Sam Douglas-Bate

"I have worked with Sam a couple of times and I am always impressed at how rapidly he is able to get on top of complex situations and come up with innovative solutions. Sam's is adept at building trusted relationships across a broad range of stakeholders and he's a genuine team player."

"Sam played a key role in development of the Veterans Strategy Action Plan. His stakeholder engagement and relationship building across government and with external partners was impressive. He had a real delivery focus, was an effective self- starter and showed great initiative in taking forward his projects. Sam was also a strong team played and built collaborative ways of working with colleagues. I could trust him to get on with things and deliver, as well as provide strategic input with impact. It was great to have him in the team."

"Sam played an instrumental part in helping bring together the revised strategy for GDS, in particular bringing clarity to our Service Transformation offer. I really enjoyed working with Sam, as did many of my colleagues!"

"Sam is a steadying hand in an industry that's at an early stage and is a somewhat turbulent environment. Ever since Sam joined the team at Nativz Gaming his strategic insight, leadership and project management skills from the public sector have been invaluable in guiding how we are positioning and building our business in esports and gaming."

"Sam was a first class policy adviser for the ECR Group in the European Parliament who made a substantial contribution in a relatively short space of time. He worked on issues on the agenda of the Committee on Regional Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Sam was highly regarded by the Members of the European Parliament he advised. He quickly mastered his brief and was an asset to the team, reliably delivering high quality work. As a loyal and supportive team player, Sam was greatly appreciated by his colleagues in the ECR Group secretariat."

"Sam worked with me as part of the MHP's support for Zurich Insurance. He was an important member of the team, who was knowledgeable, hardworking, and with lots of innovative and valuable ideas."

"Sam was an enthusiastic and resilient member of the strategy team at GDS. He helped think through potential models for the advisory arm of the service to better work with other departments and roll out government platforms. His work on setting up the Advisory Board has been very helpful in ensuring GDS is plugged into the right industry and international networks."

"I had the pleasure of working with Sam during his time at Engine MHP. He fully understood our account and the priorities/issues of the sector and he took great care to provide strategic insights that would make a difference. Sam was equally adept at delivering in-depth research, a campaign plan or quickly responding to last minute requests - and each was done in a friendly and professional manner."

"TSA worked with MHP for many years and Sam was an integral part of the success of the relationship. He always provided excellent attention to detail and has the ability to listen, absorb and then always provide us with such useful information that we could then share quickly with the membership. Sam's genuine warmth always shone through, allied with a clear understanding of what we needed and was always on the alert for developments that were particularly relevant to the association."

"I worked with Sam on a number of different accounts during our time at Engine MHP. He was always positive and proactive, managing his demanding workload with professionalism. He took a genuine interest in all our clients and always delivered high quality well thought out work."

"Sam is a top tier policy leader. He led teams on a number of accounts and projects at MHP which delivered demonstrably positive change for clients. He takes an outcomes focused approach, is an excellent communicator and a natural relationship-builder and he really does go the ‘extra mile’!"

"Sam and the team at ForgeFront are an invaluable port-of-call when I need policy advice. They have a real understanding of the policy formation process and key players, but uniquely combine this with project delivery skills and horizon scanning expertise. For me, ForgeFront is a consultancy offering something unique to the market. Highly recommend."

"Sam closely understands European lawmaking and the complex political environment in which the EU operates. As a political group advisor, Sam was instrumental in setting up the Parliament’s Data Harmonization Working Group, playing a lead role in coordinating work on harmonising safety data between the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) under the direction of then EP ECHA liaison, Julie Girling MEP. Sam’s an outstanding public policy professional—skilled, effective, and easy to work with. I would recommend him without hesitation."

"Sam and the Forgefront team were incredibly helpful to the RNIB as we embarked on a major strategic redesign. The organisation had never used futures techniques before, and the team's approach to embedding lasting skills within the RNIB means that we continue to develop and evolve our capability. The real-world application of the foresights was the major takeaway, forcing clarity in our thinking for the near-term, but with the added contextualization of future scenarios. Our emergent strategy will be much stronger as a result. The Forgefront team were a delight to work with and we would wholeheartedly recommend."