Contributors
Russell Lawson
Russell Lawson began his career as a local journalist, before heading the Federation of Small Businesses in Wales for 14 years. He currently runs his own consultancy company, The Ideas Distillery, which focuses on organisational analysis, implementation, and communication. He also sits on the Boards of Leadership and Management Wales (LMW), the Wales International Business Council (WIBC), and Positif Politics. He regularly appears on television and radio as an independent business analyst. He is an active member of the Institute of Directors, Chartered Management Institute and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and is PRINCE2 Project Management Practitioner qualified.
Dr Alan Dowler BsC PhD
Dr Alan R. Dowler BsC PhD is a psychologist, and is currently the Chief Executive of the Treforest based learning and development organisation Stratum Learning. His previous role was based at the Cardiff School of Social Science, Cardiff University, as the Director of the Learning and Development Unit where he led interventions across a wide range of public and private organisations, including education and employment, the financial sector, production environments and the service sector. His interests include organisational development and personnel development. He specialises in the design, delivery and evaluation of cost effective staff development interventions in the UK and overseas, with particular emphasis on identification of training needs and cost benefit evaluation. He is a Lead Assessor for ISO 9000 Quality Systems and a qualified adviser for the Investor in People Award. He is committed to the principles of lifelong learning and continuous personal improvement.
Simon Evans
Simon Evans was formerly the Public Affairs Officer for Wales at the Federation of Small Businesses, where he undertook a wide range of media engagements, with regular appearances on BBC Radio Wales, ITV Wales and BBC Wales News as well as contributing to Working Lunch on BBC 2 and the BBC News Channel. Prior to his work at the FSB Simon was the Wales Media & Public Affairs Manager at the Institue of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. He started his career at Westminster working for the then Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Ron Davies MP as a political researcher and spent time working as a research consultant in the North East of England before returning to Wales to work as a Research and Development Officer for RCT County Borough Council. On the establishment of the Assembly he spent several years working as the political assistant to Christine Chapman AM, who was at the time Shadow Economic Development Minister. He is a former treasurer of Public Affairs Cymru and a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
