We build the Right.
O’Sullivan & Partners make conservative civic society effective by designing the machinery through which ideas propagate.
About us
O’Sullivan & Partners aim to be a co-ordinating force: whether through our conferences, or via our consultancy work for think tanks, businesses and NGOs.
We set up new institutions and make existing ones better.
Our Work
O&P can build the bones, and add flesh.
We provide
Most think tanks are set up to influence. Be it advancing one idea to a few specialists, or speaking directly to the general public on a whole philosophy.
That set-up process is often led by research teams whose primary purpose is research, not management. This means delays, muddled strategies, haphazard systems.
We take care of functions — from compliance to accounts to events to media planning — allowing the people who matter to concentrate on building the best ideas possible.
We offer modular packages to turn a small operating budget into an organisation that punches above its weight.
Our Work
O&P can take something good, and burnish it up to great.
For existing organisations, we can consult on management systems, renew strategy, and supply back office support.
We find ways to drive down cost, drive up efficiency, to use data more comprehensively, and make sure every part of the org speaks to the others: a harmonious whole.
Our database of researchers, academics and movers within the space is a roll call for finding the right face for the next paper, the next flagship fellow, or the next team leader.
Our Work
We believe there is much more to be done to connect the Right, and we want to be a central node in building those linkages.
We map and maintain a network across the conservative world, and we put our clients in front of the people who can help them grow: funders, fellows, partners and audiences.
With our annual Repealing O’Sullivan’s Law Conference, we’ve committed to growing the movement by finding and funding the brightest minds with the boldest ideas.
A founder who named the problem, and the partners building the answer.
Founder
John was Margaret Thatcher’s speechwriter and adviser in Downing Street, and edited National Review under William F. Buckley for almost a decade. He is founder and President of the Danube Institute, Hungary’s best known think tank.
In 1989 he gave his name to O’Sullivan’s Law: that any organisation not explicitly right-wing will, over time, drift left.
O’Sullivan & Partners was founded to make the law history.
Head of Development
Calum Nicholson was Head of Research at the Danube Institute from 2024 till 2026, transforming the department’s fortunes. He holds an undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Human Geography.
Head of Projects
Gavin Haynes has been a journalist, presenter, and audio producer, with several Radio 4 documentaries to his name, and over 10 million views on YouTube. He spent two years as a Visiting Fellow at the Danube Institute.
Our two annual conferences unite the Right in a purpose: how do we get stronger, organisationally?
O’Sullivan’s Law is a description of the world as it is. But is it an iron law?
On 23 February 2027, John O’Sullivan will be hosting a one-day conference in London, to analyse a coinage that is now nearly 40 years old.
How can we build a world that is O’Sullivan’s Law-proof?
Is it to adopt the totalising tactics of the left? Or is it a kind of parallelism — to build new institutions that perform the useful functions of the old ones?
And what is the end goal? Is it that we would like the world to return to liberal neutrality? Or is it now time to build a presumption of Rightism into the very bones of our organisations?
Across a one-day event, John will be joined by some of the most lively thinkers in today’s conservative movement, as they consider not just what has gone wrong — but just how right it could go.
We’ll be considering new ways to work together, new strategies to engineer out the old problems, and unveiling John’s new vehicle for fortifying the conservative movement he has given his life to — O’Sullivan & Partners.
In January 2027, O’Sullivan & Partners will be inviting 40 delegates to Budapest, for a two-day workshop that will be aimed at building the next generation of conservative institutions.
In O’Sullivan’s Law, the world tilts leftwards unless acted upon. In the first Repealing O’Sullivan’s Law Conference, we are determined to act on it.
We know what the problems are — now it’s time for solutions. A new march of the makers.
In teams, our delegates will be tasked with building an embryonic institution — a think tank, a service, a system, an information portal, a new journal — that could add to the vitality of the overall conservative movement.
Across the course, their ideas will be shaped, tested and matured, as they pass through seminars on business skills, fundraising, tech, governance, marketing, comms, and more.
On the final day, each team will partake in a competitive pitching final — with the winners awarded an exclusive meeting with one of Britain’s top conservative funders.
Get in touch
We’d love to hear from anyone who wants to make the Right more organised. From job seekers to academics to future founders: we’re always looking to expand our network.