History
James Robertson, a British economist, and Alison Pritchard, a Schumacher Society Council member, helped to set up The Other Economic Summit (TOES) and NEF. Ed Mayo was Chief Executive from 1992 until 2003. The current executive director is Stewart Wallis.
At the policy level, NEF has attracted Gordon Brown (when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer) to chair some of its events. The organization has launched a range of new organizations to promote its ideas, including the Ethical Trading Initiative, AccountAbility, Time Banking UK, London Rebuilding Society, the Community Development Finance Association, and others.
The organization's current projects include measuring local money flows, developing new kinds of business enterprise coaching BizFizz, and introducing techniques of sustainable regeneration (Local Alchemy). NEF's BizFizz programs have created more than 900 new businesses in deprived areas. The organization has now taken this and Local Alchemy to six other countries through its international programme.
At a cultural level, NEF events at the Hay literary festival attract well-known speakers. Its Clone Town campaign in favour of local economic diversity was covered two years running by every major national newspaper and TV news station and it was taken up in the Save Our Small Shops Campaign in the Evening Standard.
The organization was voted Think-Tank of the Year in 2002/3. In 2010 NEF announced a long-term alliance with the New Economics Institute in the USA.
Read more about this topic: New Economics Foundation
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