YBF Staff

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Daniel Hannan, President (president@ybf.org)

Daniel Hannan is the President of the Young Britons’ Foundation and has recently been ranked tenth by The Daily Telegraph in its annual poll of most influential centre-right figures in Britain. Having attended Marlborough College and Oriel College, Oxford, Dan first became director of the European Research Group before subsequently becoming a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph. In 1999, Dan was elected to the European Parliament and has represented the South-East since that time.

Dan has risen to prominence thanks to his excoriating attack on Gordon Brown in the European Parliament which became a YouTube sensation. He is now a regular guest on Fox News. The co-author with Douglas Carswell of The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain, Dan has appeared in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, Die Welt, Weltwoche, The Sunday Telegraph, The Catholic Herald, Freedom Today, The Brussels Journal and The Spectator.

Dan is fluent in French and Spanish and was born in Lima, Peru.

Conor Burns, Vice-President, (conor@ybf.org.uk)

Conor Burns was born in Belfast in 1972 and his family moved to Hertfordshire in 1980.  After secondary school in St Albans, Conor attended Southampton University where he studied  Modern History and Politics. Since graduation he has had a variety of jobs working in the communications and finance sectors. He was Company Secretary and Head of Business Development for successful information services company in London and later briefly ran the direct sales force in the southern region for a large insurance company.  Most recently he has been working for a large private company on the south coast as well as a communications company in London. He is on the board of the Spitfire Tribute Foundation which is working to construct a permanent monument to the Spitfire in the city of its birth. Conor is involved in several charities.  He is on the management team of a Home Start scheme that helps families struggling with the demands of everyday life.

Conor joined the Conservative party at the earliest age possible and became politically involved at school.  On arriving at University Conor got involved with the Southampton University Conservative Association becoming Chairman in 1992.  He was elected to Southampton City Council in 1999 taking what had previously been a safe inner city Labour seat. He immediately became Housing and Urban Regeneration Spokesman and then Group Leader.

Having joined a Group of 3 Conor lead the Conservatives to increase their numbers to 12 but narrowly failed to win re-election himself in 2002, although he laid the foundations for the Conservatives to have taken control of Southampton City Council in 2008.  Conor was selected to fight Eastleigh in 1999 and contested the 2001 and 2005 general elections. In 2005 Conor missed by 568 votes against Chris Huhne.

Donal Blaney, Chief Executive (donal@ybf.org.uk)

Donal is the co-founder and Chief Executive of The Young Britons’ Foundation. He is a law graduate of Southampton University, a solicitor and owner of his own law firm and consultancy business which has offices in England, the United States, Ireland and the British Virgin Islands. Donal is a former Chairman of Southampton University Conservative Association (1993-4) and Wessex Area Conservative Students (1993-5). He is also a former Students’ Union Officer and NUS delegate.

After graduating, Donal became involved in the National Association of Conservative Graduates, of which he became Chairman in 1997. In 1998, he was asked by then Leader William Hague to unite the Conservative Students, Young Conservatives and the Conservative Graduates into one new youth organisation – Conservative Future – of which he became the first National Chairman (1998-9).

Donal served a four year term as a local councillor in Hammersmith & Fulham, and is a former member of the Executive of Conservative Way Forward. His non-political interests include LiverpoolFootball Club, choral music and the cinema. Donal is married to Marci, a former US Army reserve soldier who served in Iraq. He has homes in Kent & Florida.

Matthew Richardson, Executive Director (matthew@ybf.org.uk)

Matthew is a Barrister and former Conservative Future National Deputy Chairman. A graduate of the University of Oxford, Matthew practices at 7 New Square. Matthew successfully completed his pupillage at 7 New Square, part of which was spent working in the legal department of Imperial Innovations, the company responsible for spinning out the intellectual property of Imperial College, where he gained commercial experience in a legal setting.

Matthew has gained experience in various different aspects of contentious and non-contentious areas from advising on and drafting contracts, to interlocutory, appellate and trial advocacy, particularly in commercial and chancery, intellectual property and computer law, employment and civil matters. As Director of the Legal Advice & Support Unit, Matthew honed his interest in education and election law. Now as Executive Director of the Young Britons’ Foundation, Matthew also focuses his efforts on YBF’s job and internship programme.

In 2009, Matthew was elected as a Common Councilman in the City of London. He is also set to become a magistrate in 2010.

Steven Dent, Director of Operations (steven@ybf.org.uk)

Steven graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Politics and a minor in Communications and Media Studies in 2008. Steven’s final year dissertation was focused primarily on how politicians use the media in political life. The dissertation asked the question, Clinton and Blair: Media Maestros or Media Manipulators, and concluded that Blair copied many of Clinton’s media techniques but also showed the extent to which the two politicians manipulated the media to their own ends. Steven’s political interests include the use of the media by politicians and the way that new media can be used in the present age. He also has interests in civil liberties and  the American conservative movement. Outside of politics Steven’s interests include, cricket, music, art, editing, and films.

Cllr Paul Osborn, Director of Strategy (paul@ybf.org.uk)

Cllr Paul Osborn is Director of Strategy for the Young Britons’ Foundation. He is councillor for Pinner Ward in the London Borough of Harrow where he is the Cabinet Member for Strategy and Business Support Services. After attending school in Ealing, Paul attended Southampton University where he studied Politics & International Relations. As well as co-founding Empower Students, Paul was the President of the Debating Union. He won three inter-varsity debating championships and representing Southampton at the World Debating Championships at Oxford & Princeton.

After editing Ocean Blue (the monthly journal of the National Association of Conservative Graduates), Paul sat on the Executive of Conservative Way Forward. In 2005, Paul followed G Gordon Liddy in addressing the pro-war Rally to Honor Military Families on the Mall in Washington, DC. He is a member of the Heritage Foundation Young President’s Club, the National Rifle Association of America and is a founder supporter of the Young Britons’ Foundation.

Alex Deane, Director of Research (alex@ybf.org.uk)

Alex Deane is a Barrister. He read English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge and took a Masters degree in International Relations as a Rotary Scholar at Griffith University. He is a World Universities Debating Champion and is the author of The Great Abdication: Why Britain’s Decline is the Fault of the Middle Class, published by Imprint Academic. A former chief of staff to the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, he has also worked for the Liberal Party in Australia.

Greg Smith, Director of Campaigns (greg@ybf.org.uk)

Greg Smith is a Co-Founder and former Executive Director of the Young Britons’ Foundation. Educated at Bromsgrove School and Birmingham University, Greg is a successful political consultant, having ran the campaigns of Greg Hands MP in 2005 and masterminding the Conservative victory in 2006 in the borough council elections in Hammersmith & Fulham. Greg is the Cabinet Member for Crime & Anti-Social Behaviour, in which capacity he frequently appears in the print and broadcast media. He is also a member of the Executive of Conservative Way Forward.

Mark Clarke, Director of Outreach, (mark@ybf.org.uk)

Mark Clarke was the National Chairman of Conservative Future 2006-2008, and is the Prospective Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Tooting.

Mark attended Durham University, graduating in 1999 with a degree in Ancient and Modern History. Prior to Durham, he was a pupil at Dulwich College. He has been the serving Chairman of Conservative Future since 2006. Clarke has made it his goal to increase the number of Conservative Future branches in marginal constituencies. In his capacity as Chairman of Conservative Future, Mark appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Make Me a Tory, attempting to persuade the documentary’s director and author to become a Conservative.

He was selected in February 2007 as the Conservative Party Parliamentary Candidate for Tooting. Previously, he had been the Young Conservatives Chairman for Mitcham & Morden and Wimbledon, the Conservative Future Chairman for Durham University Conservatives and the CF regional chairman for North East England. He is the great-nephew of the late Dominican Prime Minister, Dame Eugenia Charles, whom he is reported as saying he considers the Conservative politician that he most admires.

His career has included a five year stint in marketing with Procter & Gamble, two years in strategy consultancy with the Boston Consulting Group and more recently he has worked for Mars.

Sarkis Zeronian, Director of Communications (sarkis@ybf.org.uk)

Sarkis Zeronian is Director of Communications for the Young Britons’ Foundation. He is Chairman of Fairfield Ward Conservatives in Battersea. After reading law at Southampton University, where he was Chairman of the University Conservative Association, Sarkis attended the College of Law, Guildford. Sarkis is a former committee member of the National Association of Conservative Graduates.

Sarkis is now a recruitment consultant, specializing in placing lawyers in the private banking sector.

Mike Rouse, Director of Technology (mike@ybf.org.uk)

Mike Rouse is Director of Technology for the Young Britons’ Foundation. Originally from the industrial town of Coventry, Mike drew on his years of IT and senior administrative experience to set up his own political website design consultancy in 2006 that focused on providing affordable yet highly effective websites for a range of politicians such as the Rt Hon John Redwood MP and projects like Tory Radio.

He joined 18DoughtyStreet.com in October 2006 to help set up the technical elements of Britain’s first true internet TV station and he continues to manage the website and internet marketing operations. Mike joined the Young Britons’ Foundation in early 2007 to help with the technical delivery of training and workshops and he continues to contribute to various events and functions within the organisation, believing passionately in its aims and objectives.