Lord Peter Hain

London-based, The Right Honourable Lord Hain of Neath, better known as Peter Hain, was bornin 1950 and brought up in South Africa.  In politics for over 50 years, he was recently involved in exposing the money laundering by the Zuptas (President Zuma/the Guptas).

A captivating speaker on a range of global issues with a treasure trove of anecdotes from his extraordinary life, his most requested talk topics include:

• Making sense of Trump, Brexit and global political instability
• Future of South Africa
• Terror and Islamic State: War Without End?
• Negotiation, problem solving, conflict resolution drawing on his role in Northern Ireland
• Leadership
• South African sport: a personal view from the anti-apartheid days to today
• and after dinner – ‘a life much lived!’

His South African-born parents, Adelaine and Walter, after being jailed and then banned for their anti-apartheid activism in Pretoria, were forced to leave for exile in London in March 1966 after the Government instructed all architectural firms not to employ him.

Aged 19, Peter became a British anti-apartheid leader, focussing on stopping ‘all-white’ South African sports tours from 1969 onwards. In December 2015 he received from South Africa the OR Tambo National Award in Silver for his ‘excellent contribution to the freedom struggle’.

Peter Hain is a Vice-President of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), Chairman of the Donald Woods Foundation charity, Patron of the Canon Collins Trust and a Trustee of the Listen Charity.

He is Visiting Professor at the University of Witwatersrand Business School in Johannesburg.

MP for Neath 1991-2015, he served in the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for twelve years, seven of which were in the Cabinet, and his portfolios included:

• Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
• Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
• Leader of the House of Commons
• Secretary of State for Wales
• Foreign Minister (Africa, Middle East, South Asia, UN)
• Europe Minister
• Energy Minister

As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, he negotiated an end to the conflict, bringing old enemies together in government in 2007.

In November 2015 he was introduced to the House of Lords.

The author of 21 books, these include his memoirs Outside In (London, Biteback 2012; and his parents story Ad & Wal: values, duty, sacrifice in Apartheid South Africa (London, Biteback, 2014.