Speakers

Andreea is the Executive Director of the GO Lab. Her work focuses on building bridges between academia and policymakers for better social outcomes.

She oversees GO Lab’s pioneering programme of policy engagement and knowledge exchange, and manages strategic relationships with the UK government and international partners.

Andreea has over a decade of experience in public policy and government, with a focus on public sector reform, evaluation and impact measurement, public-private partnerships and social innovation. She is particularly passionate about leveraging innovation and cross-sector collaboration to build a fairer and stronger society, and finding ways to enhance accountability and transparency in government.

Prior to joining the GO Lab in 2016, she worked on policy development and public service transformation programmes in local government in England.

Neil is a founding Director of ATQ Consultants, a boutique consultancy which, since 2012, has specialised in outcome based commissioning including payment by results (PBR) and social impact bonds (SIBs); and the use of social investment to support new models of public service delivery by the social sector.

Neil has worked extensively with both commissioners and providers to develop SIBs and other outcomes-based contracts, and is also supporting the evaluation of the Commissioning Better Outcomes (CBO) Fund, working in partnership with Ecorys UK. He is also an experienced speaker and workshop facilitator at open access and client specific events both in the UK and overseas,

Neil’s experience and expertise in outcome based commissioning build on more than 25 years involvement in the reform and improvement of public services, with a particular focus on complex commissioning and contracting with both the private and social sectors. Neil was a visiting Fellow of Practice at GO Lab in both 2017 and 2018. In addition to his role at ATQ Neil is a Non-Executive Director of Family Psychology Mutual CIC, a staff-led mutual social enterprise that delivers evidence-based interventions to young people and families.

James is Director at Ecorys UK and mainly works in the social enterprise and social investment thematic areas. In these areas he has provided support and analysis to social enterprises, NGOs and governments, both in the UK and internationally.

James leads on Ecorys’ social impact bond work, including overseeing three SIB evaluations (Commissioning Better Outcomes Evaluation for Big Lottery Fund, Youth Engagement Fund Evaluation for DCMS and Turning the Tide Evaluation for North Somerset Council), and Ecorys’ consultancy work in helping organisations understand the evidence base and potential savings linked to SIB interventions (for example for Family Lives and Catch22).

James holds a BA and MA in Geography from the University of Cambridge. In his spare time he is a Governor at Barkston Ash Catholic Primary School.

Mila founded and leads Bridges Outcomes Partnerships (BOP). At Bridges Outcomes Partnerships we use outcomes partnerships to help improve human services and environmental initiatives to create better outcomes for people and better value for society. Programmes BOP supports are dedicated to empowering people across the world to improve their lives, in areas ranging from education and wellbeing to housing, child protection, employment and environmental protection. Mila is on boards of North East Lincs Thrive, Ways to Wellness, Spring, Education Outcomes Partnerships, along with family, employment, and refugee support.

Prior to Bridges, Mila’s work spanned private, public and third sector. Mila helped create and run Education Generation, a crowdsourcing social enterprise focused on enabling young leaders in low- and middle-income countries to participate in some of the world’s most forward-thinking education programmes.

James leads a policy team with a focus on supporting voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to support more efficient, effective and preventative public services. This includes leading the design and development of the innovative social outcomes partnership programmes, such as the £500m Better Futures Fund.

Juliana Outes Velarde is a Senior Data Steward at the Government Outcomes Lab, at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. She leads the work of the International Network on Data for Impact and Government Outcomes - INDIGO - a data and learning collaborative with the goal of collecting more and better data for better social outcomes. Her work is motivated by a desire to understand what are the best practices to improve the use of data and evidence in the design of social policies and programmes.

Before joining the Government Outcomes Lab, Juliana worked as a civil servant in different public offices in Argentina, such as the Public Innovation Secretary. Her work was related with the design and implementation of the National Plan of Modernisation for the public sector. She also worked for the government of her province, Salta, and briefly participated as a research assistant in the Interdisciplinary Programme for Human Development and Inclusion of the Faculty of Economics, Catholic University of Argentina.

Juliana completed a Masters in Politics, Big Data and Quantitative Methods at the University of Warwick in 2020 and holds a degree in International Relations from the Catholic University of Argentina. She is particularly interested in understanding how academic organisations can support governments, and how a data stewardship model can both enhance the quality of data assets and curate a meaningful conversation around the social outcomes data ecosystem.