The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2017 - Social Pillars: Crusaders

Meghan Markle
World Vision
30 October 2017

Meghan Markle

Actress

Markle may have made the legal profession sexy again through her role in Suits, and fulfilled many women’s fantasies by dating Prince Harry, but she is also a dedicated philanthropist. Earlier this year she visited India to raise awareness of how the stigma surrounding menstruation is hindering teenage girls. She has travelled to Rwanda with World Vision Canada and has worked as a UN Ambassador. Could she be the next People’s Princess?

Nimco Ali

Director, Daughters of Eve

A co-founder of Daughters of Eve, a non-profit organisation working to protect girls and women from female genital mutilation, Ali is also on the board of Miriam González Durántez’s Inspiring Girls network. The Somali-born Londoner stood as a candidate for the Women’s Equality Party at the 2017 general election. She stood, she said, “so that girls of every race can see themselves in the past, can be themselves in the present and can free themselves in the future”.

Pamela Anderson

Actress

The ex-Baywatch actress surprised fans when she popped up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and became firm friends with its most famous resident, Julian Assange. She even wrote a poem offering advice to Donald Trump and Theresa May, based on her own “special relationship” with the WikiLeaks supremo. A long-time supporter of environmental and animal-protection charities including PETA and Greenpeace, Anderson’s own foundation stands “for our planet and life within it”. Quite right.

John Bird

Founder, Big Issue

Long-time campaigner against homelessness Lord Bird slammed decades of ministerial failure in May when he said that “poverty is stitched into the system”. He claimed that successive ministers were keen to be associated with the Big Issue but none were willing to take the radical measures necessary to get large swathes of the population out of poverty. He called for the establishment of a poverty prevention unit at the heart of government.

Gina Miller

Upholder of Parliamentary Sovereignty

Gina Miller
Adrian Lourie

Miller came from the comparatively quiet world of investment to throw herself into a volatile atmosphere following the vote to leave the EU. After successfully taking the Government to court, ensuring Parliament was given the chance to vote on Article 50, she led a campaign to back MPs opposed to a hard Brexit. Despite repeated threats, Miller is continuing her fight and is determined to remain holding the Government to account.

Abdirashid Duale

CEO, Dahabshiil

Duale, once named as one of the 50 most influential Africans, turned around his father’s money-transfer company, Dahabshiil, making it a world-leader and a trail-blazer for social entrepreneurship in the Somali region. This year, he urged governments and corporations to do more to support the thousands of his fellow Somalis who had been hit hard by prolonged drought. He was able to speak from a position of authority — Dahabshiil invests 10 per cent of its profits in humanitarian and community regeneration projects.

Livia Firth

Creative Director, Eco Age

Firth’s commitment to environmental sustainability has been longstanding. She was working as an Oxfam ambassador in 2008, helping to campaign against domestic violence, when a trip to a clothing factory in Bangladesh brought home one of the fashion industry’s grimmest truths. She founded Eco-Age Ltd in response, working with clients across a range of sectors to promote an ethical approach to employment practices throughout the supply chain.

Miriam González Durántez

Lawyer

The high-profile lawyer and equality champion became embroiled in a row with British Airways in June after she criticised an advert in the carrier’s in-flight magazine for a child’s watch described as “the perfect watch for your little princess”. She has spoken out about the dangers posed by Brexit and is the founder of the Inspiring Girls network, encouraging girls to be more aspirational. Don’t call her Mrs Clegg.

Prince Harry

Royal Campaigner

Prince Harry
PA

Now fifth in line to the throne - and due to become sixth when Kate and William's new baby arrives next April - Prince Harry caused a stir this year by suggesting that nobody in the Royal Family really wants to take on the task of being monarch. He remains perhaps the most popular of all the royals, however, and has been impressive in his promotion of mental health charities. By speaking of how he sought to overcome his own demons, Harry has been an inspiration to many.

Arminka Helic

Refugee Advocate

Baroness Helic came to the UK as a refugee at the age of 23, fleeing civil war in Bosnia. She was William Hague’s special adviser during his time as Foreign Secretary and was the driving force behind his efforts, alongside Angelina Jolie, to end sexual violence in conflict zones. This year, she spoke out against the Government’s closure of the “Dubs Amendment” scheme under which unaccompanied child migrants were given refuge in Britain.

Neville Lawrence

Campaigner

The Progress 1000, in partnership with Citi, and supported by Invisalign, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #progress1000

The father of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993, Neville fought a long campaign to challenge police failings during the investigation of his son’s death. With knife crime continuing to blight the lives of many Londoners, Lawrence has added his experienced voice to the debate about how the scourge can best be tackled. In July, it was announced he would lead a new community group, set up by the Met to hold the police to account over knife crime and relations between law enforcers and London’s citizens.

Jolyon Maugham

Barrister

A QC at Devereux Chambers, Maugham is a tax specialist who this year crowd-funded more than £100,000 to help him challenge Uber in the High Court over allegations that the firm had undercharged VAT — claims it denies. He came to particular prominence as a vocal opponent of Brexit, first supporting Gina Miller’s Article 50 case in Britain, then seeking to bring a case in Ireland which would have clarified Article 50’s revocability, though proceedings were ultimate discontinued.

David Pannick

Human Rights Lawyer

One of the legal world’s biggest brains, Lord Pannick QC specialises in public law and human rights. A regular in front of the Supreme Court, he hit the headlines when he acted for businesswoman Gina Miller in her case against the Government’s plans to initiate Brexit by triggering Article 50 without recourse to Parliament. Miller, with Pannick’s help, won the day. He was made a life peer in 2008.