Allison co-founded Aéto, an employee experience focused data insights practice specialising in helping clients use data to answer their toughest people and place questions, and to redefine their workplace futures.

A seasoned guest speaker with the ISIG, who will take us through recent UK and USA political activities.

David is a political consultant and analyst with over 30 years’ experience working both inside government and in the private sector, advising clients in both the public and private sectors.

He holds a BA in Politics (University of Warwick) and an M. Phil in Urban Design and Regional Planning (Edinburgh). After a short period working as a town planner, he was appointed to a role as strategic adviser to the chief executive of an inner London borough council, where he led on strategies to align council and other public services to address issues of deep-seated deprivation.

Subsequently, he moved into an advisory role in central government working closely with ministers across a number of departments, including Environment, Transport and the Cabinet Office. During the time, his work focussed increasingly on resolving the political complexities of major investment programmes, especially in the energy, transport, education and defence sectors.

He left government service after  around 10 years and became a partner in an independent political consultancy, Politics International (PI), which worked with leading companies and other organisation with complex relationships with government, especially in regulatory and procurement contexts.  Subsequent to the sale of PI in 2012 to a leading international communications brand, David has operated in a freelance capacity, working with a small number of clients, primarily in the energy and regeneration sectors.

At university, his favourite political theorist was Machiavelli; thirty years of practice in the art of politics have convinced him this was a prescient choice.

In 2009, after an earlier career in design and strategy, Tim tripped over an idea – to offer a standardised and wholly independent measure of workplace experience. A year later he launched the Leesman Index and went on to build a renowned brand used by leading organisations globally, quickly amassing the largest workplace experience dataset of its kind. Leesman remains revered for its investigative rigour and cutting-edge academic research. In August 2024, Tim and Deputy CEO Allison English stepped outside Leesman to co-found Aéto, an employee experience focused data insights practice specialising in helping clients use data to answer their toughest people and place questions, and to redefine their workplace futures.