Nazir Afzal OBE

Nazir Afzal OBE was Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England and most recently Chief Executive for the country’s Police and Crime Commissioners. During a 24 year career, he has been a prosecutor on some of the most high profile cases in the country and advised on many national legal topics including Violence against Women & Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour based violence.

His prosecutions of the ‘Rochdale grooming gang’, BBC presenter Stuart Hall and hundreds of others were groundbreaking and drove the work that has changed the landscape of child protection. He is also National Adviser on Gender Based Violence to the Welsh Government. Most recently he joined the advisory board of Google’s Innovation Fund for counter-extremism.

He has received many accolades. In 2005 he was awarded an OBE for his work with the CPS and involvement with local communities and also the honour of being the only lawyer to ever prosecute a case before the Queen.

Tony Bovaird

Tony Bovaird is Emeritus Professor of Public Management and Policy at INLOGOV, University of Birmingham, UK and Director of the non-profit organization Governance International. His research covers public sector strategic and performance management, evaluation of public services and user and community co-production, with clients including European Commission, OECD, UK Parliament, Cabinet Office and many international governments and local authorities.

Emmanuel Gobillot

Described as ‘the first leadership guru for the MySpace generation’ and ‘the freshest voice in leadership today’, Emmanuel has worked with organisations ranging from Astra Zeneca to Zurich Financial Services via Google and The United Nations. For over 15 years, his interventions have focused on creating the capability in organisations to deliver results through world-class leadership. He is also cofounder of the consultancy Collaboration Partners specialising in helping organisations collaborate better.

One of Europe’s most sought after leadership speakers; he is the author of Kogan Page’s UK and US bestseller ‘The Connected Leader’, ‘LeaderShift’ and ‘Follow the Leader’. His latest book ‘Disciplined Collaboration’ was published by Urbane in 2016. His books have established him as one of the foremost thinkers on new leadership models.

Dr Margaret Heffernan

Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, author of five books and her TED talks have been seen by over seven million people. She is Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and through Merryck & Co. mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organisations. She holds an honorary doctorate from University of Bath and continues to write for the Financial Times and the Huffington Post.

Sophie Howe

Sophie was appointed as the first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales in February 2016. Her role is to act as a guardian for the interests of future generations in Wales, and to support the public bodies listed in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to work towards achieving the well-being goals.

Prior to this role, Sophie was the first Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales and the only woman in a police commissioner leadership role in Wales. In this role, she led programmes to tackle violent crime and violence against women and girls, focusing on early intervention and partnership working particularly with health. She reformed programmes on substance misuse and offender management and led a review of women in policing as well the Force's work to increase recruitment of black and monitory ethnic officers and staff.

Sophie served as a Government Special Adviser from 2009-2013 providing policy and political advice on communities, local government, community safety, housing, regeneration and equality to the Cabinet and First Minister.

With a background in equality and diversity having managed the legal department in the Equal Opportunities Commission and subsequently as a policy adviser in the Equality and Human Right Commission, Sophie chaired and wrote the report of the Councillors Commission Expert Panel on increasing diversity in Local Government.

Sophie served as a County councillor in Cardiff - having been elected at the age of 21 she became the youngest Councillor in Wales. During her nine years as a Councillor she was Deputy Leader of the Opposition for a period, as well as a member of the Children and Young People Scrutiny and planning Committees.

She is currently a member of the Wales Committee of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and is Chair of the international Network of Institutions for Future Generations. She lives in Cardiff with her husband Ceri and their five children.

Julie James AM

Until she was elected as Assembly Member for Swansea West, Julie was a leading environmental and constitutional lawyer. Prior to this, she was assistant chief executive at Swansea Council. She spent most of her legal career in local government, working as a policy lawyer with the London Borough of Camden before returning to Swansea to work for West Glamorgan County Council and then the City and County of Swansea.

Since being elected Julie sat on the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, Enterprise and Business Committee and Environment and Sustainability Committee. Julie published the ‘Influencing the Modernisation of EU Procurement Policy’ Report as Chair of the Enterprise and Business Committee’s Procurement Task and Finish Group. Julie also sat as Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Committee’s Common Fisheries Policy Task and Finish Group.

Julie James was appointed Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology in September 2014. In May 2016 Julie was appointed as Minister for Skills and Science. Julie was appointed Leader of the House and Chief Whip on 3 November 2017. On 13 December 2018 Julie was appointed Minister for Housing and Local Government.

Rainer Kattel

Rainer Kattel is professor and deputy director at Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, UCL. He has published extensively on innovation policy, its governance and specific management issues. His research interests include public sector innovation, digital transformation and financialization.

His recent books include 'The Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development' (edited with Erik Reinert and Jayati Gosh; Elgar, 2016), 'Financial Regulations in the European Union' (edited with Jan Kregel and Mario Tonveronachi; Routledge, 2016), 'Innovation Bureaucracy' (with Wolfgang Drechsler and Erkki Karo; Yale, forthcoming in 2020), and a special section on mission-oriented innovation policy and dynamic capabilities in the public sector in 'Industrial and Corporate Change' (edited with Mariana Mazzucato; 2018).

In 2013, he received Estonia’s National Science Award for his work on innovation policy.

Catherine Mangan

Catherine has a particular research interest in delivering change within the public sector and her areas of interest include the integration of health and social care, developing the future workforce and leadership of public services. Catherine co-convenes the leadership of public services module for the Department’s Masters and degree apprenticeship programmes in Public Management and Public Administration and co-convenes programmes on integrating health and social care and international public management.

She develops and delivers leadership programmes including the National Graduate Development Programme, the Aspiring Directors of Public Health programme and the Total Leadership programme for aspiring chief executives. She carries out research in social care and in particular the relationship between different parts of the system and how that impacts on outcomes for service users and their families. She is a qualified executive coach and writes regularly for academic journals and the professional press.

Shan Morgan

Having undertaken a wide range of roles within the Civil Service for a number of years, Shan became HM Ambassador to Argentina and Paraguay in 2008 before being appointed as UK Representative’s Deputy Permanent Representative in July 2012, representing the UK on the EU’s Committee of Representatives of the Member States (Coreper I).

In February 2017, Shan took up post as Welsh Government Permanent Secretary, where she leads the Welsh Government Civil Service in delivering the priorities of ministers, managing a budget of £15 billion.

Nick Richmond

Nick has a passion to design thriving workplaces by creating meaningful work to form healthy, high performing organisations. He has worked as an organisational consultant across multiple sectors over the past 12 years. Nick is an active contributor in the organisation design and development community as a Director of Tricordant, and as Chair of the European Organisation Design Forum. He uses innovative tools including Lego® Serious Play® to help leaders and organisations thrive in complexity

Ian Robertson

Ian Robertson is co-director of the Global Brain Health Institute (www.gbhi.org), Professor Emeritus at Trinity College Dublin, Distinguished Scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas and Visiting Professor at University College London.

He is an international expert on mind-brain links in emotional and brain disorders. He also has held senior appointments at, Columbia, Cambridge, and Toronto universities. As a neuroscientist and a trained clinical psychologist, Ian’s research tries to bridge the gap between brain science, human psychology and the personal challenges that every single person on the planet faces from time to time.

His multiply-translated popular books include 'The Stress Test', 'Mind Sculpture', 'The Mind’s Eye', 'Stay Sharp' and 'The Winner Effect', which have been reviewed and excerpted across the world and his widely read blogs and tweets can be seen on ianrobertson.org and @ihrobertson.

Sharon Turnbull

Sharon is an independent leadership development specialist and academic who has published and contributed to the field of leadership, organisational change, and global executive development for many years. She has worked with leaders from a wide range of sectors across the globe to support them and their organisations to thrive in this volatile world.

She has taught at a number of business schools in both the UK and overseas, and co-written three books. She is interested in how personal and organisational transformation can be mutually reinforcing, and the important relationships between leadership, personal growth, organisational productivity, and responsibility for society.