On 8 September 2006, Trevor Phillips was announced as chair of the new Equality and Human Rights Commission, which took over the work of Britain's three existing equality commissions from 1 October 2007.

Trevor was appointed chair of the CRE on 1 March 2003.

Born in London in 1953, Trevor attended secondary school in Georgetown, Guyana, and then studied chemistry at Imperial College London. Between 1978 and 1980, he was president of the National Union of Students. He then went into broadcasting, becoming head of current affairs at LWT in 1992. Trevor received awards from the Royal Television Society in 1988, 1993 and 1998.

He was elected as a member of the Greater London Authority in May 2000, and became chair of the Assembly later that month.

Trevor is a director of Pepper Productions, founded in 1995, and was the executive producer on Windrush (which won the Royal Television Society documentary series of the year award in 1998), Britain's Slave Trade, Second Chance and When Black Became Beautiful. He is a vice president of the Royal Television Society.

At present, he is a board member of the Almeida Theatre in Islington, Aldeburgh Productions and the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham. He is a patron of the Sickle Cell Society. Between 1993 and 1998, Trevor was chair of the Runnymede Trust.

In addition to many newspaper articles and comment pieces, Trevor has co-written Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multiracial Britain (with Mike Phillips), published in 1998, and Britain's Slave Trade (with S.I. Martin) published the following year.

Source: www.equalityhumanrights.com
Updated: Nov 2007