The Council

Chairman & Member of the Scholarship Committee

Wayne Harber.
OBE K

Wayne was born in New Guinea, was educated in London and has a degree in Politics. He spent 33 years in the Army with the Queen’s Regiment, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (PWRR) and the Royal Irish Regiment. His career covered a wide range of employment including battalion command, logistics, recruiting, officer selection and intelligence appointments, amongst others.
He served in Gibraltar, England, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, South Sudan and Iraq. He retired from the Army in 2011 and spent a year as CEO of an investigations company before taking up the appointment of PWRR Regimental Secretary, retiring in January 2018. He joined the Society in 2012, was co-opted to Council in September 2017 and elected at the following AGM May 2018 before being appointed Chairman of the Council in September.

Vice Chairman

Palle Baggesgaard
Pedersen, R

Palle Baggesgaard Pedersen, R : Former Manager of The Danish YWCA in London for 29 years and co-founder of Queen Ingrids College in London. Ex-officio member of the Anglo-Danish Society Council from 2008 to 2020 and elected to Council at the AGM September 2020. In May 2022 The Anglo-Danish Society awarded Palle the Certificate of Merit for his special and sustained effort in support of our society.

Palle is vice chair at the Church Council of the Danish Church in London and has for approx 20 years been an active member of the Council. For 10 years he was active on the board of The Danish Club in London (now the Danish-UK Association) and was made an Honorary Member for his fundraising and event planning for the Danish Club.

Scholarship Secretary & Chair of the Scholarship Committee

Katie Schwarck

Katie Schwarck joined Council in the autumn of 2019 and was formally elected at the AGM Sept 2020. Council has appointed Katie as Scholarship Secretary. Katie has been involved in the Anglo-Danish community for many years. She speaks Danish, runs a communications/-translation business and counts some of Denmark’s leading companies among her customers. She is looking forward to contributing to the work of the Anglo-Danish Society and to promoting its valuable work in providing scholarships to postgraduate students.

Honorary Secretary & Event Manager

Lone Mohr Curtis

Lone Mohr Curtis is Danish - born and raised in Copenhagen - but has always had an interest in the UK and the English language. She has an MA in Modern Languages and has lived, studied and worked in Denmark, Cyprus, Belgium and the UK. Lone worked at the British Embassy in Copenhagen (Consular Section) for 10 years before relocating to the UK with her British fiancé, now husband. After moving to the UK, Lone worked for St George's House at Windsor Castle, and she is currently working as an experienced freelance translator. She's been a member of the Anglo-Danish Society almost since her permanent arrival in the UK in 2013 and was also the Club Secretary of the Danish Club for several years up until its merger with the Danish Chamber of Commerce. Lone was invited to join the Council in the summer of 2021.

Honorary Treasurer

Alan Davey,
FCMA, CGMA.

Alan Davey, FCMA, CGMA. Alan was born in Portsmouth, studied business and eventually became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. He worked predominantly in life sciences and mostly in the pharmaceutical sector. Through merger and acquisition he worked in Eastbourne, Dagenham, Paris and Frankfurt for major international research and discovery based organisations.Returning from Frankfurt to the UK Alan joined The British Plastics Federation where he spent the last 10 years before retirement as Director of Finance & Administration. Alan and his wife Glyn live in Essex and enjoy time with their three children and two grandchildren. Co-opted in February 2017 Alan's election to Council was confirmed at the AGM 2017, and his appointment as Honorary Treasurer confirmed in September 2017.

Membership Secretary

Philip Waterfield

Philip Waterfield BSc FRICS is a Chartered Surveyor. Originally from Derbyshire, in 1982 he graduated from college in Portsmouth and moved to work in Norfolk. In 1984 he transferred to London where he has worked ever since in wide ranging property roles at British Rail and, for the last 36 years, at Strettons Chartered Surveyors, including a 10 year stint as auctioneer running the auction department. In 2021 Philip stepped down as a main board director and is now a consultant with Strettons. This has created time to take on other roles including becoming a member of the Council.

With his Danish wife, Susanne, and four children the family conveniently live within a 15 minute drive of Stansted airport which allows for frequent trips to their summerhouse in Korsør on the west coast of Zealand. It also gives Philip the opportunity to continue trying to improve his Danish language skills! Elected May 2023.

Christine Bergstedt

Christine Bergstedt joined Council during spring 2020 and was elected to Council at the AGM in September 2020. Christine is an experienced finance professional with an extensive experience within fund management performing business development, strategy, management, client service and PR. Besides London, Christine has worked in Stockholm, Paris and Copenhagen. She has been London based since 2008. Christine holds a M.Sc. in Economics (cand.polit) from University of Copenhagen and she is a CFA Charterholder.

William Scott

William Scott is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, and worked at Greenwich District Hospital/Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich where he was appointed in 1985. At the QE he was senior orthopaedic surgeon, and for two years medical director.Bill retired from the health service in 2011 but continued working privately at Blackheath Hospital and at the same time jointly founded Bromley Medical Chambers LLP working as company secretary. The LLP provided expert medical reports for the legal profession, but in March 2022 the partnership dissolved on retirement of the partners. Bill is a member of the Royal Automobile Club, the Morgan Sports Car Club and is a liveryman in the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. Elected May 2022.

Phil Chambers

Phil Chambers joined Council in spring 2023. Previously in banking and government, his more recent work has ranged from corporate law to capacity building and judicial reform in the MENA region. Phil has lived elsewhere in Europe and throughout the Middle East, and been resident in London most recently since 2016.

Phil has spent considerable time in Denmark over many years, visiting not only Danish friends of long date but equally close childhood friends from Canada who relocated there with their families. He looks forward to maintaining and strengthening these Danish links in contributing to the Anglo-Danish Society's work.

Phil holds a BA in Economics and Politics from Queen's University, a M.Sc in European Political Economy from the LSE, and JD/LLL degrees in Common and Civil Law from the University of Ottawa. He is a Barrister & Solicitor in Ontario, Canada. Elected May 2023.

Ex officio member

Lone Britt Christensen B.M.

Cultural Attaché at the Royal Danish Embassy in London. Lone was educated at University of Southern Denmark, Odense and Trinity College, Dublin and joined the Embassy in 1997. Since 2006 she has been a member of the Scholarship Committee.

Ex officio member

Connie Yilmaz Jantzen

Connie is the new Manager of KFUK and was welcomed to Council at the AGM September 2020.

Ex officio member

Gunnar Papendick Larsen

Gunnar is Managing Director of The Danish-UK Association (DKUK) and previously director of the Danish-UK Chamber of Commerce which merged with The Danish Club in London late 2017 to create DKUK.

Gunnar is an international business developer with experience in international human business network and cross industry network development. He has a past in market research, organising conferences globally. For close to 10 years he worked in US & UK for Invest in Denmark, a national development agency attracting companies to set up their business in Denmark. Gunnar has lived in the UK on and off since 1994 with his partner and 2 daughters. Gunnar joined council in June 2021.

Ex officio member

Karsten Møller Hansen

Karsten is the new pastor of The Danish Church in London and rector for The Danish School. Prior to his move to London, he was the priest of Taarnby Kirke on Amager close to Copenhagen for 18 years. Besides churchwork he is a columnist for the Danish newspaper 'Berlingske' and a literary critic for another Danish newspaper 'Kristeligt Dagblad'. In addition, he is a radio co-host for the Danish Radio P1 as well as an author of a couple of books relating to religion, faith and life.'

Member of the Scholarship Committee

Dr Kristian Jensen

Dr Kristian Jensen, R, Former Head of Collections and Curation, British Library, London. Kristian became a member of The Anglo-Danish Society in 2001 and was invited to the Scholarship Committee in 2009.

Member of the Scholarship Committee

Professor Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen

Professor Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, Professor of Scandinavian and Comparative Literature, University College London. Jakob is joining the Scholarship Committee in 2021.