Speaker announced for annual Sir Adrian Cadbury lecture

The speaker has been announced for the seventh annual Sir Adrian Cadbury Lecture.

Attendees will hear from the Rt Hon. Nadhim Zahawi (pictured), MP for Stratford upon Avon, about the vital importance of ethical and moral leadership, the pitfalls and the challenges.

The lecture, organised by the Lunar Society will take place at Conference Aston on 19 October from 5 to 8 pm.

Nadhim is the Member of Parliament for Stratford on Avon. He was born in Baghdad to Kurdish parents in 1967. Under threat of persecution from Saddam Hussein's regime, his family immigrated to the UK when he was 9.

In 2000 he founded YouGov, a leading market research company and floated the company on the London Stock Exchange in 2005. In January 2010 he stood down from YouGov to run for election as Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon.

In 2011 he co-authored Masters of Nothing with fellow MP Matt Hancock.

In January 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Nadhim as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families at the Department for Education.

He held this position until July 2019 when he was appointed by Boris Johnson as Minister for Business and Industry at BEIS. In November 2020, Nadhim was also made Minister for COVID Vaccine Deployment.

In the September 2021 reshuffle Nadhim was appointed Secretary of State for Education and in July 2022 the Prime Minister appointed Nadhim as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

On 6 September 2022, Liz Truss appointed Nadhim as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and Minister for Equalities and on 25 October, new prime minister Rishi Sunak appointed Nadhim as chairman of the Conservative Party and minister without portfolio in the Cabinet.

Dr Jo Horton, director of operations at the Lunar Society said: “The Lunar Society does its utmost not to shy away from difficult contemporary subjects and the Sir Adrian Cadbury Lecture 2023 is particularly interesting this year in debating the topic of ethical and moral leadership.

"Our keynote speaker is the Rt.Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP, whom we welcome. We are anticipating a lively, challenging, and thought-provoking Q&A chaired by our governance expert and trustee Deirdre LaBassiere.”

Click here to attend the event in person. Alternatively, click here to attend online.