Arden Strategies

About Us

Arden Strategies is an internationally renowned advisory and communications firm. Headquartered in London, our team of truly outstanding individuals have a record of achievement in business, government and strategic communications.

At the heart of our team is our founder, former UK Cabinet Minister, the Rt Hon. Jim Murphy. For more than two decades, Jim has successfully led exceptional professionals from across the public and private sector on policy development, messaging strategy, international elections, and high-profile public persuasion campaigns.

Arden Strategies is uniquely placed to provide advice and insights to leaders and organisations on the political and policy landscape across all four nations of the UK. We have offices in London and Edinburgh, and senior staff based in Scotland, Wales and across England.

Find out more about our work.

Our team

Adam Scott
Account Director

Adam heads Arden's expanding energy practice, while also playing a key role in shaping our global services offering. With eight years of experience in Westminster, he gained extensive knowledge in briefing and advising Labour Shadow Secretaries of State on a broad spectrum of domestic policy areas, including transport, housing, and energy. His expertise and strategic insights were instrumental in influencing the development of two Labour general election manifestos, showcasing his ability to shape policy at the highest levels.

Ailsa Williams
Managing Director Client Strategy

Ailsa is a seasoned government relations and corporate affairs adviser, with almost 20 years’ industry experience. Ailsa has significant experience advising clients in highly regulated sectors and navigating high-stakes political challenges, and expertise in government relations, reputation management and political campaigns

Alec James
Account Director

Alec has worked with and for some of the most senior figures in the Labour Party including the then Deputy Leader, Tom Watson. He also worked at the heart of Labour’s HQ in the General Secretary’s office giving him a ring-side seat on all major developments in Labour politics in recent years.
Alec has policy expertise in energy, finance and technology policy.

Charlotte Weir
Account Manager

Charlotte is a former Chief of Staff for a Liberal Democrat MP, having spent over four years in Parliament working her way up from an intern position. Charlotte has worked across a broad range of policy areas with particular emphasis on immigration and education issues. Charlotte has a background in executing single-issue campaigns and has a keen interest in international affairs, education, and migration policy.

Clare Monaghan
Executive Assistant

Clare spent 5 years working for the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office in the United Arab Emirates as the British Ambassador’s Executive Assistant and Events Coordinator. After moving back to Scotland in 2017, Clare ran a small business until she joined the Arden Strategies team in 2020. Clare has over 20 years' experience in customer facing roles and brings her skills as an exceptionally organised and reliable individual to Arden.

Davide Sands
Account Manager

Davide has experience advising senior Labour politicians at Shadow Cabinet and Select Committee level. He has unique insight into Labour’s political processes and since Keir Starmer became Labour leader, he has advised a Shadow Cabinet Member across two portfolios which placed him at the heart of current Labour policy development, campaigns, and media management. His policy expertise and interests include transport, food security, foreign affairs, and environment.

Ellie Miller
Managing Director External Affairs

Ellie has more than 15 years’ experience working in senior roles with Labour. Since Keir Starmer became Leader, she, more than any other senior staffer, has led the party’s engagement with corporate Britain. As Head of Labour’s Business Relations team, Ellie has helped Keir Starmer rebuild connections with business. She has also worked as an advisor to a Labour Minister as well as the Deputy Speaker of the Commons. Ellie joined Arden from Make UK (one of the ‘Big 5’ business groups) where she was Head of Stakeholder Engagement.

George McGregor
Associate Director

George was a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Scotland in the last Labour Government and is a former member of the Labour Party National Policy Forum. He worked for almost two decades in public affairs providing senior counsel to many of the country's leading companies, delivering government relations strategies and campaigns to help them achieve their objectives. George's work has won him an array of awards including Best Public Affairs Campaign of the Year.

Hayden Munro
Senior Strategist

Hayden Munro is an experienced campaign and corporate affairs strategist. He has run multiple national elections and was campaign director for New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern's landslide victory in 2020. Hayden has worked as a senior advisor to Labour on energy, housing, climate and innovation policy. He has advised PMs, Cabinet Ministers and the leaders of some of the world's largest companies on strategy and messaging. Hayden brings a clear understanding of the intersection of politics, media, government and business.

Jazlyn Lehal
Accounts and Events Executive

Jazlyn recently obtained a MSc from the London School of Economics in History of International Relations and her bachelor's degree in Politics from the University of Leicester. Jazlyn’s academic career has solidified her enthusiasm for UK politics and global issues and she currently assists in aiding relations with business leaders.

Rt Hon. Jim Murphy
CEO and Founder

Jim is one of the UK’s most experienced government Ministers. He was a Labour MP for almost two decades and has held multiple ministerial portfolios including as a cabinet minister. He was leader of the Scottish Labour Party and Secretary of State for Scotland. Jim was a senior member of Labour’s election winning teams. Jim is also a member of His Majesty’s Privy Council.

John Arnold
Associate Director

John has over 20 years experience in public affairs and has provided support to over 80 international blue chip companies, trade bodies, interest groups and local authorities including UKPowerNetworks, EE, VM02, Betfred, VirginAtlantic, the Housebuilders Federation, IBM, INEOS, and the UK Fashion Industry. John was the political advisor to the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, before joining the Local Government International Bureau where he was head of the international section. He is currently a Trustee of the Manchester United Foundation.

Katarina Stawska-Hughes
Head of External Affairs

Kat has over ten years of expertise in political and business engagement, executing a number of high profile advocacy projects and providing counsel to clients in the financial services and tech sectors. Prior to this, Katarina worked at the Labour Party, building the Party’s network of business supporters and pioneering engagement with BAME business leaders and endorsers. Before starting her career in politics, Katarina was a small business owner. She graduated in Law with Business at the University of Portsmouth.

Kate Conway
Managing Director Strategic Communications

Kate spent twenty years as a producer in BBC, ITN and Times Radio newsrooms, as well as working as a political consultant to some of our most loved TV programmes. Kate's experience includes working as Jon Snow's producer at Channel 4 News, Danny Finkelstein and Michael Portillo's programme editor at Times Radio and as a script consultant to Armando Iannucci's award winning satire, The Thick Of It.

Kaylin Raine
Research Officer

Kaylin holds a BSc in Law from the University of Durham and studied Politics at Luiss Guido Carli for her Year Abroad in Rome where she focused on international conflict and peacebuilding. She has experience as a researcher, being recently credited in a published book on the topic of biomedicine. As part of Arden’s research team, Kaylin’s main interests are in defence, health, and technology.

Rt Hon. Ken Macintosh
Associate Director

Ken is the former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament and has a wealth of experience in challenging and high-profile roles across media, communications, current affairs and politics. Ken spent 13 years at the BBC, both in London and Scotland, and spent the subsequent two decades as a Member of the Scottish Parliament. Ken now brings his proven judgement and creative, persuasive, and communicative skills to his work domestically and internationally on good governance programmes and his Non-Executive Director positions.

Kieran Simpson
Associate Director

Kieran worked for Labour’s economic team under Gordon Brown, and has served as a Special Adviser in three government departments. He has extensive knowledge of Whitehall’s interactions with business and trade bodies. Kieran has built a career as a leading communications and strategic adviser helping clients build their corporate reputations. His knowledge extends across a range of sectors including the food & drink, agriculture, energy and health.

Lorraine O'Shea
Senior Account Manager

Lorraine has advised some of the most senior figures in the Conservative Party, including Dame Cheryl Gillan, Andrew Mitchell and James Heappey. Lorraine is responsible for heading up Arden’s campaign and coalition work to influence policy across a range of areas. This work has included leading a project on skills policy for both the Conservative and Labour parties. She is expert at building consensus and coalitions by bringing together the interests of industry experts, trade associations and trade unions to develop policy solution and engage with politicians.

Marie Birchall
Account Director

Marie has a decade of experience in senior roles at the Labour Party, working as a political advisor for Ministers and Shadow Ministers, including Yvette Cooper. Marie has worked across a broad range of policy areas in both Westminster and Holyrood. As Head of Policy for Scottish Labour, she steered the Party’s policy-making process. She also has experience in education research and working for INGOs and her particular policy expertise includes equality, education, justice and international development.

Mateo Lazarus-Sanz
Account Manager

Mateo has vast experience in the fields of housing, energy and post & telecoms. Throughout his four years in Citizens Advice's public affairs team, Mateo worked alongside government on the cost-of-living crisis - securing lifeline support for millions of households across the UK. Mateo also worked directly on key legislation, specifically the Renters Reform Bill, while engaging with regulators on the future of Royal Mail's service.

Owen Ballantine
Account Manager

Owen has joined Arden from a global strategic communications agency where he gained experience of working on high-profile government engagement strategies across a number of sectors. Owen's background is in financial services, business and trade, taxation, and sustainability policy. He previously worked in Washington DC and for a UK Member of Parliament.