biography

Helen is Executive Director of Communications and Events at the Blavatnik School of Government. 

Helen began her career in the UK Civil Service. She joined HM Treasury in 1997, working closely with then Chancellor Gordon Brown as his senior press officer, providing strategic communication and presentational advice on the Chancellor's domestic agenda. 

From 2003 to 2005 Helen was Director of Press and Parliamentary Affairs at the British Council. In 2006, she returned to Whitehall to provide crisis communications support as Press Secretary for then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, and in 2007 moved to No 10 Downing Street, where she spent the next three years as Director and Head of Events and Visits, responsible for leading all aspects of then Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s domestic and international visit and events schedule. 

In 2010, Helen moved to Washington D.C. to become Deputy Director of Global Events at the Institute of International Finance (IIF), returning to the UK in the summer of 2018. She worked as Director of Operations for the human rights charity Reprieve from 2019 to 2020 prior to joining the School in August 2021.