top of page

SPEAKER BIOS

 

Speakers at #LLFF15 span the world of politics, public policy, business, finance, journalism and academia. Scroll down to find a little more out about each one!

Dr. Andrew Blick
 
 
 Magna Carta: Birth of Democracy or Historical Fantasy?

Dr Andrew Blick is a lecturer in Politics and Contemporary History at King’s College London. His area of speciality is the contemporary significance of Magna Carta and the constitutional future of the UK. Outside of academia Dr Andrew Blick has worked in think tanks, as an advisor to the International Institute for Democracy and as an administrative assistant at No. 10.

Peter Botting
@peterbotting
 
 
Public Speaking Training Workshop

Peter is a professional public speaking and storytelling coach, with over 20 years of experience. He coaches and consults on communications for businesses, political parties, campaigns and parliamentarians, and named "the media relations expert" by The Telegraph.

 

Sam Bowman
@s8mb
 
The Problem with Social Democracy

Sam Bowman is Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute.

His current research agenda is the political economy of “Bleeding Heart Libertarianism”, a school of thought that tries to use free market policies to improve the welfare of the poor. His key policy areas are immigration and planning, which he sees as the two major areas where states hurt the poor globally and in the UK respectively. He is also interested in market monetarism, the epistemic challenges facing social democracy, and the case for wealth redistribution within free markets.

Steve Cooke
@SteveCooke
 
Should Libertarians care about Animal Welfare?

Steve Cooke has a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and a PhD in Politics from the University of Manchester, and is currently teaching rights theory at the University of Sheffield. In 2012 Steve was awarded the Society for Applied Philosophy’s 30th Anniversary Research Fellowship to research the use of violence in defence of non-human animals and the environment. His main area of research focuses on duties to non-human animals and the ethical status of law-breaking and political violence carried out for their sakes.

 

Kevin Dowd
 
 
Bitcoin and Beyond

Kevin Dowd is  a Professor of finance and economics at Durham University. He holds a PhD in economics from Sheffield University, and is one of the world’s leading experts on the history and theory of free banking, central banking, financial regulation, and monetary systems. 

In 2014 he released ‘New Private Monies: A Bit-Part Player?’, examining cryptocurrencies within the context of free banking, the role of money and economic stability.

Emma Carr
@EmmaFrancesCarr
 
Civil Liberties in a Digital Age

Emma Carr is Director of Big Brother Watch, a leading UK think tank founded in 2009  to expose the true scale of government surveillance, defend individual privacy and civil liberties.  Aside from Big Brother Watch, Carr’s work has been featured in Conservative Home, City AM and other leading media outlets. Emma Carr also co-founded of TechCentral, a conference that brings together the technology industry and key political figures.

Steve Davies
@stevedavies365
 

Introduction to Classical Liberalism

Dr Steve Davies is currently Education Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs. A champion of the liberty movement he was previously program officer at the Institute For Humane Studies at George Mason University and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. A regular on the London libertarian scene Steve Davies is tireless in his efforts to promote a libertarian way forward.

 

Martin Durkin
@Martin_Durkin
 
 
Magna Carta: Birth of Democracy or Historical Fantasy?

The Times’ 2014 ‘Power List’ called Martin Durkin the ‘Michael Moore of the Right’ and correct they were. As a well-known TV producer and director Martin has worked on numerous channel 4 documentaries (for example Britain’s trillion dollar horror story). He also founded his own independent production company WAG TV. Outside of the glamour of TV, Martin is involved heavily in the liberty movement. He is winner of the Free Enterprise Award and a Patron of The Freedom Association.

Anthony J. Evans
@anthonyjevans

Introduction to laissez-faire monetary economics

Anthony J. Evans  is associate professor of economics at ESCP Europe Business School, specializing in teaching Managerial Economics at the MBA and Executive MBA level. He is a member of the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, with appearances on broadsheet newspapers, BBC World Service and Newsnight. His new book, ‘Markets for Managers’ is out now.

Tim Evans
 
 
Introduction to Anarchism

Dr. Tim Evans is a Senior Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics. From 1991-1992, Tim was the Chief Economic and Political Adviser to the Slovak Prime Minister – Dr. Jan Carnogursky – and was Head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit. Tim is also CEO of the Cobden Centre, Chairman of the Economic Policy Centre, Chairman of Global Health Futures Ltd, Managing Director of Farsight SPI Ltd, and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Claire Fox
@Fox_Claire

Libertarianism and Feminism: Friends or Foes?

Claire Fox is the director of the Institute of Ideas, which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. She also convenes the yearly Battle of Ideas festival, and has a particular interest in education and social issues such as crime and mental health.

Claire is a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze and regularly comments on TV and radio programmes such as Question Time and Any Questions? She is also a columnist for the Times Education Supplement.

Onkar Ghate
 
 
Introduction to Objectivism // Threats to Liberty

Onkar Ghate is a senior fellow and chief content officer at the Ayn Rand Institute. He is the Institute’s resident expert on Objectivism and serves as its senior trainer and editor. He has taught philosophy for over ten years at the Institute’s Objectivist Academic Center.

Dr. Ghate is a contributing author to a number of books on Rand’s fiction and philosophy, including Essays on Ayn Rand’s 'The Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged', as well as  Why Businessmen Need Philosophy: The Capitalist's Guide to the Ideas Behind Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged'.

Vinay Gupta
@leashless
 
 
Civil Liberties in a Digital Age

Vinay is a self-styled 'global resiliance guru'. An old-school cypherpunk, he was one of the most active members of the E-gold community, an early precursor to Bitcoin. He has worked with the US Department of Defence on disaster relief and state failure issues, helping to develop a genocide-resistant biometric ID card for the NSA. His attention is currently turned to global disaster prevention, inventing the ‘Hexayurt’ as an affordable, open-source shelter today used both in refugee camps and Burning Man festival.

 

 

Judge Edith Jones
 
 
Magna Carta: Birth of Democracy or Historical Fantasy?

Edith Jones is a federal appeals judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She joined the court in 1985 after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan. Jones was the chief judge of the court from January 2006 until September 2012. She graduated from Cornell University with her bachelor's degree in 1971 and later received a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1974. 

Preston Byrne
@prestonjbyrne
 
 
Bitcoin and Beyond

Preston is Founder and COO of Eris Industries, bourne out of a competition to design an alternative to the Bitcoin Foundation, and a surfer of the second wave of blockchain tech. Previously, he was previously a securities lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright. He really likes Marmots

Brett Scott
@suitpossum
 
 
Bitcoin and Beyond

Brett Scott is a fellow at the Finance Innovation Lab and the author of a book titled 'The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money'. He has written for publications like the Guardian, Wired, New Scientist, Ecologist, New Internationalist, Aeon Mag & openDemocracy and have appeared on shows such as BBC World Update, BBC Newsday, the Keiser Report, and Arte TV. 

 

Anthony Musson
 
 
Magna Carta: Birth of Democracy or Historical Fantasy?

Professor Anthony Musson has had a distinguished career in academia. He is a barrister of the Middle Temple and is currently Professor of Legal History at University of Exeter. He has had many papers published on medieval legal history in leading journals and has been featured on BBC programmes: The Long View and the Emmy award winning Terry Jones Medieval Lives.

 
John O'Connell
@jjpoconnell
 
Threats to Liberty

John O’Connell is  Director of the TaxPayer's Alliance, having first joined as an intern in 2009. He oversees the work of the research, grassroots, campaign and media teams. He has written major reports for TPA and with partner organisations on quangos, government capital procurement, regional business policy and local government, including the influential paper 'How to Save £50 Billion'. John frequently represents the TPA on television and radio, including prominent appearances on flagship broadcast programmes and documentaries. 

Michael Otuska
@MikeOtsuka
 
 
Introduction to Left-Libertarianism

Michael Otsuka is a left-libertarian professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic & Scientific Method at the London School of Economics. He has been Professor of Philosophy at University College London, and has taught at UCLA and the University of Colorado. He has written extensively in political philosophy on topics such as equality and left-libertarianism.

Eszter Nova
 
 
How do we make people want to be free?

Eszter studied Political Science, Economics, and Screenwriting in London and Budapest before she obtained her PhD in Political Economy. She worked as a geopolitical and commodity market analyst and later as a fellow at Financial Research Institute, Budapest. She has edited two volumes on the economic crisis and how not to consolidate a young democracy. She lectured on international relations, global political economy, foreign policy analysis – and even on Ayn Rand before she was found out.

Brendan O'Neill
 
 
Threats to Liberty

Brendan O’Neill is the editor of spiked, and is a columnist for The Big Issue in London and The Australian. He also blogs for the Daily Telegraph and has written for a variety of publications in both Europe and America. He is the author of 'Can I Recycle My Granny And 39 Other Eco-Dilemmas', described by the BBC as a “skidmark on the gusset of environmentalism”, and is currently researching a book on snobbery. He was the first person to complete the ZX Spectrum game Rasputin, and is the only journalist to have written for both the Catholic Herald and Abortion Review.

Dominic Selwood
@DominicSelwood
 
 
Magna Carta: Birth of Democracy or Historical Fantasy?

Dominic Selwood is a historian, journalist, novelist and barrister. A jack-of-all-trades, Dominic has written numerous popular history books and is a fellow of the Royal History Society. He is also a regular on national radio and is the history blogger for The Daily Telegraph.

Andy Silvester
@silvesterldn
 
 
 
Campaign Training Session

Andy is campaign director at the TaxPayer’s Alliance. In this role he develops and delivers campaigns, working together with the TPA’s members and supporters, plans and frequently appears on the media. Prior to this he was Senior Parliamentary Affairs Officer at the Institute of Directors. He holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from King’s College, London, and in his spare time is an American Football coach.

Emily Skarbek
@EmilySkarbek
 
 
Libertarian and Feminism: Friends or Foes?

Dr. Emily Skarbek is Lecturer in Political Economy in the Department of Political Economy at KCL. Her research examines the role of voluntary associations in solving complex public goods problems in the aftermath of natural disasters. Her research is primarily interested in how individuals achieve social coordination in market relationships and social organizations. She is also interested in how the history of economic thought informs and furthers contemporary research. Emily received a MA and PhD in Economics from George Mason University.

Chris Snowdon
@cjsnowdon
 
Threats to Liberty

 

Christopher Snowdon is the Director of Lifestyle Economics at the IEA. He is the author of The Art of Suppression, The Spirit Level Delusion and Velvet Glove; Iron Fist. His work focuses on pleasure, prohibition and dodgy statistics. He has authored a number of publications including Sock Puppets, Euro Puppets, The Proof of the Pudding, The Crack Cocaine of Gambling and Free Market Solutions in Health.

 

Ray Corrigan
 
 
Digital Dystopias and Civil Liberties
 
 

Ray Corrigan is a senior lecturer in technology at The Open University. He is deeply involved in The Open University’s pioneering deployment of E-learning and has a keen interest in the intersection between technology and law. Outside of academia Ray is an active blogger and you can read his thoughts on the internet and society here: http://b2fxxx.blogspot.co.uk

David Skarbek
@DavidSkarbek

Dr. David Skarbek is Lecturer in Political Economy at KCL. His research interest is to understand how people define and enforce property rights in the absence of strong, effective governments. His work has examined incarceration, gangs, and crime in the United States.

David received a BSc in Economics from San Jose State University and a MA and PhD in Economics from George Mason University. 

Craig Smith
 
 
The Weath of Nations Re-Evaluated
 
 

Dr. Craig Smith is the Adam Smith Lecturer in Scottish Enlightenment at the University of Glasgow.  As a lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences, Dr Smith has published a number of works on the broader philosophy of Adam Smith, liberal theory and the history of political economy.

Stephen McLeod Blythe

@stephenemm

 
Digital Dystopias and Civil Liberties
 
 

Passionate about the internet and freedom of expression Stephen is currently putting into practice what he preaches by studying a LLM in Internet Law at Strathclyde University. He is also a Community Guardian for Wordpress and Automattic as well as a member the Open Rights Group Supporters Council. A self confessed ‘angry scot’ Stephen blogs on life, politics and the web here: Outside of politics Stephen is an accomplished photographer and you can see his rather brilliant photos here 

 

Belinda Brown
@bbhippopotamus 
 
Liberalism and Feminism
 
 

 

Belinda Brown is a fellow at The Young Foundation where her interest lies in those issues linking extended families with the changing role of the state. She studied Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics and then Sociology and Politics at the Central European University in Warsaw, and worked as a researcher and project worker for the homeless charity Crisis. She then went on to do research for Sir Peter Hall on the ESRC project “Economic Competitiveness Social Cohesion and the Policy Environment: the London Integrated City Study”.

Mark Pennington
 
 
Institutional Instability and Emergent Order
 
 

Mark is a Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy at KCL. Mark's research interests lie at the intersection of politics, philosophy and economics with an emphasis on the implications of bounded rationality and imperfect knowledge for institutional design. His latest book is called Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy,and examines challenges to market liberal theory derived from neo-classical economics, communitarian political theory and egalitarian ethical theory.

 

Marc Sidwell
@marcsidwell
 
 
Journalism Masterclass
 
 

Marc is the executive director of City A.M, a London based newspaper focusing on issues of regulation, political regulation, financial and economic news. Marc has also co-wrote a book on liberal education called The School of Freedom.

Eamon Butler
@eamonnbutler
 
 
Threats to Liberty
 
 

Eamonn Butler is Director of the Adam Smith Institute. He has degrees in economics, philosophy and psychology, gaining a PhD from the University of St Andrews in 1978. During the 1970s he worked on pensions and welfare issues for the US House of Representatives, and taught philosophy in Hillsdale College, Michigan, before returning to the UK to help found the Adam Smith Institute.Eamonn is author of books on the pioneering economists Milton Friedman, F A Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Adam Smith, and co-author of Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls and books on intelligence testing.

Kate Andrews
@Katelaurette
 
 
Feminism and Liberalism

Kate Andrews is the Communications Manager at the Adam Smith Institute. Kate has previously worked for the Institute of Economic Affairs, Townhall.com, the Open Currency Standard think tank and on Governor Mitt Romney’s and Linda McMahon’s campaigns.She graduated from the University of St. Andrews in 2012 with a joint degree in International Relations and Philosophy, where she served as Rector’s Assessor from 2011-2012.

INSPIRED? 

BUY YOUR TICKET NOW

bottom of page