Hugo is the Mission Director for Nesta’s A Healthy Life mission. Hugo plays the leading role in setting the mission’s strategic direction and oversees a broad portfolio of projects across England, Wales and Scotland.

He leads the development and implementation of a body of work across the following areas of focus: Improving evidence on what people eat, improving access to healthy food, reducing the energy content of food and reducing unhealthy food promotion. As well as overseeing the mission, Hugo leads on external engagement with the food industry and government. With the food industry, he leads on the creation of partnerships to design, test and scale interventions to improve population health whilst with Government, he advises on how they can drive change across all areas of health and wellbeing. Hugo leads a diverse team of data scientists, designers, behavioural scientists, practitioners and academics to make positive change at scale and improve the nation’s health.

Hugo is an expert in behavioural science and public health interventions and currently leads Nesta’s A Healthy Life mission which aims to halve the number of people with obesity in the UK. He joins Nesta from The Behavioural Insights Team where he led their work on Health and Education, helping them grow from a small team in Cabinet Office, to a global organisation of more than 250 people. He has overseen projects with a wide range of partners including No10, government departments, large charities and private sector players. He has worked on all aspects of public health, from antimicrobial resistance to workplace wellbeing. Within public health, obesity is his specialist interest area. Since 2013 he has been a key advisor in the area, and has produced multiple field trials, lab studies, impact models and policy recommendations.

About Nesta
We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good.

We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early-stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better.