Meet the team
The group of economic experts who represent our members
Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser
Ian McCafferty was appointed chief economic adviser to the CBI in September 2001, taking responsibility for all CBI economic analysis, forecasting and policy work, including its well-known surveys of economic trends in the UK.
He is an established and respected commentator and writer on economic issues. He joined the CBI from BP, where he was head of macroeconomics. Prior to this, he spent 10 years in the City, as chief international economist for NatWest Markets and Baring Securities.
Earlier in his career, he spent four years with the CBI as head of economic trends, following spells at The Economist magazine and the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.
Ian graduated from Durham University and did his postgraduate work, culminating in an MA, at the University of Amsterdam. He was born in 1956 and is married with two sons.
Richard Woolhouse, head of tax and fiscal policy
Richard is an economist and strategist with 20 years' experience working in the City, consulting and government. At the CBI Richard is responsible for the CBI's macro fiscal position and budget submissions, tax policy work and coordinating the output of the various tax committees. Richard also gets involved in microeconomic issues across projects and working with policy teams, especially growth related, but also across micro tax and fiscal issues such as labour market, green taxes and infrastructure.
William Simpson, senior economist
William is an international economist with 25 years' experience - in banking, dealing, and insurance, and has been at the CBI since 2004. William's main responsibilities are to brief members and management on the international economy - not just its outlook but forces that also affect the UK - such as the banking crisis, sovereign debt, fiscal policies and the changing balance of power between developed and developing nations. The public face of this effort is the international section of Economic and Business Outlook. William also interprets and writes up the results of the CBI's Service Sector Survey and Financial Services Survey, and contributes sections to the Industrial Trends Quarterly edition. William has written occasional briefing papers for this website, such as those about the Fed's QE2 bond-buying program, and the likelihood of debt restructuring in Europe in 2011.
David Muir, senior economist
David is a senior economist in Economic Analysis. He is responsible for producing the CBI's quarterly macroeconomic forecast, which involves forecasting all major macroeconomic indicators for the UK economy across a two-year horizon. He previously worked at HM Treasury and Bear Stearns International.
Alpesh Paleja, senior economist
Alpesh is a senior economist in the economics and enterprise directorate, having joined the CBI in December 2008. His role primarily involves underpinning the team's analysis of the UK and global economy. The main channels through which this occurs are contributions to the CBI's business surveys, putting together background analysis and commentary for the quarterly Economic and Business Outlook, and ad-hoc briefing and analysis for both internal and external consumption. Alongside this, he is engaged in the annual updating of the weights and sector classifications across the CBI's suite of business surveys. Alpesh has also been involved in the CBI's Increasing exports campaign and the early stages of its Vision for Rebalancing the Economy.
Dan Lee, senior economist
Dan joined the CBI in 2010 as a senior economist in the economics & enterprise directorate. He works on the CBI's range of business surveys, primarily the Distributive Trades Survey, a monthly update on the state of the UK's retail and wholesale sectors. He also produces regular briefings and commentary on a range of issues affecting the economy and contributes analysis to the CBI's policy publications and projects including Getting the UK Working. He previously worked at Cambridge Econometrics.
Minakshi Roy, senior policy adviser
Minakshi works on research and management projects across the economics and enterprise directorate. These include preparing briefing papers and undertaking survey analyses. Minakshi was previously in the London region where she lobbied the Mayor's office and other policy agencies to help make London better for business, covering a wide range of issues, including Crossrail, the 2012 Games, skills and transport. Minakshi has a degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University and an MBA from Leeds University.
Leo Ringer, senior policy adviser
Leo is a senior policy adviser on tax and fiscal policy within the CBI's Economics directorate, and is a member of the team developing the CBI's vision for a rebalanced economy. Prior to his current role, Leo led the CBI's work on higher education and schools. Leo previously worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and New Philanthropy Capital, a third sector think-tank and consultancy. He graduated from Oxford University in 2009 with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
Mia Andersson
Mia is a policy adviser in the economic analysis team, working on several of CBI’s business surveys. She has also provides input to CBI corporate projects such as A vision for rebalancing the economy and Industrial Policy. Mia has an MA in European studies and has previously worked at Sweden’s Riksbank.
Dilip Shah, principal economist
Dilip joined the CBI IN September 2011. He is a principal economist working on tax and fiscal policy within the directorate and is a member of the team developing the CBI's vision for a rebalanced economy. Dilip previously worked as an economic advisor in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) for 4 years with responsibility for analysis of SMEs.
Martha Spearpoint, administrator (technical support)
Martha Spearpoint services the Economic Affairs Committee, SME Council and the Inter-Company Academic Relations Group. Martha occasionally assists Tim Bradshaw and Richard Woolhouse with diary requests and can field requests across the team. Over her time at the CBI, Martha helped colleagues with organisation and production of the Shape of Business, the next ten years; Making the UK the best place to invest and A vision for rebalancing the economy reports. Behind the scenes Martha helps coordinate some of our website content. Reach Martha on 020 7395 8115.
Have something to say about CBI economic policy? Get in touch
