Our Patrons

Greg Dyke

Greg Dyke was Director-General of the BBC 2000 – 2004; Chancellor of the University of York 2004 – 2015; and Chairman of The Football Association 2013 – 2016.

He has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in journalism and broadcasting. Before taking over at the BBC, he was previously Managing Director of London Weekend Television and Chairman of ITV Sport. He remains chairman of the British Film Institute and Europe’s largest theatre group, ATG. He retains strong links with his boyhood club Brentford FC; he was non-executive Chairman from 2006 until taking on his role with the FA. He was a director of Manchester United FC in the late 1990s. Having played football all his life, he still turns out occasionally in six-a-side games on Thursday evenings.

Baroness Neuberger, DBE

Baroness Neuberger was educated at Cambridge and Leo Baeck College. She served the South London Liberal Synagogue 1977-89, chaired Camden & Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust 1993–1997, was CEO of the King’s Fund until 2004, Chancellor of the University of Ulster 1994-2000 and Bloomberg Professor of Divinity at Harvard University 2006. She was a Trustee of the Booker Prize Foundation, and a founding trustee of the Schwab Charitable Trust, in memory of her parents. Created a life peer in 2004 (Liberal Democrat, but now a Cross Bencher) she was Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Champion for Volunteering 2007-2009 and chaired One Housing Group and the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity for the Lord Chancellor 2009-2010. She served as Senior Rabbi of West London Synagogue from February 2011 to March 2020.

Among her books is ‘Not Dead Yet – a Manifesto for Old Age’ (2008, Harper Collins), and ‘Is that all there is?’(June 2011, Rider). Baroness Neuberger is a social commentator and writes and broadcasts regularly on a variety of social and religious issues.

The Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve, CH CBE FBA

Onora O’Neill is a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords and was a former Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge. She was formerly also the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

She holds the title of Honorary Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, University of Cambridge, has written extensively on equality and freedom throughout her academic career and is highly regarded as a specialist on human rights. She was also the former chair of the Nuffield Foundation and was President of the British Academy from 2005-09. She was a member of Cara’s Council of Management from 2008 until 2012, and became a Patron of Cara in 2014.

Professor Lord Patel of Bradford, OBE

Currently University Director of Strategic Partnerships and Senior Advisor to the Vice Chancellor at the University of East London, Lord Kamlesh Patel is tasked with creating strategic links between the university and a wide range of public and private sector organisations regionally, nationally and internationally.

He has extensive experience working at the highest levels on national and international developments in government policy on a wide range of areas, including health, social care, crime, community cohesion, extremism, mental health, drug and alcohol use, equality and human rights, and higher education. He has led international health and social care initiatives and brokered developments between UK statutory and voluntary organisations and other countries (including India, Middle East, Africa) to realise real benefits for local institutions and communities.

Lord Patel has, over the years, been appointed to a number of national boards and committees, including, the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work, the Home Office’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, the Healthcare Commission, the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and the Care Quality Commission. He was also Chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission. He is currently Chairman and/or Patron of over 20 not-for-profit organisations across England.

Lord Patel has contributed to a variety of Government policies including being the architect of the Government’s five year action plan for delivering race equality in mental health care. In 2007 he was appointed by the Prime Minister to act as a Ministerial Adviser to the Secretary of State (DCLG) in respect of the government’s PREVENT agenda (Preventing Violent Extremism); he was also Chairman of a National Taskforce looking at the effectiveness of prison drug treatment culminating in the publication of The Patel Report.

Lord Patel was appointed as Minister in the House of Lords Government’s Whip’s Office as Front Bench Spokesperson for:- Communities and Local Government, Ministry of Justice, Cabinet Office and the Attorney General’s Office in 2008.

Jon Snow

Jon Snow is a well-known journalist and television presenter.

He worked for UK’s Independent Television News as Washington Correspondent from 1983 to 1986 and as Diplomatic Editor from 1986 to 1989, before becoming the main presenter of Channel 4 TV News, a position he still holds. He has won Royal Television Society awards for reporting in Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and El Salvador, and was Royal Television Society Presenter of the Year in 1994. He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008. In May 2015 he was honoured by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts with a BAFTA Fellowship, an award which recognises an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, television or games.

Dr Rowan Williams

The Rt Revd and Rt Hon The Lord Williams of Oystermouth PC

Dr Williams was educated at Dynevor Secondary Grammar School in Swansea, then at Christ’s College Cambridge. He studied for his doctorate at Christ Church and at Wadham College Oxford, working on the Russian Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky.

His career began as a lecturer at Mirfield (1975-1977). He returned to Cambridge as Tutor and Director of Studies at Westcott House. After ordination in Ely Cathedral, and serving as Honorary Assistant Priest at St George’s Chesterton, he was appointed to a Cambridge University lectureship in Divinity. In 1984 he was elected a Fellow and Dean of Clare College. Then, still only 36, he returned to Oxford as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity for six years, before becoming Bishop of Monmouth, and, from 2000, Archbishop of Wales. On 2 December 2002 he was confirmed as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held until the end of 2012. On his retirement from the See of Canterbury he was created a Baron for Life by the style and title of Baron Williams of Oystermouth. In January 2013 he became Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Dr Williams takes a keen interest in the challenges facing refugees and spoke at an event organised by CARA in May 2010, on the theme, ‘Enriching the Arguments: the Refugee Contribution to British Life’. He became a Patron of CARA in 2014.