Nationality British Education Christ's Hospital Spouse Rachel Whetstone | Role Scholar Name Steve Hilton | |
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Born 25 August 1969 (age 54) ( 1969-08-25 ) United Kingdom Books More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First | ||
Steve Hilton: 'Mr Moderniser' on our inhuman institutions - Newsnight
Steve Hilton (born 25 August 1969) is a former director of strategy for David Cameron, who was Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Hilton hosts a weekly show for the Fox News Channel called The Next Revolution, which debuted on 4 June 2017.
Contents
- Steve Hilton Mr Moderniser on our inhuman institutions Newsnight
- Steve hilton discusses his new book more human in conversation with charles moore
- Early life
- Career
- Personal life
- References
He spent a year as a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is the co-founder and current CEO of Crowdpac, a political data technology startup, and is a visiting scholar at the think tank Policy Exchange.
Steve hilton discusses his new book more human in conversation with charles moore
Early life
Hilton is the son of Hungarian immigrants whose original surname was Hircsák (alternative spelling: Hirtsac), who fled their home during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. They came to Britain, initially claiming asylum, and anglicised their name to Hilton.
He won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital School in Horsham before reading Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at New College, Oxford.
Career
After graduating, Hilton joined Conservative Central Office, where he came to know David Cameron and Rachel Whetstone, his future wife and Senior Vice-President of Policy and Communications at Uber. He liaised with the party's advertising firm, Saatchi and Saatchi, and was praised by Maurice Saatchi, who remarked, "No one reminds me as much of me when young as Steve." During this time Hilton came up with the "New Labour, New Danger" demon eyes poster campaign for the Conservative's pre-general election campaign in 1996, which won an award from the advertising industry's Campaign magazine at the beginning of 1997. In 2005, Hilton lost out to future Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove in the selection process for the Surrey Heath constituency.
Hilton talked of the need to "replace" the traditionally minded grassroots membership of the Conservative Party, which he saw was preventing the party from embracing a more metropolitan attitude on social issues.
It is alleged that Hilton said "I voted Green" after the Labour landslide of 2001, but since then he has worked with Cameron to re-brand the Conservative Party as green and progressive. According to The Economist Hilton "remains appallingly understood". There were reports that Hilton's 'blue sky thinking' caused conflict in Whitehall and, according to Nicholas Watt of The Guardian, Liberal Democrats around deputy prime minister Nick Clegg considered him to be a "refreshing but wacky thinker".
Hilton was satirised in the BBC comedy The Thick of It as the herbal-tea drinking spin doctor Stewart Pearson.
On 2 March 2012, Downing Street announced that Hilton would be a "visiting scholar" at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies for a year. His last memo concerned the advocacy of severe cuts in the number of civil servants in the United Kingdom and further welfare cuts.
Hilton is co-founder and CEO of Crowdpac.com, a Silicon Valley technology start-up. In April 2016, Crowdpac launched a beta service in the UK.
In May 2015 Hilton joined the UK think tank Policy Exchange as a visiting scholar.
His book More Human was published on 21 May 2015. It advocates smaller, human-scale organisations and is critical of large governmental and business, including factory farms and banks.
Personal life
Hilton is married to Rachel Whetstone, a former aide (political secretary) to Michael Howard, former head of communications at Google, and former Senior Vice-President of Policy and Communications at Uber. The couple were godparents to David Cameron's son Ivan, who died at the age of six.
On 7 January 2010 it was reported that in October 2008 Hilton had been arrested. He had been rushing to catch a train back to London after the Conservative Party Conference and had a dispute with the train staff. He was later fined £80.