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Anne Fine gave our Distinguished Guest Lecture at the PLS AGM in 2004 and here we reproduce her talk in its entirety. Anne muses on how she discovered Larkin as a teenager who couldn't resist poems with swear words in, but also how she came to see the connections between Larkin's poetry and her own life- especially The Trees- as well as her admiration for Larkin the professional writer as a fellow member of the ‘business.' Anne is best known for children's books, but she also writes for adults. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she was appointed an OBE in 2003. She has won the annual Carnegie Medal twice and she also won the Guardian Prize, Smarties Prize, two Whitbread Awards, and she was twice Children's Author of the Year. From 2001 to 2003, Anne was the Children's Laureate in the UK. In 1987, Anne published Madame Doubtfire, which became the classic Twentieth Century Fox movie Mrs Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams. Thank you to Anne for kindly giving us permission to use this talk on the podcast.
On 13 February 2014, the Technology and Management for Development Centre hosted the Distinguished Guest Lecture with Mr Yong Li, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Director General. Mr Yong Li's presentation focused on the “Importance of Industrialisation”. The Lecture was held at the Examination Schools, University of Oxford. "LI Yong, Director General, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), has had an extensive career as a senior economic and financial policy-maker. As Vice-Minister of Finance of the People’s Republic of China and member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank for a decade, Mr. LI was involved in setting and harmonising fiscal, monetary and industrial policies, and in supporting sound economic growth in China. He pushed forward financial sector reform, and prompted major financial institutions to establish corporate governance, deal with toxic assets and strengthen risk management. Mr. LI gave great importance to fiscal and financial measures in favour of agricultural development and SMEs, the cornerstones for creating economic opportunities, reducing poverty and promoting gender equality. He played a key role in China’s cooperation with multilateral development organisations, such as the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank." Source: UNIDO
On 7 February the Technology and Management for Development (TMD) Centre and the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID) co-hosted the Distinguished Guest Lecture delivered by Victor Zhang, the CEO of Huawei Technologies (华为) UK. The lecture was entitled "Huawei Story: Embraces Challenges and Improvements Never Ends".