Michael Portillo, Frank Kelly and Nigel Crisp Join Board of Trustees for RAND Europe

RAND Europe today announced that The Right Honourable Michael Portillo, Professor Frank Kelly, FRS, and Lord Crisp have joined its Board of Trustees.

“We are delighted to welcome three new members onto our Board,” said Jonathan Grant, president of RAND Europe. “Their experience and expertise across a broad range of policy issues will make an invaluable contribution to the success of RAND Europe.”

As a Conservative Member of Parliament, Michael Portillo held a number of Cabinet posts, including Secretary of State for Employment and Secretary of State for Defence. Since leaving the House of Commons in 2005, Portillo has become an active contributor to public debate, through television and radio programmes, and newspaper columns.

“Independent research is essential for good policy-making,” Portillo said. “RAND Europe is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organisation that answers the questions, and casts aside the politics. I am looking forward to helping identify the key issues where RAND Europe can make a difference.”

Frank Kelly, FRS, is Professor of the Mathematics of Systems in the University of Cambridge. Kelly has won numerous awards for his work and served on several high-level scientific advisory boards, including three years as chief scientific adviser to the Department for Transport.

“RAND Europe has very high standards for academic rigour and objective analysis,” Kelly said. “‘Maintaining those standards challenges RAND staff, and the Board, to keep up with the latest developments in research and policy not just in the United Kingdom, but across Europe as well. It is an exciting organisation to work with.”

Nigel Crisp completed his distinguished 20-year service to the NHS in the position of Chief Executive of the NHS and Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health in 2006, when he was made a peer. Crisp now chairs an international task force devoted to training and educating health workers in developing countries, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“I am pleased to begin an association with RAND Europe given its commitment to conduct research and analysis that serves the public interest,” Crisp stated.

The RAND Europe Board of Trustees approved the new appointments during its late January meeting. Other Trustees include Philip Lader, former U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Sir John Boyd, former diplomat and Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, Professor Lawrence Freedman, Professor of War Studies at King's College London, James A. Thomson, President and CEO of the RAND Corporation and Jonathan Grant, President of RAND Europe. Portillo, Kelly and Crisp will each serve five-year terms.