So long folks

So after two and a half years today’s my last day at the Adam Smith Institute. Starting next week I’m off to join Philip Salter at The Entrepreneurs Network as Research Director.

Being Head of Research (and before then Head of Projects) at the ASI has been a blast. There are few workplaces that can offer comparable opportunities and I’d like to thank the ASI’s co-founders Eamonn Butler and Madsen Pirie taking me on board as a graduate.

Soon after I joined I was writing op-eds in national newspapers and appearing on TV thanks to the awesome media-work of Flora Laven-Morris and the constant help and advice of Sam Bowman and Ben Southwood.

Over my two years plus, I’ve seen the office change a lot. Including seeing Sam, Ben, Flora, and Ellie Weston move on to new jobs and seeing Matt Kilcoyne, Daniel Pryor and Sophie Jarvis join leaving the Institute in good hands. That’s not forgetting a range of interns (Hunter, Olly, Amelia, Jonas and now Ananya) who have all left their mark in their own way and will surely go on to great things.

I leave knowing that the ASI remains a research powerhouse (2nd best Domestic Economic Policy Think Tank in the World!). We’re a small team but through our brilliant fellows and associates (like Anthony J. Evans and Kevin Dowd) we punch well above our weight. Over the past year we’ve published top quality agenda-shifting research on immigration, financial regulation, monetary policy, vaping and, my personal favourite, the case for abolishing the MOT test. We’ve got a whole load of great papers and reports in the works (I count 8 including one by yours truly) to release in the coming months too. So watch this space.

The Adam Smith Institute is needed now more than ever and I’m excited to see what happens next.