Sir Edward Lister

Mayor’s Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor, Policy and Planning
GLA

Sir Howard Bernstein

Chief Executive
Manchester City Council

Sir Michael Bear

Chairman
UKTI RIO

Professor Tony Travers

Director of LSE London
Visiting Professor in the Department of Government

Professor Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at The London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also a Visiting Professor in LSE’s Department of Government. His key research interests include local and regional government and public service reform.

Professor Travers is currently an advisor to the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Select Committee and the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

He has published a number of books on cities and government, including Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax (with David Butler and Andrew Adonis), Paying for Health, Education and Housing: How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennerster and John Hills) and The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City.

Mark Rogers

Chief Executive
Birmingham City Council

Mark graduated from Oxford in 1983 with a degree in Modern History and embarked upon working life by becoming a volunteer care assistant in a residential special school. In 1985 moved he into his first teaching role, having completed a one year post graduate certificate in education (to teach pupils with Special Educational Needs) at Leeds Polytechnic. He subsequently worked in special schools in the East Midlands and North West, becoming a head teacher in Tameside in 1994.

In 2001, Mark

was seconded to be the Head of Specialist Services in Tameside, working on the Authority's first inclusion strategy. Having quickly developed an appetite for local government, Mark was appointed as Assistant Director, Children &

Young People, for Stockport Council in 2003 where, in due course, he was given oversight of the Council’s 'Every Child Matters - Change for Children’ programme. 

In March 2006, Mark joined Solihull Council’s Corporate Leadership Team, having been appointed to the post of Director of Children’s Services. This role provided the unmissable opportunity to take forward the Council’s trailblazing work as a Children’s Trust Pathfinder, developing a fully fledged Children & Young People’s Partnership for improving outcomes. 

Mark, as joint DCS and Chief Executive from 2007, had the pleasure of guiding the Council successfully through a number of major inspections and, latterly, has helped position the council as a national leader and enthusiastic participant in sector-led improvement.

During his time at Solihull, the council introduced a highly regarded integrated transformation and organisational development programme that, through the application of Lean Thinking, put citizens and digital innovation at the heart of the drive for greater quality and value. 

In December 2013 Mark was appointed to the role of Chief Executive and Director of Economy at Birmingham City Council and took up role in March 2014. These combined roles are designed to have maximum impact on the three priorities of prosperity, fairness and democracy, ensuring Birmingham continues to live up to its status as Britain’s 2^nd city. 

Finally, Mark still maintains his commitment to children’s services as the Society of Local Authority Chief Executive’s lead for this area, a role that involved being a deputy chair of the Social Work Reform Board up to 2012, becoming co-chair of the new national Children’s Health and Wellbeing Partnership in 2013, and jointly founding the Children’s Improvement Board (2010-13) which set the framework for sector led improvement in children’s services. 

Mark is President of SOLACE for 2013-14.