2008 Annual Dinner with Sir David Arculus

The 2008 Annual Dinner, hosted by the Lord Mayor was on Tuesday, 18 November 2008. speaker was Sir David Arculus who spoke on Lifting the burden of regulation - Who regulates the regulators?

His speech can be read here, and the Birmingham Post review of it here. A press release before the event can be read here.

A biography of Sir David is below.

Sir David Arculus

Born in Birmingham, Sir David is a British media figure, businessman and adviser to Government on regulation, having chaired the Better Regulation Task Force. He is a Director of 02 and Telefonica as well as chairing the Advisory Council of The British Library. In August 2008, he was appointed Chairman of ExCel London. He is also a former Chairman of Severn Trent and non-executive director of several companies including Barclays.

In and around the city, Sir David has run the International Spring Fair and other events at the NEC, chaired Severn Trent, and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Birmingham City University.

Much of his life has been spent leading media organisations. He has served as a BBC producer, and MD of Emap, as Chairman of IPC Magazines, and he currently chairs three private equity backed media companies. In between times, he was Chairman of O2, and has served on numerous boards including Telefonica and Pearson.

He would say, however, that four of the most interesting years of his life were spent when Tony Blair asked him to become the Regulation Czar as Chairman of the Better Regulation Task Force. Now that Blair has left Number 10, David Cameron has asked him to do a similar piece of work for the Conservatives as they prepare for their election manifesto.