ASA Council members' biographies
Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury
ASA Chairman Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Chris Smith was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and Pembroke College, Cambridge where he took a double first in English. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard, and completed his Cambridge PhD in 1979. Chris was a Labour councillor for the London Borough of Islington for five years, and was chairman of housing from 1981 to 1983. In 1983 he became MP for Islington South and Finsbury. In 1992 he joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Environmental Protection, and two years later moved to Heritage, then Social Security and Health. He held the post of Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport between 1997 and 2001. Chris Smith entered the House of Lords in 2005 and sits on the cross-benches. He was appointed ASA Chairman by the Advertising Standards Board of Finance in July 2007. Since 2008, he has also been the Chairman of the Environment Agency.
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Anthony Earle Wilkes
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Anthony Earle Wilkes is the Managing Director and Senior Equality and Diversity Consultant with CETC Ltd, a specialist equal opportunity change management consultancy that he set up 10 years ago and is also Chair of United Kingdom Investor Equality Diversity (UKIED).
Anthony was previously a board member of the General Teaching Council (GTC) serving on a number of its national policy committees as well as being a regulatory panel member; a director and committee member of the Institute for Learning in addition to being a committee member with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).
Anthony currently sits on a number of national committees in addition to being a Fellow and regulator Member of the Institute for Learning (IfL).
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Sir Andrew Motion
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Sir Andrew is a widely published and critically acclaimed poet and author as well as a journalist. He has taught at the Royal Holloway College, University of London since 2004 and is also the co-founder and co-director of The Poetry Archive. He has lectured at the University of Hull and was Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He is a member of the Blue Plaques Committee for English Heritage and is Chair of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Andrew was appointed Poet Laureate in 1999, a post he held for ten years. Appointed to the ASA Council in April 2008.
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Louisa Bolch
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Louisa Bolch is a broadcaster and writer, specialising on connecting different disciplines from arts through to science and psychology to examine social and cultural ideas, and is currently writing a book and documentary for Radio 4 on the anatomy of the British character. She was educated at Corpus Christi, Oxford where she took a first in English, and then began her broadcasting career producing documentaries for the South Bank Show. In 2001 she became Managing Editor at Discovery UK and three years later moved to Channel 4 as a Commissioner for Science and History where she commissioned award winning documentaries including the theatrically released Shadow of The Moon, as well as becoming a Council member for the London Arts Council. In 2007 she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship from the Clore Leadership Programme, researching ways to bring science and art together through new media and continues to advise the Wellcome Trust on broadcast strategy and issues. In addition to her writing and broadcasting activities, she is currently Head of New Media & Education for CTVC, the media arm of the J.Arthur Rank Foundation, and a Council member and Non-Executive Director of the Advertising Standards Authority.
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David Harker, CBE
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
David is an non-executive director of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, which oversees the work of Ofgem, the gas and electricity regulator, and a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, which represents the interests of consumers to the Financial Services Authority. For thirteen years he was the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, the national body for Citizens Advice Bureaux and spent eight years as the Managing Director of Sense, the national disability charity which works with people who are both deaf and blind. David’s earlier career included management consultancy, running an inner city charity, and policy analysis for a local authority. He has an MBA from London Business School and an MA in social policy. David was made an OBE in 2003 and a CBE in 2011. Appointed to the ASA Council June 2007.
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Alan Bookbinder
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Alan Bookbinder is Director, Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, a management and advisory role in the UK’s largest charitable family foundation. He has previously held senior management positions at the BBC including Head of Religion and Ethics and Chief Advisor, Editorial Policy. Alan sits on both Councils as a lay member. Appointed to the ASA Council in April 2012.
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Ruth Sawtell
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Ruth Sawtell is a Non-Executive Director and Mental Health Act Manager of Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and a Non-Executive Director of the charitable housing association Metropolitan Housing Partnership (MHP). She was recently appointed as a lay-member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the regulator of nurses and midwives. Ruth is also Chair of the healthcare research network Hertnet, a primary care research network based at the University of Hertfordshire. Appointed to the ASA Council in April 2009.
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Rachel Childs
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
A former Junior School headteacher, Rachel brings extensive experience of working with children and young people. During her last 17 years in education she has been a teacher, literacy adviser, head teacher, governor, examiner and child protection officer.
Rachel currently works as a Child Protection Trainer for Hampshire County Council, training school staff and leaders in safeguarding. In addition, she undertakes a number of examining and assessment roles, including that of Approved Subject Expert for OfQual in Primary English assessment. Appointed to the ASA Council in May 2011.
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Sir Martin Narey
Member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
In January 2011 Sir Martin retired from his position as Chief Executive of Barnardo’s, the UK’s largest children’s charity, a position he had held for since October 2005. Previous roles included that of Chief Executive of The National Offender Management Service and Director General of the Prison Service. Sir Martin writes regularly for national publications including the Guardian and particularly The Times. He was appointed to the ASA Council in May 2011.
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John Mayhead, CBE
Industry member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
John has an extensive background in marketing, having worked for Cadbury Schweppes prior to joining Argos where he became Marketing Director and a divisional chief executive. Since leaving Argos John has undertaken a number of non-executive roles and for ten years until 2010 was Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the industry body responsible for measuring newspaper and magazine circulations as well as internet site traffic. Since 1999 he has been a non-exec at the Department for Transport and also chaired the Government Strategic Marketing Advisory Board which was responsible for the oversight of all Government marketing activity. John has been a member of the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) Executive Committee, Chairman of The Marketing Society and the Director of the Centre for Marketing at the London Business School. John was awarded a CBE in the 2005 Queen’s birthday honours list. Appointed to the ASA Council in August 2009.
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Roisin Donnelly
Industry member of Non-broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Roisin Donnelly is the Corporate Marketing Director, Procter & Gamble for the UK and Ireland. She was President of the Marketing Society from 2009 to 2011 and is currently President of WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications London). Roisin sits as an Industry Member with an advertising background on both the non-broadcast and broadcast Councils. Appointed to the ASA Council in April 2012.
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Hamish Pringle
Industry member of Non-Broadcast and Broadcast Councils
Hamish is a Partner in Pringle and Pringle LLP and currently Strategic Advisor to 23red, an integrated creative communications agency. He stood down as Director General of the IPA in July 2011 after ten years in post. The IPA is the trade association and professional institute for the UK advertising, media, and marketing communications agencies who are responsible for approximately 85% of all UK advertising and marketing communications. It is a CAP and BCAP member. Prior to joining the IPA, Hamish ran his own consultancy, Brand Beliefs Ltd., specializing in brand strategy and cause-related marketing. He began his 26-year advertising agency career at Ogilvy, Benson & Mather as a trainee in 1973, and is a Fellow of the IPA, a Fellow of the Marketing Society, and a member of the Marketing Group of Great Britain. Hamish was appointed to the ASA Council in April 2011. He has written the book ‘Celebrity Sells’, and co-authored ‘Brand Spirit’, ‘Brand Manners’, ‘Brand Immortality’, and, most recently, ‘Spending Advertising Money in the Digital Age’. Hamish is also the creator of the Diagonal Thinking hypothesis which was validated by a five-year IPA research programme and led to the free online self-assessment at www.diagonalthinking.co.uk.
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David Hepworth
Industry member of the Non-broadcast Council
David Hepworth has over 35 years experience in magazines as a writer and editor and is a Partner in an independent media company, Development Hell Ltd, publishers of MixMag and The Word. He was Editorial Director of EMAP Consumer Magazines from 1983 to 2002, where he was responsible for the editorial launches of Just Seventeen, Q, Empire, Mojo, More and Heat. Prior to that he was editor of Smash Hits magazine from 1981-1983. He writes and speaks on media issues and is a regular broadcaster on BBC radio. David was appointed to Council on 12 April 2013.
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Ray Gallagher
Industry member of the Broadcast Council
Ray has more than 30 years’ experience working with public and private sector organisations on both sides of the Atlantic. Since 2006 he has been broadcasting Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. His prior roles include 15 years as Director of Public Affairs at BSkyB, which he helped launch as Sky Television in 1989. A Fellow of the Royal Television Society and Council Member of the British Screen Advisory Council, Ray has extensive experience in political and regulatory processes in the UK and EU and is an expert on the communications industries, regulatory policy and compliance. Appointed to the ASA Council in April 2011.
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