Speaker
Trevor Phillips OBE
Trevor Phillips OBE is an award-winning broadcaster, speaker, writer and former politician. He speaker on Business, Change, Diversity & Equality, Finance & Economics, Human Rights & Philanthropy, and Innovation.
About Trevor Phillips OBE
Awarded an OBE for services to television in 1999, Trevor Phillips also received the French order of the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in 2006. This was in recognition of his work on integration and community cohesion. Furthermore he is a regular panellist for Sky’s The Pledge, its flagship debate show, Sir Trevor also appears on a range of other major political programmes.
A student activist in his home city of London, Trevor became the first black president of the National Union of Students. His broadcasting career began at London Weekend Television as a researcher, rising to become Head of Current Affairs, winning three Royal Television Society Journalism Awards.
Subsequently he went on to form his own production company, notably making the BBC series, Windrush which won the 1999 Royal Television Society Award for Best Documentary Series.
He co-authored the accompanying book; Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain, which was based on the extensive interviews conducted for the series, and published by HarperCollins.
In his day job Trevor is the Chairman of the Green Park Group, a leading executive recruitment consultancy
He is also co-founder and Senior Partner of the data analytics consultancy Webber Phillips created with Professor Richard Webber in 2014. Trevor was, until June 2018, the President of the Partnership Council of John Lewis, Europe’s largest employee-owned company.
In recent years he has written frequently about the organisational and cultural impact of machine learning and AI. He has also served as a consultant to major tech companies on this topic.
Trevor has spent forty years in public life, including becoming the founding chair of both the Greater London Authority (2000), and of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2007). He has also chaired several charities, amongst them the Social Mobility Foundation.
The current chair of Index on Censorship, Trevor overseas campaigns against censorship and promotes free expression worldwide.
Trevor Phillips retains a deep interest in the arts
He is especially passionate about theatre and music and is a board member of Headlong Theatre, and a RTS Vice-President.
Trevor has been involved in some of the most talked-about programmes of recent years. These include Has Political Correctness Gone Mad? and Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True . He writes frequently for the UK’s biggest newspapers, including The Times, The Daily Mail, The Sun and The Sunday Times, on a variety of subjects. And he regularly appears on BBC1s Question Time and Radio 4’s Today programme.
An internationally respected expert on equality and human rights, Trevor believes passionately in forthright debate and free expression.
Trevor shares his extensive knowledge and insight into the importance and value of data and the cultural impact of AI and machine learning.
Finally Trevor Phillips OBE is an expert commentator and advises on diversity, leadership and inclusion both to government and to corporate audiences.
