Westminster Forum

The westminster forum says that 'Founded in 1976, we are an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit organisation.' It claims that 'We are not lobbyists', yet most of its directors are actually professional lobbyists.

Westminster forum account

Our funding comes entirely from corporate subscriptions and sponsorship. Membership is by subscription currently £1650 per annum. This entitles companies to send one or more of their staff – and where appropriate key clients – to our meetings.

The forums are usually held over breakfast (7.45 am to 9.15 am) or lunch (12.30 until 2.15pm) at a City or central London location and are hosted by one of our corporate members. We also hold occasional small dinners with a guest speaker. Our speakers normally give a 10 or 15 minute introduction on an appropriate topic followed by a question and answer session with our members. We follow Chatham House rules.

Westminster Forum has established a reputation for the quality, prominence and accessibility of our speakers. They are drawn mainly from the world of politics, administration and business.

People

• Adam Bruce | Sir Michael Craig-Cooper | Giles Deards | Leith McGrandle | Noorzaman Rashid |

GILES DEARDS Head of Media Relations, BT Giles has been at BT since March 2001, first as Head of UK Public Affairs and more recently as Head of Media Relations for the Retail business. Formerly he spent four years as Government Relations Manager at Alliance & Leicester and two years in Saitama, Japan, working in various Japanese schools. He has an MA in Asia-Pacific Studies from Essex University.

LEITH MCGRANDLE Chief Executive, Quality Britain Limited Executive Director and Secretary, Westminster Forum Limited Leith co-founded Westminster Forum in 1976. A journalist, he is a former Deputy Editor of the Daily Express, City Editor of the London Evening Standard and Deputy City Editor, Sunday Telegraph. He started his own company in 1994 specialising in a series of international magazine titles promoting UK expertise in Brazil, Poland, China, Japan and the US.

NOORZAMAN RASHID MBA, BA (Hons) Director and Head of the Government Public Services Division, Harvey Nash PLC Harvey Nash PLC is a technology and professional Services firm. Noorzaman has over 10 years Board level experience working across the Commercial, Public and Not for Profit Sectors. Businesses he has worked for include AT Kearney Executive Search and BNB Resources where he was a key member of the PLC Leadership Team dealing with mergers and acquisitions. He has also worked for two large Metropolitan Authorities in corporate and strategic planning roles. He is a former Fellow of Warwick Business School and Advisor to Birmingham University School of Public Policy. He currently chairs the Public Services Management Network and is a Board Member of Westminster Forum. He is a founding member and Trustee of the British Edutrust Foundation an educational charity. An author and public speaker in managing performance and organisational change he has worked in Russia, Japan, South Africa and the USA.

JOHN SACHER Chairman, Westminster Forum John is a former Director of Marks & Spencer. Among his other commitments he is Vice President of the Industry and Parliament Trust, a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and President of the Royal Philatelic Society London. He has an Honorary Doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is President of its UK Friends.

RICHARD SIMMONS, CBE Chairman, BDP Media Group Limited A former partner of Arthur Andersen, Richard has served as adviser to a number of Government ministers. He was co-founder and non-executive director of the Cranfield Information Technology Institute. He is currently a director of Chameleon Nursery Limited; a trustee of the Foundation for Social and Economic Thinking and Acting Chair of Governors at the Moat School. He was formerly Hon Treasurer, Carlton Club Political Committee and a member of the Royal Academy of Arts Development Board. He was awarded the CBE in June 1995 for political and public service.

KARL SNOWDEN Head of Public Policy, HBOS plc Karl is responsible for the group's engagement with the public policy process and its influencers in the UK, EU and globally. Raised in the Kingdom of Fife he is a graduate in Scots Law from the University of Edinburgh and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, he spent a number of years with Price Waterhouse working in Portugal and France before joining Xerox Corporation as a Management Consultant. With Xerox he managed consultancy teams around the globe principally in Australia, Africa and the Far East. From Xerox he joined Hambro Life (later Allied Dunbar) as Chief Computer Auditor and held a number of senior posts in what became Zurich Financial Services before being asked to set up its Government and Industry Affairs (GAIA) department in 1996. As Director of GAIA he was responsible for all UK and EU lobbying on behalf of the ZFS group before moving to HBOS in 2004 to set up the HBOS Public Policy Unit. Karl served on the General Council of ICAS from 1998 – 2004, was Chair of the Life Insurance Association 2002 – 2004 and is a current Board Director of the Personal Finance Society. He is married (to another Fifer) with two grown up boys. Karl is a trivia master, quiz anorak and a lover of blues and soul music.

BRENDA STERN Director, Diversity Works for London Programme, London Development Agency Brenda is on a one year secondment from a top London City law firm. Diversity Works for London is the Mayor of London’s groundbreaking campaign to engage organisations in harnessing the benefits of a diverse workforce and supplier base, providing Londoner’s with an equal opportunity to share the city’s opportunities and prosperity. From October 2004 to September 2005, Brenda was Director for the Private Sector at the Commission for Racial Equality. Brenda worked closely with all sectors and brings with her a unique perspective and extensive experience in race relations. Brenda is a South African qualified lawyer and holds an LLM in International Trade and Business Law from University College London (UCL). She is a Fellow of the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) and the British American Project (BAP). Brenda is a Trustee of the Anne Frank Trust and a Director of the Westminster Forum and British American Project (BAP).

SAM WALKER Head of Public Affairs, Aberdeen Asset Management plc Sam joined Aberdeen Asset Management in 2002. She is Deputy Chairman of the Investment Management Association’s Public Affairs Forum and a Director of Westminster Forum. After graduating from King’s College London, Sam worked at Westminster from 1992 to 1999 on a range of portfolios at Ministerial, Select Committee and constituency level and joined the financial services practice of GJW Government Relations in 1999 specialising in financial services, competition and regulation.

MILES WEBBER Head of Government Relations, GE Money Europe Miles was educated at Clifton College in Bristol and at Manchester and London Universities. He joined the asset management division of Merrill Lynch in 1999, and in January 2001 was appointed Director of Public Affairs for Merrill Lynch in the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region, having spent the previous decade in the public affairs arena. In 2005 Miles joined GE Money as Head of Government Relations. Miles is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an alumni of the Windsor Leadership Trust, and a founding Director of the Foreign Policy Centre think-tank.