James Ward

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT JAMES WARD

I am an expert at turning complaining into gainful employment. In early 2024, concerned about the surging growth of the SUV market in the UK, I began to convene transport, road safety and environmental groups to form what would become the SUV Alliance. The Alliance now works collaboratively to reverse the \"carspreading\" trend towards ever-bigger, ever-heavier cars and SUVs. Key skills include- Stakeholder management: balancing the needs and red lines of multiple SUV Alliance members to write our joint manifesto - Facilitation: I sit in a convening role for the SUV Alliance, coordinating projects and shared actions, facilitating meetings - Project management: from the design and delivery of our manifesto, to the launch event in the House of Lords, to our national conference, I have led and delivered successful and impactful projects - Event organisation: including the national \'Reversing Carspreading\' conference in September 2025 - Fundraising: I secured funding for my role to convene the SUV Alliance and have brought in project-specific funding as well - Public speaking: I have spread the good word of the SUV Alliance at multiple conferences and public events including Enforcement Excellence and London Climate Action WeekIn addition to this, I lead Adfree Cities\' digital comms. This includes our social media, website, WhatsApp podcast and newsletters.I plan and deliver our digital strategies, which have seen our online presence grow steadily since I started in November 2022. Instagram followers and reach have doubled and we have successfully established our presence on Bluesky and LinkedIn. We launched the Adfree Cities podcast, Better Without Billboards, which performed well with core audiences. Key skills include- Strategic planning: of annual digital strategies to feed into wider organisational strategic goals - Data analysis: I take a data-led approach to digital comms, taking our analytics as a guide to what works and what doesn\'t; making and communicating reports - Internal communication: to achieve buy-in from the wider team on our digital approach and to encourage the whole team to be pro-actively involved in content creation - Content creation: making regular content for multiple platforms (mostly via Canva); self-taught in video editing (Capcut) and podcast editing (Audacity)Our digital comms is in constant evolution and I enjoy the opportunities it brings for upskilling myself and colleagues.