Michael Hastings, Baron Hastings of Scarisbrick

Hastings began his career as a teacher at Greenway Secondary school in Uxbridge (now Uxbridge High School, London) and then moved into Government service in 1986 supporting policy initiatives to bring employment and development to Britain's inner cities. In 1990 he moved to work at TVAM on education programming and then GMTV as Chief Political Correspondent and then the BBC in 1994 as a presenter of the weekly Around Westminster programme, before joining the BBC Corporate Affairs division in 1996.

Hastings is a trustee of the Vodafone Group Foundation and previously served for nine years on the Board for Responsible and Sustainable Business at British Telecom (BT). He first represented KPMG International on the Global Corporate Citizenship Committee of the World Economic Forum (WEF), from 2008 to 2010, and was a Board Director of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) from 2010 to 2012. In 2009 he became a Member of the World Economic Forum's Global Council on Diversity and Talent; in 2010 he served on the "Global Agenda Council on the Next Generation"; and in 2011 he became a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Role of Business. From 2012 to 2014 he led the WEF Agenda Council – The Future of Civil Society, as Vice Chairman. Hastings is also a global advisor to the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance.[2]

In January 2002, Hastings was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire)[3] in recognition of his services to crime reduction, including 15 years as Chairman and 21 years as a Trustee of Crime Concern. He led the merger of Crime Concern with the Rainer Foundation to create the charity Catch22. He served on the Commission for Racial Equality for nine years as a Commissioner (1993–2001). He is listed as one of the 100 most influential black people in Britain and No. 6 on the 2016 list of 100 Black British Business Leaders.[4]

In 2005, Hastings was awarded a peerage to the House of Lords by Queen Elizabeth II,[5][6] where he sits as a crossbencher. In the same year he also received the UNICEF award from the UK Chancellor for his "outstanding contribution to understanding and effecting solutions for Africa's children". Hastings is president of ZANE – a development aid agency focused on Zimbabwe and Vice President of Tear Fund. In 2011 he became Vice President of UNICEF the UN Children's and Education Fund, and is a Patron of Free the Children and a Director of Junior Achievement Worldwide.

Hastings was chairman of Millennium Promise UK and a member of the global Millennium Promise Board. In 2010 he was a leading advisor to the Chatham House enquiry into the Future Role of the UK in Foreign Affairs. He sat on the Council of the Overseas Development Institute in the UK and previously on the Center for Global Development in the US.

In 2014, Hastings was conferred with a Doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Kent,[7] Canterbury in recognition for his leadership at KPMG, and the BBC on International Development and Corporate Responsibility. He was installed as the second Chancellor of Regent's University London in February 2017.

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