Judges | Lord Mayor's Dragon Awards

The Lord Mayor Alderman David Wootton

The Lord Mayor is the head of the City of London. His main role is supporting and promoting all UK-based financial and business services, both in the UK and overseas. The Lord Mayor also supports the City's local government services, and its services for wider London – such as Epping Forest and the Barbican arts centre. At the heart of the City of London's ethos is a sense of responsibility for others – which stretches back to the work of early Lord Mayors such as Dick Whittington, who gave considerable sums of money to hospitals, libraries and other public works. Every Lord Mayor has an Appeal raising funds for charities of his choice, and every Lord Mayor supports the City Corporation's work in corporate social responsibility through the Dragon Awards and schemes like ‘Heart of the City’ and ‘City Action’, which allow corporates to share best practice in community volunteering.

Alderman David Wootton took office as the 684th Lord Mayor of the City of London on Friday 11th November 2011. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School, and at Jesus College, Cambridge, reading Classics and Law. He is a solicitor, trained at and a partner since 1979 in Allen & Overy LLP, the international law firm based in the City. He has been based in the firm's London office throughout his career. His practice has taken him to many parts of the world and he has handled transactions covering a wide range of countries and jurisdictions. He is a committee member of the City of London Law Society and Chairman of the City of London Branch of the Institute of Directors

He advises primarily on corporate transactions of all kinds: mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, IPOs, share issues, joint ventures. Increasingly in recent years he has been advising on corporate governance and compliance, both in terms of law and regulation and in terms of best practice, many such questions being important 'board room' issues. Amongst the transactions on which he has advised are the 'emigration' to Canada of The Thomson Organisation in 1978, the sale by Thomson of The Times and The Sunday Times to News International in 1981, the privatisation of Welsh Water in the early 1990s, the IPO of Canary Wharf in 1996, the IPO of Thomson Travel in 1998 and its subsequent acquisition by Tui in 2000, the £2bn rights issues by Kingfisher in 2002, the acquisition of Marconi by Ericsson in 2006, the sale in 2007 by Smiths Group of its aerospace businesses, and the acquisition by Thomson of Reuters in 2008 using a dual-listed structure and the unification of that structure in 2009.

He has acted for companies, boards, investment banks, underwriters and other advisers, across a wide range of sectors: manufacturing, publishing, bio technology, engineering, leisure, transport, information technology, retail, utilities.

This year the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Alderman David Wootton will be joined by:

Lord Richard Newby

Dick Newby has worked as a practitioner and adviser on corporate responsibility for over twenty years. He began working in this area as Director of Corporate Affairs at Rosehaugh plc, one of the very first winners of a Dragon Award for its pioneering work as developer of Broadgats. He is now Head of Corporate Responsibility at FTI Consulting and advises clients both in the UK and internationally on how to adopt best practice in CR.

He also chairs Live Sport CIC, a social enterprise which uses cricket as an educational tool, and has operational programmes across the Eastern Caribbean, in Pakistan and in the UK. He is Chair of Sport at The Prince’s Trust and of IDS (UK Sport’s international development charity).

In Parliament he is Chair of the All Party Social Enterprise Group, and Treasurer of the All Party Groups on Corporate Responsibility and Anti-Corruption. He is Joint Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee.

Sir Gerald Acher

Gerry Acher was a member of the Board of KPMG and Senior Partner of its London office until the end of 2001. He is a Trustee of the KPMG Foundation.

Gerry is Chairman of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) for a three-year term concluding in October 2009. He champions issues on sustainability, climate change, corporate social responsibilities ethical, diversity and educational agendas. He is Deputy Chairman of Camelot Group plc where he also chairs the Advisory Panel on Social Responsibility. He chairs the London Climate Change Partnership that advises on how London should be adapting to living with the results of a changing climate.

He is Vice-Chairman of Motability and Chairman of its Oversight Committee. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Heart of the City and recently took over as Chairman under Lord George’s presidency. He was a Deputy Chairman of London First and is now a member of its President’s Committee.

Lady Diana Brittan

Diana has undertaken a number of public appointments over the past 20 years. Most recently she was the chair of the Community Fund, a distributor of lottery money to good causes which has now amalgamated with another lottery distribution fund to become the Big Lottery Fund.

She currently chairs Independent Age (formerly RUKBA) which assists older people and the Connection at St. Martins which provides a range of services to homeless people and those who at risk in central London.

She is also associated with two other charities, as chair of the London and South-East regional committee of the British Lung Foundation and as president of the Townswomen's Guild, and a charitable trust, as a trustee of the Carnegie UK Trust.

Having been a magisgtrate in the City of London for over 25 years, she retired in 2010.

Martyn Lewis CBE

Martyn Lewis’s career is an unusual blend of the media, charitable and corporate worlds. Over 32 years as a television journalist he presented every mainstream national news programme on Britain’s two main terrestrial channels, before moving in 1999 into the world of business where he co-founded and is European Chairman of Teliris Inc., a company which is the global pioneer and technology leader in a new “realtime” communications business space known as Telepresence. He is also Chairman of NICE TV, which works with ITN to provide high quality news videos for industry-wide conferences, exhibitions and events.

Martyn is the Founder and Chairman of YouthNet, the award-winning charity which, since 1995, has been providing a comprehensive internet site signposting 16-24 year-olds to every conceivable form of help, information or opportunity they might need – www.thesite.org . It is accessed by around 700,000 young people every month. YouthNet also provides the national volunteering database - www.do-it.org.uk - listing and regularly updating over a million volunteering opportunities available across the UK ; and, more recently, www.lifetracks.com - offering comprehensive help to young people who are out of work.

Other charitable involvement includes : Chairman of the Awards Committee of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (the equivalent of an MBE for groups); Trustee of the Windsor Leadership Trust, bringing together and helping to develop the leaders of tomorrow across all sectors of society; President of United Response, helping people with learning disabilities; Vice-President of all three main national Hospice charities for whom he is a regular speaker at individual hospice fund-raising dinners; Chairman of Families for the Fallen, a charity founded to raise extra funds for the families of those servicemen and women who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq; and Chairman-Elect of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).

Harvey McGrath

Harvey McGrath is Vice Chair of the Mayor of London's Skills and Employment Board, responsible for the adult skills strategy in London, and was appointed Chairman of Prudential plc in January 2009.

He is the former Chairman of Man Group plc, the London based FTSE 100 fund manager. Harvey retired from the Man Board in November 2007, having been appointed Chairman in March 2000 and previously Chief Executive in 1990.

He joined Man in 1980 from Chase Manhattan Bank. Harvey has an MA in Geography from St Catherine's College, Cambridge.

Prior to taking on the Chair of the London Development Agency he was Chairman of London First, the capital's influential business campaign group, a director of Gateway to London, the inward investment agency for the Thames Gateway and Chairman of the East London Business Alliance, a partnership of substantial businesses engaged in the social and economic regeneration of East London.

He is a founding donor and trustee of New Philanthropy Capital, a research based charity which gives advice and guidance to donors; Chairman of Trustees at the Prince's Teaching Institute; and a trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust which operates the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education.

John Phizackerley

John Phizackerley was appointed Chief Executive Officer of EMEA in March 2011.

He is a Senior Managing Director of Nomura Holdings, and a member of the Wholesale Executive Committee and of the Executive Management Committee for EMEA.

Prior to this appointment Mr Phizackerley was joint Chief Administrative Officer for Nomura’s Wholesale division from October 2010. From May 2010, he was Chief Operating Officer for Nomura in Europe, Middle East and

Africa, and before that co-Chief Administrative Officer for Nomura in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Until 2008 he was Chief Administrative Officer for Lehman Brothers in Europe and the Middle East, and a member of the European Executive Committee. Until March 2006, he co-headed Lehman Brothers' European Equities division and was a member of the Global Equities Executive Committee.

Mr Phizackerley joined Lehman Brothers in 1986 and held a range of positions within the firm, including Global Head of Pan-European Cash Equities (2003-2004); Head of Equity Sales, Europe (2000-2003); and Head of Equity Research, Europe (1995-2000). From 1989 to 1994 he was an Equity Research Analyst covering Natural Resources and Gold Mining in New York, and featured in the Institutional Investor magazine "All Star" survey in 1991, 1992 and 1993.

From 1980-1986 Mr Phizackerley worked for Anglo American Corporation of South Africa as an underground mining engineer at the Vaal Reefs gold mine. In 1985 he graduated in metalliferous mining from Witswatesrand Teknikon’s School of Mines, (University of Johannesburg) .

Mr Phizackerley is on the boards of Nomura International plc (NIP) and Nomura Europe Holdings, and continues in his role as CEO of Nomura Bank International. He is a director of the Nomura Charitable Trust. He is a member of the INSEAD UK Advisory Council, and a Trustee of the charity Shine. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Marex Group Ltd, and Associate Non-Executive Director of Barts and The London NHS.

Harry Platt

Harry Platt (MA MRTPI) is Chief Executive of Workspace Group PLC. Workspace is the leading provider of space for new and small businesses in London and is active in many schemes of urban regeneration. Having joined in 1991 when the Company had just 14 estates and some 450 customers, Harry has led the Company through flotation and growth so that it now holds in London around 105 estates, 5.5 million square feet with some 4,000 customers.

Harry is a geographer, graduating from Cambridge University in 1973. He subsequently was awarded a Masters in Environmental Planning at Nottingham University. He started his working career in 1975 in the public sector as a professional town planner with Manchester City Council - subsequently moving to the London Borough of Greenwich and becoming Assistant Chief Executive responsible for employment and economic development. In 1982, he became Chief Executive of Harlow District Council. He left the public sector in 1989 becoming Operations Director for Dixons Commercial Properties and moving to Workspace (then called London Industrial PLC) in 1991.

Richard Sumray MBE

Richard chairs the London 2012 Forum for London 2012 and was heavily involved in the bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games for London from the very beginning, starting the work on it 15 years ago. His involvement in sport and the arts, from the mid 1980s, led him to be the lead local authority member in London for both for some years and later he became a member of the Mayor's Cultural Strategy Group.

A non-executive director in health from the mid 1980s, Richard has chaired NHS Haringey since 2001. He has also chaired the Joint Committee of all the London PCTs on consultations relating to Health Care for London as well as the Strategic Partnership Board for Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. He has also been appointed to chair the London Specialised Commissioning Group.

As a Magistrate, he has chaired both a youth court and family proceedings court in inner London for the last 18 years.

Richard is a visiting professor at the University of East London and an advisor to the Board of London Higher.

He has recently been appointed to chair the Board of Alcohol Concern. He also chairs the Board of Circus Space and is treasurer of International Broadcasting Trust and has been on the Boards of a number of voluntary organisations in a variety of roles.

He was until September 2008 a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, chairing Planning Performance and Review from the beginning of the Authority in 2000. He was vice chair of Finance and led on criminal justice, child protection, drugs, rape, mental health, Olympic and Paralympic Games security and public order in sport. He was the lead for the Association of Police Authorities on criminal justice and was a member of both the National Criminal Justice Board and the London Criminal Justice Board. He recently chaired a scrutiny panel on young people and the police, having previously led scrutinies on rape, crime and disorder reduction partnerships, mental health and policing, drugs and crime recording. He also chaired the Kickz steering group in partnership with football authorities.

In the little time he has left, he still enjoys travelling, bringing back memories of his time on VSO and developing volunteering programmes in Africa in the 1970s. He enjoys an eclectic mix of African and classical music. He has been to the last five Olympic Games and looks forward to London in 2012.

Cyrus Todiwala MBE

Cyrus Todiwala is Proprietor and Executive Chef of the Café Spice Namasté Group, renowned throughout the world for its innovative and fresh approach to Indian cuisine. In 2000, Cyrus was awarded an MBE in recognition of his contribution to education and training and for raising the general profile of the industry. In 2004, he was made an honorary Professor of Thames Valley University’s prestigious London School of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure.

Cyrus is currently a Trustee of Learning for Life, a charity dedicated to improving educational opportunities for young people in the Sub-Continent & Afghanistan. In 1998, he became a member of the National Advisory Counsel for Education and Training Targets. He was also one of the teams involved in the NHS Better Food Programme chaired by Lloyd Grossman.

Cyrus regularly appears on a number of key television and radio programmes. These include BBC Food and Drink, BBC UK Today, BBC Saturday Kitchen, BBC World Service, BBC’s Money Matters, BBC Educational programmes, BBC 2’s Master Chefs as well as regular slots on Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, and Talk Radio etc.

Catherine Usher

In addition to being the London Office Managing Partner of DLA Piper, Catherine is also a Partner in the DLA Piper Real Estate Group.

With more than 30 years experience as a real estate lawyer, Catherine has negotiated complex funding and development agreements as well as high-volume property transactions. She has considerable experience in property support work for privatisations, corporate mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs and buy-ins, and company floats.

Catherine is also Chairman of John Wainwright & Company Limited, a member of the CBI London Regional Council, a council member of the City of London Law Society and on the Advisory Board of 'Heart of the City'.