Advisory Council: member biographies

Iain Ferguson

Iain is the Chairman of Wilton Park. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Greggs plc, Balfour Beatty plc, and Berendsen plc.

In addition, Iain is the lead Non-Executive Board Member of DEFRA Supervisory Board.

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 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.

Dr Farhan Nizami

Dr Nizami succeeded Lady Suzanne Warner as Chair of the Council at the Summer 2004 meeting. He was first appointed as a member of the Council in the winter of 1999. 

Dr Nizami studied History at Wadham College, Oxford and has taught History at Oxford since 1983. He is Director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Secretary to its Board of Trustees. He is also a Fellow of Magdalen College.

Dr Nizami is a member of the Court of Oxford Brookes University; Academic Council of Cumberland Lodge; DISC, Duke University, North Carolina. Formerly he served on the Council of the Al-Falah programme the University of California Berkeley. 

Dr Nizami has declared that he has no involvement in any political activities. 

Mr Nik Gowing

Nik Gowing has been a main presenter for the BBC's international 24-hour news channel BBC World News, since 1996, where he presents World News Today with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, Dateline London and location coverage. For 18 years he worked at ITN where he was bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw, and Diplomatic Editor for Channel Four News (1988-1996). He has been a member of the councils of Chatham House (1998-2004), the Royal United Services Institute (2005-present), and the Overseas Development Institute (2007-), the board of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (1996-2005), and the advisory council at Wilton Park (1998- ). 

In 1994 he was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center in the J. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is a governor of the Ditchley Foundation and member of the Advisory Board for the University of Birmingham's Centre for Studies in Security and Diplomacy. He has been a Visiting Fellow in International Relations at Keele University in the UK. He is a member of the steering committee of the British-German Konigswinter committee and the Strategy Committee of the Project on Justice in Times of Transition at Harvard University. He is a founding committee member for the Rory Peck Trust which campaigns for the interests of freelance TV cameramen and women.

Independently of his work for BBC News, Nik also has a much sought-after analytical expertise on the management of information in the new transparent environments of conflicts, crises, emergencies and times of tension.

Mr Gowing has declared that he has no involvement in any political activities.

Ms Mary Jo Jacobi

Mary Jo Jacobi has been a senior executive of some of the world's largest corporations, including Royal Dutch Shell, Lehman Brothers, HSBC Holdings, Drexel Burnham Lambert and 3M. She currently is a Civil Service Commissioner, chair of The idm Group, a non-executive director of the American Council on Germany, a US-UK Fulbright Commissioner and chair of the Sir Heinz Koeppler Trust and the Wilton Park USA Foundation.  She is a visiting fellow of Oxford University's Centre for Corporate Reputation and the Leeds University Business School.

Mary Jo has declared that she has served in the administrations of two Republican Presidents of the United States and contributed to the Conservative party more than 10 years ago. She has no current or recent involvement in any political activities.

Ms Rachel Briggs

Rachel Briggs is Director of Hostage UK, a charity chaired by Terry Waite which supports the families of hostages and works with companies and charities to improve their response to the human elements of kidnapping. Hostage UK is an independent organisation that works closely with the FCO, police and other statutory agencies and we also seek to improve public understanding of the crime of kidnapping and how it effects Britons. Rachel is also a researcher working on counter-terrorism and community relations. She is a Senior Research Fellow at RUSI, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at UCL and an Associate of the Institute of Community Cohesion.

As well as her role at Wilton Park, she is also Associate Editor of Renewal, a member of the Advisory Board of RUSI Monitor, a member of the Council of the Risk and Security Management Forum, a board member of the European Muslim Research Centre at Exeter University, and an advisory board member of STREET a Muslim youth project in Brixton.

Rachel was previously Head of International Strategy and Identity Programme at Demos, and Risk and Security Programme Manager at The Foreign Policy Centre. 

Mr Rupert Robson

Mr Rupert Robson is Non-executive Chairman of Charles Taylor Consulting plc and Silkroutefinancial Group Ltd, Non-executive Director of Tullett Prebon plc, London Metal Exchange and Tenet Group Ltd and Governor of Sherborne School and Sherborne School for Girls. Previously, he was Global Head of the Financial Institutions Group in the Corporate, Investment Banking and Markets division of HSBC plc. Prior to that, he was, variously, a Managing Director in the Global Markets Division of Citigroup, Managing Director of J O Hambro Financial Brands Ltd, Non-executive Chairman of Cattles plc and a Director of J Henry Schroder Wagg & Co Ltd.

Professor Philippe Sands QC

Professor Philippe Sands has been Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on international Courts and Tribunals, University College London since January 2002. He is also Co-Director, Project on International Courts and Tribunals since 1997. He has formerly held academic positions at the Universities of Cambridge (from 1984-88) and Kings College London (from 1988-91. He was Founder and Director of Studies, Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (SOAS) from 1989-99 and Global Professor of Law, New York University School of Law, from 1994-2003.

Professor Sands is a barrister at Matrix Chambers, practising before international courts and tribunals, and author of a number of books, including Principles of International Environmental Law (2003), Lawless World (2005) and Torture Team (2008).

Sir Stephen Wall GCMG LVO

Sir Stephen Wall has been Chairman (Public Affairs EMEA) at Hill & Knowlton since late 2005. He is also a member of the Council of University College, London. He Chairs the European Advisory Board of Chatham House. He is Chairman of the Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust and a Board member of Britain in Europe. Sir Stephen was British Ambassador to Portugal from 1993-95; Permanent Representative to the European Union from 1995-2000; Head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and EU adviser to the Prime Minister from 2000-04; and Principal Adviser to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster from June 2004-June 2005.

Sir Stephen has declared that he has no involvement in any political activities. 

Professor Myles Wickstead CBE

Myles Wickstead was, from early 2004 to late 2005, Head of Secretariat to the Commission for Africa.  He has a long history of involvement with, and working in, Africa.  Between 1993 and 1997 he was based in Nairobi as Head of the British  Development Division in Eastern Africa, responsible for British Government development programmes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  He coordinated the 1997 Government White Paper 'Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century'; served on the Board of the World Bank (and as Development Counsellor at the British Embassy) in Washington from 1997 to 2000; and from 2000 to 2004 was based in Addis Ababa as British Ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Having left Government service in late 2005, Myles' portfolio now includes: Visiting Professor (International Relations) at the Open University; Senior Advisor to the Africa Unit (Association of Commonwealth Universities); Board Chair of CONCERN UK and Independent Vice-Chair of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy; and Board member/Trustee of the Baring Foundation, the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), the University of Ulster UNESCO Centre, the Crown Agents Foundation, the Development Studies Association, the Comic Relief International Grants Committee, International Inspiration and the Advisory Council of Wilton Park.

Myles has degrees from the Universities of St Andrews (MA First Class Honours) and Oxford (M.Litt), and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Education by Leeds Met University in July 2009 in recognition of his work on Africa.  In the New Years Honours 2006 he was appointed CBE.

Mr Owen Tudor

Owen Tudor is Head of the TUC's European Union and International Relations Department and is the Secretary of the TUC's charitable international development arm, TUC Aid. He joined the TUC in 1984 and took up his present post in October 2003. From 1995 to 2003 he was the TUC Senior Policy Officer for Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation covering workplace health and safety; union legal services; rehabilitation policy and industrial injuries benefit. He represents the TUC on a range of consultative bodies to the Home Office and BIS, as well as the Advisory Board for the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at Oxford University (2008-date), and the London Strategic Migration Partnership, which he joined in 2009.

He has been a member of the editorial board of Policy and Practice in Health and Safety, Health and Safety at Work magazine and Managing Occupational Health, Safety and Environment magazine. He is a former Director of the Occupational and Environmental Diseases Association, Trustee of the British Occupational Health Research Foundation (2000-2003), and the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) from 1995 to 2000. Mr Tudor represented the TUC on the Social Security Advisory Committee from 1991 to 1997, on the HSC Advisory Committee on Toxic Substances from 1994 to 1998, and on the Lord Chancellor's Civil Justice Council (of which he was a founder member) from 1998 to 2001. He was a member of the Health and Safety Commission (1998-2004) and represented the TUC on the Government's statutory Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (and its Research Working Group) from 1990 to 2004. 

Mr Tudor was born in 1961, and was educated at St Paul's School, London before going up to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, where he gained a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) in 1982. He is an ex-member of the Fabian Society National Executive, and of the editorial board of New Socialist. He joined the Court of the University of Surrey in 1999 and is a member of the Socialist Educational Association and both the Labour and Co-operative Parties.

Mr Paul Evans

Paul Evans is Director Intervention of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Paul started his career in the Royal Navy in 1972 and served until 1980. He joined HM Diplomatic Service in 1982. Since then, he has had a variety of postings: UK Mission to the United Nations in Vienna, First Secretary in London, First Secretary (later Counsellor) in Washington, and latterly Counsellor, again, in Vienna.

Mr Evans was formerly Director Investigation of HM Customs & Excise. He was appointed to Customs Law Enforcement in October 1999 to reshape and modernise the Service in line with new government anti-drugs and anti-fraud strategies.

He was appointed to his post in SOCA in February 2005, and currently has responsibility for all of SOCA's asset recovery work and its international Liaison Officer network, as well as directing SOCA's response to e-crime and leading on interaction with the private sector. In addition, Paul manages SOCA's Lifetime Offender Management programme.

Paul is an Advisor to the President of the World Bank on Foreign Stolen Assets (FStAR), and a member of both the Interpol and Europol Management Boards. He holds a degree in Systems and Management and an MA in Law from the University of Cambridge.

Mr Victor Sebestyen

As a journalist, Victor Sebestyen worked on numerous British newspapers. He reported widely from Eastern Europe when Communism collapsed in 1989. He covered the war in former Yugoslavia. At the London Evening Standard he was foreign editor, media editor and chief leader writer. His first book, Twelve Days, a widely acclaimed account of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, was published four years ago and has been translated into 17 languages. His latest book, published last year in the UK, the US, Japan and widely throughout Europe, is Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire.

Professor Colin Blakemore

Colin Blakemore, FMedSci, Hon FRCP, Hon FSB, FRS, is Professor of Neuroscience at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick. He also holds a Professorship at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, where he is Chairman of the Neuroscience Research Partnership. From 2003-2007 he was Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council. 

Professor Blakemore studied Medical Sciences at Cambridge , completing a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. After working for 11 years in Cambridge, he moved to Oxford as Waynflete Professor of Physiology in 1979, and from 1996-2003 he was also Director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience. His research has been concerned with many aspects of vision, development and plasticity of the brain, and with the neurodegenerative disorder, Huntington’s disease. He has been a Visiting Fellow or Professor in the USA, France, China, Singapore, Italy, the Czech Republic, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Professor Blakemore has been President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the Biosciences Federation. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television, and writes books and articles about science for a general audience. He has won many prizes for both his research and his work in the public communication of science, including the Michael Faraday and David Ferrier Prizes of the Royal Society. 

Mr Tim Livesey

Tim Livesey has been the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary (senior adviser) for International Affairs since September 2010 following four years as his Secretary for Public Affairs (2006-2010). Before that he was a diplomat for 20 years serving in Morocco, Nigeria and Paris where he was head of Press and Public Affairs. 

He was Assistant Press Secretary to the Prime Minister 2000-2002, Principal Adviser to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster 2002-2004 (on secondment from the Foreign Office) and Head of Global Public Diplomacy and Assistant Director for Strategy and Information in the Foreign Office 2004-2006.

Mr Andrew Whyte

Andrew Whyte is Director of Communications at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

A former Vice-President of the National Union of Students, Andrew began his professional career in the mid-eighties working in campaigning and communications roles in the UK voluntary sector, first as Youth Rights Officer at the British Youth Council and then as Media and Parliamentary Liaison Manager at children’s charity Barnardo’s.

He joined Rupert Murdoch’s News International in 1991, and two years later became Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs.  In 1996 he left to join Shell International as an External Affairs Adviser before joining BBC Broadcast as Head of Public Relations in May 1998.  He was appointed Head of Corporate and Public Relations for the BBC in August 2000 a post he held until leaving the Corporation in 2005.

Following the BBC, Andrew was Executive Director, Advocacy and Communications at Arts Council England, leaving in summer 2009 to join the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as Director of Communications. He moved to his current role as Director of Communications at the FCO in October 2010.

A member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, Andrew is also a member of the board of housing charity Thames Reach.

Aged 50 and married with two grown up children, Andrew lives in Ashford in Kent.