Keynote Speakers

Dr Joan Walley, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North

The 2004 winner of the Epolitix Environment Champion Award, Joan has long combined her environmental concerns with a commitment to her native North Staffordshire.

Joan was elected Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent North at the 1987 general election. She soon became shadow spokesperson for Environmental Protection and Development and then for Transport, a post that she held for the five years between 1990 and 1995. Prior to the election to parliament, she was a member of Lambeth Council.

Joan has been one of the key MPs raising the public and political profile of such issues as climate change, sustainable transport, alternative energy, and responsible government procurement. She is honorary president of the Institute of Environmental Health Officers and takes a keen interest in public health matters. She also knows that making big change is achieved through small steps, and works to link the local with the global. She is Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee of the House of Commons.

However, her real focus is embedded in the constituency which extends from Burslem, the mother town of the Potteries, to Tunstall and surrounding former mining villages to the rural part of Staffordshire Moorlands. Regenerating the communities of the constituency is a must. That means working alongside local people and building local partnerships to deliver the improvements that are needed as the area undergoes structural change.

Joan works with, and has helped set up many local groups. Examples include the Chatterley Whitfield Partnership (finds new uses for the listed former colliery which is now recognised by English Heritage as important to the industrial revolution as Stone Henge is to the Stone age) and the Burslem partnership which plans the regeneration of the "mother town" of the potteries.

Representing a former mining area, she has been active in getting compensation claims out to miners. She takes a particular interest in citizenship, grass roots football and is a member of the All Party Football Group.

Danny Chivers - Carbon footprint analyst, writer, and performance poet

Danny believes the technical term for what he does is a "portfolio of projects". He is currently running talks and workshops based on his recent book "The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change", calculating carbon footprints for Oxfam and Christian Aid, organising a series of eco-poetry workshops for schools, and co-managing a cycle-and-solar powered sound system for bringing low-carbon performance and education to festivals, schools and other events.

Danny has been delivering climate change talks and performance poetry for the last ten years, and holds a first class BSc in Environmental Biology, an MSc in Nature, Science and Environmental Policy and an MProf in Leadership for Sustainable Development. Recent speaker engagements have included the National Federation of Women's Institutes, the Oxford Climate Forum and the London Sustainable Schools Spring Conference.

Giles Hutchins - Management Consultant, speaker on sustainable business practices and author

Giles Hutchins is a management consultant who guides business and organisations through the process of redesigning for resilience in challenging times. Drawing on a range of theories and practices such as biomimicry, cradle-to-cradle design and industrial ecology, he develops solutions which take inspiration from nature to create sustainable business transformation.

He is the co-founder of BCI: Biomimicry for Creative Innovation, formerly the Global Director and Head of Sustainability Solutions for Atos International, and a highly sought after speaker on the subject of sustainable business practices. His recent book is called 'The Nature of Business' and has received much praise since its release.

We are pleased to inform that EAUC members are offered a special discount on Giles’ book. The discount code you can use is below. If you bring your book along to the Conference, Giles will sign it for you! Buy The Nature of Business for £10 (RRP £14.95) from www.greenbooks.co.uk/natureofbusiness and quote code NBGH in the promotion box at checkout. 

Wyn Morgan, Director of Teaching and Learning, University of Nottingham

Wyn has been a member of staff at The University of Nottingham since 1990 and became a Professor in August 2010. His research interests lie in global food prices and volatility; competition in vertical food chains; price transmission; commodity futures markets; food price inflation. Teaching interests lie in microeconomics and options and futures markets.

Wyn gained one of the first Lord Dearing Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 1999 and in September 2007 he gained a commendation in the Student Nominated category of the Economics Network Annual Learning and Teaching Awards. In 2006 he was appointed to be the University's Director of e-Learning and in August 2007 he became the University's Director of Teaching and Learning, a post he continues to hold. He is also an Associate Director of the Economics Network of the Higher Education Academy and was previously an Associate Director in the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Integrative Learning at the University of Nottingham.