Dr. Tom Smith, Managing Director

Tom is co-founder and Managing Director of OCSI, with extensive experience in enabling public sector organisations to make effective use of information for targeting and evaluating programmes. He has initiated, led, and coordinated OCSI projects on area deprivation profiling and information sharing with a number of Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Authorities. He has consulted on area deprivation and administrative data projects with the Social Disadvantage Research Centre for over a decade, including recent work on the National Evaluation of the ODPM New Deal for Communities programme in the Education and Worklessness themes.

David Avenell, Director

David is co-founder of OCSI, and specialist in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), GIS database development, algorithm design and applications development. He has extensive experience of managing GIS implementation within Local and Central Government, and coordinating GIS services provided by a number of commercial consultancies. Since 1993, David has worked as principal GIS consultant to the Social Disadvantage Research Centre at Oxford University, providing analysis and mapping for projects including the Indices of Deprivation, New Deal for Communities and the 2001 Census Research Programme.

Michael Noble, Director

Michael is co-founder of OCSI, and Professor of Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, and Director of the Social Disadvantage Research Centre and the Centre for Analysis of South African Social Policy. His major research interests are in the areas of poverty and social exclusion, housing and homelessness and income maintenance policy. He is an advisor to the UK government on small area indicators of poverty and deprivation, and is currently working with the South African Government on developing the evidence base for pro-poor policy. He is an acknowledged international authority in research on poverty and deprivation, receiving an OBE in the New Year Honours 2001.

Rosemary Westbrook, Non-executive Director

Rosemary is Corporate Director of Housing at Westminster City Council, and previously Director of Housing and Services at Slough Borough Council. Rosemary was appointed to the OCSI Board in February 2004, bringing over twenty years experience at senior level in the public sector to the OCSI management team.

Dr. Chris Dibben, Senior Research Consultant

Chris is a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of St Andrews. His major research interests include poverty, health inequalities and community vulnerability. Current and recent projects include the production of a Health Poverty Index for the Department of Health; investigating the impact of New Deal for Communities on health as part of the National Evaluation, the Indices of Deprivation for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the analysis of welfare dynamics.

David McLennan, Senior Research Consultant

David is Deputy Director of the Social Disadvantage Research Centre at the University of Oxford. He is a member of the research team that developed the Indices of Deprivation 2004, in which he led on the Crime Domain and the small area population estimation. His major research interests include the mapping and tracking of poverty and wider social deprivation, with a particular focus on the effects of crime and disorder on individuals and communities.

Stefan Noble, Research Consultant

Stefan is a Research Consultant with OCSI, with wide experience of using and analysing administrative data for area-based deprivation projects. He was part of the Indices of Deprivation 2004 development team, and has worked on key deprivation projects including the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit report on Identifying Significantly More Deprived Areas, the Social Exclusion Unit report on Jobs and Enterprise in Deprived Areas, and the Select Committee for Work and Pensions report on Small Area Child Income Deprivation in England and Wales.

Gemma Wright, Senior Research Consultant

Gemma is a Research Fellow at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, and Deputy Director of the Social Disadvantage Research Centre and the Centre for Analysis of South African Social Policy. Her research areas of interest include measurements of poverty and social exclusion, and small area level analysis of administrative data including social security grants data.