Max Nathan is a deputy director at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, where he oversees the academic strand of the center’s work. He is also senior research fellow at NIESR and a research fellow at the London School of Economics, based at the Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC). He has over 12 years’ experience working in think tanks, consultancy and public policy, most recently at DCLG as an ESRC-DCLG senior policy adviser, covering migration, localism, regeneration and economic development issues. In 2004 Nathan helped set up the Centre for Cities think tank, where he ran the research program for three years. You can follow him on twitter: @iammaxnathan