125th Anniversary Speakers
Lord Lieutenant Derrick Anderson
Derrick Anderson, CBE DL is a highly respected British public sector leader with over 35 years of experience in local government. Born in London and raised in Birmingham, he has held several senior leadership roles, most notably serving as Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lambeth from 2006 until his retirement in 2014. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive of Wolverhampton City Council for a decade, following five years as Director of Leisure and Community Services.
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Anderson was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2003 for his services to local government. In 2012, he was named Public Leader of the Year at the Guardian Public Services Awards.
Beyond his executive roles, he has contributed to national and community development as a board member of the Home Office Policing Ministerial Reference Group, Sport England (London Region), and VSO UK. He currently serves as a Trustee and Director of Our Hope Charity, Chair of Trustees at the WAVE Trust, and a non-executive Director of the UK Municipal Bond Agency.
He holds honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University and the University of Birmingham for his work on social inclusion and cultural policy. His interests include sports, the arts, and international development, particularly in Southern Africa and the Caribbean.
Professor Yvonne Elsworth
Yvonne Elsworth obtained a PhD from the Victoria University of Manchester in 1976 for the design and implementation of a novel form of field-widened Michelson Interferometer designed for applications to faint, extended sources like that provided by the optical emission from the neutral thermosphere. Over the next 8 years, many of the ideas developed during the PhD were applied to diverse problems including the rapid fluctuations in light from cataclysmic variable stars, wave from testing for high-powered lasers and also technology transfer when Perkin Elmer decided to move into the field of interferometers in the near infrared.
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An appointment in 1984 to the permanent academic staff in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham caused a change of direction in the research. From that time, the focus has been on helioseismology and latterly asteroseismology of solar-like and red-giant stars.
Professor John Warner
John is a chemistry inventor who works to design and create commercial technologies inspired by nature consistent with the principles of green chemistry. With over 300 patents, he has invented solutions for dozens of multinational corporations. His inventions have also served as the basis for several new companies. Examples include: Collaborative Medicinal Development (ALS therapy), Hairprint (hair color restoration), Collaborative Aggregates (asphalt warm mix rejuvenators), Ambient Photonics (lowlight indoor photovoltaic devices for IoT and BIPV).
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He is one of the cofounders of the field of green chemistry, coauthoring the defining text “Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice” and articulating the 12 principles of green chemistry with Paul Anastas. John has over 100 publications providing foundational work in the fields of noncovalent derivatization, polymer photochemistry, metal oxide semiconductors and synthetic organic chemistry. John has received prestigious awards as an academic (Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mentoring – President G. W. Bush & NSF, 2004) and the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal from the German Chemical Society, 2022), industrial chemist (Perkin Medal – Society of Chemical Industry, 2014), inventor (Lemelson Ambassadorship – Lemelson Foundation & AAAS) and for governmental chemicals policy (Reinventing Government National Performance Review – Vice President A. Gore & EPA, 1997). He received the American Institute of Chemistry’s Northeast Division’s Distinguished Chemist of the Year for 2002 and the Council of Science Society President’s 2008 Leadership award.
Warner was named by ICI Services as one of the most influential people impacting the global chemical industries. In 2011, he was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and named one of “25 Visionaries Changing the World” by Utne Reader. He serves as Distinguished Professor of Green Chemistry at Monash University in Australia and was named an Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Berlin. He served as the 2020 and 2021 Global Chair for the Center for Sustainable and Circular Technologies at the University of Bath. In 2017 the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and The Technical University of Berlin announced the naming of “The John Warner Center for Green Chemistry Start-Ups” in his honor. He serves as strategic advisor for the Science, Engineering and Health Committee of EPA Victoria in Australia.
John received his BS in Chemistry from UMASS Boston, and his PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University. After working at the Polaroid Corporation for nearly a decade, he then served as tenured full professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell (Chemistry and Plastics Engineering). In 2007 he founded the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, with Jim Babcock (a research organization developing green chemistry technologies), and Beyond Benign with Amy Cannon (a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education). John is constantly giving keynote talks and workshops on Green Chemistry, Innovation, The Circular Economy, and Biomimicry. He continues to advise several international organizations.
Lucy Baldwin
Lucy Baldwin is a Managing Director and Global Head of Research at Citi. Lucy is responsible for managing Citi’s global independent research across all asset classes.
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Lucy joined Citigroup in April 2021 from Credit Suisse, where she was Global Head of Equity Sales.
Prior to Credit Suisse Lucy was at Bank of America as Head of European Equity Sales (2015-2019), and at Goldman Sachs as a Director of European Equity Research and in a variety of research analyst roles (2006-2015). Lucy started her career at Cazenove as an equity research analyst covering the building materials sector. Lucy graduated from the University of Birmingham in Economics.
Lucy serves as a member of Council for the University of Birmingham and sits on the Investment Sub-committee. Additionally, Lucy is a member of the Advisory Council for the Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Sir Paul Nurse
Sir Paul Maxime Nurse FRS 1949–present Awarded (jointly) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2001.
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• British geneticist and cell biologist
• Graduated from Birmingham in 1970 with a BSc in Biology
• Groundbreaking researcher
Known for his work on cell cycle regulation, Sir Paul Nurse –
• Received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his seminal discoveries at the molecular level of cell cycles
• Enabled the development of new treatments and medicines for cancer through his studies and management of research teams
• Discovered the gene that controls cell division through his postgraduate experiments on yeast
After doing much of his pioneering research in the 1980s, he joined the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and became its Director General and Head of Cell Cycle Laboratory.
Sir Paul headed up the world’s largest volunteer-supported cancer research organisation, Cancer Research UK, when ICRF and The Cancer Research Campaign joined forces. He moved to the United States in 2003 to become President of The Rockefeller University.
He has won many awards, including the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Sir Paul took up his post as President of the Royal Society in December 2010.
Sir Paul Nurse presented “Controlling the Cell Cycle” at the University of Birmingham's Inaugural Humphreys Lecture in October 2013.
Professor Anthony Lilley OBE, FRSA, MA (Hons) (Oxon)
Anthony Lilley OBE is a co-founder with John Berry CBE of Scenario Two Ltd, a UK commercial theatre producing business. With Scenario Two, he has produced Terry Gilliam and Leah Hausmann's revival of Sondheim and Lapine's into the Woods, high tech, genre-busting sensation, Cages at Riverside Studios winning an Offie Award in 2022 and an international tour of The Light in the Piazza starring Renée Fleming.
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Previously, he has worked extensively across the creative industries, beginning in theatre before founding Magic Lantern Productions, one of the UK’s earliest specialist digital content companies.
At Magic Lantern, he produced TV, web, mobile, theatre, games and advertising projects including working with brands such as Top Gear and Doctor Who and for clients including BBC, C4, Sony PlayStation, CCTV China and ABC. He has won BAFTA, RTS and Peabody awards in the field of digital innovation.
Anthony is chair of the Board of virtual production facility Studio Ulster Ltd and Senior Advisor to placemaking specialists, Time and Space. He is a member of the board of UK Theatre and chairs international artists group, Blast Theory.
Previously he has held Board level seats at UK regulators OfCOM and the Gambling Commission and at various cultural organisations including English National Opera, Lighthouse and the Crafts Council. He served two terms as a trustee of NESTA where he also chaired the Investment Committee. He has advised the UK government at ministerial level and given keynote speeches on five continents.
Anthony graduated with an MA in Law from the University of Oxford. He holds a personal Professorship in Creative Industries at Ulster University and was a Council Member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council until March 2023, where he was instrumental in establishing the £85m creative industries clusters programme (CICP). He holds an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Kent University and has previously held Visiting Professorships of Media at the Universities of Oxford and Bournemouth.
Anthony is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, a former new media correspondent of The Guardian and was appointed OBE in 2008 for services to media and the creative industries. Since 2015, he has coached grassroots football with Ringmer Rovers.
Carlos Acosta
Born in Havana in 1973, Carlos trained at the National Ballet School of Havana in Cuba. After winning a succession of awards, including the Prix de Lausanne in 1990, he went on to dance professionally with the world’s most prestigious companies, with London’s Royal Ballet becoming his home. Carlos retired from classical ballet in 2016, after 28 years, having performed almost every classical role from Spartacus to Romeo.
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Carlos created many award-winning shows throughout his ballet career, including 'Tocororo' and 'Carlos Acosta and Friends of The Royal Ballet'. He also choreographed the Royal Ballet productions of 'Don Quixote' and 'Carmen', plus the latest 'Guys and Dolls' production for the West End. He has also written two books, including a work of fiction 'Pig’s Foot', and his honest and heartfelt autobiography 'No Way Home'.
'Yuli', a film inspired by his life, premiered at the San Sebastian, Havana and Berlin Film Festivals to critical acclaim before its premiere and general release in April 2019.
The culture and history of Carlos’s homeland have been important influences throughout his career and will continue to be so following his establishment of his own dance company, Acosta Danza, in 2016. The company tours the world with its vibrant combination of classical and contemporary, fused with Cuban elements of dance. In 2017, Carlos opened his first Dance Academy through the Carlos Acosta International Dance Foundation. The Foundation gives young dancers the same opportunities that he himself benefited from, by providing a three-year dance training programme, free at the point of delivery in an inspirational setting.
Carlos’s extraordinary contribution to dance continues to this day and he was recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2014 when he was awarded a CBE. In 2018, Carlos received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the Royal Academy of Dance in recognition of his standing as one of the most influential figures in Dance today and in 2019, the Critics’ Circle bestowed Carlos with their Annual Award for Outstanding Services to the Arts.
His athleticism, his sheer joy in dancing, as well as his tremendous ability to convey emotion, inspired a generation of dancers across the globe. His very touching story and the obstacles he has overcome speak for themselves.
Carlos Acosta became Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in January 2020.
Professor Edgar Meyer
Edgar has had a career spanning 25 years in various institutions across the UK. Beginning his academic career at Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, where he completed his PhD and worked for nearly 15 years, culminating in his appointment as Professor of HRM and Organisational Behaviour and Director of the MBA.
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In 2015, he moved to Imperial College Business School as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programmes and Education Quality. From there, he moved to Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, as Deputy Dean, where he looked after Accreditations, Staffing, Executive Education, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
In 2023 Edgar commenced his appointment as Dean of Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham.
Edgar is an academic Member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) and an active volunteer for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). He was the Vice-Chair, and then Chair, of the EDI Committee of the Chartered ABS and he continues to serve as a trustee of several charitable organisations. He has held visiting professorial roles across the globe, such as Cotrugli Business School, Croatia, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan, and Universidad del Pacifico, Peru.
Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos
Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos (born 13 March 1954) is a distinguished British politician, diplomat, and academic. Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), she moved to the UK in 1963 and rose to become a trailblazer in British public life.
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A member of the Labour Party, she became the first Black woman to serve as a Cabinet minister in the UK when appointed Secretary of State for International Development in 2003. She later served as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council.
Internationally, she was the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2010 to 2015. She also served as the British High Commissioner to Australia.
In academia, Amos broke new ground as the first Black woman to lead a UK university when she became Director of SOAS, University of London, in 2015. In 2020, she became Master of University College, Oxford, the first Black person and first woman to hold that role.
In 2022, she was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, the first Black person to receive this honour in the order’s nearly 700-year history.
Dame Judi Dench
Dame Judi Dench is one of Britain’s most distinguished and beloved actors, known for a remarkable career spanning more than six decades across theatre, film, and television. Renowned for her powerful performances in both classical and contemporary roles, she has become a national treasure and a global icon of stage and screen.
In recognition of her outstanding contribution to the arts, Dame Judi was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University of Birmingham in 1989. She has enjoyed a long-standing connection with the University’s Shakespeare Institute, working closely with colleagues in the convergence of theatrical performance and academic research.
Dame Judi's career includes award-winning performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company and acclaimed roles in major films such as Shakespeare in Love, Notes on a Scandal, and the James Bond series, in which she played the iconic role of 'M'. Her accolades include an Academy Award, multiple BAFTAs, Olivier Awards, and a Tony Award, among many others.