Two further keynote speakers for the ENTER THE FUTURE conference at the University of Hull on 14 September 2007 have been announced.

Peter Madden is CEO of Forum for the Future, the UK’s leading sustainable development charity. Forum for the Future works with a range of sectors to find positive solutions to tomorrows problems. He has worked for 15 years on sustainable development issues. From 2002 to 2005 he worked as Head of Policy at the Environment Agency leading teams working on issues such as climate change, modern regulation, planning and sustainable communities. Prior to that Peter was Ministerial Adviser at Defra and DETR, where he advised Prime Minister and other Ministers on environmental issues.

Linda McAvan was first elected as an MEP in a 1998 by-election to represent the Yorkshire South seat for Labour. She was re-elected in 1999 and again in 2004 as head of Labour’s regional list for Yorkshire and the Humber under the new proportional representation system. She is Labour’s spokesperson in the European Parliament on Environment and Public Health and is a member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. She also serves on the Development Committee and the Joint ACPEU Assembly (African, Caribbean and Pacific-European Union), which brings together parliamentarians from across the developing world with MEPs. Linda instigated and chairs the Parliamentary Working Group on Fair Trade. She has been a member of the PSE Group Bureau since 2004, first as Treasurer, and was recently elected for the second half of the 2004/2009 legislature as a Vice President. Her ‘Quality of Life’ portfolio oversees policy on the environment, climate change, agriculture, regional affairs and fisheries.

During the 1999/2004 legislature Linda was Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and represented the Socialist Group on the Convention on the Future of Europe which drew up the draft constitution for the enlarged European Union between 2002 and 2003. She was voted British European Woman of the Year in 2002 for her efforts to engage women in the future of Europe. Linda has a long background of working on EU affairs. She worked in Brussels from 1984-1991 before returning to work in the UK as a regional policy lobbyist for the Coalfield Communities Campaign and Barnsley Council. She retains a strong interest in economic regeneration and is chair of the South Yorkshire Partnership charged with overseeing South Yorkshire’s regeneration strategy.

Linda's other interests include health issues, in particular neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, also sudden death syndrome and care for the long term ill. She has been a Labour Party member since 1980 and is a member of UNISON. Linda was brought up in Bradford and lives in Sheffield with her husband Paul.

For view the full ENTER THE FUTURE conference programme and to book your place, please go to www.hull.ac.uk/sustainable.