict resolution, formal and informal negotiation.
Charles Tarvin
Associate
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Charles is a senior advisor to public and private organisations seeking to design, negotiate and implement transformative change in complex environments.
Charles has 30 years' experience as an economist, consultant and civil servant. He has designed and led major transformation programmes across public sector delivery, including multi-billion pound infrastructure investments and operational changes. His experience spans central government, policing, transport, and local government, where he has consistently delivered complex change initiatives.
Charles combines his deep economic and policy expertise with practical delivery experience to help organisations realise lasting improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and return on investment. He has a proven track record in supporting leaders through complex challenges, building collaboration across organisations and securing substantial government funding.
Chris Brown
Founding Partner
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Chris is an expert in negotiation strategy and public policy.
A former senior civil servant, Chris brings over 20 years’ experience of Whitehall, international, and public-private negotiations. He was chief negotiator for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry in negotiations with the NHS and UK Government for over £70 billion of medicine sales. An economist, he served as Deputy Director of the No10 Policy Unit, and at HM Treasury played a key role in the 2010 Spending Review, helping negotiate £81 billion of public spending reductions across departments. He brings extensive international experience, having negotiated on behalf of the UK as a senior diplomat and advised governments in North Africa and the Middle East.
Chris combines his negotiation expertise with a policymaker’s outlook – creative and collaborative, finding new ways to increase value for all parties and improve outcomes for the public.
David Gauke
Chair
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Negotient’s chair is David Gauke, a former Member of Parliament and Cabinet minister.
As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David negotiated public spending settlements with Government departments and devolved administrations, led public sector pay policy, and engaged with policy issues including infrastructure investment, health reform, and defence procurement.
David is a City solicitor by background. He appears frequently in the media as a political commentator, is a columnist with the New Statesman and ConservativeHome, and edited the book The Case for the Centre Right.
Helen Llewellyn
Associate
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Helen is a policy and public affairs specialist with over 20 years’ experience in the private sector.
She held corporate affairs roles at British Airways and Lilly before becoming Head of Government Affairs at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Since moving into independent consultancy 12 years ago, Helen has served clients including Novartis, ABPI, Shire, Smith + Nephew, Novo Nordisk, Merck and Peppy Health.
Helen is an expert at bringing together organisations with diverse and even competing interests to align around shared policy goals. She has worked extensively within trade associations, industry groups and campaigning coalitions.
Iain Steel
Founding Partner
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Iain is an expert in negotiation strategy, economics, and finance.
Iain has over 15 years’ experience in complex public-private negotiations and public policy. He has advised clients in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific on public-private negotiations for multibillion-dollar investments in energy, transport, agriculture, and extractives projects. Iain worked previously as a senior policy advisor at HM Treasury, where he led several high-profile policy reforms; as an expert for the International Monetary Fund on extractive industry tax and financial modelling; and as resident advisor to the Ministry of Finance of Liberia, where he advised on negotiations for concession agreements in agriculture and mining. He is also the founder of Econias, a consultancy that supports developing countries to negotiate better deals for mining projects.
Iain combines strong analytical rigour with clear communication, to help clients maximise value in negotiations.
James Dowling
Founding Partner
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James is an expert in UK public policy, government, and politics.
James led the public affairs and public policy practice of a major London consultancy, working with public companies and privately-owned clients across sectors including financial services, transport, and energy. He is a former UK government senior official and Special Adviser. As a civil servant, he worked at HM Treasury on tax policy and financial services. As a Special Adviser, he led on political relations and negotiations with No10 and HM Treasury on policy issues, public spending, legislative programmes and Parliamentary engagement. James is a regular media commentator, has written for the Telegraph and the Express, and often appears in broadcast media such as LBC, TalkTV and Sky News.
James combines political, media and government experience with commercial understanding. He advises clients on their public policy, political, and stakeholder context in the development and delivery of effective negotiation strategies.
John Hall
Associate
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John provides strategic advice to public, private and not-for-profit organisations in the UK and internationally.
John is a former senior civil servant with 30 years’ experience in public spending, strategy, and public finances. He was strategy director in the Department of Health and director of economics at the regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts. As deputy director of public spending in HM Treasury he negotiated multiple spending reviews, infrastructure packages, and policy reforms.
John has a strong track record in building effective teams, coaching professionals to higher performance, and helping teams and organisations reorientate themselves to meet the challenges of the future.
Joshua Flax
Founding Partner & USA Practice Lead
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Josh is an expert in conflict management, negotiation analysis, and government-to-stakeholder regulatory negotiations.
At the US Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for over 20 years, Josh led mediation teams tackling some of the most difficult public-policy negotiations between government and public stakeholder groups, including national rail negotiations, collective bargaining agreements between employers and unions in multiple sectors, and some of the largest Federal-Tribal negotiations. Josh completed his Federal service in 2023 as one of the two deputy directors leading the agency.
Josh also lectures on negotiation, collective bargaining, mediation, and Indigenous Peoples’ sustainable development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School, MIT, and Columbia University.
Mahesh Khemlani
Associate
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Mahesh has over 20 years’ experience in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and venture capital, and is a former Deputy Minister of Finance for the Republic of Panama.
Mahesh is the Managing Partner of Emergis Capital Group, a boutique financial advisory firm, where he has negotiated terms for M&A and infrastructure funding transactions. Between 2014 and 2017 he was a Business Advisor to the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs, and from 2007 to 2013 he worked at the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Panama, including as Deputy Minister of Finance from 2011 to 2013. While in Government he was responsible for negotiating all public debt transactions for the Republic of Panama from 2009 to 2013, and for negotiating aspects of Panama’s 2010 fiscal reform with the Congress. He holds a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from Havard (2014) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez (2007). Mahesh sits on the Board of Directors of several institutions in Panama, including the Museum of Liberty and Human Rights.
Dr Melvyn Weeks
Associate
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Melvyn is Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Cambridge, with over 30 years’ experience advising regulators and industry.
As Senior Economic Advisor to Ofgem, he has advised on cost benchmarking and evaluating efficiency across electricity companies for industry price reviews. He has advised Ofwat, Ofcom and others on incentive design and the welfare effects of policies. He advised Ofcom on the valuation of Radio Spectrum for 3G auctions and recently helped the Office of Road and Rail to quality assure data and evidence on the safety of smart motorways. He has recently established a specialist advisory at the interface of Generative AI and regulation, bringing together diverse disciplines to characterise sector sentiment using large language models.
His deep analytical credentials ensure that his advice to regulators and companies carries the highest authority.
Michelle Levene
Associate
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Michelle is a seasoned strategist with over 20 years of experience advising private, public, and non-profit organizations in Healthcare and Life Sciences.
She has worked with leading pharmaceutical companies—including big pharma (GSK, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer), mid-sized firms (Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, CSL), and clinical-stage biotech companies—as well as governments, investors, and non-profits. Having lived and worked across the US, sub-Saharan Africa, the South Pacific, and Europe, Michelle excels at leading cross-functional teams across cultures, languages, and time zones.
She helps organisations navigate complex business challenges while fostering productive negotiations and effective stakeholder communication.
Sam Grimley
Associate
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Sam is an incoming pupil barrister at a commercial chambers in London and a fully accredited mediator.
Sam has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Law from Oxford University and a Master’s degree in Law from BPP University, both completed with distinction. Before training as a barrister, Sam was a professional musician – performing live with Sir Tom Jones, Ed Sheeran, and Jessie J, and holding long-running residencies at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.
Sam’s approach to mediation blends analytical rigour with creative problem-solving to foster consensus and secure a productive resolution for all parties.
Santiago Dondo
Associate
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Santiago is an expert in extractive industries, governance, and the Latin America region.
Santiago has worked in prominent roles in the mining industry across public sector, private sector, and multilateral organisations. He has advised governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, and Panama. He was previously Undersecretary of Mining Policy in the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Argentina, Director for the LAC region for the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, and has led projects for the International Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Organization of America States.
Santiago is a qualified lawyer and holds a Master’s Degree in Mining Governance and Public Policies from the University of Queensland.
Steve Hughes
Associate
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Steve is an economist and public policy analyst.
As a consultant, Steve has led Government evaluations on local growth funding and the criminal justice system, sector-specific economic impact assessments, and bespoke analysis to support Government engagement on policy areas including the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access, barriers to delivering digital infrastructure, and devolution of powers to local government. He was previously head of economic and social policy at the think tank Policy Exchange, an analyst in the banking services division of the Bank of England, an economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, and a House of Commons researcher on HM Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions policy.
Talya Lockman-FIne
Associate
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Talya has over ten years of experience advising senior government officials, leadership of multilateral organisations, and non-governmental organisations on strategy, policy, and programme design.
A lawyer by training, she has served as Chief Speechwriter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen; counsel at the International Finance Corporation; and a consultant at Dalberg, among other roles, and has lived and worked in Senegal, Liberia, Myanmar, and Rwanda.
Thomas Blanchard
Associate
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Tom is an economist with a background in public policy and development.
Tom was an ODI Fellow in the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Ghana, where he worked on mining fiscal regime modelling and tax revenue forecasting. Prior to this, he worked for the World Bank’s Jobs Group in a programming role analysing structural transformation; as an economist for the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), where he wrote chapters for reports commissioned by the Home Secretary; and as a consultant for the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Tom has a BA Economics from the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Specialised Economic Analysis from the Barcelona School of Economics.
Tom provides strong technical support by leveraging both quantitative and qualitative analysis, ensuring insightful and informed discussions.