Chairman's Statement
Lord Falconer of Thoroton (2009)
This has been a year of extraordinary change for the Trust and one in which our small staff team and our Trustees have been stretched to the limit. The conflict between Russia and Georgia in August, the April events in Moldova and other challenges to the peaceful evolution of our region presented the Trust with difficult political challenges. We are non-partisan in terms of UK politics. For example Damian Green MP our Deputy Chair, Conservative Shadow front bencher, made a highly successful visit to Armenia and teamed up with our Liberal Democrat Deputy Chair, Sir Menzies Campbell MP, for a joint seminar with the 2009 Fellows on standards in public life. We are strictly neutral in terms of the politics of our Fellowship countries. However the Trustees did not feel that they could ignore such significant events and launched a Year of Action for the Fellows to work together on peace building projects. These were launched in Istanbul in January, continued through visits and meetings in the spring and continued at the Anniversary events in London in July. They have taken our network to a new level of engagement and solidified our status as one of the few safe spaces in which younger political leaders from states in conflict can meet to debate the future.
During the same period we had to move office, change our staffing and the way the programme is delivered, raise money in a depression and recruit new Trustees. After many years of very generous support from the FIA Foundation, they needed the space they have donated to us for the last few years. We are immensely grateful for all their help and sponsorship. We found new offices near London Bridge and a new company Logic ITC/Modrus, with the incomparable Innes Gerard, who helped us move smoothly and run our own network with, so far, very few hiccups! We took the opportunity of moving to rethink our staffing. After making a great contribution to the work of the Trust, especially with the organisation of our most successful ever promotional visit to Russia in September 2008, Natalia Westcombe left to pursue new challenges in the private sector. We were very luck to appoint Aisling Conboy as our new events manager. She has made a magnificent contribution to our work and masterminded the delivery of the 2009 Programme brilliantly. We also recruited a quartet of interns who have worked solidly over the spring and summer to deliver the programme. Gary Anello, Bahadir Ustaoglu, Elena Katan and Darina Netopil have all made a great contribution to our work in delivering the 2009 Programme and they have done so while we faced the new challenge of managing the UK elements of the programme ourselves and organising the academic programme in-house. We are very grateful to Professor Joe Bailey for his help with facilitating the seminars. The best compliment that can be paid to this team is that the 2009 Fellows argued vigorously with Fellows from previous years that their programme had been the best ever!
During all these exciting changes and new challenges, our constants have been Julie Utting our Communications Officer, Moira Haslehurst our Finance Director and Emily Carr our Attachments Director. Julie has added important new dimensions to our alumni network with regular e-newsletters, revamped the website content and produced a stunning new alumni network booklet. Moira has failed to retire from the Trust for another year and kept our accounts in good order. Emily has yet again and in the difficult circumstances of Cabinet reshuffles and NGOs downsizing, produced an extraordinary range of highly appropriate placements for all the Fellows ably assisted by Nick Shaddick.
The Trust has made very real progress throughout the course of this year – in very large measure because of the personality and drive of our Director, Brian Brivati. He is an inspirational teacher, mentor and friend for the Fellows during their course here, he leads the Trust’s staff with clarity and with care, and he provides for the whole organisation enthusiasm, ideas and above all a very real sense of direction. We are very lucky to have him.
The work of delivering the programme has been done in the context of a world financial crisis which has had an impact on our private sector funding. That we are still very much in business and have bucked the trend across the third sector, is down to the tireless efforts of Baroness Smith and other Trustees who work in this area, especially David Charters and Richard Wallace. We were sad to see Peter Frank retire as a Trustee, his years of work with the Trust and expert advice on post-Soviet politics have been invaluable. We are honoured to welcome General Sir Michael Jackson to the Board. The Ministry of Justice remain our strongest supporters and we are very grateful to Joan Borley and Catriona Laing for their continued confidence. Our regular visits and interviewing trips are made possible by the hard work of British Council offices in Fellowship countries. We are very grateful to them for all their efforts. This year we welcome new corporate sponsors City Inn, JKX Oil & Gas, Weir, and White and Case. We continue to be grateful to our established sponsors from the private sector.
In the context of difficult financial times and challenging political times, the impact of the Trust continues to rely on the quality of speakers we can provide for the Fellowship and bring to the Fellowship countries. In terms of the UK we are very grateful to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, for meeting the Fellows at Number 10, to the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond for inviting the Fellows to a reception at Bute House and to Fiona Hyslop, Education Minister for receiving them there, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling for allowing us the use of Number 11 for the Fellows presentations, the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, for presentation of the Fellows certificates and for his departments continued sponsorship of the programme, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband for delivering the anniversary lecture, to the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Alex Fergusson for hosting a wonderful reception and dinner for the Fellows at the Scottish Parliament (where they were welcomed by two pipers) and the Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy for the use of Dover House for the 2008 Follow-Up Conference. The anniversary events took place at City Inn. David and Sandy Orr allowed all the Fellows visiting from previous years to stay in their hotel for the weekend, gave free use of rooms for our workshops and sponsored the evening reception including another wonderful piper. It was an amazing weekend which would not have been possible without them. To these and all the other supporters and sponsors of the Trust we are deeply grateful.