Artistes of the Month
Also featured: Tony Travers, Darren Gough
Sir Digby Jones
Sir
Digby Jones is the former director general of the CBI. He was considered
to be one of the most successful holders of the post, and been an energetic
champion of British Business around the world, for the past 6 years.
Born in Birmingham in 1955, Digby won a major scholarship to Bromsgrove School and gained a 2:1 honours degree in law at University College, London.
In 1978, after some time in the Royal Navy, he started his career with corporate law firm Edge & Ellison making partner in 1984. It was in corporate finance and client development that he made his name and was responsible for developing the firm's London presence and establishing its representation in many European countries as well as several states in America. He was also involved in most of the major management buy-outs and merger and acquisition activity in the West Midlands in the late 1980s and early 1990s before becoming senior partner in 1995.
In 1998 he joined KPMG as vice-chairman of corporate finance, where he acted as close adviser to many public companies across the United Kingdom and in KPMG's global markets.
On 1 January 2000 he became director-general of the CBI and in September 2003 his term was extended by 2 years at the request of CBI members. As the chief executive of the UK's 'voice of business', he regularly and repeatedly visited businesses around the UK and across the world, taking their views back to those who make the rules, be they in Westminster or Brussels. He appeared regularly on television, radio and in the newspapers, promoting the interests of wealth and job creation in the UK, and has taken the British business message to 60 different countries, and in the process set-up CBI offices in Brussels and Washington.
He holds a variety of directorships in both the public and private sectors and holds honorary doctorates from a host of universities. He is involved with a number of charities, including holding the vice presidency of UNICEF and the Chairmanship of Cancer Research UK Ambassadors for whom he raised £191,000 by running the Flora London Marathon in April 2005 in the modest time of 5 hours 58 mins, as well as supporting a variety of organisations in his beloved West Midlands, such as the Birmingham Hospice appeal, for whom he personally raised £218,000 by cycling from John O'Groats to Lands End in 1998.
Sir Digby is an outstanding orator - witty, authoritative, full of passion - and will always tailor his material to suit his audience.
He is an experienced keynote speaker and a popular choice for conferences and seminars and can speak on a wide range business issues from international trade opportunities to the training & skills required to cope with globalisation, drawing on his lifetime of unique achievement having worked closely with governments all around the world promoting British business.
As an after dinner speaker, Sir Digby has a fund of anecdotes to draw upon involving many of the famous people he has done business with over the years from leading politicians to show business personalities.
He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2005 New Year Honours List
and lives in Marylebone and Warwickshire with his wife Pat. He enjoys
the theatre, skiing, football, rugby, cricket and has more than a passing
interest in military history.
Tony Travers
Tony
Travers is director of the Greater London Group, a research centre at
the London School of Economics. He is currently an advisor to the House
of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee, and from 1992 to 1997,
was a member of the Audit Commission.
He was a member of the Urban Task Force Working Group on Finance and has published a number of books on cities and government, including The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City (published in spring 2004).
He broadcasts and writes for the national press and is a popular choice
for corporate events, be it giving keynote addresses or contributing to
panels discussing political economics.
"Tony absolutely earned his money! He was engaging, thought provoking,
and his sense of humour went down really well...I would absolutely use
[him] again"
Tony took part in a panel discussion for Ernst & Young - Sep
2007
Photo courtesy of Nigel Stead
Darren Gough
Darren
started playing cricket as a boy when his Dad gave him an Ian Botham bat.
Although his parents weren't particularly sporty themselves, they encouraged
and supported Darren in playing cricket and football. He had trials as
a midfielder with Rotherham United, but decided to make cricket his career.
Darren joined Yorkshire in 1987 on a Youth Training Scheme and two years later, aged 19, made his first-class debut for the county. He took five wickets in his first match (which was at Lord's) and was selected on an England youth tour to the West Indies in 1989-90.
He made an immediate impression on his England senior debut in 1994 by taking six wickets in the Third Test against New Zealand. By the end of 2000, he had taken over 180 wickets playing for his country.
In January 1999, he became the first England bowler to take an Ashes hat-trick for a hundred years and was subsequently named Wisden Cricketer of the year.
At the beginning of 2000, Darren became one of the first England players contracted to the ECB and so played only three games for Yorkshire. Later that summer, he was named Man of the Series when England beat the West Indies for the first time in 31 years.
Nobody contributed more to England's four series wins in a row in 2000 and 2000-01 than Gough, who was Man of the Series against West Indies and in Sri Lanka. Succeeding there and in Pakistan, the traditional graveyard of fast bowlers, was the final stage of his development, although even his self-confidence took a battering after England's failure to compete against Australia the following summer.
In need of a rest, he chose to miss England's trip to India, and though selected for the one-dayers in New Zealand, he damaged his knee in the final match - it seemed trivial at the time, but mushroomed into a year of misdiagnosis and aborted comebacks. He was forced out of the Ashes tour and the World Cup, but somehow willed himself back to fitness in time for the 2003 season, when lesser mortals would have accepted their fate. And though he was instrumental in England's NatWest Series victory that summer, he was exposed in Test cricket, from which he retired after a heavy Lord's defeat against South Africa.
He was overlooked for the one-day series in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka the following winter, and, in January 2004, he parted company with Yorkshire after 15 years to head to Essex, giving family reasons as the deciding factor. Gough returned to the international stage in 2004, but was a shadow of his former self until England's tour of South Africa the following winter. With a new spring in his step, he re-established himself as the leader of the pack, silenced the critics who believed his days were numbered, and reawakened his dream of playing in the 2007 World Cup.
His nicknames are Lege (short for Legend!), Rhino and Dazzler. Apparently
he was christened Dazzler when he was 16 by the daughters of Yorkshire's
former director of cricket - something to do with his dazzling blue eyes!
He still supports his hometown football team, Barnsley, and also Premiership
side Tottenham. Off the pitch, in December 2005, Darren added a new trophy
to his cabinet - he won the BBC Strictly Ballroom Dancing TV programme
with dance partner Lilia Kopylova!
Darren is available for a range of corproate engagements.
Further Information
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