Jon Alexander, Author and Founder of New Citizen Partnership

Jon is author of CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us – a book that seeks to reframe the moment in time we’re living in as one of huge civic opportunity, not just crisis and collapse, and in doing so opens up a world of possibility for organisations and leaders across sectors and across the world.

Jon is co-founder of the New Citizenship Project, a strategy and innovation consultancy that aims to shift the dominant story of the individual in society from Consumer to Citizen. NCP’s client list includes The Guardian, the European Central Bank, and the European Journalism Centre.

Having begun his career with a decade in the advertising industry at agencies including BBDO and Fallon, Jon is a proud former winner of Brand Republic’s Big Idea of the Year Award, for creating the concept of MyFarm in 2011: handing over decision making on a real working farm to the public by online vote and debate as a way of engaging people with sustainable food production.

Jon is increasingly active and visible politically, as a Fellow of the Young Foundation and the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of the OECD’s Innovative Citizen Participation Network. His May 10, 2020 essay on Medium—analyzing the British government’s response to COVID-19 through the lens of Citizen-vs-Consumer—went viral, and thus far has been read by nearly 650,000 people.

Along the way, Jon has also represented Great Britain in both rowing and triathlon.

Dame Julie Mellor, Chair of DEMOS, Young Foundation 

A long time advocate of public participation in decisions that affect their lives and of employee involvement in solving organisational challenges, Julie decided in 2017 that her portfolio activity would focus on public participation.

Julie is now Chair of Demos, the cross party think tank championing public involvement in policy and service development and of the Young Foundation, the UK’s home for community research and social innovation. She also sits on the board of Involve, the leading public participation charity and of Engage Britain, bringing people together to tackle the UK’s biggest challenges.

Previously, as Ombusdman for public services, Julie involved the public in the development of its first service charter.

Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Chair of the National Audit Office 

Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE was Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 2012 until 2021. She came to the college from the National Trust, where she was Director-General from 2001-2012.  During her time there, she made the Trust warmer and more welcoming, bringing the houses to life and raising the profile of the Trust’s work in the countryside.  Before the Trust, she was Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office (1998-2000), Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) from 1987-98 and Secretary to the Council for National Parks (now Campaign to Protect National Parks) from 1980-87.  She has an MA and MPhil from Cambridge University in Geography and Land Economy.

Fiona holds a number of non-Executive roles. She is Chair of the National Audit Office, the Council of the Royal Agricultural University, the International National Trusts Organisation, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden and its Bennett Institute for Public Policy.  She is a trustee of the Grosvenor Estate, the Green Alliance and the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.  Her book The Fight for Beauty was published in 2016.  Fiona was appointed CBE for services to the environment and conservation in 1998 and DBE in 2008.