Ian Skillicorn is a publisher with three decades’ experience of working in the media and arts. His publishing company, Wyndham Books, reissues bestselling mid-twentieth century fiction. He also organises and hosts live debates with academics and thought leaders, and literary events with writers from book publishing, film and television. He frequently collaborates on literary projects with universities, libraries and schools.
Ian is a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, the Translators’ Association and the Society of Authors. He was an independent advisor to the Metropolitan Police Service for ten years, and was awarded a Commendation from the Commander (Head of Homicide Investigations).
He has lived and worked in Milan, Italy, and in London, and is now based in Liverpool.
Currently working independently, in 2014 Mullan completed eight years in senior management roles with Easynet Global Services, an international communications services company. Previously he had been chief executive of the internet services and training company Cybercafé Ltd.
researcher, consultant and university teacher, specialising in teacher education and modern foreign languages, chevalier dans l’order des palmes academiques
Dr Shirley Lawes is an education researcher, consultant and university teacher, specialising in teacher education and modern foreign languages teaching and learning at the University College London Institute of Education. She has published widely on education policy, teacher education and the teaching of modern foreign languages in both English and French. She is currently writing a book on culture in language teaching.
Over a long career in education, Shirley was a teacher trainer for many years and taught in vocational, secondary and higher education institutions. She has been involved in a number of curriculum development initiatives as well as a variety of national and international research projects. She was a member of the Ministerial Steering Group on Modern Languages in 2012 and of the ALCAB (A Level Content Advisory Board) for Modern Foreign Languages in 2014. Shirley is also a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques awarded by the French Ministry of Education for her contribution to the promotion of the French language and culture.
dm alumnus &law student at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Loris Halama is a law student at Humboldt University in Berlin. He did the licence en droit and the maître en droit at the university Panthéon-Assas in Paris. Prior to this he was a student at Europäisches Gymnasium Bertha-von-Suttner from 2013 to 2020 where he was part of the debating team who won the Debating Matters Championship in 2019. In 2017/2018 he spent a year abroad, in the US. He was also part of the Erasmus+ programme of the school.
journalist and author Daniel Ben-Ami runs the Radicalism of fools website on rethinking anti-Semitism. He has worked as a writer for many years including for the Australian, Economist, Financial Times, the Guardian and the Sunday Telegraph. Daniel has written two books – Cowardly Capitalism and Ferraris for All – and contributed to several others. He has also made many appearances in the broadcast media.
Simon is a Plastic Surgeon and Professor of Hand Surgery at the University of Leeds. He has spent his career treating major nerve injuries, and abnormalities and injuries in children’s hands; and he has integrated psychological care into the surgical system, working closely between the disciplines.
In the last ten years he has developed and led the UK Hand Transplant program, and paid particular attention to the ethical problems with which this practice is beset. He is a keen educator and debater and enjoys finding the strengths and weakness of each case, whilst cheerfully challenging orthodoxies.
Lukas is a former contestant of the Debating Matters Berlin Championship where he successfully helped his team to the next round twice. Enthusiastic about technology, he has been a long-time member of his former school’s tech club but also shows a keen interest in creative writing, having made an appearance in the pre-program at the 19th International Literature Festival Berlin. He is now studying business administration in Berlin and assists the organisation of the competition as a Debating Matters alumnus.
Tim Abrahams writes about architecture for The Spectator, The Critic, Country Life and others. He is also host of the architecture podcast Superurbanism where he interviews the major practitioners and thinkers in the field.
He is co-founder/publisher of his own imprint, Machine Books, which works on architectural and design-publishing projects. He has served as editor (or in editorial roles) at several major institutions: editor-in-chief at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal; editor of the magazine Blueprint and a one-time deputy guest editor for the Italian design magazine Domus with David Chipperfield.
Ali Miraj founded the Contrarian Prize in 2012 and is a political columnist for TheArticle and regularly appears on Sky News, BBC News and talkRADIO. He is also a House music DJ and has performed at leading venues around the world. By day he works in the City as an infrastructure financier.
He is national Vice President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, a board member of the London Institute of Banking and Finance and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers. He was educated at the London School of Economics where he obtained degrees at both graduate and postgraduate level and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Dr Yasmin Fitzpatrick is currently awaiting placement as an academic mentor to help children affected by the current pandemic measures. She was raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has also lived and worked in Germany. She spent most of her career in television, working as a documentary researcher and news television journalist, before working as an Executive Producer at the BBC and a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 throughout the 1990s, where she was responsible for documentary programmes such as White Tribe, Britain’s Slave Trade and Oscar-nominated The Farm, filmed in Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Yasmin relishes a challenge: she changed careers to work as an NHS Project Manager, studied for a Masters in Epidemiology and Public Health and gained a doctorate in health and patient knowledge. She also set up and ran a maths and English study centre in Brixton for local children. Yasmin was a Trustee for NESTA, the National Endowment for science, technology and the arts and chaired the GLA’s first Cultural Strategy Group. She is the founding Trustee of the recently-formed Brixton Chamber Orchestra.
