Richard Stephenson
Chairman

Hannah Foster
Deputy-Chairman

Edward Lord
Secretary

Richard Stephenson served on the Board of the Conservative Party for four years. He became the President of the National Conservative Convention in 2004 and chaired the Party Conference in Bournemouth the same year. He has worked overseas on American Presidential campaigns and has spoken at conferences and advised political parties around the world, including in the USA, Uganda, Pakistan, Estonia and Serbia.

Richard has served as a school governor and a board member of two London based charities. He is a prolific charity fundraiser who started his charity work for Help the Aged at the age of eight. He also sponsors a child in India through Action Aid. He has participated on a number of charity expeditions including trekking along the Great Wall of China for Cancer Research UK and across New Zealand and then to the summit of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest peak, on behalf of The Children’s Society.

Richard now works as a board director of City public relations firm, Smithfield. He is a Freeman of the City of London, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Hannah Foster is an HR Director for a subsidiary company within Pearson plc as well as a political activist.

Hannah became involved in TWC having felt for sometime that the public perception of politicians and the political was so negative and there are few ways those involved in Westminster can really demonstrate the good work that is done in Parliaments and by the body politic.

Hannah has also been very involved in the political world and was the elected Chairman of Conservative Future from early 2001 until end of 2002, having been on the Executive Team for two years prior to that. In that capacity she has spoken at conferences, fringe meetings and written articles. She was also a contributing author to “There is Such a thing as Society” published 2003. Hannah is a active member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and the Party generally.

Hannah’s career has taken her across different businesses within the Pearson Group namely the Financial Times, FT.com and Penguin before moving to the service side of the business related to Government contracts. The business she is now working was a 2004 UK start up for Pearson employing around 1000 people in 151 different locations. Hannah did a postgraduate at London Guildhall to gain membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Edward Lord, founder trustee, is a fundraising and public affairs specialist having been development director of two large UK universities, deputy director of a London mayoral campaign and adviser/interim CEO to a number of private and not-for-profit sector clients including national charities and a premiership football club’s community programme.

He is also a magistrate; an elected member of the City of London Corporation and City of London Police Authority; chairman of 4ps, the Public Private Partnerships Programme; and a member of the Local Government Association’s Improvement Board and Strategy & Finance Policy Review Group. He served as the Liberal

Democrats’ deputy party treasurer under Charles Kennedy.

Angela Fuller has been the Events Manager at Crimestoppers since April 2005 and before taking up this role was Events Manager at The Stroke Association. Angela has been involved in organising many different events including bike rides, balls, dinners and participation in running events. She also has corporate knowledge after working at a number of FTSE100 companies before joining the not-for-profit sector. In her spare time, she plays korfball and has a passion in photography.

Sam White is Deputy Community Fundraising Manager for London and has been with Cancer Research UK for over 4 years. During that time she has been responsible for a number of events including the Piccadilly 500 and Halloween Balls, Fright & Delight party and the Great Christmas Pudding Race in Covent Garden, together with working with individuals, companies and organisations on a range of fundraising activities and campaigns.

Prior to joining Cancer Research UK, she spent a year travelling around the world and has worked for a variety of organisations in both public and private sector. For further details, please contact Sam via email at sam.white@cancer.org.uk

Hannah Bence is the Head of Events and Appeals at The Children’s Society (TCS). She leads a team of thirteen people and together they are responsible for recruiting, retaining and servicing events participants and appeals supporters who currently raise over £1.7 million for TCS on an annual basis. Current events and appeals include a programme of overseas challenges and running events, a UK Family Walk Series, Special Events such as the Fairytale Ball and four annual Appeals including Christingle, Knit It, Carol Singing and House to House.

She has taken part in many overseas challenges as the Charity Rep and has worked closely with Classic Tours, the tour operator for the Arctic challenge, for many years. In her spare time she enjoys travelling and works as a Trek Leader for Discover Adventure, another tour operator specialising in overseas charity challenges. Hannah thoroughly enjoys meeting people from all walks on life on these trips and observing how the groups interact and come together to complete the challenge. She is very much looking forward to working with The Westminster Challenge on the Arctic Challenge and is sure that the venture will be a great success.

Prema is Chair of the Young Fabians, the under-31s of the Fabian Society. Formerly a parliamentary researcher to a Labour MP, she now works in public affairs.

Born in Singapore, Prema speaks Mandarin and was educated at the LSE and Birkbeck College, where she did a MSc in American Politics. As a self-confessed Americanophile, she has worked on both a Presidential and Senate race. However she is better known for her baking, and is as passionate about patisserie as she is about politics. She also volunteers as a kitchen help for the Food Chain, a London-wide HIV/AIDS charity.

Christopher Golding is currently working with a West End boutique firm of chartered accountants advising media and entertainment clients. Prior to this Christopher ran his own property search and acquisition business following his time studying economics at Brunel.

Christopher has been an enthusiastic supporter of Westminster Challenge from inception. He holds a strong belief in what Westminster Challenge is aiming to achieve and is looking forward to the challenge of working with this new organisation. The mixture of adventure, good causes, personal development and the ability to help others has spurred Christopher on to sign up to the Arctic Challenge. He has a love of travel and a desire to explore new places along with an interest in the environment and a strong will to get fit. He is proud to be a part of the Westminster Challenge team.

Alex Laurie is a technologist and one of the founders of Mobbu, a mobile and internet data services company. Alex enjoys bringing the latest technology ideas to bear across the enterprise, government/security and charity sectors. Alex also has a keen interest in politics and democracy, was involved with YourParty.org, and would like to encourage meaningful engagement between politicians and the rest us! Hence his involvement with Westminster Challenge.

Tim Wilkinson is owner and manager of TSW Design, a graphic and new media design company he began in 2002. He has been involved in politics at varying levels for the last 8 years, and is currently Lead Member for Management of Change at Braintree District Council.

He is a School Governor and a founding Director of Talent Works, a charity that helps equip musicians with the skills necessary to make a living from their craft.