Chair

Matthew Amroliwala (BBC News 24, Crimewatch)

Matthew has been one of the main presenters on BBC News 24 for the last seven years. He is also a regular face, presenting news bulletins on BBC1 on the weekends.  He has anchored some of the biggest stories covered by the BBC in recent years - the Asian Tsunami, the Hutton report, September the 11th, the Concorde crash, and the Iraq war - as well as chairing political debates and discussions on a range of issues.

Prior to 1997 - Matthew was a news correspondent, a political correspondent and foreign correspondent, over a period of eight years, reporting from Northern Ireland in the run-up to the ceasefires, reporting from Bosnia during the Balkans conflict, as well as stints in Westminster, Washington and New York.

In 1993, he was nominated for Reporter/Presenter of the Year, by the Television and Radio Industry Club, for his work in Belfast (in the company of Jeremy Paxman and Martin Bell.)

Matthew is 42 years old, is married to Jackie…they have three children under 5 - Milo, Louis and Mary. His only hobby is crowd-control. 

Panellists

Bruce Mann (Head of Civil Contingencies Secretariat)

Bruce is the Director of Civil Contingencies in the Cabinet Office. His previous appointments in the Ministry of Defence have included the Falklands and Gulf conflicts and secondment to NATO headquarters for the Kosovo crisis.  He has served as the MOD’s Director of Defence Policy and Director of Defence Resources and Plans.  In his most recent MoD appointment as Director General Financial Management, he led a study after the 9/11 attacks into the armed forces’ future role in homeland defence.  He was also Secretary to the Butler Committee. In his role as Director of Civil Contingencies he reports to Robert Hannigan Head of Security, Intelligence and Resilience and Security Advisor to the Prime Minister.  Bruce Mann took up his current post on 1 September 2004. 

David Crompton (Deputy Chief Constable, West Yorkshire Police)

David joined Greater Manchester Police in 1985.  He progressed through uniform and specialist posts to become Detective Superintendent and dealt with numerous murder enquiries in all parts of Manchester following which he took over the Major Crime Review Unit with responsibility for reviewing murder investigations.  In 2002 he took over command of the Tameside Division and amongst other things he dealt with the aftermath of the public enquiry into the activities of Harold Shipman and also introduced Neighbourhood Policing Teams to the Borough.

David joined West Yorkshire Police in 2004 in the role of ACC Territorial Operations with responsibility for all BCUs and day to day performance.  He was Gold Commander for the response to the events of 7/7 in Leeds and later in the same year he was also Gold Commander for Operation Geneva – the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky and the wounding of PC Teresa Milburn.  In 2006 he was responsible for the introduction of Neighbourhood Policing and the recruitment of jointly funded PCSOs into the force.  In 2007 David took over the newly formed Local Policing portfolio which included Communications Division and in 2008 he was Gold Commander for Operation Paris, the hunt for Shannon Matthews. David was appointed Deputy Chief Constable in June 2008 and is based at Force Headquarters in Wakefield.

He is married to Louise and they have two daughters.  He is a novice sailor and the owner of a small boat.  His interests include walking, staying (moderately) fit, skiing and travel.

Henrik Kiertzner (Head of Resilience and Operational Planning Practice, Arup)

Henrik joined Arup in 1999 after more than 20 years' service with the British Army, serving in a variety of intelligence roles worldwide. Since joining Arup he has been variously in charge of special projects in the IT department, head of IT for the entire company and for the last several years has returned to consultancy, as an Associate Director in Arup Security Consulting, where he leads corporate resilience, operational planning and continuity consultancy in the public and private sectors. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and the Royal Society for the Promotion of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, a fluent Russian, German and Danish speaker, has led projects in the UK, Russia, the Middle and Far East and, in his copious free time enjoys fast motorcycles and slow books.

Professor Richard Williams OBE (Pro-Vice Chancellor for Enterprise Knowledge Transfer, University of Leeds)

Richard is a graduate of Mineral Technology (1982) and PhD (1988) from Imperial College of Science and Technology.  He holds a Chair in Process Engineering and is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise, Knowledge Transfer and International Strategy at the University of Leeds. (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/about/senior_officers/enterprise.htm).

He was formerly The Royal Academy of Engineering/Rio Tinto Professor of Minerals Engineering at the University of Exeter at Camborne School of Mines (1995-1998), and a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at UMIST, now the University of Manchester (1986-1994).  He is a Fellow and Trustee of The Royal Academy of Engineering and served as a Vice President (2005-2008).
He is founder of the Leeds Nanomanufacturing Institute (www.leeds.ac.uk/nmi), the Yorkshire Forward Nanofactory (www.nanofactory.org.uk), the Particles CIC (www.particletechnology.org) and is a research director of The Virtual Centre for Industrial Process Tomography (www.vcipt.org).  He has worked in the engineering of ultrafine, colloidal and particulate systems across a range of industrial sectors, with emphasis on in-process measurement and modelling of particular systems.  His specialist research areas include nanoparticle engineering, particle aggregation and colloid stability, emulsification, suspensions processing etc.  He has developed novel emulsion production methods based on microtechnology devices and published over 450 journal papers and ten books in these areas and filed several patents.  A further major interest has been the development and application of in-process measurements using process tomographic sensors.

He acts as a consultant to several international companies in the chemical engineering, fine chemical and energy related sectors.  His interests in the innovation process, development of creative communities and accelerated radical innovation have led to new strategic collaborations.  He advises on investment and venturing strategy.  He is a director and board member of Leeds Innovations Centre Ltd., Medilink Ltd, The White Rose Technology Fund Ltd., University of Leeds IP Ltd., Structure Vision Ltd, Industrial Tomography Systems Plc and Dispersia Ltd.  He is a trustee of NCUK Ltd.

He has received several personal awards in connection with his work, publications and commercial innovation, including the Ambrose Medal&Premium (1992), the Isambard Kingdom Brunel Award (1988), Beilby Prize and Gold Medal (1997), the Noel Webster Medal (2000).  In 2003 he was awarded The Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal for work in “commercialisation that has had major societal impact”.  In 2007 he presented Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward’s public lecture for Yorkshire Science on ‘Big County-Small Science’, describing businesses and innovation processes built on nanoscience and engneering.  Recently he received the Thomas Edison Innovation Award (2007) for development of trans-national open innovation in health care technology, rarely given to non US citizens.

He is editor of Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (Particle Technology), Advanced Powder Technology, Particle and Particle Systems Characterization and on the editorial board of Nuclear Science&Technology, The Chemical Engineer Journal, Minerals Engineering, Chinese Journal of Particuology and Recent Patents on Chemical Engineering.

He chairs the Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer Board of the university with responsibilities for developing the growing knowledge transfer (KT) arena at regional, national and international levels.  The university’s Enterprise and innovation Office (intellectual property management, knowledge transfer support and consultancy) report to him.  The development of discipline-based and interdisciplinary KT activities seeks to enhance the personal creativity and societal impact of the university’s staff.  Drawing on his own entrepreneurial experience and interests across science, engineering and the arts, new approaches to grow campus enterprise culture and strategic national and international partnerships with commerce and governments are under development.  He co-ordinates intelligence lead programmes on International Strategy of the University.  He is an alumnus of the higher Education Academy’s Top Management Programme.

Robert Wardle (Consultant, DLA Piper, Former Head of Serious Fraud Office)

Robert is a consultant in DLA Piper’s Corporate Crime and Investigations group based in London.  Robert's particular area of expertise lies in criminal investigation and prosecution, particularly in relation to fraud, corruption and cartel activity.  Robert has wide experience of dealing with law enforcement and regulators both in England and Wales and overseas.

Robert was a member of the Serious Fraud Office in London from its inception in 1988 and was Director from April 2003 until April 2008.  He was involved in a number of high profile investigations and prosecutions including Polly Peck, the third Guinness appeal, and as Director was responsible for the work of the office including high profile investigations into allegations of corruption.  His decision to close the investigation into BAe Systems Plc in relation to Saudi Arabia on public interest grounds was recently affirmed by the House of Lords.

When heading the Policy Division he dealt with the Law Commission on a proposed single offence of fraud and the abolition of conspiracy to defraud.  He was also on the Committee which produced the consultation paper on juries and worked with the FSA to produce regulatory guidance.  As Director he gave evidence to the Joint Committee examining the Corruption Bill and was throughout involved with the development of the law on the Proceeds of Crime Act, plea bargaining, extending the powers of the Crown Court.

Over the past 10 years he has been involved in the development of legislation in the criminal justice field as it relates to fraud.  The Serious Fraud Office is at the cutting edge of criminal justice and decisions he made were subject to judicial review - for example in the case of the "Enron Three" where the USA sought the extradition of three bankers for allegations of fraud.