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.
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.
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.
Adrian Bailey MP – LFIG Parliamentary Ambassador
Adrian has been the MP for West Bromwich West since 2000 and is the Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee. Before entering parliament, he served in local government and became deputy leader of Sandwell Borough Council. He was also the Co-operative Party’s political organiser in the Midlands.
Sir Peter Heap KCMG – Executive Member
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.
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.
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.
David Offenbach – Chair
David is a lifelong Labour and trade union movement activist – recently as member of the national Labour Party’s Development Committee for 2010 General Election; current Branch Chairman and GC delegate , former Camden Councillor for 10 years, former parliamentary candidate in London and East Midland constituencies, a Unite member and former ASTMS branch secretary.
David is a business and property solicitor – dealing with finance and industry matters daily for public and private companies, charities and individuals. A former non–executive director for many years of stock exchange and private companies and a Senior Partner of his successful 30 person law firm.
Currently a non-executive director of Circle 33 Housing Trust, Brent Housing Partnership and chair of its Development and Remuneration committees, and a Governor/non-Executive Director of the Working Man’s College for women and men ( the oldest adult education college in Europe ) and chair of its Finance Committee .
Stephen Gruneberg – Former Chair
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 has been a member of the Executive of LFIG since 2005 and has served as Chair of the LFIG Regeneration Group and in 2009 to 2010 was the Chair of the LFIG Manifesto Group in the run up to the General Election. He is Reader in Construction Economics at the University of Westminster 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. Born in Scotland he is a graduate of Edinburgh and University College London.
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
