Lord Dr Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE
- Chancellor, Regents University London
- former Global Head of Citizenship, KPMG 06-2019
- former Trustee, Vodafone Group Foundation 07-2019
- VP, UNICEF; President, ZANE
- Advisor, Stephen Covey Institute, Utah State University
- Governor, M-PESA Academy, Nairobi, Kenya
- former BBC Head of Public Affairs, 1994-2006
Michael began his career as a teacher moving into government service in 1986 supporting policy initiatives to bring employment and development to Britain’s inner cities working directly with No.10. In that period onward, he became a Commissioner with the Commission for Racial Equality (serving 9 years); a Member of the Social Security Advisory Committee (4 years) and the first minority on the Metropolitan Police Committee (3 years) and subsequently Advisor to Sir John Stevens, then Met Police Commissioner. Michael founded Crime Concern in 1988, merged it with the Rainer Foundation in 2008 to created CATCH22, the leading crime prevention agency. He received a CBE in 2003 for services to crime reduction and community safety.
In 1990 he started working for TVAM on education programming and then GMTV as its Chief Political Correspondent. In 1994 Michael moved to the BBC as a presenter on the weekly BBC 2 Around Westminster programme before joining its Corporate Affairs division. In 1996 he became the BBC’s Head of Public Affairs and then its first head of Corporate Social Responsibility in 2003 before becoming KPMG international’s Global Head of Citizenship in 2006. He retired from KPMG in June 2019. For 9 years Michael also sat on the BT Board for Responsible and Sustainable Business until 2016 and a Board Member of the Global Reporting Initiative ( GRI ).
Michael was conferred with a Life Peerage in 2005 and sits as a Crossbench Independent Peer in the House of Lords. He served on a Select Committee in his first two years and as a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. In 2005 he also received the UNICEF Award for his ‘outstanding work on effecting positive solutions for Africa’s Children’ further to leading the BBC’s corporate response to the Blair Commission for Africa Report.
He worked with Chatham House as an advisor to the Future of the UK in Foreign Affairs enquiry working closely with Dr Robin Niblett CMG. Between 2007-19 Michael has attended the World Economic Forum in Davos annually and led the enquiry into the Future of Civil Society for the WEF and worked on the Role of Business in Society network. He has also sat on impactful enquiries on Migration, Talent and Diversity.
Michael is a Trustee of the Vodafone Group Foundation and a member of its Global Development Committee; Vice President of UNICEF UK and Ambassador for TEAR FUND. He also worked closely with Millennium Promise serving on the International Board and Chairing MPUK with a focus on Ghana. He is a Patron of the WE Foundation and a Governor of the M-Pesa Academy in Nairobi.
In 2014, Michael was conferred with a Doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Kent, Canterbury in recognition for his leadership at KPMG, the BBC and for his work in international development and corporate responsibility. In 2017 Michael was installed as the Chancellor of Regent’s University London.