Tom Bower is a former reporter for the BBC’s Panorama and a noted author of highly critical unauthorised biographies. His subjects have included Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Gordon Brown, Simon Cowell and Richard Branson.
In 2003 he won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams, an investigation into corruption in English football.
Journalist, speaker and conference chair Declan Curry was one of the BBC’s most recognisable business presenters and is an accomplished after dinner and keynote speaker, conference facilitator and awards host.
Declan previously presented BBC’s Working Lunch and was the front man for the BBCs Breakfast Business News for many years. He was also the Business Presenter on BBC News 24 since the channel’s launch in 1997.
Previously he presented Show Me The Money on BBC News, and a weekly programme on business and work – On The Money on BBC Radio 5 Live and a weekend show Your Money, providing essential news and information on personal finance.
His broadcasts on Breakfast covered a wide range of stories about business, work and money, he extracted news and views from chief executives, trade union leaders, stock market watchers, private investors and individual workers.
He formerly broadcast for the BBC’s international news channel, BBC World, and he reported as the business commentator in the United States for ABC News for nearly a decade.
Also, formerly the presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live’s early morning business programme, Wake up to Money. He produced and reported for a range of programmes, including Radio 4’s personal finance flagship Moneybox, Radio 5 Live’s Financial World Tonight, and World Service Radio’s World Business Report. In the past, he has worked for the London-based commercial news station LBC, and writes for a wide range of newspapers, magazines and industry publications in the UK, the Irish Republic and the United States.
His previous speaking engagements include the Global Economic Symposium, which has become an annual event for Declan, National Business Awards conference, Retail Week Conference and the Engineering Employers Federation annual awards.
A consummate professional, Declan has brought his vast experience in the media to the speaking circuit. He can facilitate conferences, host awards ceremonies and act as an entertaining after-dinner speaker. Able to tailor his speech to any audience, Declan’s charm and knowledge makes him a sought-after speaker.
Andrew is a former Assistant Editor of both The Daily Telegraph and The Times newspapers, and an ex-Political Editor of the latter.
He is a columnist and Consultant Editor for the Daily Mail, which he joined in 2009.
He knows everyone in the Westminster village and his ability to ferret out scandal and gossip means that he has a reputation for breaking stories that the great and the good might prefer kept quiet.
Andrew is also a seasoned broadcaster, appearing on Question Time, The Daily Politics, Sky News and LBC radio, where he has a weekly Sunday morning slot. Andrew has enough Westminster gossip and can’t wait to divulge as much of it as he can!
Andrew can be seen as a regular guest on Good Morning Britain for the daily political debates.
Alan Arthur Johnson is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of Cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was Shadow Chancellor of thge Exchequer. Johnson was the Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle since the 1997 General Election. On 18 April 2017, following the announcement of the 2017 General Election, Johnson said he would not be a candidate.
Alastair Campbell is a writer, communicator and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in Labour politics, he now splits his time between writing, speaking, charitable fundraising, politics and campaigns.
Alastair is a highly sought after speaker not only in Britain, but worldwide. Drawing on his ten years of experience alongside Tony Blair, and his considerable understanding of the modern media, Alastair specialises in strategy, making change, dealing with the media, and crisis management – often simultaneously.
Dozens of testimonials from a wide variety of businesses, organisations and conference organisers have paid tribute to his skills as an engaging and innovative speaker able to apply his insights and experience to the work of others with wit and passion. He liaises directly with event organisers in advance, so as to tailor his presentations to their specific needs.
Often controversial, and always prepared to speak his mind, Alastair is willing, indeed keen, to make a question and answer session part of his presentations. Alastair is an engaging speaker and is equally at home delivering a major, bespoke conference keynote or an anecdotal after dinner speech.
Sir Christopher Meyer spent 37 years in the British Diplomatic Service. His career culminated as Ambassador to the United States during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies between 1997 and 2003. His five and a half years in Washington, which made him the longest-serving British Ambassador to the USA since the Second World War, coincided with 9/11, the wars in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, and the preparation for war in Iraq.
Previously he had been Ambassador to Germany and had postings to the former Soviet Union, Spain and the European Union in Brussels. He was also Press Secretary to Prime Minister Sir John Major, Press Secretary to Foreign Secretary, the late Lord Howe, and speech writer to three Foreign Secretaries, James Callaghan, Anthony Crosland and David Owen.
After his retirement from the Diplomatic Service in 2003, Sir Christopher chaired the Press Complaints Commission for six years until March 2009.
In 2005 he published DC Confidential, a memoir of his time in the Diplomatic Service. A further book, Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: the Inside Story of British Diplomacy, was published in 2009 and accompanied a three-part TV series for BBC4. In 2012 he presented and co-wrote a six-part TV documentary series for Sky Atlantic, Networks of Power. In early 2016 he appeared in and helped research Inside The War Room: World War 3 for BBC2.
In 2013 he published as an Amazon Kindle Single a personal memoir, Only Child.
Sir Christopher is an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge University, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
He is a non-executive director of the Arbuthnot Banking Group and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of Pagefield, a public relations company. He is on the Advisory Board of British-American Business inc and is a Freeman of the City of London and member of the Worshipful Company of Stationers.
Michael Portillo attended Harrow County grammar school and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history.
He worked for the Conservative Party and for government ministers between 1976 and 1983. He entered the House of Commons in 1984. He was a minister for eleven years and had three positions in the Cabinet, including Secretary of State for Defence.
He lost his seat at the 1997 election, and began to develop a career in the media. He returned to the Commons between 2000 and 2005, was shadow Chancellor, and contested the leadership of the party in 2001, unsuccessfully.
Since leaving politics, he has devoted himself to writing and broadcasting. He is a regular on both BBC 1’s sardonic political “This Week” programme and Radio 4’s “The Moral Maze”. He has made radio and television documentaries on a wide range of subjects, including eight series of “Great British Railway Journeys”, five series on the continent of Europe, and two in the United States, for BBC2. In 2008 he chaired the judges of the Man Booker prize, and chaired the Art Fund prize for museums and galleries in 2011.
Geoff Norcott is a comedy writer and standup who has forged a reputation not just as a popular live performer, but for setting himself politically apart from his comedian peers.
Describing himself as ‘right leaning’ Geoff is subverting the view that all comedians automatically take a left-wing view of politics and the world. Especially relevant in these politically unpredictable times, he delivers an alternative view, without being dogmatic or uncritical of all political persuasions. A working class boy who grew up on a council estate to become an English teacher, Geoff contradicts many assumptions with well-crafted topical jokes, asides and stories. He looks at the difference between genuine beliefs and being controversial for the sake of it and what it means to be, as in the title of one of his hit Edinburgh shows, ‘right leaning but well meaning’. The Telegraph has described Geoff as “objectively funny regardless of your politics.”
In addition to the likes of Live at the Apollo and 8 Out of 10 Cats, Geoff has featured on Nish Kumar’s BBC2 satire show The Mash Report, and his political stance has seen him appear on Question Time, Daily Politics, and Radio 4’s Today programme. He’s also written for the Telegraph and New Statesman.
Mark started doing stand-up in 1982, around the circuit of bizarre gigs, going on after jugglers and escapologists and people that banged nails into their ear. Then came the Comedy Store and Jongleurs and getting bottled off at The Tunnel, and then a regular slot on Radio 4’s Loose Ends.
Mark has also done weekly columns in Socialist Worker, the Guardian and the Independent. There was a book called ‘Vive le Revolution’, and he’s been on various panel shows like Have I Got News For You and QI, and on Room 101, and on Question Time he got very confused when he insulted a member of the Tory shadow cabinet, and afterwards he said Mark was splendid and invited me for a drink. And he’s spoken at lots of demonstrations and union meetings and protests, and appeared at quite a few benefits, and yet capitalism still seems to rule the world. ‘Maybe I’m a jinx’ he says…
John is the BBC’s Senior Political Correspondent, both on television news and Radio 5 Live and is therefore in the ideal position within the political sphere to give his opinions and ideas on contemporary politics. John is an experienced facilitator and chairman of conferences as well as an incisive speaker on the politics, current affairs and the environment. He was also invited to take part in a celebrity boxing show, only for it to be cancelled. This led him to an interesting part of his speaking, the idea of an election reality show. Very amusing and interesting
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