Who we are
Associate Directors
Simon Dugdale
Simon works in the private sector after a 25-year career in Government media and public relations. For a decade he was one of the top communication specialists in Whitehall, successively heading press and publicity operations in three Government Departments. From 1997-99 he was Director of Communication at the newly-created Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions where he was also press secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister. He held similar posts, between 1989 and 1997, as Chief Information Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and as Director of Communication at the Department of the Environment. Earlier in his career he spent more than three years as a Senior Press Officer in the Prime Minister’s Office at 10 Downing Street, and worked in a wide variety of journalistic and PR roles for the Government’s publicity agency the Central Office of Information.
Tom Burke CBE
Tom Burke is currently a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, and Environmental Policy Adviser to BP and Rio Tinto plc. He was Special Adviser to three Secretaries of State for the Environment from 1991-97 after serving as Director of the Green Alliance from 1982-1991. He is a member of the OECD's High Level Panel on the Environment.
Tom has been a professional environmentalist for 25 years and was formerly Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Environmental Bureau from 1988-1991. He is a founding member of the Council of the Institute of Environmental Management and in 1993 was appointed to United Nations Environment Programme's ‘Global 500' roll of honour.
David Eves CB
David Eves has thirty-eight years experience of health and safety at work, including seventeen years as a Board Member of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and thirteen years as the Deputy Director General of HSE, with responsibility for 4,000 staff and a £200m budget. He was Chief Inspector of Health and Safety in Great Britain from 1985-2002 and a member of the EU Senior Labour Inspectors’ Committee from 1982-2002. In addition, he has thirty years’ experience of international negotiation and liaison with EU and ILO, lecturing in USA, China, India, Japan, Africa, Europe (EU, Baltic, central and eastern states).
Chris Shepley CBE
Until December 2002 Chris was the Chief Planning Inspector for England and Wales, and as such was Chief Executive of the Agency (part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) which is responsible for all planning inquiries, appeals, and related matters throughout the country.
From 1985 to 1994 he was Chief Planning Officer, and latterly Director of Development, at Plymouth City Council – responsible for planning, transport, regeneration and economic development, environmental health, and related matters. Chris has a BA (Hons) degree in Geography from the London School of Economics (1966) and a Diploma in Town Planning from the University of Manchester (1969). He also has an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of the West of England (2001). He is a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and was its President in 1989. He is currently its Hon Treasurer and a member of the Management Board. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2002.
John C. Gore
John Gore is Chairman and CEO of Political Solutions International, a Washington-based consultancy which advises clients on the quality of their government relations efforts and on strategies for more effective issue management on a global basis. John has served as advisor to Goldman Sachs, the London Stock Exchange, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, TNK, Standard Chartered Bank, and Time Warner.
John has over 35 years of experience in government relations, having worked in Washington, Brussels and London. From 1996-2002 he was Group Vice President of External Affairs for BP, with responsibility for the Group's global strategic approach to government relations. Prior to that he served as BP's chief political operative in Washington and Brussels.