About LFIG, Executive / Biographies

The Rt Hon Lord Kinnock - President

Neil Kinnock was born in Tredegar in 1942. His father was a steel worker and former collier, his mother a nurse. He graduated from University College Cardiff and became a tutor organiser for the Worker’s Education Association in South Wales. He was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Bedwellty (later Islywn) in 1970. He was elected to the Labour Party National Executive in1978 and appointed Chief Education Spokesman of the Labour Party in 1979. In 1983 he was elected Labour Party Leader and leader of HM Opposition. He stepped down from the Party leadership in 1992 and in 1995 was appointed to the European Commission. He was European Commissioner for Transport from 1995-1999 and, from 1999-2004, Vice-President of the Commission. He was made a member of the House of Lords in 2005 as Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty. He has been President of Cardiff University since 1998 and Chair of the British Council since December 2004.

The Lord Gregson of Stockport in Greater Manchester - Hon. Life President

Appointed to the Board of Fairey Engineering Ltd in 1966, Chairman 1978-1994. Non-Exec. Director of British Steel Plc 1976-1994. Non-Exec. Director of OSC Process Engineering Ltd, 1995. Non-Exec. Director Innvotec Ltd, 1999. Non-Exec. Director of National Rivers Authority. Chairman Audit Committee 1992-1995. Member of House of Lords' Select Committee on Science & Technology - 1999. In 1980-81 Chaired the Select Committee Report into Hazardous Waste Disposal. Member of House of Lords' European Community Committee's Sub-Committee on Energy, Industry and Transport 1994-1997. Member of the House of Lords' Select Committee on Sustainable Development 1994-1996. Current Chairman of Compensation Scheme for Radiation Linked Diseases. Chairman of Onyx Environmental Trust 1997-. President of Defence Manufacturer's Assoc. 1984-. President of Environmental Industries Commission 1994- 1996. Chairman of Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board 1985-1999. Chairman of Advisory Council at RMCS Shrivenham 1985 - 1999. Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester.

Sir Sigmund Sternberg O.St.J.KCSG JP - Hon. Life President

Sir Sigmund Sternberg is a businessman and life long supporter of the Labour Party who has dedicated a great part of his life to serving the Jewish community and the cause of dialogue and interfaith relations across the globe. A member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and President of the Reform Jewish community, he has served with distinction as sole Patron of the International Council of Christians and Jews, co-founder of the Three Faiths Forum and vice-president of the World Congress of Faiths. His work for understanding and reconciliation between faith communities has taken him to every continent and has brought him recognition from nineteen countries as well as the Vatican. He is also an active participant in the work of Rotary International, whose cause he has furthered with fervour and dedication.

The Lord Haskel of Higher Broughton - Hon. Life President

Lord Haskel was a Founder Member of LFIG and served as its Secretary and Chairman nearly two decades. He is now Vice-President of the Group. He was made a Life Peer in October 1993 and his main activity currently is his work at the House of Lords. Previous he built up his own national and international textile business, The Perrotts Group Plc. In 1994 he became an Opposition Whip, in November 1994 he was appointed Front Bench spokesman on Trade & Industry and appointed a member of the Select Committee on Science & Technology. In May 1997 he became a member of the new Labour Government as a Government Spokesman on Trade & Industry, a Government whip and a Lord in Waiting. He stood aside in July 1999 and is now the Liaison Peer with the Department of Trade & Industry and serves on several committees and subcommittees., such as the sub-committees looking at Science & Society and at Complementary & Alternative Medicine. Also involved in Parliamentary Groups dealing with Arts & Heritage, Pensions & Financial Services, Manufacturing and IT. Chair of Trustees, Smith Institute, Deputy Chair, Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP - Hon. Life President

The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett was MP for Lincoln 1974-79 and a Junior Minister in Harold Wilson’s and James Callaghan’s governments. She has been MP for Derby since 1983, holding various shadow ministerial positions. She became Deputy Leader of the Party 1992-94 and briefly Leader following the death of John Smith in 1994. She served in all Tony Blair’s cabinets successfully as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Leader of the House of Commons, Secretary of State for Employment, Food and Rural Affairs and Foreign Secretary. In October 2008, Gordon Brown appointed her Minister of Housing.

Geraint Davies MP - Vice President

The LFIG Vice President lives and works in Swansea. Born in 1960, was educated in Wales and at Oxford University, was Marketing Manager at Colgate Palmolive and is Director of travel company Pure Crete.

1986-97 Councillor New Addington, Croydon
1994-96 Chair of Housing for London Boroughs
1996-97 Leader of Council
1997 Elected MP
1997-2003 Chair of PLP Environment Transport and the Regions Committee and Chair of LFIG. Member of Public Accounts Committee
2003-2005 PPS to Lord Chancellor & Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Vice President LFIG.

David Pitt-Watson - Vice President

David Pitt-Watson is Chair of Hermes Equity Ownership Services. Previously, David was Chief Executive, Hermes Focus Asset Management and Corporate Focus Director, Hermes Investment Management Ltd (“HIML”). He headed a team of over 50 responsible for shareholder engagement, corporate governance and voting in all the 3,000 companies in which Hermes’ clients invest world-wide. David has worked with the Focus Funds since 1999, and has led many of its programmes to turn around large public companies. Prior to joining Hermes, David had a distinguished business career which also encompassed politics and academia. Following an early career at 3i and McKinsey & Co, David was co-founder and ultimately Managing Director of Braxton Associates Limited, which became the strategic consulting arm of Deloitte & Touche. In that role he had 17 years of experience of boardroom decision-taking and corporate transformation. He has worked with LFIG for 20 years as an advisor on issues of management and business policies for Labour’s front bench and from 1997-1999 was the Assistant General Secretary of the UK 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.

Dr Peter Slowe - Vice President

Dr Peter Slowe is Chair and Chief Executive of the country’s leading global volunteering organisation, Projects Abroad, which he founded in 1992. Previously, as an academic, Peter wrote numerous papers and published the landmark Geography and Political Power. As a popular author, he has written about the First and Second World Wars and an acclaimed biography of Labour’s Manny Shinwell. He was Secretary of the Labour Finance and Industry Group from 1990 to 1994 and Chair from 1994 to 1998.

Sir Peter Heap KCMG - Chairman

Sir Peter Heap is a former British diplomat whose last appointment was as Ambassador to Brazil. Since then he has held a nunber of positions in the private sector, advising major companies, and most recently was non-executive chairman of a small oil company. His other activities include chairing the Brazil Chamber of Commerce in the UK and chairing a charitable trust.

Stephen Gruneberg - Vice-Chairman

Dr Stephen Gruneberg joined the LFIG in the early 1990s and has been an active member ever since. He participated in the LFIG Construction Industry Group and contributed a number of policy papers. He is currently Chair of the LFIG Regeneration Group and has been a member of the Executive of LFIG since 2005. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of Reading and lives in central London. Stephen is an industrial economist specialising in the construction and property sectors and has written and co-written numerous books, reports and papers. Stephen was born in Scotland and is a graduate of Edinburgh and University College London.

Danny Bernstein - Vice-Chairman

Danny Bernstein is a long serving member of the Labour Party having been a local councillor and a Parliamentary candidate. He is a well known figure in the aviation industry and is currently Chairman of The British Air Transport Association and Non executive Chairman of Monarch Airlines where he was the Managing Director from1991 to 2002.Danny is also a Non executive director of NATS, the Watermark Group plc and the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust.

Paul Hendrick - Treasurer

Paul was a founding member of LFIG and before that a member of the Labour Economic Finance and Taxation Association (LEFTA). He has been Treasurer since LFIG’s inception. He is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years experience in financial management, treasury and corporate finance working with various major public companies such as Akzo Nobel NV, Courtaulds plc and the British National Oil Corporation. He is currently with Acordis, a major private equity backed buyout of the chemical and fibres businesses of Akzo Nobel. In keeping with his strong interest in regeneration issues Paul has also had extensive board level experience in the public sector including with Greater London Enterprise Ltd, the regional economic development company owned by a consortium of all the London local authorities, where for many years he has been a non-executive Director.

Jane Mackenzie - Honorary Secretary

Selected to be on the National Parliamentary Panel as an Amicus endorsed candidate, she will be seeking a constituency to represent in the next general election. She plays an active role within her local Constituency Labour Party of Shrewsbury and Atcham. Having worked within the NHS for over 20 years as a Speech and Language Therapist she now designs and delivers staff training seminars teaching Communication skills. She is currently researching a book about her grandfather who played an important role in evacuating children from Nazi occupied Europe.

John Adams - Executive Member

John Adams, formerly a Bank of England economist and ex-London Stock Exchange Regulatory Adviser, now occupies an editorial position at a Financial Times publication (Investors Chronicle). John was a Labour Parliamentary Candidate at the last three general elections (Worthing West in 1997, Ashford in 2001 and Brentwood & Ongar in 2005) and has also served as a Fabian Society executive committee member. Within LFIG, which he joined in 1994, John is presently an executive committee member and, as an active study group chair, has supported Labour ministers’ policy work in banking regulation and, more recently, pensions – he chairs the Pensions Study Group. John also co-authored an LFIG pamphlet in 1996 with Doug Henderson MP exploring ways to tackle mass unemployment. Contact: jadams@lfig.org

Stephen Beer - Executive Member

Biography coming shortly

Jaffer Manek - Executive Member

Jaffer Manek (FCCA FCEA) was born in Uganda, third generation Indian origin, to a family in bus transport business. After schooling in Uganda, at 18 he started work life at a London audit practice. He went to college in Sweden for a couple of years where his parents had resettled. After returning to UK, he completed qualified as an auditor. He naturalised as a British citizen. He joined a large practice auditing at Lloyds of London, was seconded to a large audit practice in Bermuda and then started his own audit practice in London. He also ran refresher courses for accountants, created own accountancy software and lectured in audit techniques. He now operates an international network of accountancy practices by using the Internet technology. Speaking six languages and familiarity of numerous cultures enable him to function well in international business arena. At LFIG he is Chair of Company Law Reform Study Group. Recent success includes the increase in audit exemption threshold.

Edward McCauley - Executive Member

Edward (Ed) is the original founder of the LFIG Regeneration Group and Managing Director of Diligentia Ltd, which evaluates building performance in relation to the three facets of sustainability, environment, social and economic. Edward is an economics graduate of the University of Stirling, and has a background in management consultancy advising public and private sector organisations on Private Finance Initiative schemes. Prior to joining Diligentia he worked for the Structured Finance division of Quintain Estates & Development plc developing strategic property partnerships for public sector initiatives such as the NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust, DFES Building Schools for the Future, and English Partnerships London Wide Initiative.

Deva Ponnoosami - Executive Member

Biography coming shortly

David Smuts

David has been a member of LFIG since 1993 and has been the Executive Secretary of the group since 2005. He has been a member of the Labour Party since 1991 and has also been a Labour candidate in the London local elections. David's entrepreneurial ambitions began at a young age of 21 when he set up Get Down Music Publishing. David is the Treasurer for the Chipping Barnet Labour Party and is actively engaged in linking up Labour with business on a local and national level. He also serves as the Chair of LFIG’s Health Study Group having first hand experience within the NHS as a psychotherapist in the Oxford region and more recently as a Business Manager with the world’s leading healthcare company. His many business interests include directorships of Consociato Ltd, a property investment company, Hire Everything, an internet company, and Plaster Alabaster Ltd, a UK manufacturing company.

John Stanworth - Executive Member

Professor John Stanworth has been an LFIG member for over 20 years. John was born in Birmingham and went to Handsworth Technical School, along with his life-long friend and now member of the House of Lords, Lord Jeff Rooker, Northern Ireland Minister. John worked in manufacturing industry as a Metallurgist before attending Aston University and eventually developing an interest in Small and Medium-Sized businesses. He is currently Professor of Enterprise Studies at the Westminster Business School, University of Westminster (formerly Regent Street Polytechnic), As one-time Director-General of the Small Business Research Trust, John is a national authority on small firms and also enjoys an international reputation as an authority on franchising. He is currently Director of the International Franchise Research Centre. John is a prolific author and broadcaster. He has made over 50 broadcasts on programmes such as `The Money Programme', `Today', `Financial World Tonight', `You and Yours', `World This Weekend', etc. He has briefed Labour politicians on small firms issues including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown plus Small Firms Shadow Minister and Ministers. John served as LFIG Hon. Sec from 2002-2005 when he was succeeded by David Smuts. He now serves as an LFIG Executive Committee member with special responsibilities for co-ordinating LFIG's Annual Labour Party Conference special fringe event.

Ian Wallace - Executive Member

Ian Wallace has been a member of LFIG for 18 years, serving on many study groups covering diverse yet linked subjects. This suits his generalist view to problem solving. He has been developing a waterborne transport technology/system for the past several years. The Smart Barge Technology takes inner city waterborne bulk cargo & waste recyclates transportation into the 21st century.

Nicholas Waloff - Executive Member

Nicholas Waloff is Vice Chair of the LFIG Regeneration Group and has been an LFIG member since 1997. A graduate of Cambridge and Newcastle Upon Tyne Universities, he currently runs his own company. Waloff Associates Ltd provides regeneration funding and feasibility advisory services, public affairs and financial communications services. Previous job positions included the Private Finance Section of The Housing Corporation, working for the Local Government Management Board, and in public affairs in Canada. He is also a member of the Investment Property Forum, the Royal Society of Arts and the Institute of Field Archaeologists.