Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information

Today, we say goodbye to four APPSI members: Michael Allen, Christopher Roper, Avinash Persaud, John Thornton.

The biographies of these members highlight the wealth of expertise they brought to the Panel:

Michael Allen, APPSI member from January 2004-October 2008

Michael Allen is Head of Knowledge Management at the Driver and Vehicle Operator Group at the Department of Transport, which includes the four main agencies of DVLA Swansea, Driving Standards Agency, Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, and the Vehicle Certification Agency. Knowledge Management is part of the Modernisation Programme for DVO Group.  Michael is also a lecturer with the Open University Business School MBA Programme, working with managers in South Wales and Russia in two courses, Strategy, and Knowledge Management. He was County Librarian with the City and County of Swansea from 1995 to 2002, working extensively on lifelong learning issues. He was a member of an EC Socrates team researching the impact of library services on community learning programmes, and is currently a member of the Library and Information Services Council (Wales)

Avinash D. Persaud, APPSI member from September 2005-October 2008

Avinash D. Persaud is Chairman, Intelligence Capital Limited, a financial advisory boutique for institutions and governments. He is also Co-Chair, OECD Emerging Markets Network; Deputy Chair, Overseas Development Institute; Member of Council of the London School of Economics; Member of Council of the Royal Economics Society; Director, Global Association of Risk Professionals; Member of the Finance Committee, Coram Family; Trustee, Errol and Nita Barrow Educational Trust; Emeritus Professor of Gresham College; and Visiting Fellow, CFAP, University of Cambridge. Persaud was formerly Investment Director, GAM London Ltd, managing director State Street, global head of currency and commodity research at J. P. Morgan and director, fixed-income research, UBS. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the IMF and ECB and a Distinguished Visitor to the Republic of Singapore.  Persaud has published widely in the fields of risk, liquidity, international capital flows, regulation and ethics. He developed the EMU Calculator, Risk Appetite Index and Liquidity Black Holes theory. In 2000, he won the Jacques de Larosiere Award in Global Finance from the Institute of International Finance in Washington.

Christopher Roper, APPSI member from April 2003-October 2008

Christopher Roper has spent most of his working life as a specialised publisher of newsletters, computer software and, most recently, map-based information services to a wide range of professional groups. He currently divides his time between writing and consulting. He is a non-executive director of a number of information service companies. He is a graduate of Cambridge University with an MSc from Columbia University. In 1995, he founded Landmark Information Group, which is a major value added reseller of Public Sector Information, specialising in environmental information services. He has served on the Board of the National Geospatial Data Framework and the Council of the Association for Geographical Information. He has written widely on technical and policy issues associated with the re-use of Public Sector Information.

John Thornton, APPSI member from September 2004-October 2008

John Thornton has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors as a customer, developer, user and maintainer of public sector information He is an independent adviser on e-government, innovation and business transformation. He is a Director of e-ssential Resources Limited, which provides advice, consultancy and support to public sector bodies, and is a Director of the SMART Governance Network, a primarily local government based network for stimulating and sharing ideas on new ways of working through the improved use of technology  Between 2001 and 2005, John was the Director of e-Government for the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA). His role within the IDeA was to provide leadership and assistance to local authorities with implementing e-government and delivering services on-line. This role covered all English local authorities. It also included taking forward projects of national importance and sharing of information on a national basis. He was the lead official and spokesperson for the Local Government Association (LGA) on e-Government matters and was a member of the LGA's e-Government Task Group.  Between 1992 and 2001, John was the Managing Director of the Institute of Public Finance (IPF).

Today, Professor Richard Susskind OBE will stand down as Chair of APPSI, a position he has filled since APPSI was formed in April 2003.  Professor Susskind will be replaced by Professor David Rhind, CBE, who formally takes up his post on 1 May 2008.

Professor Susskind's biography highlights a wealth of expertise from which which APPSI has enormously benefitted:

Richard Susskind is an independent adviser to global professional firms and national governments. He is I.T. Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice, Honorary Professor at Gresham College, London and a part-time law professor at the Centre for Law, Computers and Technology at Strathclyde University. He is a law columnist at the Times and the author of five books on legal technology. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Computer Society, he received his law degree from the University of Glasgow and his doctorate from Balliol College, Oxford. He was awarded an O.B.E. in the Millennium New Year’s Honours List for services to I.T. in the Law and to the Administration of Justice

Today, we say goodbye to Trevor Fenwick and David Warlock.

The biographies of these members highlight the wealth of expertise they brought to the Panel:

Trevor Fenwick, APPSI expert member in statistical information, 2003-2008
Trevor Fenwick is Managing Director of Euromonitor International Plc, a publisher of international business information, reference sources and market analysis databases. The company operates from offices in London, Chicago, Singapore, Shanghai and Vilnius. He is currently Director of Public Affairs for, and past Chairman of, the UK Directory and Database Publishers Association and a member of the Periodical Publishers Association’s Government and Regulatory Affairs Committee. He is a Past President of the European Association of Directory and Database Publishers. Currently a member of the Legal Deposit Advisory Panel he is closely involved with identifying and representing the database sector’s views on intellectual property and data protection to UK Government and the European Commission. He holds a degree in Economics and Government from Essex University, a postgraduate qualifications in marketing, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

David Worlock, APPSI representative member, Digital Information Publishers, 2003-2008
David Worlock is Chairman of the Digital Content Forum, which is the representative organization for 32 UK information industry organizations and provides a focus for their dialogue with government. He is also an independent commercial representative on the Content Advisory Board (Department for Education and Skills). In 2004 he acted as Special Advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology’s enquiry on Science publishing. David has worked closely with industry trade associations. For five years he was chairman of the European Information Industry Association, and then of the Information Communication Industry Association. He has been a member of subcommittees of the Publishers Association, the Periodical Publishers Association and the Newspaper Society.