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Alain de Botton Philosopher and
Best-Selling Author
UK
Matthieu Ricard
Shechen Monastery, Nepal
Dr. Stefan Klein
Physicist, Author and Essayist
 Professor David Matsumoto
PhD, Professor of Psychology
San Francisco State University;
Director and CEO, The Ekman Group - Research Division
Ven. Robina Courtin Founder & Director
Liberation Prison Project, USA & Australia
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Pre-conference Workshop
8th Oct, 9.00am - 5.00pm
Conference Day 1
9th Oct, 9.00am - 5:30pm
Conference Day 2
10th Oct, 9.00am - 5:30pm
Post-conference Workshop
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Speakers for the 2nd Annual Happiness and Its Causes
Meet our speakers
Anita Anand
Presenter, Drive
BBC Radio 5 Live
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Anita currently presents the flagship current affairs programme ‘Drive’ on BBC Radio 5 Live. Previously she presented ‘The Anita Anand show’on the same network. Her television experience includes hosting a round up of the weeks events in Westminster for Andrew Neil’s ‘This Week’- BBC 1. Before joining the BBC, Anita was the European Head of News and Current Affairs for Zee TV - an international TV station. She was one of the youngest TV news editors in the country, taking over the reigns at the age of just 25. Anita used to be the presenter of the BBC’s Sunday morning religious programme Heaven and Earth – BBC1.
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Dr Richard Barker
Director General
Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
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Richard is Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, a board member of EFPIA (the European industry association) and council member of IFPMA (the International equivalent). He is a member of the NHS Stakeholder Forum, the UKCRC and the OSCHR E-Health Research Board. In the biotechnology sector, he is a board member of Adlyfe, developing detection technology for diseases involving protein misfolding, and of iCoTherapeutics, an early stage company developing ocular therapies. His past operating roles include Chief Executive of Chiron Diagnostics, General Manager of IBM’s Worldwide Healthcare Solutions business. He also led McKinsey’s European pharmaceuticals and healthcare practice.
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Tony Bates
Founder & CEO
Headstrong, Ireland
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Tony has 30 years experience of working in mental health. Prior to founding Headstrong in March 2006, Tony worked as Principal Clinical Psychologist at St James’s Hospital, Dublin. Tony had previously worked and trained in the US alongside some of the leading international innovators in mental health and also established Trinity College Dublin’s Masters in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Tony is a regular contributor to Irish national print and broadcast debate about mental health, including a fortnightly column in the Irish Times. Tony was editor and full time writer of A Vision For Change, the new ten year Government policy on mental health service reform.
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Dr Nazand Begikhani
Iraqi Kurdish Poet, Author: Bells of Speech
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Nazand Begikhani was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1964. She has been living in exile (Denmark, France and currently the UK) since 1987. She took her first degree in English language and literature, then completed an MA and PhD in comparative literature at the Sorbonne. Nazand explores the experience of being an exiled Kurdish woman in visionary poems of political and spiritual depth. She has focussed on the healing, cathartic aspects of creativity. Her poetry collections have been published in France and Kurdistan. Bells of Speech (2006) is her first collection in English. She is a researcher and advocate for women’s human rights, and a founding member of the organisation Kurdish Women’s Action Against Honour Killing (KWAHK), which later developed to Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch (KWRW). Her research on Kurdish gender issues has been widely published in Kurdish, French and English. She has read her poems at various venues including, in May 2007, at Britain’s Houses of Parliament.
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Class Teacher
St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School, Neasden, London
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As a member of her school’s change and wellbeing committee, Margaret has made a valued contribution to efforts to improve staff and pupil welfare. Working with Stephanie Terry in year 6, Margaret has recently begun training on the graduate teacher programme after years of service as a Higher Level Teaching Assistant at the school.
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Dr William Bloom
Holistic Educator and Activist, Director
Foundation for Holistic Spirituality, Author: The Endorphin Effect
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William Bloom is one of the UK’s most experienced teachers, healers and authors in the field of holistic development. He has a particular focus on the relationship between spirituality, personal development and healthy communities. He co-founded the Alternatives Programme of St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, is a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation and founder of the Foundation for Holistic Spirituality. He is also a meditation master and his books include the seminal The Endorphin Effect, Feeling Safe and most recently Soulution: The Holistic Manifesto.
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Philosopher and Best-selling Author: The Consolations of Philosophy and The Architecture of Happiness
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Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969 and now lives in London. He is a writer of essayistic books, which refer both to his own experiences and ideas and those of artists, philosophers and thinkers. It's a style of writing that has been termed a 'philosophy of everyday life.' Best-selling books include The Consolations of Philosophy, How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Architecture of Happiness, Status Anxiety and The Art of Travel. Aside from writing, de Botton has been involved in making a number of television documentaries including Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness for the BBC, and now helps to run a production company, Seneca Productions.
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Rosie Boycott
Writer and Broadcaster
Author: Our Farm
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Rosie Boycott is one of the UK’s leading journalists and broadcasters, and has frequently been in the vanguard of significant social and political movements. She was one of the founders of Spare Rib magazine and Virago Press, and editor of Esquire magazine, as well as of the Independent on Sunday, the Independent and the Daily Express. Rosie appears regularly on radio and TV, and has chaired the committees for both the Orange Prize and the Samuel Johnson Prize. Rosie's book Our Farm: A Year in the Life of a Smallholding, follows the ups and downs of her attempt to set-up a smallholding that is self-sufficient within eighteen months.
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Associate Editor
The Guardian
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Madeleine Bunting is a Guardian columnist and associate editor. She joined the Guardian in 1989 and has worked in a number of positions on the paper, including news reporter, leader writer and religious affairs editor. She writes on a wide range of subjects including politics, work, Islam, science and ethics, development, women’s issues and social change. Madeleine was awarded the Race in the Media award in 2005 by the Commission for Racial Equality for her work on the British Muslim community. She is also a columnist on the Tablet, the Catholic weekly, and writes occasionally for the New Statesman, and is a regular contributor on radio and television. She has written two books Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives and The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule.
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Anna Colao
University Student
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Having left formal education at 15, unhappy and discontent, Anna found alternative learning styles in Asia offered by Tibetan Buddhism. These methods offered new way for her to understand the mind and learning/behaviour patterns. On returning to the UK she organised a 5 month programme of workshops for young people called ‘Mind Trip’ in Oxford. During this period Anna’s academic interest in education and happiness grew. She is currently finishing her degree thesis on ‘How education policy can incorporate happiness and well being into the curriculum’. Other projects she has been involved in include: youth competitions for H.H the Dali Lama’s 2008 UK visit, large scale interfaith, fund raising and consultation work for non- profit groups. She is a dedicated long term volunteer for Essential Education.
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Yvonne Cuneo
Communications Team
Findhorn Foundation
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Yvonne Cuneo is a member of the Findhorn Foundation Management Team and an experienced group facilitator. She also teaches Discovery Games, Circle Dancing and facilitates The Game of Transformation. Yvonne has lived at Findhorn since 2000 and it continues to inspire her to laugh, soften and open her heart. She brings exuberance and authenticity to all her workshops.
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Ven. Robina Courtin
Founder
Liberation Prison Project, USA & Australia
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Ven Robina Courtin is the Founder and Director of Liberation Prison Project, based in the United States and Australia, which takes care of the spiritual needs of thousands of prisoners in over 900 institutions, many on death row. Ven Robina has been a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for almost 30 years. She is an extraordinary woman with boundless energy and charisma and her style when teaching the Dharma is sparklingly clear, direct and compassionate. Ven Robina’s life and work is the subject of an award-winning documentary, Chasing Buddha.
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Paul Farmer
Chief Executive
Mind (National Association for Mental Health)
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Paul Farmer is Chief Executive of Mind, the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales. He took up the post in May 2006. Mind is an influential voice on mental health issues and offers advice and information to both service users and professionals via its influential legal team, helpline and website. Paul is a member of a number of groups, including the DH National Stakeholder Forum, DH National Choice Group and the DTI Foresight initiative. Before becoming Chief Executive of Mind, Paul was Director of Public Affairs for Rethink and was Chair of the Mental Health Alliance from 2001-2006. Paul is co-author of acclaimed publications on reducing stigma and discrimination, and was Communications Manager for the Samaritans from 1994-1997. He is also a trustee for the Directory of Social Change, a campaigning voluntary organisation that provides the sector with training and publications.
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Dr Lynne Friedli
Mental Health Promotion Specialist
World Health Organisation
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Dr Lynne Friedli works across Europe to support the development of public mental health, as well as delivering training and policy advice within the UK. She is chair of NHS Health Scotland’s Public Mental Health Indicators Advisory Group and a consultant for public mental health to the Mental Health Foundation and the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health (SDC). She wrote Making it possible: improving mental health and well-being in England on behalf of the National Institute for Mental Health in England and contributed to the Bamford Review of mental health promotion in Northern Ireland. Other recent projects include a Scotland wide training programme on evaluating mental health improvement with the SDC, an economic analysis of mental health promotion (with Michael Parsonage) commissioned by the Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health and a review of ‘positive steps’ for mental health for NHS Health Scotland. She has just completed a report for WHO Europe and the Mental Health Foundation on Mental health, resilience and inequality.
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Dr Paul Gilbert
Professor of Clinical Psychology, Mental Health Research Unit
Derby University, UK
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Paul Gilbert PhD is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby, with an affiliate Professorship at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He is a fellow of the British Psychological Society. Paul developed a pioneering therapeutic technique called Compassionate Mind Training (CMT), in the mid 1990s, not as a replacement for other psychological interventions but as a way of enhancing those treatments. CMT teaches participants to develop strategies to treat themselves in a compassionate way. In 2006 he set up the Compassionate Mind Foundation to help to promote more research into the scientific study of compassion. He believes that self-compassion is also key to genuine compassion for others. He hopes the Compassionate Mind Foundation will foster communication between people researching compassion and how to facilitate compassion in the world. Publications include Compassion: Conceptualisations, Research and Use in Psychotherapy.
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Reena Govindji
Clinical Psychologist
Centre for Applied Positive Psychology
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Reena is a psychologist at the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP), a social business dedicated to the application of strengths as part of its mission of Strengthening the World. She has worked across several projects on the topics of identifying strengths in organisations, positive organisational culture, drivers of employee engagement, inspirational leadership in further education, and is currently evaluating the impact of strengths in schools funded by the North Lincolnshire’s Local Education Authority. She also serves as a founding trustee for CAPP's charity, The Strengths Project, and has been involved with several strengths assessments with people from the slums of Kolkata, India. Reena's interests are in the development and applications of positive psychology across the areas of work, education, health and forensic settings. She graduated from the University of Leicester with a first class BSc (Hons) Psychology. She was awarded the Peace-Cotton prize for the highest mark in clinical psychology, and a first class mark for her dissertation on strengths use and well-being, which was recently published. In 2007, she began her doctoral research in wisdom and leadership at Aston Business School, in Birmingham. Reena has also authored and contributed to several academic and HR press articles, on the topic of positive psychology and strengths. Reena is striving to realise her strengths in wisdom and fun!
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David Haswell
NCH Head of Schools
NCH, the children's charity
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David Haswell is Head of Schools at NCH the children's charity. He has more than twenty years experience as a teacher and Head teacher in residential special schools. He has considerable experience of training staff to support children’s behaviour and is a regular contributor to conferences with a particular interest in promoting emotional well being and raising attainment. NCH has Day and Residential special schools for children that have challenging behaviour or profound and multiple difficulties, as well as a range of projects that support learners and families including fostering and adoption, extended schools and intensive family support. David is a leading voice in “Growing Strong” which is a major NCH campaign to improve the emotional wellbeing of children and young people in the UK.
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Jack Heath
Founder and Executive Director
Inspire Foundation
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Jack is a former diplomat, speechwriter and Senior Advisor to Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating. In 1996 Jack established the Inspire Foundation with a view to using the Internet to do something about Australia’s then escalating rates of youth suicide. In 2007 he established the Inspire USA Foundation in San Francisco to extend Inspire’s Reach Out! program to the young people of America. Inspire is currently exploring opportunities for extending Reach Out! to Ireland and the United Kingdom. Jack is proud of his ability to assemble great teams of people who do amazing things. His vision for Inspire is to have a global impact on young people’s mental health and wellbeing by 2020 and his dream is for all young people to be truly happy. Jack was a Torchbearer for the Sydney Olympics and a national organiser of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 2002 Australian tour. Jack was awarded a Centenary Medal for “service to the community” and received the 2004 Equity Trustees Non-Profit CEO Award for Innovation. In 2007 he was Ernst & Young’s Australian Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
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Tom Hodgkinson
Editor
The Idler
Author: How to be Idle and How to be Free
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Tom Hodgkinson was born in 1968. He has been editing the Idler magazine
since 1993, and is the author of How To Be Idle and How To Be Free, both
published by Penguin. He is also co-editor of The Book of Idle Pleasures,
published by Ebury. He contributes journalism to the Daily Telegraph, the
Guardian and the Sunday Times. He lives in a shabby farmhouse in North
Devon with his partner and three children, and keeps chickens, a small
kitchen garden and got into trouble for killing pigs at home.
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Phillip Hodson
Fellow, Media Consultant and Chief Spokesperson
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
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Phillip is a psychotherapist and broadcaster, an Accredited Senior Registered Practitioner, Fellow, Media Consultant and Chief Spokesperson for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. He was past Chairman/Founding Trustee of the Sexual Dysfunction Association and past Member of the British Association of Sexual & Relationship Therapists and of the London Marriage Guidance Council. He has written 13 books about love, sex and relationships, produced award-winning management training films and lectured in psychology at the Universities of Westminster and Cranfield. He suggests happiness isn’t ecstasy.
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Mr Kevin Hogston
Deputy Headteacher
Latchmere School, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey
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Kevin is an Advanced Skills Teacher for Emotional Well-Being & Creativity. Influenced by the work of David Fontana, Daniel Goleman and the Self-Science curriculum based in California. Developed meditation and emotional well-being programmes for children, this involved setting up a meditation room called ‘The Blue Room’ where pupils learn to meditate and develop their EQ skills. This work recently featured on a Teachers TV programme. Lectures at Kingston University and Roehampton Institute on Emotional Well-Being for children.
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Professor Sheila Hollins
President
Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Professor Sheila Hollins commenced her term of office as President of the College in June 2005. Sheila Hollins is Professor of Psychiatry of Learning Disability in the Academic Division of Mental Health at St. George’s, University of London. She is also Consultant Psychiatrist in Learning Disability in South West London & St. George’s Mental Health Trust. After three years in General Practice she trained in psychiatry, retaining a strong interest in people’s physical health. This is reflected in her research interests which include health inequalities, end of life care and clinical outcomes following bereavement and abuse in psychiatry of learning disabilities. During her career she has had a broad influence across many fields of psychiatry, especially in learning disability, child psychiatry, psychotherapy and trauma. She has worked at Department of Health London as a senior policy advisor.
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Rasmus Hougaard
Centre for Wisdom and Compassion, Denmark
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Rasmus Hougaard is a trainer and facilitator of Work Life Happiness. He is training organisations and individuals in being more happy, kind and wise. He has been a researcher in the field of adult and organisational learning at Learning Lab Denmark and The Danish University of Education. He is amongst others working as project manager for the Sony Corporation. For many years he has been a teacher of mindfulness meditation.
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Professor Felicia A Huppert
Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry
University of Cambridge
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Felicia Huppert is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and Co-Director of the University’s Well-being Institute. Felicia was born in Uzbekistan, grew up in Australia, and received her education in Sydney, California and Cambridge. Her research aims to understand the factors associated with well-being across the life-course and involves both experimental and population-based studies. Practical applications of her work include the development of a well-being programme for school children, hospital patients and staff, and the development of national indicators of well-being for the European Social Survey. Based on a Royal Society meeting which she organized in 2003, Huppert has co-edited an influential multi-disciplinary volume entitled “The Science of Well-being” (OUP, 2005).
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Professor Irving Kirsch
Department of Psychology
University of Hull, UK
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Professor Irving Kirsch holds a chair in psychology the University of Hull. He has published 8 books and more than 200 scientific journal articles and book chapters on placebo effects, antidepressant medication, hypnosis, and suggestion. His recent meta-analyses on the efficacy of antidepressant medication has been covered extensively in the media, and his previous analyses influenced the current NICE guidelines on the treatment of depression.
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Stefan Klein
Physicist, Author and Essayist
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Stefan Klein a physicist, author, and essayist. Born in Munich, he studied physics and philosophy at the universities of Munich and Grenoble and completed his PhD in biophysics in Freiburg. He has written for all of the large German-language newspapers and magazines and was science editor of Der Speigel from 1996-1999, and on-staff writer with GEO from 1999-2000. He is now a freelance writer in Berlin and is considered one of the most influential science writers in German-speaking Europe. In 1998 he won the prestigious Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for Scientific Journalism. Best-selling books include The Science of Happiness and The Diaries of Creation. His latest work is The Secret Pulse of Time.
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Neal Lawson
Executive Director
Compass
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Neal Lawson writes regularly for the Guardian and the New Statesman about equality, democracy and the future of the left. He sometimes appears on TV and radio as a political commentator. He is chair of the fast-growing pressure group Compass, whose goal is a more equal and democratic world. He is author of the pamphlet Dare More Democracy, which was based on interviews with swing voters in London and Birmingham. He is also the managing editor of the quarterly progressive policy journal Renewal. He was formerly an adviser to Gordon Brown and before that a trade union researcher. He co-edited The Progress Century (Palgrave, 2001). He is currently writing a book called All Consuming (www.allconsuming.org.uk) for publication by Penguin in 2008.
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Julia Margo
Association Director
The Institute for Public Policy Research
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Julia Margo is an Associate Director at The Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) and head of the directors’ research team. She is also editor of the political journal Public Policy Research (PPR), published by Wiley-Blackwell. Previously, Julia spent four years at The Sunday Times as a commissioning editor on the News Review and prior to that she worked as a parliamentary assistant to Paddy Ashdown MP and Simon Hughes MP. Her publications include Those who Can? (ippr, 2008) Make me a Criminal (ippr, 2008), Get Happy (NCH, 2007, with Sonia Sodha), Beyond Liberty (ippr, 2007) Politics for a New Generation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), Population Politics (ippr, 2006) and Freedom’s Orphans (ippr, 2006).
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Professor David Matsumoto
PhD, Professor of Psychology and Director, Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory, San Francisco State University; Director and CEO, The Ekman Group - Research Division
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David Matsumoto is an internationally acclaimed author and psychologist. He is
currently Professor of Psychology and Director of the Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory at San Francisco State University, where he has been since 1989. He has studied culture, emotion, social interaction and communication for 20 years, and has approximately 400 works in these areas. His books include well-known titles such as Culture and Psychology: People Around the World, The Handbook of Culture and Psychology and The New Japan. Professor Matsumoto is Director and CEO of the Ekman Group’s research division. The Ekman Group is a pioneer in research on emotions and deception and provides training programs that help individuals and groups better understand emotions and become more effective at distinguishing
truth and lies. Matsumoto is also a judo coach and official. He holds a 6th degree black belt in judo.
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Dr Stirling Moorey
Chair, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Group, Psychotherapy Faculty
Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK
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Dr Stirling Moorey is Trust Head of Psychotherapy at the South London and Maudsley Trust. His clinical practice is in cognitive therapy and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. His special interest is the application of CBT in cancer and adverse life situations and he is co-author of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for People with Cancer (Moorey & Greer 2002). His recent research has demonstrated that CBT training for palliative care nurses not only improves their competence but also improves the psychological outcome of their work with patients.
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Geoff Mulgan
Director
The Young Foundation
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Geoff Mulgan became Director of the Young Foundation in 2004. Amongst its many programmes is work in three parts of England involving local government, national departments and others in testing out practical policies to improve well-being. Geoff has had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos, described by the Economist when he left as the UK’s most influential think-tank, and published many reports on well-being in the 1990s. He has also been a reporter for BBC TV and radio and a columnist for national newspapers, and is visiting professor at UCL, LSE and Melbourne. He is currently chairing a Carnegie Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland. Recent publications include Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government, Connexity and Life After Politics.
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Ms Alison Murdoch
Director
Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom
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Alison Murdoch has been working in the non-profit sector for over 17 years, originally for homelessness charities such as Crisis, Centrepoint and National Homeless Alliance, and then as Director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, UK. She has a particular interest in the links between spirituality and social change, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio. In January 2005 she established ‘Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom’ an international education non-profit that helps people develop their capacity to be kind and wise, and for which she was given a Millennium Award by the charity UnLtd. Alison is the author of 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life, initially launched at the 1st International Conference on Happiness & its Causes in Sydney, Australia.
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Mr Patrick Nash
Chief Executive
Teacher Support Network
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Patrick Nash is Chief Executive of Teacher Support Network (TSN) and College and University Support Network, two charities which aim to improve the workplace effectiveness and personal wellbeing of teachers and staff in further and higher education. Teacher Support Network supports some 100,000 teachers every year with: email coaching; counselling; web-based support; money advice on budgeting and debt; financial support to the teachers in the most need. Patrick has developed social enterprise companies, including Worklife Support, which delivers Well Being Programmes to school across the UK. He has previously worked as Director of the Tibet Relief Fund and at the Findhorn Foundation.
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Ann Pettifor
Campaigns Director, Operation Noah; Executive Director
Advocacy International
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Ann Pettifor is campaigns director for Operation Noah and executive director of Advocacy International Ltd. From 1994 to the end of 2000 she helped design and lead an international advocacy effort, Jubilee 2000, which persuaded the public creditors and world leaders to cancel $100bn of debt owed by 42 countries. She has served on the Board of the UN's Human Development Report on the MDGs (2002 and 2003). As editor of nef’s Real World Economic Outlook (Palgrave 2003), she predicted that the first world would soon experience a debt crisis along the lines endured by low-income countries. Her book ‘The Coming First World Debt Crisis’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), argued that consumers in Anglo-American economies should be prepared for a global downturn as deep as the Great Depression.
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Matthieu Ricard
Best-Selling Author Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
Shechen Monastery, Nepal
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Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk at Karuna-Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu and French interpreter since 1989 for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He received his PhD in Cellular Genetics at the Institut Pasteur in France, before forsaking his scientific career to concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work setting up clinics, schools and orphanages in the Himalayan region. Mr. Ricard’s photographs of the spiritual masters, the landscapes and the people of the Himalayas have appeared internationally in books and magazines. The dialogue with his father, Jean-Francois Revel, The Monk and the Philosopher, was a best seller in Europe, and The Quantum and the Lotus reflects his long-standing interest in science and Buddhism. His new book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, explores the meaning and fulfillment of happiness.
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Dr Michael Schluter
Executive Director
The Relationships Foundation
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Michael trained as an economist before working as a consultant with the International Food Policy Research Institute and the World Bank in East Africa. He is now a Social entrepreneur and has launched six charities whose work includes international peace-building (Concordis), alternative finance (Citylife) and social policy (Credit Action). In 1994, Michael launched the Relationships Foundation; he is also on the board of Relationships Forum Australia. He is co-author of The R Factor (1993), The R Option (2003) and Jubilee Manifesto (2005) and has contributed to a number of other books looking at social issues from a relational perspective. He is also an accomplished speaker who has addressed audiences all over the world.
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Dr Anthony Seldon
Master
Wellington College
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Anthony Seldon is a leading authority on contemporary British history as well as one of the UK’s most high profile independent school headmasters. He has written or edited over twenty books, including authorised books on Number 10 and John Major, and is the biographer of Tony Blair. He is a very frequent voice on television, radio and in the press and has a regular column in the Times Educational Supplement. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, and also founded, with Peter Hennessy, the Institute of Contemporary British History. Dr Seldon took over the Mastership of Wellington College in January 2006, where he has introduced a pioneering programme for pupils based on ‘the science of well-being.’
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Andrew Simms
Policy Director
New Economics Foundation
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Andrew Simms is nef's Policy Director and head of the Climate Change programme at nef's Centre for Global Interdependence. Andrew is a board member of Greenpeace UK and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Europe. Previously, he led campaigns for Christian Aid for four years and was one of the original campaigners for the Jubilee 2000 Coalition debt campaign. He has worked for a variety of development and environmental organisations, including the International Red Cross and Oxfam, and was national youth speaker for the Green Party. His books include Ecological Debt: the health of the planet and the wealth of nations; Tescopoly: how one shop came out on top and why it matters and Do good lives have to cost the earth?
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Professor Tania Singer
Neuroscientist
Center for the Study of Social and Neural Systems University of Zürich, Switzerland
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Tania Singer is German and French, born in Munich, Germany. She studied psychology and media first at the University of Marburg and then at the Technical University of Berlin where she completed her masters degree in Psychology in 1996. She worked in London on the social brain and the neural underpinnings of empathy and fairness at the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. At the beginning of 2006, as an assistant professor, Tania moved to the University of Zurich, Switzerland, to join a young, multidisciplinary group investigating the neuronal, behavioural, developmental, and hormonal underpinnings of human social behaviour. In addition to her scientific work, she also pursues interests in the arts by participating in drama and film productions, as well as studying music, voice, and dance.
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Dr Chris Smith
The Naked Scientists
BBC Radio
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Chris Smith is a clinical lecturer in virology and fellow of Queens' College at the University of Cambridge. He's also the founder of The Naked Scientists, a weekly science radio talk show, podcast and website. This was initially a hobby, but it has since taken over his life, won several awards, and grown to become one of the world's most downloaded science shows. When he's not behind a microphone, Chris teaches and examines medical and science undergraduates at Cambridge and works as a specialist registrar in a diagnostic laboratory at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where he has a special interest in human and avian influenza. He's also currently completing his second and third popular science books, and has a young daughter who ensures that his immune system remains on high alert by infecting him with everything circulating in Cambridge.
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Barbara Swetina
Outreach Education
Findhorn Community
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Barbara Swetina is an experienced group facilitator and a trained musician who plays many instruments. Her skill and personality help to create an atmosphere of fun, ease and laughter in which people feel free to express the innate joy and aliveness of the human spirit. Barbara lives in the Findhorn community in the north of Scotland and has shared her love of music with audiences worldwide for twenty years. www.sacredsongs.net
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Stephanie Terry
Deputy Head Teacher
St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School, Neasden, London
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Stephanie Terry joined St. Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School as a newly qualified teacher in 2000. Since then, she has been a keen advocate of wellbeing issues - joint chairing the school’s change and wellbeing committee - and is now serving as its Deputy Head Teacher. Stephanie teaches in year 6.
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Philosopher, Writer and Broadcaster
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Mark Vernon is a writer and broadcaster, recent books including The Philosophy of Friendship, After Atheism and Wellbeing - the latter being part of The Art of Living series that he edits. He also writes popular philosophy books including What Not To Say and 42 Deep Thoughts on Life, the Universe and Everything, as well as articles for the Guardian, the Financial Times, the TLS and the Philosophers' Magazine. He is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck College, London and has degrees in physics and theology and a PhD in philosophy, and used to be a priest in the Church of England.
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Ruby Wax
Comedienne, TV Personality and Actress
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Ruby Wax is best known for her comedy and celebrity interviews. However, for the past three years Ruby has been studying for an MSc in Psychotherapy at Regent’s College and is also studying Neuroscience at UCL. Since graduating she has begun giving talks to senior executives in major companies about how our pathologies can affect our communication and effectiveness at work. Subjects have covered “The Importance of Openness”, “The Stress of Change” and “How We Get Our Own Way”. Ruby is also coaching individuals within companies to improve their performance. Clients have included BAA, Skype, and several major banks.
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Endorsing Associations 2008
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