Dr. Steve Van Riel is a Senior Managing Director and UK Head of Insight and Innovation with Teneo. His time is focused on strategy consulting projects where he specialises in the continuous evolution of our market-leading offer in using data-driven insights to help businesses earn the reputation they need to succeed.
Since 2011, Steve has specialised in using research and insight to develop corporate communications and brand strategies, working for consultancies including Blue Rubicon, Teneo and as regional Head of Trust Development and Senior Strategy Director at Edelman. In that time, his clients included household names like McDonald’s, the BBC, the National Lottery, HSBC and Tesco.
Before moving into consulting, Steve worked in Labour Party politics from 2003 to 2011, including stints as the party’s Head of Research, Director of Policy and Research, and as a political advisor on work and pensions and foreign affairs. In 2024, he authored a Social Market Foundation pamphlet on how the new government should approach questions of trust, with an introduction from Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden MP.
Steve earned his doctorate working within the behavioural science group in Warwick Business School and in his doctoral research he focussed on how ideas from behavioural economics can be applied to winning trust. His work in this area has been recently published in the peer reviewed scientific journal, the Journal of Consumer Behaviour. He is a member of the Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists(GAABS) and an expert fellow in the academic-led Security, Privacy, Identity, Trust, Engagement Network (Sprite+).