Advisory Board
The Rt. Hon.
Sir James Mitchell, PC - Senior Advisor
Sir James was educated in St. Vincent and at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago and the University of British Columbia, Canada. An agriculturist by profession, Sir James worked with the Government and in the Ministry of Overseas Development in London and as an agricultural research officer for the St. Vincent Government. Sir James has been a dominant figure in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for almost three decades. He became Prime Minister in July 1984 and was re-elected for a fourth successive term when his Party scored a resounding victory in the Parliamentary Elections of 15 June 1998. He initially entered politics in 1966 by winning a legislative seat as a candidate of the St. Vincent Labour Party. In 1975 he founded the New Democratic Party (NDP) becoming Parliamentary Opposition Leader until 1984.
Lord Birdwood - Senior Advisor
Lord Birdwood was educated at Radley and Trinity College, Cambridge, before commissioning with the Royal Horse Guards. Thereafter he joined J Walter Thompson as a copywriter, was Creative Director of another London agency and also Development Director for Cambridge Consultants (now Cambridge Communications). He has operated in executive search with Boyden International, co-founded Wrightson Wood, and is Director of Martlet, a company that he also owns. Lord Birdwood is Chairman of Steeltower Ltd (a property development company which he co-founded), a trustee of two charities and was on the select Committee for Science and Technology. He is an honorary Research Associate of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences at the London School of Economics and a patron of Mansfield College, Oxford.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten - Senior Advisor
After graduating with a degree in geology, Lord Mountbatten spent seven years in South America working on a variety of international projects as a mining consultant. He returned to the UK in 1993 to take over the management of his family estate, which he turned into a successful corporate venue prior to its sale in 1998. Today, he works as Director of his own company Crown storage Ltd. Additional appointments include diplomatic roles for UNICEF and other prominent charities.
David P. Michaels - Senior Advisor
David has over thirty-five years of experience as a personal advisor and mentor to Heads of State; Chairman, Presidents, and CEO's of international entities. He is a consultant to major private sector corporations, governmental entities and political leaders on matters associated with business, economic and political restructuring, strategic problem resolution and the related financial and economic negotiations. He has also advised law enforcement entities and litigation professionals on matters involving fraud, corruption, and illegal international transactions. David contributes to the policy and strategic planning debates through commentaries and publications on strategic business/financial/economic development, international debt, trade, and investment. He is the elected First Vice President of the Foreign Press Association and is co-authoring a book ‘Dust on the Chess Board” - a fictionalized insight into the activities of major global industries with geopolitical affairs between 1977 and 1982, with an alternative view of events leading to the Falklands War.
Gavin McNicoll - Senior Advisor
Gavin has an M.A. in International relations and Philosophy from St Andrews University with Honours in Intelligence, Terrorism, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Middle East. He is the founder of Eden Intelligence, a specialist provider of small scale, high impact conferences on counter-terrorism and security related issues. Eden Intelligence is responsible for the International Terrorism and Intelligence programme, now a landmark event in the counter-terrorism calendar. In 2005 he founded a new programme of work (International Terrorism and Finance) to focus on financial intelligence cooperation issues on a G8 plus level. The meeting and agenda for ITF have been supported by assistance form the Home Office, Her Majesty’s Treasury, The Foreign & Commonwealth Office, The National Criminal Intelligence Service and The Metropolitan Police.