Jenny Smith – Acting Chief Executive
Jenny Smith has worked extensively in and around the Labour and trade union movement, including UCATT, TGWU, CSP, FBU, and the rail unions ASLEF, RMT and TSSA. As a senior policy officer at the Trades Union Congress, Jenny worked with unions in the education sector. As a political consultant Jenny has worked in policy development, media and communications, and government and Labour Party relations. Most recently, Jenny headed up the Trade Union Co-ordinating Committee which oversaw the successful completion of the third round of political fund review ballots.
You can contact Jenny by emailing [email protected]

Catherine Needham – Director, Public Services Programme
Catherine Needham is a Lecturer in British Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. She recently completed a D.Phil at Nuffield College, Oxford, on the government-citizen relationship under New Labour, and is writing a book on the consumerisation of citizenship. Her research interests include public service reform, citizenship and political marketing. She is the author of Citizen-consumers: New Labour’s marketplace democracy, published by Catalyst.
You can contact Catherine by emailing [email protected].

John Underwood – Chair of Board of Management
John Underwood is a former Director of Communications for the Labour Party, and has extensive professional experience in journalism and political communications. He has been centrally involved with both Catalyst and the Full Employment Forum since their inception.
You can contact John by emailing [email protected]

Mike Watts – Vice-Chair of Board of Management
Mike Watts is a former Director of Finance and Personnel for the Labour Party and has been an active party member for forty years. He currently works as a freelance management and training consultant.

Richard Burgon – Research Associate
Richard Burgon was Chair of Cambridge University Labour Club 2001-2. As President and Founder of the Forward Left Society he edited The Cambridge Socialist Essays. His biographical essays of Rodney Bickerstaffe and Robert Smillie are published in The Politico's Dictionary of Labour Biography. He is a member of Leeds North East CLP and the GMB.
You can contact Richard by emailing [email protected]
Read recent articles by Richard Burgon.

Mark Donoghue – Research Associate
Mark Donoghue was Programme Coordinator at Catalyst from 2003 to 2005, and currently works at a membership organisation. He is a fan of George Orwell and other radical journalists/writers and spends his spare time socialising with friends and family.

Richard McNeill Douglas – Research Associate
Richard McNeill Douglas is writing a book on the long term political, social and spiritual implications of environmentalism. He also works as a researcher within the public sector, and writes essays and reviews for publications such as Renewal and Red Pepper. He has been political education officer of Cambridge University Labour Club and Tooting CLP.
You can contact Richard by emailing [email protected]

Graham Hobbs – Research Associate
Graham Hobbs is undertaking a PhD at the Institute of Education, University of London on the impact of education policy on educational inequalities. This builds on research he completed at the Department for Education and Skills in 2003, and at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics.
You can contact Graham by emailing [email protected]

Ben Jackson – Research Associate
Ben Jackson is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Politics and Modern History at Mansfield College, Oxford University. His research focuses on the history of egalitarian political theory, the history and politics of the labour movement, and the application of normative political theory to public policy. He is currently working on a book provisionally entitled “Equality and the British Left”. He is the author with Paul Segal of Why inequality matters, published by Catalyst.
You can contact Ben by emailing [email protected]

Martin McIvor – Research Associate
Martin McIvor was Director of Catalyst from 2002 to 2005. He is now working as a freelance researcher and writer as well as pursuing academic interests in political theory and philosophy, having recently completed a PhD at the London School of Economics. He has worked across a range of policy areas including public services, economic policy, employment relations and trade unionism, constitutional reform, poverty and inequality, social security and pensions, and transport. Martin is a frequent public speaker and has written for publications including The Observer, Tribune, Progress, Renewal, Red Pepper, and Soundings.
You can contact Martin by emailing [email protected]
Read recent articles by Martin McIvor

Richard Layfield – Research Associate
Dr. Richard Layfield is the Denman Baynes Research Fellow in Inorganic Chemistry at Clare College in the University of Cambridge. In addition to his research interests in organometallic chemistry and catalysis he is involved in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s programme to raise public awareness of chemistry and to increase scientists’ participation in politics. He is an activist within the Cambridge CLP and a member of the Association of University Teachers.

Phil Parvin – Research Associate
Phil Parvin recently completed a PhD in political philosophy from the London School of Economics, and has since been working in political communications, public affairs, and policy research. He has taught at the LSE, Oxford, and the University of London and has spoken on issues of social justice, redistribution, and equality to audiences in Britain, Europe and the US. He has worked at the European Commission and the European Parliament. He is currently involved in a number of projects aimed at exploring the decline in political engagement and is writing a book on cultural diversity and equality.
You can contact Phil by emailing [email protected]

David Rowland – Research Associate
David Rowland is Research Fellow at the School of Public Policy, University College London. He is currently examining electoral support for the far-right in the UK. He has published on a wide variety of public policy issues including EU regulation of public service provision, long term care services for older people, reform of the NHS and the private finance initiative in schools and hospitals. He is co-author of NHS Plc with Allyson Pollock. He has an undergraduate degree in Government and a master's degree in Political Theory both from the London School of Economics.
Read publications by David Rowland

Paul Segal – Research Associate
Paul Segal is a DPhil economist at Nuffield College, Oxford University, and  a Visiting Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has been a Research Fellow at Harvard University and a Consultant Economist at the United Nations Development Programme, working on the Human Development Report 2002. He is currently working on global inequality, and on trade and income distribution in Argentina. He is the author with Ben Jackson of Why inequality matters, published by Catalyst.