2022 RELX SDG Inspiration Day: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – The role for business in advancing SDG 16

Born in 1951, Sir Bob Geldof is one of Ireland’s most successful exports and is known throughout the world for his many talents and passions. Starting his career as a successful musician, actor and songwriter, he has gone on to both inspire a generation and make prolific social changes as a philanthropist and political activist. An inspiring and influential public speaker, he speaks on a range of topics and uses his vast personal experiences to both provoke and motivate his audience.

Shooting to fame as the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof was a major player in the 70s punk rock movement and enjoyed over a decade of hits between 1975 and 1986. After leaving the band, he launched a successful solo career, published his best-selling autobiography, “Is That It?” and worked as a radio DJ, journalist and television presenter.

In 1984 Geldof was watching the news one night when he was horrified by a report on the famine in Ethiopia. As we all now know he got on the phone. The result was Live Aid - “the biggest and greatest event in pop history”. $200 million was raised for the starving and the dying in Ethiopia. Geldof established and continues to be the chairman of the Band Aid trust, which operates in eight African countries. 

Bob Geldof has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 8 times, more than any living nominee, and was honoured with a knighthood by HM Queen Elizabeth II; received the Nobel Man of Peace award from Mikhail Gorbachev; was awarded The North-South human rights award in Portugal; and awarded the medal of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and received numerous TV and music awards as well as The Royal Society, Peabody and Royal Geographical Society awards.

Having reformed The Boomtown Rats they now have their first studio album since 1984 Citizens of Boomtown; a massive documentary about Bob and the history of the Rats and a new book Tales of Boomtown Glory was published in March 2020 - an anthology of the complete lyrics from Bob Geldof’s Boomtown Rats and solo albums, interwoven with Geldof’s witty, deeply felt and frank commentaries of the background, inspiration and context behind some of his songs.

Bob is internationally recognised as a leading authority on world politics, international and current affairs, music, humanitarian issues, philanthropy, poverty, human rights and Africa. 

Of himself, Bob says he is - a musician.

Dr. Heinz Fischer, President of the Republic of Austria 2004-2016, has had an extensive career as a senior representative and policy maker of the Republic of Austria. As Federal Minister of Science and Research and as speaker of the Austrian National Assembly for more than 12 years, Dr. Fischer was involved extensively in supporting and advancing the country´s scientific, social and cultural development. After spending almost 30 Years as a senior politician in the Austrian National Assembly, Dr. Fischer retired from his office as speaker in 2004, due to being elected Federal President of the Republic of Austria in the same year. He was re-elected in 2010 and retired in July 2016, after more than 40 Years in public office and two terms as Federal President.

In addition to his political career, Dr. Fischer, an acknowledged lawyer, came to be the author of numerous books and other publications pertaining law and political science. After completing two terms as head of state Dr. Fischer was teaching as professor for political science at the University of Innsbruck and was proclaimed Chairman of the Council for the Commemorative Year 2018 by the Federal Government of Austria. Furthermore, in June 2016 Heinz Fischer was named president of the Association of Austrian Adult Education Centers. Since September 2016 he occupies the position as president of the Austrian Society for Chinese Studies. As of January 2017, he is president of the Board of the Institute for Human Science and together with Ban Ki-moon Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.

Monika Froehler is CEO of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens and is a passionate change maker, advocate, founder and speaker. She was entrusted to create the BKMC after working at the UN in Geneva, NY and Vienna, the EU, the Austrian Foreign Ministry and in field missions around the globe. She is passionate about the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement. Throughout her career she managed to support hundreds of women, young people and communities all over the globe e.g. working in Africa and Latin America to ban landmines; working to improve hospital care in rural Central Asia and Africa; assisting in eco-friendly city planning in Asia and bettering the living conditions of women in the Middle East and West-Africa.

Nick Luff joined RELX as Chief Financial Officer in September 2014. He has previously been CFO of Centrica and of P&O, having qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG.

As Chief Executive of Book Aid International, Alison leads the charity, working closely with the Board of Trustees which is chaired by Lord Boateng. Alison is responsible for the organisation’s strategy and development. She worked for 25 years in publishing materials for developing world markets and has extensive knowledge of the African education sector. Since joining the charity, she has grown its book provision to over one million books and launched a range of new, innovative programmes.

Mark has 27 years experience working in the humanitarian and international development sectors, of which sixteen years he has been as a CEO - eight years running War Child and eight years running Hope and Homes for Children. He has also served as a Board Chair for ten years, and was recently appointed to the Board of the UK's largest children's charity, Barnardo's. He received the CBE for services to global child protection in the 2019 UK Honours.

Since Mark joined Hope and Homes for Children in 2012, they have doubled their income, trebled beneficiary reach, taken a leading role in negotiating a cross-government policy statement on the UK’s position on promoting the deinstitutionalisation of child care internationally, and most recently helped to secure the new UN Resolution on Children Without Parental Care.

Mark was appointed to the Board of Barnardo's at the end of 2019, and then also as the Chair of the Barnardo’s Foundation Advisory Board in January 2021.

Teresa Jennings is the Head of Rule of Law Development for LexisNexis Legal & Professional, a division of RELX Group.  In this role, she supports the corporate mission of LexisNexis by advancing the Rule of Law across the globe.  With its launch in January 2019, Ms. Jennings also became Vice President & Treasurer of LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, a non-profit entity working on projects around the world to advance the Rule of Law.  Ms. Jennings is responsible for cultivating relationships with diverse groups, including funding and governmental bodies, to create, develop and advance Rule of Law projects around the world.  For example, she developed and ran a Rule of Law symposium in conjunction with the Inter-American Bar Association in San Salvador, El Salvador for several high-ranking officials within the government, legal, business and academia sectors.  She speaks at venues highlighting the importance of the Rule of Law, including the Wilson Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the CEELI Institute. 

Ms. Jennings currently serves as a Steering Committee member of the UN Global Alliance for Reporting Progress on Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies.  She received an American Bar Association Presidential appointment to serve on the ABA Advisory Council on Vietnam Lawyers Exchange and Training Program.  Ms. Jennings was honored as a UN Global Compact 2017 SDG Pioneer for the Rule of Law to highlight how business efforts can enhance achievement of the Rule of Law.  Additionally, the LexisNexis Global Legal Team, of which Ms. Jennings is a member, received the inaugural Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Award in 2017 in recognition of the team’s work to advance the Rule of Law and Access to Justice around the world.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Jennings served as Head, Public Policy – US at RELX Group where she was responsible for public policy development and communication on key policy issues at the state and federal levels.  In a previous role, she built and ran the state advocacy program for RELX Group and its divisions.  Before her roles within RELX Group, Ms. Jennings was Director, State Government Affairs at the American Express Company in New York.

Ms. Jennings has a B.A. in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland.  She earned her JD from George Washington University School of Law, and her LLM from Loyola University Chicago in Rule of Law for Development.  Ms. Jennings is based in Washington, DC.

Ambassador Amanda Ellis leads global partnerships for the exciting new ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and serves as co-chair for the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge. Previously NZ Ambassador & Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Ms. Ellis also served as NZ’s inaugural Ambassador for Women and Girls, as well as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy playing a key role in New Zealand’s successful UN Security Council bid. She subsequently served as co-chair for the UN Security Council High Level Group on Humanitarian Access into Syria. Prior to that, as Deputy Secretary (International Development) in the New Zealand Foreign Ministry Ms. Ellis was the first woman to lead the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) Programme, managing an annual budget of over $0.6 billion.

Previous roles include Lead Specialist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Group of the World Bank Group where she led the project that created “Women, Business and the Law.” She was Head of the Global Gender Group at the International Finance Corporation, and National Manager Women in Business at Westpac Banking Corporation. The author of two best-selling Random House business books, five research titles on gender and growth in the World Bank Directions in Development series, and the Gender Equality and Governance Index 2020, Ambassador Ellis is a founding member of the Global Banking Alliance for Women and the recipient of the TIAW Lifetime Achievement Award for services to women’s economic empowerment. She serves on a number of boards, including the Global Governance Forum and the Institute for Climate and Peace.

Tea Trumbic is a WE Empower Lead Partner & Program Manager for the Women, Business and the Law Project at The World Bank. She has more than 12 years of experience helping governments reform laws and regulations to help create jobs and contribute to economic growth. She joined the World Bank in 2006, working on the Doing Business project on tax and credit information regulation

Isabella is affiliated with Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, where she specializes in global justice and ethical aspects of international economic law. She also holds an endowed post as the Robert L. Long Professor of Ethics at the Bisk College of Business, Florida Institute of Technology, where she teaches globalization and corporate social responsibility.

Isabella has extensive experience as an international legal advisor in the public and private sectors. Her academic background includes a BS in Foreign Service, MA in International Relations, JD cum laude, MPhil in Theology, and PhD in human rights law. Leadership roles include: Chair of the Advisory Council, ABA Center for Human Rights; Council Member, ABA Section of International Law; Associate Director, Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture; Board of Directors, Internet Bar Organization; Founding Executive Council, Society of International Economic Law; Steering Group, UN Global Compact framework on business and the rule of law; International Co-Chair, Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

Irina Bokova, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, was the Director-General of UNESCO from 2009 to 2017. Having graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, she was a Fellow at the University of Maryland, Washington, and followed an executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. As Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova was actively engaged in UN efforts to adopt Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, particularly Goal 4 on “Achieving Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promoting Life-Long Learning for All”, as well as science and new technologies for sustainable development, protection of cultural and natural heritage and biodiversity, and gender equality. 

From 2010 - 2017, Irina was vice-chair of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, a platform established by UNESCO and ITU (International Telecommunications Union) for governments, private sector and academia to support and promote connectivity and sustainable development. During this time, Irina chaired the Working Groups on Education and ICTs and Gender and ICTs. From 2014 - 2017, she also chaired the UN Secretary General’s Scientific Advisory Board on Sustainable Development, with a focus on science-policy interface.

In 2016, Irina was included on the Forbes list of the world's most influential women and she has received academic distinctions from leading universities across the world, including, amongst others, King's College, London, the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Paris Sud Saclay, France, Tongji University, Shanghai, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg. In 2020 she was elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the category of Educational, Cultural and Non-profit Leadership.

Currently, Irina is a Board Member for the Ban Ki Moon Centre for Global Citizens, a Member of the Senate of FIA and of the High Panel on Road Safety, a Member of the Concordia Leadership Council, New York, and a visiting lecturer at the Paris School of International Affairs /PSIA/, SciencesPo, and at the University of Geneva, among others.

Neliswa is the Head of Marketing at LexisNexis South Africa, which is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. In her role Nelly is responsible for the prioritisation of customer value through intelligent data and analytics underpinned by a modern and digitised marketing department.

Nelly’s role is anchored by the business’s purpose of enhancing the potential of the African Continent by advancing the Rule of Law. As a true champion of the Rule of Law, Nelly spearheaded the LexisNexis Covid-19 Resource Centre, an online portal providing free to access resources and information covering a variety of general public themes and legislative information forming part of LexisNexis SA’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nelly was also instrumental in setting up a freely available LexisNexis Rebuilding and The Rule of Law online portal in the aftermath of the July 2021 riots and looting in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, with the purpose of assisting the public and impacted businesses to know their rights. She also led the conceptualisation and launch of the Africa Rule of Law Report, a ground-breaking new report which shines a light on the trends, barriers and aspirations for the rule of law across Africa. It was developed with input from respondents domiciled in 24 separate African jurisdictions via a survey which sourced views from in-house counsel, private practice lawyers, judiciary and government.

Nelly believes in creating equal spaces for all, working closely with LexisNexis South Africa’s current CEO Videsha Proothveerajh. LexisNexis South Africa launched the LexisNexis Women in Tech Conversations, a virtual forum aimed at creating safe spaces for Women in Tech to engage in dialogue, learn from one another, share their challenges and empower a new breed of women in this industry. LNSA was recognised amongst the Top Gender Empowered Companies in the Business Support Services sector of the Standard Bank Top Women Awards programme in 2020 and was a finalist in the 9th Gender Mainstreaming Southern Africa Awards.

Nelly is well respected for combining creative flair with tangible business results through projects that position the organisations purpose and values. As a seasoned marketing and communications professional with experience spanning over 15 years, Nelly understands the importance of business with purpose. Nelly has worked in diverse trades including manufacturing, PR and Marketing Agencies, B2B and B2C. Her previous companies include Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (Dunlop); Simeka TWS Communications, Meropa Communications and O’Brian Marketing.

Dr Imogen Parsons is a Senior Research Fellow in the Terrorism and Conflict group, on secondment from the UK civil service. She brings around twenty years of experience of working in and on conflict, including Afghanistan, Libya, DRC and Sahel, and is focussing her current research on international intervention in conflict and fragile states as well as supporting the group’s work on countering violent extremism.

Prior to joining RUSI, she was Head of the Joint Sahel Department, a fully integrated FCO/DFID Department overseeing the UK’s diplomatic and development engagement across Sahel. Previously she led DFID’s humanitarian research and innovation team including establishing new programmes on conflict and protection, protracted displacement, innovation in conflict zones and resilience to natural disasters, working in partnership with the World Bank, Global Challenges Canada, UK Research Councils and others. From 2013-15 she led DFID’s Africa humanitarian and conflict unit, overseeing the UK’s responses to crises across the continent including Mali, the Central African Republic, Burundi and the regional humanitarian response to the South Sudan crisis, as well as setting up the first long-term resilience programmes in Sahel. She also led lessons work on Afghanistan in the UK Stabilisation Unit in 2010, and served in the Ministry of Defence including stints in Kabul in 2006-7 as an adviser to General the Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (then Commander ISAF), and in 2009 in the private office of General the Lord Houghton of Richmond (then Vice Chief of the Defence Staff). She also took a previous career break in 2011-13 to get back into the field, leading emergency responses for Save the Children including in Libya, DRC and the Horn of Africa.

She holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, focussed on Conflict and State Building in Angola. While researching her PhD she carried out extensive fieldwork and published her findings on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-combatants, return of displaced people and community reintegration and reconciliation in the immediate post-war Angola. She also has a Masters degree in Development Studies from SOAS, and studied modern languages at Cambridge.

Ian McDougall is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the LexisNexis, Legal & Professional division of RELX Group PLC. 

Mr. McDougall joined LexisNexis in 2004 as Vice President and Legal Director for LexisNexis International (LNI), where he oversaw the legal function for the group, including Regulatory Compliance, Commercial Agreements, IT, Intellectual Property and Litigation.  Mr. McDougall was also involved in business strategy, acquisitions and general business planning.  At LexisNexis, Mr. McDougall has stepped into varying roles, including Interim CEO of Asia Pacific.  In addition, he led the LexisNexis implementation of the U.K. Bribery Act compliance and created the organization’s first broad regulatory compliance review program.

Before joining LexisNexis, he led Legal, HR and Facilities departments at Telco Global Ltd., previously one of the largest UK independent telecom providers. 

Mr. McDougall sits on the United Nations Rule of Law Steering Committee and is a member of the UN General Counsel Advisory Board.  Until Mr. McDougall’s move to New York he was a Board Director and Trustee for U.K. charity Peaceful Place, which is dedicated to providing support to sufferers of early-onset dementia.  He was also appointed as judge in the Barrister’s Disciplinary Tribunal and is a broadcast cricket commentator in association with the Royal National Institute for the Blind.  Mr. McDougall is based in London.