Ryan Nicolas Coetzee (born 8 January 1973) is a South African politician and political strategist, who served as special adviser to Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg[1] and was the 2015 General Election Director of Strategy at Liberal Democrat HQ.
In late October 2013 it was announced that Coetzee might return to South Africa and was being offered a Western Cape provincial cabinet post by the DA.
[9] However, in August 2014 he instead switched to a job at Liberal Democrat party HQ, becoming the General Election Director of Strategy, for which he was reportedly paid a salary of £110,000.
"[14] During the summer of 2015 Coetzee joined Britain Stronger in Europe, a pro-European referendum campaign organisation, after being recruited by former Labour MP Peter Mandelson.
[16] In the June 2016 referendum the UK voted to leave the EU, and Ryan Coetzee blamed the defeat in a tweet on "25 years of right wing tabloid propaganda".
[17] In 2020, Coetzee was reported to be heading up a £5m marketing campaign for the Hong Kong government as part of his work at PR firm Consulum.