POLITICIAL & CAREER

Candidate
  • At the last election I raised over £100,000 to help support my campaign to win the tough Labour held seat of Dagenham and Rainham, reducing Labour’s majority to 2,630 from nearly 8,500 (2007–2010)
  • Achieved a good swing against Yvette Cooper as the candidate, Pontefact & Castleford (2005)
  • Councillor and Portfolio Holder for Finance and e-government at Waveney District Councillor responsible for the £15m budget and helping attract investment to the Suffolk community (2002–2004)

Career
  • I have worked at the heart of Conservative thinking as a Special Adviser to Lord Ashcroft, developing campaigns to win key seats for the Party.  
  • I currently work in Public Affairs as an Associate Director for Lexington Communications:  Having worked in the private sector all of my life, I work for a small independent company helping business to get their key issues across to policy makers.
  • Prior to the last general election, I worked as a freelance Project & Communication Manager: From 2008 I contracted for Aviva and Sky on multi-million pound change programmes, including a global media provider project, creating annual savings of over £2 million.

Charity & Community
  • Getting other people involved in their community and creating a lasting legacy: In 2008 I ran a volunteer community project that helped clean up a town centre – this has now become a focal point in the town and is the best way to show what difference Conservatives can make.  
  • One of the proudest community projects I have been involved with is the Streetwyze project that gets young people away from a life of crime and back into positive society.  I advised a resident on how to get it off the ground, raised money to get it going, and it has now won praise from the media (including The Mirror).
  • I have been a School Governor at a successful Academy School for over seven years and enjoy challenging the Principal and the staff, so that we maintain our ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating.