E3G

A year in review: E3G in 2006

By Martin Rands

And so, as another generation of over-fed turkeys while away their time, wondering what all the excitement is about and hoping they don’t miss out on the fun, it’s time to look back on another eventful E3G year.

Spring – arrivals and departures

Kicking off the year in the appropriate manner, three of our first batch of interns, Marina Brutinel, Diana Parusheva and Simon McSweeney, graduated to employee status as researchers for our work on Europe in the World. Simon combined his work with us with a role at the London School of Economics, before moving on to Thames Water mid-way through the year.

Also in January, Nick Mabey, an E3G founding director, joined E3G full time to lead new project development. This followed a hectic few years for Nick as a senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit working on everything from fisheries to organised crime. We welcomed both his input and energy. Little did we know quite how timely his appearance was to prove for, as the year progressed, even bigger changes were afoot.

The next event struck a note of happiness, albeit tinged with regret. Anita Neville, whose sterling efforts helped to guide E3G through the choppy waters of its formative years, left us to prepare for the birth of her first baby. Happily, she and her partner Russell became the proud parents of William in April. 

We remember fondly Anita’s huge contribution to E3G as well as immeasurably enjoying her Australian presence in the office when England’s brave cricket team won the Ashes series in 2005. I’ve no doubt that she will shortly be returning the comments of sporting superiority now that normal service has been so dismally resumed by the current hapless and craven bunch of English cricketers.

During this period our ‘Europe in the World’ programme saw us undertaking a series of ‘thinking events’ and meetings in Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Paris and Strasbourg as we continued to test ideas about Europe’s role in the world and the challenge of interdependence.