About us

Supporting Companies, Governments, and Candidates internationally to achieve their priorities.

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exceptional insights and
unparalleled expertise

Arden Strategies is an internationally renowned advisory and communications firm. Based in London, our team is made up of truly outstanding individuals with proven experience in business, government, strategic communications and politics.

Arden offers insight, judgement and a sense of shared values which enables us to provide strategic counsel to corporates, candidates and governments from across the world.

led by the former UK Cabinet Minister, the Rt Hon. Jim Murphy

At the heart of our team is our founder, the former UK Cabinet Minister, the Rt Hon. Jim Murphy. For more than two decades Jim has successfully led exceptional professionals from across the public and private sector on policy development, messaging strategy, international elections, and high profile public persuasion campaigns.

Jim is Arden’s founder and CEO as well as one of the UK’s most experienced government Ministers. He was a Labour MP for almost two decades and has held multiple ministerial portfolios including as a cabinet minister.

He was leader of the Scottish Labour Party and was a senior member of Labour’s election winning teams. His roles included Minister for Technology and Public Service Reform at the Cabinet Office, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, Minister for Europe, Russia and Public Diplomacy as well as Secretary of State for Scotland. In opposition, he served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, for Defence, for International Development.

Jim is also a member of His Majesty’s Privy Council.

Our team

Adam Scott
Account Director

During his eight years in Westminster, Adam briefed and advised more than 20 Labour Shadow Secretaries of State across a range of policy roles. For six years, he played a pivotal role in the Labour policy unit, overseeing a diverse portfolio of domestic policies including transport, housing, culture, and energy. His contributions directly influenced the development of the last two Labour general election manifestos. Adam will serve Arden’s growing corporate client base, as well as contribute to finding and winning new contracts.

Alec James
Account Director

Alec has worked with and for some of the most senior figures in the Labour Party including the then Deputy Leader, Tom Watson. He also worked at the heart of Labour’s HQ in the General Secretary’s office giving him a ring-side seat on all major developments in Labour politics in recent years.
Alec has policy expertise in energy, finance and technology policy.

Amelia Foster
International Researcher

Amelia holds an MSc from King’s College London in Global Leadership in Peacebuilding, where she focused on foreign interventionism and security studies, and an BSc in Politics and International Relations from the University of Bristol. She also has experience working in pandemic response in the UK government.

Anna Turley
Associate Director

Anna is an experienced senior executive with a distinguished record of achievement as a Member of Parliament, civil servant, government advisor and pioneering leader across local government, think tanks and Whitehall. Anna’s experience includes serving as the Member of Parliament for Redcar, a Shadow Minister as well as a member of two Select Committees including the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.

Blair McDougall
Senior Strategist

Blair is one of Labour’s sharpest strategists and has served as a Senior Special Adviser in five UK government departments in the previous Labour governments. A former member of Labour’s National Executive Committee he was also an adviser to the Chair of the Labour Party. Blair was the Chief Executive of the winning anti-independence campaign in Scotland. He has worked for Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Institute. Blair provides highly valued senior counsel to Arden’s clients on their strategy and communications.

Clare Monaghan
Executive Assistant

Clare spent 5 years working for the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office in the United Arab Emirates as the British Ambassador’s Executive Assistant and Events Coordinator. After moving back to Scotland in 2017, Clare ran a small business until she joined the Arden Strategies team in 2020. Clare has over 20 years' experience in customer facing roles and brings her skills as an exceptionally organised and reliable individual to Arden.

Davide Sands
Account Manager

Davide has experience advising senior Labour politicians at Shadow Cabinet and Select Committee level. He has unique insight into Labour’s political processes and since Keir Starmer became Labour leader, he has advised a Shadow Cabinet Member across two portfolios which placed him at the heart of current Labour policy development, campaigns, and media management. His policy expertise and interests include transport, food security, foreign affairs, and environment.

Ellie Miller
Director of External Affairs

Ellie has more than 15 years’ experience working in senior roles with Labour. Since Keir Starmer became Leader, she, more than any other senior staffer, has led the party’s engagement with corporate Britain. As Head of Labour’s Business Relations team, Ellie has helped Keir Starmer rebuild connections with business. She has also worked as an advisor to a Labour Minister as well as the Deputy Speaker of the Commons. Ellie joined Arden from Make UK (one of the ‘Big 5’ business groups) where she was Head of Stakeholder Engagement.

George McGregor
Associate Director

George was a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Scotland in the last Labour Government and is a former member of the Labour Party National Policy Forum. He worked for almost two decades in public affairs providing senior counsel to many of the country's leading companies, delivering government relations strategies and campaigns to help them achieve their objectives. George's work has won him an array of awards including Best Public Affairs Campaign of the Year.

Hayden Munro
Senior Strategist

Hayden Munro is an experienced campaign and corporate affairs strategist. He has run multiple national elections and was campaign director for New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern's landslide victory in 2020. Hayden has worked as a senior advisor to Labour on energy, housing, climate and innovation policy. He has advised PMs, Cabinet Ministers and the leaders of some of the world's largest companies on strategy and messaging. Hayden brings a clear understanding of the intersection of politics, media, government and business.

Jazlyn Lehal
Accounts and Events Executive

Jazlyn recently obtained a MSc from the London School of Economics in History of International Relations and her bachelor's degree in Politics from the University of Leicester. Jazlyn’s academic career has solidified her enthusiasm for UK politics and global issues and she currently assists in aiding relations with business leaders.

Rt Hon. Jim Murphy
Chief Executive Officer

Jim is one of the UK’s most experienced government Ministers. He was a Labour MP for almost two decades and has held multiple ministerial portfolios including as a cabinet minister. He was leader of the Scottish Labour Party and Secretary of State for Scotland. Jim was a senior member of Labour’s election winning teams. Jim is also a member of His Majesty’s Privy Council.

John Arnold
Associate Director

John has over 20 years experience in public affairs and has provided support to over 80 international blue chip companies, trade bodies, interest groups and local authorities including UKPowerNetworks, EE, VM02, Betfred, VirginAtlantic, the Housebuilders Federation, IBM, INEOS, and the UK Fashion Industry. John was the political advisor to the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, before joining the Local Government International Bureau where he was head of the international section. He is currently a Trustee of the Manchester United Foundation.

Kate Conway
Director of Strategic Communications

Kate spent twenty years as a producer in BBC, ITN and Times Radio newsrooms, as well as working as a political consultant to some of our most loved TV programmes. Kate's experience includes working as Jon Snow's producer at Channel 4 News, Danny Finkelstein and Michael Portillo's programme editor at Times Radio and as a script consultant to Armando Iannucci's award winning satire, The Thick Of It.

Kaylin Raine
Research Officer

Kaylin holds a BSc in Law from the University of Durham and studied Politics at Luiss Guido Carli for her Year Abroad in Rome where she focused on international conflict and peacebuilding. She has experience as a researcher, being recently credited in a published book on the topic of biomedicine. As part of Arden’s research team, Kaylin’s main interests are in defence, health, and technology.

Rt Hon. Ken Macintosh
Associate Director

Ken is the former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament and has a wealth of experience in challenging and high-profile roles across media, communications, current affairs and politics. Ken spent 13 years at the BBC, both in London and Scotland, and spent the subsequent two decades as a Member of the Scottish Parliament. Ken now brings his proven judgement and creative, persuasive, and communicative skills to his work domestically and internationally on good governance programmes and his Non-Executive Director positions.

Kieran Simpson
Associate Director

Kieran worked for Labour’s economic team under Gordon Brown, and has served as a Special Adviser in three government departments. He has extensive knowledge of Whitehall’s interactions with business and trade bodies. Kieran has built a career as a leading communications and strategic adviser helping clients build their corporate reputations.
His knowledge extends across a range of sectors including the food & drink, agriculture, energy and health.

Lorraine O'Shea
Senior Account Manager

Lorraine has advised some of the most senior figures in the Conservative Party including the late Dame Cheryl Gillan, Andrew Mitchell, and James Heappey. She supported the organisation of the 2019 Conservative Leadership, and has specialised in health policy and UK-EU affairs. During her time in Parliament she had responsibility for policy research, development and stakeholder engagement. At Arden her policy specialisms include foreign affairs, technology and energy.

Marie Birchall
Account Director

Marie has a decade of experience in senior roles at the Labour Party, working as a political advisor for Ministers and Shadow Ministers, including Yvette Cooper. Marie has worked across a broad range of policy areas in both Westminster and Holyrood. As Head of Policy for Scottish Labour, she steered the Party’s policy-making process. She also has experience in education research and working for INGOs and her particular policy expertise includes equality, education, justice and international development.

Patrick Marsh
Research Officer

Patrick has completed both BA and MA degrees in Politics and International Relations, and he has been involved with Labour Party politics for the past 4 years. Before starting at Arden, he worked within the field of responsible business, as well as with local authorities on single issue campaigns. His main interests include international affairs, environmental policy, and artificial intelligence.

Phoebe Warneford-Thomson
Account Manager

Phoebe has a wealth of experience from the fields of transport, trade and infrastructure. Phoebe was responsible for managing strategic communications for the Port of Dover as they navigated the post-Brexit years and re-shaped perceptions of the Port amongst key stakeholder groups. Previously working for the British Ports Association, she was responsible for using research and analysis to support the Association's policy positions and led on policy matters relating to Scottish ports, economic zoning, transport and digitalisation.