Stephen Evans has more than ten years experience in making and implementing policy nationally and in London. He spent almost four years as Director of Employment and Skills at the London Development Agency, leading the Mayor's work in boosting employment in the capital. This included leading the work of the London Skills and Employment Board and putting in place multi-million pound programmes, which produced better outcomes than previous programmes while cutting their costs by more than one third.

Prior to that, he was Chief Economist at the Social Market Foundation publishing research on housing, health, welfare reform and skills, and led policy development work on the Leitch Review of Skills, an independent review of the UK's skills needs. This built on his previous roles as Senior Policy Advisor in the Treasury and Cabinet Office on productivity, economic growth, skills and welfare reform.