Panel members

The Members of the Panel were appointed following an open competition process. None of the Panel Members are practising lawyers. They bring together a diverse range of skills, expertise and experience.

Elisabeth Davies (Chair)

Elisabeth is Director of Partner Relations at Age UK, where she works closely with over 160 local Age UKs across England and supports the work of Age Cymru, Age Northern Ireland and Age Scotland. She was previously Deputy Chair of Wandsworth Primary Care Trust and is the former Chair of Wandsworth Citizens Advice Bureaux. Her career includes a series of senior roles in the health arena including at the National Patient Safety Agency, the UK Breast Cancer Coalition, the Patients Association and the World Cancer Research Fund. She was also previously Director of Policy at the Refugee Council.

Location: London

Jeff Bell
Jeff is a Trading Standards Consultant based in Stockton-on-Tees. Formerly, he was Chief Trading Standards Officer at Redcar and Cleveland Unitary Council, and worked as a Trading Standards Officer at local authorities in Cleveland, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, and Durham. In these roles he brought three major projects to the North East: Consumer Direct; the Scambuster Team and the Illegal Moneylending Team, managing the latter two through their inception, recruitment and foundation period. He was also Chair of the North East Trading Standards Association and a Member of the North East Electricity Consumers’ Committee.

Location: Stockton-on-Tees

Graham Corbett
Graham Graham is a member of the Employment Tribunal Panel and was working as a Senior National Officer at the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) before taking voluntary redundancy at the end of 2009. Formerly he was Deputy Head of Legal Services at the PCS and a civil servant at the Department of Environment and Transport. He previously chaired the Departmental Trade Union Side for negotiations and was a senior lay representative at the Civil and Public Services Association.

Location: West Yorkshire

Emma Harrison
Emma is Director of Public Engagement at Action on Hearing Loss (formerly Royal National Institute for the Deaf). She brings experience of working in the consumer movement as former Principal Public Affairs Officer at Which? and Campaign Manager at Consumers International. She was also previously a Research Manager and Political Advisor at the European Parliament.

Location: London

Paul Munden
Paul is an experienced general counsel and chartered director. Over the last ten years he has held a number of senior board posts at the Business Link operation in London. He is an accredited tutor with the Institute of Directors leading a number of their board development courses designed to provide an in-depth view of the key duties, roles and legal responsibilities of directors and corporate governance. He has also served as non executive chairman of a Bafta award winning educational software house and a founder non executive director of Customer First UK, which is responsible for the national Customer First quality accreditation framework. He is currently on the board of NHS Mid Essex and the National Youth Music Theatre.

Location: Essex

Neil Wightman
Neil is Head of Housing Needs at the London Borough of Lambeth and is Joint Chair of the Association of Housing Advice Services. He was a member of the Beacon Advisory Panel between 2003 and 2009 and a Trustee Director of Kilburn Youth Service for 10 years. He has worked in local government for over 20 years and before that worked as an advice worker at Sheffield and Clapham Citizens Advice Bureaux..

Location: London

Karin Woodley
Karin is the Chief Executive of ContinYou having ended her role as Chief Executive of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust in 2009. Formerly, she was Director of the Tabernacle Trust; Deputy Director of the Arkwright Arts Trust; Partner, Keya Associates; and Chief Executive of Minorities Arts Advisory Service. She was also previously Chair of Kensington and Chelsea Metropolitan Police Independent Advisory Group on Race, and Adviser to the Scotland Yard Gold Task Group for the Notting Hill Carnival Policing Strategy.

Location: London