Rob Whitehead

Rob is Director of Strategic Projects at Centre for London. He rejoined the Centre in 2020, after initially helping to establish the organisation in 2011 and leading on our inaugural research programme. Prior to his initial role at Centre for London, he worked on strategy and business planning for the London Development Agency. In 2012, Rob joined the United Nations agency International Trade Centre as Chief of Strategy, where he led on planning, evaluation, governance and fundraising. Rob returned to the UK in 2015 as Head of Strategy at Future CitiesCatapult, part of a network of UK government-backed innovation agencies.

Richard Brown

Richard Brown is Deputy Director at Centre for London. He leads our research and events programme, and writes and speaks widely on urban economics, housing and government. He joined Centre for London as Research Director in 2014 from London Legacy Development Corporation, where he was Strategy Director. Before that he worked at the Greater London Authority, first as Private Secretary to Mayor Ken Livingstone, and then as Manager of the Mayor’s Architecture and Urbanism Unit, which promoted great architectural and urban design in policies and projects.

Claire Harding

Claire is Research Director at Centre for London. Before joining Centre for London she was the Head of Research at Coram Family and Childcare, where she led on the annual Childcare Surveys. She previously worked in research and development at digital mental health provider Big White Wall, and in public sector research consultancy. Her research interests include education and opportunity, wellbeing, equalities and gender.

Jack Brown

Jack Brown is Research Manager at Centre for London. He is also Lecturer in London Studies and London Partnerships Director (Education) at King’s College London. He is particularly interested in London’s history, governance, and development.

Sara Gariban

Sara Gariban was Senior Researcher at Centre for London until September 2020. Previously, Sara worked as a Policy and Projects Officer at the think tank ResPublica, and as a Researcher at Ipsos MORI.

Dr Tim Moonen

Tim is Managing Director of The Business of Cities, an urban intelligence group based at STEaPP, University College London. The company provides research and insight to leadership teams in more than 50 cities, national governments, and global organisations, informing long-term strategies for competitiveness and performance benchmarking. In collaboration with JLL, for 10 years it has been compiling and analysing the world’s largest dataset of comparative city benchmarks. Partners and collaborators include Arup, Brookings Institution, Connected Places Catapult, European Investment Bank, and the OECD.