CHAIR

Dame Ruth Runciman DBE

• Ruth Runciman is currently chair of the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, and is Deputy Chair of the Prison Reform Trust.
• From 1974-95, Ruth was a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs where she chaired several Working Groups including those that looked at AIDS and drug misuse, and the criminal justice system.
• Ruth was Chair of the Independent Working Group on Drug Consumption Rooms - an initiative of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2004-06). This produced the publication Independent Inquiry into Drug Consumption Rooms in 2006.
• She was also Chair of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (1997-2000) which produced the publication Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs in 2000.
• From 1994-1998 she was Chair of the Mental Health Act Commission

• Haleh Afshar is Professor of Politics and Women's Studies at the University of York where she teaches courses on Islam and the Middle East. She is also the Visiting Professor of Islamic Law at the Faculté Internationale de Droit Comparé at Strasbourg.
• She was born and raised in Iran where she worked as a journalist and a civil servant.
• She has served as the Chair for the British Association of Middle Eastern Studies and Deputy Chair of the British Council's Gender and Development Task Force. She has also served as the Chair of United Nation Association's International Services and is now its Honorary President.
• She has worked extensively with the Government on several issues regarding women and Islam, including: Patricia Hewitt's discussion group on women and Islam; the Home Office's Working Group on "engaging with women"; and the Home Office's Preventing Extremism Together (PET) Working Group.
• She is currently a Member of the Advisory Group for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation research project on 'Muslims and Community Cohesion in Britain' and a Member of the Democracy and Islam Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of Democracy University of Westminster.
• She has written extensively on Iran and Iranian politics both for academia and the media in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and South East Asia. She has had two books published: Islam and the Post Revolutionary State in Iran in 1994 and Islam and Feminisms: an Iranian case study in 1998.
• In 2005 she was awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities, and she was appointed a cross-bench Life Peer in 2007.

• Colin Blakemore is Professor of Neuroscience at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick. He is also Chair of the Food Standard Agency's General Advisory Committee on Science, and of the Electromagnetic Fields Discussion Group of the Health Protection Agency.
• Until October 2007 he was Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council.
• From 1996-2003 he was Director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Oxford. He studied Medical Sciences at Cambridge and completed a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.
• His research prizes include the Robert Bing Prize from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, the Prix Netter from the French Académie Nationale de Médecine, the Gregg Medal of the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists, the John P. McGovern Science and Society Medal from Sigma Xi, the international Alcon Prize for vision research and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for furtherance of the public understanding of science.
• He has been President and Chairman of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, President of the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the Biosciences Federation.
• He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television, and he writes about science for a general audience.

• David Blakey was Chief Constable of West Mercia 1991-1999.
• He was President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) 1997-98.
• He was Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary 1999-2004 and inspected police forces to determine their effectiveness and efficiency across England and Wales and in some overseas dependencies.
• In 2000, following the publication of the McPherson report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence he conducted an examination of how the investigation of murder in the Metropolitan Police could be improved and later carried out the same exercise in Northern Ireland.
• In 2002 he was a member of the Oversight Panel chaired by Bishop John Sentamu looking at the Damilola Taylor murder enquiry.
• He was Vice-Chairman of the Police Restructuring Commission for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2004-2005.
• He has published major reports on how the police use of DNA and fingerprints could be improved, on how Special Branch organisation and functions could be updated, and on the experience of rape victims of the criminal justice system.

• Annette Dale-Perera has been Director of Quality at the National Treatment Agency (NTA) since its inception in 2001. She manages the Quality Directorate at the NTA comprising: a clinical team; research and policy team; and the NTA/Healthcare Commission standards and inspection unit.
• Her key work in 2007 includes annual Improvement Reviews of drug treatment; the development of national policy and guidance documents and research briefings; the development of a national outcomes monitoring tool (Treatment Outcomes Profile or TOP); managing the update to the Clinical Guidelines for drug dependence and working in partnership on the dissemination and implementation of forthcoming NICE guidelines and the Clinical Guidelines Update.
• She has authored over 60 research and policy publications on drug related topics, including: developing and promoting the NTA Treatment Effectiveness Strategy (2005), Models of Care documents (for Drug and Alcohol Misusers 2001, 2006, 2006) and QuADS (1999).
• Prior to work at the NTA Annette was: Director of Policy at the national drugs umbrella charity DrugScope (previously SCODA) for 6 years; a research fellow at the Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour (Imperial College) for 6 years; a Co-ordinator of a community detoxification service and a practitioner in adolescent and drug residential rehabilitation units for 6 years.

• Daniel Finkelstein is Comment Editor and a weekly columnist of The Times.
• Between 1995 and 2001 he was advisor to both Prime Minister John Major and Conservative Leader William Hague.
• In 2001 he was Conservative parliamentary candidate in Harrow West.
• Before working for the Conservative Party Daniel Finkelstein was Director of the free market think tank the Social Market Foundation for three years.
• Between 1990 and 1992 he was the editor of Connexion, Britain's first newspaper to deal with the internet and data communications.
• He was awarded the OBE in 1997 as part of John Major's resignation honours list.

• Ilora Finlay is a Professor of Palliative Medicine and has worked with Marie Curie Cancer Care since 1987. She was Vice Dean in the School of Medicine, Cardiff University between August 2000 and October 2005.
• Professor Finlay has recently taken up the position of President at the Royal Society of Medicine.
• She was a member of the Expert Advisory Committee on Cancers to the Chief Medical Officers of England and Wales, producing the "Calman Hine" report in 1995.
• Since her elevation to a Peerage in 2001, she has been actively involved in debates on health issues, particularly relating to Health and Tobacco. She is a Member of the Select Committees on Science and Technology, and recently on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.
• She is President of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists, MS Cymru and Patron of Shalom Hospice, Wales. She was Welsh Woman of the Year 1996-97 and has held Visiting Professorships at Gr?gen University (Johanna Bijtel Chair), and University of Melbourne.
• She has published and lectured widely on palliative care, and researched into aspects of cancer palliative care. She established the internationally renowned Certificate Diploma/MSc distance learning courses in palliative care at Cardiff University, from which over 900 senior clinicians worldwide have graduated.

• Jeremy Hardie is a trustee of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and was Chair from 2003 to 2007.
• He is a Research Associate of The Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics, Chairman of Blanc Brasseries plc and China Dialogue, Treasurer of the Institute for Public Policy Research and a trustee of Somerset House and International House.
• He has previously served as Chairman of WHSmith Group plc from 1994-1999.
• He was Fellow and Tutor in Economics at Keble College, Oxford, from 1968 to 1975.
• He served as a director of a number of different companies and organisations, including: John Swire & Sons Ltd, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television and The National Provident Institution.
• He served as a member of the local parole committee for Norwich Prison from 1984-87 and as trustee to the Butler Foundation from 1988-1994, an organisation that awards prizes for best-practice prison officers.
• He was Deputy Chair of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission until 1975.

• Kamlesh Patel is currently head of the Centre for Ethnicity & Health, which he established in 1998, and works to address inequality in the health, criminal justice and social care fields.
• He has been appointed as an advisor to the Government’s preventing violent extremism programme.
• He is currently a board member of a number of regional and national agencies in the mental health and substance use fields, serving as a non-executive member and chair of the Audit Committee of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse; patron of the National Men's Health Forum; and member of the Global Task Force UNICEF.
• He has also served the Mental Health Act Commission since 1995, culminating in his appointment as Chairman in 2002.
• In 2003 he was appointed by the Secretary of State to act as National Strategic Director for the National Institute for Mental Health (England), charged with developing and implementing that organisation's Black and Minority Ethnic Mental Health Programme.
• In 2004 he took up a part time secondment as National Director for the Department of Health, leading on the Government's Black and Minority Ethnic Mental Health Programme.
• He has 20 years of experience in the health and social care field as a practitioner, manager and an academic.
• He was appointed a cross-bench Life Peer in May 2006

• Alan Maynard is Professor of Health Economics at the University of York. He is also Director of the York Health Policy Group and Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
• He is Chair of the York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a Member of the Programme Board and External Reference Group for Payment by Results, Department of Health.
• He is Chair of the drug treatment services charity Compass UK.
• He is a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Health.
• He is a member of the Editorial Boards of: British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pharmacoeconomics; Health Manpower Management; Drug and Alcohol Review and Founding Editor of Health Economics.
• He works internationally as a consultant for, among others, the UK Department for International Development, the European Community and the World Bank.

• Adam Sampson is, since January 2003, Chief Executive of Shelter, the charity for the homeless, and acts as their spokesman.
• He previously ran the drugs charity Rapt (Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust).
• Previously Assistant Prison Ombudsman.
• Previously deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust.
• Adam began his career as a probation officer.