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Working with you for the public

At Leapwise, our team is the reason we consistently deliver exceptional results for our clients.

Our consulting teams comprise highly skilled professionals committed to making a positive impact in the public sector. Each team you work with will have a blend of the sector expertise and experience that allows us understand your world, the specialist technical skills to address your specific challenge, and the core consulting skills required to work seamlessly with your teams and inspire change. We take an interdisciplinary and evidence-based approach to problem solving, embracing ideas from behavioural science, economics and management – but always focus first and foremost on getting things done.

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

Tom Gash

Managing Director

Tom Gash 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 works at the interface of government, business and academia and is passionate about the need for better decision making to solve our most pressing social problems. Prior to becoming and independent adviser and founding Leapwise, Tom was Director of Research at the Institute for Government, where he was part of the organisation’s set up team and board and led a range of ground-breaking research to improve government effectiveness. Before this, he was senior adviser (Home Affairs) in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in the mid-2000s, a role that followed a period supporting FTSE 100 executives as a strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group.

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.

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Sean Cregten

Director

Sean Cregten leads public sector consulting projects for Leapwise.  His work focusses on strategic planning and long-term decision making, and helping organisations develop capabilities and effective governance.
Prior to Leapwise, Sean worked across the New Zealand public and third sector on business cases, economic advice, and transformation and capability programmes as a consultant with PwC. He has a keen interest in dual-mandate organisations, regulatory design, and in how to tackle wicked problems that ‘fall through the cracks’ of traditional organisational structures.

Sean has experience getting endeavours off the ground, including launching a digital start up in Canada, creating advisory offerings leveraged for public good, and developing methods for teams to enjoy doing their best work together. He has an MBA with distinction from the University of Cambridge and a BA from the University of British Columbia.

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David Rees

Director

David Rees leads public sector consulting projects for Leapwise.  His work focusses on justice strategy and transformation projects.

Prior to Leapwise, David ran a consultancy based in the Caribbean. He’s helped clients in the policing, justice, defence, and national security sectors deliver organisational and system-level transformation work.

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Tanvi Bhatkal

Manager

Dr Tanvi Bhatkal 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.

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Annie Haswell

Senior Consultant

Annie Haswell 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 has worked on Leapwise projects in policing, justice and local government, including a behaviour change project to reduce fly-tipping and work to promote preventative approaches in public services. She previously worked in the tech industry, developing behaviour change solutions that reduce carbon emissions.

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.

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Joe Bowen

Senior Consultant

Joe Bowen 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. 

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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.

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Jules Taylor

Executive Support

Jules Taylor 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.
Prior to working as a Personal Assistant, Jules worked as a Travel Agent for over a decade, which allowed her to indulge in her love of travelling and seeing new places.

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.

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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.
During her time working for a selection of government funded QUANGOs and other centrally funded organisations, Emma gained extensive experience working with start-up businesses and SME’s.

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.

Our Network

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Paul Griffiths OBE

Paul Griffiths is a Leapwise Associate and 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.
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Nicola Hughes

Nicola Hughes is a Leapwise Associate and 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.

Before going into consultancy, Nicola worked at the Institute for Government, where she led research and learning programmes on ministerial effectiveness. Previously, she was a senior policy adviser at Shelter and worked on governance in central and local government.

Nicola is a passionate supporter of environmental and social causes and a trustee of two social enterprises.

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Suzanne Jacob OBE

Suzanne Jacob OBE is a Leapwise Associate with over two decades’ experience in crime, security and policing. She has worked extensively within government on national security and organised crime, and at national charities Victim Support, Crimestoppers and SafeLives. Suzanne currently works independently as a NED and consultant, focusing on organisational development and strategy, security and safeguarding issues, and accountability within state agencies.

 
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Rick Limentani

Rick Limentani is a Leapwise Associate and 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.
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Neha Mahendru

Neha Mahendru 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.

Neha is an accredited executive coach (AOEC) and is passionate about helping leaders at all levels reach their full potential.

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Wayne Parkes

Wayne Parkes 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.

Want to work with us?

Leapwise also draws on over 20 independent consultants and experts with differing specialisms. If you have a passion for better decision making, strong skills and experience and wish to join our core team or our network, please contact us.