Executive
Syed Kamall MEP
syed.kamall@progressive-conservatives.org
Syed Kamall was born and brought up in London. He is married with two children.
Syed was educated at the Latymer School, Edmonton. He has a degree from Liverpool University, a Masters from the London School of Economics and a PhD from City University, London.
Syed has been an MEP since 2005 and has worked on several issues promoting individual liberty, limited government and free trade. Syed co-founded the Brussels Network monthly meetings, which brings together market-orientated think tanks, politicians and industry encouraging coalitions and ways of working together.
In his role as a member of the International Trade Committee, Syed sat on the board of the Conservative Party's Globalisation and Global Poverty working group, promoting open trade as a means of helping entrepreneurs and other citizens of poor countries have access to the goods and services that people in the West take for granted. He is also on the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) which works to identify community based, non-state solutions to tackling poverty.
As a member of the Civil Liberties Committee in The European Parliament, Syed promoted civil liberties and a free society against the ever encroaching EU and British state. He has recently been working on financial services and alternative investments, making sure that savers and pensioners as well as investors in new technologies and development projects continute to have access to much-needed capital.
Rt Hon Peter Lilley MP
peter.lilley@progressive-conservatives.org
After some years as an Economic consultant working particularly on Aid and development programmes in Africa and Asia he went into the City as a financial analyst specialising in investment in Energy and was made a Partner of a leading City firm.
He was elected to Parliament in 1983, became a Treasury Minister in 1987, joined Mrs Thatcher’s cabinet in 1990 as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and became Secretary of State for Social Security under John Major where he launched a radical programme successfully to curb its £100 billion budget and to ensure everyone acquired a funded pension. He was Shadow Chancellor then Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party Responsible for Policy Renewal until 2000. He Chaired the Party’s Global Poverty Policy Commission advised by Bob Geldof.
He serves on the Boards of a number of companies and has published on topics ranging from legalising sale of cannabis to the economics of immigration.
Douglas Carswell MP
Douglas is the Member of Parliament for Harwich, a seat he has held since 2005. Before becoming a MP, he worked in commerical television and fund management. Since coming to Parliament Douglas has made a name for himself as a supporter of greater transparency and localism.
He co-authored The Plan with Daniel Hannan MEP, calling for radical reform of the political system and provision of public services to promote more localism and accountability. Douglas also was the first Member of Parliament to break with tradition and call for the resignation of Speaker Michael Martin, and put forward a motion of no confidence in the Speaker.
Chris Heaton-Harris MP
Chris is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Daventry. From 1999 until 2009 Chris was a Member of the European Parliament representing the East Midlands region. He declined to stand for reelection in 2009 in order to concentrate on standing for Parliament in Daventry.
While in the European Parliament he worked for greater transparency and was a founding member of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, a cross-party group in the European Parliament that worked for more effective use of taxpayers money and reforms to the way the Parliament operated.
Steve Baker MP
Steve is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Wycombe. He has worked with a wide range of organisations globally, from the armed forces and manufacturers, to banks, regulators, government departments and software firms of all sizes.
He began studying economics in 1999 when trying to understand the irrational exuberance of the dot-com boom, the bursting of the bubble, and the response of central bankers. Consequently, after the Credit Crunch, he established The Cobden Centre with Toby Baxendale and Dr Tim Evans to advocate social progress through honest money, free trade and peace. Steve is also an Associate Consultant to the Centre for Social Justice.
You can find out more about Steve at his personal and political website: www.stevebaker.info.
Shane Frith
shane.frith@progressive-conservatives.org
Shane has worked for a number of London based think tanks, including Reform, Open Europe and the Centre for Policy Studies, since moving from his native New Zealand. He is also the founder and Director of Doctors’ Alliance, a pan-European network of medical professionals seeking better ways to deliver healthcare.
He has regularly appeared on television and radio in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, including the BBC Politics Show, Bloomberg TV and BBC Radio.
From 2002 until 2004, Shane was Chairman of the International Young Democrat Union, an organisation that links young people involved in centre-right politics. He has been a parliamentary candidate for the New Zealand National Party and has worked as a consultant for a number of Members of Parliament both in Britain and New Zealand.
He is a regular speaker internationally on coalition building and a variety of policy areas.
David Atherton
david.atherton@progressive-conservatives.org
David is on the National Executve and Parliamenary Liaison Consultant for Freedom2Choose a smoker's rights organisation. A lifelong Conservative voter and activist, is a commited libertarian who is particularly interested in the current marginalisation of drinkers in his country. He is also hoping to do a nationwide tour of constituencies in support of the beleagured pub and club industry.
His professional background is in information technology recruitment or the last 25 years, mainly in the banking and finance sectors.
JP Floru
jp.floru@progressive-conservatives.org
In 1994 JP Floru moved from Belgium to the UK in search for individual liberty and a free market economy. He qualified as a solicitor and now runs two small businesses. He is the founder of Freedom Week, an annual one week seminar in Cambridge where UK students are taught the foundations of a free society based on individual liberty and the free market (in collaboration with think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Adam Smith Institute).
He is an elected Councillor for the City of Westminster, where he tries to reduce regulation and keep taxes low. In 2009 he stood as a candidate for the European Elections for the London Region. He topped the poll of London party members and campaigned on a platform of free market economics and individual liberty. JP has never been able to decide who he admires most: Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan. He lists “fighting the nanny state” as one of his hobbies.
Shane Greer
shane.greer@progressive-conservatives.org
Shane Greer is the Executive Editor of Total Politics, a non-partisan political lifestyle magazine targeted to elected officials, political professionals, and those with more than a passing interest in politics.
Previously he was Executive Director of the Young Britons’ Foundation – an organisation that trains conservative-minded young people in political technology such as campaign management, candidate development, and television technique. Whilst at YBF, he was also a lead presenter on 18 Doughty Street Talk TV, the UK’s first political internet television channel.
Despite his relatively young age (26), he is one of the UK’s most prominent political bloggers and commentators, appearing regularly on television and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, Channel 4 News, More 4 News, Al Jazeera, and BBC Radio.
Martin Le Jeune
martin.lejeune@progressive-conservatives.org
Martin Le Jeune is a founder-director of communications consultancy Open Road. He was previously head of public affairs at Sky.
Martin spent eleven years in the Cabinet Office as a policy civil servant before joining PR agency Fishburn Hedges where he became a board director leading the company’s corporate responsibility practice.
Martin is a fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies and a trustee of the Institute of Business Ethics.
Toby Baxendale
Toby Baxendale is an entrepreneur who owns a company which is Britain’s largest fresh fish supplier to the catering trade. He also has active interests in several charities and is a Magistrate and an Ironman triathlete.
Toby is also dedicated to furthering the teaching of the Austrian School of Economics and the revival of the Great Manchester School of Cobden and Bright. Concerning the former he has helped with its revival at the London School of Economics.
Toby currently is Chairman of the Cobden Centre, an educational think tank that ecourages social progress through sound money, free trade and peace.
Michael Rock
michael.rock@progressive-conservatives.org
Michael is currently the National Chairman of Conservative Future, the UK's largest youth political movement. A former officer of the Bow Group Council, he is well known for his promotion of personal freedoms and classic liberal views, including placing the NO2ID campaign at the forefront of CF activities.
Professionally, his background ranges from the logistics sector to the financial industry. He currently runs an information solutions company, providing realtime information delivery platforms and bespoke information management systems.
Sam Collins
Sam is a former regional policy chairman of the New Zealand National Party, and is also a founding member and regional chairman of the 'Blue Liberals', the Progressive Conservative equivalent in the New Zealand National Party. Since moving to the United Kingdom he has become a committed Conservative activist in Local, General and European elections.
Sam has a professional background in both public relations and politics, having worked with a number of free market think-tanks and politicians - including former Congressman Jim Kolbe (Republican - 8th District of Arizona) and Hon Gerry Brownlee (former deputy leader of the New Zealand National Party and Minister for State-owned Enterprises).