Initially joining to develop Promise Communities, our digital business, Jacob has now been seconded to help the core team of Promise consultants.

Jacob has previously worked as a consultant for the fashion designers Rodnik, and interned at BAE Systems in Washington, DC. He has also spent a year in Africa where he undertook a five-month consulting project for Microloan Foundation, the microfinance charity in Malawi, wrote a report for an education charity in Uganda and led business development for the financial information company Africa Prices, Zimbabwe.

In addition to being a member of the Ambassador Board of the Teach First programme, the highest ranked charity in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers list, he is a keen writer, publishing work in the Guardian Weekly and the Economic Monitor. He co-authored the Teach First education policy book presented to the House of Lords and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, for which he was interviewed by the national media.

Jacob read History at Manchester University. His career could have been quite different - he was a member of the Officer Training Corp, played Danny in Grease and for a while flirted with the idea of being a cartoonist.