Date: Tuesday 6th September 2005
Time: 10am – 2pm
Venue: ippr, 30 – 32 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7RA
Speaker biographies
Jeremy Hardie
An Oxford graduate and economist, Jeremy gained an accountancy qualification before returning to Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College (1967–68) and a Fellow and Tutor in Economics at Keble College (1968–75).
Jeremy then held a number of board positions with prominent companies including the Chairmanship of National Provident Institution (1980–89) and the W H Smith Group plc (1994–99). He is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Touch Clarity and Chairman of Loch Fyne Restaurants, and has renewed his academic interests as a Research Associate in the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics where he is leading the Rationality Project.
During his career Jeremy has also held the position of Chairman of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (1984–89); Treasurer of the Royal Economic Society (1987–93) and was a Member of the Monopolies & Mergers Commission from 1976–83 (Deputy Chairman 1980–83) and the Council of the Oxford Centre for Management Studies (1978–85). He has served on Hammersmith Health Authority (1982–83), the Arts Council of Great Britain (1984–86) and the Peacock Committee on financing the BBC (1985–86). Jeremy is the current Treasurer for the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Jim Sloane
Jim Sloane is the UKmanaging partner of Industries for Deloitte and leads eleven industry programmes across all aspects of the UK firm (audit, tax, consulting and corporate finance). Prior to this role he was the Global Director of Markets and Services.
Jim also has considerable experience in the TMT industry and is responsible for the consulting relationships with a number of global telecommunications companies.
Jim has been in the consulting profession for over 25 years, first with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and then with Robson Rhodes. He joined Deloitte in 1997.
Howard Reed
Howard is the Research Director for the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Between 2001 and 2004, Howard was Programme Director for Work and Income Research at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, where he had worked as a Research Economist between 1995 and 2001.
Howard’s research interests include labour market policy, tax, benefit and tax credit policy, inequality in the UK, education and training policy, micro-econometric analysis and programme evaluation. Howard was educated at KebleCollege, Oxford and University College London.
David Pitt-Watson
David Pitt-Watson is the Chief Executive of Hermes Focus Asset Management.
Prior to joining Hermes, David had a distinguished business career which also encompassed politics and academia. Following a short period at McKinsey & Co, David was co-founder and Managing Director of Braxton Associates Limited which became the strategic consulting arm for Deloitte. In that role he had 17 years of experience of boardroom decision-taking and corporate transformation. He has also worked as an advisor on issues of management and business policies for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and from 1997-99 was the Assistant General Secretary of the Labour Party.
A graduate of Oxford and Stanford universities, David was visiting professor of strategic management at Cranfield School of Management (1990-1995). He has inspired and assisted numerous public initiatives including The Cooperative Commission, established by Tony Blair to revive the UK Co-operative movement and the Literary Task Force which established the blueprint for the successful transformation of literary success in UK primary schools. David is currently a trustee for the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Nick Pearce
Nick Pearce is the Director for the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Nick was formerly a Special Adviser to David Blunkett at the Home Office (2001- 2003), where he led work on migration, asylum and citizenship issues; and at the Department for Education & Employment (1999 – 2001), where he worked on further and higher education, skills policy, and asset based welfare, including the original ideas for the Child Trust Fund.
Between 1997 and 1999 he worked on education policy at ippr and as an adviser in the Cabinet Office and Social Exclusion Unit. During this period he helped develop the initial plans for learndirect and worked on government policies for disadvantaged teenagers. He co-authored a number of publications for ippr, including Tomorrow’s Citizens (1999), Wasted Youth (1998), and Piloting the University for Industry: Report of the North East Project (1998).
Nick has recently co-authored Social Justice (2005) and is a member of the Equalities Review panel chaired by Trevor Phillips; the advisory committee for the Nuffield Review of 14-19 education and training; and the London Borough of Lambeth Advisory Forum. Nick studied at the University of Manchester and BalliolCollege, Oxford.
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