Biographies of Conference Directors and Chief Executive

 

Richard Burge
Richard was born in Hong Kong and has spent much if this life outside the UK. He has worked in over 50 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

He read zoology at the University of Durham and after a period teaching, he became a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka.  He joined the British Council for ten years, starting with a posting in Nigeria.  His last post was as Head of Africa and Middle East Development Operations for the British Council.

From 1995-1999 he was the first Director General of the Zoological Society of London responsible for the management of London Zoo, Whipsnade and Europe's largest conservation science research centre.  From 2000-2005 he was Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, a rural campaigning organisation with 120,000 members.

From 2005-2008 he worked with Paul van Vlissingen to establish the African Parks Foundation, a US$ 35 million fund to invest in the long term business management of national parks in Africa.  He also established Beyond Carbon - a company that provides strategic science, technology, and policy advice on climate change and other ecosystem impacts. From 2005-2009 he was a Government Commissioner for Rural Communities and a trustee of the Commonwealth's Iwokrama Rainforest Centre in Guyana.  He is currently a Governor of the Bridewell Royal Hospital (a major City of London educational charity).

 

Iain Ferguson CBE
Iain Ferguson is the Chairman of Wilton Park, an academically independent and non-profit making Executive Agency of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Greggs, the UK's leading baker retailer. In addition, Iain is a member of Defra's Council of Food Policy Advisors and a member of the High Level Stakeholder Group on the Foresight Global Food and Farming Project for the Government Office for Science.

Until recently, Iain was Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle PLC, the world-leading manufacturer of renewable food and industrial ingredients, a position he held since May 2003. He is past President of the Food & Drink Federation, and Past President of the Institute of Grocery Distribution. He is also Honorary Vice President of the British Nutrition Foundation.

He has served on a number of public/governmental bodies, including the Health & Safety Commission quinquennial review, the DTI Foresight Panel, the Board of Companies House (1989 - 1996), the Board of Rothamsted Research Ltd (1996 - 2005) and as a Commissioner on the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (2001 - 2002).

Iain Ferguson joined Unilever in 1977 as a trainee following graduation from St Andrews University. His early career included roles in operations, sales and industrial marketing.  In 1988 he became Chairman of Plant Breeding International and in 1992 his role expanded to include Chairmanship of the Unilever Plantation Group. He moved to be Chairman of Birds Eye Walls in 1995 and then Senior Vice President Corporate Development for Unilever plc and NV in April 2001. Iain served as a Non-Executive Director of Sygen International plc from 2002 until 2006.

He is married to a historian, Catherine; they have one daughter, Lucy, who has recently graduated from St Andrew's University. In the June 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours List, Iain was awarded a CBE for services to the food industry.

 

Nicholas Hopkinson
Director (Planning and External Relations) and member of Wilton Park Academic Staff since November 1987; studied International Politics, Queen's University, Kingston (BA Hons); MA in International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa and Graduate Diploma from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna. Publications include the volume "Parliamentary Democracy: Is There A Perfect Model?" (Ashgate, 2001), an investment management textbook with the Kluwer group, and articles for various magazines including Institutional Investor. Author of more than 60 Wilton Park Papers including papers and reports on the widening and deepening of the European Union, international trade, and parliamentary democracy. Co-editor of the Current Issues in International Diplomacy and Foreign Policy series, The Stationery Office.

 

Robin Hart
Programme Director and member of Wilton Park Academic Staff since April 1996; studied History at Exeter University (BA Hons). From 1986-96 worked in the Ministry of Defence with postings as an analyst, researcher, trainer and liaison officer. Special interests at Wilton Park include international development and humanitarian issues (particularly relating to natural disasters), Islamic militancy and Muslim youth, agriculture, drugs and organised crime, China and the Caribbean. Runs the annual British-German Forum for young leaders at Wilton Park. Member of the German-British Forum Advisory Board. Participated in the Halki Seminar for young leaders on Shaping Europes Future in 2000 and was on the Advisory Committee for DFID-funded research project on Complex Political Emergencies.

 

Roger Williamson
Programme Director and member of Wilton Park Academic Staff since November 1999. Studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University (BA). Research at Hamburg and Birmingham Universities (PhD). Positions with British Council of Churches; Life & Peace Institute, Sweden; Council for Arms Control; Church of England and Christian Aid. Consultant/committee member with NGOs including Amnesty International, International Peace Research Association, Swedish Red Cross, and World Council of Churches. Specialist on international affairs, human rights, development, religion and conflict, arms trade and social ethics. Publications include: Profit without Honour? Ethics and the Arms Trade, CCADD, London, 1992; Some Corner of a Foreign Field: Intervention and World Order, (editor) Macmillan, Basingstoke and London & St. Martin's Press, New York, 1998.

 

Isobelle Jaques
Programme Director and member of Wilton Park Academic Staff since January 2001; studied History with Government & Politics at the University of Kent (B.A. Hons.). Previously worked at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International (1976-1991), as a researcher covering countries in South and South East Asia, and as the head of the organisation's office at the United Nations in New York. Worked subsequently for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on programmes for promoting democratic transition and the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

Adela Gooch
Adela Gooch has been a Programme Director and member of Wilton Park Academic Staff since 2003. Her work centres on emerging powers and transitional states and includes projects on Russia, China, Latin America, the European Union's role in foreign and security policy, intervention and nation/state building.

Previously, she was a foreign correspondent, based in Madrid, reporting on Spain, Portugal and North Africa for The Economist and The Guardian and travelling to Latin America also. She is a regular commentator on international affairs for Spanish television and radio, the BBC and CNN and ran Madrid's Foreign Press Club. She was awarded the Barcelona Foundation's prize for international journalism.

Adela Gooch began her career as a journalist with Reuters News Agency in London. She was posted to the United States and reported from New York, the United Nations, Chicago and Washington. She then joined The Daily Telegraph in London and covered defence issues before returning to the United States as Laurence Stern fellow at The Washington Post.

Adela Gooch read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University (MA Hons) and studied at Seville University, also.

She was appointed to the Order of the British Empire for services to Anglo Spanish relations.

 

Julia Purcell
Programme Director and Member of the Academic Staff since May 2005. Her interests include migration and refugees, integration, drugs policy, organised crime , counter-terrorism  and public diplomacy. She also convenes the annual Atlantic Youth Forum for bright independent thinkers from North America and Europe.
Julia was previously International Development Manager and UK Co-ordinator of the Kosovan Humanitarian Evacuation Programme, British Refugee Council (BRC). In 1993 she was seconded to UNHCR, Western Afghanistan on the emergency shelter programme for returning refugees.

Julia read English Language and Literature at Hull University (BA Hons).

 

Mark Smith
Programme Director and member of Wilton Park Academic Staff from August 2006. Studied Politics at the University of East Anglia (BA Hons), and International Politics at the University of Wales Aberystwyth (MSC Econ Strategic Studies and PhD). Previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies, as lecturer in International Security at the University of Southampton, and as Research Fellow at Swansea University. Special interests include missile proliferation, counter-proliferation strategies on WMD, the transatlantic alliance, and British nuclear history. Author of NATO Enlargement During the Cold War: Strategy and System in the Western Alliance (Palgrave, 2000) and co-author of Britain, Australia and the Bomb: The Nuclear Tests and Their Aftermath (Palgrave, 2006). He has also written a number of articles on missile proliferaton.

 

Camilla Fenning
Programme Director. Currently seconded from the British Diplomatic Service. Camilla's previous postings with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office include: Deputy Head, Republic of Ireland Department; FCO Equal Opportunities Officer; Desk Officer dealing with human rights issues in the then Soviet Union, Desk Officer for Ukraine and the Transcaucasus; Desk Officer, Far Eastern Department dealing with Japan, South Korea and Mongolia, and Private Secretary to the Ambassador, British Embassy, Tokyo. Most recently she has worked on the Civil Service Selection Board. Camilla read History at Bristol University (BA Hons), and the Art Market and Connoisseurship (MA), New York University. She undertook a year of Japanese language training at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University.

 

Robert Grant
Programme Director. His current conference programme includes energy geopolitics and security, counterinsurgency and stabilisation operations, civil-military co-ordination, governance and democracy promotion, and the Balkans.

Robert was previously Senior Research Associate, U.S. Center for Research and Education on Strategy and Technology (U.S.-CREST); Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI); Senior Consultant, Ogden Environmental and Energy Services; and freelance consultant to the Institute for Defense Analyses, French-American Foundation, and Numark Associates. He has authored numerous reports and publications in the areas of foreign policy, security, and energy, including on coalition military operations, defence transformation, civil-military co-ordination, transatlantic security relations, energy security, and nuclear energy. Robert read History at the University of Michigan (BA Hons) and International Politics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris (PhD).