Speaker Profiles

Speakers and session chairs included:

Beth Breeze

Beth Breeze has been Deputy Director of the SMF since October 2001. She has previously worked at Demos and the Fabian Society.

Her academic credentials include a first class degree in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews (1995) and a further Masters degree awarded with Distinction from the London School of Economics in Voluntary Sector policy (2001) for which she won the Richard Titmuss prize. She was also previously awarded the Robert Lincoln McNeil scholarship to study at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania in 1993-94.

Whilst Beth has worked in many areas of social and economic policy, her main policy interests are the voluntary sector, corporate social responsibility and constitutional affairs.

Robert Bucceri

Robert A. Bucceri is a principal consultant with Chaddsford Planning Associates, a West Chester, PA-based firm providing marketing and business development assistance to companies in the electronic payments and commerce industries.

His clients include Unisys Corp., First Data Corp., and the Electronic Funds Transfer Association, an inter-industry trade association representing financial institutions, EFT networks, online bankingenablers, and the independent ATM industry.

Bob has also been active here and abroad in the development of the electronic government payments market, using commercial EFT technology for the delivery of government payments and services.

Bob is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, the chairman of the national EBT Industry Council and a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association.

Caroline Minter-Hoxby

Caroline M. Hoxby is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. Hoxby is a professor of economics at Harvard University and the director of the Economics of Education Program for the National Bureau of Economic Research.Hoxby's research has received numerous awards, including a Carnegie Fellowship, a John M. Olin Fellowship, a National Tax Association Award, and a major grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.She has written extensively on educational choice and related issues. She is the editor of The Economic Analysis of School Choice (University of Chicago Press, 2002).

David Willetts MP

David Willetts is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.David became the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions during the 1999 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle. During his tenure he has campaigned on issues such as cutting taxes for pensioners, Increasing the basic state pension, abolishing the compulsory annuities at age 75 and crucially allowing younger workers to opt for a properly funded private pension.

Eric Bost

Eric M. Bost was sworn in as Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services on June 18, 2001. Before his appointment to this position, Mr. Bost served as Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Department of Human Services (DHS) since August 1997. As FNCS Under Secretary, Mr. Bost is responsible for the administration of the fifteen USDA nutrition assistance programs with a combined budget of over $40 billion, including the Food Stamp Program, the Special Supplemental Feeding Program for Women, Infants and Children or WIC program, and the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. During his tenure significant progress has been made in working toward the agency goals of combating obesity and helping needy families and individuals secure a nutritious diet. His efforts focus on improving program access, promoting better eating habits, and strengthening stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

James Crabtree

James Crabtree works on the iSociety research project, which investigates the impact of ICT in the UK, with special emphasis on technology in everyday life, at home, in communities and at work. James has worked on a number of publications, including Whatever Happened to the E-Lection, Next Steps for Broadband Britain, RealityIT, and the forthcoming paper MobileUK. Before joining the Work Foundation James was a political consultant, and had previously worked for the BBC and Charter 88. James is also a director of Voxpolitics, an associate editor of Opendemocracy, and a board member of Renewal.

Johan Hjertqvist

Johan Hjertqvist is Director of the Timbro Health Policy Unit (Stockholm/Brussels), a division of Timbro, Sweden's leading free market think tank. Since 2001, Timbro Health has advocated market influence and consumer power in health care by developing unique tools for consumer influence. Mr Hjertqvist has a background in health care policy and welfare entrepreneurial activities. 1999 - 2003 he was the leader of a project which in three books analysed the transformation of health care in the Stockholm region. He has also acted as an adviser to the Greater Stockholm Council, specialising in market infrastructures where purchasers and providers can meet. He is a frequent international lecturer on health care reform. He writes newsletters and is a member of international health care networks and institutions. Mr Hjertqvist has a Master of Laws degree from the University of Stockholm. In the late 1970s he was instrumental in the founding and building of Timbro. He was editor-in-chief of the NPT, another Timbro operation and the first Swedish news agency to promote business and economy material. During the middle 1980s he belonged to a small group of entrepreneurs who started the first private Swedish stock exchange. He also worked as a Senior Counsellor at the Burson-Marsteller Communications Group.

Nick Wood-Dow

Nick Wood-Dow came to Chelgate just months after its foundation with a broad experience of public relations and public affairs across a variety of sectors, ranging from trade associations to a beer company, from food and health to a high profile local council. A specialist in political affairs, he has special responsibility at Chelgate for local and national government relations, and has practical experience of politics at every level. He also has a particular expertise in environmental matters. He is deputy chairman of the Environment Council, and founder/chairman of the Tory Green Initiative. Nick has established Chelgate Environment as a business division of the company, and advises national and international organisations on air, water, land, pollution and planning matters.He also has extensive personal experience in the political field. He has been a councillor in a county borough, serving on planning highways and health committees, and as deputy to the Leader on policy and resources.He was Parliamentary Candidate in Bolton South-East in the 1992 General Election. He has earlier served as public relations adviser to the European Democratic Group of MEPs in Strasbourg.A former Managing Director of a London PR firm, Nick is a former associate director at Burson-Marsteller, where he worked closely with Chelgate Chairman, Terence Fane-Saunders.

Phil Collins

Philip Collins is the Director of the SMF. He was educated at the universities of Birmingham, London and Cambridge in History, Politics and Political Theory respectively. Immediately before joining the SMF he was Head of UK Equity Strategy at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and before that at HSBC James Capel and Fleming Investment Management. He has also had spells working at the BBC, LWT, the Institute of Education and for Frank Field MP.

His main research interests are in the fields of education and race and nationhood and his first novel, "The Men From The Boys" was published by Harper Collins in January 2002.

Professor Harry Brighouse

Harry Brighouse works at the University of Wisconsin on the foundations of liberal theory, and is especially interested in the place of education and the family in liberalism. He is currently working on papers on the significance of positionality for egalitarian justice, on development theory and liberal egalitarianism, on the fair distribution of power, and on whether parents have rights over their children. He has also written extensively about education policy in both scholarly journals and the British national press. He is co-editor, with Randall Curren, Mitja Sardoc, and Janez Justin, of the new journal Theory and Research in Education.

Cllr Paul Bettison

Having set up a successful business supplying printing equipment to the UK newspaper and general printing industry during the mid 1980s, Paul turned to local politics as his next challenge in 1991. He was elected to Sandhurst Town Council in May of that year, and to Bracknell Forest Borough Council at a by-election in October 1991. He rose first in the Town Council, becoming Deputy Mayor in 1992 and Mayor from 1993-1995. In 1996 Paul was elected Leader of the Conservative Group (then in opposition) at Bracknell Forest.

In the elections in May 1997, Paul led the Conservative Group to victory. Under Paul's leadership, the Conservative Group at Bracknell Forest managed a "seamless" transition to unitary status in 1998, and following many innovative local government initiatives, he led his Group to further gains in May 2000 and 2003 with swings to the Conservatives of twice the national average.

Paul is active within the LGA, and is firmly committed to local government representation at the highest level. From 2000 to 2002 he was Chairman of the LGA's Housing Executive and oversaw the introduction of many innovations in Bracknell Forest's housing service. Paul believes fervently in local authorities' newly acquired power of community wellbeing and asks 'what could be more fundamental to anyone's wellbeing than the roof over their head?' Paul is also the Conservative Party's National Local Government Association e-Government Champion and spokesman on ICT matters.

With effect from 1 August 2002 Paul's commitments with the LGA have continued as Chairman of the Rural Commission and Rural Executive. A firm believer in self-help for local government, Paul spent 18 months as a peer mentor to the Leader of the Conservative Group of Hackney LBC, and has performed the same task for the Leader of Walsall MBC for the past 2 years. Paul retired from his business activities earlier this year, and now devotes himself full-time to Local Government.

Andrew Collinge

Andrew is an Associate Director in Mori's Social Research Institute. He currently heads up the Local Government Research Unit, Mori's largest single business unit. Andrew's six years at MORI have coincided with the Government's Modernising Agenda, and over this time he has worked on many individual projects for a raft of local authorities and key government departments. Through experience gained by working on these projects and in his wider role, Andrew has developed a unique understanding of the citizen's view of public services and the institutions responsible for their delivery.

In the past, Andrew has been involved in researching the impact of new media in government and across the public sector. He has spoken and written widely on e-government related issues. He has spoken in Spain where he was a keynote speaker at the ERISA (European Information Society Association) Conference and Belgium and in 2001 he spoke at the SOCITM (Society of IT Managers in Local Government) national conference. Andrew has also advised the Greater London Authority and Staffordshire County Council as part of their Best Value Service Reviews for Electronic Service Delivery.

Loren Bell

Loren Bell is a nationally known expert in food assistance program policy and program operations. He has more than 25 years experience working with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Food Stamp Programs at the state and national levels. It was because of the outstanding performance of Mr. Bell's project team that HSR received the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Small Business Contractor of the Year award in 1997.

National welfare reform has had a strong impact on the operation of the WIC and Food Stamp Programs. Under Mr. Bell's leadership, HSR has emerged as a leading provider of technical assistance and evaluation services in this area. Mr. Bell has managed a number of projects, including an examination of the food purchasing patterns of WIC clients, three food stamp nutrition education technical assistance and evaluation projects, the national study of WIC vendor management practices, a needs assessment of adolescents participating in the WIC program, and a national study of how states have re-engineered their Food Stamp Programme as a result of welfare reform. For 11 years, Mr. Bell directed the Washington State WIC Program. He received three national awards from the USDA for this work. Mr. Bell also held senior management positions in the California Department of Health. He holds a bachelor's degree in communications and has completed graduate studies in business and organisational communications.

Stephen Byers

Stephen Byers was born in 1953. He attended Wymondham College, Norfolk; Chester City Grammar School; Chester College of Further Education and Liverpool Polytechnic. He was a senior lecturer in law at Newcastle Polytechnic from 1977-1992. He was elected to North Tyneside Council in May 1980 and was its Deputy Leader from 1985-1992. He stood as the Labour candidate for Hexham in the 1983 general election. Stephen was elected as Labour MP for Wallsend in 1992. He was appointed an Opposition Whip in 1994 and was made Shadow Minister for Training and Employment in 1995. In 1997 he was elected for the new seat of North Tyneside. After the election he was made Minister of State for School Standards. In July 1998 he entered the Cabinet as Chief Secretary for the Treasury. In December 1998 he was appointed as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. He held this post until the 2001 General Election after which he was made Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. He resigned from the government in May 2002.

Dr. David Everett

Dr. David Everett is CEO of Microexpert and technical editor for Smart Card News. He was the technical architect behind Mondex and the inventor of the Multos multi-application platform. He was technical director at Platform7 formally the NatWest Development Team (NWDT). before this he was with EFTPOS and sat on several European standards committee's and advised financial institutions on the security of electronic payment systems. David has also acted as an expert witness for a number of US smart card cases.

Alan Leibert

Alan Leibert is a specialist in the visioning, strategy, development and growth of user-facing, technology based business operations and services. As a director of the ALCO Group, an international consultancy specialising in user-facing ICT, Alan advises UK local and central government, major industry companies and the European community. ALCO was created to help foster the development of e-services including e-Government for citizens and considers the smartcard used as an access token as a key enabler for this. Alan has been a leading specialist in the fields of smartcards and biometrics for many years and provides ALCO with the specialist experience it requires to enable it to provide its I-depth ICT advice and guidance.

Tony Travers

Tony Travers is director of the Greater London Group, a research centre at the London School of Economics. He is also an advisor to the House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee and the Public Administration Select Committee. He is a Senior Associate of the Kings Fund and a member of the Arts Council's Touring Panel. From 1992 to 1997, he was a member of the Audit Commission. He was a member of the Urban Task Force Working Group on Finance. He has published a number of books on cities and government, including Failure in British Government The Politics of the Poll Tax (with David Butler and Andrew Adonis), Paying for Health, Education and Housing How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennerster and John Hills) and The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City (published in spring 2004). He also broadcasts and writes for the national press.

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