Our Committee Members
Alex Blandford
Alex is Specialist in digital transformation and using qualitative research to help businesses focus on developing products that users want and need.You can see more on Alex on his Linkedin page.
Ben Worthy
Ben is a senior lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has written extensively on issues around Transparency and Freedom of Information, including co-authoring the book “Does FOI Work?” and studying the impact of Freedom of Information on local government and Parliament. In 2017, Ben published The Politics of Freedom of Information: How and Why Governments Pass Laws That Threaten Their Power (Manchester: MUP), which looked at the development of Freedom of Information laws in the UK, US, India, Australia and New Zealand. In 2022, Ben finished a two year study of the impact of TheyWorkForYou.com which you can read about on the project blog here.
You can read more of Ben’s research here, and see his Freedom of Information blog here.
Calum Green
Calum is Director of Advocacy and Communications at the public participation charity Involve. He works to build political and public support for public participation and deliberation, to help meet the challenges of the 21st century. As part of his role, he also oversees The Democracy Network.
Before Involve, Calum worked as Communities & Campaigns Director, and then Chief Executive, of London Community Land Trust (CLT), which works to campaign for and deliver democratically determined, permanently affordable homes across London.
Before London CLT, Calum worked as a Senior Organiser at Citizens UK, building the power of people across the country to participate in the decisions that affect them the most.
Dan Aldridge
Dan is a public policy expert working across public, private, and third sectors leading on technology policy development and implementation, with a focus on inclusive and effective strategy and governance.
Dan leads public policy and political engagement at BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT and manages the Institute’s policy portfolio across four main areas: professionalism and standards, diversity, inclusion, public benefit and responsible computing. Dan also sits on the advisory boards of a number of organisations such as the Software Sustainability Institute, OpenUK, and local human rights charities in the South West of England.
Prior to BCS, Dan worked for the Office for Students and HEFCE overseeing national projects and policy areas tackling sexual violence, hate crime, and online harm. Dan also worked for Stonewall, Europe’s largest LGBT charity as Policy and Programmes Manager working with governments, industry, and civil society to drive equality and inclusion in key areas of public life.
Dan studied Psychology at the Universities of Exeter and Northumbria and is a member of the Chartered Institute for IT and Association of Project Managers
Evelyn James
Evelyn James is the Campaign Manager for project Diverse5050 WEN. She is a Legal Practitioner with a master’s in Human rights, Gender, and Conflict. She holds an LLM in LegalTech from Swansea University, UK.
She advocates for justice and social change, research conflict, and peace resolution mechanisms. Evelyn was the project manager for the Women Empowerment Team at the centre for African Justice, the Hague, Netherlands, and has held many other portfolios. She remains focused on her drive to effect positive change, tackle inequality and advance an equal, and all-inclusive society for all.
Gavin Freeguard
Gavin Freeguard is a freelance consultant working on research, policy and advocacy around data, digital government, open government and data visualisation. He is an associate at the Institute for Government (where he was previously programme director), Policy Associate at Connected by Data, Special Adviser at the Open Data Institute, a member of the Public Digital network and has worked as a consultant for organisations including mySociety, the Ada Lovelace Institute and Full Fact. Before joining the Institute for Government, he was Political Adviser on culture, media and sport to Rt Hon Harriet Harman KC, and before that, Senior Editor at the Media Standards Trust and deputy director of the Orwell Prize.
Jess Blair
Jess Blair is the Wales representative on the UK Open Government Civil Society Network Steering Group and has sat on the Steering Group since 2017.
Jess is Director of the Electoral Reform Society Cymru and leads the Electoral Reform Society’s work delivering electoral reform in Wales. Jess holds a Masters in Welsh Government and Politics from the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. She was previously Policy and Projects Manager at the Institute of Welsh Affairs, a leading Welsh think tank.
Josiah Mortimer
Josiah Mortimer is a journalist with a focus on democracy. Currently chief reporter for the UK monthly newspaper Byline Times, he is the former Head of Communications for the Electoral Reform Society, as well as former City Hall Editor at MyLondon.
Josiah has written for publications including The Mirror, Private Eye, openDemocracy, and The Journalist, and features occasionally on BBC Radio London.
He is based in London but hails from Cornwall, and studied Politics at the University of York as well as journalism at News Associates in London.
Julian Tait
Julian is the co-founder and CEO of Open Data Manchester CIC (ODM) a not-for-profit organisation with an international outlook based in Manchester, UK. Established in 2010 Open Data Manchester focuses on the development of responsible and sustainable data practices for the benefit of people, planet and prosperity. ODM promotes open working that centres lived experience into the development of data enabled systems and processes, through the creation of mutual data governance, standards and skills sharing. Open Data Manchester works with communities, the public sector and industry both in the UK and internationally.
Kevin Keith
Kevin is Chair of the UK Open Government Network, Co-Chair of the UK Multi-stakeholder Forum, and part of the Open Government Leadership Collaborative.
He has worked on some of the UK highest profile campaigns relating to democracy, the protection of civic space, and open data including as a Director of the People’s Vote campaign, and a strategic adviser to the Police Bill Alliance, and a company director of GovHack – the southern hemisphere’s largest open data hackathon.
Kevin has a masters degree in journalism, and is a published writer and speaker on matters relating to trust and open data. This includes articles from the Guardian to the Sydney Morning Herald. He has also worked as a researcher / contributor to two Sunday Times bestselling books on strategy, teamwork, and leadership and has drafted articles and speeches for high profile political and business figures on democracy (including former prime ministers). You can see more about Kevin’s work on his LinkedIn page.
Dr Lucy McTernan
Lucy McTernan has a 25 year career in the Scottish voluntary sector, most recently as acting Chief Executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, and previously as CEO of Citizens Advice Scotland. She has also worked as an adviser to the Scottish Government, and as a consultant on governance matters. She served on the grant giving committees of the. Big Lottery Fund for seven years and as trustee for human rights and childcare Organisations. She is civil society co-chair of the Scottish Open Government Partnership (one of the first fifteen local members of OGP), and is currently doing PhD research with the University of York.
Miriam Levin
Miriam Levin is Chief Executive of Engage Britain, a charity showing there’s a better way to do politics by bringing people together to tackle Britain’s hardest problems. Prior to this, as Programme Director, she led their first project on health and care. She has also worked for the UK government as Head of Community Action, where she led the government’s first deliberative democracy programme. Miriam has worked as a consultant leading community engagement work around planning and regeneration, and was Head of Outreach at English Heritage. Her postgraduate studies have taken in several disciplines from archaeology to museology, regeneration to urban design, some of which she still uses.
Mor Rubinstein
Mor Rubinstein is a data strategist, working with charities and governments. She is the founder of Open Heroines, a safe space for women and non-binary people in open data, open government and civic tech.
Rebekah McCabe
Rebekah works at the public participation charity Involve, leading on their work in Northern Ireland. She focuses on developing awareness, understanding, and use of participatory and deliberative tools across government and civil society.
Prior to Involve, Rebekah worked in the voluntary sector in Northern Ireland, developing programmes and projects with a focus on community participation, education, and research.
Rebekah undertook a PhD funded by the Irish Research Council exploring urban sustainability, symbolic landscapes, and contested spaces and holds a degree in Marketing from Dublin Institute of Technology and a PG-Dip in Anthropology from Maynooth University. She’s an experienced ethnographer, conducting fieldwork in New York City, the US-Mexico border regions, and Belfast.
Resham Kotecha
Resham is Global Head of Policy at the Open Data Institute (ODI), where she leads public policy work, along with efforts to work with governments to improve data ecosystems and data policy. Prior to working at the ODI, she worked as the Head of Policy at Wise – a Financial Times Stock Exchange listed FinTech company – leading policy work across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Resham has been a policy specialist for over a decade, working as a Director at UK Anti-Doping, as an economic adviser to an MP and Minister, and as a researcher to a Baroness.
Resham was appointed by the Cabinet Office to be a Social Mobility Commissioner, holding the Government to account on social mobility issues and shaping the Commission’s strategy. Resham sits on the Government’s Smart Data Council, and serves as Head of Engagement for Women2Win – an organisation founded by the former Prime Minister, working to get more women elected to Parliament. Resham serves as a Trustee of the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, and a Board member at the John Smith Centre, working to promote the positive case for politics and public service.
Tim Durrant
Tim is a programme director at the Institute for Government (IfG), leading the Institute’s work on ministers, ethical standards in government and transparency. He has worked at the IfG since 2017 and was previously a civil servant. He worked at the UK Treasury on a range of domestic and foreign policy areas, and at the Department for International Development.