Prof Mike Hardy
OBE FRSA, Executive Director, Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK
I trained as an economist, leading economics departments at both Leeds and Central Lancashire Universities before being seconded to UK Government with responsibilities for intercultural and interfaith dialogue, youth engagement and so-called ‘soft-power’ global strategic partnerships; including postings to Egypt, East Jerusalem and Indonesia. My return to academic life, as Professor of Intercultural Relations at Coventry University, was not before I realised how little my education on human relationships had been served by economics alone. At the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, I have promoted a commitment to social innovation, and urged the work to become both influential and inspiring, about the concern for vulnerable people at a time when peacefulness and peaceful relations are sometimes impossible to find and always difficult to sustain.