Economic Growth: Who actually benefits? Ruth Curtice, Rachael Maskell, Danny Sriskandarajah, Hetan Shah and Paul Kissack (Chair)

Ruth Curtice is the Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation. She was previously Director of fiscal policy at HM Treasury (HMT) where she worked for over 15 years. Her career has focused on domestic economic policy including labour markets, tax, fiscal policy and financial regulation. Ruth has held a wide range of roles in HMT, including working in the Chancellor’s private office, supporting the Independent Commission on Banking, and leading the Treasury’s distributional analysis.

Paul Kissack has been the Group Chief Executive of Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) since 2020. He was previously a Director General in the UK Government working on the national response to the COVID-19 crisis. He has held Director General roles at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Education. He was Deputy Chief Executive for Policy and Organisational Strategy at the Ministry for Children in New Zealand. Paul has also held senior roles at HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, and a local authority. He has worked throughout his career on economic and social policy issues and public service reform.

Rachael Maskell is the Member of Parliament for York Central. First elected in 2015, Rachael campaigns tirelessly for her constituents. With a career in the NHS, working as a senior physiotherapist in ITU and acute medicine and as the Head of Health at Unite, Rachael continues to use her expertise in Westminster to progress healthcare and protect the NHS and is Vice Chair of the Health and Social Care Health Select Committee. With the challenges people experience in York, Rachael has recently advanced legislation to regulate Short Term Holiday Lets, and speaks regularly on issues from housing and development, the economy, health and social care and the environment and climate. As a trade unionist, she also makes the case for advancing workers’ rights, not least through her Bill to tackle Bullying at Work. Central to Rachael’s work is listening to the issues that constituents raise and bringing their voice to Parliament.

Hetan Shah is Chief Executive at the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences. He is Chair of Our World in Data, which brings together research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. Hetan was appointed in 2024 by the UK Parliament to the board of the National Audit Office, the UK’s independent spending watchdog. He is Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. Hetan serves on a number of advisory boards including the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, the UCL Policy Lab and the Resolution Foundation.

Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah has been Chief Executive of New Economics Foundation (NEF) since January 2024. His previous roles include CEO of Oxfam GB, Secretary General of CIVICUS, Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a Trustee of the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation and serves on Quadrature Climate Foundation’s Advisory Board. Danny holds a Masters and Doctorate from Oxford University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Sydney, and is the author of Power to the People.