Education Speakers

Ian MacFadyen is a respected consultant, coach and commentator. He has advised governments in the UK and overseas, coached senior public officials, and commented in print and television on public services, reform and the Budget.

His public service career finished in Namibia, advising the government, and South Africa, helping design a poverty relief programme.

He set out to be a lawyer and volunteered in a law centre, appearing at the Old Bailey. But, he was engrossed in advising ministers by the time he got the degree. He went on to work closely with government lawyers and advise ministers on employment protection and other matters while working on policy in the Prime Minister’s Efficiency Unit in the Cabinet Office.

He brought to that work direct experience of commissioning health services in County Durham and having to justify decisions face to face with the public. His audiences ranged from several hundred to a single person. He won many people over and replaced a decade of animosity with cooperation. Earlier he advised on artificial limb services, hospitals, addictions, medicines, delinquency and manpower in the Department of Health and Social Security. He began by assessing benefits.

In Luton he founded a battered wives refuge. In east London, he was a Liberal council candidate. In Leeds in 2010, he is chair of the Liberal Democrats’ city-wide campaign group.

He was on the management committee of a charity for young homeless people in London. In east London, he was a successful chair of governors at a popular multi-ethnic, multi-faith school. Currently he is an elder and trustee of a church charity in Leeds.

Welsh and Scots by background, brought up in England and internationalist in outlook, his talks, writing, consultancy, coaching and workshops, draw on local and global references. With amusing anecdotes and quotations from a wide range of sources including Calgacus and the Beatles he shares his deep understanding of politics, current affairs, government, leadership, the public sector and reform. His style is relaxed. Successes include persuading a political commissar outsourcing could advance the revolution, winning over trades unions and persuading a most senior government figure to change his mind.

“ Just reading a list of Ibrahim’s achievements is exhausting” was the verdict of Scotland’s Sunday Post on this multitalented whizz-kid. Although still only in his mid-thirties, he seems to have packed a number of careers into one.

Already a respected entrepreneur, philanthropist, academic and former paratrooper, he is fast building a formidable track record as an adviser to a number of world leaders.

Born and Raised in Scotland, Azeem went from teaching himself to spot good investments from the newspapers he read in his father’s shop to a fast-paced business career.

Azeem rapidly moved from outsourcing IT to India, through import and export to maritime insurance, and then setting up a private bank, building society and even a hedge fund, all before his 32nd birthday. In 2006 he was the youngest person on both the Sunday Times Scots’ Rich List and Carter Anderson’s UK Power 100 list.

During this time, his commitment to relentless goal-setting saw him spend seven years as a reservist in the IV Battalion Parachute Regiment – the British army’s elite airborne infantry reserve, and gain an MBA, an MSc(Econ) and is completing a PhD in Strategic Studies at Cambridge University.

As well as an honorary doctorate, he is now a Research Scholar at the International Security Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a member of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy’s Dean’s International Council, Director of Research at the European Centre for Advanced Defence and Strategic Studies in Geneva and Member of the Board of Directors at the Institute of Social Policy Understanding.

He has also been named an ‘emerging World Leader’ by Yale in their World Fellows Program. His columns are regularly published around the world, and can be read in Foreign Policy, The Scotsman and the Sunday Herald, The Middle East Times, The Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune and the LA Times.

Azeem now devotes much of his time to his own charities. As well as a private grant-giving foundation, he has founded charities which tackle problems as diverse as family and marriage breakdown in Scotland to providing clean drinking water in disaster areas.

He has offered strategic advice to the British government, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister of Turkey, the First Minister of Scotland and the Sheikh of Dubai, on topics ranging from anti-radicalisation to improving social mobility and national competitiveness. He is also a founding member of the Aspen US-UAE initiative with Madeleine Albright.

Most recently, Ibrahim has been appointed an advisor to the Chairman of the US Homeland Security Congressional Committee on security and terrorism.

A self-made success in a number of diverse fields, Glasgow-born Azeem Ibrahim has been described by his peers as a brilliant young scholar, financial wizard and gifted entrepreneur.

In 2007, Azeem became the youngest member of the Bank of Scotland Asian Power 100 produced by Carter Anderson, which described him as one of the most influential and highest-achieving people in Britain. The same year Azeem was included in the Observer Courvoisier Future 500 – a definitive list of the nation’s most forward-thinking and brightest young innovators.

In December 2007, a Scottish Parliament motion signed by a number of MSPs congratulated Azeem and his contribution to the country and in April 2008 Azeem accepted the Lloyds TSB and KPMG Business and Commerce Excellence Jewel Award.

His achievements have attracted considerable recognition around the globe and over the last few years Azeem has met and advised a number of world leaders, including the Prime Minister of Turkey and leaders in the Gulf States.

Business Interests Azeem Ibrahim began by launching his own IT consultancy, later expanding the operation into continental Europe, and then moved onto an insurance corporation for the niche maritime-transportation market.

Since then, he has founded over half a dozen companies, mostly in the financial sector, including an online insurance company specialising in maritime insurance, a private online bank for commodity traders, and an FSA-regulated global macro hedge fund based in London.

He was the youngest person on both the Sunday Times Scottish Rich List in 2006 and Carter Anderson’s UK Power 100 list.

Azeem’s most recent venture is Ibrahim Associates, a global strategic consultancy firm aimed at advising governments, NGOs and non-profits on recognising and capitalising on strategic advantage.

Academic life

Azeem’s former professors refer to him as a ‘first-class critical thinker’. He obtained an MBA and an M.Sc.(Econ) in Strategic Studies, then read for a PhD at the University of Cambridge on Geopolitical Strategy. Azeem also served as a Research Scholar on the International Security Program at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.

Azeem also sits alongside former UK Defence Chiefs as a Director and Board Member of the UKNDA – United Kingdom National Defence Association – which operates to improve the position of the armed forces in government circles.

In 2008 Azeem also became a member of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy’s Dean’s International Council – a prestigious group of specialists from around the world with substantive experience in government and the private sector including former Prime Ministers, Presidents, Ambassadors and Diplomats.

The Council meets twice a year and acts as an advisory group for new policy initiatives and resource development for governments around the globe.

Since then he has been accepted as a Yale World Fellow in 2009. The programme selects emerging global leaders from over 1000 nominations and brought to Yale to undertake the Ivy League School’s signature program in advanced leadership training with some of the leading experts in various fields.

He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate from Glasgow Caledonian University for his contribution to ‘global international affairs and community developments in Scotland,’ an Adjunct Professorship from Fatih University in Istanbul, and was made a Fellow at the Macmillan Centre for International Area Studies at Yale University, an organization dedicated to improving Americans’ understanding of the world beyond their borders.

In 2010, Azeem was named as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009 by the LSDP European Social Think Tank and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Most recently Azeem was appointed a Fellow and Member of the Board of Directors at the Institute of Social Policy Understanding in the USA.

Much of Azeem’s time is now devoted to his own charities. He operates a private grant-giving foundation (www.ibrahimfoundation.com) and founded and chairs a number of charities which tackle problems as diverse as family and marriage breakdown in the Asian community in Scotland, (www.unityfamily.co.uk), lack of access to higher education for Bosnian students (www.benevolencefund.org), and lack of access to clean drinking water in disaster areas (www.purifi.com). He also owns and manages a school for 500 orphans in Bangladesh (www.asia-pacificfund.org).

He has recently increased his involvement in independent charity initiatives. He launched the first think tank in Scotland which is dedicated to providing education in authentic Islamic teachings, which can help to reduce the appeal of perverse extremist Islamic narratives.

He has also been the Director of Strategy for the British Writers’ Awards, one of the largest educational initiatives in the UK, which has helped to expose over 300,000 children in 7,000 schools to the benefits of creative writing, and secured endorsements from the leaders of the biggest political parties in England and Scotland.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’ Charity, the Princes’ Scottish Youth Business Trust Charity, has also recently appointed him an Ambassador.

Political Involvement

Azeem has also broadened his political involvement over the last year. He was the youngest member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Special Task Force on Social Mobility, on which he was appointed the sub-team leader tasked with studying how internships could help to improve access to the professions in Britain.

He is a regular contributor of editorials to the Scotsman newspaper, politics.co.uk, and a number of other publications around the world, on topics including budgetary policy, defence spending and policy, European integration, Israel-Palestinian peace talks, constitutional matters, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islamic radicalisation, Scottish energy policy, and sharia law in Britain.

Other interests

For seven years until early 2006, Azeem was a reservist in the IV Battalion Parachute Regiment – the British army’s elite airborne infantry reserve where they are trained to be inserted by parachute behind enemy lines at short notice.

A citizen of both the US and the UK, he is a fitness fanatic keen on marathon and fell running, and speaks four languages.

Testimonials

“ The work that you have undertaken and published is serious and high quality. The analysis and rigour you bought to this issue (social mobility) will provide a firm platform for actions by the professions and government over the years ahead”
Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, (as Prime Minister) – July 2009

“ I was struck by his great intelligence and wide ranging professional expertise and interests. Rarely have I met someone so accomplished at such an early age.”
Ambassador John Shattuck – US Assistant Secretary of State
for Democracy and Human Rights – February 2009

“ The Prime Minister has made a very wise choice by appointing Azeem Ibrahim to help disadvantaged people. He is an example to people everywhere and a sound choice to help others become high-flyers.”
Evening Times – January 2009

Scottish Muslim Contributor of the Year Award – 2010

Named as World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader – 2010

Named as ‘Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009’ by LSDP European Social Policy Think Tank – 2010

Honorary Doctorate from Glasgow Caledonian University – 2009

Scotland’s Distinguished Citizens Award – St Andrews Society – 2009

Insider Elite International Executive of the Year – 2009

Named as ‘Emerging Global Leader’ by Yale World Fellows Program – 2009

Scottish Asian Business Entrepreneur of the Year – 2008

KPMG – Lloyd TSB Business and Commerce Excellence Jewel Award – 2008

Sunday Times Scot’s Rich List inauguration – 2008

Youngest Member of Carter Anderson’s Bank of Scotland Power 100 – 2007

After many years in high-level diplomacy Charles Crawford has a unique profile as an imaginative, dynamic and even provocative speaker who has addressed audiences large and small in English, Polish and Serbian

After an Honours degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University he qualified as a Barrister before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

From 1985-87 Charles served as Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe’s official Speechwriter, contributing ideas/language for speeches by the Foreign Secretary (major set-piece speeches, Parliamentary debates and less formal after-dinner remarks)

His first job on joining the FCO in 1979 was to head the Indonesia Section, followed by his first posting, to communist post-Tito Yugoslavia. He returned to London in 1984 and after a year on the Aviation Desk was appointed FCO Speech-writer. He was posted to South Africa in 1987 as part of the Embassy team led by Ambassador Robin Renwick working to end apartheid.

Returning to London in 1991 he worked in the FCO Department dealing with the Soviet Union as communist rule collapsed. He then spent three years in Moscow as Political Counsellor and then served three times as HM Ambassador: in Sarajevo (1996-1998); in Belgrade (2001-2003) and most recently in Poland (2003-2007).

In 1987 he wrote the FCO’s first Guide to Speech-Writing, a dynamic text full of real-life examples on how to write speeches – and how to weed out lugubrious mistakes. Two decades later it remains a core part of the FCO’s speech-drafting training

He subsequently contributed to speeches by members of the Royal Family and successive Prime Ministers, as well as different Ministers and other senior personalities in public and commercial life

He left the FCO at the end of 2007 to start a new career as writer, consultant, mediator and trainer. In 2009 he joined the UK Conservative Party candidates list

In recent months Charles Crawford led training courses for senior EU and other officials and private clients aimed at improving their communication skills. He has written for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Independent, DIPLOMAT and Total Politics.

In 2009 his audiences included the Headmasters Conference and Conservative Friends of Poland, as well as private groups and academic gatherings

In 2010 he and other former British Ambassadors in partnership with ADR Group launched a new senior strategic dispute resolution panel, ADRg Ambassadors

Charles Crawford’s trenchant observations on public policy issues are now available to a growing readership on his blog




Such honesty has no place in modern government…it’s bloody dangerous!
Andrew Dodge (Samizdata)

The most telling critique of this delusional foreign policy comes in regular instalments in the form of a blog by the former British ambassador to Poland, Charles Crawford. It’s called www.charlescrawford.biz, and if you want to know just how much in despair many of our diplomats are, this is the place to look
Dominic Lawson (The Times, 2010)

In 2005 a humorous FCO email he wrote as Ambassador to Warsaw (a satirical speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair damning other countries’ selfishness on EU Budget issues) caused a stir when it was leaked to the Sunday Times

His FCO written work was praised at the highest levels in London, NATO and the EU for its uncompromising dynamic style:

“fabulously readable and interesting analysis, with practical application … just about the best scenesetter [No10 staff] have ever seen”

“acrobatic and eye-catching in his use of language”

As a speaker Charles Crawford draws on dramatic episodes from his diplomatic career to explain wider policy themes, paradoxes and trends. His presentations are interesting and thought-provoking, but above all memorable

He is strong on foreign and public policy issues such as:

o Communism (and Vampires)
o Dealing with extremists and war criminals
o Climate change and PPP (perverse precautionary principles)
o Amazon Space: how the Internet is changing the strategic policy context
o International negotiation (as explained by Shrek, the Joker and Clint Eastwood)
o UK/European Union relations: Too Big (not) to Fail

Stephan Shakespeare is widely known as the charismatic founder of YouGov, PoliticsHome, ConservativeHome and 18 Doughty Street, the world’s first political internet TV station. Born in post war Germany, Shakespeare saw politics at work from an early age through his father who was a Journalist and press officer.

His family relocated to the UK in 1962 where he continued his education graduating from Oxford. Shakespeare was founding Principal of Landmark West Preparatory School in Los Angeles and held several senior teaching positions in California before returning to Britain as a political commentator, including a stint as a pollster for the Conservative party and spokesman for Jeffrey archer. Education remains an area of particular interest to him; he writes regularly for the national press on education policy.

Stephan Shakespeare has an unrivalled ability to understand and predict political outcomes. In the general election of 1997, he was beaten for the Colchester seat by Lib Dem candidate Bob Russell.

Within a year of founding market research and polling company YouGov he scored a major coup by predicting 2001 election victory for Labour to an accuracy of 1%. Shakespeare’s reputation as a fearsome innovator and businessman equals his political ability. YouGov has aquired major investment and now operates in the USA.

The Guardian included him in their line up of UK 100 most influential media personalities in 2008, rating him as “the pollster with the uncanny ability of getting it right”.

In 2008 Shakespeare along with Freddie Sayers established PoliticsHome which became rapidly established as the definitive source for political research and news.

PoliticsHome has become one of the most visited sites for political professionals and commentators, as with YouGov the operation has extended its services to America, and its innovative methods have been applied to the commercial sector across the world.

Edwina Currie was born in Liverpool and graduated from Oxford and London Universities. She taught economics and economic history and was a tutor for the Open University. Birmingham City Councillor (1975-1986), Chairman of Central Birmingham Health Authority and served as MP for South Derbyshire from1983 – 1997.Edwina is a well known broadcaster and author. She writes regularly for the national press and many magazines related to Women, health and politics.

She has written several books, including “Life Lines” published in 1989, on her time as Health Minister. “What Women Want” on women’s roles and “Three Line Quips” witticisms from the House of Commons.

Her first novel “A Parliamentary Affair” went to Number 1 in the best-seller lists and has sold over 250,000 copies in English and been translated into German, Italian, Polish and Russian. Her second “A Woman’s Place” (1996) and third “She’s Leaving Home” (1997) set in her native Liverpool, were also best-sellers. The fourth novel “The Ambassador” a tongue-in-cheek look at the world in the near future. Her books are borrowed over 100,000 times a year from libraries. Her novel “Chasing Men” appeared in February 2000.

Edwina presents her own programme “Late Night Currie” for BBC Radio Five Live. She is also frequently heard on Radio 4 and Radio 2. On television she has presented “Sunday Supplement” for central TV and “Espresso” for Channel 5, “Menu from Heaven” for ITV in April/May 1998 and her BBC daytime TV series “What Now”.
From 1985-86 Edwina was PPS (aide) to Sir Keith Joseph at the Department of Education and science from 1986-88 she was a government minister at the DHSS (later the Department of Health) under Margaret Thatcher. She resigned after warning about food safety in eggs. John Major invited her to rejoin the government in 1992 but she declined. She lost her seat in the 1997 General Election.

A pro-European, in June 1994 she was a candidate for the European Parliament for Beds and Milton Keynes. The Conservatives won 18 out of 87 seats and she was not returned. 1995 – 1997 Edwina was Chairman of the Conservative Group for Europe and 1995 – 1999 was vice chairman of the all-party European Movement.
She has been the subject of several full-length documentary profiles including “The Other Half” (1984 John Pitman), Channel 4 “Dispatches” (1989 Michael Cockerell), “Vanessa’s Day with…..” (1997 Vanessa Feltz). She frequently appears on other radio and TV stations.

December 1988 Edwina Currie was runner-up to Mrs Thatcher in BBC Radio 4’s “Woman of the Year” poll; the following year she came sixth in the same poll (between Mother Theresa and Raisa Gorbachev). In 1990 Curry was chosen as “Campaigner of the Year” in The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards for her work on homosexual equality.

Major Ken Hames is a British former Special Air Service’s officer,highly rated motivational speaker and specialist television presenter.

Ken Hames is a real life action man who leads from the front. He has 25 years military experience under his belt, and is almost unique in having served in The Parachute Brigade, the Royal Marines and the Special Air Service. Ken’s operational experience is vast, ranging from guarding Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hesse, in Spandau Prison to the liberation of Port Stanley in the Falklands.

He is an accomplished Mountain Guide and skier and represented Great Britain in cross-country skiing. He played rugby for the Combined Services, is an expert in the great outdoors in all survival disciplines and is a keen amateur opera singer

Following an impressive 25 year military career, Ken Hames has brought a unique slant to the many documentaries that he has created and presented for television. Ken’s third series of ‘Beyond Boundaries’ was set in the Andes range in Ecuador and followed his highly acclaimed BBC1 documentary ‘Ex Forces and Homeless’ , his next broadcast series will be ‘Beyond Boundaries – Where Are They Now’.

Ken has created and presented series like, ‘Mission Africa’ – a 15 part series for prime time BBC1 where Ken took a group of young apprentice builders from the UK to Kenya to build the first eco lodge and game reserve to protect the endangered species that live there working closely with the Born Free Foundation. This was then handed over to the local Samburu tribe as a sustainable business that also protects the wildlife.

Ken created and is the expedition leader on the ground breaking ‘Beyond Boundaries’ series for BBC TV. This is now a successful brand with it’s own live event, bringing disabled people from all over the world together with their friends and families. Each series, Ken takes a different group of highly disabled people and motivates them to achieve seemingly impossible expeditions. He trains and inspires them into a team and the end result is life changing.

‘Desert Darlings’ was broadcast on Channel 4 in spring 2003. Ken took couples across the Namib Desert, placing their sometimes fragile relationships under the extreme pressures of an expedition. His first series for Channel 4, was the award winning, ‘Jungle Janes’, where Ken’s challenge was to turn a group of British women, none of whom had any expedition experience, into a cohesive team fit enough to take on the gruelling jungles of Borneo. It was enjoyed by millions who found this journey an inspiration. The first documentary was a television series, called ‘The Trek’ broadcast by Meridian. In 1994, with the help of Diana, Princess of Wales, Ken was able to take twelve disadvantaged youngsters to the heart of Africa on a 500-mile trek over desert and mountainous terrain, The process transformed their lives and Ken still monitors their progress.

These documentaries have proved Ken’s extraordinary ability to inspire and motivate even the most unlikely candidates. His unique skills enable him to take any rabble of individuals and finish with a winning, cohesive team, using sound leadership and thorough training are just some of the tools he uses. Ken is passionate about empowering people to transform their lives for the better.

Ken presented the highly praised series, ‘Greatest SAS Missions’ for Five in 2004, CBBC’s ‘Bring it On’, ‘Hero Factor’ for the Discovery Channel in 2002, ‘Battle Stripes’ for Sky in 2000, ‘Future Fighting Machines’ for the US in 2003, Channel 4’s ‘Shattered’ and ITV’s ‘Celebrity Fit Club’. Ken was also involved from the earliest of stages in the design and development of ITV’s ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’.
A powerful and charismatic speaker, Ken’s experiences in the cutting edge of the military and at the forefront of some of history’s most significant expeditions combine with those in the business arena to provide a fascinating insight into pressure, survival, teamwork, leadership and motivation. Ken is an action man who leads from the front. He is an accomplished Mountain Guide and skier and represented Great Britain in cross country skiing. He has played rugby for the Combined Services and is an expert in the great outdoors in all survival disciplines.

Testimonials

• Thank you for your fantastic presentation. The feedback was excellent. People will not forget ‘Lead, follow or get out of the way’

Martin Goodman, Office of the Director – IBM

• Your speech was an inspiration to our audience. You have given IGF members a renewed sense of motivation and desire to succeed.

Paul Foulkes
Director of Global Financing – IBM

• Ken’s motivational style lifts people’s horizons. He was an absolute inspiration to our delegates.

Carole Nicholl, Director
Lehman Brothers

• Ken Hames is the master practitioner in the field of motivation. He has the unique ability to inspire other to seek personal transformation and high achievement.

Diana, Princess of Wales

• In his leadership master class Ken gave my senior managers a renewed sense of purpose and direction. He is current, credible and inspirational and is particularly adept at getting results in a short timeframe. I continue to use him to keep my leaders at the cutting edge.

Robert Ford CIO EMEA
Microsoft Corporation

• Ken inspired us all with his motivational conference programme and leadership master class. We are looking forward to the next phase in our business development programme.
Simon Curry Director BT UK

• Ken did a fantastic job for us and it was an inspiration to hear him talk and motivate our leadership team. We look forward to his return.
Derek Hudson Vice President UK, British Gas

• Wherever Ken goes the atmosphere changes significantly. He is able to get results and does this with credibility as someone who is still out there ‘doing it’ so to speak. He has a unique understanding of the pressures facing business today and delivers solutions that will help managers do better.
Jerry Hagan, Director GlaxoSmithKline

• I give Ken 10 out of 10 for everything from how the audience reacted to the content of his talk. He really met our expectations and at the end of the presentation there was an audible ‘wow’ factor – it really hit the spot. Our clients really appreciated his enthusiasm for their project and the willingness to stay behind and become involved on an informal basis.
Chris Ball Senior Partner Penna PLC

• Ken, Thank you so much for speaking at the Business Direct Forum, the feedback has been excellent. The Management team were really impressed and delighted. Your positioning was spot on and we were all grateful for the amount of time you took to understand our business and current challenges.
Vodaphone HQ, Management Meeting

• We have now come to the end of our series of leadership workshops held during March and April and as one of the guest speakers on the workshops I would just like to say thank you for your time in talking to us recently your session was extremely interesting and the feedback from our leaders has been very positive.
Nigel Cann Station Director, British Energy

Adrian Gilpin works with many of the world’s leading organisations such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Prudential Property Investment Managers and Barclaycard. Through coaching their senior management teams he has helped them perform to the peak of their ability. He is the co-developer of the Aspell-Gilpin Profiler – the world’s most advanced personality profiling technique.

Adrian coached the board of Bookham Technology through the largest ever public floatation of any UK technology business. He also works regularly within the public sector: all three forces of the MOD, the NHS, Housing Associations, and also social enterprises. Adrian’s personal passion is to impact the long term thinking about how we educate our children; and therefore he is also a regular speaker at national and local education conferences.

He is Chairman of the Institute of Human Development and the bestselling author of Unstoppable: The Pathway to Living an Inspired Life.

Adrian’s presentations are a unique mix of story-telling, movie clips, wisdom, common sense and a deep understanding of what makes human beings tick and perform at their best. He spends much of his time on conference platforms challenging the old models of corporate leadership and offering practical and inspiring alternatives for managing change in business, education and society.

Joe is known for his appearances on the highly successful BBC 1 programme ‘Vets in Practice’. The series followed his life and career through thick and thin, starting with ‘Vet School’ whilst at university, and afterwards on ‘Vets In Practice’ when he qualified as a vet. The programme scooped the highly coveted ‘Best Documentary Award’ at the TV Awards in 1999 and attracted large viewing figures, transmitting for 11 years!

Joe has also been the resident vet on BBC 1’s ‘Blue Peter’, making regular appearances both in the studio and on location. He wrote for the web site, featured in the Blue Peter Magazine and has even taken part in the show’s annual pantomime.

Television appearances include ‘Through the Keyhole’, Celebrity Bargain Hunt’, ‘Holiday’, ‘Watchdog’ and ‘This Morning’ amongst others. He was a presenter on the ITV series ‘What’s Up Dog’ – appearing with other experts touring the country with an outdoor road show offering advice to dog owners. Joe can be heard on children’s radio, featuring regularly on the BBC 7 programme ‘Big Toe Radio’ as well as BBC Radio 4’s ‘Go For It’.

Other roles have seen Joe filming at Disney World in Florida, to introduce the Walt Disney Holiday Video for the 2003 season and in December 2002 Joe took the lead role as Aladdin in pantomime.

Joe is an accomplished writer, including “It Really Does Happen to a Vet” (1999) and regular columns. He has written a series of articles for The Mail on Sunday in their Pet Supplement and forewords to a number of books. He is now concentrating his efforts into children’s fiction.

He has fronted a number of corporate campaigns and videos, and hosts skills and career workshops around the country for aspiring vets. He is asked to judge pet competitions, both big and small, and makes regular appearances for the Kennel Club, to encourage responsible pet ownership. He is also helping to promote The Missing Pets Bureau.

As well as an animal lover, he has a great interest in ski-ing, surfing and mountain boarding (for which he held the title of UK Champion), and he developed an innovative mountain board ‘No Sno’. He makes regular personal appearances and is in great demand for his knowledge of animals. He successfully combines his work as a veterinary surgeon (in Oxfordshire) with the demands of the media and his other interests.

Sir John Banham is the Chairman designate of Johnson Matthey PLC, Cyclacel Limited (the UK-based cancer therapeutics company) and Spacelabs Inc. (a world leader in heart monitoring equipment, based in Seattle, USA). He is also the senior independent director of AMVESCAP PLC and a non executive director of Merchants Trust PLC.

Former Director General of the CBI, he set up a number of initiatives which focused on developing closer relationships between ‘Government and Business’ and ‘Business and Education’. After leaving the CBI, he was Director/Chairman of a wide cross-section of companies, including: National Power, National Westminster Bank, Westcountry Television, and Labatt Breweries. At Tarmac, Whitbread, Kingfisher and Geest he created significant shareholder value. He led the Audit Commission and the Local Government Commission for England and saved the taxpayer well over £1 billion a year.

Sir John started his career in the Foreign Office in 1962 after gaining a first class Honours Degree in Natural Sciences and in 1964 spent a year with J Walter Thompson, learning marketing and from there moved to Reed International, where he went on to become Director of Marketing for the Wallcovering Division of the Group.

In 1969 he joined the management consultants, McKinsey & Co., becoming a Principal in 1975 and the youngest ever British Director in 1980. During this period he gained wide industrial experience in the UK, the United States and Europe. He was directly responsible for major consultancy assignments with a variety of leading UK companies in engineering, aviation, food processing, mineral extraction and other manufacturing and service groups at critical stages in their development.

Sir John was the first Controller (Chief Executive) of the Audit Commission when it was established in 1983, set up to monitor efficiency and seek better value for money in local government. Under Sir John’s leadership it identified improvements worth over £2 billion a year and launched a range of reforms now being implemented in local government finance, the management of secondary schools, Council housing and community care. He held that position until 1987, when he left to become the Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry.

On leaving the CBI in 1992, he took up the position of Chairman of the Local Government Commission for England which he held until his departure in March 1995 when the Secretary of State for the Environment announced his intention to reform the Commission since its review of the counties in Shire England had now been largely completed.

In addition to his Chairmanships, Sir John is Director of Merchants Trust Plc and a Non-Executive Director of National Westminster Bank Plc and National Power Plc. He serves as Chairman of the Remuneration Committees for National Westminster Bank Plc and National Power and Kingfisher Plc.

Sir John is a Managing Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation and Honorary Treasurer and Member of the Council of the Cancer Research Campaign. He holds an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Bath (1987) and an Honorary Doctor of the Science degree from the University of Exeter, as well as being an Honorary Fellow of his old college, Queens College, Cambridge. Sir John became the first Fellow of Cornwall College when it became independent in 1993.

Sir John has written numerous publications including ‘The Future of the British Car Industry’ (1975), ‘Realising the Promise of a National Health Service’ (1977), together with a number of reports for the Audit Commission on education, housing, social services and local government finance (1984-87). He has also co-authored many reports for the CBI on the UK economy, skills and education, transport, the infrastructure, urban regeneration, manufacturing (1987-92) and local government. In addition, Sir John Banham is the author of ‘The Anatomy of Change: Blueprint for a New Era’ (1994).

Sir John Banham was knighted in 1992, was born in Torquay and lives in West Cornwall. His recreations include country walking, classical music, gardening and writing all of which he very much enjoys when not working or engaged in his other successful sideline of after-dinner and conference speaking events.

Dr Neville Bain is Chairman of the Institute of Directors. He is a Non-Executive Director of Scottish & Newcastle plc, Biocon Ltd, an international company registered in India with a market cap of $1.2 billion, and Provexis plc, an Aim listed company developing functional food Until March 2006 he was Chairman of Hogg Robinson plc. He was Chairman of Royal Mail.

Dr Bain has worked internationally for most of his career, first with Cadbury Schweppes in New Zealand where he was born; in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. He also spent 6½ years with Coats Viyella plc where he was Group Chief Executive.

Dr Bain graduated from Otago University, New Zealand, with a Master of Commerce (Hons) degree and with double Bachelors degrees in Accounting and Economics. He has also been awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, is a Fellow Chartered Accountant, a Fellow Cost and Management Accountant, a Fellow Chartered Secretary, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Keenly interested in business education, he has published numerous papers and is the author of three management books published by Macmillan: “Successful Management” 1995, “Winning Ways Through Corporate Governance” which he co-wrote in 1996 with Professor David Band, and “The People Advantage” written with Bill Mabey, published in 1999.

The book Roads to the Top profiled eighteen of the country’s most outstanding business leaders, including Sir John Harvey-Jones, Gerry Robinson, Archie Norman, Martin Taylor and Lord Sheppard. In the book, Neville Bain is described by a colleague at Coats Viyella thus: ” Truly bright and outstanding as a leader, with the capacity to run an even larger, more complex organisation than Coats Viyella. His strength lies in his ‘helicopter vision’, his ability to rise above things and also a charisma that leads people to transcend themselves.”

Neville Bain is equally charismatic as a speaker on topics such as leadership, change, globalisation, governance and strategy.

In 2005 Amani brought the Ancient Arab world alive to BBC audiences with What The Ancients Did For Us; the language of the modern Arab world alive in the BBC’s (Award Winning) Primary Arabic and the issues of Rural Britain to the fore in Countryfile.

Amani’s transition to front of camera came about in 2004 when both Primary Arabic and What The Ancients Did For Us saw what she was able to bring to the party…

She achieved an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies (involving Arabic translation, Law and Economics) from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1998.

She worked as a Social Counsellor with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees affiliated project in the Arab republic of Yemen which also involved being an intermediary between state/UN authorities and refugee advocate in courts and authorities.

From PR Assistant at the Head Office of Saudi Arabian Airlines Amani moved to become the PA to the BBC correspondent in Yemen, and at this point began to research for BBC World News.

In 1999 Amani was researching for the BBC’s Holocaust Memorial day coverage. In 2001 she was developing ideas and concepts for the BBC and organised television events, thereafter moving to BBC New Media, and on to Events Co-ordination.

Now Amani is developing her own programme, giving unique insight into the Arab world, using her excellent voice-over skills – and at the same time can be seen presenting BBC TV’s Computer Tutor on: www.bbc.co.uk/computertutor.

Neil Oliver is an archaeologist, historian, author and broadcaster, His television debut came in 2002 with BBC Two’s Two Men in a Trench, which featured Neil visiting historic British battlefields and recreating the battle situation using state of the art archaeological techniques. In addition to the TV series, Oliver co-wrote the two accompanying books.

In 2005, he wrote a tie-in book for the Channel 4 documentary Not Forgotten. Neil then became the archaeological and social history expert on Coast, then in the next series he replaced Nicholas Crane as the show’s main presenter and remained as such for the third series.

2006 saw Neil star in two more documentary series, Channel 4′s The Face of Britain and BBC Two’s Scotland’s History: The Top Ten. As well as this, in August 2006 he appeared on the special “Big Royal Dig” edition of Channel 4′s Time Team, in which he presented a dig at Holyrood House.

Neil was a contributor to BBC One’s The One Show in the summer of 2007. That year he also appeared as one of the presenters of BBC Two series The History Detectives.

Neil presented a ten-part series, A History of Scotland, broadcast started in November 2008 on BBC Two Scotland and still screens in the UK on BBC Four.

Hermione Cockburn is an earth scientist and extremely passionate about communicating her subject. She has studied landscapes all over the world including Africa and Antarctica and is an Associate Lecturer with the Open University teaching environmental science in Scotland.

She won the BBC Talent “Science on Screen” competition in 2002 and has since contributed to a range of programmes. On BBC TWO she co-presented What the Ancients Did for Us and Rough Science.

Hermione is a big fan of BBC Radio 4 and regularly presents “Science at 9″ features like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Shifting Sands and The Gift of a Goat for Radio 4. She is currently recording a series called The Secret Life of a Reservoir for Radio 4 and is presenting The Nature of Britain for BBC ONE in Scotland, in the Autumn.

Hermione lives in Edinburgh, arguably the city with the best glacial landscape in Britain, if not the world!

Dick Strawbridge was raised and educated in County Antrim, N Ireland. He was interested from a very early age in ‘taking things apart’, but had a very poor reputation when it came to putting them back together again. Dick believes that understanding how and why things work is as important as actually getting the thing to work.

Dick joined the Army and after 20 years of engineering incredible machines left it. Whilst serving in the Army, Dick’s family persuaded him to audition for C4′s ‘Scrapheap’. Thanks to his leadership abilities, personality and engineering skills, (and possibly because he had the biggest moustache the series producers had ever seen) Dick was successful, and was catapulted into the world of television as the ‘Yellow Team Leader’ for six episodes in the first ever series of ‘Scrapheap’! He has to date appeared in 19 programmes of Scrapheap Challenge and Junkyard Wars.

He filmed the popular series ‘Crafty Tricks of War’ for BBC2. In this series, Dick celebrated British ingenuity and demonstrated his practical skills by reconstructing and testing some of the most unusual inventions.

Dick was given the opportunity by the BBC to make another new series, ‘Geronimo’, he again demonstrated his extensive technical knowledge, as he built some of the craziest machines seen on television, and then challenged the British public to see if they could beat them. Dick co-presented Geronimo with Fearne Cotton.

In 2006 Dick filmed a series with his family, Its not easy being green, in which they move to a new home in Cornwall and attempt to live as green a life as possible, using renewable energy and environmentally friendly resources. A second series started in spring 2007 in a different format. Dick and his son, James, aided several members of the public in larger and smaller ecology projects around the country.

He also starred in a short series, The Re-Inventors, with each episode featuring Strawbridge, his son James, and Jim Milner reconstructing an invention of historic significance, with only a limited budget (£500) and limited time of two days and limited facilities to construct a modern version and try it out against the real thing. Dick also appeared as a presenter on the BBC2 series ‘Coast’, examining the workings of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, a role he revived in the 2007 version of Coast.

Dick was invited, with his son James, to cook on ‘Ready Steady Cook’ in 2008; he cooked spotted dick and won!
2008 saw Dick teaming up with Jem Stansfield to present Planet Mechanics on the National Geographic channel. The duo use their eco-engineering smarts on a mission to lower energy consumption. Across the series they build Britain’s first street legal, air driven motorbike, a wood fuelled truck and power a farm using cow poo.

Dick is currently filming the 11th series of Scrapheap Challenge. The new Scrapheap challenge will be on air early next year. When he is not presenting, Dick lives on an idyllic smallholding in Cornwall from where he works on programmes, invents machine, lectures at schools and colleges, and lives the good life.

Dick is surprisingly not an eco warrior, he believes in the steady progression to new and efficient technologies led by the existing ‘unfairly-seen-to-be-ungreen’ energy companies upon whom we rely.

Jason is Britain’s best-known face of gadgets and consumer technology. As host Five’s The Gadget Show he has tested many of the world’s biggest and most successful gadgets in ever more exotic and dangerous situations. An ordinary week for Jason may involve swimming with sharks (without a cage), throwing a one-man submarine around a Californian lake or hanging out of a helicopter over a volcano – all in the name of testing tech.

When he isn’t putting gadgets through their paces, Jason is busy writing his new trilogy of books. His first novel, published by Puffin, is due out in February 2009. Dot.Robot tells the story of a brilliant young gamer who is recruited by a top-secret organization to pilot their robotic defence force. The books are a coming together of many of the passions that Jason shares with geeks (and geekets!) the world over – robots, gizmoes, maths and web culture.