John Penrose

For other people named John Penrose, see John Penrose (disambiguation).
John Penrose MP
Minister for Tourism and Heritage
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 May 2010
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by Margaret Hodge
Member of Parliament
for Weston-super-Mare
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded by Brian Cotter
Majority 2,691 (5.1%)
Personal details
Born 22 June 1964 (1964-06-22) (age 47)
Sudbury, Suffolk, England
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Diana (Dido) Harding
Alma mater Downing College, Cambridge, Columbia University
Website www.johnpenrose.org

John David Penrose (born 22 June 1964) is the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Weston-super-Mare. He is Minister for Tourism & Heritage at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.[1]

Contents

Early life

Born in Sudbury, Suffolk, he went to Ipswich School. He studied at Downing College, Cambridge, receiving a BA in Law in 1986. He received an MBA from Columbia University in 1991.

Professional career

He was a Bank Trading Floor Risk Manager at JP Morgan from 1986–90, then a management consultant at McKinsey & Company from 1992-4. He was Commercial Director of the Academic Books Division at Thomson Publishing in Andover from 1995-6, then Managing Director of Schools Book Publishing at Longman (Pearson PLC), publishing school textbooks for the UK and parts of Africa. He was chairman of Logotron Ltd in Cambridge. (also owned by Pearson). In 1998, he was in charge of research at the Bow Group.

Parliamentary career

He was elected in the 2005 general election, winning the seat from the Liberal Democrat Brian Cotter and retained his seat in the 2010 general election. He had previously contested Weston-super-Mare unsuccessfully in 2001, and Ealing Southall in 1997.

He served on the Work and Pensions Committee from July 2005 to January 2009, and in 2006 was appointed joint chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Further Education & Lifelong Learning. In 2006 he was also appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Oliver Letwin MP and in 2009 was promoted to Shadow Minister for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Outside Parliament

Penrose is a Patron of the south west branch of domestic violence charity the Mankind Initiative.[2] He is also President of Weston-super-Mare's YMCA, President of The Abbeyfield Weston-super-Mare Society, President of the League of Friends of the Weston-super-Mare Hospital, a governor of Weston College, a trustee of North Somerset Citizens Advice Bureau, and President of Weston-super-Mare and District Constitutional Club.[3]

Personal life

Penrose met the Hon. Dido (Diana) Harding, daughter of Lord Harding, while both worked at McKinsey. The couple married in October 1995, and have two daughters. John splits his time between his home in the Weston-super-Mare constituency (Somerset), and a flat in London on the evenings when Parliament is sitting late.[4] Harding is the current Chief Executive of TalkTalk,[5] and owns the 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup winning horse, Cool Dawn.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ http://www.culture.gov.uk/about_us/our_ministers/default.aspx
  2. ^ http://www.mankind.org.uk/aboutus.html
  3. ^ http://www.johnpenrose.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=81
  4. ^ "John Penrose". The Conservative Party. http://www.conservatives.com/People/Members_of_Parliament/Penrose_John.aspx. Retrieved 2011-03-30. 
  5. ^ http://www.talktalkgroup.com/corporate-information/corporate-governance.html
  6. ^ Dido Harding (8 Mar 1999). Cool Dawn: My National Velvet. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1840181796. 
  7. ^ http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=10917296&ticker=TALK:LN&previousCapId=84118320&previousTitle=CABLE%20%26%20WIRELESS%20WORLDWIDE

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Brian Cotter		 Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare
2005–present		 Incumbent