Jonathan Slater

Jonathan Slater is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and Queen Mary’s University London. He chairs the board of the Charter Schools Educational Trust and is a non-executive member of the Board of the Post Office. Jonathan was Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education until 2020, at the conclusion of a 20 year civil service career that included Justice, Defence, the Cabinet Office and No.10. Before that Jonathan worked in local government for over 10 years, ending up as Director of Education and Deputy Chief Executive at Islington Council, though his career actually started as a mathematical modeller for British Rail.

Tom Symons

He/him

Tom is the deputy mission director for the fairer start mission at Nesta. His research focuses on government innovation and he is currently undertaking research into the ways data can help governments to improve decision making and support innovation. Prior to Nesta Tom was an associate at Social Finance, a not-for-profit organisation that works with government, the social sector and the finance community to develop solutions to complex social problems. At Social Finance Tom worked on projects developing Social Impact Bonds and whole systems change programmes in local public services, including children’s services, early years provision and health and social care integration. Tom previously worked at the Local Government Association, and before that was a senior researcher at the think tank New Local Government Network. Tom began his career as a graduate trainee at the London Borough of Islington. He has a BA in Economics and Politics from Exeter University and an MA in Housing from the University of Westminster.

Rachel Wilcock

She/Her

Rachel is senior data science lead in the fairer start mission and the data analytics practice. She works alongside both the mission team and the data analytics practice, and she is helping to combine multiple data sources, data science techniques and visualisations to complement the interdisciplinary work of the mission. Before Nesta, Rachel completed her undergraduate degree in earth sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD in Geology and Geophysics at the University of Edinburgh. After developing a novel clustering method for earthquakes, she wanted to be able to use her data science skills to have a real-world impact on social problems faced by society today.