Our People

James Lawson, Chairman

James Lawson is Chairman of the Adam Smith Institute. 

James blends experience from business and government. His day job is in Artificial Intelligence, growing a promising startup to deliver new capability for the UK. Yet he has also been a trusted adviser for Government.

James was selected by the founders to continue the ASI’s legacy. James is very much a product of the ASI, as a long running Senior Fellow. He first attended the ASI’s events while at school, as he yearned to learn more about Economics - which is a testament to the ASI’s long-running educational outreach. He has remained actively involved in the decades since.

He previously was appointed by successive Prime Ministers as a Senior Special Adviser in the Cabinet Office. He was a Director at Microsoft, as CTO for Defence, where he was selected for their “Platinum Club” are a top 1% performer, and lead their landmark agreement with the UK’s Ministry of Defence for cloud computing. Prior to Microsoft he was Chief AI Evangelist at DataRobot, Director of Strategic Markets at WorkFusion, and a consultant on strategy and operations at Deloitte. His clients have included a range of global companies (including Santander, Spotify, ICA, Chanel, Telefonica, Bank of America, Société Générale) as well as the UK Government, City of London and Metropolitan Police. 

He advises executives about transforming their operations through data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other digital technologies. He was selected by DataIQ as one of the UK's most influential people in data.

He read philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford, with a particular focus on events since 1870. His recent ASI publications focused on the Covid-19 response and policies to nurture Artificial Intelligence capabilities in the UK.

James is an Adviser to IQ Capital, Research Adviser at The Entrepreneurs Network, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and member of the Mont Pelerin Society (of which he was the youngest ever joiner).

Dr Madsen Pirie, Founder & President

Dr Madsen Pirie is President of the Adam Smith Institute, and was one of three Scots graduates working in the US who founded the Institute in 1977. Before that, Madsen worked for the House of Representatives in Washington DC, and was Distinguished Visiting Professor Philosophy at Hillsdale College in Michigan.

At the Institute, Madsen was part of the influential team which pioneered privatization and the extension of market choices and incentives. His work in helping to develop the Citizen’s Charter led to his appointment to the Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel from 1991-95.

A graduate of the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Cambridge, Madsen has authored several books including The Book of the Fallacy, Micropolitics, Privatization, How to Win Every Argument, 101 Great Philosophers, Blueprint for a Revolution, and Freedom 101. He also writes children’s science fiction, and with his colleague Dr Eamonn Butler he has co- authored a series of books on IQ, including The Sherlock Holmes IQ Book.

The Institute itself remains at the forefront of a worldwide movement towards competitive free markets and free trade. Madsen’s personal website is http://madsen-pirie.com/.

Dr Eamonn Butler, Founder & Director

Dr Eamonn Butler is Director of the Adam Smith Institute, rated one of the world’s leading policy think-tanks. He has degrees in economics, philosophy and psychology, gaining a PhD from the University of St Andrews in 1978.

During the 1970s he worked on pensions and welfare issues for the US House of Representatives, and taught philosophy in Hillsdale College, Michigan, before returning to the UK to help found the Adam Smith Institute.

Eamonn is author of books on the pioneering economists Milton Friedman, F A Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Adam Smith, and co-author of Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls and books on intelligence testing.

He contributes to the leading UK print and broadcast media on current issues, and his recent popular publications The Best Book on the Market, The Rotten State of Britain and The Alternative Manifesto have attracted considerable attention.

He has also contributed articles to national magazines and newspapers on subjects ranging from health policy, economic management, taxation and public spending, transport, pensions, and welfare.

Emily Fielder, Director of Communications

Emily Fielder is the Director of Communications

She previously worked in CCHQ as a Political Advisor and Press Secretary to the Chairman of the Conservative Party. She started her career in Parliament working for the Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC MP.

She graduated from the University of St Andrews with a first-class undergraduate degree in English Literature and a distinction in Global Social & Political Thought.

Maxwell Marlow, Director of Research

Maxwell is the Director of Research at the Adam Smith Institute.

Before working at the Adam Smith Institute, he worked as a Public Affairs and Communications Executive at strategic consultancy Hanbury Strategy. Clients he worked with included leading financial institutes, crypto firms, fundraising platforms, and transport providers. He was previously Development and Research Officer for the ASI. He is also a Non-Executive Director at the Masonic Charitable Foundation, one of the UK’s largest charities, where he advises on policy horizons and strategic vision.

Maxwell graduated with a first class Joint Hons BSc in Politics and History from the London School of Economics & Political Science, where he was also twice consecutive President of the Hayek Society. Whilst at LSE, he was a Don Lavoie Fellow in Political Economy at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University. He is a Fellow at the Consumer Choice Center.

He has previously authored A Fare Shake: Reforming Taxis for the 21st Century and Pulling Out All the Stops: How the Government can Go For Growth and Cut the Cost Of Living for the Institute, as well as representing it on TalkTV, GBNews, and in various broadsheets.

Outside of wonkery, Maxwell enjoys cooking, reading Enlightenment history, and skiing. He tweets @maxwell_marlow. He can be reached at maxwell@adamsmith.org.

James Price, Director of Government Engagement

James is the Director of Government Engagement.

James Price has served as Chief of Staff and Senior Special Adviser (SpAd) to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the Chairman of the Conservative Party. He was also a SpAd to the Education Secretary and to the Leader of the House of Lords.

Price has also worked as a senior political consultant, where he advised customers including Microsoft, Meta, Goldman Sachs and Uber.

James holds an MA from the University of Oxford, and an MSc in Security Studies from UCL. He is also the oldest-ever President of the Oxford Union, a Research Fellow at the CPS, and a former UK Kebab of the Year award judge.

Mimi Yates, Director of Engagement and Operations

Mimi is the Director of Engagement and Operations at the Adam Smith Institute.

Before working at the Adam Smith Institute, she completed her undergraduate degree in Philosophy at the University of Exeter, with a year abroad at Venice International University studying Global Governance. With published research papers, Mimi’s areas of interests include AI, psychedelics, and feminism, which she likes discussing in her podcast ‘The Thinking Woman’.

In her summers, she completed internships with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, and a Geneva-based think tank within the Frontier Technologies and Future of Work team. She also led a non-profit organisation called ‘Urban Angels’ that focuses on street safety for women.

Mimi is a keen documentary-watcher, solo traveller, and ceramicist. When not in the office, you may find her living the dolce vita.

She tweets on @mimi_yates21

Sam is the Director of the Next Generation Centre.

Sam Bidwell, Director of the Next Generation Centre

Sam has worked as a Parliamentary Researcher, and as a Press and Research Consultant for the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. His writing on foreign affairs has been published internationally, including in Australia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and he was a contributor to the 2023 Commonwealth Security Review.

Sam is a graduate of the University of Cambridge where he studied Law at Sidney Sussex College, specialising in public law, jurisprudence, and legal history.

He Tweets at @sam_bidwell.

Siddhi Badole, Research Associate, Gap Year

Samuel Bailey, Research Associate, Gap Year

Our Patrons

What our Patrons do:

Our Patrons are senior figures in Politics, Business or Civil Society who share a belief in the power of free markets, innovations and the teachings of Adam Smith to improve their communities, the United Kingdom, and the world. They support the Institute by volunteering to give the benefit of their decades of experience and insight. We are always interested to find more people who would like to support the ASI with their time and expertise. If you think you might fit the bill, do get in touch at info@adamsmith.org.

The Rt Hon Sir Brandon Lewis CBE MP, Patron

Sir Brandon has been involved in politics for many years, first in local government and later as Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth since 2010. Sir Brandon served most recently as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

Perhaps one of his most challenging roles came when he was appointed as the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Here, he grappled with the intricacies of the Northern Ireland political landscape, Brexit-related challenges, and the delicate balance of power-sharing arrangements in the region.

He has also successfully held many other ministerial briefs, including as the longest serving Minister of State for Housing and planning. In this capacity, he was tasked with addressing some of the pressing challenges related to housing in the UK.

Subsequently, Sir Brandon held the position of Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio. His chairmanship was marked by a successful revitalising the party’s grassroots. As Chairman, he was at the heart of many party strategies, playing a pivotal role in shaping its direction and policies.

Outside of his governmental roles, Sir Brandon has been a proponent of community cohesion and has worked on numerous initiatives aimed at strengthening ties within diverse communities. His political service was recognised when he was honoured with the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Previously a successful businessman, Brandon originally also qualified as a barrister and has a BSc Economics and an LLB Hons (Law) from the University of Buckingham, and an LLM in Commercial Law from King’s College London.

The Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP, Patron

The Rt. Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP is the Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon and Patron of the Adam Smith Institute.

Born in Baghdad, Nadhim and his family fled Saddam Hussein’s attempts to murder them, and came to the United Kingdom when Nadhim was 11. He could not speak a word of English.

After graduating from University College London with a degree in chemical engineering, Nadhim worked in business before co-founding the polling and market research company YouGov in 2000, which now has a market cap of over $1.3 billion.

He was CEO of YouGov until 2010, when he stood down to become the Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare.

Nadhim has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Education Secretary, and Chairman of the Conservative Party & Minister Without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office, as well as a string of other ministerial posts.

His notable successes include that which he is probably best-known, leading the UK's world-beating COVID vaccination rollout, as well as organising her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, and raising grown-up twin boys and a 10-year-old girl with his wife Lana.

Senior Fellows and Fellows

To arrange an interview with one of our Fellows, please contact emily@adamsmith.org

Charlie White-Thomson, Senior Fellow

Charlie White-Thomson is a seasoned financial executive. He has spent the last 30 years working in various roles in both developed and emerging markets.

This included almost 4 years in Moscow, which overlapped the global financial crisis, where he was responsible for Credit Suisse’s equity business in the Former Soviet Union. Most recently he was Chief Executive Officer of Saxo UK, an FCA regulated multi-asset online trading platform, whose clients included both retail and institutional investors. During this time, he also worked for Barings and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette.

Charlie is an engaged thought leader, commentator and writer, and has appeared on national media on TV, radio and in print, including: BBC Radio 4, Bloomberg TV and Radio, City AM, CNBC, Sky, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman, The Times. He is an advocate of a serious growth plan for the United Kingdom, which breaks the cycle of anaemic growth, excess tax and borrowing.

Prior to his financial career, he served with the British Army where he saw active service in the First Gulf War. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Oliver Linch, Senior Fellow

Oliver Linch began his legal career with a leading global law firm, after which he became Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel of Bittrex Global, the global cryptocurrency exchange. He has over a decade of experience as a financial regulatory lawyer, having advised major investment banks, exchanges, and leading institutions on regulatory matters across the UK, EMEA, and North America. As part of one of the world’s top-ranking law firms, he specialised in various areas of financial regulatory advisory work, such as financial market infrastructure, payment services, and special economic zone and legislative drafting.

Oliver leads the Adam Smith Institute’s Future Markets Policy Unit

Dominique Lazanski, Senior Fellow

Dominique is a digital policy and strategy freelance consultant and works on digital policy for the TaxPayers’ Alliance. She has spent over 13 years in the Internet industry with many of those years working in Silicon Valley. She has a long held interest in public policy and participatory government. She has written and spoken on digital issues over the years from a free market and entrepreneurial perspective. She holds degrees from Cornell University and the London School of Economics and is working on her PhD.

Keith Boyfield, Senior Fellow

Keith Boyfield is a well known economist, educated at the London School of Economics, specialising in economic, competition and development policy. He heads up a City consulting firm, Keith Boyfield Associates Ltd. He has written over seventy studies for several leading think-tanks. Keith is the Africa Editor of the Journal of World Economics, and has served as Chief Economist and Chairman of Leriba Limited (a pan-African research consultancy). He has written for a wide spectrum of newspapers, magazines and journals worldwide and he is a member of the Editorial Board of Economic Affairs, the IEA’s quarterly journal.

Keith has advised and acted as consultant to a range of range of multinational companies, trade associations and non-profits including Aon, the BBC, BNFL plc, the Commonwealth Business Council, The Crown Estate, J P Morgan, and KPMG. His consultancy work has focused on the agri-business, energy, mining, financial services, media, property and aviation, shipping and transport sectors. He has also co-chaired a number of major international conferences and summer schools in Baku, Dublin, Ireland, and Washington DC.

Sam Bowman, Senior Fellow

Sam Bowman is co-founder of Works in Progress.

Before founding Works in Progress he was, amongst other things, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, responsible for strategy and overall management, and focused on labour market economics. In his final year at the Institute, it was ranked second globally among domestic economic policy think tanks by a University of Pennsylvania study.

He is also a co-founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Network, an entrepreneurship think tank, and the author of influential papers on labour market, monetary and migration policy.

Sam holds degrees in economics and history from University College Cork and SOAS, University of London, and was the winner of the 2009 John B O’Brien prize for economic history.

He tweet as @s8mb.

Ben Southwood, Senior Fellow

Ben Southwood is a founding editor of Works in Progress. He has been head of research at Create Streets, and head of housing at Policy Exchange, been part of three successful Emergent Ventures grants, and worked as a public sector consultant for KPMG.

Most importantly, he edited the ASI's research for almost five years, producing dozens of impactful reports Beyond the Call of Duty: Why we should abolish Stamp Duty Land Tax and Patently Good: A Defence of Intellectual Property and writing several of his own, including the award-winning research paper Is the rate of scientific progress slowing down? co-authored with Dr Tyler Cowen.

He lives in South London and is a fan of natural wine, sour beer, ambient music and cricket. He tweets at @bswud.

Lars Christensen, Senior Fellow

Lars Christensen is Chief Analyst and Head of Emerging Markets Research at Danske Bank, based in Copenhagen. He has worked there since 2001, before which he was an economic policy analyst at the Danish Ministry of Economic Affairs. He has a masters degree in economics from the University of Copenhagen. He wrote Milton Friedman: A Pragmatic Revolutionary in Danish in 2002 and has contributed to numerous other books as well as news media including The Telegraph, Bloomberg, Reuters, the Financial Times, City A.M., and Dow Jones. In 2006 he co-authored a report “Geyser Crisis” which forecasted a major economic crisis in Iceland.

His blogThe Market Monetarist has since it was started in 2011 become one of the leading international blogs on monetary policy, and coined the name of a new and highly-influential eponymous neo-monetarist school of macroeconomics. Many other economists, particularly those who also blog, including David Beckworth and Scott Sumner, have adopted the name market monetarism to describe their theories. Lars is also the founder of the Global Monetary Policy Network, an informal network of individuals with an interest in monetary policy issues.

Tom Clougherty, Senior Fellow

Tom Clougherty was executive director of the Adam Smith Institute until Summer 2012. He previously worked as the Institute’s policy director, and before that was Research Director at the Globalisation Institute – a think tank focused on trade and development issues. Tom is interested in all things free market and libertarian, but is particularly enthusiastic about the Austrian school of economics.

In his spare time, Tom enjoys eating, drinking, and watching cricket. He has a degree in law from the University of Cambridge.

Professor Kevin Dowd, Senior Fellow

Kevin Dowd is professor of finance and economics at Durham University and a partner in Cobden Partners in London. Dowd’s main subject of research is private money and free banking, and he is the author of a number of books on the subject, including New Private Monies – A Bit-Part Player? (2014) and Money and the Market (2001).

He holds a BA (first class honours) in economics from the University of Sheffield, an MA in economics from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in macroeconomics from the University of Sheffield. He has held previous positions with the Ontario Economic Council in Toronto, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield and the University of Nottingham.

Professor Anthony J. Evans, Senior Fellow

Anthony J. Evans is Associate Professor of Economics at ESCP Europe Business School. His research interests are in corporate entrepreneurship, monetary theory, and transitional markets. He has published in a range of academic and trade journals and is the co-author of The Neoliberal Revolution in Eastern Europe (Edward Elgar, 2009). He has conducted policy research for the Conservative Party and European Investment Fund, as well as managing consultancy projects for several corporate sponsors. He teaches Executive MBA classes across Europe and has written a number of teaching cases. His work has been covered by most broadsheet newspapers and he has appeared on Newsnight and the BBC World Service. In April 2011 he joined the IEA’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee.

Anthony received his MA and PhD in Economics from George Mason University, USA, and a BA (Hons) from the University of Liverpool, UK.

He tweets at @anthonyjevans.

Dr Tim Evans, Senior Fellow

Dr. Tim Evans has worked for the Adam Smith Institute as Consultant Director from 2008-2012 and in the late 1980s as Press Officer and Senior Policy Consultant. Tim has a PhD from the London School of Economics.

From 1991-1992, Tim was the Chief Economic and Political Adviser to the Slovak Prime Minister – Dr. Jan Carnogursky – and was Head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit. Between 1993 and early 2002, he was the Executive Director of Public Affairs at the Independent Healthcare Association in London where he oversaw the political affairs and public relations of the UK’s independent health and social care providers. And from 2002 to 2005, Tim was President and Director-General of the Centre for the New Europe.

Tim is also CEO of the Cobden Centre, Chairman of the Economic Policy Centre, Chairman of Global Health Futures Ltd, Managing Director of Farsight SPI Ltd, and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Nigel Hawkins, Senior Fellow

Nigel Hawkins is an investment analyst who specializes primarily in the electricity, gas, water and telecoms sector; he also covers several other sectors. He has worked in the City since 1988, notably for Hoare Govett (now RBS), Yamaichi and Williams de Broe (now Evolution). Prior to joining the City, he worked for six years in politics, including three years as Political Correspondence Secretary to Lady Thatcher at 10 Downing Street. In 1987, he stood in the general election as Conservative Party candidate in Sedgefield against Tony Blair.

Hawkins was awarded a degree in law, economics and politics from the University of Buckingham. He has written a number of publications for the Adam Smith Institute, including High Speed Fail (2011), Privatisation Revisited (2010), and Privatisation – Reviving the Momentum (2008).

Tyler Goodspeed, Senior Fellow

Tyler Goodspeed was the Kleinheinz Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and is a Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute. He is currently the Chief Economist at ExxonMobil. From 2020 to 2021 he served as Acting Chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, having been appointed by the President as a Member of the Council in 2019. In that role he advised the Administration’s economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as subsequent economic recovery packages. He previously served as Chief Economist for Macroeconomic Policy and Senior Economist for tax, public finance, and macroeconomics, playing an instrumental role in designing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Before joining the Council, Dr. Goodspeed was on the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oxford and was a lecturer in economics at King’s College London. He has published extensively on financial regulation, banking, and monetary economics, with particular attention to the role of access to credit in mitigating the effects of adverse environmental shocks. Goodspeed has a PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in history from Harvard University. He also received a BA in economics and history from Harvard, an MA in history from Harvard, and an MPhil in economic history from Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar.

Miles Saltiel, Senior Fellow

Miles read PPE at Oxford and wrote his MA dissertation on Japanese business and government at Sussex. In 1979, he joined GEC-Marconi, working in corporate finance and recoveries, to become no. 2 in Marconi Projects. In 1986 he went into investment banking, joining the WestLB Group in 1996 as Head of Equity Research, Emerging Markets. In 1998, he assumed responsibility for London-based Tech Research, and in 2000 was voted one of the UK’s top 50 in the New Economy, in 2002 becoming the senior tech banker at the WestLB group.

He is the CEO of the Fourth Phoenix Company which provides policy, research and associated services to banks, industry and others. His recent publications include Seeing the wood for the trees, which evaluated the Forestry Commission’s place in modern Britain; The revenue and growth effects of Britain’s high taxes, (with Peter Young), which presented cross-country and cross-period analyses of tax reform; Bank regulation: can we trust the Vickers report? (with Tim Ambler), which analysed the report of the Independent Banking Commission and made counter-proposals; On borrowed time, which argued for the reform of “age-related” expenditures to relieve otherwise insupportable fiscal pressure; and No reason to flinch, which argued against insulating the NHS from reform by comparing it to equivalent regimes internationally.

Gabriel Stein, Senior Fellow

Gabriel Stein is an independent macroeconomist with more than thirty years experience, specialising in monetary trends. He regularly guest lectures at universities in a number of countries; and from 2019 to 2021 he taught a course on EU Politics and Policy at St Mary’s University Twickenham. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Economics History at the University of Buckingham.

In addition to Sailing Free, he has written three historical novels that take place in the Byzantine Empire.

Gabriel is a libertarian and member of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Gabriel has written extensively on topics such as the problems of monetary unions, demographics and pensions issues, broad money and credit flows and on sectoral financial balances. In 2005 he predicted that central bankers would lose their semi-divine status through failure to control asset-price bubbles. With the Adam Smith Institute, he has calculated UK Tax Freedom Day on a number of occasions.

Jamie Whyte, Senior Fellow

A former leader of the New Zealand free market party ACT New Zealand, Jamie Whyte is also a classical liberal philosopher and writer. He is the author of Bad Thoughts: A Guide to Clear Thinking (2004), A Load of Blair (2005), Free Thoughts (2012) and Quack Policy (2013) and has also written columns for publications including The Times, City A.M., Standpoint, Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has also been a foreign exchange trader, a management consultant, and a philosophy lecturer at Cambridge.

Jamie won the Institute for Economic Affairs’ Arthur Seldon Memorial Award for Excellence for Quack Policy in 2014, and the Reason Foundation’s Bastiat Prize for journalism in 2006 (jointly with Financial Times‘ Tim Harford).

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Auckland, and studied for an MPhil and a DPhil at St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Eben Wilson, Senior Fellow

Eben Wilson is the Director of Taxpayer Scotland, an advocacy group which brings the voice of the Scots taxpayer to Holyrood and Westminster, to campaign for lower taxes and limited government. Among his work for the Adam Smith Institute was Digital Dirigisme, in which he argued against government intervention in the emerging digital economy.

Formerly Editorial Director of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, Eben has an MA (Hons) in Economics from St Andrews University. He trained at the Tom Hopkinson School of Journalism and worked in radio and television broadcasting as an economics and technology journalist for twenty years before migrating to exploit commercial opportunities in convergent digital media. He now runs an internet services and telematics company specialising in data gathering in the field and industrial e-procurement.

Tim Worstall, Senior Fellow

Tim Worstall is the author of Chasing Rainbows: Economic Myths, Environmental Facts. He blogs at TimWorstall.com, the Adam Smith Institute blog and at Forbes. He has written for The Times, Daily Telegraph, Express, Independent, City AM, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and online for the Social Affairs Unit, Spectator, The Guardian, The Register and Techcentralstation. He’s also ghosted pieces for several UK politicians in many of the UK papers, including the Daily Sport. On top of that, he is, strangely, one of the world experts on the rare earth material Scandium.

Preston Byrne, Legal Fellow

Preston Byrne is a dual-qualified U.S. and English lawyer, partner with the digital commerce group in the Washington, D.C. office of the international law firm Brown Rudnick LLP, and an adjunct professor of law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Preston advises the ASI on legal aspects of its policy proposals and writes on a range of subjects including housing and planning law, the security state, freedom of expression and cryptocurrency.

Preston often contributes to or is quoted by mainstream news media on a range of technology policy topics. In 2013, he was the lead author of Burning Down the House, the ASI’s paper opposing the Conservatives’ Help to Buy mortgage subsidy programme, which was covered by hundreds of national and international media outlets including Forbes, the Financial Times, City A.M., Reuters, the Telegraph, the New Statesman, Sky News, Deutsche Welle, and the BBC. More recently, in 2020, he wrote Sense and Sensitivity: Restoring Free Speech in the United Kingdom, a proposal for the repeal of numerous censorial laws in the United Kingdom.

Preston received an MA (Hons) from the University of St Andrews, an LL.B. in English law from the College of Law of England and Wales, and an LL.M. in U.S. law from the University of Connecticut Law School.

James Bartholomew, Fellow

James Bartholomew is a British author and journalist who has written for the Financial Times, the Far Eastern Economic Review, The Telegraph, the Daily Express, The Spectator, and the Daily Mail. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs

He is the author of seminal work on British benefits The Welfare State We’re In (2004), which won the Institute of Economic Affairs’ 2005 Arthur Seldon Award for Excellence, as well as the Atlas Foundation’s 2007 Sir Anthony Fisher Memorial Award. He tweets as @JGBartholomew.

Anthony Boutall, Fellow

Anthony Boutall is an Assistant Headteacher at one of the UK’s leading grammar schools, simultaneously holding responsibility as Head of Faculty for Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. In education, he has deployed robust pedagogical tools and helped facilitate self-development. His students have attained more progress than 90%< of the country, as well as being in the top 1% for attainment.

He studied PPE at Oxford, where he wrote a dissertation on the 1979 budget, and he has since written articles for think tanks and political organisations. He has successfully campaigned on behalf of taxpayers and actively supported the introduction of greater choice in education, breaking LEA monopoly power at a local level.

Before moving into education, Anthony worked in executive search and consulting. He was directly responsible for advising Chairmen of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 PLCs, and he went on to become the youngest director at his firm.

Anthony advises and supports the ASI in the organisation’s extensive educational offering, helping to spread knowledge and understanding of the philosophical, political, and economic foundations that underpin the intellectual weight of Adam Smith’s ideas, as well as those of his successors.

Bryan Cheang, Fellow

Bryan Cheang is the Assistant Director of the Centre for the Study of Governance & Society at King’s College London, where he received his PhD and MA in Political Economy. He is also a graduate of the National University of Singapore. He brings with him his policy experience from the Singapore civil service.

Bryan’s academic research focuses on topics relating to comparative political economy, the developmental state model and particularly, the challenges of successful industrial policy interventions.

Dr Arthur M. Diamond, Jr, Fellow

Arthur Diamond’s recent research is on innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship, all of which feature prominently in his book Openness to Creative Destruction: Sustaining Innovative Dynamism from the Oxford University Press.

He studied philosophy and economics at the University of Chicago, where he also was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Nobel laureate Gary Becker.  After Chicago, he was on the faculty at The Ohio State University and is now Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

Arthur’s academic articles and reviews have appeared in a wide range of journals including:  Economic Inquiry, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Political Economy, History of Political Economy, Science, and Theory and Decision.

Outside of academia, Arthur wrote the script for “Frank Knight and the Chicago School” in the Great Economic Thinkers series and writes commentaries or reviews for InsideSources and for publications such as the Telegraph, Reason, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Wall Street Journal.  He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, and a Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.

He is the co-author of the ASI’s paper, ‘Against The Man of System: Innovative Dynamism after Covid-19,’ which argues that the state lacks the entrepreneurialism and innovation provided by the private sector.

Dr Helen Evans, Fellow

Dr Helen Evans RGN is a senior nurse with nearly twenty years’ experience in the National Health Service, as well as the director of Nurses for Reform. Her career has seen her work in some of Britain’s leading hospitals including Senior Infection Control Nurse, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust; Infection Control Nurse, the Royal London Hospitals NHS Trust; Operating Theatre Sister, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

Helen trained at Whipps Cross Hospital in London’s East End, holds a degree in Health Management from Anglia Ruskin University and was awarded her Ph.D in Health Economics at Brunel University she has also been a guest lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University.

In addition to running NFR, Helen is a health policy consultant who has worked with a range of British and European think tanks including the Stockholm Network and the Centre for the New Europe. She is also a director and Senior Health Policy Consultant with Farsight Strategic Political Intelligence Ltd (Farsight SPI).

Dr Anton Howes, Fellow

Anton Howes is a historian of innovation. He is the head of innovation research at The Entrepreneurs Network.

He is currently writing a book on why innovation accelerated in the eighteenth century in Britain, which in turn led to the Industrial Revolution. He is also historian-in-residence at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce

His first book was Arts and Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation is out now from Princeton University Press. He received a PhD in Political Economy from King's College London in 2016, studying the British Industrial Revolution’s implications for explaining the sources of modern economic growth.

He co-wrote ‘School Vouchers for England’, a joint publication between the ASI and the Centre for Market Reform of Education, at which he was a Research Consultant.

Anton holds a BA in War Studies and History from King’s College London, and tweets as @antonhowes.

Jonathon Kitson, Fellow

Jonathon Kitson qualified as a Superforecaster at Good Judgement Inc in January 2021 after answering over 200 questions, finishing in the top 1% of forecasters on topics such as Brexit, Coronavirus and Geopolitics. He has written regularly for Capx on defence issues, prediction and coronavirus and also correctly predicted when the vaccine would be approved in the UK.

He co-authored a report with ASI fellow James Lawson and Head of Research Matthew Lesh on accelerating the vaccine rollout programme. He has a BA in politics from SOAS, University of London.

He tweets @KitsonJ1

Matthew Lesh, Fellow

Matthew Lesh is Head of Public Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs. He was formerly Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute.

He is also the author of Democracy in a Divided Australia (2018). Matthew graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts (Degree with Honours) and completed a Masters in Public Policy and Administration at the London School of Economics where he received the Peter Self Prize for Best Overall Result.

Matthew is a former Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs (Australia). He has also worked for Australian politicians, in digital communications, and founded a mobile application development start-up. 

He tweets as @matthewlesh.

Toby Norfolk-Thompson, Fellow

Toby is the CIO of Matrixport and previously spent over 20 years in senior trading roles at Coinbase and Barclays. He has been heavily involved in decentralised finance since 2016 and has set up a number of fintech businesses including Flare, a layer-1 protocol, and Singularity, an Egyptian payments platform.

He advises the ASI on fintech, digital assets, crypto and regulation.

Mark Oates, Fellow

Mark Oates is the Director of We Vape and the Snus Users Association. He has a keen interest in legalising anything from safe standing in football stadiums to recreational cannabis. He advocates evidence-based harm reduction in a range of areas from tobacco to drug policy, a subject he has written on for the Institute of Economic Affairs. He also provided evidence in the 2018 ECJ case to overturn the ban of snus across the European Union and worked on the successful 2018 campaign to legalise medical cannabis in the UK. He has personally circumvented planning regulations by building and living on a boat.

Christopher Snowdon, Fellow

Christopher Snowdon is an author and freelance journalist, writing principally as a vocal opponent of government intervention in matters such as smoking, alcohol, and obesity. He is a research fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, and blogs at Velvet Glove, Iron Fist. His bibliography includes The Art of Suppression: Pleasure, Panic and Prohibition since 1800 (2011), The Spirit Level Delusion: Fact-checking the Left’s New Theory of Everything (2010), and Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking (2009).

With the Adam Smith Institute, he has written The Wages of Sin Taxes (2012) and, with John C. Duffy, The Minimal Evidence for Minimum Pricing (2012). He tweets as@cjsnowdon.

Dr Michael Turner, Fellow

Michael is a pollster and strategist, with expertise in campaigns, public policy, behaviour change and strategic communications.

He has more than a decade of experience working in politics and elections, having worked with several major political parties in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

Michael regularly advises senior decision makers in politics, government, and business, working on projects across the globe.

He is a Fellow at the Royal Statistical Society, and a Research Fellow at the Elections Centre, where he completed his doctoral thesis.

He is the co-author of the ASI’s paper, ‘Ever closer mates: The deep support for a United Kingdom-Australia free trade deal’ on popular opinions about the Australia-UK trade deal.

Michael holds a PhD in Political Science, a Masters in Social Research, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with Politics from the University of Plymouth, UK.

He tweets as @pollstermike.

Dr Vuk Vukovic, Senior Fellow

Vuk Vukovic is a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM), where he teaches Political economy, Principles of Economics, International Economics and Public Finance. He is a co-founder and vice president of the Adriatic Economic Association.

He holds a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics, in the field of political economy. He received his BA in economics from the University of Zagreb, from which he graduated magna cum laude. During his studies he attended summer schools at the University of California at Berkeley and at Harvard University. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, Clare College during the summer of 2013.

He has published at top academic journals, and is working on a number of forthcoming publications, in addition to writing articles, blogs, and op-eds for several newspapers and think tanks. He blogs at http://im-an-economist.blogspot.com.

Professor Khalid Al Khalifa, Fellow

Khalid Al Khalifa is the founder of University College of Bahrain (UCB) and Chairman of its Board of Trustees. He is a member of the Bahraini royal family. He has been an academic for over 30 years holding a Doctorate of Philosophy of Management from the University of Northumbria.

When he conceptualized UCB, and brought it in existence, in 2002, Professor Al Khalifa’s vision was to provide a world class university for the people of Bahrain.

Professor Al Khalifa has undergone specialized training in Financial Management (both Islamic & Corporate) at London Business School and in Educational Management at Harvard Graduate School of Education, amongst many others.

What makes him a true leader is his love and passion for the field of education and his generosity, whether it is in his offering scholarships to needy students or supporting with the staff of his university.

He brings expertise on topics around education, Islamic finance, and international cooperation, with a particular emphasis on exploring the ideas of the enlightenment era internationally.

Associate Fellows

Duncan McClements

Duncan is an economics student at King's College Cambridge, and is interested in innovation, immigration, housing and defence. He is an Emergent Ventures grantee, an Atlas Fellow and has written two papers for the Adam Smith Institute, Optimising for our Openness Level: The Economic Effects of Visa Auctions in the UK and Couped Up: Quantifying the costs of housing restrictions to the UK Economy.