Gareth Williams

Gareth retired in May 2021 after serving for nearly five years as a Special Adviser to First Ministers Carwyn Jones and Mark Drakeford in the Welsh Government. He is currently retained part-time by the Welsh Government as Chair of the Expert Panel supporting the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales.

Before his appointment as a Special Adviser, Gareth had for 15 years been the Managing Director of Old Bell 3 Ltd., a highly successful Welsh research and evaluation consultancy which he founded with a track record inter alia of research economic and social policy, the EU’s Structural Fund programmes and learning and skills policy.

Gareth is Chair of Mid Wales Opera (MWO), a touring opera company with a strong reputation for fostering young artists, for the quality, affordability and accessibility of its performances and for bringing opera to communities across the whole of Wales.

Gareth has also served on the board of the Ludlow Assembly Rooms, a multi-arts centre in Ludlow, Shropshire. He was Treasurer from 2008 – 2012 and was Chair from 2016 – 2021. During his tenure as Chair, he presided over a multi-million pound refurbishment as well as maintaining the organisation through the Covid crisis.

Gareth has a first class honours degree from Cambridge University and has been a Member of the UK Evaluation Society (UKES). Before establishing Old Bell 3, Gareth worked as a civil servant in Whitehall, Stockholm and Cardiff, for the European Parliament, as Head of European and International Affairs for Birmingham City Council and as the Chief Special Adviser in the Welsh Office/National Assembly for Wales at the time of the creation of the National Assembly.