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Alistair is a British triathlete, and the current Olympic champion in his sport. He is also a back-to-back European Triathlon Union champion and a two-time Triathlon World Champion, having won in 2009 and again in 2011

National, European and World titles were won at Junior level as well as being a straight A student. He was accepted into Cambridge to study Medicine and completed one term before realising he wanted to be Olympic Champion, and that he could follow in his Mum and Dad's footsteps and become a Doctor after his sporting career.

It was a decision that rewarded him immediately. He qualified for Beijing with a 3rd place finish at the Madrid ITU World Cup, and was also crowned U23 World Champion in 2008. At the Beijing Olympics his ballsy front running earned many plaudits (and unsettled a few of his rivals), though he struggled in the last 2km to finish a creditable 12th place.

Another winter under his belt, whilst completing his degree at Leeds University (2.1), paid dividends. He dominated the 2009 Triathlon World Championship Series with an unprecedented 5 victories from 5 races (Madrid, Washington DC, Kitzbuhel, London, Gold Coast) to be crowned World Champion at just 21 years old.

After suffering injury setbacks at the beginning of the 2010 season, Alistair made a staggering return to form; claiming two ITU World Championship Series victories in Madrid, and at the season finale in Budapest, as well as at the ETU Triathlon European Championships.

Another phenomenal season in 2011 saw Alistair winning the European Championships for the second time (despite suffering a puncture) and clinching his second world title with wins in Madrid, Kitzbuhel, Beijing and the all important Olympic test event in Hyde Park.

Alistair is currently studying for an MSc in Finance at Leeds Met University.

Mike is an international, national and local skills and labour market expert with extensive experience in research, policy analysis and strategy.

His current and most recent work includes: writing a guide to European Employment Policy for The European Commission; undertaking a review of member and partner countries' skills strategies for the OECD, in preparation for the launch of their skills strategy in May 2012; running a course in skills policy for the ILO Skills Academy in Turin; thematic expert on the European 'Urbact' Jobs and Skills capitalisation programme; working with colleagues at the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) on a range of skills issues; Visiting Fellow at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills; membership of the Leeds City Region Employment and Skills Board; membership of the European Commission's ESCO Board; and a range of speaking engagements in the UK and internationally. 

Until May 2011, Mike was Director of Research and Policy at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), where he was responsible for advising Government on what was required to make the UK world class and for assessing the UK’s progress towards it.  He is co-author of Ambition 2020: World Class Skills and Jobs for the UK (2009 and 2010), UKCES’s landmark reports on the UK’s progress towards world class skills and jobs and of Skills for Jobs (2010), the highly regarded Skills Audit for England.

Mike was previously Director of Development and Director of Research and Strategy at the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) from 2002-2008.  He was also the Adviser to the Leitch Review of UK Skill Needs 2004-2006; and a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on ‘New Skills for New Jobs’ from 2009-2010.

He has served as a member of the OECD’s Skill Strategy Advisory Group (2010-2011); the Northern Ireland Employment and Skills Advisory Board (2009-2011); and the Migration Advisory Committee (2008-2011).He was also a member of HEFCE's committee on strategically important and vulnerable subjects.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; an Investors in People Ambassador; a National Training Awards Ambassador; and a Business Action on Skills Champion.  He holds a Visiting Professorship in Economics at Durham Business School and was awarded the OBE for services to economic development in the 2004 New Year’s Honours List.

Before working for Government, Mike was Director of the Policy Research Institute, a well known research and consultancy business, which he founded in 1988 and built into a 25 person, seven figure turnover business.  He has undertaken work for the European Commission, the OECD, the World Bank, the ILO, DfES (now BIS), Regional Development Agencies, Learning and Skills Councils (now the Skills Funding Agency) and Local Authorities.  He is also a designated European Commission and OECD expert.

His other publications include Skills and Economic Performance (with Sam Porter); Learn to Succeed: The Case for a Skills Revolution; Skills in England; What Works Locally?; Partnership for Success; and Learning Pays and Learning Works.   He has also published widely in professional publications and academic journals and has written over 100 research reports.

His other experience includes: the European Commission’s Labour Market Expert for the UK; a range of work for the OECD on partnerships and labour market management (including in Austria and Finland); a member of the research group supporting the Skills Task Force; Adviser to the Cabinet Office on Workforce Development; assessing future skill needs for the South African Government; skills issues and priorities for DfES (now BIS); RDA Skills Strategies and Action Plans; and the Third Sector and local development for the European Commission.

He has designed and delivered a successful labour market training programme for European Commission staff. He was also the Labour Market Consultant on the World Bank Project to reform vocational educational training in Sri Lanka and from 1990 to 1996 he worked on local employment strategy for the European Commission’s Local Employment Development Action (LEDA) programme, subsequently working on its ‘Acting Locally’ programme.

He has been British Council Distinguished Visiting Fellow to Japan; Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Hiroshima; and a visitor to Japan under Monbusho’s advanced science programme for leading international scholars.

An inspiring public speaker, he has made more than 600 presentations at conferences and events, in the UK, most other European countries, North America, Australia, Asia and Africa.

In March 2012 I was elected as a Deputy Member of the Youth Parliament, representing the young people of Leeds. I decided to stand for election because it was very different to anything I had done before, and I hoped this would give me the opportunity to help make a difference to the lives of young people.

I have found my role as an MYP a really strong and effective way of getting the voices of young people across Leeds heard, especially for those  who don’t usually get their views listened to.

This year my self and the other Leeds MYPs have been working hard to improve transport for young people. We have held meetings with bus providers such as First, and asked hundreds of young people what they want from bus companies. Their feedback has been very beneficial, allowing us to tell bus companies what young people really want and how we could work together to incorporate everything we found out with the transport aims for the city. I attended a transport event during the summer this year and was able to speak with people from various bus companies about our campaign. 

I still have a year left as an MYP and in that time there are many ways I would like to contribute to improving the lives of young people in Leeds. I would like to help reduce the numbers of families that are homeless or financially unstable, and provide centres for those families to go to. I would also like for the children in these families to be guaranteed an education, as I believe education is essential. I would like to promote a better understanding among young people of how vital education is to their future, and for the future of our society. I am also very concerned about the cost of university fees, and about funding for our local communities organisations that support young people in so many ways.

In my free time I enjoy sports very much. I play netball and football regularly and other sports too. I sing mainly as a hobby and dance both for fun and in competitions.