Lent Addresses 2007

Speaker Profiles - Week 6

Monday 26th March

John Flamson spent five years at the University of Liverpool, gaining a BA (Hons) in Geography (1973) and a Master of Civic Design degree (1975). He is currently a Member of both the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Institute of Management. He joined the Liverpool University Council in 1999.  He started his professional life as a town planner with West Lancashire District Council in 1975 and then went on to more senior planning posts with Merseyside County Council and Liverpool City Council.  In 1984 he joined Merseyside Development Corporation where as Chief Planner he played a major part in the preparation of its corporate strategy.

He left MDC in early 1992 to set up and run Liverpool City Challenge and then joined Wigan Borough Partnership in April 1996 as its Chief Executive. WBP, which covers the entire metropolitan borough, is now recognised as one of the country’s most comprehensive local economic partnerships.  He is Chairman of the NW TECs’ Economic Strategy Committee, one of the NW TECs’ two representatives on the TEC National Council’s Economic and Business Development Committee and represents the NW Council for Training and Enterprise on the newly formed NW Regional Assembly.  His other non-executive duties include Board membership of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, the Pierhead Housing Association and the Diocesan Board for Social Responsibility.

Tuesday 27th March

Bernard Hogan-Howe was born in Sheffield. He has an MA in Law from Oxford University, a diploma in Applied Criminology and was awarded an MBA in Business Administration from Sheffield University.  He joined South Yorkshire Police in 1979 where he worked as District Commander, Doncaster West Area and also headed departments in traffic policing and a team responsible for implementing a comprehensive reorganisation of South Yorkshire Police. He has experience in crime investigation and strategic leadership of major public events, public disorder and organised crime, particularly involving the use of firearms.

In 1997, he joined Merseyside Police as ACC Community Affairs before taking responsibility for Area Operations in 1999. He has been Gold Commander for the Grand National, the Millennium celebrations and Open Golf Tournament. He was Gold Commander during the Petrol Disputes of 2000/2001.  Mr Hogan-Howe joined the Metropolitan Police Service as Assistant Commissioner in July 2001, with responsibility for Human Resources. During this time, he led a team which recruited 10,000 officers and 1,500 Police Community Support Officers in 3 years. This helped the Metropolitan Police to attain 20% growth reaching 30,000 officers, the largest ever in the history of the Metropolitan Police. In his final year, the Force took 15% of recruits from the minority communities of London.

He also represented ACPO as Chair of the Personnel Committee and took part in National Terms and conditions discussions at the Police Negotiating Board in 2002/03 rejecting the Police Reform Act 2003. He was appointed Chief Constable of Merseyside Police on 25 September 2004.  Mr Hogan-Howe is a Board Member of The Mersey Partnership

 Wednesday 28th March

The Very Revd Nicholas Frayling was Rector of Liverpool for 15 years until 2002, having previously served in Peckham and Tooting (South London) and as Canon Precentor at Liverpool Cathedral.  Before studying for Ordination he trained in management for the retail trade and became a Welfare Officer at Pentonville Prison.  During his time in Liverpool he became noted for his work for reconciliation, not only between faith communities but also between Britain and Ireland.  His book ‘Pardon and Peace’ (1995) has been highly acclaimed, and he has lectured and spoken on reconciliation in Switzerland, Ireland, the United States and Israel/Palestine.  In Liverpool, he was chairman of the Welfare Organisations Committee of Liverpool Council of Voluntary Service, of the Religious Advisory Panel of BBC Radio Merseyside and of the Mersey Mission to Seafarers. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Liverpool in 2001, and an Honorary Fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University in 2003.  He took up his current appointment as Dean of Chichester in September 2002.

Thursday 29th March

The Revd Dr Rod Garner is an Anglican priest and theologian with a particular interest in philosophical theology and extensive experience in urban mission.  He is currently Vicar of Holy Trinity, Southport and Theological Consultant in the Diocese of Liverpool.  He is a Fellow of the College of Preachers and an Inspector of Theological Colleges for the House of Bishops.  He has written several books and is currently working on two publications to commemorate the life of Josephine Butler.  Rod is married to Christine and they have two grown up sons, Daniel and George.  A Mancunian by birth he has kept faith with Manchester United.  Outside of theology and football he also loves film, books, music, travel, walking, poetry and politics.

Friday 20th March

Peter Moloney.   After more than thirty Lent Addresses, Peter says that his “Breadth of Ignorance” is now well tried and tested.  When he retired from lecturing and journalism, he continued as a Communications Consultant but, having now also retired from that he is getting used to being introduced as an “Ex-Communication Consultant”!   He was recently invested with a Papal Honour as a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, one of the privileges of which is authority “to ride on horseback into any church in Christendom” – so this just might make a first for Liverpool Parish Church!  This actually continues a family tradition since his father, whose GP surgery was on the corner of Soho Street and Everton Brow, opposite the Franciscan Friary and Church of St Mary of the Angels where he was baptised, held the office of ‘Apostolic Syndic’ to the Friars Minor.  He was also married in that church which is now being hired out as a rehearsal hall for the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.  His wife, Noelene, originally from Castlebar in Co. Mayo, is now retired from her post as a radiographer at the Women’s Hospital but still works as a magistrate in the city courts.  They have four daughters who hold the strange record of being the only four sisters ever to have been undergraduates at Oxford at the same time.  They have eight grandchildren (from London to Edinburgh, via Blundellsands!)

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