Judges

We are pleased to confirm our judges so far:

Baroness Hayman

BARONESS HAYMAN

We are delighted to announce that Baroness Hayman, Lord Speaker of the House of Lords is to be Head Judge at the Grand Final this year.

As a member of the Labour Party she was a Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1979, and became a Life Peer in 1996. Outside politics, she has been involved in health issues, serving on medical ethics committees and the governing bodies of bodies in the National Health Service and health charities. In 2006, she won the initial election for the newly created position of Lord Speaker.

She attended Wolverhampton Girls' High School and read law at Newnham College, Cambridge, graduating in 1969, and was President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1969. She worked for Shelter from 1969 to 1971 and for the Social Services Department at the London Borough of Camden from 1971 to 1974. In 1974 she became Deputy Director of the National Council for One-Parent Families.

She married Martin Hayman in 1974; together, they have four sons.

Jeremy Stockwell

JEREMY STOCKWELL

Performance expert Jeremy Stockwell promotes positive means of inter-personal communication and presentation. Working in Arts, Education, and Business, Jeremy heightens awareness, facilitates transformation, and encourages creative fulfilment.

As a highly experienced coach, director, writer, and performer Jeremy's work is playful, challenging, innovative, and unique.

Following the success of last year's BBC series The Speaker, Jeremy has expanded his speaking portfolio. He talks on a range of subjects at Arts, Media, Educational and Corporate events.

Drawing on his wealth of experience in TV, theatre, and Education, as well as extensive international appearances, Jeremy combines humorous and human observations with anecdotal example and philosophical insight.

Canon Ann Easter

CANON ANN EASTER

The Reverend Canon Ann Easter, became the second woman ever to be ordained a priest of the Church of England.

Born in Newham, she was "dragged round all the local churches" by her grandmother, who loved the church social scene. After attending a Methodist Sunday School, she was then introduced to the Society of St Francis at St Philips Church, Plaistow, where she experienced Anglo Catholic worship. "With the smells and the bells, I absolutely loved it."

Ann was made a Deaconess in 1980 and worked for the Diocese of Chelmsford, which included five London boroughs. She was then made a Deacon in 1987, "it was good to be a 'Rev', as no one knows what a Deaconess is!"

A constant campaigner for equal rights for women in the church, she was finally ordained priest of the Church of England in Chelmsford Cathedral in 1994, along with 50 other women. A well-known broadcaster, and face of BBC1's 'This is the day' for five years, Ann Easter is and will no doubt remain one of the most outspoken figures in the Church of England.

Kasia Madera

KASIA MADERA

Kasia Madera has been a BBC News Journalist and Presenter since 2002. She regularly stands in for George Alagiah on the BBC One Daytime Summaries. She also co-presents the BBC News Channel alongside Matthew Amroliwala, Ben Brown, Tim Wilcox and Simon McCoy.

As well as covering domestic news Kasia has an international following. She presents the BBC News Channel overnight when the coverage is simulcast on BBC World to an audience of millions. Recently she solely maintained continuous rolling news coverage of the Jakarta bomb blasts in July 2009.

Fitting in with BBC Three's alternative look, Kasia has presented the fast paced youth orientated news bulletin 60 Seconds. Before becoming one of the BBC News Channel's regular presenters she was frequently seen on set presenting a roundup of the day's entertainment and celebrity news in E24. Kasia has reported on a wide range of entertainment stories and has interviewed a large selection of celebrities including Ozzy and Sharon Osborne, Bob Geldoff and Tony Blackburn. Kasia is bilingual in Polish and is an active member within London's Polish Community. She reported for the BBC News Channel on the Polish Elections in 2007 and has performed simultaneous translations on both the BBC News Channel and BBC World. She is also a committee member of the Polish Order of Malta Volunteers Charity.

Sir William Atkinson

SIR WILLIAM ATKINSON

Sir William’s first teaching appointment was in Portsmouth, which was followed by promoted posts in Islington Green School and Holloway Boy’s School in London. Sir William worked as a Deputy Head in two London secondary schools before taking up his first headship. He has been Headteacher of Phoenix High School, Hammersmith and Fulham since April 1995 having previously held headships at Cranford Community School, Hounslow and Copland Community School, Brent.

He is involved with many organisations and panels including Member of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) Advisory Panel on Children's Viewing; National Judge for the Teaching Awards and in 2008 he was awarded the London Schools and the Black Child 'Teacher of the Year'.

Sir William has also been featured widely in the media including being the subject of a BBC2 documentary 'Just William' which portrayed a day in his working life and the Channel 4 series 'The Unteachables' where he undertook the role of Headteacher.

Sir William is married with four children.

Zoe Williams aka Amazon

DR ZOE WILLIAMS

Zoe Williams was born on 3 April 1980 and raised in Lancashire until she moved to the North East of England in 2001 to study medicine at Newcastle University, where she gained her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree, passing the course with merit.

During her second year of working as a full time doctor in Newcastle she landed the role of starring as 'Amazon' in Sky 1's prime time TV show Gladiators, following her intial application to be a contestant on the show. In addition to this SKy asked Zoe to take on the role of the Green Gladiator, which means that she is the face of SKy's current green campaign and an ambassador for the promotion of environmentally friendly life choices.

Williams is a keen sportswoman and has played women's rugby at premiership level.

Ann Mroz

ANN MROZ

Ann has been with Times Higher Education for 14 years, during which time she has been Chief-sub-editor, Books editor, Opinions editor and latterly deputy editor. She was heavily involved in the very successful relaunch of the magazine in January this year. Prior to joining THE, she worked as a freelance on the Sunday Times and various medical titles.

Shazia Awan

SHAZIA AWAN

Shazia Awan, Director of Peachy Pink, was recently presented with an award for Asian Entrepreneur of the Year by Home Secretary Theresa May.

Shazia’s company, which specialises in producing ladies underwear, has fast become a household name as she supplies her products to Britain’s biggest department store, Debenhams. With the advantage of an extensive PR background, managing national and international campaigns for an array of household names, Shazia and her team launched Peachy Pink on London’s Bond Street in show stopping fashion. The launch saw fifty women who had tested the Peachy Pink products march down Bond Street in just their underwear. The event attracted national and international media attention, including a thumbs up from GMTV’s Lorraine Kelly on the day of the launch. Peachy Pink is set to distribute to retailers across the globe over the next year.

Shazia was a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party in the recent General election and has been a member of the party for a number of years. She made political history as the first Asian woman to address a Welsh Conservative Party conference. She has always been actively involved in work in the community and was handpicked by the American Government to take part in a programme on community activism in Washington DC earlier this year.