Speakers

Shami Chakrabarti has been Director of Liberty, (The National Council for Civil Liberties), since September 2003. Shami first joined Liberty as In-House Counsel on 10 September 2001.

She became heavily involved in its engagement with the “War on Terror” and with the defence and promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and wider society.

A Barrister by background, she was called to the Bar in 1994 and worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 until 2001 for Governments of both persuasions.

Since becoming Liberty’s Director she has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of the post-WW2 human rights framework as an essential component of a democratic society.

She is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, a Governor of the British Film Institute, and a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford in addition to being a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple.

She was recently invited to be one of 6 independent assessors advising Lord Justice Leveson in his Public Inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the UK Press.
 

Shami will be speaking on Tuesday 3 July at 11:50

Professor Sir Steve Smith has been Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Exeter since October 2002.

He was previously Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) and Professor of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, as well as Head of the Department of International Politics, and Director of the Centre for Public Choice Studies at the University of East Anglia.

Sir Steve is currently Chair of the Supporting Professionalism in Admissions Programme (SPA), and is a member of the UCAS Board.  He was President of Universities UK (UUK) - the representative body for the executive heads of UK universities - from 2009-2011, and remains a member of the UUK Board.

From June 2007 until May 2010, he led for higher education on the Prime Minister’s National Council of Excellence in Education, which provided advice to Government about strategy and measures to achieve world-class education performance for all children and young people.
 

Sir Steve will be speaking on Tuesday 3 July at 10:00

Sir Alan Langlands is the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England responsible for promoting and funding high quality education and research in universities and colleges with higher education programmes.

He was formerly the Principal and Vice Chancellor at the University of Dundee (2000-2009) and Chief Executive of the NHS in England (1994-2000). 

He also has a particular interest in the scientific basis of health services and he chairs the boards of UK Biobank and the Health Foundation.  Alan was knighted in 1998 for his services to the NHS.

Sir Alan will be taking part in the panel debate on Tuesday 3 July at 14:30

Having taken a degree in History at York, David’s early career was in marketing, one of his first jobs being brand manager for Marmite. He subsequently moved into advertising working his way up to becoming a director of Saatchi & Saatchi during its heyday in the 1980’s, running around 25% of the agency’s UK business. He later became Managing Director of Young & Rubicam, doubling its turnover in five years by developing new business in the corporate, financial and retail sectors. WPP then transferred him to Ogilvy & Mather, where he became Worldwide Client Services Director for their biggest account, Ford Motor Company, and Chairman of Ogilvy One, a fast growing direct and digital marketing company. In 1997, he decided to set up his own company specialising in customer acquisition & retention for blue chip clients including Toyota, NatWest, Powergen, Ebay, Lexus and NTL. During this time, the company won a major award from the Marketing Society for its work in increasing customer loyalty for Toyota. Following the sale of the company, David enjoyed a late gap year working pro bono for Students in Free Enterprise in Africa. He joined the University of Exeter in August 2011 as Head of Marketing.

David will be speaking on Tuesday 3 July at 14:30

Brett Wigdortz has led Teach First as its CEO since its launch in July 2002.  Teach First is currently the 4th most prestigious graduate recruiter in the United Kingdom and is working to close the achievement gap in England and Wales.

Brett currently serves as a trustee of PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools) and Future Leaders, which recruits and trains the next generation of outstanding head teachers for challenging urban secondary schools. He is also a co-founder and a trustee of Teach For All, an organization created in partnership with Teach For America to help other countries start similar programs and create a global network of leaders dedicated to addressing educational disadvantage.

He was recently named the 2007 UK Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year and the 2010 CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) European Leadership Award.

Brett will be speaking on Wednesday 4 July at 13:20

Will’s mission is to connect young people with the world-of-work, raise their awareness of opportunities and their aspirations. With over 10-years experience in education, he launched MyKindaCrowd in June 2011; a simple concept whereby companies post real-life challenges; students work on responses during studies, and get rewarded with work-experiences, site visits, and jobs. MyKindaCrowd has won the UK’s most prestigious Social Enterprise awards including UnLtd Big Venture Challenge, and last week the BiTC Olympic Legacy Social Enterprise award, Arc; MyKindaCrowd levels the playing-field for students no matter their background. MyKindaCrowd already connects Universities, schools and colleges with the country’s biggest and brightest employers. Partners include UCAS and The IOD. Supporters include Brent Hoberman and The CBI. Will’s vision is to become the destination site for companies and young people to interact; UK and internationally.

Prior to founding MyKindaCrowd, Will began his working life in the City; the youngest ever qualified Options Trader. Following 1991 Citibank in Frankfurt, he founded an independent derivatives brokerage that became the 3rd largest of its kind. In 2003 Will went on to found Speakeasy4schools, which grew to become a major Enterprise Education provider in England. In 2010 merged with, and rebranded as CragRats, teaching 150,000 students per annum. A unique blended-learning delivery; Live theatre, facilitated workshops and e-learning. In 2010 Will identified that students could not effectively connect with business. Crowd sourcing was the obvious solution; MyKindaCrowd.

William will be speaking on Wednesday 4 July at 17:10.