Market House International

From their website:

Market House is a one-stop shop for organisations seeking to work with Europe's brightest policy makers and thinkers. We carry out consultancy in the public policy sphere, advising organisations on how to influence the media and the climate in which political ideas are debated. We also house the Stockholm Network, Europe's only dedicated service organisation for market-oriented think tanks with over 100 affiliates in Europe and further afield.

Our affiliates, combined with our pan-European structure, give us local capacity to deliver both local messages and locally-tailored global messages in a wide range of countries
Market House International Ltd is an ideas and public policy consultancy.

We exist to help those involved in devising public policy to expand their audience, define their brand and share ideas and best practice with like-minded people.

Via our unique European networking service, the Stockholm Network, we also help businesses and other organisations to liaise with think tanks and opinion formers. Our aim is to be a one-stop shop for finding and working with the brightest and most innovative European policymakers and opinion formers.

Market House's work is divided into three overlapping areas of expertise:

* Conferences
* Consultancy
* Media

For further information or to request an appointment or brochure, please contact our Director, Helen Disney on helen@market-house.co.uk or our Director of Development, Nicole Gray Conchar on nicole@market-house.co.uk.

Helen Disney is Director of Market House. She has a strong background in think tanks and the media. Formerly an editorial writer for The Times and an editorial writer and commentator for the Daily Express, she continues to write regularly on a range of public policy topics for newspapers, magazines and websites.

Cuttings include the Daily Express and Sunday Express, Public Finance, Public Service Magazine, and The Sprout, a satirical Brussels-based magazine, as well as regular weekly entries for the Centre for the New Europe's health weblog, CNE Health.

She also makes regular appearances on TV and in radio debates including 'Heart of the Matter', 'Kilroy', BBC News, BBC Radio Scotland , Radio 4's Talking Politics and the BBC World Service.

Since 1997, she has been Director of the Stockholm Network, a unique service organisation of over 100 European market-oriented think-tanks. The Network acts as a one stop shop for organisations seeking to work with Europe 's most innovative policy experts and thinkers.

Helen also undertakes consultancy work on public policy issues for corporate clients.

From 1996-2000, she worked at the Social Market Foundation, an independent pro-market think-tank in Westminster , where she was Deputy Director and Editor of The Review, a quarterly journal.

She has edited a number of think-tank publications including The Sex-Change Society by Melanie Phillips, published by the Social Market Foundation, and Europe's Welfare Burden , and Breaking Down the Barriers published by Civitas: The Institute for the Study of Civil Society for the Stockholm Network.

Helen is a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, Women in Journalism and the Women Writers Network. She holds a degree in French and Italian from Bristol University and speaks conversational Spanish.

Nicole Gray Conchar is Director of Development at Market House. Her career in public policy and think tank fundraising spans more than ten years. From 1992 to 1998, she was Director of Sponsor Services at the Cato Institute in Washington DC, responsible for raising high dollar contributions from individuals and for executing major donor events around the world. She moved to New York City in 1998 to become Development Director at School Choice Scholarships and, concurrently, Membership Director at the Manhattan Institute. In 2000, she became Director of Development at the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York and served as its interim President.

She took leave of absence from the public policy and think tank world on two occasions to work on Steve Forbes' 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns, helping to raise over one million dollars of funding for each campaign.

Prior to relocating to the United Kingdom in 2003, Nicole was founding Executive Director of the Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to defend free speech and a free society. This is achieved through the critical examination of ideas and the sponsoring of public policy debates and related activities in the New York City area.

Nicole has a B.A. in Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics & Government from the American University in Washington DC and currently resides in Chiswick, London.

Sacha Kumaria is Office Manager and Event Co-ordinator for Market House. He holds a Masters in Classics and a Degree in English and American Literature from Warwick University. He previously worked as a think tank researcher and for the University of Warwick's Alumni Fund. He speaks French and is learning to speak Farsi.

CONFERENCES

The staff at Market House have a proven track record in organising high-profile seminars, lectures and conferences.

Our events provide an excellent opportunity for networking with high-profile policy makers and opinion formers. Previous speakers and attendees have included:

Frits Bolkestein, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market
John Willman, Chief Leader Writer, Financial Times
Evan Davis, Economics Editor, BBC Newsnight
Clive Crook, Deputy Editor, The Economist
Hans Hoogervorst, then Dutch Social Security Minister, now Health Minister
Charlotte Cederschiöld, Vice President, European Parliament
Frank Heemskerk, MP for the Dutch Liberal party
Peter Robinson, Chief Economist, IPPR, the UK 's leading centre-left think tank.

We have also organised major think tank tours for a range of VIP guests such as Jason Turner, architect of Wisconsin and New York's welfare to work schemes and Johan Norberg, author of In Defence of Global Capitalism .

Jason Turner's trip has resulted in Wisconsin-style welfare reforms being piloted in the German state of Hesse. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has since adopted a version of the Hesse plan, based on Wisconsin, as part of its national party legislative agenda.

Johan Norberg's trip has resulted in his book, In Defence of Global Capitalism, being translated into numerous European languages and in regular appearances in the European media including a recent, hour-long documentary on Channel 4.

CONSULTANCY

Market House works with a range of corporate and other clients, providing background research, advice and expertise in the public policy sphere. Clients benefit from our knowledge of European policy issues and the political context in which they are debated, as well as gaining access to our unique network of Europe 's brightest and most innovative policy experts and thinkers.

MEDIA

The Network's Director, Helen Disney, is an experienced writer and commentator for the media. Formerly an editorial writer for 2 British national newspapers, as well as an experienced speaker on policy issues in the broadcast media and at international conferences, Helen provides advice and assistance in working effectively with the media. Market House can help you to sharpen your messages as well as your strategy for getting those messages heard in national and international debates.

Related:
Sourcewatch Stockholm Network
Pfthink Tank Pfonies
Covert industry funding
Corporate Watch (Pdf)