The Progress Team

Meet the Progress team:

Robert Philpot – Director
Robert Philpot is director of Progress, editor of its monthly magazine and editor of The Purple Book published by Biteback in September 2011. He was a special adviser to Rt Hon Peter Hain MP from 2006 to 2007 during his time as Northern Ireland secretary and was special adviser to Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP from 2008 to 2010 during her time as minister for the Olympics and minister for the Cabinet Office.

Before joining Progress, Robert was a graduate teaching assistant at Brunel University, teaching American politics and history. He has written for publications including the Guardian, the Sunday Times, New Statesman, Huffington Post, Total Politics, Tribune and Renewal.

Joe Dancey – Acting Deputy Director
Joe Dancey joined Progress in April 2013 as the Acting Deputy Director. Betweeen 2008 to 2012 he worked as Executive Assistant to Lord Sebastian Coe at the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) before heading up international relations at the Velodrome and other venues during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Previously, he was Special Adviser to Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Valerie Amos, and a political adviser for Peter Mandelson.  He is an active member of the Streatham Labour party and membership officer for his branch.

Richard Angell – Deputy Director (on secondment to New South Wales Labor until September 2013)

Richard Angell is the deputy director of Progress, secretary of the Third Place First network, a member of the work and business policy commission representing Community Union on the Labour party’s National Policy Forum, events officer of LGBT Labour and an activist in the Lambeth Labour party. He is also the former national chair of Young Labour and national secretary of LGBT Labour.

Richard was the general election coordinator in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland in 2010 and election organiser in Wolverhampton South West in 2005, has run selection campaigns for a number of people who are now MPs and speaks regularly to local CLPs and Labour groups about the future of the Labour party.

View Richard Angell’s profile

Adam Harrison – Deputy Editor
Adam Harrison joined Progress in 2010 having previously worked in publishing and in market research. He has been a Labour councillor in Camden since May 2010.

Simon Jeffrey – Events Officer
Simon joined Progress as an intern in 2010 working on the general election, RateMyTory.org.uk and the David v Goliath campaign. He joined Progress as events officer in the summer, then worked part time alongside a masters at Birkbeck, University of London and is now back full time with Progress. He is a Labour party member and activist, campaigning for Labour since his mid-teens. Simon studied politics at the University of York.

Felicity Slater - Outreach and Membership Officer
Felicity interned for Progress in summer 2011, assisting with the production of The Purple Book, and joined the team as outreach and membership officer in January 2013. Previously, she worked at the Institute for Government and for Seema Malhotra MP. Felicity studied politics at Sciences Po Bordeaux and Cardiff University and holds a masters in European affairs.