Edward was born in Liverpool in1952 and educated there and at Cambridge. He has made his career in his city's voluntary sector - in the youth service, the arts, adult education, housing charity law and community empowerment.
For 16 happy years he was Chief Executive of Liverpool Council of Social Service, the Charitable Trust Corporation which also encompasses Liverpool Council for Voluntary Service.
A member of the Board of Liverpool City Challenge from its inception, he was elected Chairman in January 1995 and served until the initiative ended. He was also a member of Liverpool City Council's Economic Development Committee and of the Council of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce.
For the last 12 years he has been promoting the development of a £490m programme of community development for economic development on Merseyside called Pathways to Integration, having chaired both Merseyside Network for Europe and the Liverpool Pathways Group.
He plays a leading rôle in New Deal for unemployed people, serving on the Liverpool Joint Venture Partnership, and chairing Liverpool's voluntary sector Welfare to Work Task Group, having previously served on the Board of the North West Employment Zone and of the SRB Partnership Employment Links. He led the Government's New Deal for Communities initiative in Liverpool as Chair of Kensington Regeneration for its first 15 months.
He was awarded the OBE in the Millennium Honours List.
In 2001 he and his colleague Mandy Maloney left Liverpool CSS to establish Liverpool Network for Change, the charitable company which promotes social justice in partnership with the region’s Black and Racial Minority, Refugee and Asylum Seeker and Pathways communities. Edward is the Director and Mandy the Assistant Director (Finance and Administration). In January 2007, the name changed to Merseyside Network for Change.
He is heavily engaged in community empowerment policy and projects mainly around information, advice and training. He leads the staff who run Merseyside Refugee Support Network, the Kensington Community Bursary Project, and the charity Wirral Change.
Voluntary commitments include chairing Merseyside Refugee Support Network and the Blackie Trustees, trusteeship of One Fund For All, The Blackie, the Merseyside Sugarworkers Trust and the Peoples Centre and membership of the Charity Law Advisory Committee.
