John Bishop

Background

I came to Forum having been Office Manager for the Green Party. Sara approached me and asked if I’d be interested in helping to establish a London base for a new charity that she, Jonathon Porritt and Paul Ekins were setting up, Forum for the Future. Although I had been at the Green Party during a particularly exhilarating time (particularly the European election campaign of 1989 when the party achieved 15% of the vote), I felt ready for a change and said yes without hesitation and dived into setting up the London office and getting Forum off its feet. The rest as they say is history!

My dream project? I’ve just project managed a complete overhaul of our IT systems and infrastructure, hardware and software. This was incredibly rewarding especially seeing the reaction of staff to the new kit so my dream project is already there. Now I’d like to start on a full overhaul of our office premises that demonstrates to visitors that Forum is an innovative and fantastic place to work and which immediately demonstrates the sustainability in our own organisation.

What floats my boat outside work?  Easy - I’m the beer and publicity organiser for the St. Alban’s beer festival which attracts over 9000 people in September every year. There’s lots of scope and opportunities for making events such as this so much more sustainable whilst reducing costs and ensuring that people have a really fantastic time when they visit.