Our Team
Zenna Atkins is chief executive of the charity Dallaglio Rugby Works. She is the former chair of Ofsted and former group chair of Places for People. She has served on a number of government boards including the Royal Navy and HM Treasury.
The EGF cross-party Council
Lord (Norman) Blackwell was chair of Lloyds Banking Group until 2021 and has held many senior roles in financial services and a range of other industries as well as regulatory bodies. He was head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit (1995-97).
Chris Carr spent 30 years in the Civil Service. He spent most of the last decade leading government policy on regulation for five Prime Ministers. He is now a consultant and advisor to businesses and non-profits on navigating regulation.
Jeremy Browne was a Liberal Democrat Minister at the Foreign Office and the Home Office. He is the chief executive of Canning House, the UK’s leading forum on Latin America.
Lord (Simon) Case was Cabinet Secretary 2020-24.
James Dowling is Managing Partner at Negotient, a consultancy helping to improve negotiations on major projects between the public and private sectors. He has previously worked in government as a senior official.
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP has overseen various reports on Whitehall as Chair of the Commons select committees on Public Administration, and the Liaison Committee. He currently pursues cross-party engagement on state effectiveness.
Nada Kakabadse is Professor of Policy, Governance and Ethics at the Henley Business School. She is a former senior official in the Australian and Canadian civil services.
Sarah Keeling, following a 25 year career in government service focussed on national security, is a Partner in a business advisory firm specialising in risk, corporate governance and turnaround management. She is a Senior Advisor and NED to two Not-for-profit organisations.
Ameer Kotecha is CEO of the Centre for Government Reform. He was formerly a senior British diplomat and served as head of the British consulate in Russia 2023-25. He is author of Queen Elizabeth II’s official Platinum Jubilee cookbook.
Steve McGuirk CBE is the former Chief Fire Officer of Greater Manchester. He is currently chair of an NHS hospital (Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust).
Greg Rosen is chair of the Labour History Group, Senior Counsel at SEC Newgate and a former Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Andrew Greenway is co-founder of the consultancy Public Digital. A former senior civil servant, he has published books on digital transformation and sovereignty, and writes widely on state capacity in the UK and US.
Simon Godfrey is Deputy Chair of the Scope charity, former head of Government Affairs for BT, Public Sector Chair of techUK and No 10 policy adviser.
Stephen Taylor is a former civil servant, co-founder of one of the UK’s first change management practices and former CEO of the Leadership Centre for Local Government. He is Chair of Dorothy House Hospice Care.
Rupert Soames OBE is the former chair of the CBI, chair of Smith & Nephew and formerly CEO of Aggreko and Serco.
Patrick Barbour, EGF Founder and Director
The Effective Governance Forum was founded, directed and financially supported from the outset by Patrick Barbour.
Patrick had a successful business career having been Executive Chairman of Barbour Index plc and Microgen plc, both of which companies went on to be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
He devoted the last 30 years of his life to developing policies to improve the United Kingdom. His focus for the last decade has been on the Effective Governance Forum and he, together with the Barbour family, have ensured that the work of the EGF will continue.
Patrick died on 5 June 2025. His obituary in the Daily Telegraph is here and his obituary in The Times is here.
Tim Knox is a former Director of the Centre for Policy Studies and author.
Recent papers for Civitas include The International Health Care Outcomes Index and An analysis of the effects of taxes and benefits on household income.
Andrew Haldenby was Director of the cross-party think tank Reform from 2005 to 2019 during which time Reform became the leading Westminster think tank for public service reform and productivity.
He stepped down from Reform in 2019 to advise a number of companies working with government and public sector.
Team
Helen Baimbridge is a communications and digital strategy consultant with a background in public affairs and stakeholder engagement.
She now specialises in helping organisations across the public, education, and charitable sectors to communicate well online.