How to Negotiate: 21st Century Survival Skills
10 November 2020 - 18:00
Hertford loves a lively conversation. Join us for the latest event in our 21st Century Survival Skills series, when Principal Tom Fletcher will be negotiating with the experts.
Joining Tom this time are three panelists with a wealth of experience across diplomacy, politics and business. They’ll be helping us to understand how to negotiate, from accepting compromise to striking a deal. Join us for the live discussion at 18:00 on Thursday 12 November on Hertford’s YouTube channel. Please do send any questions you would like Tom to ask the panel to communications@hertford.ox.ac.uk. The interview will be available to watch later on YouTube.
The Rt Hon. Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland
In her role as the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Cathy Ashton brokered a peace deal between Serbia and Kosovo and led the negotiation on Iran’s nuclear programme in 2013, leading to the first Joint Plan of Action. Describing her “tenacious diplomacy” as High Representative, Der Spiegel wrote in 2013 that “whenever she is mentioned, she earns praise for her hard-nosed negotiating skills, her stamina and her diplomatic talents”. Lady Ashton is a Labour peer and has also served as the First Vice-President of the European Commission and Leader of the House of Lords. She is currently the Chancellor of the University of Warwick, the first female holder of that office.
Adam Parr
Adam Parr is an Anglo-French businessman and former chairman and chief executive of the Williams Formula One team, an experience which informed his books The Art of War – Five Years in Formula One and Total Competition – Lessons in Strategy from Formula One. He left F1 to pursue a PhD at University College London and is a current doctoral student at Hertford College. Parr chairs Oxford Semantic Technologies Limited, a spin-out of the University’s Department of Computer Science, and The Downforce Trust, a UK charity dedicated to accelerating the carbon drawdown. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia, a director of Apolitical, and has a venture capital fund with investments in machine-learning, bio-mechanical technology and engineering.
The Rt Hon. Sir Nicholas Soames
A Conservative Party MP for 36 years, Sir Nicholas Soames is the grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. He was the MP for Crawley from 1983 to 1997 and MP for Mid Sussex from 1997 to 2019. Under John Major, he served as Minister of State for the Armed Forces and was later Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 2003 to 2005. Sir Nicholas opposed Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum and had the party whip removed by Boris Johnson in September 2019, alongside 20 other Tory rebels in the Commons. The whip was restored before the 2019 general election but Sir Nicholas did not stand for re-election.