Sir Ronald Cohen

Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of the Portland Trust and the Social Investment Taskforce. He was a founding partner and the former Executive Chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP.

He was also chairman of the DTI "Tech Stars" steering committee and a member of the DTI UK competitiveness committee. He is chairman of Bridges Community Ventures Ltd and honorary president of the Community Development Finance Association.

He is a founder director and past chairman of the British Venture Capital Association, a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association and the Quoted Companies Alliance (formerly SISCO). He has served as a member of: London Stock Exchange Working Party on Smaller Companies, CBI Wider Share Ownership Committee and Executive Committee of The Centre for Economic Policy Research.

He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was president of the Oxford Union, he is an honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship.

David Carrington

David is an independent consultant working with charities, companies and the government on the funding and governance of charities and social enterprises. His clients have included the Treasury, the Big Lottery Fund, Arts & Business, and many endowed and corporate foundations. David also works as a 'mentor/adviser' for senior staff of several charities.

He has been Chief Executive of three foundations including The Baring Foundation.

He is a Governor of London South Bank University, Chair of Allavida (publisher of the journal Alliance) and of engage (the association of people working in gallery education), a trustee of the National Foundation for Youth Music and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He chairs the Philanthropy UK Newsletter Editorial Group. He is also on the Social Investment Task Force

Susan Hitch

Susan Hitch manages Lord Sainsbury of Turville's pro bono programme. She is acting Chairman of the Balance Charitable Foundation and a trustee of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Institute For Philanthropy and several arts organisations. She is also a presenter of BBC Radio Three Night Waves.

Ed Mayo

Ed Mayo is Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council (NCC). Since he joined, NCC has proved highly influential on major issues of credit/debt, public service reform, food policy and health.

The NCC is the independent consumer policy expert in the UK, championing the consumer interest across the public and private sectors.

Ed has worked in the non-profit and the private sector and was the strategist behind the world's most successful anti-poverty campaign, Jubilee 2000.

A passionate campaigner on consumer issues, Ed has contributed to the work of a wide range of public interest organisations, including at present as a Board member for the Fairtrade Foundation and AccountAbility.

He has helped to found a number of initiatives, including the Fairtrade Mark, the London Rebuilding Society and the cultural charity, MERRY, which links Deptford in South London to Mozambique.

In 2003, the Guardian newspaper nominated Ed as one of the top 100 most influential figures in UK social policy and in November 2004 commented that 'from cancelling third world debt to justice for working-class consumers, Ed Mayo is a key figure in social innovation'.

Ed was nominated a 'Young Global Leader' by the World Economic Forum in January 2005. Ed is married with three children and lives in South East London.

Baronness Jill Pitkeathly

Jill Pitkeathley became a Life Peer in 1997. She started her career in social work before moving into the voluntary sector writing publications for the Kings fund and the Volunteer centre. In 1986 she became Chief Executive of the Carers National Association (now Carers UK) where she transformed the public perception of the six million people who care for others in our society.

She is the former Chair of the New Opportunities Fund, which distributes the largest Lottery fund, and present Chair of the Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) and the Home Office Advisory Panel for Futurebuilders.

Matthew Pike

Matthew Pike is Director of the Scarman Trust which he set up and has run for more than 10 years. He was also Secretary to the Commission on Unclaimed Assets until the completion of its report in March 2007 when he returned to the Scarman Trust full time and became a Commissioner. He is a Director of Future Builders and a member of the Police Advisory Panel. Matthew has been Assistant and Acting Director of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, a Fellow at the Institute of Community Studies and an Adviser on Civil Renewal to the Home Office. As a social entrepreneur he has set up more than 40 major programmes or new organisations to date.

Danielle Walker-Palmour

Danielle Walker-Palmour is the director of the Friends Provident Foundation. Previously, she has been Director of Policy & Practice Development at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Acting Head of Policy at the Community Fund (now part of the Big Lottery Fund). She has worked in the past as a senior member of the Research and Policy teams of the Law Society of England and Wales, the London Borough of Islington, the Commission for Racial Equality and the London Research Centre. She is a Trustee of Rowntree Society and a governor at the Mount School York. She is also a member of the Advisory Group for the National Consumer Council.

Bernard Horn

Bernard Horn had a varied career with NatWest spanning 30 years, including six years as a Main Board Director of the NatWest Group (FTSE 100 company). His roles included five years as Chief Executive of the International Businesses, and a similar period as Operations Director, responsible for Operations and IT. He led significant acquisition and disposal activity whilst with the bank.

He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.

Since leaving NatWest he has developed a portfolio of activities acting both as Chairman and non executive director, concentrating on smaller, entrepreneurial companies in consulting and software development, (some with Private Equity backing.)He is also involved in an advisory capacity with a number of Charities.

He is married with three young children and lives in South West London.

Andrew Gowers

Andrew Gowers was appointed Head of Corporate Communications and Marketing for Europe and Asia at Lehman Brothers in June 2006. He was Editor of the Financial Times from 2001 to 2005. In December 2005 he was appointed to lead an independent review for HM Government of the UK's intellectual property regime.

After graduating from Cambridge University, Andrew began his journalistic career in 1980 when he joined Reuters as a graduate trainee. In 1981, he was appointed Brussels correspondent and in 1982 he became Zurich correspondent.

He joined the FT in 1983 on the foreign desk in London. In 1984, he became agriculture correspondent and in 1985 he was appointed commodities editor. In 1987, he became Middle East editor, in 1990 features editor, and in 1992, foreign editor. In 1994, he was appointed deputy editor.

From July 1997, he spent 15 months as acting editor while the editor, Richard Lambert, was in New York to launch the new US edition of the Financial Times. In January 1999, Andrew Gowers was appointed founding editor of a new German language business newspaper, Financial Times Deutschland, a joint venture between the Financial Times Group and Gruner + Jahr, one of Germany's leading newspaper and magazine publishers. FT Deutschland launched in February 2000.

Andrew Gowers is co-author of a biography of Yasser Arafat published in 1990 and republished in an updated version in 2004. He is married with two children and lives in south-east London.