Working with you for the public
At Leapwise, our team is the reason we consistently deliver exceptional results for our clients.
We pride ourselves on our collaborative and client-focused approach, which allows us to work closely with our clients and co-create solutions – ‘doing with’ and not ‘doing to’.
Our Team
Tom Gash
Managing Director
Tom is Leapwise Managing Director, leading the organisation, overseeing its most critical projects, and developing many of Leapwise’s tools and methods. He has spent his career supporting decision making of ministers and prime ministers, senior officials and the boards of non-profits and private companies in the UK, Europe, Middle East, North America and Australasia.
Tom’s sector specialism is crime, security and justice and he operates across Leapwise service areas. He is the author of Times ‘Thought’ Book of the Year “Criminal: The Truth About Why People Do Bad Things” (Penguin, 2016), an in-demand international speaker on both criminal and organisational decision-making, and a regular media commentator (BBC, Sky, ABC, Fox) and government Select Committee expert witness. He has directed over 100 consulting and research projects and authored over 30 academic and practitioner focused articles, as well as articles for The Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian, WIRED, and Prospect Magazine. He is an Honorary faculty member of University College London and a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Government.
Dr Tanvi Bhatkal
Manager
Tanvi is a Manager at Leapwise with over a decade of experience at the intersection of strategy and mixed methods research across the public sector, with a passion for social justice. She brings deep expertise in developing and applying robust analytical frameworks and research methodologies to address complex systems challenges.
At Leapwise, Tanvi has led projects across UK policing, criminal justice and local government with a particular focus on complex social challenges. Her work combines a strong analytical approach with a collaborative and pragmatic style, using data-driven insight and human-centred design to develop evidence-based organisational strategy and programme design. Most recently, she led our work supporting the design of an innovative approach to the new National Police Wellbeing Survey.
Tanvi holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and an MSc from the University of Oxford, and brings a strong research foundation to her consulting practice.
Annie Haswell
Senior Consultant
Annie is a Senior Consultant at Leapwise, specialising in policy, evaluation and behaviour change. She also brings experience in organisational development, including governance improvement work.
Annie holds a master’s degree in Behavioural Science and an undergraduate degree in Psychology, both from Durham University. At Durham, she founded and led the Durham University Behavioural Insights Society and led a randomised controlled trial project focused on evaluating the impact of a leadership development tool. She has helped shape some of Leapwise’s core project methodologies relating to workforce and public behaviour change, and is passionate about creating positive social impact through behavioural science.
Joe Bowen
Senior Consultant
Joe is a Senior Consultant at Leapwise, where he currently focuses on supporting performance improvement and change in policing. Prior to joining Leapwise, Joe spent 6 years in the education sector, most recently as an English Teacher. Joe has a strong interest in high performing organisations and worked at the top-performing secondary school in England, where he developed the curriculum that enabled pupils to rank first in national exams. He also supported national projects at the Department for Education and worked on the design of school inspectorates in Ghana.
Joe holds a first class degree from the University of York in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), where he ran a consultancy group that worked on pro bono projects for the local community and undertook projects to support entrepreneurs in Uganda. He currently serves as a special constable with the Metropolitan Police.
James Sweetland
Senior Consultant
James is a Senior Consultant at Leapwise and brings extensive experience consulting and researching on police effectiveness. Immediately prior to joining Leapwise, James advised and wrote independently on policing, technology, and AI, working with and interviewing senior policing leaders in the UK and internationally. He led a major research project on police use of facial recognition in Western countries, resulting in an academic publication and a perspectives paper for the Police Foundation (forthcoming), and interviewed the UK Minister for Policing, Sweden’s National Police Commissioner, and the heads of the IOPC, HMICFRS, City of London Police, and Avon and Somerset Police.
Earlier in his career, James worked for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and the leading Westminster think tanks Demos and Reform, where work included co-authoring a policy paper with former Home Office Chief Scientific Adviser Sir John Aston. James holds an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Oxford University and was a previous winner of the Orwell Youth Prize. His work on policing has been published by The Times and featured on BBC Radio.
With a passion for enhancing public safety and evidence-based practice, James continues to contribute to the dialogue on effective policing strategies through Leapwise Perspectives and wider thought leadership publications, and through his consulting work.
Matthew Drury
Analyst
Matthew is an Analyst at Leapwise, specialising in data analysis and quantitative research. He’s focusing on analysing data collected through the National Police Wellbeing Survey, a project that’s helping policing organisations improve workforce wellbeing for those who serve the public.
Matthew holds an MSc in Statistics from the University of Oxford, where he learned and applied innovative data science tools and techniques. His dissertation was a quantitative project aimed at producing insights for policymakers that could help reduce educational inequalities. He also holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.
Jules Taylor
Executive Support
Jules is the Executive Support at Leapwise, managing Tom’s diary and looking after the HR and Operational Admin for the Business. A Virtual PA since 2019, she had previously spent 12 years working in London supporting C-Suite and HR Executives as a Personal Assistant.
Outside of working, she is also a keen sporting volunteer. She recently supported the UEFA’s VIP & Protocol Team, both as a volunteer and volunteer recruiter, during the men’s and women’s tournaments at Wembley Stadium. Her career highlight was being given the opportunity to be a Games Maker at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, based at Greenwich Park for the Equestrian.
Emma Turner
Finance and Contracts Manager
Emma is our Finance and Contracts Manager and therefore first point of contact for everything accounts and procurement related.
Prior to joining our team, Emma was Business and Finance manager at the River Restoration Centre – the knowledge and interest garnered led her to purchase a canal boat. She is also an ex-footballer, coach and referee who played in the first ever women’s national league. If Emma is not out walking or on her boat, she’s watching football or travelling.
Rick Gardner
Freelance UX Writer and Content Specialist
Rick is a Freelance UX Writer and Content Specialist. He manages Leapwise’s website, social media, and email marketing, and has previously worked with organisations such as the British Council, Homes England, and the Department for Education.
Our Associates
Sarah Castor-Perry
Sarah is an experienced consultant with a track record of helping individuals, teams and organisations understand themselves better and achieve sustainable change. Over the last 11 years, she has supported public and private sector organisations to deal with diverse challenges around leadership, strategic planning, and transformation. As an accredited coach, she coaches clients on all aspects of their work and life, provides specialist ADHD coaching, and runs interactive neurodiversity-awareness workshops for organisations.
Yusuf Chaudhri
Yusuf is an accomplished leader in strategy, operations, and program management with expertise in developing and implementing operating models for complex organisations, including the City of London Police, National Highways, the Home Office, and major consulting firms like Deloitte. With a proven track record in driving successful outcomes, Yusuf has led transformative projects, from re-designing governance frameworks and delivery processes to introducing innovative sales models and securing significant cost savings. Recognised for exceptional performance Yusuf excels in stakeholder management, team leadership, and strategic oversight, ensuring high-quality results in challenging environments.
Sean Cregten
Sean is a former Leapwise director who has also worked across the New Zealand public and third sector for PWC on business cases, economic advice, and transformation and capability programmes.
Sean has also launched a digital start-up in Canada, created advisory offerings that benefit the public good, and developed methods for teams to collaborate and perform at their best. He has an MBA with distinction from the University of Cambridge and a BA from the University of British Columbia.
Paul Griffiths OBE
Paul is a former senior police officer, who led one of the largest modern slavery investigations in the UK. He previously served as President of the Police Superintendents’ Association (2019 – 2022) and was recognised for services to policing with an OBE in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. For his leadership during the pandemic, he was appointed a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute in 2020. In his spare time, he is a Deputy Lieutenant, Magistrate, and chairs the Board of Trustees for St John Ambulance Cymru.
Nicola Hughes
Nicola is a consultant specialising in leadership. Nicola is an experienced facilitator, designing and delivering engaging, collaborative workshops and development programmes for a range of audiences from senior Westminster politicians to local community activists.
She works with public sector and charity leaders to help them set strategy and make better policy; some of her recent clients include the Young Women’s Trust, the Government of Jersey, London Councils, and the Cabinet Office.
Suzanne Jacob OBE
Rick Limentani
Rick is an adviser with twenty years’ experience in strategy consulting. He brings strong analytics and communications skills, and has experience in procurement and transformation projects, both in the public and private sectors. He has previously worked with a number of consultancies including McKinsey and LEK. Beyond consulting, Rick is a serving magistrate and is an award winning screen-writer.
Neha Mahendru
Neha is an Associate Director with Leapwise with twenty years of experience across the charitable, public and private sector. She works with Leapwise and independently as an adviser and coach.
Previously, Neha was a Director at Impetus where she spent nine years supporting charities deliver sustainable impact and scale. And she was a management consultant with McKinsey and Optum Health, improving health care organisations through analytical insight and by building collaborative networks.
Wayne Parkes
Wayne is a Leapwise Associate with 30 years’ experience in policing, having held numerous senior leadership roles focused around digital and ICT, police business support services, organisational transformation and change. This includes time as Programme Director for the National Enabling Programmes at the NPCC, Chair of the National Police Technology Council (where he delivered the first National Policing Digital Strategy), and roles leading the business services transformation between Warwickshire and West Mercia Police.