The High Pay Centre is an independent, non-partisan think tank focused on the causes and consequences of economic inequality, with a particular interest in top pay. It runs a programme of research, events and policy analysis involving business, trade unions, investors and civil society focused on achieving an approach to pay practices that enjoys the confidence of all stakeholders.
Our team

Luke Hildyard
Director
Luke previously worked as Deputy Director of HPC from 2012-2015. He was subsequently Policy Lead for Corporate Governance and Stewardship at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, the trade body for UK pension fund investors, before returning as Director in March 2018. He has authored reports on subjects including inequality, corporate governance and responsible investment and has also previously worked for a number of think tanks and in local government.

Andrew Speke
Head of Communications
Andrew joined the High Pay Centre in July 2019. He has been a passionate campaigner since his student days at the University of Manchester when he was involved in a number of campaigns on climate change and tuition fees and held the Environment and Ethics portfolio on the Student Union’s Council. More recently he spent 5 years working for the EU and UK governments in China in a number of different roles, including leading the UK’s cooperation with China on projects focused on poverty reduction and tackling inequality, including on the rise of CSR and corporate philanthropy in China. Andrew holds an undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Manchester.

Rachel Kay
Researcher
Rachel joined the High Pay Centre in March 2020. She has a long-standing interest in work and pay: prior to joining the High Pay Centre, she was a researcher in Lord Robert Skidelsky’s parliamentary office where she assisted him with a report commissioned by John McDonnell MP, ‘How to Achieve Shorter Working Hours’. Rachel holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, for which she carried out research into how market traders in Central Asia experience their work. She is now incorporating this research into a co-authored book for Rowman and Littlefield International and Policy Network.
Our board
Nick Isles Chair
Nick is Managing Director of Corporate Agenda an advice and consultancy business working with clients across the private, voluntary and public sectors. Until autumn of 2008 he was Director of Advocacy at The Work Foundation and remains an Associate adviser. He is also a Fellow of the Smith Institute, the Centre for Leadership Innovation at the University of Bedforshire and Royal Society of Arts. He worked as an advisor to the high level group that re-drafted the European Union’s Lisbon strategy in 2005 under the chairmanship of former Dutch premier Wim Kok. He has written and spoken on a wide range of public policy issues connected to the economy, including European affairs, the labour market, organisational performance, leadership, welfare reform, finance, corporate governance and CSR.

Deborah Hargreaves Founder and Director
Deborah was the Chair of the independent High Pay Commission, and Founding Director of the High Pay Centre from 2011 to 2015. She is the former business editor of the Guardian, a post she held from 2006 to 2010. She has written extensively about executive remuneration and other business issues both in print and online. She previously worked at the Financial Times where she was news editor and before that, financial editor. She held a variety of posts over 19 years at the FT including personal finance editor and as a foreign correspondent in Brussels and Chicago.

Daniel Stilitz QC Director
Daniel is a barrister at 11KBW Chambers, specialising in employment, public and business law. After studying at New College, Oxford and City University, he was called to the Bar in 1992. Prior to taking silk, he was a member of the Attorney General’s ‘A’ Panel of counsel and acted for the Government in public law and human rights cases. His practice now focuses particularly on the financial services and professional services sectors, and includes bonus disputes, and whistleblowing and discrimination claims. He regularly writes on legal and related topics, and is the editor of the Butterworths Local Government Reports. He also sits as a mediator and is a member of the CEDR Solve Mediator Panel.

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Director
Baroness Ruth Lister of Burtersett is the Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University. In addition to being one of the UK’s foremost academic experts on poverty and inequality, Baroness Lister has also been a leading voice in policy on these topics in roles as former Director and now Honorary President of the Child Poverty Action Group. Her other positions include being Chair of the Compass Management Committee, board member of the Smith Institute and honorary President of the Social Policy Association. Baroness Lister sits in the House of Lords as a Labour peer, where her interests include social policy, poverty, inequality and gender equality.

Funding
Our current sources of funding for projects in 2019/20 are:
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) – £50,000
Standard Life Foundation – £62,000
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust – £45,000
Barrow Cadbury – £31,500
Trust for London – £36,500
Oxfam – £4,000
The Trades Union Congress – £3,000