Keynote SpeakerMatthew Goodwin

Matthew Goodwin is an academic, bestselling author, pollster, and speaker known for his research on: politics, populism, elections, voting, public opinion, Brexit, Europe, academic freedom and more. He is Professor of Politics at Rutherford College, University of Kent, recently served as Senior Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, at Chatham House, Senior Fellow with the UK In a Changing Europe, Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute, and Senior Advisor to the UK Education Committee. In 2022, Matt was appointed Social Mobility Commissioner. He is forty-one years old and lives in London.

The author of six books, he wrote the No.2 Sunday Times bestseller Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics, and the Sunday Times bestseller, National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy, which was translated into multiple languages and listed among the Financial Times and Times Literary Supplement as one of the books of the year. He is also co-author of the 2015 Political Book of the Year, Revolt on the Right, which was long-listed for the Orwell Prize and listed among the Financial Times and Guardian books of the year. He shares his views on his Substack, writing fortnightly newsletters and discussions with leading experts, thinkers, and writers.

Matt has published several other academic books with Oxford and Cambridge University Press, including the first major study of the Brexit vote and dozens of peer-reviewed papers in top-ranked journals such as the British Journal of Political Science, the European Journal of Political Research and Electoral Studies. He has published highly cited research reports with think tanks such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Chatham House, and the Legatum Institute.

Matthew Goodwin engages widely with governments and corporations around the globe. He has consulted and given talks to more than 400 organizations, from the UK Prime Minister’s Office to the President of Germany, U.S. State Department, European Commission, Google, Deutsche Bank, UBS, JP Morgan, Rothschild and Cie, Trilateral Commission, Goldman Sachs, Clifford Chance, and many more. He is regularly in demand as a keynote speaker including after dinner and client-facing events. He has given evidence to various parliamentary committees including the Home Affairs, Education and Public Bill committees and has privately briefed some of the world’s most well known political leaders including Prime Ministers and Presidents of major advanced Western democracies. He appears regularly in international and national media including BBC News, Financial Times, New York Times and Politico, among many others.

Matt was born and raised in St Albans, Hertfordshire and was the first person in his family to go to university. A political scientist, he completed his degrees while studying in Detroit, the Czech Republic and Canada. He holds a BA (First Class Hons) in Politics and Contemporary History, M.A. in Political Science and PhD in Political Science. After finishing his doctorate, Matt joined the Institute for Political and Economic Governance at the University of Manchester where he was later awarded a prestigious Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. He was then appointed lecturer at the University of Nottingham in 2010 where he completed research projects with the Leverhulme Trust, Nuffield Foundation, British Academy and Home Office, among others. He was then awarded an ESRC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship and spent one year seconded to a UK government department where he worked alongside policy makers and political leaders on issues relating to integration and countering extremism. In 2015, he was appointed Professor of Politics at the University of Kent and was awarded an ESRC Senior Fellowship to examine Britain’s 2016 EU referendum. In 2018, he was named a European Young Leader. In 2019 he was seconded to the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House and in 2021 was appointed Director of the Centre for UK Prosperity at the Legatum Institute where he remains a Fellow, working on issues relating to academic freedom, levelling-up and politics. Throughout his academic career he has raised more than £2 million in research funding.

Matthew Goodwin’s distinctive contribution to research and the public debate has been recognised by several bodies. In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Richard Rose Prize, given to one scholar annually for their contribution to the study of politics. He was also awarded the Political Studies Association Communicator Prize for his extensive work with non-academic audiences and won the Political Book of the Year Award. He is currently finishing two books, research papers and learning to sail.