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Runnymede Trustees

 

Clive Jones CBE (Chair)

As well as his role on Runnymede's board of trustees, Clive is also the chair of Netplay, the interactive television company; chair of Energetic Communications, the New York marketing and events company; a non-executive director of GMTV, Britain’s most popular breakfast television station; and the sole non-executive director of S4C, the Welsh public service broadcaster.

Read more about Clive

Until he stepped down in 2007, he was the chief executive of ITV News and Regions and the longest serving senior executive in ITV. During his thirty-one year career in television Clive has been managing director of the ITV Network, CEO of Carlton Television, managing director of Central Television and managing director of London News Network. He began his career on the news desk of Yorkshire Television after eight years as a newspaper journalist.

As a consultant Clive recently chaired the Peer Review of the UK Film Council for the DCMS and was the project leader overseeing the digitisation of the ITV and Channel Four newsrooms for ITN. He is currently advising a group of Britain’s leading theatres on their new media and digital ventures.

A graduate of the London School of Economics, he has chaired Skillset, the sector skills council for television, film, publishing and new media for the past eight years. He also chairs Mediabox, the government’s youth media fund, the Wales IP Fund and the Creative Diploma Development Partnership for the DCFS. He sits on the board of the Young Vic Theatre and the Legacy Trust.

Clive founded and chaired for its first two years the groundbreaking Cultural Diversity Network. He was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Television Society in 1995 and its Gold Medal, the Society’s highest award, in 2007. In the same year he was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to broadcasting.

 

Aaqil Ahmed

Aaqil began his career at the BBC in 1992 working for BBC Birmingham on programmes such a Panorama, Network East and Bollywood or Bust.

He also spent more than six years at Channel 4, where he was commissioning editor for religion and head of multicultural programming.

Read more about Aaqil

Aaqil is now the BBC’s head of religion and ethics and commissioning editor for TV and is part of the BBC Knowledge’s commissioning team.

 

Dr Claire Alexander

Claire is reader in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and teaches about race, ethnicity and migration at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

As an undergraduate she studied English Language and Literature at St Hugh's College, Oxford University, staying in Oxford to complete a Master of Studies and DPhil at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology.

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Claire held a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Open University and then worked at the University of Southampton and the South Bank University, before joining the LSE in 2003.  

Claire is also a member of the editorial board of Ethnic and Racial Studies and the British Journal of Sociology.

As well as research on race, ethnicity and youth, Claire has had two books published: The Art of Being Black (1996) and The Asian Gang (2000).

 

Barbara Cohen

Barbara is a discrimination law consultant. Over the past seven years she has been concerned with the development and implementation of anti-discrimination law and practice in the UK and other EU Member States.

In the UK she has been involved in a range of projects for public authorities and voluntary organisations intended to give full effect to anti-discrimination laws and the public sector equality duties.

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Previously Barbara was head of legal policy at the Commission for Racial Equality for Great Britain. She has also been a principal solicitor for a London local authority, worked in a legal aid practice and for the National Council of Civil Liberties (now Liberty). She is currently vice chair of the Discrimination Law Association.

 

Farzana Hakim

Farzana is a diversity consultant and leadership coach. Her clients include Channel 4, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, SERCO and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Previously she was the director of the commissioner’s office at the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights and director for corporate and government relations at the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).

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She handled CRE’s relations with government and parliament in the aftermath of the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks, was a member of the Defeating Extremism Together Task Group and advised government on relations with Muslim communities.

From 1997-2000 Farzana was assistant political secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair, and was responsible for race relations, religion, European political work and relations with the Labour Party.

In 2000 she joined JP Morgan as vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2001 she set up Black and Red Ltd, focusing on media, campaigning and political consultancy and worked with a number of Muslim organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain.

Farzana is currently on the board of the Cedar Network and was recently voted as one of the top 20 most powerful Muslim women in the UK.

 

Hitesh Patel (Treasurer)

Hitesh is finance director at stock market insurance company Lucida plc.

Previous to this, he was a specialist partner at global auditors/accountants KPMG, where he was employed for over 24 years in total.

Hitesh holds a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

 

Michelle Moore

Michelle is currently working as the head of extended and healthy schools for Greenwich Children’s Services and has a wide portfolio including developing an Olympic and Paralympic 2012 Games strategy for schools.

She manages a large team, co-ordinating school-based health centres and the delivery of personal social health education (PSHE) in schools.

Read more about Michelle

Michelle taught in an inner city school for four years. After teaching Michelle worked as the sports development manager for Charlton Athletic Race Equality (CARE) Partnership. While working at the CARE Partnership Michelle was awarded the Greenwich Education Business Partnership commendation certificate for outstanding work in the community.

Michelle is also the author of Fair Play, an education pack, written to help teachers tackle racism in the classroom through citizenship and PSHE.

Michelle has also worked as director of community initiatives and assistant headteacher at Eltham Green Sports College, and gained a Masters degree in Education while there.  

 

Roy Williams OBE

Roy began writing plays in 1990 and is now one of the country's leading dramatists.

In 2000 he was the joint winner of The George Devine Award and in 2001 he was awarded the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright.

Roy was made OBE for services to drama in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2008.

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Roys numerous plays include: Category B (Tricycle Theatre); Angel House (Eclipse Theatre, UK Tour); Days of Significance (RSC); Joe Guy (Tiata Fahodzi); There's Only One Wayne Matthews (Polka Theatre); Baby Girl (NT Connections) and Absolute Beginners (Lyric Hammersmith).

Roy's work for television includes: Let it Snow (Endor/Sky); Fallout (Company Pictures/ Channel 4), which won him the Screen Nation Award for Achievement in Screenwriting; Offside (BBC), which was the winner of the BAFTA Children's Film & TV Award for Best Schools Drama; and Babyfather (BBC).

For radio, Roy's work includes adaptations of ER Braithwaite's A Chioce of Straws and To Sir with Love and original plays Tell Tale and Homeboys.

Roy’s most recent play, Sucker Punch, will open at the Royal Court in June 2010 and will be directed by Sacha Wares.