Council members

Professor George Brock
Professor and Head of Journalism at City University since September 2009. He began his reporting career at the Yorkshire Evening Press and The Observer, joining The Times in 1981 as a feature writer. At The Times he subsequently became a features editor and, in 1984, op-ed page editor. He was foreign editor, Brussels bureau chief, European Editor, Managing Editor, Saturday Editor and most recently International Editor in a 28-year career at the newspaper. He is a board member of the World Editors Forum, and a member of the British committee of the International Press Institute. He broadcasts and lectures frequently and reviews for the Times Literary Supplement.

Dr Andrew Burnett FBA
Deputy Director, The British Museum. Formerly Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum, Dr Burnett’s major research work is his two-volume Roman Provincial Coinage, which for the first time makes historical sense of the coinages struck by subsidiary communities under Roman rule between the death of Caesar and the death of Vitellius. He has also throughout his time at the BM contributed to the publishing the coin hoards of Roman Britain.

Mr John C. Carrington
John C. Carrington has over thirty years experience at the leading edge of telecommunications. A pioneer in the development of international broadband telecommunications services in the early1980’s, he has also played a key role in the development of cellular communications in the UK and Europe. John founded Cellnet – now O2, and Mercury PCN – now T Mobile. He is still deeply involved in both fixed and mobile telecommunications innovation and has over the past fifteen years become more involved with software creation and solutions deployment.
John is non-executive Chairman of Leisurejobs.com Ltd, and The Speech Recognition Company Ltd. and an Advisory Director to Alegro Capital. John is Chairman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Charity, a Trustee of the Seckford Foundation (Governor of Woodbridge School, Suffolk) and a member of the Council of Gresham College.
John Carrington is a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, a liveryman of the Clockmakers’ Company and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.
Together with Mr James Brotherhood, he has advised Gresham College and assisted in its plans to improve the College’s website.

Mrs Xenia Dennen
Xenia Dennen, a graduate of St Anne’s College, Oxford, is a Russian expert who for the past 14 years has travelled widely in the Russian Federation studying the religious situation. In 1969 she helped found the Keston Institute with four distinguished figures, Professor Leonard Schapiro, Professor Peter Reddaway, Sir John Lawrence and the Revd Dr Canon Michael Bourdeaux, Keston’s first Director and now its President. After some years studying Russian politics at the LSE, Xenia Dennen in 1973 founded Keston’s academic journal, Religion in Communist Lands (renamed Religion, State and Society after the fall of communism) which she edited until 1981. During the1990s - years of economic and political turmoil in Russia - she worked as Keston’s Moscow representative and built up a network of contacts for the institute. In 1998 she was made a Fellow of the George Bell Institute (an international fellowship of scholars and artists). She was appointed Chairman of Keston Institute in 2002. Over the years she has published reviews and articles in the Tablet, the Month, Theology, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, The World Today (Royal Institute of International Affairs), Frontier (Keston Institute), the British East-West Journal, Glaube in der 2. Welt, Tiltas (British-Lithuanian Society), Humanitas (George Bell Institute) and Keston’s monthly internet journal Russian Review. She is on the livery of the Mercers’ Company.

Mr Simon D’Olier Duckworth DL

Simon Duckworth is an investment trust director. A Cambridge University graduate, he became an elected member of the City of London Corporation (Court of Common Council) in 2000 and has served on a number of key local authority committees, primarily involved with Policy, Finance and Investment. He became actively involved in the work of the City’s Police Authority in 2002. He chaired reviews into Asset Management and Counter Terrorism, and became Deputy Chairman in 2006. He joined the Association of Police Authorities’ Strategic Policing and Police Authority Reform Groups in that year. In 2007 he joined the National Olympics Security Oversight Group (NOSOG). In 2008 he became Chairman of the City's Police Committee and also serves on the City's CDRP. Later that year he was appointed to the APA’s Board of Directors. In this capacity he represents the specialist non-geographical Authorities related to the City of London, British Transport, Ministry of Defence and Civil Nuclear Constabularies.
 
He joined the Home Office's Olympic Security Strategy Group in 2008 and, on its formation, was subsequently appointed to the Olympic Security Board. Since January 2009 he has been Chairman of NOSOG, and now serves on a number of Home Office and ACPO led Programme and Project Boards relating to Olympic Safety and Security. A member of the Advisory Board of City University, London, he served on the University's Governing Body from 2001-6. He holds a number of non-executive posts in both the public and private sector including the Reserve Forces Association and the Order of St John. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater London in 2008.

Mr Anthony Eskenzi CBE
Anthony Eskenzi established his Chartered Surveyors and Arbitration practice in the City after military service in the Middle East. He is a former Chairman of the City Police Authority and was instrumental in the implementation of the “ring of steel”. Senior member of the Court of Common Council; served as Sheriff of The City of London and subsequently Chief Commoner. Mr Eskenzi has served on the majority of City Corporation Committees over the years and currently is a member of the Finance Committee. Mr Eskenzi has a particular interest in business education for young men and women and was a co-founder of Young Enterprise. He is Chairman of the City Side of the Joint Grand Gresham Committee, Deputy Chairman of Gresham College Council and Chairman of our Nominations Committee.
Mr Eskenzi received a CBE for services to the City of London and Young Enterprise, and a DSc (Hon) from the City University.

Professor Sir Roderick Floud FBA
Provost of Gresham College and Chairman of the College Council, Sir Roderick Floud is also the Chairperson of the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences at the European Science Foundation and President Emeritus of the London Metropolitan University.
His particular interests in part-time and mature students in higher education has been reflected in many of his publications as well as his participation in numerous boards and committees. Of particular note are his roles as President of Universities UK (representing 121 British Universities), Vice-President of the European University Association (where he was particularly involved in the 'Bologna process' of converging European education systems), and Chair of the Social Sciences Committee of the European Science Foundation (representing research councils and learned academies from thirty European Countries). In 2005 he received a knighthood for his services to Higher Education in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
Sir Roderick Floud is an economic historian, with publications on topics as diverse as technological change, the use of IT in the study of history, the evolution of technical education and changes in human height, health and welfare. He holds honorary fellowships from Emmanuel College Cambridge, Wadham College Oxford, Birkbeck College London and the Historical Association, as well as honorary degrees from City University London and the University of Westminster. He was elected an Academician of the Social Sciences in 2000 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002.

Alderman Alison Gowman
A member of Gresham College Council and a member of the College’s Finance Committee. Alison Gowman is a partner at DLA Piper, where she specialises in commercial property and advises on landlord and tenant matters, real estate finance and development work. She is experienced in sustainability and waste issues. Prior to becoming an Alderman she served for 11 years as a member and Deputy for the Ward of Dowgate. She has been involved in all aspects of the work of the City of London during her years of service and is presently Chairman of the Energy and Sustainability Subcommittee, as well as a member of many other City of London Corporation committees. Alderman Gowman is a Warden of the Glovers’ Livery Company. She is a Member of the City of London Law Society Land Law Committee. Alison Gowman is also a Trustee of the Sir John Soane’s Museum and of the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College.

Emeritus Gresham Professor Daniel H Hodson
Daniel Hodson is Chairman of the Lokahi Foundation and  serves as Senior Non-Executive Independent Director of SVM Global Fund PLC. A former Master Mercer, he was until recently Chairman of the Design and Artists’ Copyright Society and of the University of Winchester as well as being a director/governor of a number of private companies and not for profit organisations, including St Paul’s Girls’ School  and Collyers’ College .  Previously he was Group Finance Director of Unigate, Finance Director of Nationwide Building Society and Chief Executive of LIFFE. Daniel Hodson is a member of the Gresham College Council and a former holder of the Mercers’ School Memorial Chair of Commerce.

Mr Tom Hoffman
Tom Hoffman read Law at the University of Exeter, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. In 1971 he went into merchant banking and for the past 40 years he has been engaged in investment banking and international banking. He retired in 2003, but remains the senior adviser to a Portuguese financial group, and Honorary Vice-President of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce.
He was elected to the Court of Common Council in 2002. He is Chairman of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, a Trustee of both the Guildhall School Trust and the Guildhall School Development Fund, a Governor of the Museum of London, a Governor of the Barbican Centre, a Trustee of the City of London Festival and the Stour Music Festival in Kent, and is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Music Festival. Since 2003 he has also been engaged with one of London’s leading teaching hospitals as a Governor of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He is also a Trustee of both the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy and the Friends of the Clergy Corporation.
He is a Governor of the City of London School for Girls (Chairman 2003-2006). Until recently he was also a Trustee of the Christ’s Hospital Foundation, a Member of the Council of the University of Exeter, and a Governor of Birkbeck College in the University of London (of which he is an Honorary Fellow).
As a Common Councilman of the City of London he is a Member of the Finance Committee, Investment Committee, Planning Committee, Culture Heritage & Libraries Committee, and the Gresham Committee of which he is Chairman. He is also a Member of the Court of the Honourable the Irish Society (Deputy Governor 2009-2010). He is a Past Master of the Tylers & Bricklayers’ Company, Honorary Treasurer of the Guildhall Historical Association (who published his Paper on The Rise & Decline of Guilds in Great Britain and Ireland, and a Life Member of Leander Club.

Emeritus Gresham Professor Michael Mainelli
Professor Michael Mainelli FCCA FCSI co-founded Z/Yen, the City of London’s leading commercial think-tank, in 1994 to promote societal advance through better finance and technology. Michael began his career as a research scientist in aerospace (rocket science) and computer graphics which led to him starting companies in seismology, cartography and energy information for a Swiss publishing firm. In the early 1980’s Michael created a multi-million dollar oil industry consortium which culminated in the development of a complete digital map of the world, MundoCart, along the way having to build laser line-following digitisers. Michael spent several years as a partner and board member of one of the leading accountancy firms directing consultancy work in the UK and overseas. Michael has worked in the public sector on privatisations and strategy; in the private sector in a variety of industries (banking, insurance, manufacturing, media, retail, utilities, television, distribution) on problems ranging from strategy through information systems, quality, human resources, environmental systems and R&D; and in the voluntary sector on a number of assignments to improve performance. Michael’s acclaimed humorous risk/reward management novel, Clean Business Cuisine: Now and Z/Yen, written with Ian Harris, was published in 2000.
Michael is Professor Emeritus of Commerce and a Fellow at Gresham College, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics Department of Management Information Systems and Innovation Group, a non-executive Director of the United Kingdom Accreditation Service - the UK’s sole accreditation body for certification, testing, inspection and calibration services, a non-executive Director of Sirius Exploration Plc - a mining company, a Trustee of Ocean Alliance and The Whale Conservation Institute in Massachusetts and The International Fund For Animal Welfare, on the editorial board of the Journal of Strategic Change as well as the Journal of Business Strategy and on the advisory boards of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation and Alchemie Technology. Michael is a qualified accountant, computer specialist and management consultant with a degree from Harvard as well as mathematics and engineering at Trinity College Dublin. His PhD from the London School of Economics was in the application of risk/reward methodologies involving chaotic systems and strategic planning quality.

Mrs Menna McGregor
Menna McGregor, who qualified as a barrister, is Clerk to The Mercers’ Company, heading its management team. Previously she was  its Company Secretary, providing in-house legal and company secretarial services including ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements of the Company and its charities. She is also Clerk to the Governors of  St Paul’s Girls’ School.  Previously Menna was Board and Company Secretary of the National Theatre, and  Secretary to the Trustees of the Royal National Theatre Foundation. She is currently also a trustee of the National Foundation for Youth Music, and of the Public Catalogue Foundation, and  was previously a trustee of the Wales Millennium Centre.  From 2007 to 2011 she was a member of the Board Development  Team  of the Clore Leadership Programme. Menna is a member of Gresham College Council and a member of the College’s Finance Committee.

Mr Roderick Wathen
After reading English at Cambridge and a short period in banking, Roderick Wathen worked abroad for the next 41 years. In 1965, under the Overseas Development Authority he became Head of English in a large secondary school in Kampala, Uganda. From 1970 to 76, under the British Council, he was firstly Director of English at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, then English Language Teaching Adviser to the Government of the Yemen Arab Republic. After completing an MA Education at Southampton University (curriculum studies), Roderick worked from 1978 to 1982 for the Government of Papua New Guinea, first setting up the English department in a new sixth form college in Wewak, then as Principal of a regional training college in Port Moresby. In 1983, he returned to Saudi Arabia and the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, and became Director of the Orientation English Programme – a 600-hour course taught entirely in English to 1,600 Saudi Arabian students by 100 teachers – mainly from the UK and the USA. The course, designed to raise students very basic high-school English to the standards required in undergraduate courses conducted entirely in English, was written by an in-house team chaired by Roderick, and so successful it was later adopted by other government institutions. In 1999 Roderick was seconded to Riyadh to oversee the setting up of the new private Prince Sultan University (PSU).
Roderick was on the Governing Board of the British International School in Al-Khobar (adjacent to Dhahran) 1996-2000 and served as Warden (1990-2006) for all British personnel at KFUPM and, later, at PSU during the two Gulf Wars and then through a period of internal and bloody terrorist activity.
Roderick retired in 2006. He and his wife Jacquie are (uniquely) both liverymen of the Mercers’ Company and spend their time between Norfolk and the Isle of Skye.

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