Kate Fairhurst

I established my own policy, public affairs and political consultancy, helping my clients to understand and influence policymakers at all levels of Government. I have grown my business substantially over the past year, helping to support a wide variety of clients with senior level strategic advocacy, including Make UK, the UK Cinema Association, UK Sepsis Trust, CIPD, Enginuity and a healthcare consultancy.

Key achievements have included:

• Leading the Make UK policy team: their extensive policy report programme, engagements with Government, senior member engagement and thought leadership.

• Devising and executing public affairs strategies on behalf of the UKCA, securing policy wins on business rates and employment rights.

- Supporting the UK Sepsis Trust to re-establish their cross-party parliamentary group and securing policy wins with the Department for Health and Social Care.

- Leading a stakeholder engagement project with CIPD, focusing on broadening their reach to opposition parties.

First senior hire into boutique political consultancy. I owned a portfolio of public and private sector clients, operating at executive and C-suite level, and building the business into a thriving public affairs practice.

Key achievements included:

• Delivering complex and wide-ranging public affairs strategies for a variety of clients, including a world-leading creative HE institution, a tech 'unicorn', an international skills provider, and a major London housebuilder.

• Delivering a range of complex policy and research projects, both qualitative and quantitative, including an economic strategy for seven Local Authorities.

• Leading the business' approach to people, operations, incentive structures, and project management, building on my substantial people and matrix management experience.

Leading a team of fifteen people, I was responsible for delivering exceptional quality support and strategic political advice to the nine elected Conservative London Assembly Members. This included:

• Executing the team's policy and communications strategy, increasing media traction by a third and policy outputs by a quarter.

• Leading my team through two organisational restructures, line managing up to ten people at a time and managing a c. £1 million budget.