Trevor Phillips OBE
Writer and Television Producer
Co-founder of Webber Phillips Ltd
Trevor Phillips is a writer and television producer. He is co-founder of Webber Phillips Ltd, a data analytics provider.
Trevor is President of the Partnership Council of the John Lewis Partnership, the first external appointment since 1928. He is also currently the Chair of the Workers Educational Association, Vice Chair of the US think-tank The Centre for Talent Innovation, Deputy Chair of the Steering Committee of the National Equality Standard and Chair of Green Park Diversity Analytics. Trevor is also on the Board of Britain Stronger In Europe.
He is the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He had previously been the Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality and the elected Chair of the Greater London Authority.
Born in London in 1953, Trevor Phillips was educated in London and in Georgetown, Guyana, and studied chemistry at Imperial College London. Between 1978 and 1980, he was president of The National Union of Students.
He joined London Weekend Television as a researcher, rising to become Head of Current Affairs, before leaving to found Pepper Productions. Trevor won two Royal Television Society journalism awards (for The London Programme) in 1988 and 1993. Pepper took the RTS Documentary Series of the Year Award (for Windrush) in 1998. He was a weekly columnist for the Independent and has presented several series for BBC Radio 4, including the long-running science series The Material World. He became a Vice-President of the Royal Television Society in 2000.
His highly acclaimed documentary ‘Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True’ was broadcast on Channel 4 in March 2015. The programme, which he wrote and presented, attracted some two million viewers, as well as extensive press coverage.
Trevor retains an active interest in the arts and music and is a Board member of the Barbican Arts Centre and a member of the Council of Aldeburgh Music. His other voluntary activities include serving as a board member of the Social Mobility Foundation, and of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion.
He is the recipient of several honorary doctorates, the OBE, and was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur by the French Government in 2007.