Alex Hickman is a Senior Managing Director leading the Politics practice in the UK. Alex advises clients on strategy, regulatory, and governance issues drawing on his time as a special adviser to two British Prime Ministers – Boris Johnson in Downing Street and David Cameron while Opposition Leader.

Outside Government, Alex has worked in the Balkans as a journalist for the Economist Intelligence Unit and as a management consultant in the City. He began his career as a campaigner for an international NGO, organising communications campaigns and building coalitions in Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and went on to lead cross-party campaigns in the UK and set up the Open Europe think tank. He also spent nine years as founder and CEO of Chartwell, an advisory firm providing expert briefings to investors and decision-makers worldwide.

In March 2020, Alex became the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on Business, leading on business engagement in the UK and around the world. In this role, Alex worked closely with the Prime Minister and ministers to support the business community during the Covid pandemic and built coalitions inside and outside government to progress the Prime Minister’s business priorities, including the net zero transition and becoming a science and technology superpower. He also oversaw preparations for the 2021 Global Investment Summit.

Alex has held a number of non-executive roles, including as a trustee of Restless Development, an NGO running youth empowerment programmes in Africa and Asia. He is the founder and chair of the African Mountain Research Foundation, a UK charity working to safeguard the fragile mountain systems of southern Africa and co-founder of Plant For Our Lives, an award-winning community hedge and tree planting group in Wiltshire. Alex is an ECB Level II-qualified cricket coach.