ECONOMIC INSIGHT - Key Persons
Aastha has nearly a decade of experience in advising clients on a breadth of economics issues related to competition, litigation, regulation, and public policy. In this time, she has worked closely with multinationals and SMEs, as well as regulators and governments, across multiple jurisdictions, including Europe, India, UK, and the US.
She has been involved in some of the most prominent economics cases, including: advising the parties on the Tobii/Smartbox merger review by the CMA and the appeal to the CAT; providing economics expert advice to support a class certification application in the transport sector; supporting several water companies and Heathrow Airport through their regulated price controls; and developing evidence for the Department for International Trade (DIT) to support trade negotiations post-Brexit.
Before joining Economic Insight, Aastha worked at Compass Lexecon, where she specialised in providing economics advice on issues relating to competition and litigation. Prior to that, she held multiple positions at the Department for Transport, including assessing the economic impacts of airport expansion to assist Sir Howard Davies; developing the business case for High Speed rail and evaluating other major transport projects.
Aastha holds a First-Class undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Bristol and a Distinction in her MSc in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Anthony has multiple years of experience as a professional economist and works across all our practice areas, including competition, litigation, regulation, and public policy. He has particular focus on econometric modelling and applying analytics tools to the sectors we work in. For example, he has wide experience in data construction and using advanced statistical techniques to answer various economics issues our clients face.
Cases he has worked on include: assisting Royal Mail and British Telecom in quantifying the damages for their claim arising from the Trucks cartel; working with the Department for International Trade (DIT) in evaluating how exchange rates affect UK trade; and supporting multiple energy, water and other regulated companies through their regulated price controls.
Anthony holds a First-Class undergraduate degree in economics from the London School of Economics (LSE); and a Distinction in his master's degree at the University of Warwick, where he specialised in behavioural and data sciences.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Audrey worked at PwC as well as the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, where she has gained experience in statistical modelling, data analysis, computer programming and market research.
Audrey studied at the University of St Andrews, where she earned a first class BSc in Economics and Mathematics.
Christopher works across our competition and regulation practices. He has over a decade of experience as a professional economist in both the private and public sectors; and has advised clients in sectors ranging from transport and utilities, to healthcare and financial services.
Recently, Christopher has led work advising several parties involved in cartel litigation in the transport sector, focusing on the use of statistical techniques to quantify damages. He has also provided extensive support to companies involved in regulatory appeals to the CMA, including NATS, Yorkshire Water and Bristol Water, on issues including cost assessment and the cost of capital.
Christopher's publications have featured in ICLG Competition Litigation, Commercial Dispute Resolution, International Journal of the Economics of Business and European Competition Law Review. He also regularly speaks at conferences on the economics of competition and regulation.
Before joining Economic Insight, Christopher worked at the Financial Conduct Authority, where his analysis contributed to competition and regulatory investigations in the insurance and pensions sectors. He previously worked at the microeconomics consultancy Europe Economics, where he provided economics advice in sectors including water and telecoms.
Christopher has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, David studied for a master's degree in Economics at the University of Warwick. During this time, he collaborated with the Trade Remedies Authority to complete his dissertation, which investigated the impact of trade protection on the UK's steel sector.
David holds a first-class degree in BSc Economics and an MSc in Economics (with distinction), both from the University of Warwick.
Since joining Economic Insight, David has worked across a range of projects in the competition, litigation, and regulation space. He is particularly specialised in drawing relevant insights from large datasets to address the economics issues faced by our clients.
He was a key part of the team supporting Dawsongroup in the follow-on claim for damages arising from the Trucks cartel being heard at the CAT. In addition, he has been involved in providing economics advice to support a class certification application in the transport sector; and developing evidence to assist the detailed review of the non-household water retail market.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, David was an economist at Atkins in the Rail Advisory team, where he worked on various projects, including undertaking a strategic analysis of the future of rail in the Leeds City Region following the introduction of High Speed 2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.
David holds a BSc in Economics (First class) from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Economics (Distinction) from University College London.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Researcher in Behavioural and Experimental Economics Based at the University of Oxford
Donna is a leading researcher in behavioural and experimental economics based at the University of Oxford.
Her research includes the study of how social identity and social interactions affect individual and cooperative decisions and covers the disciplines of economics, psychology and neuroscience. Donna has also advised government on policy design through her work with the influential Behavioural Insights Team (formerly referred to as the ‘Nudge Unit'). She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and an MSc from the London School of Economics.
Luke is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Loughborough University. His research uses advanced theoretical techniques to model the incentives of firms, with the aims of explaining real-world behaviour and improving the effectiveness of competition policy.
Luke has published in leading journals in the field, including the Journal of Industrial Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. He has also worked with the Office of Fair Trading to provide advice to policymakers on market interventions.
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- Strategic Advisor
Ellie has over 5 years of experience as a professional economist; and has worked to advise clients across all our practice areas, including: competition, regulation, strategy, and public policy. She is especially skilled at working closely with clients to help translate economics principles and analysis into practical advice that they can use.
Ellie has been a trusted strategic advisor to several regulated companies, including SP Energy Networks and Severn Trent Water. In addition, she has advised several government departments, including the Department for International Trade (DIT), in applying quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to address public policy questions. In our competition practice, Ellie regularly advises a major multinational clothes manufacturer on its competitive position. Ellie has also published an article in the European Competition Law Review, discussing the issue of fairness in competition policy.
Before joining Economic Insight, Ellie worked at a leading market research firm, where she specialised in undertaking statistical and financial analysis to help forecast future industry performance across a wide range of sectors.
Ellie holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Exeter and a Distinction in the Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Techniques for Economics and Finance from the University of London, Birkbeck.
Ian has over a decade of experience of advising public and private sector clients on a range of economics issues. Since joining Economic Insight shortly after the firm was founded, he has worked across our practice areas; and has provided advice in relation to price controls, commercial litigation, mergers, market investigations, and public policy matters. He has conducted economic analyses across a broad spectrum of sectors including water, energy, telecoms, air transport, financial services, legal services, and higher education.
Examples of Ian's work include: advising companies on the CMA's redetermination of PR19 price controls; developing an opt-out collective action claim following a competition infringement finding from the European Commission; and evaluating the effectiveness of compensation schemes for energy intensive industries on behalf of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Ian worked at a strategy and marketing consultancy, where he used a range of analytical techniques to advise clients on business strategy, pricing, advertising and investment decisions.
Ian regularly writes articles published in respected journals and presents at industry conferences. He also holds a First-Class undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Bristol and a Distinction in his MSc in economics from Birkbeck, University of London.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Director
- Editor of the European Competition Law Review
James Harvey is a co-founder and Director of Economic Insight, with 20 years of experience.
James specialises in the use of economics and quantitative techniques to help clients involved in competition and regulatory matters. His work covers competition-related litigation cases (including collective and class actions), price control appeals and redeterminations, and non-contentious matters, including merger investigations. He provides advice to regulators and companies on the economics issues associated with liberalising markets.
In addition, James has played a major role in establishing Economic Insight's leading Dispute Resolution practice, which focuses on disputes arising from breaches of competition law. He has given written and oral evidence before the UK High Court and the Competition Appeals Tribunal and is listed in the "Who's Who Legal" publication as a "go-to name for high-stakes litigation support". His expert evidence in the Trucks cartel litigation has influenced several significant rulings, including the admissibility of mitigation defences in such cases, which will shape the way future cases are handled.
James is an editor of the European Competition Law Review and is as an adviser to both the Bar Standards Board and IPReg. James is an active contributor to journals and conferences on competition and regulatory economics and policy. He undertakes assignments on a pro-bono basis for several organisations, including for a cancer charity and for single parents affected by government welfare policy. James has an MSc in Economics (with distinction) from the University of York and a BSc in Economics from Cardiff University.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Joe completed an MSc in Economics for Development at the University of Oxford (with distinction) where he researched the impact of environmental shocks on household resource allocation. He has previously undertaken internships in management consulting and data analytics.
Joe also holds a First-Class undergraduate degree in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.
Before joining Economic Insight, Johannes studied for a master's degree in economics at the University of Cambridge. During his studies, he applied economic theory to a broad range of issues and gained experience in data analysis while researching practices in the software security industry. Johannes holds a BSc in Physics, Geography and Education from the University of Bonn, a first-class honours degree in Political Economy and an Associateship from King's College London and an MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Katie is responsible for supporting the team on day-to-day operational tasks such as, HR, recruitment, marketing, and events.
Katie has previous experience in Senior Administration and Events roles in both the insurance and consultancy industries.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Senior Consultant
Kyran is an experienced consultant who works across our practice areas, including: competition, litigation, regulation, and public policy. He is particularly adept at learning and applying technical analysis to solve the problems our clients face.
Kyran was a core part of the Economic Insight cost benchmarking team that supported Yorkshire Water in its CMA appeal and Northern Ireland Water in its latest price control. Kyran has also worked on a number of our most high-profile cases: undertaking a preliminary estimate of damages for a potential consumer class action in the automotive sector; providing technical assistance on the Tobii/Smartbox merger review; and developing an evaluation framework for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Kyran interned at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), where he specialised in macroeconomic forecasting for various industrial sectors around the world.
Kyran holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Bristol as well as a master's degree in Economics from University College London (UCL).
Louisa is responsible for the day-to-day operational side of the business, helping us organise our recruitment processes, marketing, client engagements and office administration.
Louisa is highly experienced, before joining Economic Insight, she held administrative and recruitment roles in both the property and healthcare industries.
Loy has several years' experience as a professional economist, particularly in employing economic theory to solve complex policy issues.
Since joining Economic Insight, Loy has worked across a range of projects in the competition and regulation practices. As part of his work in competition, Loy is a key part of the team supporting Dawsongroup in the follow-on claims for damages arising from the Trucks cartel being heard at the CAT. In addition, he has been involved in providing economics advice on increasing water efficiency in the non-household water retail market; and assessing the impact of COVID-19 on a gas distribution company.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Loy worked as a government economist and led the analysis at Spending Reviews to estimate the funding need of the local government sector. During the COVID-19 response, Loy also designed an income insurance mechanism which provided over £1bn of support to the councils. Before that, Loy worked on a range of policy areas from energy and climate change to business rates.
Loy holds a first-class BSc in Economics from the University of Nottingham (First Class Honours) and an MSc in Economics from University College London (Distinction). He is fluent in German and English and also speaks Mandarin.
Lucy is responsible for assisting the Team Admin Manager in daily office tasks to ensure the smooth running of the business.
Lucy has a creative background, having studied Fashion and Textiles, and embarking on a brief career in photography, before joining us to expand our organisation.
Madeleine is an experienced economist, who regularly advises both private and public sector clients across a range of sectors. She specialises in applying behavioural and experimental economics to help answer competition and regulatory questions for our clients.
She led our experimental work for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to help inform its response to the CMA's legal services market study. Subsequently, Madeleine led the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework for the SRA's ‘Looking to the Future' reforms, which were influenced by our previous research. Most recently, she has assisted a multinational branded clothing manufacturer gauge the competition law risks associated with its selective distribution agreements.
Before joining Economic Insight, Madeleine interned at PwC Economics in Germany, where she advised on competition law, business strategy and trade matters. She regularly publishes articles in leading journals, most recently on the application of behavioural economics to competition policy, where she set out how to design customer experiments.
Madeleine holds a BA (Hons) First-Class in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Manchester and an MSc in Behavioural Economics from the University of Maastricht. She is fluent in English, German, Portuguese, French and Spanish.
Since joining Economic Insight, Natalie has developed experience across our competition, regulation, and public policy practice areas. She is well-equipped to draw from economic theory and apply it to in-depth analyses over a range of situations.
Key projects she has worked on include: supporting Dawsongroup, Royal Mail and British Telecom in the follow-on claim for damages arising from the Trucks cartel being heard at the CAT; developing evidence to support Heathrow Airport's submissions to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) following the impact of the COVID-19 crisis; assisting major manufacturing companies in undertaking a merger risk assessment; and advising the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) in assessing the financial stability of the press-sector in the UK.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Natalie interned at RBB Economics, where she developed a research report assessing the proposed buyer power amendments to the South African Competition Act and assisted with a successful large merger.
Natalie holds a first-class undergraduate and postgraduate degree in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch and an MSc (with distinction) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Natalie has a deep understanding of economic theory, with a strong technical grounding to support her application of this expertise. With experience in competition economics at the regulatory level, she is adept at meeting the analytical challenges demanded in the field.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Natalie worked at the Competition and Markets Authority in merger control. This included advising on the Phase 2 investigation into the Cerelia/Jus-Rol merger, allowing her to gain invaluable experience in qualitative and quantitative research and report drafting.
Natalie holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, where she had a special interest in the analysis of public policy through a game theoretic lens.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Financial Economics at Loughborough
Karli is a Professor of Financial Economics at Loughborough and previously worked as a Cost Effectiveness Modeller at the University of Sheffield.
She is also a member of the Centre for Productivity and Performance. Her main research interests include efficiency and productivity analysis, and spatial econometrics. Karli has published and is working on numerous articles for leading economic journals, including the Journal of Econometrics and Oxford Economic Papers.
Sam Williams is a Director and co-founder of Economic Insight, with over two decades of experience. He is a leading economist, known for helping clients solve key strategic problems relating to commercial decision-making, regulation, and competition policy.
He is particularly adept at translating complex analyses into clear, straightforward messages, and gives direct advice that helps clients make informed choices. He is a trusted advisor to major corporates, regulators, and government departments at the most senior level - and routinely provides Board-level briefings. Sam has a track record of demonstrably delivering enhanced performance for his clients, from designing value-adding pricing strategies, through to influencing regulators and competition authorities on business-critical issues.
Sam also acts as an expert economics witness on litigation cases - notably, including during the first fast-track case at the CAT. Lord Justice Roth has described him as "commendably clear", and Who's Who Legal refer to him as "impressive". He sits on the panel of expert regulatory advisors to the CMA, and the Bar Standard Board's panel of external advisors. He holds degrees in economics from Warwick and Oxford. Sam is widely published in relation to regulation, competition, and business strategy matters.
Sarah has several years of experience as a professional economist, providing strategic advice to companies. She works across our practice areas and is proficient at applying economics and advanced analytical skills to different situations, to draw out the strategic implications for our clients.
Sarah has worked on a range of projects, including: supporting Royal Mail, British Telecom and Dawsongroup in the follow-on claims for damages arising from the Trucks cartel being heard at the CAT; conducting a market study of the non-household water retail sector on behalf of the UK Water Retailer Council; and developing evidence for the Department for International Trade (DIT) to support trade negotiations post-Brexit.
Before joining, Sarah worked for Zurich Insurance, where she provided finance support to the planning, performance and management team. Prior to that, she interned at BNP Paribas and Cargill, where she provided analytical support to the credit research and FX corporate sales teams.
Sarah holds a first-class BSc in Economics and an MSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Bristol. She is fluent in French and English.
Tom holds a First-Class undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Warwick.
Prior to joining Economic Insight, Timothy studied for a Bachelors Degree in Economics at the University of Cambridge, leaving him well equipped to draw from economic theory and apply it to in-depth analyses over a range of situations. During his studies, Timothy researched the effectiveness of recent public health productivity initiatives, as well as the causes of US inter-state unemployment differentials.
Will has extensive experience using data and economic theory to answer questions across a range of sectors, having spent time in both economics research and consulting.
Yuemei studied for a Bachelor's degree in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (Distinction), and a Master's degree in Economics (Merit) at the London School of Economics. During her undergraduate studies, she researched the effect of digital skills on PISA reading performance by applying an IV strategy. For her further study in Master's, she estimated three developing countries' willingness to pay (India, Mexico, and Brazil) for universal air-conditioning adoption with the application of the revealed preference model.