Ed Thomas

Head of Public Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement @Motability Operations Ltd

London, GB

Recruited into a new role for an organisation that had not previously engaged externally, I established a new “business as usual” capacity for Motability Operations, establishing and recruiting a small team, producing a Stakeholder and Political engagement plan to support the wider Communications Plan, as well as establishing a budget, internal processes and objectives to support its delivery. I developed relationships with officials in DfT, DBT and DWP. I took over all existing ongoing relationships with Trade Associations, Disability and Business Groups and ensured we leveraged our existing memberships while selecting new organisations to join to better build and establish our external profile. I had a particular focus on Scotland, establishing a strong presence north of the border with stakeholders and the Scottish Government.I was the first point of contact for all stakeholder and political engagement, supporting the CEO and executive team and coordinating with the Motability Foundation on political visits and events. I produced policy briefings and ministerial letters, overhauled the corporate slide deck and factsheets, established standard processes for policy consultations, conducted meetings with high-level stakeholders and briefed our CEO, Executive Team and Corporate Affairs Director on political and policy issues. I also organised a variety of events for target stakeholders, leading on some myself and delegating others to my team.As the leader of a new team I engaged in significant internal engagement to support my activities, conducting stakeholder mapping exercises with the Executive Team to better understand their contacts and developing relationships with technical teams to better deploy their input externally. Finally, navigating a complex long-term relationship I established new forms of joint working and collaboration between Motability Operations and the Motability Foundation, maximising our resources and ensuring a joined-up approach.