Our Team

The Resolution Foundation has a small staff team, led by our Chief Executive, Gavin Kelly, and a board of six trustees

Gavin Kelly

Chief Executive

Gavin joined the Foundation from Number 10 Downing Street where he worked as Deputy Chief of Staff from 2007 to 2010. Prior to this Gavin was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors at HMT, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State at the Department for Education and the Department for Communities and Local Government, Deputy Head of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and a member of Tony Blair’s Policy Unit.

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Vidhya Alakeson

Research and Strategy Director

Vidhya joined the Resolution Foundation in January 2011 having previously worked as a Senior Fellow at the Nuffield Trust where she was responsible for developing the organisation’s international programme of work. Prior to that, Vidhya spent three and a half years in Washington D.C, initially as a Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy conducting independent, comparative research and then working for the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services covering issues such as early years, behavioural health, health reform and housing.

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Katherine Green

Director of Communications, Partnerships & Organisational Strategy

Katherine is responsible for the Foundation's external communications, its partnerships with others and the strategic direction of the organisation. Prior to joining the team, Katherine was at HM Treasury for 10 years, working on a range of issues including financial services, productivity and adult skills and was responsible for co-ordinating the annual Pre-Budget and Budget reports from 2005-2007. She most recently led the team responsible for delivering tax policy to support businesses through the recession.

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Matthew Whittaker

Senior Economist

Matthew is responsible for the Foundation’s economic analysis. He leads on defining and researching the low earner group, managing the annual publication of the Low Earners Audit. Prior to joining the Foundation he spent five years as a statistical and economic specialist in the House of Commons.

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Alex Hurrell

Senior Analyst

Alex is an economist specialising in poverty analysis and social policy. His areas of technical expertise include analysis of micro-data, survey design and implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) including rigorous impact evaluation.

Prior to joining Resolution Foundation in March 2012, Alex lead the Poverty and Social Protection team at Oxford Policy Management, a development consultancy specialising in public policy analysis and implementation in low and middle income countries. His particular interests are economic and social welfare policy, social mobility and public sector service delivery.

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James Plunkett

Secretary to the Commission on Living Standards

James is Secretary to the Commission on Living Standards, a wide-ranging investigation into the pressures facing people on low-to-middle incomes. He joined the Resolution Foundation in October 2010, prior to which he was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

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Giselle Cory

Senior Research and Policy Analyst

Giselle joined the Resolution Foundation in January 2012 and is responsible for issues relating to the labour market, savings and assets. Prior to joining us, she worked on criminal justice issues at the national charity Victim Support. Before this, she was at the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, HM Treasury, working primarily on policy on children, education and skills.

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Daniel Chandler

Senior Research and Policy Analyst

Daniel joined the Resolution Foundation in February 2012. Prior to joining the team he worked across a range of policy areas in the Cabinet Office, initially in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, where he worked on welfare policy and on sentencing reform; then in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, where he led on early years and childcare policies and wrote key sections of the Government’s social mobility strategy; and most recently in the Cities Policy Unit, working to promote economic growth and decentralisation in England’s major cities.

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Matthew Pennycook

Senior Research and Policy Analyst

Matthew joined the Resolution Foundation as a Senior Research and Policy Analyst in January 2012, prior to which he was Head of Office and Senior Researcher for a Member of Parliament. From 2008 to 2009 he worked for the Fair Pay Network – a national coalition which aims to raise awareness of low paid work and in-work poverty in the UK and to promote solutions to address their social cost. 

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Jayne Desmond

Operations Manager

Jayne is responsible for finance, HR, executive assistance and office management. Previously, she was Company Manager for Past Pleasures Ltd, the UK’s largest costumed historical interpretation company, and worked for the National Trust.

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Felicity Dennistoun

Communications Officer

Felicity is responsible for external communications and events organisation. Prior to joining the Resolution Foundation she worked on violence against women and girls policy at the Home Office where she developed policy to tackle stalking and harassment. She organised the first joint conference with the Association of Chief Police Officers for police on how to tackle stalking.

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Joe Coward

Research and Communications Assistant

Joe joined the Resolution Foundation in June 2011, and works with both the Research and External Affairs teams. Prior to joining the Resolution Foundation, Joe was a Research Intern at Demos where he contributed to the Home Front report on parenting and the Open Left project. Joe studied Economic & Social History at the University of Edinburgh, spending a year on exchange at the University of Chicago where he studied Economics, Public Policy & Sociology.

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