Dennis Stevenson

Dennis Stevenson, political networker

Dennis Stevenson (Lord Stevenson of Coddenham) was born Henry Dennistoun Stevenson. He was born in Edinburgh on 19 July 1945 during the last few weeks of the second world war. He was educated at Glenalmond College and King's College, Cambridge University.

Stevenson is a non-party aligned member of the House of Lords. In May 2000, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed Stevenson as Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which is responsible for vetting all members of the "reformed" House of Lords and choosing the "independent members". He is an important 'fixer' behind the scenes in the interface between business, politics and the Arts. In business he has been a member of the boards of several companies including Economist Newspapers Ltd, HBOS, Pearson (from 1997 to 2005) and Manpower (1998 to 2006).

Stevenson is a 'lifelong' personal friend of Peter Mandelson and has been involved in market-friendly think tanks such as Demos and the Social Market Foundation. His own consultancies, including SRU and Cloaca Maxima Ltd (named after a large Roman sewer), have important business connections.

SRU is a secretive consultancy which Stevenson founded with Peter Wallis in the 1970s which at the time of Demos's launch was advising the BBC governors on the future of broadcasting and Gordon Brown on Labour's industrial policy. SRU was taken over by Brunswick Group in September 2000 (Alan Parker, Brunswick's Managing Director, was also a Director of Demos from 2002-2005 and quite possibly even earlier: Annual Reports for Demos pre-2002 are not included on their website). Stevenson has a shareholding in (and put up the money for) the New Labour-connected PR firm Lexington Communications (He holds 4% of shares in 2008). He also has a shareholding in the PR group Huntsworth run by Tory peer Peter Gummer (Lord Chadlington).

In 1999 the Press Association ranked Stevenson as number 24 in its Top 50 "Powerful People" list. By late 2004, the Times Online ranked him as number 8 in its Power 100 list.

Early career

Look back... Look forward

Dennis Stevenson addressed the Institute of Public Relations winter conference in 1973 in a speech called "Look back... Look forward", which was themed around the idea of how each generation's attitudes and behaviours are shaped by the preceding generation. Stevenson was asked to address the extent to which people in Britain "have inherited a feeling for the local community in which they live - a subject of considerable importance to him, as chairman of a new town corporation".

A profile of Stevenson in the IPR's journal mentions that he was a part owner of Conrad Jameson Associates Limited, a company specialising in "research for new product and market development".

The profile also mentions that Stevenson was chairman of the Independent Working Party set up by the Secretary of State for the Environment to "consult public opinion and to consider the role of voluntary movements and youth in the environment" with a view to the UK contribution at the 1972 UN Conference in Stockholm. This was the conference that created the UN Environment programme UNEP, a key body that now leads for the UN on issues of sustainable development.

Foreign Office links

After graduating with a Master of Arts from Kings College Cambridge, Stevenson worked for the next ten years as Chairman of Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee New Town Development Corporation "attracting Japanese investment to the Northeast." He was appointed to that position by Tory minister Peter Walker at the age of 26 .

"When I was very young, Prime Ministers (Kakuei) Tanaka and (Edward) Heath had a summit and set up an agreement to see more direct investment into the U.K. Heath then did something extraordinary--he sent me here to negotiate. I was then 26. I was sent to negotiate with Imazato-san (Koki Imazato, 1907-1985), who was the chairman of Nippon Seiko (NSK Ltd.). I spent five years negotiating that deal and afterward I was used by the British government for all direct investment," Stevenson told the Daily Yomiuri Online.

These links with the Foreign Office seem to have endured. In the late 1990s he was appointed to the board of the British Council, the cultural propaganda agency of the Foreign Office.

British Council

Stevenson is on the Board of the British Council.

His British Council work involves their 2002 cultural propaganda programme, 'Connecting Futures', based in Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia and Turkey which propagandises that these countries "continue to place the UK high on their list of favourite nations. Only 19% view Britain with less approval than before, while 18% actually look at us more favourably". Stevenson went to Ramallah giving out crayons to local kids. The British Council is described by Nicholas Cull, at that time professor of American studies at the University of Leicester, as having been "founded as an organ of international propaganda"

New Labour connections

Labour links

After Cambridge, he was reportedly, briefly a member of the Labour Party and then treasurer of the Peckham Young Socialists . "Then I was quite antibusiness and I set up my business to give myself the independence to do nonbusiness things because, like many people of my generation, I was what journalists might describe as left of center, though increasingly I don't think it has a meaning," he told Daily Yomiuri Online.

"I am a terrible intellectual snob. I would be very cross if anyone came away from meeting me and thought I was dim," he told the Sunday Times in 1996. He describes himself as a liberal, for others he is "openly arrogant and elitist". He describes Mandelson "as a close friend, but it has nothing to do with politics." The Sunday Times report also adds that he had been approached by both parties and donated to both.

The BBC described Stevenson as "an old friend of Peter Mandelson, whom he recruited to his management consultancy SRU" in 1990 before he was an MP and after his time as Labour Party Communications Director, although almost nothing is known about the period. Sunday Business also adds Stevenson tried to buy an ITV franchise with T&GWU and a local brewer — they failed but the ITA insisted Stevenson joined the board of the winner).

Big business-Labour link man

Stevenson was an under-recognised gateway for big business into Labour. He said that Blair

always wanted to make Labour into an alternative party of business. There were some big businessmen who were always pro-Labour: Lord Clive Hollick and Chris Haskins for instance. Blair wanted to meet the others, so I organised evenings where he could meet friends of mine. People running FTSE companies... Blair has involved businessmen to a huge extent... In fact he has almost delegated power to them, I think there is a legitimate question about the extent to which that is actually right.

In a letter to The Independent in July 2003 Stevenson wrote:

it is true that I was a member of the Labour party ... for a few months 35 years ago! I have never been a member of a political party since and indeed we stopped all party political donations, including a substantial one to the Labour Party, when I took over as chairman of Pearson some years ago.

IT in schools

Stevenson is reported to be a "personal friend" of Tony Blair. He set up the Stevenson Commission to examine the role of IT in schools. This was formally known as the Independent ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in Schools Commission 1996/97. Subsequently he was appointed as the PM's adviser on the application of information technology to education.

SRU and Lexington Communications (a Labour-connected lobbyist firm started with money from Stevenson, who is a shareholder) got together an anti-BBC alliance to attack its free digital plan for schools (launched in 2002), "Digital Curriculum, a new licence-fee funded public service comprising interactive online learning materials in support of the school curriculum".. The anti-BBC alliance included several big names in British commercial broadcasting. The front group, the Digital Learning Alliance brought together the British Educational Suppliers Association (advised by SRU) and the Publishers' Association, along with other financially interested companies which included Stevenson's Pearson Education. The other companies involved included Oxford University Press, Reed Elsevier, Granada Learning and HarperCollins (which is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times)..

Attempts to block the BBC's free service failed and the UK government gave it the go-ahead in January 2003..

The BBC's free service was attacked by the industry who argued that it could lead them to miss out on £400million in revenue.

House of Lords Appointments Commission

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair made Stevenson Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission responsible for vetting all members of the "reformed" House of Lords and choosing the "independent members". This Commission is also referred to as the 'Stevenson Commission' and it has been criticised as a "model by which a democratic parliament can be avoided' as 'the only way anyone will become a Lords legislator, whether on the party or non-party ticket, will be by grace and favour of the Stevenson commission".

English Partnerships

Stevenson joined English Partnerships who bought the Dome site where he worked closely with Peter Mandelson in the lobbying frenzy. Manpower pledged £12m to the Dome (as did BSkyB at one point). Stevenson forged the deal between the Labour party and BT. He was supposedly 'recruited' by Blair in 96 "after an approach by Peter Mandelson... who Stevenson met years ago when both were involved in youth movements." Indeed their connections go right back to the British Youth Council.

More New Labour links

In 1998 the Sunday Times reports that Stevenson "helped to fill the posts" on the government's 75 new Taskforces and suggests that the "Rebranding Britain"/"Britpop" escapade was a distraction from the influx of big business onto the "Taskforces".

New Britain is not about being groovy: we weren't really meant to be getting on down with Tone and Robin. That was just a distraction from the real project, which is bang on track. Business, not Britpop, is the order of the day and the real players are rich FTSE 100 company chairmen.

Jeremy Paxman commented on these task forces as follows:

if you have a wife with an eye on a ladyship, you can't pass up the opportunity to be part of one of these new taskforces... since this government is obviously going to be in power for a long time... the usual suspects are once again vying for power and influence.

A report by Cranfield University revealed the extent to which the Taskforces — part of Blair's "commitment to change" — were peopled by key players in British companies. Christopher Haskins of Northern Foods for instance is also on the Demos advisory board and the "New Deal" and Better Regulation Task Forces, steering British agriculture towards US-style integrated agribusiness, and British food consumption towards highly processed unhealthy preservative-packed food. Stevenson also pushed through the government's controversial arts policy. Blair and Culture Secretary Chris Smith met senior arts figures in what was described by Number 10 as a "listening exercise". During the discussions, which was chaired by Stevenson, Blair was said to have pledged a new commitment to state-funded arts.

Corporate Connections

Chairships

HBOS

In February 2009 Stevenson, in his role as former chair of HBOS, was grilled by the UK Parliament's Treasury Committee over bringing "HBOS to the brink of collapse" through excessive expansion on the basis of the UK property market and paying big bonuses to directors. Stevenson resigned as chair after the government revealed plans to provide a £17bn investment of new capital in HBOS. Lloyds TSB then took over HBOS in a merger.

In March 2005 The Independent reported that Stevenson was paid £538,000 for his chairship of HBOS, an increase on the previous year's £510,000.

Manpower

Manpower is a large American company providing temporary employment services for administrative and professional positions which was given the contract for the New Deal's 'Working Links'). Directors of Manpower include Rozanne L. Ridgway a career diplomat for 32 years, she was President of the Atlantic Council of the United States; currently a director of Boeing, a trustee of the Brookings Institution and George C. Marshall Foundation. Recruitment is a key aspect to Stevenson's work.

Of Manpower, Stevenson says: "That company got involved in one or two great financial scandals in Britain. It was bought by a company called Blue Arrow as a result of a crooked deal with NatWest. I was asked to be a non-executive director". Manpower was formerly known as Blue Arrow and Stevenson is reported to have undertaken an 'honourable role' (along with Norman Tebbit) in 'engineered the ousting of the former chairman and chief executive Tony Berry'. Stevenson also went on to advise the Law Society.

Pearson

As chairman of the media group Pearson plc (Stevenson joined in 86), he technically controlled the Financial Times and the The Economist, into which Stevenson introduced the Atlantic Council of the United States director Marjorie Scardino as chief executive . He says he first met Geoff Mulgan "when I was giving a talk to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. They're very high-powered, I'm very busy, and I wanted some help. Somebody pointed me in Geoff's direction — he was still working for Gordon Brown then, as his researcher — and he was wholly wonderful, incredibly widely read... and he came up with new thoughts, interesting angles".

Consultancy

He also runs Cloaca Maxima Ltd (another secretive consultancy firm named after a large Roman sewer) and is a member of the British Council. Stevenson's colleague at SRU Peter Wallis (AKA Peter York) went onto the Government's FO backed Rebranding Britain Task Force; (organised by Geoff Mulgan and Mark Leonard) Stevenson has had long associations with the FO. Backed by Peter Walker (with whom he has had a long and close association) at the age of 26 he was sent by Edward Heath to negotiate with top Japanese bankers.

'I spent five years negotiating that deal and afterward I was used by the British government for all direct investment.

Stevenson moves easily between the areas of corporate power-broking and social policy think-tanks that provide seemingly informal initiatives exploiting the ambiguous terrain between state and private sector. He attended the 1995 Bilderberg Group meeting in Zurich and he joined the initial Demos advisory panel in 1993.

Corporate Advisor

Previously advisor and/or member of:

• Consigna plc
• British Sky Broadcasting Group plc - John Thornton of Goldman Sachs is reported to have 'persuaded Murdoch to accept Stevenson as an independent director' for BSkyB
• The Takeover Panel
• Aycliffe & Peterlee New Town Development Corp.
• Lazard Bros. & Co Ltd - Stevenson got this directorship because of Pearson's shareholding in the bank. The Halifax is a Lazard client, but Stevenson was chosen because it was also a client of his SRU
• London Docklands Development Corp.
• Tate Gallery of Modern Art - Margaret Thatcher supposedly vetoed his appointment to the Tate for being 'a left-of-centre businessman, undermining and subversive', but Tim Bell interceded on his behalf and Stevenson became Chairman
• British Technology Group
• Thames Television plc,
• Tyne Tees Holdings plc,
• AerFi group,
• J Rothschild Assurance Holdings plc,
• Smithfield Development Ltd,
• St James Place Capital plc
• London Business School - Governor
• London School of Economics - Governor

Cultural links

Stevenson is Chancellor of the University of the Arts and a Trustee of the Tate Gallery Foundation (he was formerly chairman of the Gallery) and Royal Botanic Garden Foundation, Edinburgh.

In March 2007, he was appointed as one of four Independent Directors of Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG). Advocating the devolution of cultural and leisure provision from city council control, he was quoted as saying:

From my experience on the board of the Tate Gallery I know that freeing an arts institution from municipal control can be a transforming experience. Bridget McConnell has already done wonders for Glasgow under municipal control. Now, armed with this new tool, she and the city could help the whole of the Central Belt to realise its potential as one of the richest cultural areas of Europe.

As of April 2008, his published contribution to the Board of CSG has involved asking about the upper limit of cheques, about remote attendance of meetings and about whether declarations of interest need to appear on the Board’s agenda or whether ‘to declare such interests as and when they arose under a specific item of business’.

Career affiliations

• 1971-1980 Peterlee and Aycliffe New Town Corporation
• 1971 Negotiates for the British government (Foreign and Commonwealth Office with Japanese bankers.
• 1972 contributed to the UN Conference in Stockholm
• 1973 founds SRU with Peter Wallis
• 1973 Stevenson addressed the Institute of Public Relations winter conference
• 1986 Joins board of Pearson
• 1998 joins Manpower Board. A position he held until 2006
• 1990 Recruits Peter Mandelson to SRU
• 1993 Meets Geoff Mulgan at the Council on Foreign Relations
• 1993 Demos founded
• 1993-2004 Demos Advisory panel
• 1994 - 2000 board member with British Sky Broadcasting
• 1995 Stevenson attended the Bilderberg Group meeting in Zurich
• 1996 becomes chair of the board at Pearson
• 1996/97 is appointed to the 'Stevenson Commission' formally known as The Independent ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in Schools Commission 1996/97
• 1998 Stevenson advises the Law Society
• Late 1990s Stevenson was appointed to the board of the British Council
• May 1999 appointed Director of Halifax .
• July 1999 became Chairman of Halifax
• December 1999 - Stevenson left his role with the Board of English Partnerships
• 2000 SRU sold to Brunswick
• September 2001 became Chairman of HBOS plc
• 2000 appointed as Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission
• 2002 -(at least until) 2006 appointed to the International Advisory Board of Scottish Development International. Stevenson is also listed as a Director for Cloaca Maxima Ltd
• 2006 Director, Economist Newspapers Ltd Chairman, HBOS plc, Director, Manpower
• 2007, he was appointed as one of four Independent Directors of Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG)
• 2008 Stevenson continues as Chairman of HBOS plc and as Director of Economist Newspapers Ltd. He is also now Director of The Western Union Company and for Loudwater Investment Partners Ltd
• 2008 Stevenson is also Chancellor of the University of the Arts and a Trustee of the Tate Gallery Foundation (he was formely chairman of the Gallery) and Royal Botanic Garden Foundation, Edinburgh
• 2008 - Stevenson is a speaker at the German British Forum conference
• 2008 - Stevenson is one of 2 outside members of the Takeover Panel appointed by the Governor of the Bank of England to represent industry.

Directorships

As of July 2009:

• 2006-Present: Former Chairman, Member of Nomination Committee and Governor of Bank of Scotland, HBOS plc
• 2006-Present: Director, Member of Compensation & Benefits Committee and Member of Corporate Governance Committee, Western Union Co.
• 1999-Present: Chairman and Member of Nomination Committee, Halifax plc
• 1997-Present: Former Chairman, Pearson plc
• Former Director, Manpower Inc.
• Director, British Sky Broadcasting Group plc
• Chairman of HBOS plc and Director of HBOS plc, Bank Of Scotland plc
• Non-Executive Director, Loudwater Investment Partners Limited

Shareholdings

In 2008, Stevenson is listed as having 'significant' shareholding in the following companies:

• Bamboo Investments Ltd Matrix-E-ventures VCT plc
• Baronsmead VCT
• Business Boffins Ltd
• Close AIM VCT
• Eclipse AIM VCT 2
• Electra Kingsway VCT 2
• First Close Investment Fund VCT
• Hairnet UK Ltd
• Hatpin plc
• HBOS plc
• JBOL Ltd
• Lexington Communications Ltd
• Manpower Inc
• Matrix Income & Growth VCT
• Matrix Unicorn AIM VCT
• Northern Venture Trust VCT
• Proven growth and Income VCT
• Puma VCT 2

Resources

• British Council Britain still admired by Arab and Muslim people after 9/11 Shows British Council Survey, Press Release, 11 June 2002
• Lord Stevenson's visit May 2002, British council website

Notes

1. Nick Cohen 'This could be you: The new Lords won't be elected but will be selected by a panel, so why not apply now?' The Observer Sunday September 17, 2000
2. Jennifer Hill, 'Lord Stevenson to quit Pearson role but retain chairmanship of HBOS'The Scotsman Mon 28 Feb 2005 [3]
3. "Graduation day at Cranfield campus 2003 - Lord Stevenson of Coddenham CBE", Cranfield University Alumni, 2003.
4. "Chairman Pearson: Dennis Stevenson", Pearson, accessed February 2006.
5. "Stevenson Dennis", HBOS, accessed February 2006.
6. "Chairman: Lord Stevenson of Coddenham CBE", House of Lords Appointments Commission, January 18, 2006.
7. "Business in the community", BBC, 12 June, 1999.
8. "Top 50 Powerful People", Press Association, October 23, 1999.
9. Michael White, "Blair names Lords panel to vet 'cronies': Lords reform: special report", Guardian (UK), May 5, 2000.
10. British Council, East Jerusalem Britain still admired by Arab and Muslim people after 9/11 Shows British Council Survey, Press Release (11 June 2002)
11. British Council, East Jerusalem, Lord Stevenson's visit (May 2002)
12. "Mandy's friend is in frame for BBC Chairman's job", The Evening Standard (London), February 26, 2004, Section C, page 10. (Sub req'd)
13. Chris Blackhurst, "Stevenson the fixer in the M&S battle", TheIsMoney.co.uk, 9 June 2004. (This was originally published in the Evening Standard).
14. "The Power 100: 8: Lord Stevenson of Coddenham", Times Online, November 02, 2004.
15. Ikuo Anai, "Dennis Stevenson Chairman of Pearson PLC/The secrets of Stevenson's success", Daily Yomiuri Online, undated, accessed February 2006.
16. Mark Kleinman, "Lord Stevenson makes a surprise exit from Pearson",The Sunday Times, February 27, 2005.
17. Jennifer Hill, "Lord Stevenson to quit Pearson role but retain chairmanship of HBOS", The Scotsman February 28, 2005.
18. Jane Martinson, "Pearson braced for grilling over top executives' pay", Guardian, April 25, 2005, page 24.