John Amaechi is a respected organisational psychologist, a New York Times best-selling author and CEO of APS Ltd, a strategic consultancy that works across Europe, Asia and North America. John was recently named to 2019’s list of the most influential thinkers in HR that includes Simon Sinek, Amy Cuddy and Patrick Lencioni.

John partners with organisations to help leaders deliver on the promise of authentic, transformational leadership. He focuses on improving performance through an evidence-based practice: solving seemingly intractable people problems and creating thriving workplaces in the face of inevitable challenges and disruption.

John coaches individuals and consults with organisations to improve communication, leadership and teaming and enhance culture as a way to grow, improve and achieve goals. His psychological insight helps people understand the barriers to high performance and overcome them. He understands motivation and personal development and the roots of success that enables these traits to flourish. He also considers the nature of competition, the importance of cognitive diversity in organisational achievement, and aligning personal and business values and ethics.

John’s experience is unique – he created a masterplan for his own radical, personal transformation from an overweight British schoolboy to the first British NBA (National Basketball Association, USA) star to psychologist – and his experience and approach appeals to people from all walks of life.

In addition to running his own international strategic consultancy, John is also a Chartered Scientist, an elected Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and a Research Fellow at the University of East London and he holds various additional board and trustee positions.

Clive Betts began his political career in 1973 and in 1976 was elected as a member of Sheffield City Council.  He became Leader of the Council in 1987, having served on the Housing and Finance committees for several years.  He remained on the Council until his election as Labour Member of Parliament for Sheffield Attercliffe from 1992 until 2010. From 2010 he was the Labour MP for the renamed Sheffield South East constituency and was re-elected in May 2015 and June 2017.

Clive was appointed a Government Whip in 1997 and held the post until 2001. In June 2010 he was elected as Chair of the Department for Communities and Local Government Select Committee and has been re-elected following each General Election.

Clive has been a key member on several Select Committees (Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Department for Communities and Local Government.)  His political interests include economic policy, local and regional government and housing.  He was chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arms Length Management Organisations, the All Party Football Group and was also chair of the Netherlands Group in Parliament and Joint Chair of the Somali and Somaliland APPG.

Louis is Chief Executive and one of the founders of the Non-Executive Directors’ Association (‘NEDA’) – the members Association that was set up in 2006-7 to support the specific needs and demands of Non-Executive Directors and Trustees across all sectors and at each stage of their ‘life-cycle’. Louis leads the NED and board training, education and advisory services. He also oversees the publication of the ‘Non-Executive Directors’ Handbook’ (5^th Edition: 2019) and NEDA’s sponsorship of the Non-Executive Director Awards – 14^th year in 2020.

Louis has over 25 years’ experience in governance, risk and assurance services and in public practice has worked for all of the ‘Big 4’ Accounting firms and for 6 years was a partner at the UK top 10 audit firm Crowe Clark Whitehill, where he led the Risk & Assurance team. He is retained as a consultant having retired from the firm in 2013, and acts as an Associate with three risk, assurance and strategy consultants, including the risk management software firm Sword GRC.

Specialist work and experience has included:

Acting as ‘subject matter expert’ advising boards of directors and senior managers on:

• the strategic evaluation of their corporate governance frameworks and ‘health-checks’ of the day to day governance activities;
• facilitating board performance evaluations working with individual executive and non-executive directors, boards and their committees to determine their levels of performance based on current and future needs as part of operating as an ‘effective board’;
• advising on risk management systems to help establish new approaches or to revitalise and enhance strategies, policies and procedures, including running board-level risk workshops;
• linking risk management and internal control systems to assurance requirements in order to determine internal audit needs, as well as performing assurance quality assessments.

Commercial and professional advisory roles have included:

• Secondment as Finance Director and Board member of two UK quoted Investment Trusts and Non-Executive Director for an AIM-listed European Oil and Gas company.
• Between 2009 – 2013 he acted as Head of Internal Audit & Risk at ten commercial and not-for-profit organisations on outsourced arrangements.
• Financial Accountant within the P&O Group.

Committee memberships include:

• the Institute of Risk Management (‘IRM’) Special Interest Group for ‘Innovation’ – in 2014-15 he co-wrote the innovative Risk in 2020 study; and
• the Quoted Companies Alliance (‘QCA’) Corporate Governance Committee                 (co-wrote the QCA 2018 Corporate Governance Code and the updated QCA Guide for Audit Committees in 2019).

Louis is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (‘ICAEW’) and a member of the Institute of Risk Management (‘IRM’) and the Institute of Internal Auditors (‘IIA’). He is also a qualified teacher with a Bachelor of Education Honours degree.

Saffron is NHS Providers deputy chief executive, part of the senior management team and sits on the NHS Providers board. She has extensive experience in policy development, influencing and communications and has worked in the healthcare sector since 2007. Before moving into healthcare, Saffron was head of public affairs at the Local Government Association, the voice of local councils in England. Her early career focused on influencing EU legislation and policy development, and she started working life in adult and community education.

She has a degree in Modern Languages from the University in Manchester, for ten years was a board member and then chair of a 16–19 college in Hampshire and is a trustee of GambleAware, a leading charity committed to minimising gambling-related harm.

Files :

The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, set up and now runs Sancroft, a Corporate Responsibility consultancy working with blue-chip companies around the world on environmental, social and ethical issues.  Lord Deben is Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, Valpak Limited, and the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advisers Association. He was the longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment the UK has ever had (1993-97).  His sixteen years of top-level ministerial experience also include Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Minister for London, Employment Minister and Paymaster General in HM Treasury.  He has consistently championed an identity between environmental concerns and business sense.

Mike joined the Department of Health & Social Security in 1979 straight from school, and spent his first 6 years in the Civil Service delivering services to customers. He then moved into regional management and thereafter fulfilled a range of policy and finance roles. Mike is a CIPFA qualified accountant, and has held a variety of Finance Director roles, both corporate and operational. Mike was promoted to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at the Department for Work & Pensions in 2012. From 1st April 2016, he was appointed the CFO for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) where he supports the Department in delivering its priorities of: a prison and probation service that reforms offenders; a modern courts and justice system; global Britain and the rule of law and a transformed Department.

On 1st June 2017 Mike also became the Head of the Government Finance Function, HM Treasury, where he has been driving the agenda to substantially strengthen the finance function’s critical role at the heart of government, ensuring better political and business outcomes by putting finance at the heart of decision-making.

In addition to his core roles, he has a range of additional responsibilities. Within the MoJ, he is the Accountant General of the Senior Courts of England & Wales and a Commissioner for the Reduction of the National Debt. Across Government, he is a member of the Commercial Function Oversight Board and a Non-Executive Board Member of Shared Services Connect Limited. To drive forward the finance profession, he is Vice-President of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA).

Martin Dubbey, Managing Director of Harod Associates served for over 30 years in UK law enforcement principally in counter drugs, corruption and money laundering. Over the past six years he has specialised in the private sector in counter fraud and asset tracing work with specific involvement in sport investigation. In 2014 -15 he  was involved in the investigation of corruption by the Russian state of the Athletics Federation and the following year was involved as Chief Investigator in the Sochi Olympics doping scandal. He is currently involved in an investigation within Weightlifting. Martin is able to share extensive experience of the investigation of corruption particularly involving public bodies.

Neil leads the Counter Fraud and Investigation team at the GIAA, an Executive Agency of HM Treasury. His team provides services across UK government on matters of fraud, bribery and corruption. Neil sits on a number of cross-Government boards and has led a number of high profile fraud investigations and leak inquiries.

Over the past four years, Neil and his team has played a pivotal role supporting the development of the Government Counter Fraud Function and Profession. Beyond conducting criminal and civil investigations, Neil’s team have already supported more than 70 separate government organisations to improve their counter fraud response and compliance with the Government Counter Fraud Functional Standard.

His team have won two awards for their contribution to the UK Government fight against fraud.

Andy is Chief Executive Officer of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW).

Andy was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2010.  For the six years prior to that he was Chief Finance Officer of UHCW, as well as Deputy Chief Executive Officer from 2008 – 2010.

In addition, Andy sits on a number of Boards including the following West Midlands Academic Health Service Network, CIPFA, Warwick Business School Faculty Advisory Board and NHS Elect.

In January 2016 Andy was appointed Professor of Industry at the University of Warwick.

In addition to his Chief Executive Officer role, Andy was appointed as Senior Responsible Officer of the Coventry & Warwickshire STP Footprint in March 2016.

Andy is also a Director of Albany Theatre Trust, Coventry.

Ayesha Hazarika is a political commentator, writer and comedian who served as Chief of Staff to Harriet Harman, Labour Deputy Leader and twice Acting Leader of the Labour Party. She was a senior Labour adviser for more than eight years in Government and in opposition.

As well as working alongside Harriet, Ayesha prepared Ed Miliband for Prime Minister’s Questions, conference speeches, interviews and the televised Leaders’ debates during the 2015 election. She wrote speeches, questions and responses for both, as well as delivering the landmark Equality Act onto the statute book and leading Labour’s response to the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking and press ethics.

Before politics, Ayesha worked with the chairman of music giant EMI and was a civil service press officer at the Department of Trade and Industry, Home Office and No 10. Before that, she was an award-winning comedian who toured the country and played the Edinburgh Fringe. A career she has returned to (at least in part), only now with a more political theme.

Ayesha lifts the lid on Westminster and how the parties operate from the deals and plots to how best to attack your opposite number across the floor. She looks at the serious and the entertaining sides of politics such as how it felt to watch Ed Miliband flounder on live TV, how policy is drafted, and the disconnection between Westminster and voters. She also reveals the important role her Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood and Natalie Bennett impressions played in the leaders’ debate rehearsals.

As well as a political overview and analysis Ayesha looks at the role of women in politics and the challenges they often face in the careers. She considers how politics works, how messages are communicated (successfully and unsuccessfully), and how government policy is formed and influenced. She also addresses the future of culture, media and the creative industries in a climate of cuts and unequal opportunities.

Ayesha is a regular commentator on the BBC, Sky and ITN as well as writing for national newspapers and magazines including the FT, Guardian and New Statesman.

Elizabeth Honer was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA), and Head of Government Internal Audit, on 1 October 2018.

Her career spans over 25 years in the public sector, including in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Houses of Parliament and the National Archives. She is a qualified accountant (CIPFA), with substantial expertise in strategy, governance and risk management at Board level. She seeks to maximise the contribution of internal audit in delivering better outcomes, drawing on her previous experience both as a manager and customer of the function.

Elizabeth is a champion of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, actively seeking different perspectives and regularly mentoring women and BAME emerging leaders. She has an MSc in Managing Organisational Performance (Cranfield School of Management) and has published research articles on performance improvement and managing reputational risk.

When not at work, she enjoys cycling (many overseas tours with her husband), classical music (including choral singing) and cooking.

Ewan King joined SCIE in September 2014 and leads the organisation’s business development, marketing, research, consultancy and communications functions. Ewan is currently leading a programme of work for the Department for Health and Social Care on Covid-19 recovery.

Ewan leads SCIE’s work on integration of health and social care, personalised care, asset based approaches, innovation and children’s social care. Ewan was until recently on the executive team responsible for setting up the DfE funded What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care.

Ewan has been Director of Research at the OPM Group, an employee owned research organisation and consultancy. Before joining OPM, Ewan worked as a researcher for the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP. Ewan was until recently a Trustee of the Charity Penrose, which seeks to re-integrate ex-offenders and people with mental health conditions into society. He was educated at the London School of Economics and Warwick University

Hashi Mohamed is one of the UK’s leading junior barristers in planning and public law, including environmental, human rights and commercial litigation. He is a Special Adviser to Max Hill QC, the Independent Reviewer or Terror Legislation. He also presents on BBC Radio 4 and writes across leading publications, including The Times, The Guardian and Prospect Magazine.

One of 12 children, Mohamed’s father died when he was 9. Soon after, Mohamed came to the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee from Kenya in the summer of 1993. When he arrived he spoke basic English, attended failing schools and was raised exclusively on state benefits in a deprived area of North West London. Today, at 33, as a barrister and broadcaster, Mohamed has attended both Oxford University and Bar school on a full scholarship.

His story is one of hope and ambition, aspiration and inspiration. He uses his personal journey to draw powerful conclusions for business and enterprise, public sector and central government – about better devising policy, about resilience, focus and the ability to adapt in the pursuit of success. The lessons to be drawn are multifaceted and relevant to many people and industries.

Mohamed stimulates motivation and inspiration as well as chairing events and panel discussions in the UK and abroad.

Lecturer at University of Aberdeen 1996-1999 and University of Salford 1999-2002.  Joined Bristol in October 2002, Senior Lecturer from 2007.

Research

I am interested in social and political values, both their links to positions in socio-demographic space and their influence on political behaviour. I primarily use large-scale quantitative data sources to investigate how these values have influenced voting behaviour at general elections, and more recently at the EU Referendum.

I am especially interested in the role of education in social values, particularly understanding how education ‘liberalises’ and the effects of an expanding HE sector in shaping political discourse and preferences.

Teaching

I am on research leave for academic year 2019/2020.

I am keen to supervise research students working in the areas of social attitudes, values and political behaviour, particular those who are interested in working with advanced quantitative analysis techniques.

Sir Jonathan (Jon) has recently taken up the post of CEO of the Financial Reporting Council, who regulate auditors, accountants and actuaries, and set the UK’s Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes. Prior to his role at the FRC, Jon was the Chief Executive Officer of HMRC, the UK Tax Authority, collecting more than £625billion, employing more than 65,000 people and driving reform of the UK tax system. Before HMRC, Jon was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, jointly leading the £36bn organisation with the Chief of the Defence Staff.  Jon had a lengthy finance career including being Director General, Finance at the MoD; Director General, Corporate Services at the Department for Education and Finance Director of Ofsted. Before the Civil Service Jon was Director of Corporate Services at North Somerset Council, worked at Ernst & Young and Eagle Star Insurance and spent his early career at Norfolk County Council. Jon is both CIPFA and CIMA qualified.

Nick Watt has worked in national journalism for 30 years, reporting on UK and EU politics.

In 2016, Nick became the Political Editor of Newsnight on BBC2. Before joining the BBC, Nick worked as the Guardian’s Chief Political Correspondent and as its European Editor based in Brussels. He started his career at the Times where he worked as a Political Correspondent and as Ireland Correspondent based in Belfast.

Nick has become a familiar figure on television reporting on the drama of the Brexit crisis as it claimed the careers of two Prime Ministers. His lively nightly updates have won widespread praise for providing illuminating insights into the rows behind the scenes.

Jack Blanchard, who writes the Politico London Playbook, has described Nick’s reports as ‘always immaculately sourced and well worth a listen.’

Nick was a well known broadcaster on BBC and Sky News before joining the BBC full time. He was a panelist on BBC1’s Sunday Politics presented by Andrew Neil and also provided humorous summaries of political events for This Week.

Nick’s interests have long extended beyond Westminster. He helped to anchor the Guardian’s coverage of the war in Kosovo and the Iraq war. As the Guardian’s Europe editor he travelled round Eastern Europe examining the impact of the EU on the new members states.

Nick has covered seven UK general elections, two Scottish referendums and two UK-wide referendums. He likes to joke that the downfall of Margaret Thatcher marked his debut in political journalism. As a trainee he was dispatched to describe her arrival at her new home in Dulwich on the day of her resignation.

In recent years Nick has gained extensive experience speaking at and chairing events in the political sphere and beyond. He has won praise for his witty and authoritative approach.