director of events, World Sailing
Alastair is the director of events at World Sailing, the governing body for sailing. He was the technical delegate/event director for the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games and will have the same position at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Alastair has also delivered the Perth 2011, the Santander 2014 and Aarhus 2018 Sailing World Championships. Alastair oversees a wide range of World Sailing activities and works closely with a wide range of World Sailing and International Olympic Committee stakeholders around the world. He has worked for World Sailing since 2007 and before that organised sailing events in the UK and was a professional sailor. Alastair studied Environmental Earth Sciences as Royal Holloway, University of London and went to school at Bradfield College, Berkshire.
historical researcher
Alice Wordie is a self-employed historical researcher, who has done research work for numerous published authors. Previously, Alice has volunteered with multiple charities, including travelling to Africa to work with the Red Cross, and she is a trustee of a charity, which is involved with drug rehabilitation for teenage addicts. Alice has also worked in the field of journalism, liaising with war correspondents and freelance journalists, before she went on to work for various sectors in the government, including the North Africa and Middle East Department. Currently, Alice is living in Salisbury and a trustee of the Sherborne Girls foundation, which is presently fundraising for transformational bursaries.
producer, writer, director, Olive Independent Productions
Mona Deeley has written directed and produced 5 BBC documentaries and 250 episodes of BBC’s Alternative Cinema weekly series. She was responsible for theming, scripting, shooting and editing each episode and documentary, acquiring hundreds of international films and commissioning many interviews with leading and new talent, and forging curatorial collaborations with top international film festivals such as Cannes and Berlin. She presented some of the TV content that she produced, gave public talks, has been on film industry panels and film festival juries, mentored short filmmakers, and given media interviews in relation to culture and politics, including being a co-panellist with MPs in relation to cultural policy and diplomacy. She started her career as a lawyer as well as a curator over the same 10-year period, working with major UK TV, film, art and music organisations. Her first fiction feature film as writer/director is presently in development.
retired IT systems analyst, FE college lecturer & branch development organiser at UCU
Dave is a former IT systems analyst and FE college lecturer and now retired from UCU where he worked as an organiser. He has worked extensively with the Great Debate which has organised over 160 events on a wide range of subjects in Newcastle since 1998. Dave has a keen interest in the politics of the environmental movement and writes on the politics of climate alarmism. He blogs at Dave O’Toole
Follow Dave on Twitter @DavidJOToole
project and events manager, Council of Deans of Health
Nadia currently runs a leadership programme for student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals and was formerly the national coordinator of the Debating Matters Competition. Nadia is an alumnus of the competition, who participated in the very first Franklin College Debating Matters team back in 2010/11. She has a philosophy and political science degree from the University of Birmingham. In her spare time, she enjoys indulging in Pakistani mangoes and embarrassing herself at karaoke.
director, Ideas and Action for Public Good
Tony German and Judith Randel combine life on a small holding in Somerset with working on ending poverty and especially the data and information needed to do so. They have job-shared for pretty much all of their working lives and are currently visiting fellows at the University of Bath. Having done law degrees covering issues like law and racism and law and poverty, they both worked for ActionAid and then in 1993 set up Development Initiatives to work on data and information to end poverty, among other things working for Bono and Bob Geldof on fighting poverty in Africa. In 2020 they are starting a new organisation called Ideas and Action for Public Good which will still be about the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 1 on ending poverty in all its forms everywhere and SDG 10 on inequality, but will focus on how we, as a society, measure what’s of value and how that influences our political choices and social change.
Ideas and Action for Public Good
Judith combines life with Tony German on a small holding in Somerset with working on ending poverty – and especially the data and information needed to do so. They have job-shared for pretty much all of their working lives and are currently visiting fellows at the University of Bath. Having done law degrees covering issues like law and racism and law and poverty, they both worked for ActionAid and then in 1993 set up Development Initiatives to work on data and information to end poverty, among other things working for Bono and Bob Geldof on fighting poverty in Africa. In 2020 they are starting a new organisation called Ideas and Action for Public Good which will still be about the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 1 on ending poverty in all its forms everywhere and SDG 10 on inequality. but will focus on how we, as a society, measure what’s of value and how that influences our political choices and social change.
CEO, Countryside Education Trust
Jane is chief executive of the Countryside Education Trust, an environmental education charity in Beaulieu in the New Forest. A jack of all trades, she has worked as a banker, a fundraiser, and a business consultant in corporate social responsibility, with a wide range of organisations including NatWest, The Prince’s Trust, BP, WWF, IKEA and Vodafone. With degrees in English from Oxford and London, Jane is a poet and playwright, the founder of Bareknuckle Shakespeare, and a member of the RSA. She has served as a trustee for a number of organisations, including Centrepoint and the National Lottery Board (South), as a school governor and as a co-opted local councillor. She is a passionate believer in the power of words, freedom of speech and respectful debate.
creative director, E-QUIP Arts
Neil is originally from Bristol but has
lived and worked in Southampton since 2002. He is the founder and creative
director of E-QUIP Arts; a charity that exists to creatively communicate the
Christian faith and offer opportunities for people to access the performing arts
who ordinarily would not get the chance. Neil graduated from the University of Gloucestershire
with a BA Hons in Religious Studies in Performing Arts and over the years has
worked in numerous roles including careers officer, café manager and church
minister.
Neil is a writer, director, actor and
singer who has a passion for creative communication. He is married to Julia and
has three children, Isaac, Erin and Alana.
Independent Researcher and Lecturer
After a first career in the theatre, Wayne studied fine art and art history at Camberwell School of Art and then Goldsmiths’ College, London, where he was also President of the Student’s Union. He then worked for the Contemporary Art Society and later in leisure management. For 23 years he was Director of Dillington House – a leading residential college for adult education. He now divides his time between lecturing and research and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
