Policy Implementation: Delivering results

Thomas Foster

Thomas joined the Civil Service in autumn 2009, in time for an inside view of the first peace-time Coalition Negotiations for almost a century. He participated in the subsequent emergency Spending Review and went on to play a role in designing the incoming government’s flagship Universal Credit policy. His career has since spanned a diverse range of areas, from financial regulation and developing new financial instruments for private sector investors, to frontline management of a London Jobcentre. In 2015 he joined the Department for Transport where he built and ran a Briefing and Public Affairs team for the rail franchising programme that oversaw one of the most active and controversial periods in the twenty-year history of privatised rail. Last year, he moved to a policy and regulatory role in Local Transport where he is currently overseeing one of the biggest open data projects in UK government history and a wide-spread review of the future of regulation in the taxi and private-hire sector. Prior to joining the civil service, Thomas went to Law School in York, as well as studying Politics and Contemporary History at university. He worked in a variety of private-sector fields including high executive search and recruitment for UK based financial services companies.

Zoë Collier

Zoë is a highly experienced, CIPD-qualified training consultant, delivering strategic advice, coaching and training in policy, strategy and communication skills. She started her career as a policy adviser to ministers in HM Treasury, where she ended up working as a Private Secretary to the Rt Hon John Major MP. Zoë moved to become a diplomat in the Foreign Office and then head of strategy at DCMS, before being appointed as a senior lecturer in policy and government at the National School of Government. It was here she discovered her passion for helping people to work more effectively and with impact and confidence.

She is a highly effective and motivational coach and trainer, and has applied her professional experience, together with her training and coaching skills, to deliver training programmes for a wide range of organisations, both in the UK and EU as well as extensively across the world.

Zoe has also worked in the private, local government and voluntary sectors, and is a published author of several short stories.

Specialisms:

• Policymaking and political thinking;
• Strategy and foresight;
• Stakeholder and citizen engagement;
• Negotiation and influencing skills;
• Advising, briefing and report-writing.

Education:

• MA (Hones, Cantab), BA (Hones) Philosophy & Law, Cambridge University
• Certificate in Training Practice, CIPD