Trustees

Christine Farnish (Chair)

Christine Farnish brings a wealth of experience to the Family and Parenting Institute. She has been Group Public Policy Director at Barclays since 2006 and has continued to advise Barclays throughout the financial crisis. She also serves on the Boards of Consumer Focus, the consumer watchdog and ABTA, the travel association.

Christine cemented her national reputation during her time as Chief Executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, a membership body spanning public, private and voluntary sectors. This role saw the Observer describe her as the '£650 billion woman'. Before joining NAPF she held senior roles at the Financial Services Authority and at OFTEL and, prior to that, worked in local government and at the Countryside Commission. She has served on the Boards of the Office of Fair Trading, the Advertising Standards Authority, Papworth NHS Trust and ING Direct.
Christine has four grown up children and is married to John. In her spare time she enjoys trekking and following the fortunes of Tottenham Hotspur.

Anne Weyman OBE (Vice Chair)

Anne Weyman is a non-executive director of Islington Primary Care Trust. She is.chair of two NICE Programme Development Groups: Personal Social & Health Education and Contraceptive Advice for Vulnerable Young People. She is also the Vice Chair of the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. Anne was previously Chief Executive of fpa (The Family Planning Association) and Information and Public Affairs Director at the National Children's Bureau, where she founded the Sex Education Forum, of which she is now President, and the Drug Education Forum.

In 2000, Anne was awarded an OBE for services to Family Planning and in 2005 she was made an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Bristol, in recognition of her contribution to women's rights.

David White (Vice Chair)

David White is the principal of Romyla Consulting and Chairman of EMCAS.
Previously he was Chief Executive of The Children’s Mutual where he was responsible for leading a period of unprecedented growth in the number of customers, sales and embedded value. The Children’s Mutual also won a string of customer service awards and was voted customer service company of the year on two occasions. He has been a member of the ABI’s Consumer Strategy Committee and also a Steering group Member for the FSA’s initiative on Financial Capability (now CFEB).
Having started his financial services career in the pensions division of Scottish Life, prior to joining The Children’s Mutual, David was Product Group Director (Pensions) at Prudential where he was responsible for Prudential's wide range of pensions products.

He is a member of the Policy Advisory Council at the leading think tank IPPR, a Trustee of pfeg (the personal finance education group) and on the Board of TISA (Tax incentivised savings association) which leads in policy development on behalf of the savings and investments industry.

Nickie Aiken

Nickie was appointed Cabinet Member for Children and Young People in February 2010 having previously held the position of Deputy Cabinet Member for the portfolio. Before that Nickie was chairman of the children and young people policy and scrutiny committee in 2008/9, where she led on the work to improve services for looked after children, provision for pre-school children and 14 to19-year-olds.

In her current role Nickie is the politician responsible for overseeing all areas of the council’s children and young people division including education, fostering, adoption and social services. Nickie is also currently a member of the Committee of the Cabinet on Improving Education in Westminster, which is implementing the findings of the independent Education Commission which was published in September 2009.

Nickie’s professional background includes more than 20 years in public relations and corporate communications including working for the leading charity The Children's Society. Nickie is a mother of two children aged 7 and 5, who both attend a local Westminster school.

Nickie represent the Warwick Ward in Pimlico where she has lived for nearly 15 years. Her main aims as a ward councillor are to work with local residents and businesses to preserve and improve the quality of life for all and maintain Pimlico's safe and clean streets, protecting its 'village in the heart of London' atmosphere.

Professor Tanya Byron

Professor Tanya Byron is a consultant clinical psychologist specialising in child and adolescent mental health. She has an NHS career spanning twenty years working in many areas of mental health; currently her clinics run two days per week.

Tanya broadcasts on TV and radio (Little Angels; House of Tiny Tearaways; Am I Normal?; All in the Mind). She has a weekly column in The Times and a monthly columns in Good Housekeeping.

Tanya has authored three books on parenting (e.g. Your Child – Your Way [Penguin, 2007]) and has edited an encyclopaedia of child development in the early years (Your Toddler Month by Month [Dorling Kindersley, 2008]).

Tanya co writes comedy with Jennifer Saunders including The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle (BBC2).

Tanya is the patron of the charity Prospex and chancellor of Edge Hill University. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a trustee of the Family and Parenting Institute.

In 2008 Tanya was made Professor in the Public Understanding of Science. She has been awarded honorary doctorates at York University and the Open University.

Tanya is an independent national and international government advisor on children, young people and the digital media - in 2008 she published The Byron Review: Safer Children in a Digital World and it’s follow up review Do We have Safer Children in a Digital World (2010) and sat on Lord Carter’s Digital Britain advisory board (2009).

Tanya advises the current government, in particular the SoS for Education, the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove.

Tanya is married to the actor Bruce Byron and is the proud mother of Lily (15) and Jack (12).

www.professortanyabyron.com

Dr John Coleman OBE

John Coleman trained as a clinical psychologist at the Middlesex Hospital, and obtained his PhD from University College, London in 1966. He was a Senior Lecturer at the Royal London Hospital (University of London) for 14 years, and he has also been the Director of a therapeutic community for troubled adolescents. In 1989 he founded the Trust for the Study of Adolescence, an independent research and training organisation based in Brighton, and was Director until he retired in October, 2005.

He was the Editor of the Journal of Adolescence from 1984-2000, and has written widely on topics to do with young people. His textbook "The nature of adolescence" (2010), published by Routledge, is now in its fourth edition, and he is also well known as the author of "Key data on adolescence" the 7th edition of which was published in 2009.

In 2005 he worked as a Policy Advisor at the Department of Health, and in 2006 he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Bedfordshire. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to youth justice. He is the Chair of the Association for Young People's Health, and a Trustee of the Family and Parenting Institute.

Laurie Edmans CBE (Hon Treasurer)

Laurie Edmans has had a long career in financial services. Formerly deputy chief executive of a mutual life insurer and chair of the industry body on pensions, he now has portfolio of commercial and public interest roles. These include the board of the Money Advice Service, the National Employment Savings Trust ('NEST') chair of the Safe Home Income Plans group and of the Trinity Mirror Group Pension Scheme. He is deputy chairman of MGM Assurance and he a trustee of the Quest School for Autistic Children. He received a CBE for services to pensions reform in 2006. He has five children and, currently, six grandchildren.

Penelope Gibbs

Penelope Gibbs is Director of Out of Trouble, the Prison Reform Trust’s programme to reduce the number of children and young people in custody in the UK. This five year project is funded by The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

Penelope was previously Director of the Voluntary Action Media Unit (VAMU). VAMU was a three year lottery funded project which aimed to improve the relationship between charities and the media. It was managed by the charity TimeBank with the Media Trust and IVR as partners. VAMU produced research on the relationship between the two sectors; set up www.askcharity.org.uk a research resource for journalists; encouraged charity personnel to experience media life through Media Connections 2006 and attempted to engage the interest of media students in charities. Before moving to the voluntary sector Penelope worked in the media. She joined BBC Radio in 1990 to produce programmes including Woman’s Hour, the Learning Curve and Excess Baggage. More recently in the BBC she worked for the Central Strategy Unit researching how the Corporation meets the needs of its Disabled Audiences.

Ken Hogg

Ken Hogg is Chief Actuary and Chief Financial Officer of RGA UK Services Limited. His wide-ranging role includes oversight of the U.K. office’s operations, finance & valuations, protection pricing, and research teams.

Before coming to RGA, Ken was a Director with the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority (FSA), where he led the Authority’s work on U.K. and European insurance sector issues. In that capacity, he also represented the FSA with the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA, formerly CEIOPS), and was on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

Ken’s more than two decades of experience in the insurance industry includes stints with MGM Advantage, where he was Chief Financial Officer, and AIG Life UK, where he was Chief Operating Officer. He was also with AEGON, where he served in various roles. These include Marketing Director of the UK business, as well as playing leading roles in setting up two new life offices. These were AEGON’s Scottish Equitable International subsidiary in Luxembourg (where he served as Chief Actuary), and the India-based joint venture between AEGON and its local partner (where he served as Sales and Marketing Director). He has also served as a Trustee of pension schemes, and as member of CBI Council.

Ken qualified as a fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries in 1991. He earned a 1st class honors degree in Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics from Heriot Watt University in 1987. Ken was a regular speaker for the FSA at industry and professional events. He is a regular fund raiser for charity through endurance hiking and biking events.