Chairman - Lord Broers (Cross bench)

Lord Broers is a microelectonics engineer who spent his research career working on the use of electrons, x-rays and light optical systems for microscopy and for the fabrication of microelectronic components. He grew up in Australia and studied physics at Melbourne University before moving to Cambridge where he completed a PhD in engineering. He then worked in the R&D laboratories of IBM in the USA for twenty years where his research concentrated on the miniaturisation of electronics, eventually leading to components with nanometre dimensions.

He became an IBM Fellow and ultimately held responsibility for the advanced development of chip technologies. When he arrived back in Cambridge as Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1984 he set up a nanofabrication laboratory and extended the technology of miniaturisation to the atomic scale. He subsequently became Head of the Department of Engineering and Master of Churchill College before becoming Vice-Chancellor of the University for seven years.

He was a Director of Vodafone for nine years and has served on the Boards of several high technology start-up companies. He was knighted in 1998 and became President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2000.

He was made a Life Peer for his contributions to engineering and higher education in 2004 and was Chairman of the House of Lord Select Committee for Science and Technology from 2004 until 2007.

Vice Chairmen

Vice-Chairmen: Lord Willis of Knaresborough, Julian Huppert MP and Meg Munn MP.

Lord Willis of Knaresborough

Lord Willis represented Harrogate and Knaresborough as a Liberal Democrat MP from 1997 until stepping down in 2010.  A former teacher, he spoke for the Lib Dems on higher education and skills for many years, before being named as Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee in 2005.   He was made a Life Peer in the 2010 dissolution honours.
 

Meg Munn MP

Meg Munn has been the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley since 2001.  She has a background in social work and is an active member of the Co-operative movement.  She was Minister for Women and Equality and served as a Minister in the Foreign Office and the Department for Trade and Industry.  Meg left the Government in 2008 and has since been heavily involved in the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Dr Julian Huppert MP

Julian Huppert was elected in 2010 as the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge.  He is a member of the Home Affairs and Human Rights committees and maintains an active interest in human rights.  Julian has a strong background in science and technology; before being elected, he was a research scientist and worked primarily on the study of DNA structures.  He was also the CEO of a small biotechnology company.
 

Honorary Secretary

Laurence Robertson MP (Conservative)

Laurence entered parliament in 1997 as Member for Tewkesbury, having been a charity fundraiser he was appointed an Opposition Whip in September 2001 and worked for many years in the textile industry and then in June 2003 was promoted to be a Shadow Trade and Industry Minister, until 2005 when he became Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland, staying in post under David Cameron.

Laurence has served on the Environmental Audit Select Committee, the Joint Committee on Consolidated Bills and the Social Security Select Committee. He also served on the European Scrutiny Committee for three years, and is secretary of the All-Party Group on Ethiopia and Chairman of the All-Party Group for the Horse and his constituency includes Cheltenham Racecourse!

Laurence is Chairman of the Conservative Africa Business Group.

Stephen Williams MP (Liberal Democrat)

An arts-conscious Welsh tax consultant and former councillor, Stephen Williams entered Parliament, taking Bristol West from Labour in 2005.

He is the first Liberal Democrat MP for the seat, and the first Liberal in Bristol for seventy years. He was first appointed an assistant health spokesperson and then to the education team in 2006 as Shadow Minister for Further and Higher Education. With the splitting-up of the Education and Skills department in 2007, he moved to be Shadow Minister for Children, Schools and Families.

Stephen was promoted to the Party’s Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills in December 2007.

Stephen read history at Bristol University, and has stayed in the city ever since working as a tax consultant for firms including Price Waterhouse Coopers and Grant Thornton. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

Stephen was elected to Avon County Council in 1993, and Bristol City council two years later, where he led the Liberal Democrat group for two years.

He served on the Public Accounts Committee for a year, and was appointed to the Education and Skills Select Committees in 2005.

He belongs to the World Wildlife Fund, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, the National Trust, Bristol Civic Society and the homosexual campaigning group Stonewall.

Apart from taxation, he is interested in education, preventative health care, transport, civil rights, the arts and Europe.

He is a director of the Watershed Arts Centre, and lists his recreations as visiting art galleries and historic sites, theatre, cinema, genealogy, eating out with friends, playing pool and using the gym.
 

Facilitator

Jennifer Bryant-Pearson