Polly Mackenzie

Polly Mackenzie is the chief executive of Demos, the UK's leading cross-party think tank, as well as a writer, broadcaster and keynote speaker. She started her career in business journalism. She then moved into politics as an adviser to the Liberal Democrats, where she had various roles culminating in five years as Director of Policy to the Deputy Prime Minister during the coalition government. After leaving government, Polly helped to set up the Women's Equality Party and went on to found the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a charity working to break the link between mental health problems and financial difficulties. She blames nominative determinism for her polymathic interests, ranging from politics to religion, consumer rights to tudor history and wellbeing to data protection. Polly has been a visiting fellow at Kings College London and is a regular contributor to UnHerd, Sky News and the BBC. She lives in London with her husband and three children.