Chris is the Founder and Managing Director of the Centre for the New Midlands, launching the organisation in January 2020. The Centre for the New Midlands is the only independent, non-partisan and not for profit think tank for the West Midlands region.
Chris has a deep interest in regional and national politics, as well as the impact of philanthropy in driving positive change. He has over 15 years of experience working within the Higher Education Advancement sector, with extensive experience in stakeholder engagement; fundraising; student recruitment and management information.
Chris co-founded the AlSadi Changing Lives Programme which over the past decade has provided hundreds of students from the UK with fully funded volunteer programmes to Jordan, working with some of the nation’s finest third sector organisations.
Chris has previously worked within student recruitment and strategic planning as well as working within the Home Office’s Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Chris is also a former Students’ Union President and has previously worked for the Saga Group plc.
Chris is proud to have served as a member of the NSPCC Business Board in Coventry and Warwickshire and is currently a Business Ambassador for Acorns Childrens’ Hospice. Chris is an avid Tottenham Hotspur supporter and a ‘Man of Kent’ by birth but an ‘adopted’ Coventrian having lived in the city since 2003.