Founding Chair, The Young Foundation
Dr Tony Flower was The Young Foundation’s founding chair in 2005, having been Michael Young’s right-hand man throughout the 1980s and 90s. He oversaw the creation of the Foundation from Young’s Institute of Community Studies and the Mutual Aid Centre, of which Tony was chair at the time of Young’s death in 2002.
He has been director of numerous charitable and voluntary organisations, and has acted as consultant to many other organisations, notably for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. He was also chair of Education Extra (the Foundation for After School Learning), and of its successor, ContinYou. His publications include Young at Eighty (with Geoff Dench & Kate Gavron) (1995). Tony has a PhD in Mass Communications.
The organisations of which he has been director include the Tawney Society (1982-88), the Research Institute for Economic and Social Affairs (1982-92), Argo Venture (1984-), Healthline (1986-88), the Health Information Trust (1987-88), the Campaign for Educational Choice (1988), the Environmental Concern Centre in Europe (1990-92), and co-director of the Green Alliance (1991-92).
His consultancies have included advising the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (1992-96), the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd. (1993-2003), the Cambridge Female Education Trust (1999-2001). He was an associate of the Open College of the Arts (1988-95), the Institute for Public Policy Research (1989-95), the Earth Centre (1990-2001) and the Family Covenant Association (Baby Naming Society) (1994-2001). He was also editor of the Tawney Journal (1982-88) and of Samizdat magazine (1988-91).
Tony was a founder member of the Social Democratic Party in 1981 and was a member of the Council for Social Democracy (1982-84).
Now retired, Tony lives in a 15th Century cottage in Kent, making musical instruments and architectural models.