Speaker Biographies

David Halpern

David Halpern is Director of the Behavioural Insights Team in the Cabinet Office / No10, and Principal Advisor to the Office of Civil Society. He was Deputy and Founding Director at the Institute for Government, from where he is currently seconded from. He previously served as Chief Analyst at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (2001-2007) during the Blair Administration, held tenure at Cambridge University, and was a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. His books include the Hidden Wealth of Nations (2010); Social Capital (2005); and Options for a New Britain (2010).

Julian Le Grand

Julian Le Grand is the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. In February 2011, he was appointed Chair of the Government's Mutuals Taskforce. From 2003 to 2005 he was seconded to No 10 Downing St as senior health policy adviser to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He has also acted as an adviser to the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the European Commission, the OECD, HM Treasury and the UK Department of Health. He has been vice-chair of a major teaching hospital, a commissioner on the Commission for Health Improvement, and has served on many other health service boards. He chaired the Working Group on Social Work Practices for the Department for Education and Health England for the Department of Health. He is the author, co-author or editor of more than nineteen books and over ninety articles and book chapters on economics, philosophy and public policy.

Anne Power

Anne has been involved in European and American housing and urban problems since 1965. In 1966, she worked with Martin Luther King's 'End Slums' campaign in Chicago, and, on her return to Britain, organised community-based projects in Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlets. From 1979 to 1989, she worked for the Department of the Environment and Welsh Office, setting up Priority Estates Projects to rescue run-down estates all over the country. In 1991, she became founding director of the National Communities Tenants Resource Centre at Trafford Hall in Chester which provides residential training and pump priming support for people living and working in low-income communities, and is currently Chair. From 2000 to 2009, she was a Commissioner on the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). She was awarded an MBE in 1983 for work in Brixton, and a CBE in June 2000 for services to regeneration and resident participation. Anne sits on the senior advisory panel to DECC on Household Energy Management (HEM External Advisory Panel) and is a member of the Early Action Taskforce. Anne became a Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics in 1996 and is Head of LSE Housing and Communities, a research group based within the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion. She is author of many books, reports and articles on housing, cities and low-income communities.

Bert Provan

Bert Provan has a wide range of policy development and research management experience in both central and local government, and including as the senior civil servant responsible for setting up the Supporting People programme, coordinating the Digital Inclusion strategy, and for community engagement and cohesion research. He is currently working on projects around homelessness in London and city regeneration, and is a visitor at CASE.

Michael Pyner

Chief Executive of Shoreditch Trust a development trust Michael speaks nationally and internationally championing collaborative approaches to regeneration solutions. Whether developing a multi million pound community asset base or social enterprises that underpin the income of Shoreditch Trust he is at the forefront of a new breed of third sector people - socially focused but commercially aware. Enterprises include award winning Acorn House London's first eco-restaurant, and its sister restaurant, Waterhouse; Shoreditch Property Company; the Shoreditch Well Being Centre; and Shoreditch Festival. Michael is community driven but quality focused, environmentally aware, persuasive, not punitive. He believes this model is the future of the third sector. In Shoreditch he has made a significant contribution to the development of creative industries and the knowledge based economy in this now globally recognised creative hub. Re-localising economies and re-localising democracy he is re-defining well being in its broadest sense. Michael is a founder member of ACEVO's European Third Sector Network, co-founder and board chair of the Blue Marble Trust and is Chair of the Development Trusts Association in Northern Ireland, a membership body which uses self-help, enterprise, and asset ownership, to transform their communities for good. Michael sits on the boards of several organisations including Cresco Trust in Derry, the North Belfast Development Partnership, Locality and Social Enterprise London. Michael passionately believes that people hold the key to their own futures, unleashing that potential has always been the challenge.

Caroline Slocock

Caroline Slocock is the Director of Civil Exchange, a 'link tank' which aims to help government and the voluntary sector work better together to promote innovation, unlock potential and provide better public services. She has worked at the highest levels inside Government and the voluntary sectors and has a strong understanding of the barriers to change as well as first hand experience of getting "early action" initiatives off the ground. In government, Caroline developed new policies and services in a number of Departments and advised many Ministers, including working as the Private Secretary for Home Affairs to two Prime Ministers. At the Treasury, she advised the Chancellor on public sector priorities and reformed the public expenditure system to promote longer term thinking and investment. At the Department for Education and Skills, she won new funding from the Treasury for "early action" to create new childcare services in disadvantaged areas and widened access to early years' education. Caroline was the Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission between 2002 and 2007 and then moved on to become Chief Executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice, where she was closely involved in the Solihull "early legal advice pilot" which involved spending more on legal advice to resolve asylum cases earlier, which is now being rolled out more widely

Neil Stott

Neil Stott is Chief Executive of Keystone Development Trust. Keystone is one of the largest development trusts in the country delivering, community development, social enterprises and property development (commercial, community and housing).

Previously Neil was Head of Community Development at Canterbury City Council, Principal Officer (Community) at Cambridge City Council and a youth and community worker for a number of children's charities including Mencap, Elfrida Rathbone and Contact-a-Family in London. Neil graduated from Bradford University with a BA (Hons) in Peace Studies (1983). More recently Neil completed a Post -graduate Certificate in Sociology at Anglia Ruskin University in 2003, a Masters in Community Enterprise at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge in 2005, and is currently studying for a PhD at Brunel University.

Neil is Eastern Region Chair of Locality. Neil is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management (SFIPM) and Visiting Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University.