Richard Stuart Howitt (born 5 April 1961) is a British Labour Party politician, and a former Chief Executive Officer of the International Integrated Reporting Council. For five years prior to becoming CEO of the IIRC, he acted as a voluntary IIRC Ambassador, promoting Integrated Reporting within the policy and business communities. He took over from the previous CEO Paul Druckman. He was

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) for 22 years between 1994 and 2016.

Background

Howitt was born in

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

. He was brought up in a single-parent family, in a council house, and went to a comprehensive school. He graduated with a BA degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...

in 1982 and has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Hertfordshire. After leaving university, he worked for four years in the voluntary sector and eight years for a disability organisation.

Political activity

Howitt served as a councillor on

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

District Council from 1983 to 1995, including three years as Leader of the council. Here he spearheaded some groundbreaking work assessing local government's environmental impact. He was the Labour Party candidate in Billericay in the 1987 general election. Howitt was elected as an

MEP MEP may refer to: Organisations and politics * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, a political party in Sri Lanka * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (1956), a former political alliance in Sri Lanka * Maison européenne de la photographie, a photography centre ...

to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, representing the

Essex South ''For the defunct provincial electoral district, see Essex South (provincial electoral district).'' Essex South was a federal and provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1882 to ...

constituency, and served for the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

constituency from 1999 to 2016. Howitt is a key architect of th
EU's non-financial information directive
one of the biggest transformations in corporate disclosure anywhere in the world. He was rapporteur on corporate reporting-related issues, including social responsibility, for many years. On this topic he has been described as a "trailblazer". As lead-MEP on corporate responsibility, Mr Howitt has represented the EU on many missions worldwide, travelling extensively in Asia, Africa and the Americas. He has represented European interests in numerous international initiatives, including the UN Business and Human Rights Forum and the OECD Forum on Responsible Business Conduct. Howitt helped to negotiate a £22 million

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

fund to help finance food banks in the UK, but in 2013 the UK government refused to accept the funds. Howitt stated: Howitt was a member of the Labour Party's

National Policy Forum The National Policy Forum (NPF) of the British Labour Party is part of the policy-making system of the Party, set up by Leader Tony Blair as part of the Partnership in Power process. A Provisional National Policy Forum had been established by Bl ...

between 1994 and 2016. He supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election. In September 2016, Howitt announced his resignation from the European Parliament to become chief executive of the International Integrated Reporting Council. The Labour candidate next on the party list from the 2014 European Elections, Alex Mayer, replaced him as MEP. In

May 2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, he was elected as a member of Cambridgeshire County Council.

References

External links

Official websiteProfile at European Parliament websiteHOWITT, Richard Stuart
''Who's Who 2013'', A & C Black, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Howitt, Richard 1961 births Living people Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire Labour Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for England 1994–1999 MEPs for England 1999–2004 MEPs for England 2004–2009 MEPs for England 2009–2014 MEPs for England 2014–2019 Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Labour Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Essex Members of Cambridgeshire County Council Leaders of local authorities of England