Name: Matthew Taylor

Position: Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Biography: Matthew Taylor (born 1960) is Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in the United Kingdom. He was educated at Emanuel School, the University of Southampton and University of Warwick.

Taylor became a Warwickshire county councillor and fought Warwick and Leamington in the 1992 general election, before joining the Labour Party's staff in 1994. He became the Party's Campaign Co-ordinator, then Director of Policy during the 1997 general election victory. He played an important role in drawing up the manifesto and the Party's high-profile pledge-card and developing the Excalibur rapid rebuttal database that was used to campaign against the Conservative Party. Taylor became Assistant General Secretary of the Labour Party under Margaret McDonagh. Following this he was appointed by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair to head the Number 10 Downing Street Policy Unit, being charged with drawing up the Labour Party's manifesto for the May 2005 general election. Following the re-election of the Labour government he was given the post of Chief Adviser on Strategy to the Prime Minister. He left in 2006 to take up his current role at the RSA.

Summit Talk: To be announced...