Demsoc is a membership organisation. Anyone can join. This page tells you a bit more about how it’s run.
Governors
Demsoc’s work is overseen by a Board of Governors, who have responsibility for setting the direction of the organisation, approving work programmes and preserving the independence and values of the organisation.
The Governors are elected by the members at an annual General Assembly, or confirmed there after appointment as interims by the board. They serve three-year terms. The current Governors are:
Catherine Howe
Catherine is chief executive of social technology firm Public-i, and a specialist in social media and eDemocracy with a background in technology delivery. She has worked with online communities and social networking tools for over 10 years.
Initially developing learning applications at the London Business School, she was founder director of Etribes.com – an online community consultancy which specialised in working with third sector organisations such as Christian Aid, YMCA and YHA. She is undertaking a PhD at the University of Sussex, and her research interest is the social impact of Web 2.0 tools in a democratic context
Term until General Assembly 2014. Follow her on Twitter, and read her blog.
Liz Owen
Liz Owen is Head of Customer Insight at the Department for Energy and Climate Change and Policy Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge. Her work creates, uses and interprets evidence on customer behaviour, attitudes and values.
Prior to joining DECC, Liz worked as a research consultant, initially helping international blue chip companies to understand their brand image and inform new product development, moving on to focus on policy research for public sector clients including Defra, DECC, Energy Saving Trust, Carbon Trust and the Sustainable Development Commission. She has a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Brasenose College, Oxford.
Term until General Assembly 2013. Follow her on Twitter.
Staff
Demsoc’s day-to-day work is undertaken by a small staff team.
Anthony Zacharzewski
Anthony is chief executive. He studied Classics at university, and as part of his course learned about the theory and reality of Athenian participatory democracy. He has spent over a decade working on his two main interests – tech and politics – and thinking about how emerging social and network technologies can improve government and political participation. In 2006, he was one of the founding members of Demsoc, along with Andy Martin (current president), Andrew Hardie, Helen Cammack and Ben Rowland.
His working life has been spent in central and local government. At various times he has been speechwriter at the Department of Health; secretary to the Cabinet Committees on health, food and agriculture; a member of the national Sure Start team, and project leader in the Treasury’s internal think tank, the Productivity and Structural Reform Team. He joined Brighton & Hove City Council as Head of Policy in 2006, where he was responsible for strategy, community relations, and sustainability. After nine months on the authority’s board as Acting Director of Strategy & Governance, he left to work for Demsoc in February 2010.
Follow him on Twitter.
Susie Latta
Susie Latta manages our local projects. In a wide ranging career she has managed many complex projects in the private, public and charitable sectors. She has run a British children’s charity in Russia; worked as project manager and leadership development consultant when clients included the UK Fire and Rescue Services and HM Prison Service; and worked as a policy officer for Kent Police Authority, which included strategic planning and public engagement.
She has lived and worked in North Africa and the Middle East, most recently in Libya until the revolution. During this time, she worked as a journalist and editor in Egypt; a business adviser in Libya; and for the British Council in Oman.
She has a BA in social science from Durham University which included Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. She also has an MSc in Development Management which covered the strategic management of change and institutional development. Her thesis looked at microfinance for single parents in Russia.
Follow her on Twitter.
