People

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.

visiting professor

City, University of London

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

Practising barrister, Queen’s Counsel

Outer Temple Chambers

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).

novelist

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.

writer and PR consultant, The Good Copy Company

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).