After Dinner Speakers: Nick Ross, The Buzzcocks, Rt Hon Lord Lamont

Nick Ross has probably more experience than any independent moderator in Europe of conference management across the convergent information industries (broadcast, IT, e-publishing, telecoms) and has chaired large policy-making forums for the European Commission and the European Patent Office, as well as numerous high level meetings for some of the major hardware and software businesses. He was selected by the UK government to front a campaign to allay irrational public fears over the millennium bug. He is one of the UK’s best-known broadcasters, presenting a range of factual programmes, chiefly for the BBC, including Crimewatch UK on BBC-1 and The Commission on Radio 4. His credits include several eponymous programmes including the BBC-2 talk series Nick Ross (1999, nominated for a Royal Television Society gold award), Westminster with Nick Ross (television coverage of parliament and Whitehall, 1994-1997, for which he was a member of the Downing Street lobby), and in 1997 he was named “Broadcaster of the Year” for his Radio 4 programme Call Nick Ross (1986-1997). In 1999 he was awarded a best documentary prize for a controversial and autobiographical history of the troubles in Northern Ireland, We Shall Overcome, for BBC TV. He has also been nominated by the BBC for the Royal Television Society award for the best individual TV performance. He has served on several UK government committees including the Committee on the Ethics of Gene Therapy, the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee, the National Health Service Review Team, the steering group for the Health of the Nation, the National Board For Crime Prevention, the Board of the Crime Prevention Agency, and the Property Crime Reduction Action Team. He has been a member of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science and chairman of the Rhône-Poulenc Science Book Prize. He is a director of HQS (the Health Quality Service), and advises several other public organisations.