Holly Harwood
Holly graduated with a first-class degree in Politics and International Relations from the London School of Economics and initially worked as a researcher and evaluation practitioner in the third sector. During this time, she contributed to a variety of projects, ranging from legislative analysis at the Tax Justice Network to research and community engagement on equitable access to healthy food with the Alexandra Rose Charity.
Holly then spent four years in the public sector at a Mayoral Strategic Authority, where she completed a two-year graduate scheme through the Local Government Association and gained an ILM Level 7 Certificate in Leadership and Management. During her time at the Authority, she worked in Employment and Skills Policy and Corporate Development, with a focus on social value and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). In this role, she led the delivery of a collaborative public sector workshop series on embedding the Socio-Economic Duty. She later joined the Inclusive Growth Investment team, where she remained for a further two years, leading the appraisal of business cases for a range of high-profile economic development projects. She supported project sponsors in embedding environmental sustainability, community benefits and social value into project design, while also undertaking due diligence to assess whether projects represented good value for public funds. Holly became an accredited APMG Better Business Case Practitioner and regularly led stakeholder engagement, risk and contingency analysis, strategic case assessments, and reviews of management and governance structures.
Holly has a strong interest in environmental sustainability and its intersection with social value and place-based economic development, and recently completed an ISEP Environmental Management Certification. In her role at The Good Economy, she supports clients across the public, private and community sectors in delivering long-term economic, social and environmental value for communities.