the Volterra team
Our economic consultants apply cutting edge economic, behavioural and scientific analysis to forge a new perspective on business and public issues. Our experts have a vast array of combined experience and areas of expertise.
Our Partners and Associates
Ellie Evans
Senior Partner
Ellie is the Senior Partner at Volterra, leading the company’s involvement in major developments and nationally significant infrastructure projects. Ellie is passionate about challenging methodologies and developing bespoke approaches which really get to the heart of the issue. She is an expert in socio-economics, having given evidence at planning committees on social, economic, health and equality impact.
With over twenty years’ experience at Volterra, Ellie has significant experience in estimating the socio-economic impact across all types of property development including residential, leisure, office and mixed use schemes. She also leads Volterra’s work on major infrastructure projects, recently including freight, solar, port, rail and commercial DCOs and other nationally significant projects.
Having had the benefit of an amazing female mentor in the early stages of her career, Ellie is proud to be the senior partner at Volterra, and aims to inspire young people, including her two daughters.
Paul Ormerod
Partner
Paul is a founding partner of Volterra and has many years of experience in business consultancy. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the computer science department at University College London.
He was a founder of the Henley Centre for Forecasting which was sold by the management to WPP Group plc in the 1990s.
Since 2020, Paul has been non-executive chair of the Rochdale Development Agency and in 2022 was appointed by Andy Burnham as non-exec chair of Atom Valley Greater Manchester Mayoral Development Zone, a major development in the poorer northern and eastern boroughs of the city region.
Paul is a best-selling and award winning author. He has authored four books, published in many languages.
Paul originally read Economics at Cambridge University, then took the MPhil in economics and econometrics at Oxford University. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences.
Alex O'Byrne
Partner
Alex O’Byrne, Partner at Volterra, is an experienced economic consultant specialising in economic, health and social impact, economic strategy, project appraisal and socio-economic planning matters.
Alex leads Volterra’s work in the property development sector. He specialises in assessing economic and health impact and developing social value strategies for a wide range of property developments. He has specific expertise in responding to policies on affordable workspace and employment and skills. Alex has worked on some of the most high profile developments in the UK, including Battersea Power Station, Olympia London, Royal Street, MSG Sphere and Westfield.
Alex is also experienced at socio-economic and health assessments of major infrastructure. He has led economic appraisal of major transport schemes and a range of Development Consent Order (DCOs) for renewable energy.
Alex specialises in working with project teams to ensure developments respond to local need and maximise community benefit.
Luke Thurley
Associate
Luke, Associate at Volterra, is experienced in economic impact modelling, economic strategies and economic forecasting. He is well versed in understanding the links between policy interventions and the economic environment, with specific skills in econometric modelling, socio-economic assessments and economic masterplanning.
Luke’s work focuses primarily on supporting public sector clients to produce business cases and economic strategies, as well as providing socio-economic analysis on proposed nationally significant infrastructure project. His recent projects include leading on developing an Economic Strategy and Skills & Employment Strategy for the city of Peterborough. He has also recently worked on Development Consent Order (DCO) projects related to freight and renewable energy.
Luke has led several high profile business cases. He recently authored the strategic and economic case for investment in Oxford’s West End. He also led most of Volterra’s contributions to our successful LUF round 2 bids.
Luke developed the methodologies behind many of Volterra’s most recent innovations in transport economics, including for monetising the economic impacts of shared e-scooters and increased rail freight through the Channel Tunnel. In his other work, Luke has recently given evidence at public inquiry in support of proposed housing development.
Elizabeth Bamford
Associate
Elizabeth is interested in social impact with a particular focus on employment and skills.
She has authored multiple social value statements for clients which focus on qualitative as well as quantitative measures of social impact. She is currently completing her Level 1 Associate social impact qualification.
Elizabeth recently set up the social value strategy at Volterra and manages the employment and skills element of Volterra’s internal social value programme.
Engagement is a key part of much of Elizabeth’s work. She has experience leading programmes of stakeholder engagement for complex employment and skills strategies and has experience in primary research with service users to identify social and equality impacts of programmes and proposed projects.
Outside social impact, Elizabeth has extensive experience on retail and leisure schemes, authoring multiple leisure impact assessments and economic impact assessments for visitor economy clients.
Andy McNaught
Associate
Andy has a range of experience in transport economics, business case development, and socio-economic assessment. He takes particular interest in projects where transport and development meet, leading Volterra’s recent work on the socio-economic and health appraisal of the proposed over-station development, and station improvements, to Liverpool Street Station.
He has been heavily involved in many of Volterra’s recent innovations in transport economics, developing bespoke methodologies for the economic appraisal of shared e-scooters and rail freight, and is currently leading Volterra’s work on the proposed West London Orbital service. He presented at the 2022 Transport Practitioners’ Meeting on “Valuing Travel Time Savings in the Context of Achieving Net Zero”.
Andy has also led the socio-economic assessment of multiple major development projects such as Euston Tower, Royal Street, 1 Victoria Street, and 980 Great West Road.
expert advisor
Bridget Rosewell
Bridget is one of the founders of Volterra. She is Chair of Audit and Risk at the National Infrastructure Bank appointed at its inception in 2022, and was previously a Commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission. As one of the UK’s most influential economists, she has an extensive track record in advising public and private sector clients on key strategic issues.
Bridget has direct experience of corporate decision making as well as advisory and modelling projects.
Other specialist expertise includes economic development, transport and agglomeration economics, development evaluation, infrastructure, forecasting, industry dynamics and competition as well as policy analysis related to these areas.
Bridget was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours list for services to the economy.
THE TEAM
Adam Sands
Principal consultant
Adam is a Principal Consultant at Volterra, and has a keen interest in making the socio-economic case for culture and leisure development.
Adam has provided socioeconomic support and analysis for several complex schemes, often incorporating formal value for money analysis and the consideration for wider impacts relevant to local context. In the culture and leisure space this has included Leadenhall Market and 85 Gracechurch Street, Marlow Film Studios, ExCeL London and other major arenas capable of attracting millions of visitors each year.
Adam is experienced in socio-economic evaluation, assessing the impact of interventions after a period of operation. To date, Adam has led Volterra’s work on evaluating the socio-economic impact of projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund. This includes the University of Bath’s CAMERA Innovation Programme that provided small businesses and start-ups in the creative and health sectors with access to motion capture technology to help drive innovation.
EMMA HOLLAND
Senior Consultant
Emma is a Senior Consultant at Volterra. Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, she recently relocated to London. In New Zealand, Emma built up a portfolio of financial and economic experience across a variety of sectors, including infrastructure, renewable energy, healthcare, local government, and education.
She has a passion for conducting economic analysis and developing business cases that make a strong, evidence-based case for investments that benefit communities. Emma has led the development of numerous business cases for large-scale projects, such as the facilities and infrastructure for a university film school, a new Energy Centre for a hospital, and investments in air ambulance services for the Ministry of Health.
Zach Cole
Senior consultant
Zach is a senior consultant at Volterra. He has a broad range of experience in delivering socio-economic, health, and social infrastructure impact assessments for mixed-use residential, commercial, infrastructure and renewable energy projects. Zach has produced economic deliverables for public and private sector clients as part of development consent orders, nationally significant infrastructure projects, and strategic-scale regeneration projects.
Zach has conducted economic and employment needs assessments for local authorities in urban and rural areas nationally, each providing deep dive analyses into key sectors and economic growth aspirations. He has also investigated specific sites such as Earl’s Court in London in order to advise planning departments on need for proposed commercial floorspace. Notable projects include the London Industrial Land Supply Study for the Greater London Authority and the Brighton and Hove Employment Land Study.
Other project experience spans health impact assessments, economic benefits statements, infrastructure audit and delivery planning, and providing advice to developers on S106 negotiations.
MARie williams
Senior Social Impact Consultant
Marie is a Level 1 Social Value Associate Practitioner, with a background in research and engagement. Her career so far has required her to apply her expertise to engage with harder-to-reach groups for private, public and third sector clients. She has also co-developed an engagement toolkit, which has been used for a wide range of audiences and purposes.
Marie has a keen interest in using research-led stakeholder and community engagement as a tool to better understand social complexities, and to unearth innovative stakeholder-led solutions to address societal needs.
Notable engagement projects include identifying and exploring Transport-Related Social Exclusion for Transport for the North, developing an Inclusive Service Plan to expand North Yorkshire County Council’s wheelchair-accessible vehicle provision, and engaging with schools and residents to assess and justify the expansion of Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)’s School Streets programme.
CHARLIE CROSBIE
Consultant
Charlie is a consultant at Volterra and has experience across a wide range of deliverables including economic and regeneration statements, employment and skills strategies, socio-economic chapters.
Recently, Charlie has been heavily involved in public sector work and is assisting in developing an economic strategy for Peterborough City Council. This work has involved identifying specific economic interventions that are feasible and will contribute to the city’s economic aspirations.
Charlie has also worked on major developments within London, such as helping develop the socio-economic case for the proposed Liverpool Street Station. This was a comprehensive piece of work which covered the socio-economic impacts of commercial space, hotel provision, and operational improvements to the station.
Charlie has also assisted in producing the economic impacts of a major events space. This work included estimating visitor numbers and their expenditure and employment generation.
Beyond this, Charlie has worked on a range of life sciences developments across the Golden Triangle.
Karishma Panchani
Consultant
Karishma has extensive experience in socio-economic analyses. She has produced several economic impact assessments and community needs assessments.
She has been part of socially motivated projects. On our ongoing project, national evaluation of Free Bikes Schemes, she analysed extensive data to understand scheme treatment areas. She engaged with scheme participants to gather vital information for the evaluation. On another project, she lent support to develop a financial model for housing delivery aimed at alleviating the UK housing crisis.
Karishma has also applied her expertise to residential developments. She previously assessed social infrastructure provision in the villages of West Oxfordshire. For this, she analysed housing, health provision, education and community infrastructure. Following this, she made tailored recommendations to help each village thrive in a sustainable network.
She also undertook economic analyses on life sciences developments across all three locations in the Golden Triangle. She takes a keen interest in topics such as poverty and regional inequalities.
nicholas hutchinson
Consultant
Nick specialises in delivering economic statements, health and equality impact assessments, and needs assessments across a diverse range of projects.
These assessments determine and evaluate the potential impact on communities, aiding decision-makers in the planning process. Nick is dedicated to driving positive change and creating sustainable, inclusive environments that benefit residents and stakeholders alike.
Nick has a particular interest in renewable energy projects and is actively involved in the Development Consent Order application process for a solar farm project. He is shaping the project’s employment and skills strategy with the goal of establishing a legacy in the area, ensuring the project fosters economic growth and community development.
Nick also has experience in evaluations and business cases. Currently, he is collaborating with Active Luton to assess the socio-economic benefits of their facilities. Nick is also actively involved in advocating for inclusive design practices, championing the need for buildings that consider the diverse needs of all individuals.
Thomas ure
Consultant
Tom is a consultant at Volterra with an interest in health, education, and development economics. He has put these interests to use since joining, working on a wide range of projects that evaluate the social and economic impacts of major developments.
In one such project, he analysed the socio-economic impact of a large property portfolio, developing bespoke methodologies to understand these impacts within the context of their respective local areas.
More recently, he has worked on projects analysing the impacts of major office, residential, and hotel schemes. Through these projects he has gained extensive experience of a wide range of analytical techniques, and further, how this analysis can be conducted with the priorities of local communities and governments in mind.
He is currently working on the inquiry process for a major hotel development, providing estimates of its socio-economic impact.
GRACE MUIR
CONSULTANT
Grace is a Consultant at Volterra, who has recently relocated to London from Australia and is eager to contribute to building strong socio-economic cases for developments that benefit the community.
Grace has diverse experience, having worked in wealth management, at a software start-up and as a Senior Consultant specialising in R&D, government funding and grants. In her previous role, she developed funding applications for a variety projects and large-scale developments. These include mixed-use urban development schemes and a variety of renewables projects, such as solar and large-scale hydrogen production and blending. Her experience has developed her ability to produce high quality evidence-based reports to support funding applications for private clients across numerous industries, as well as local authorities.
Since joining Volterra, Grace has supported the team with the socio-economic analysis of a residential scheme in East Sussex and has contributed to preparation of an economic statement for the redevelopment of state-of-the-art music and production facilities in London.
JOANNE CHIN
research consultant
Joanne is a Research Consultant at Volterra with a keen interest in health, education, and inequality. Originally from Malaysia, she brings valuable experience from both public and private sectors, where she was involved in developing Level 4 and 5 Higher Technical Qualifications.
Since joining the team, she has been involved in a range of residential and commercial schemes, providing insights that inform stakeholders and ensure the projects align with community needs. She is currently focusing on assessing the potential health and socio-economic outcomes of urban development initiatives, ensuring that the voices of affected communities are taken into account.
Committed to using her expertise to contribute to Volterra, Joanne is excited to create positive change.
Nicola Pallai
Office Manager
Nikki is the Office Manager at Volterra. She has over 25 years of professional experience in managing administrative and operational positions for various organisations. Nikki’s strong organisational skills, attention to detail and ability to multitask have been instrumental in ensuring the smooth running of the office operations.
Aside from ensuring that everything runs smoothly in the office which she undertakes whilst supporting the rest of the team. Her ability to work collaboratively with team members has also helped to foster positive working relationships within the workplace.
Taking pride in maintaining a clean, safe, and professional working environment, Nikki is always looking for ways to improve office processes and procedures.
