Osman Anwar

Osman Anwar is a Senior Economic Consultant with SQW, a leading UK provider of research, analysis and advice on economic development for the public, private and not-for-profit organisations. SQW Limited and its sister company, Oxford Innovation are wholly-owned subsidiaries of SQW Group. Oxford Innovation supports the training and growth of SMEs, including investment networks, management and innovation centres in England.

Osman is an economist by training and brings deep experience of a range of assignments for UK and international clients, with a particular focus on access to business finance, business creation and growth, innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge/technology transfer. This has been in the context of economic evaluations, evaluations, and other research studies. He is adept at applying economic analysis to a range of public policy interventions, in accordance with Her Majesty’s Treasury guidance in the UK. He is one of SQW’s lead on access to labour funding and has worked for UK Government and European Commission (EC) departments in this area. For example, it managed a review of the provision of publicly endorsed national and regional venture capital by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in the UK; and carried out SQW’s research on the provision of equity financing to SMEs in the UK which involved measuring the ‘equity gap’ for BIS. A study is currently being managed to provide intelligence research and analysis on SMEs’ access to finance across Europe as part of the EC Business Finance Index for Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General; and currently managing a market failure analysis study to explore the need for a new product aimed at pilot debt growth and export potential SMEs in Scotland for Scottish Investment Bank.

Through his work for UK and EC clients, Osman has had exposure to a wide range of public and private sector stakeholders operating in SME finance including fund managers, venture capitalists, business angels, financial institutions, academics specialising in access to finance for businesses. He has also developed an understanding of policy, data and research issues related to access to international funding. He recently presented crowdfunding at a workshop organised by the EC and chaired by the OECD in Brussels. Prior to joining SQW, Osman worked in corporate finance in London and qualified with a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Edinburgh, UK.