Westlake to leave post as ministerial adviser

Stian Westlake is to step down from his role as policy adviser to the minister of state for universities and science.

Westlake has been in the job since January 2017 and has worked for three Conservative ministers: Jo Johnson, Sam Gyimah and, since December, Chris Skidmore. 

Before taking the role, he was executive director of policy and research at Nesta, formerly the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, where he spent eight years. He is also co-author of Capitalism without Capital: The rise of the intangible economy, published last year.