George is a journalist, consultant and a visiting professor of practice at City, University of London. He was professor and head of journalism at City University 2009-14. He began his reporting career at the Yorkshire Evening Press and The Observer, joining The Times in 1981. After starting at The Times as a feature writer, he became a features editor and, in 1984, op-ed page editor. He was foreign editor, Brussels bureau chief, managing editor and Saturday editor in a 28-year career at the newspaper. His book Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News came out in 2013 and The Right To Be Forgotten: Privacy and the Media in the Digital Age was published in 2016. He was a director of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for ten years until 2020
Michael Bowes QC is highly regarded as an expert in civil and criminal “cross-over” work. He is described as “…one of the go-to barristers in England for a corporate crisis. He has a very practical approach to solving some of the more complicated problems.” “A great crossover practitioner from the Criminal Bar.” Financial Services, Chambers and Partners 2020. Michael is a Deputy High Court Judge (Queen’s Bench Division), a Recorder and is a joint head of Outer Temple Chambers. He was elected as a Bencher of Middle Temple in 2007. As an advocacy trainer, he teaches newly qualified barristers at Middle Temple.
Michael specialises in business crime, civil fraud, financial
services and international sanctions. He acts for corporate clients and senior
managers in global investigations and for the Serious Fraud Office and the
Financial Conduct Authority.
He
is listed as a leading silk in the fields of Financial Services, Financial
Crime (Corporates) and Financial Crime (London) in Chambers & Partners and
in Banking & Finance, Business and Regulatory Crime and Fraud in the Legal 500 which notes that
he is “A top-drawer
barrister; he combines an approachable demeanour with a strong intellect.” He is listed as an expert
in Who’s Who Legal: Business Crime Defence 2019.
He is registered in the Dubai International Finance Centre
(DIFC) Courts. He is a trustee of Transparency International UK and a co-chair
of the UK Chapter of the International Section of the New York State Bar
Association. He is a co-author of the Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (GIR,
3rd ed.2019).
Lulu Taylor is the author of 11 novels, the last four of which were Sunday Times bestsellers. Her most recent book is A Midwinter Promise. She read English at Oxford before taking up a career in publishing where she commissioned and edited commercial fiction including many bestsellers. After becoming Publishing Director of William Heinemann, she changed career and now writes full time.
Sarah Jane went up to Oxford to read Classics but graduated with a First Class honours degree in Archaeology and Anthropology. She initially worked in print journalism, winning a graduate traineeship on The Sunday Times. After two years in a remote part of Kenya, she became a writer and editor at the World Health Organization in Geneva, covering public health issues including SARS, avian flu, HIV/Aids, malaria and drought. She returned to the UK to become senior writer for the chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, writing reports on pandemic flu, racism in the medical profession and the case for a UK global health strategy. She then worked as a public affairs and PR consultant in Westminster, advising a number of leading independent schools. After moving to Dorset in 2012, she set up her own communications business, The Good Copy Company. Recent projects include a mental health strategy for the NHS. She enjoys writing fiction and has an MA in Creative Writing.
former soldier; former executive and non-executive director
The son of a diplomat, Andrew Graham was commissioned into The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders before joining the Army and going up to Cambridge. He commanded 1st Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and 3 Brigade in Northern Ireland, completed 3 tours in the Ministry of Defence, instructed at the Army Staff College and lead the Army’s Recruiting and Training Division responsible for turning ‘citizens to soldiers’. He deployed to Baghdad as deputy commanding general of Multinational Corps Iraq in 2004. His final tour of duty was as director general of the Defence Academy. He has worked in industry and headed a charity developing the resilience and confidence of young people through challenging expeditions. In 2019 he handed over as chair of trustees at Combat Stress, the veterans’ mental health charity after 6 years, and as chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee at the Department for Work and Pensions after 5 years. Non-family interests include piping, outdoor sports of all kinds, the fortunes of Liverpool FC, destructive gardening, keeping bees, pickling and puddings, reading (history, travel and a good novel for choice).
Sir Oliver was the Member of Parliament for West Dorset from 1997 until his retirement in 2019. From 2010, he was the Minister for Government Policy and subsequently Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in David Cameron’s coalition government. After the 2015 General Election, he continued as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and was in overall charge of the Cabinet Office, until July 2016. Before 2010, he held the positions of Shadow Home Secretary, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Shadow Secretary of State for Food and Rural Affairs and Chairman of the Conservative Party Policy Review. He is also currently Vice-President of the Great Britain China Centre (GBCC), Chairman of the Red Tape Initiative (RTI) and Senior Advisor to the Faraday Institute. Educated at Cambridge University, Princeton University and London Business School, he has also had a varied career beyond front-line politics – having been a research fellow at Cambridge University, a civil servant and a bank director. He is the author of several books on politics, economics and philosophy, as well as many pamphlets and articles. He became a privy councillor in 2002 and was knighted in 2016.
Dr David James is deputy head academic at Bryanston School, an HMC boarding school in Dorset. He has previously worked in a number of high-profile public schools including Wellington College, and was seconded to the Department for Education to work on an independent/state schools partnership project. David is a team inspector for ISI and was recently appointed to their Education Advisory Forum. He is a columnist for the Times Education Supplement, and has co-edited two books: World Class and, more recently, The State of Independence: key challenges facing private schools today, both published by Routledge. He is an editor for Cambridge University Press’s ‘School Shakespeare’ series. David was appointed the first Zagat Global Fellow at Riverdale School in New York, an initiative to promote closer links between schools across the world.
James has served as an Army Officer from 1978 to 1987 in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. On retiring his commission in 1987 he joined the drinks industry in 1987 as an Area Manager for Whitbread running Pubs, Hotels and Restaurants. He then moved to a regional brewer, Maclays of Alloa, in Scotland as retail director and then as managing director. In 2004 he retrained as a yacht broker and became managing director of the yacht brokerage arm of Dubois Yachts – specialising in the design, build and sale of sailing super yachts up to 60 metres in length. He left this post in 2008 and worked for a variety of yacht companies under the banner of his yachting consultancy business, Lymington Yachts. He moved to Dorset in 2017 when his wife became Head of English at Sherborne Girls School. He is now launching a new beer brand. He has enjoyed working alongside his wife judging debates over the past 2 years.
Crispin manages oXya UK, which provides technical IT support to companies running SAP business software. An ex-teacher, he also writes and speaks on the theory and philosophy of education, particularly with a view to making better use in the sector of digital technology and blogs on technology and education at www.EdTechNow.net.
Dyane Neiman is New York-bred, Berlin-based speaker coach and a former award-winning dance choreographer and theatre director. With her company Moving Speaker, she helps people share their ideas on public stages such as TEDx, Berlin Science Week, Creative Bureaucracy Festival.
Dyane also directs Berlin’s popular open stage for true stories called THE bEAR and produces a bi-weekly podcast called True Stories Berlin.
