Gerard Gray is an ex-British government economist who has spent
the last 20 years consulting government organisations and the
private sector.
He has carried out many assignments with the UK government,
including for the Cabinet Office, MOD, DOH, DWP, HMRC, Invest in
Britain Bureau, Scottish Enterprise, and WDA. His international
public sector projects include those for the European Parliament,
European Commission, CzechInvest, and the Canadian and Greek
governments. Most of his public sector work involves business
modelling, investment appraisal, and programme evaluation.
His private sector work encompasses a number of UK utility companies (Centrica, Northern Electricity, SWEB); FMCG (Bass); defence contractors (BAES, Thales, Lockheed Martin); and health service companies (BUPA). This private sector work involves strategy, market entry studies, and business advice on major government procurements.
Gerard holds first class honours in economics from the University
of Birmingham and an MBA (with distinction) from London Business
School. He also owns a children’s nursery business in South West
England.
Neil Davies is a very highly skilled economist with 33 years’
experience in Government and four years as a consultant.
He has extensive experience of using professional tools and techniques applied to economic regulation and understanding of market design from his work at MOD on successive reviews of the Government Profit Formula and considerable Appraisal and Evaluation work in central Government, applying the HM Treasury Green Book, which he originally contributed to.
He was Chief Economist for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) from 1996
to 2012, and he was the MOD’s chief value for money scrutineer for
13 years, dealing with all major spending projects requiring
central approval and advising Ministers and senior MOD officials
how wider economic issues related to the defence sector—such as
trade, employment, and technology—should be handled.
Neil has excellent understanding of the main UK economics departments thanks to 16 years’ membership of the Government Economic Service Board and close bilateral collaboration with parts of HM Treasury and BIS.
As the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Chief Economist for six years, Neil acquired a high level of understanding of the political dimensions of operating within a regulated sector. During that time, he was secretary to the HSE group that drafted “Tolerability of Risk from Nuclear Power Stations.” Before working at HSE, he was a UK government economist in the Employment and Education departments.
Since April 2012 he has worked on a variety of commissions,
including a Strategic Energy Report for the MOD, providing training
in Defence Resource Management for senior finance staff of the
Brunei Ministry of Defence, and completing a major commission with
the Office of National Statistics to develop a concept of analysis
for appraising the benefits of alternatives to the Census and
providing technical assistance to the evaluation of the 2011
Census. He recently worked for Polaris Consulting on a study for
MOD DSTL on applying Real Options to value the Defence Research
Programme and for BFI on the Economic Case for a new film centre at
Southbank to go into the OBC for DCMS and HM Treasury.
Neil is developed vetting (DV) cleared. He has an MA in economics from King’s College, Cambridge, and MSc in Economics from Queen Mary College, London. He lives in Wimbledon, South West London.
John Walls has 15 years’ experience within government (as an
economist) and a further nine years as a consultant.
He is an expert in modelling particularly for investment appraisal and in forecasting, sensitivity analyses and risk. He has worked with four government departments, including the MOD, and also for major private sector companies. John’s analytical work has encompassed modelling, statistical, and financial assessment in many important contexts, including the government’s student loan portfolio, energy security, and a wide range of defence-related issues.
Major work has involved detailed investment appraisal and cost
modelling, econometric modelling, commercial assessment, and risk
and uncertainty assessment. John is an expert in model quality
assurance and is a contributor to HMT’s “Aqua Book” on analytical
quality assurance, and (whilst advising MOD) was part of the
government working group responding to the Macpherson Review of
business critical models.
A resident of Crystal Palace in South London, John has a 2.1 BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Sussex and an MSc in Economics from the University of London. He is security cleared until 2023.
Richard Jones is a Principal Consultant with Defence Economics, Ltd where he has acted as a scrutineer/validator of various type of complex financial cost models primarily through his work with MOD’s Cost and Analysis Service (CAAS).
His expertise lies not only in validation of financial cost modelling but in modelling itself, particularly for investment appraisal, forecasting, and risk. He has worked within several MOD departments, carrying out a range of project accounting tasks and in-year planning, budgeting, and forecasting (PB&F).
Prior to consulting, Richard was a Management Accountant with Management Accountancy Services (Army) (MAS(A)). As an ex-Army accountant he has provided financial support on strategic level defence projects and financial consultancy services across MOD.
Kenny Pettigrew is a Principal Consultant with 24 years’ military experience, five of those as a Management Accountant with Management Accountancy Services (Army) MAS(A) and a further one year as a contractor to the MOD.
Since qualifying as a Management Accountant six years ago Kenny has
gained a broad range of experience within MOD strategic projects
and services. He is extremely versatile with exceptional analytical
capabilities.
He has a proven record of delivering clear strategic recommendations on complex issues in high profile, time pressurised roles. Kenny is a highly motivated and dynamic professional, decisive in stressful situations and capable of making clear informed judgements that add value to strategic level decisions.
Kenny has Developed Vetting (DV) clearance until 2018 and is an
Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants (CIMA). He lives in a rural community near Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire.
Jon Purvey has 10 years’ experience within government as a Management Accountant and a further five years as a consultant. He is an expert in cost modelling—particularly for investment appraisal—and in forecasting, sensitivity analyses, and risk and uncertainty assessment. He has worked within the MOD, for major private sector companies, and on modelling and financial assessment for many important defence projects.
With more than six years’ experience working in the defence industry, Chris Dickens is an expert in the cost estimating of major defence programmes.
Currently, he has a consulting role as lead cost estimator for the UK’s Naval Design Partnership. He is experienced in the design and development of complex costing tools—using MS Excel, MS Access, and Visual Basic—and in the development of robust cost estimates.
Chris has worked during SDSR on the whole life costs of the land vehicles fleet, as well as on the Type 26 Global Combat Ship programme, managing the whole life cost model with responsibility for developing and capturing cost estimates and assumptions.
Tim Knox is a Royal Engineer who has developed an expertise as a consultant in cost forecasting, data visualisation, and cost database design and development. He is an expert user of MS Excel, MS Access, and Visual Basic and has three years’ recent experience of the UK submarines programme.
