The Nesta Innovation Edge

Speaker Profiles

Profile

Bob is one of the most well-known pop personalities of his era.  In 1986, he received a knighthood and published his autobiography.  By 1992 Bob had established himself as a highly astute businessman, with accolades including co-ownership of the television production house Planet 24, founding online travel agent Deckchair.com and Ten Alps Communications.  Bob completed a TV series for BBC1, “Geldof In Africa”, and produced a book, under the same name, as an accompaniment to the TV series.  He was involved with the Live 8 concerts, which took place in London, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome and Berlin last year.  Bob was recognised by Time Magazine as one of the 2005 European Heroes. He recently accompanied US President George Bush on his tour of Africa.

Profile

Michele Giddens has 10 years of international development and community finance experience ranging from large equity and debt instruments to micro-finance and small business lending.  She was previously at Shorebank Corporation, one of the leading community development banks in the USA.  She was Chair of the Community Development Finance Association (cdfa) 2003-2005.

Profile

Jon was appointed director of new media and technology at Channel 4 last Novemberand has been tasked with expanding Channel 4's presence in online digital media. Jon is the former vice president of media and communications at Yahoo Europe and was previously a senior adviser to the BBC's corporate strategy team.

Profile

Prior to her current post, Julia was Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) — the Government body responsible for an annual research portfolio worth more than £300m.  She joined BBSRC in 2002, after more than 20 years at Birkbeck College, University of London, where she was Vice-Master and Head of the School of Crystallography.  Julia's research interests include the use of computer simulation techniques to study the structure and function of large molecules.  Julia's scientific career began with an undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Bristol.  She then completed a PhD in biophysics at the Open University Oxford Research Unit. 

Profile

Michael was elected as Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath in May 2005. He has served as Shadow Minister for Housing & Planning and is currently Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools & Families. He is passionately committed to raising standards in state schools and helping children from less privileged backgrounds to maximise their potential. A journalist by profession, he has used his position as a writer for The Times and a broadcaster on the BBC to fight for greater personal freedom, a tougher line on crime, a more dynamic economy, a cleaner environment, stronger defence and a better deal for hard-pressed families. His most recent book, Celsius 7/7, was released in 2006 to much critical acclaim.

Profile

Richard joined NESTA in 2006.  He is responsible for developing a programme of policy and research projects to enrich and strengthen innovation policy in the UK.  Before joining NESTA, Richard worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a large foreign policy think tank in Washington DC, where he was Assistant Director of Studies.  He focused on the overall research direction of the centre and its 30-plus research programmes.  Throughout his career, Richard has focused on technology, innovation, education and foreign policy issues.  Richard was co-founder and chief executive of Boxmind, an Oxford-based technology company, which he ran from 2000 to 2003.  Prior to that, he worked for Lloyds TSB plc.  He was also a UK-US Fulbright Scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley.  While at Berkeley, Richard was co-founder of PolicyMatters: the journal of the Goldman School.  He graduated with a double first and a university prize from Merton College, Oxford and went on to complete his Masters in Public Policy at Berkeley, where he was nominated for the Aaron Wildavsky Prize for his advanced policy analysis.  He is also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Profile

Fiona covers all environmental issues, including climate change, waste, renewable energy, water, agriculture, fisheries, pollution and environmental regulation.  She has twice won the Foreign Press Association award for Best Environment Story, in 2005 and 2007, and was named Environment Journalist of the Year at the British Environment and Media Awards in 2007.  She was named one of the 1,000 most influential people in London by the Evening Standard in 2007.  Fiona joined the FT to write about IT and telecoms in February 2000, and specialised in writing features on technology and scientific issues before taking on the environment beat in 2004.  Before that, Fiona wrote about science and technology for various magazines from 1994 to 2000, including a stint editing PC Week, and as launch editor of Internet World in the UK.