Populus Co-Founder Confirmed as New Cameron Adviser

Andrew Cooper - the co-founder of UK polling firm Populus - has taken leave of absence to become Director of Political Strategy at 10 Downing Street, working directly for Prime Minister David Cameron.

After graduating from the London School of Economics, Cooper joined Westminster cross-party think-tank the Social Market Foundation (SMF) as Head of Research. He was then appointed Deputy Director of Research for the Conservative party, during which time he was responsible for qual and quant opinion research in the run up to the 1997 general election.

After the election, he became the Tory party's Director of Strategy, until he left in 2003 to co-found Populus with party colleague Michael Simmonds, working alongside SMF co-founder and the former Director of the Conservative Research Department, Rick Nye.

'This is a great opportunity for Andrew and everyone at Populus wishes him well,' Simmonds comments. 'It is a tribute to him and his colleagues that the quality of the strategic advice, which he has provided to clients in both the corporate and political worlds has been recognised by David Cameron.'

In Cooper's absence, Nye will join the Board to take responsibility for all Populus' political polling work.

The firm works with a range of clients such as businesses, charities, government departments, local government and political parties - including the Tory party.

In January, the company opened a new data collection and processing business, Populus Data Solutions, to provide online field and tab services using its own panel (Populuslive), alongside random online sampling techniques.

Web site: www.populus.co.uk .