BritainThinks Hires Former Tesco Director

Katherine Edwards, a former Director at supermarket giant Tesco, has joined London-based insight consultancy BritainThinks in the new role of Director of Stakeholder Engagement.

The company, launched in 2010 by Opinion Leader co-founders Deborah Mattinson and Viki Cooke, and their former colleague Ben Shimshon, has been adding regularly to its senior team since the end of the summer. Victoria Thrift joined as an Associate Director in charge of the Financial Services practice in late September, closely followed by former OLR exec Lucy Brady as Research Director; and last month, former Shelter exec Julia Pitman was appointed with the task of building the firm's Charity practice.

Edwards (pictured) was most recently Group Commercial Corporate Affairs Director at Tesco, and earlier worked as the grocery firm's Group Regulatory Affairs Director, Property Communications Director, and head of EU & UK Government Affairs. Her expertise covers competition campaigns, global supply chains, property and planning, and she has also chaired the trade association for multinational retailers in Brussels (ERRT).

Cooke says of the appointment: 'We are delighted to welcome Katherine to BritainThinks - her expertise and experience in stakeholder engagement will help develop our strategic offer in this space alongside our insight work'.