Members' News

Ann Kenrick

The work and value of the FBC has been recognised by the award of an OBE to Ann Kenrick in the 2009 New Year's Honours List for services to Franco-British relations.

Elena Crasta

Elena

Bonnie Greer

Bonnie Greer is opening at the La Virgule in Turcoing, France in September in a play she wrote based on Hedda Gabler, entitled "She Twirls Pistols".Her music-theatre piece "Paris, 1948" about the love affair between Juliette Greco and Miles Davies will open in London in June.Her novel "Entropy" is published this spring.

Professor John Rogister

He took part in December 2008 in a conference on "Unification of the World or Conflicts of Civilization ?" organized in Paris by the Association France-Grande Bretagne, and his contribution will be published by the publisher L'Harmattan. He has joined the Editorial Board of the French journal "Parlement(s). Revue d'Histoire politique" which is sponsored by the National Assembly. In March 2009 he was made a Commandeur de l'Ordre de la Couronne by H.M. The King of the Belgians."

Dr Catherine Fieschi

Catherine Fieschi became Director of Counterpoint, the British Council’s cultural relations think tank in Sempter of 2008. Catherine Fieschi brings a wealth of experience to a role which will see her shape and develop the thinking on the future of public diplomacy and cultural relations.

Catherine is the former Director of Demos, and is a regular commentator on identity politics in the UK and Europe. She said: ‘I am thrilled to be joining the British Council in this role, and look forward to making a real contribution towards the organisation’s cultural relations mission on the world stage. Now more than ever we need to ensure that the moral, social and intellectual challenges we face in the 21st Century are brought into the open and addressed. It is a privilege and a challenge to join at a time when the British Council’s work is more important than ever.”

David Walker

David Walker, one of the FBC trustees, recently swopped roles - poacher to gamekeeper as the saying goes. He left the Guardian, where he edited the monthly Public magazine, to join the Audit Commission, where he is now managing director, communications and public reporting. David comments: "I'd written and commentated on the public sector for years and now I'm doing rather than pontificating. The Audit Commission supervises local authorities in England, along with the police and fire services and parts of the local NHS, auditing their accounts and pushing for greater value for money. Now there's a Sisyphean task. Journalism was good to me - where else would you be paid to have lunch with fascinating people and rewarded for shouting your opinions from the rooftop. I've arrived at the commission as we gear up to introduce a new way of assessing local bodies, focussing much more on what people experience rather than the processes by which they deliver. In the UK we are notably more keen on "audit" as a function - the point was made by French colleagues at the recent Edinburgh seminar on public service reform. Audit inside the state - of one bit of government by another - isn't highly developed in France and elsewhere in Europe and, as always, it's hard to say whether one system outperforms another, as measured by the public's satisfaction or any objective indicator. But the Audit Commission is a tremendous vantage: we look down over the array of local bodies but also upwards to ask whether Whitehall is functioning effectively. So far, I'm intrigued by how little journalists know about the inner workings of government, or rather how little they care to ask!"

Dr Andrew Robinson

He attended and spoke at this EU Presidency Conference in Paris in late September 2008, where keynote speeches were given by French Foreign Minister Kouchner and EU Commissioner Barrot. The Report will form part of the presentation to the new EC and EP.

Maurice Fraser

In December 2008 Maurice was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur. In bestowing this high honour, the French Ambassador spoke of 'this rewarding a career wholly devoted to achieving better intellectual understanding and especially greater warmth of affection between our two countries. It's thanks to people like you that, at last, after a long and not always happy history, we can see that France and the United Kingdom belong to the same family, and that, together, we form a critical mass able to act effectively in Europe and in the world. All your professional activities have borne the hallmark of this friendship for France and determination to unite our two countries.' He highlighted Maurice Fraser's work as a diplomat advising Lord Hurd in the 1990s, as a teacher at the LSE bringing together Sciences Po and the LSE, as an editor of high calibre public policy publications and as Vice Chairman of the Franco-British Council since 2007.

Dr Anne Corbett

Just before Christmas, Anne Corbett spoke at two Franco-British occasions. At an event organised by the Franco-British Student Alliance at the London School of Economics, and attended by the French Ambassador, to discuss the recent report of the Cercle d'Outre Manche on French university reform and the university contribution to innovation, she was a discussant. At an event organised by the French Presidency of the EU, Rencontre européenne de journalistes de l' éducation , held at the Centre international d'études pédagogiques, at Sèvres, she spoke on the creation of a European Higher Education Area in 2010.