Chain Reaction

My name is Richard Kusi; I am 18 years of age and a Southwark young Advisor. At the moment I am a full time student doing a degree in Business Management at Middlesex University. In order to become a leader in the business world, you will first need to understand your consumers by doing your own primary research. For me, being a Southwark young advisor helps me to carry out my primary research since it allows me to meet one-to-one with the youth of today and discuss issues going on around them as well as their interests.

My name is Emanuel Matias Candengue and I am 21 year old currently at university studying psychology and sociology. I been a young advisor for three years and in that three year I have worked with different organisation around England. I became a young advisor because Kids are sometimes heading towards the wrong places, but Young Advisors are here to make sure they go to the right places. Young people are excluded from communities, Young Advisors are here to make sure their opinions are heard, Young Advisors mean young people can feel like they have a say in what goes on around them. As a young advisor I have Sit on advisory panels, Youth Proof' key documents, Helped organisations that work with young people make decisions about young people, use our voice I have also Promote the voice young people have, and Participate in the decision making process

Julia Clark is Brands Strategy Manager at Tate & Lyle Sugars. In February 2008, Tate & Lyle announced its ambition to move its entire retail cane sugars range to Fairtrade, marking the largest ever switch to the ethical labelling scheme by any major UK food or drink brand. In the first year alone, the switch will have created a return of at least £2 million in Fairtrade premiums for cane farmers in Belize. The major scale of Tate & Lyle’s conversion to Fairtrade sugar involved two years in planning. The company has worked in partnership with the UK-based Fairtrade Foundation and the sugar industry in Belize to help 6000 cane farmers in Northern Belize meet Fairtrade standards. Tate & Lyle believes in sustainable growth: it is socially responsible, it is what consumers want and it makes good business sense.

Russell specialises in company, commercial and financing matters in the oil and gas, power and infrastructure sectors, with a particular emphasis on emerging markets. Has been involved on a range of matters in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, China, India, Pakistan, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Europe and the UK.

Oli Barrett is an established entrepreneur with a wide social network of fellow entrepreneurs. Oli is based in Central London and is involved in a large number of new ventures and projects. Oli is a keen promoter of entrepreneurship in the UK. Oli Barrett runs Connected Capital, an innovation company and he is the founder of "Make Your Mark with a Tenner". Read more

Following a 15 year career in the City with UBS Asset Management, David first moved into the charity sector as head of the London division of Business in the Community (BITC), where he gained first-hand experience of the issues facing charities and social enterprises (particularly relating to homelessness, volunteering and diversity). He has been CEO of Prospectus since 2000. David also plays an active role in the governance of several third sector organisations. He chairs grant-making trust A Glimmer of Hope (UK), is deputy chair of The Foyer Federation, and chairs the Development Committee of Prisoners Abroad; David also sits on the boards of Greenhouse Schools and the UK wing of VSO. He is also a member of a think tank at the Ethiopian Embassy, and mentors several charity Chief Executives, as well as regularly speaking and writing on issues relating to social enterprises, new philanthropy and grant-giving Read more about Prospectus

When Devonshire farmer’s son Guy Watson started growing organic vegetables back in 1986 he had just three acres of land, a wheelbarrow and a dream: to put fresh organic vegetables on the family table at a price that everybody could afford. In 1993 he launched a vegetable box delivery scheme as a result of his frustration at what he saw as the over-travelled, over-packaged, over-priced produce on supermarket shelves. From supplying just 20 local friends, Riverford grew to became a household name and a sisterhood of five regional farms around the UK delivering locally to 45,000 customers every week Read more about Riverford Organics

Simon Berry is the founder and leader of the ColaLife campaign - which is trying to get Coca-Cola to open up its distribution channels in developing countries to carry 'social products' such as oral rehydration salts, high-dose vitamin A, water purification tablets, or whatever else is required in a particular locality to save lives, particularly children's lives. ColaLife is run as a spare time voluntary activity. He is currently employed on a short term contract with Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) as Head of the Third Sector Team which is charged with strengthening relationships with the not for profit sector to help improve Defra's policy development and delivery. Simon also founded ruralnet|uk in 2002 and was CEO for six years. ruralnet|uk was a rural development charity and social enterprise which was innovative in its use of online systems to support of grass roots community action. In 2006 Simon was highly commended in the IAB's 'Social Entrepreneur of the Year'. He has been nominated twice for the New Stateman's New Media Awards (2007 and 2008) and reached the national final in 2007 for the open innovative exchange initiative. In 2009 Simon was part of the first team of bloggers to be permitted to blog from inside the London G20 Summit. Simon started his career working for the British Aid programme. He spent 12 years living and working in South America, the Caribbean and Africa. It was while working in the remote NE of Zambia in 1988 that he had the idea behind ColaLife - 21 years ago. Read Simon's blog

Amy Sample Ward is the co-author of Social by Social. She is the Global Community Development Manager for NetSquared, focused on the intersection of technology and social impact. Amy has also worked with nonprofits and social impact groups as a social media strategist, consultant, and trainer. Her blog is at http://www.AmySampleWard.org

David Wilcox is developing the role of social reporter as someone who uses a mix of journalistic, facilitation and social media skills to promote collaborations online and off. David is a co-author with Amy Sample Ward of Social by Social, and he blogs at www.socialreporter.com

Mary was appointed as Executive Director of UBoC in June 2009. Prior to her appointment she was the Corporate Responsibility Director of Deloitte UK, where her responsibilities included the management of Deloitte’s award winning Community Investment programme and innovative Green Agenda. Under Mary’s leadership, Deloitte achieved Platinum rating in the BiTC CR Index and ISO14001 accreditation. Mary’s role combined the programme management skills she had acquired during 10 years in the Consulting service line at Deloitte with her ambition for the Corporate Responsibility programme. Mary has extensive experience with internal and external clients across Europe and North America. Her pragmatic approach to implementing change and a proven track record of successful relationship management across organisations, together with her passion for environmental issues bring invaluable expertise to the leadership of UBoC. Read more about United Bank of Carbon

Jess Steele set up and now leads the DTA’s consultancy service, the Pool, drawing on the grassroots expertise of practitioners throughout the development trust movement. Alongside providing high-quality consultancy on community enterprise and community assets, the Pool also develops experimental work for the DTA, including the original Advancing Assets for Communities programme and the Community Sector Trading virtual learning approach. Jess has recently completed a 5-month secondment to Communities & Local Government where she took the policy lead for assets and specifically developed new policy on ‘meanwhile uses’ of empty town centre premises. Alongside several other projects, Jess is now leading on the DTA’s Meanwhile Project to bring empty shops into new community uses while the recession lasts. All her work bridges policy and practice and aims to bring practitioners into a more central role in shaping policy. Read more about the DTA

After 25 years at the BBC in senior editorial positions at BBC Children In Need and BBC Nations & Regions, where she led major TV and radio campaigns, Gloria left the BBC two years ago and has carved a successful career as a Creative Consultant, Executive Producer and PR professional; specializing in developing the creativity of charities and advising them on authentic story telling. Her many and varied clients have included: Kids Company, YMCA, Cancer Research UK, The Big Lottery, Nurture Group Network and Pilotlight. Recently, she has managed big events, advised independent production companies on programme output, mentored CEOs, worked on The Big Lunch and managed the press and PR for this year’s annual Radio Academy Radio Festival. As a passionate advocate for social innovation, Gloria was one of the original members of See The Difference - an exciting new website portal where individual charities can upload videos about specific projects they are engaged in, and allows potential donors to search through the content for ones that particularly inspire them. Working alongside Dominic Vallely, the founder and brains behind See the Difference, she has led the engagement of the pilot charities in this remarkable journey, and has worked to develop their original story telling through video production. Read more about See The Difference

Paul started we20 to enable anyone to host their own G20 meeting and connect the results online. Paul is a lawyer working in the internet and social media industries and is passionate about the way new technologies are changing the world. Before April's G20 Summit in London, Paul brought together 20 people from across the policy, charity, business and technology sectors to discuss how the internet could enhance the G20 and help fight the global recession. The idea for we20 was born. we20 meetings have taken place all over the world and discussed diverse issues from local growing initiatives to the global economic system. The plans created are posted and discussed at we20's website. The recent G20 Summit in Pittsburgh confirmed that the G20 will succeed the G8 as the global forum for economic policy co-ordination and crisis fighting. This has inspired Paul and others to continue to develop we20. Paul is also a non-executive director of UnltdWorld.com and a member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. Read more about we20 here

Liam spent much of his youth in Toronto, Canada, inhaling tear gas at international trade summits, mobilising teenagers to fight exorbitant tuition fees and getting people in his neighbourhood to make the lives of local neo-Nazis generally unbearable. Since then, he has come to England and learned that change happens in many different ways… Supporting community leaders to develop projects and small organisations at the Scarman Trust, and working voluntarily with community groups to secure funding and facilitate partnerships provides the context for Liam’s current role at Campaigning Effectiveness. Since joining NCVO, he has specialised in helping organisations understand how new media and the internet are changing the ways people campaign, running training courses and coordinating the development of Louder.org.uk, the new online home for campaigners (launching October 16th).”

Matthew has worked in the UK voluntary sector in a variety of roles including research, policy, community development and as a funder. He is currently an Associate of Links UK, the national arm of Community Links, and Deputy Director of UK charitable trust the Baring Foundation. He is co-author of the report Living Values: encouraging boldness in voluntary organisations and currently leads a grants programme supporting the independence of the voluntary sector, with a particular focus on the legal advice and advocacy organisations.

I studied sociology and local policies. In 1998 I started working in Calabria, south Italy, as a sociologist in local welfare programs and vocational training. In 2001 I moved to Urbino, to work in the University scientific library, especially on the e-learning platform and electronic databases. I also did some studies with the Istituto di Sociologia and with Lapolis, about young people, state, cooperative credit. In 2004 I've begun to work with CVM, an Italian NGO: I've been in Tanzania to train the local staff in data collection and analysis, and in Ethiopia to participate in an HIV AIDS prevention and control project as responsible for data collection. During this last project I started a blog, http://www.tanapervi.splinder.com. In 2008 I started working for ISCOS Marche, body of international cooperation of CISL Marche trade union, following the communication and supporting the fund raising and project managing. We are currently working for agricultural development in Rufiji, Tanzania, for strengthening the trade unions in Albania, and for food security in Northern Red Sea Region, Eritrea. I discovered Kiva in March, 29, 2007. I am now captain of Kiva Italy team (check out http://www.vivakiva.org). I like the idea of helping people through micro-credit. I'm just giving my hand in changing the world, one loan at time.

Derek Browne’s background has combined a career with some of the UK and worlds leading investment banks while competing as an international triple jumper in the UK and Europe. Derek has a background in financial services and Investment Banking, working for institutions as Securities and Investment Board, Barings and Merrill Lynch. In 2003 after leaving Merrill Lynch he decided to launch Entrepreneurs In Action, a company focusing on working with young people and teaching them about the mindset for entrepreneurial success. He is dedicated to developing a new generation of entrepreneurs from a diverse range of backgrounds. Read more

Kerry McCarthy was elected as the Labour MP for Bristol East in May 2005. She was appointed as a Government Whip in June 2009. Before that she served for two years as PPS to Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State at the DFID and prior to that PPS to Rosie Winterton at the Department of Health. Directly after her election she spent two years as a member of the Treasury Select Committee. Kerry was also recently appointed as the Labour Party’s New Media Communications Spokesperson and is working to ensure fellow MPs and PPCs are aware of the new media campaigning tools available to them and help share best practice, as well as being the spokesperson for what Labour is doing in this area.

Michael Devlin joined the RSA in January 2009 and leads the Fellowship Networks team; which is focused on making connections within the Fellowship of the RSA through brokerage and facilitation, with the purpose of generating projects and productive networks and associations. In addition, the Networks team works with Fellows and other key partners to design, incubate and evaluate innovative approaches to network development. Michael’s experience prior to joining the RSA includes a 9 year career in banking in both Australia and the UK, as well as a background in student membership organisations as a representative office-bearer. Michael is a qualified solicitor and holds a Bachelor of Law and Legal Practice as well as a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment. Read more about the RSA