| Edward Lord OBE JP CC |
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|---|---|
| Common Councilman of the City of London |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2 February 2001 |
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| Constituency | (1) Coleman Street (2001-2009) (2) Farringdon Without (2009–Present) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Charles Edward Lord 13 January 1972 Littleborough, Lancashire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | (1) Conservative (1987–2003) (2) Liberal Democrats (2003–Present) |
| Domestic partner | Laura Willoughby MBE (separated 2009) |
| Residence | Bloomsbury, London WC1 |
| Alma mater | University of Essex Bury Grammar School |
| Occupation | Politician, Non-Executive Director and Consultant |
| Website | Election website 2009 |
Charles Edward Lord OBE JP (born 13 January 1972) is a politician and a leading figure in English local government. He is Chairman of Local Partnerships LLP and its subsidiary, the Public Private Partnerships Programme (4ps), and an ex-officio member of the Executive and Improvement Board of the Local Government Association. He has been an elected member of the City of London Court of Common Council since February 2001, most recently re-elected in March 2009. He is now chairman of the City's Licensing Committee and member of the Policy and Resources Committee. In January 2011 he became a non-executive director of Parkwood Holdings plc and in February 2011 he was appointed chairman of Capital Ambition. He was awarded an OBE for public service in June 2011.
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Born near Rochdale, Lancashire, son of Charles Andrew Lord, a leather merchant, and Vivienne Marie Fairbank (now Brittain), a teacher. He attended the independent Bury Grammar School from 1976 to 1990. He attended the University of Essex, reading Public Policy & Public Management in the Government Department. Whilst at Essex, he was Chairman of the Students’ Union Council; a student member of University Senate; Chairman of the Conservative and Unionist Association; and Secretary of the Law Society. He also became a Committee Member of the University of Essex Association and a Governor of Sir Charles Lucas School. He graduated from Essex in 1994 and was appointed to the Court of the University in 2011.
He joined the Rochdale Conservative & Unionist Association early in 1987, after protesting at the secrecy of the Labour-run Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council’s budget. He re-formed, and became chairman of, Rochdale Young Conservatives later that year, going on to be elected secretary of the North West Area Young Conservatives in 1990 (becoming senior vice chairman in 1991 and vice-president from 1992–1995). He was a member of the national executive committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations from 1991 to 1994 and of the Young Conservatives National Advisory Committee from 1991 to 1995.
In 1994, he became the first Conservative to be elected to the national executive of the National Union of Students for over a decade. Re-elected in 1995, he served as chairman of the Social Policy Committee and took the chair at the NUS national conferences in 1995 and 1996.
He acted as candidate’s aide to John Whittingdale OBE MP in South Colchester & Maldon in the 1992 General Election and to John Marshall in Finchley & Golders Green in 1997. In 2002, he was approved for the Conservative parliamentary candidates' list.
In 2003, he joined the Norris for London campaign as deputy director, working to campaign director Mark MacGregor.
In November 2003, Michael Howard succeeded Iain Duncan Smith as Conservative Party leader, which provoked his resignation from the Party and his joining the Liberal Democrats[1]
Lord immediately became a fundraising adviser to the then party treasurer, Reg Clark, becoming deputy party treasurer to Lord Clement-Jones in July 2005. He stepped down from that role when Menzies Campbell became Leader the following year, Lord having been election agent to failed leadership candidate Mark Oaten.
He is a supporter of the free market Orange Book wing of the Liberal Democrats and nominated Nick Clegg to become Party Leader in 2007. After the 2010 General Election, he became an advocate in favour of the Liberal Democrats' coalition with the Conservatives.
In January 2011, he was elected to the Party's Finance and Administration Committee, the operational board which oversees the Headquarters, including staffing, finance, fundraising, membership and compliance.
Elected to the City of London Court of Common Council for the Ward of Coleman Street in February 2001 at the age of 29, Lord was the youngest or second youngest member of the City of London Corporation up until the City's elections in March 2009.
He is chairman of the City's Licensing Committee and is a member of the senior Policy and Resources Committee as well as the Finance and City Bridge Trust Committees and the Resource Allocation, Efficiency and Performance, Governance and Project Management Sub-Committees. He is also a Governor of the City of London School and chairman of the Guildhall Club, which provides the Members’ Bar and Dining Room.
He has previously served on the Barbican Residential; Community & Children’s Services; Establishment (HR); Hampstead Heath Management; Libraries, Archives & Guildhall Art Gallery; Planning & Transportation; Police and Port Health & Environmental Services Committees and the boards of governors of the City of London School for Girls and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
He is a Liveryman of the Fletchers’ Company and the Broderers’ Company and a Freeman of the Leathersellers’ Company and Spectacle Makers’ Company. He became a Freeman of the City of London in January 2000.
First appointed to the Improvement Board of the Local Government Association (LGA) in 2004 as one of its inaugural Deputy Chairmen, he translated roles in 2005 and now serves on the Board ex-officio as Non-Executive Chairman of Local Partnerships LLP, and its predecessor body, 4ps (the Public Private Partnerships Programme).
As Chairman of Local Partnerships, he is also a member of the Local Government Group's governing National Executive and is a substitute to the LGA's Leadership Board. He served in 2008-09 as Chairman of the 'Getting Closer' Member Task Group overseeing the implementation of the LGA Group Development Strategy and in 2009-10 on the Member Task Group on local government investment and treasury management arrangements. Lord is the Local Government Group's lead member for equalities and chairs the sounding board overseeing the Local Government Equality Framework.
He is a Member of the LGA Liberal Democrat Group Cabinet and is a former Assistant Whip.
In 2010, Lord was appointed to the board of Capital Ambition, the regional improvement and efficiency partnership for Greater London, and in February 2011 became chairman of a reorganised board, also joining the Leaders' Committee of London Councils as Lead Member for Improvement.[2]
His career post graduation mainly centred around public relations and fundraising, working in various roles for the National Playing Fields Association, Otto Schiff Housing Association and British Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1998, he became development director of Liverpool John Moores University and from 2000 to 2002 held the same role at the City University London. Since leaving City, he has worked freelance, trading as Edward Lord Consultants, and in interim roles for a number of charities, including a short time as permanent secretary to Imperial College Union and external relations director at children's charity Coram. Since April 2007, he has been a consultant to City based executive search specialists, CF Appointments and, since November 2009, as senior advisor to the chairman of the European Azerbaijan Society and deputy chairman of the Society's advisory board.
On 1 January 2011, he became a non-executive director of Parkwood Holdings plc, a specialist support services group providing outsourced greenspace and leisure management for local authorities and other organisations.
Lord has been a trustee, governor or board member of numerous bodies in a non-work capacity including: Anne Frank Trust (UK); British Youth Council; Central Foundation Schools of London; Christ’s Hospital Foundation; City Parochial Foundation; College of Optometrists; Holloway School; Pride Trust; Refugee Council; Sir Charles Lucas School; Sir John Cass’s Foundation School; St Andrew Holborn Charity; and Westminster Challenge.
His other public appointments have included being deputy chairman of the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust and board member of the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners and London Strategic Housing.
He became a Justice of the Peace for the City of London in 2002 and, since 2007, has been sitting in the appellate jurisdiction of the Crown Court at the Old Bailey and Southwark Crown Court. Lord was admitted to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple as a student member.