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The Secretary of State has appointed Stephen Hawker, Martin Howard, Professor Phillip Johnson, Dr Leon Litvack, Helene Pantelli, David Rossington, and Martin Uden as Council Members of ACNRA for terms of between two and fours years from 21st October 2019.

Stephen Hawker is a former senior member of the United Kingdom intelligence and security community. After leaving government service in 2006 he worked as an independent consultant providing insight to government and the commercial sector in the UK and overseas on national security issues. He has undertaken a number of significant Board level assignments including benchmarking reviews of overseas security and intelligence services, and other capacity building in Africa and the Middle East. He was a specialist adviser to the House of Lords sub-Committee reviewing the EU’s Internal Security Strategy and one of the ‘Critical Friends’ advising the Home Office on security arrangements for the 2012 London Olympics. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, and a non-executive director in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He currently serves on the Security Vetting Appeals Panel (SVAP) and is an independent member of the Audit Committee of Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a distinguished fellow of the University of Reading and a Fellow of the Institutes of Engineering and Technology (FIET) and Civil Protection and Emergency Management (FICPEM).

Martin Howard is a recently retired UK senior security official. His last two postings in government were as Director for Cyber Policy and International Relations at GCHQ, focusing on strategic development and communication of cyber-security policies, and on cyber and intelligence co-operation with international partners; and Chief of the Assessments Staff in the Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Organisation, analysing conventional and novel threats to national security and critical infrastructure. He previously served as Assistant Secretary General for Operations in NATO, dealing with the alliance’s missions in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Libya, Iraq and on counter-piracy; as Director General Operational Policy in the Ministry of Defence; and as Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence. Most of Martin’s earlier service was in the Ministry of Defence, working primarily on security policy, operations, intelligence and corporate communications. He also worked in the Northern Ireland Office acting as Private Secretary to the Secretary of State and as part of the UK team that helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement. Martin was appointed Companion of the Bath (CB) in 2007. He is married to Caroline Delves and they have no children. His hobbies include classical and contemporary guitar, swimming, sailing, music and reading.

Phillip Johnson is the Professor of Commercial Law at Cardiff University. He researches legal history, intellectual property, and public law with particular interest in the history of policy development and the legislative process. He remains a practising barrister and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He worked as a government lawyer between 2002 and 2007 and for most of that time he advised the Patent Office. In 2007 he returned to private practice before becoming a full title academic in 2012. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the European Law Institute. He has published numerous books and articles on law and legal political history.

Leon Litvack is Professor of Victorian Studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he has worked since 1991. He is a world authority on the manuscripts, letters and photographic portraits of Charles Dickens, and serves on the Board of the Charles Dickens Museum, London. He is Principal Editor of the Charles Dickens Letters Project (Dickensletters.com), and has authored many books and articles on the Victorian author; his latest publication is Reading Dickens Differently (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020). He has held Visiting Professorships at Columbia University (New York), the University of New Brunswick (Canada), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). He is a freelance broadcaster for the BBC, and contributes to radio and television programmes on literature, arts and culture, and on religion and ethics. Professor Litvack serves on the Board of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and chairs its Finance and Capital Committee. He is also a Board member of National Museums Northern Ireland, and has served as the organisation’s Vice-Chairman; he is currently Chairman of NMNI’s Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

Helene Pantelli has worked at the Financial Ombudsman Service since 2013 as an ombudsman, a statutory decision maker responsible for resolving disputes between consumers and financial services providers. She is currently an Ombudsman Leader and the Head of Practice for Investments and Pensions disputes, leading a division of ombudsman managers making legally binding decisions on complex and high value complaints. Helene has responsibility for technical matters and policy development for those complaints. She represents the Financial Ombudsman Service externally, speaking at events, liaising regularly with regulatory authorities, businesses and other key industry and consumer groups. Helene represented the Financial Ombudsman Service on the government advisory group on social impact investing in the UK, the report for which – “Growing a culture of social impact investing in the UK” - was published at the end of 2017. Helene is a qualified solicitor. She spent several years practising law with City law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (in London and Paris) and Travers Smith LLP, including a secondment to the legal team of a global financial institution. Helene’s experience focussed on all elements of commercial law, particularly private and listed investment funds, assisting clients with corporate transactions, corporate governance and regulatory matters.

David Rossington was a civil servant from 1982 until earlier this year. He held acting Director General roles in both DCMS and MHCLG, and was Finance Director in both departments for some years. This included responsibility for document management and Freedom of Information issues in both departments. Other roles included being interim Director of the Office for Civil Society in DCMS, and the senior official responsible for a major cultural project to enable better storage and better public access for 2.5 million objects belonging to three national museums. During his career, David worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, the Foreign Office, DEFRA, an office of the Treasury, MHCLG and DCMS. He is a qualified accountant (CIMA). Currently David is a trustee of a housing charity for veterans (Stoll), Treasurer of an Oxfordshire environmental charity (Earth Trust), and trustee at the Oxfordshire Community Foundation and at an Oxford arts charity, Arts at the Old Fire Station. He provides advice to the Gambling Commission on preparations for the next National Lottery competition. He is also a keen walker, allotment tenant and participant in activities in his Oxfordshire village. He has two adult children.

Martin Uden served as Ambassador in Seoul from 2008-2011, having had two previous postings in the Embassy there. He was previously Consul-General in San Francisco, and had postings to Bonn, Ottawa and Lagos. While on leave from the Foreign Office, he worked for the UN in New York as Coordinator of the Panel of Experts on sanctions against the DPRK from 2012-14. After leaving the Foreign Office, he worked for HSBC in Hong Kong from 2015-17, and now works for his alma mater, Queen Mary University of London, and is on the Advisory Board of QMUL’s Global Policy Institute. In addition, he is a trustee of a Christian mission charity, Governor of his local school, Chairman of the British Korean Society and President of the British Korean War Veterans’ Society. He is the author of “Times Past in Korea,” 2003, an anthology of foreign writings on Korea, based on his collection of antiquarian books, and of a historical introduction to “Korea: Caught in time,” 1997.

These roles are remunerated at £386 per day for up to twenty-four days a year. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The Government’s Governance Code requires that any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years is declared. This is defined as holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation or candidature for election. Stephen Hawker, Martin Howard, Professor Phillip Johnson, Dr Leon Litvack, Helene Pantelli, David Rossington and Martin Uden have not declared any activity.