Filippo Addarii is Head of the International Programme of ACEVO and Executive Director of the European network of third sector leaders. In these roles he has developed projects and partnership with leaders across the world. He is the chair of the association GlobaLab (Italy) and board member of the Arabic Gum Foundation and Lime House Art Foundation. He is also a director of the company Nethical srl (Italy). Prior to ACEVO, Filippo was the event organiser at Art for the World in Switzerland, a cultural association that promotes human rights through contemporary art exhibitions around the world in collaboration with the UN and the EU. With the background experience gained in Switzerland, Filippo went on to envisage and found GlobaLab in 2001. GlobaLab is a culture-focused association which promotes global civil society development through innovative intercultural projects. In 2003 he co-founded the magazine Ecologist Italy and the Research Centre of Contemporary Social Movements for the Feltrinelli Foundation. He is a regular commentator in VITA, the well-regarded Italian magazine for the third sector.

Martin Albrow is a sociologist, honorary Vice-President of the British Sociological Association Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Wales. He has taught and researched in the USA and Germany as well as in the UK. His books include Do Organizations have Feelings? and the prize winning The Global Age. He leads Prime Timers research strategy.

Titus Alexander is Director for Learning at the Scarman Trust. He has been called a 'one man think-tank' on family learning, citizenship, education and global issues. He has published over a dozen books and pamphlets, and created several high impact learning programmes. His most recent publication is Learning Power: a contribution to the national skills strategy argues that learning practical politics is as important for the country as education for business or law. Titus originated the term 'family learning' as co-author of Riches Beyond Price: Making the Most of Family Learning and author of Family Learning: foundation of effective education. He was a co-founder of the Parenting Education and Support Forum (now Parenting UK) and wrote Empowering Parents, Parent Information Project: Next Steps and the PIP Toolkit. His Supporting Parents Starting School facilitator training programme is being rolled out to all local authorities in England under the government’s Every Parent Matters policy. Titus’s work on global issues includes Unravelling Global Apartheid: An overview of world politics. He also founded Charter 99, a campaign for global democracy, and Action for A Global Climate Community.

Jim Baker describes himself as 'a jack of all trades'. He is currently chief executive officer of Age Concern Brighton & Hove. Prior to Age Concern, he was chief executive officer of Connections for Development, a UK based organisation seeking to involve BME groups in International Development. In the past, he has been a director in local government (Hammersmith & Fulham), a front bench councillor (Southampton), chair of a number of regional & local voluntary organisations, chief executive officer of several third sector organisations, acted in several advisory roles for government (at present Office of the Third Sector), board member of agencies such as SEEDA (South East England Regional Development Agency) and Kent Business Link, lecturer (Sheffield City Polytechnic etc) and a journalist (10 years for Barbados Advocate). Jim admits to not knowing where his area of expertise is but suspects it may be located somewhere within his desire to know and understand more about everything, a driving force behind his primary hobby which is family history. Jim has an Applied Social Studies Degree from Sheffield Polytechnic (now Hallam).

Stephen Bubb is Chief Executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (acevo) where his work on leadership, sector funding and public service reform has dramatically shifted attitudes and policies. In 2007, he became Secretary General of Euclid Network, the European Third Sector Leaders Network. He is also non-executive Chair of the Adventure Capital Fund which invests in community enterprises. Stephen has been in major national roles in the TGWU, NUT and AMA (Association of Metropolitan Authorities) was a founding director of the National Lottery Charities Board. Much in demand as a speaker and media commentator nationally and internationally, he advocates a radical role for the UK's third sector. Stephen is also an independent assessor for government appointments and a member of the Honours Advisory Committee.

Kathleen Duncan has considerable experience, expertise and influence in the areas of philanthropy and charitable giving; corporate social responsibility; and governance, recognised in her recent award of an OBE for charitable services. Formerly Director General of the Lloyds TSB Foundation, she was responsible for the donation of over £140 million through 30,000 grants to charitable causes; Kathleen’s strong commercial acumen, general management capabilities and marketing expertise have also been evident in her roles as Marketing Director, Order of St John, International Marketing Director, Boosey and Hawkes Publishers Ltd, and General Manager and Director of a Hong Kong travel company. She has a lifelong interest in the Arts, reflected in the professional arena through her roles as Chief Executive, Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong and as Marketing Consultant to The Performing Rights Society in the UK. She currently acts as a trustee of 5 bodies – New Philanthropy Capital; British Institute for Human Rights; Youth Music; Sue Thomson Foundation and the Hosking Houses Trust. She is also a Commissioner at the Commission for the Future of Volunteering, a member of the In Kind Direct Fundraising Committee, and has been a Governor of Christ’s Hospital School for more than 30 years.

Richard Evans is Chief Executive of CF Appointments. He joined CFA after an extensive career in education and the voluntary sector. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Institute of Directors, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Past positions have included Director of Client Services at Woolwich College and Development Director for ACET International, the UK and worldwide HIV/AIDS charity. Richard has many years' experience of voluntary and political organisations at national and local level. He is a former school governor and currently is a Trustee of the Brook Advisory Centres.

Janet Fleming became Head of the UK Workforce Development Hub for the voluntary and community sector in England in July 2005. The Hub has a broad remit to promote the sector as a career, and to support good employment practice, learning and skills development for volunteers, paid staff and trustees in voluntary and community organisations. Janet was previously Head of the Voluntary Sector National Training Organisation (VSNTO), after spending 3 years as Director of the RSA's PROJECT2001. This project developed the capacity of small voluntary and community organisations through providing funds for accredited learning and qualifications for their volunteers and staff. Before 1997, Janet worked in further education in Hackney, London. She is a Fellow of the RSA and Chair of the Board of the Islington Arts Factory, a community arts centre for all ages in North London.

Claire Fox is the director of the Institute of Ideas (IoI), which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. Claire initiated the IoI while co-publisher of the controversial and ground-breaking current affairs journal LM magazine. Claire has a particular interest in education and social issues such as crime and mental health. She is also a passionate supporter of the arts, and strongly believes that they should be valued for their own sake. Claire is a co-convener of the yearly Battle of Ideas. She is a panellist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and is regularly invited to comment on developments in culture, education and the media on TV and radio programmes such as Question Time and BBC Breakfast. Claire writes regularly for national newspapers and a range of specialist journals. Claire previously worked as a mental health social worker and as a lecturer in English literature.

Michael Hammer is Executive Director of the One World Trust, an organisation working to make global governance more accountable. With its Global Accountability Project (GAP) the One World Trust aims to generate wider commitment amongst global organisations to establish and adhere to common principles and values of accountability in the relationship with the people they affect. Key to this project is the international comparative review of policies and systems of organisations enabling them to be accountable to their stakeholders, and encouraging organisational learning from good practice across sectors. Before joining the Trust, Michael worked as Programme Director with Amnesty International, Conciliation Resources, and as Projects Manager for Germany based consultants Institut Raum & Energie in Europe and Africa. Michael has studied in Hamburg and Dakar and holds a Research Masters in Geography, History and Urban Planning.

Siân Harrington is editor of Human Resources (HR) magazine, the journal of choice for HR professionals. She previously worked at The Grocer as deputy editor, covering a range of topics from health, sustainability and food-service to the City, branding and marketing. Siân has written about the retail industry for 13 years – including stints as news editor, features editor and deputy editor on publications such as Retail Week, launch editor of In-Store Marketing and group editor at Centaur Business Intelligence, which publishes Brand Strategy and The PFI Report. She began her career 19 years ago as a reporter and has also undertaken freelance work for a range of publications including Financial Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Marketing, Adline, Design Week, Promotions and Incentives, The Leisure Report, Retail Interiors, Nightclub, The Publican and The Big Issue. Siân regularly chairs conferences and was a frequent commentator on food matters for radio, television and the national press.

Tricia Hartley, Joint Chief Executive, Campaign for Learning Tricia has worked in education all her adult life, and is passionate about learning and people having chances to learn throughout their lives. After a degree in psychology, she taught in primary and secondary schools before moving to the North of England in the mid 1980s, where she took a five-hour-a-week adult education job to 'keep her hand in'. She has worked in post-16 learning ever since. In her fifteen years in further education she worked primarily on Skills for Life, widening participation and community partnerships and completed an MA in Education. There followed two years in a small but dynamic Local Authority as Lifelong Learning Manager. She joined the Campaign in October 2003 as Northern Regional Director. Now Joint Chief Executive, Tricia leads on the Campaign's public sector work and its regional activity.

Jude Howell is Professor and Director of the Centre for Civil Society at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her recent books include Gender and Civil Society (co-edited with Diane Mulligan); Civil Society and Development (co-authored with Jenny Pearce); and Governance in China, 2004. She has written extensively on issues relating to civil society, governance, development policy and gender and much of her empirical work focuses on China. She is currently directing a £5.24 million Economic Social Research Council research programme on Non-governmental Public Action. Her own project under this programme investigates the effects of the increasing securitisation of aid policy in the post-911 context on civil societies in the South, including case-studies of India, Afghanistan and Kenya. Apart from this, she continues to research female political participation in China, labour organising in China and organising around marginalised interests in China.

Ben Jupp is a senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. His work includes developing approaches to public service improvement and fostering civic participation. Until recently, Ben was the Director of the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office. The Office leads the Government’s work to foster a thriving third sector and enable people to play a greater role in changing society. His previous experience has included leading the Home Office Strategic Policy Team and working for the think tank Demos, where he led on welfare and regeneration policy. Ben has also been a policy adviser to the New Opportunity Fund, which distributed lottery funding to health, education and environment projects, and a policy adviser on welfare reform in the Department for Social Security. He has practical experience as health service manager and in helping run a busy community centre in North London.

Andrew Ladds is the Chief Executive of the Society of Chemical Industry, a unique international organization where science meets business on independent and impartial ground. He has an extensive background in food, agriculture, commercial growing and the environment. Following a formal training in agriculture, he pursued a technical and commercial career in the international agricultural and food industries. He went into general management at an early stage, and has had extensive involvement in business and organizational development. During the 90s he ran his own import, distribution and business development company, focusing on commodities, specialty foods and environmentally friendly natural fuel products. Following the sale of his company in 2001, Andrew ran the national charity Coeliac UK as its Chief Executive. He is also currently Chairman of Grantscape, a charity and environmental body and was also formally a Council Member of the Royal Yachting Association. As an extension to his professional portfolio, he is active in the training and mentoring of CEO’s, Company Directors and Trustees in Corporate and Charity Governance.

Bobby Lambert has extensive experience in organisational governance, leadership and management. He is currently working as a consultant with a variety of clients including the UN, Red Cross and Border Action (Ireland) and as acting Executive Director for the Good Earth Trust. He is an adviser to PumpAid, a Channel Research partner and a visiting fellow at London South Bank University. He is skilled in training, facilitation, research, and communication, both verbal and written. His practical and academic strengths in development and humanitarian operations are underpinned by a formal training in agricultural and public health engineering. His professional experience includes 10 years as chief executive of RedR, a London-based international humanitarian organisation, and 10 years in developing countries. He is comfortable working with voluntary, academic, commercial and public-sector organisations and can operate sensitively and effectively in a wide variety of cultural settings. A chartered engineer, he graduated from University College Dublin in 1979 and has a Masters in Public Health Engineering from Imperial College London.

Stuart Lindenfield, Head of Transition Services at Reed Consulting, is widely recognised as one of the UK's leading experts on career transition, with a strong track record of helping individuals and organisations successfully manage transitions. He is the co-author of the acclaimed 'Confident Networking for Career Success and Satisfaction', with articles regularly appearing in the national press and management journals. Stuart is in demand as a conference speaker and workshop facilitator, and leads MasterClasses for London Business School's Masters in Finance, Sloan and Executive MBA programmes as well as for The Institute of Financial Services. Renowned for the transformational impact of his workshops and seminars, he is a member of the London Influentials 'top 1000' think-tank, and an Associate Director of CriticalEye - the European Centre for Strategic Business Leaders.

To secure your place, please register or call our event coordinator on 020 7785 6465

> Introduction

> Is lifelong learning a realistic personal goal?
3 December, 2007

> Can charities be learning organisations?
14 January, 2008

> Can the British third sector learn from other countries?
11 February, 2008

> Lifelong learning and the new reality of multiple careers
10 March, 2008

> Is a university the solution for the third sector?
14 April, 2008