Andrew Mawson, Baron Mawson, (born 8 November 1954) is an English

social entrepreneur Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of ...

Early life

Andrew Mawson was brought up in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, Yorkshire. He trained for Christian ministry at the Northern Baptist College in Manchester under Principal Michael H. Taylor. He gained a BA degree in theology from the

Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. Afte ...

Community work

He is best known for his work at the

Bromley by Bow Centre The Bromley by Bow Centre is a community centre in Bromley-by-Bow, in the East End of London. It was founded by Andrew Mawson, Baron Mawson, Andrew Mawson in 1984 alongside community members such as Chilean artist Santiago Bell, with the aim of t ...

in East London, which became the UK's first Healthy Living Centre. The Bromley by Bow Centre is a community organisation which encompasses an array of integrated social enterprises based around art, health, education and practical skills. Mawson received an OBE in the Millennium

New Year Honours List The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

for his work there since 1984. In 1995 he helped organise the Great Banquet which resulted in 33,000 people having a meal with Adele Blakebrough and Helen Taylor Thompson. In 1998 these three founded the Community Action Network, a UK national charity, and remained its President until 2010. He was also a founder board member of

Poplar HARCA Poplar HARCA (Housing and Regeneration Community Association) is a housing association in the East End of London, England. It is the landlord of about 9,000 homes in the East London area, a quarter of which have been sold leasehold; the remainde ...

. In 2006, he launched the Water City initiative for East London with Richard Rogers, aiming to revitalise the neglected waterways of East London, making use of their potential as transport links. A number of his projects are pursued by his company Andrew Mawson Partnerships, which takes on regeneration work in London and throughout the country. In 2010 he was leading the regeneration of St Paul's Way Trust School, a failing school in East London, with a vision to transform the area around it.

House of Lords

In February 2007, it was announced by the

House of Lords Appointments Commission The House of Lords Appointments Commission is an independent advisory non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It has two roles: *to recommend at least two people a year for appointment as non-party-political life peers who sit on the ...

that he would be made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

; he sits as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

. The peerage was gazetted on 29 March 2007 as Baron Mawson, of

Bromley-by-Bow Bromley, commonly known as Bromley-by- Bow, is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, located on the western banks of the River Lea, in the Lower Lea Valley in East London. The area is distinct from Bow, which l ...

in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

. He was introduced as a peer on 30 April 2007. Mawson criticised the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

local strategic partnership Local strategic partnerships (LSPs) exist in nearly all local authority areas in England. They bring together representatives from the local statutory, voluntary, community and private sectors to address local problems, allocate funding, and discu ...

s and most

public consultation Public consultation (Commonwealth countries and European Union), public comment (US), or simply consultation, is a regulatory process by which the public's input on matters affecting them is sought. Its main goals are in improving the efficiency, ...

as ineffective. His 2008 book ''The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work'' aims to provide a practical guide to

social entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of o ...

and demonstrate, through his own experiences, that the role of the state has often stifled innovation. Despite his criticisms of government structures, the book shows what can be achieved with perseverance.''The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work'',

References

External links

Mawson Partnerships
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mawson, Andrew 1954 births Living people English Christian religious leaders Businesspeople from Bradford Crossbench life peers People's peers Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Bromley-by-Bow People educated at Northern Baptist College Life peers created by Elizabeth II