Westlake (pictured) takes over from Nicola Emmerson, director of membership and professional affairs, who has led the RSS on an interim basis since February, when previous chief executive Hetan Shah left to become chief executive at the British Academy.

Westlake was an executive director at Nesta between 2009 and 2017, leading the organisation’s think tank. Since then, he has been a policy advisor to three ministers for universities and science and is a governor of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research.

He will lead a programme of RSS activities including its Covid-19 task force, Data Manifesto and Statisticians for Society initiative.

Deborah Ashby, president of the RSS, said: “Stian’s experience in advising government on STEM and higher education issues, along with his work at Nesta on large policy and data projects, is extremely valuable. Statistics have never been so important as they are now, and I know Stian is the ideal person to lead on the fellowship’s work putting data at the heart of understanding and decision-making.”