Andrew Dakers grew up in Brentford, West London and he still lives and works locally. Andrew is a tireless campaigner on both local, national and global issues. His approach seeks to deploy systems thinking to tackle the ‘wicked problems‘ of our age.

Early experience

Andrew was aged just eleven when his local swimming pool was threatened with closure. Plans by local people – supported by Andrew as nominated youth representative – to form a trust to purchase Brentford Baths were thwarted by the local council and it remains closed to this day. This forged his life-long interest in local communities, social enterprise and campaigning.

In 1994 at the age of 16, he developed one of the UK’s first websites to support the national project introducing NVQs to the Information and Library Services sector. In 1998 at the University of Huddersfield he launched the university’s first student radio station AY UP! securing grant and private sector funding. The social purpose behind the project was to build understanding and new bridges between the town’s student population and wider local community.

Professional career

Today Andrew is Chief Executive of West London Business and Park Royal Business Group.

Andrew’s career has spanned IT at the BBC, business change management at GSK, campaigning for WWF-UK, leading Public Affairs at corporate responsibility charity Business in the Community, and leading Spark! a West London-based Education Business Partnership.  Andrew was a founder director of fast fashion brand Strawberry Kats.

Andrew was Course Leader and a tutor in Business Ethics & Sustainability on the University of Bradford’s MBA programme (2010-15).  The online MBA was ranked #8 globally by The Financial Times in 2015.  Andrew was selected as a London Leader 2012/13 by the London Sustainable Development Commission.

He has lived and worked in Australia, Fiji, India, Uganda, UAE and the USA, and gained an MSc Development Management from The Open University in 2002.

Andrew is a member of UKSIF and was appointed a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability in 2019.  He is a supporter of the Institute of Business Ethics.

A decade in party politics

Andrew was active in the Liberal Democrats from 2000-10 an era when Shirley Williams, Ed Davey and Charles Kennedy were national leaders that inspired him and The Theory & Practice of Community Politics (1980) provided a local guide to action.  He is no longer a member of any political party.  Today he supports the work of politicians across the political spectrum.

Andrew was Councillor for Brentford Ward and Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats 2006-10. Aged 27 he became the youngest leader of any Liberal Democrat group in the country.   As a councillor Andrew spent four years as a member of a local authority’s Audit Committee, Planning Committee and Pension Fund Committee – and served on the board of West London’s Waste Authority.

Whilst Andrew has now stepped back from the front-line of party politics at a local level to concentrate on apolitical campaigning, during his time as a party political activist in West London – and as a councillor (2006-10) – he worked on a range of issues:

• Climate change
• Schools expansion: Supported local amenity groups that for many years were highlighting the pressure population growth would put on primary and secondary schools – eventually the Council listened and now has a managed expansion programme in place
• Health services: Queried the carryover of debt from the previous health authority and scrutinised dubious procedures around the retendering of counseling services
• Housing crisis: Proposed that the Council make the Locata housing allocation system easier to use by introducing ‘auto-bidding’
• Historic buildings: Demanded action at Gunnersbury and Boston Manor Parks
• Sustainable urban development: Led drives for further design and environmental sustainability improvements to a number of major developments across the constituency – and established award-winning Brentford High Street Steering Group to fight the decline of the town centre and catalyse regeneration. He chaired the charity for twelve years until its work was complete and it could be wound up.
• Responsible investment

When Andrew was elected as a local councillor in 2006 he increased the average Lib Dem vote in Brentford Ward from 355 to 1,106. In 2010, although he missed out on re-election, he secured a further increase in support to 1,663 votes.

The percentage swing in the 2005 General Election to the Liberal Democrats in Brentford & Isleworth Constituency was 9.3% when Andrew stood as prospective MP and then 0.7% in 2010 giving the Lib Dems 23.7% vote share (12,718 votes).  When he stepped back from community politics in 2010 he left the constituency as one of the most winnable seats for the Liberal Democrats in the capital, after those already held.

Colleen McDonnell’s and Malcolm Richards’ interviews with Andrew for The Hounslow and Brentford Times from this time.

Other commitments and interests

Andrew served for seven years as a trustee of Pathways a social housing charity that specialises in almshouses.

Under the umbrella of The Cooperatition Incubator, Andrew has explored the need for UK/EU competition law reform to enable companies to collaborate on voluntary agreements that deliver greater sustainability.

Since 2019 he has been a member of the project board for West London Institute of Technology.

Influences and inspiration

Andrew credits Beaver Scouts, his local swimming club, parents and several inspiring teachers (Sheena Clarke, Gary Nava, Ian Hunter, John Sentence and Crispian Pickles to name a few) with getting him through his school years.

In 1998 he was fortunate to hear the late Randy Pausch speak at the ACM MM98 conference in Bristol. You can get a good flavour of Randy’s inspirational work through: Alice, Time Management (pdf and video) and The Last Lecture.

In 1999 when Andrew was teaching at Kiira College Butiki in Jinja, Uganda he visited Limuru Girls Centre in Nairobi, Kenya and was introduced to the life and work of Dan Eldon now immortalised in the film ‘The Journey is the Destination’ (2016).

In 2001 as part of his MSc Development Management programme with The Open University Andrew was introduced to Logframe Analysis and taught by John Brooker (Yes! And…) on Innovation & Creativity practices, including De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.

A year later, in 2002, working to Dr Tay Keong Tan, Chief of Staff to the Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department for Internal Oversight Services, Andrew was introduced to the Fish! philosophy.

Andrew has never shied away from taking on ambitious organisational redesign projects or the risks of sometimes failing. He puts this down in part to reading Mike Davidson’s The Grand Strategist (1995) in his late teens and then being introduced to Accelerating Implimentation Methodology (AIM) and The Star Model (Jay Galbraith) whilst working at GSK. More recently Andrew has drawn on The Innovation Board’s Innovator’s Toolbox.

All these foundational concepts and influences Andrew has sought to bring to his leadership practice over the past 20 years.

Downtime

Andrew is a Pantheist and enjoys hiking, swimming, cycling on his Brompton and, when time allows, venturing into his garden to grow some vegetables! He is currently introducing his toddler daughter to the joys of gardening.