Alan Gemmell (diplomat)

Alan Gemmell OBE (born 6 April 1978) is a British diplomat, founder of fiveFilms4freedom and current Director of the British Council in India. Gemmell was appointed OBE in the 2016 New Year Honours List and included in GQ Magazine’s 2016 List of the 100 Most Connected Men in the UK.

Alan Gemmell OBE, Buckingham Palace, 6 May 2016

Early life and career

Gemmell attended Irvine Royal Academy and the Junior School of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where he studied piano and bass trombone and toured with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.[1] He read law at Glasgow University.[2]

Gemmell is the Director of the British Council in India and previously served as Director Israel (2012-2016); Deputy Director Mexico (2011-2012); in São Paulo, Brazil (2011); and, as Director of External Relations, London (2008-2011).[3]

British Council

fiveFilms4freedom

In 2015 Gemmell founded fiveFilms4freedom an online, free, 10-day LGBT film festival promoting freedom, equality and LGBT rights, with the British Film Institute and the UN Free & Equal Campaign.[4] The initiative was seen in 135 countries.[5]

The second fiveFilms4freedom ran from 16 to 27 March 2016.[6] The initiative was seen in 179 countries.[7] In 2016 Gemmell also launched a Global List of people promoting LGBT rights.[8][9]

Mix the City

Gemmell commissioned Mix the City, the British Council’s first interactive art work, with the BBC and the Arts Council of England through their joint venture The Space.[10] Over 400,000 people in 190 countries took part in Mix the City in its first year.[11][12] Mix the City Istanbul launched in March 2016.[13]

In June 2016 Gemmell announced Mix the City India with Sonya Mazumder and Mix the Play an interactive digital theatre collaboration with Indian director Roysten Abel to let users direct the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. Mix the Play was part of the U.K. Government's commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare.[14]

Gemmell launched[15] Mix the Play in November 2016 during the visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to India with cast members Adil Hussain, Kriti Pant and Tushar Pandey.[16] Kalki Koechlin also features in Mix the Play.

Britain Israel Academic Exchange Partnership Regenerative Medicine Initiative (BIRAX RMI)

Gemmell secured £7 million from British and international medical research foundations for the BIRAX RMI programme through partnerships with Parkinson’s UK, JDRF, the MS Society and British Heart Foundation.[17] BIRAX RMI has funded 15 research collaborations between scientists in Britain and Israel including a collaboration to develop a breath test for Parkinson's Disease.[18][19] The BIRAX programme has been supported by the Prime Ministers of Britain and Israel.[20][21]

Middle East Water Research Programme

Gemmell created the UK’s first multi-lateral water research programme in the Middle East - a platform for scientists from across the region to work together with British scientists to tackle critical water issues.[22] Five research projects were announced in April 2016 involving water researchers from Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Gaza, Morocco, Jordan and the UK.[23]Gemmell also created a scholarship programme for water technology and health graduates of Palestinian universities to study full PhDs at Israeli universities. [24]

Civil Service

Gemmell was a civil servant in the UK's Home Office and Cabinet Office (2002 - 2007). Gemmell was Private Secretary to Permanent Secretary Sir John Gieve (2003 - 2005), Assistant Director responsible for economic migration (2005 - 2006) and counter radicalisation advisor in the Cabinet Office Defence and Overseas Secretariat (2006 - 2007) headed by Sir Nigel Sheinwald.[25]

Alan Gemmell and Damien Stirk, Blair House, Ayrshire, 18 July 2015

Personal life

Gemmell married Damien Lee Stirk, a ballet dancer and ballet teacher, on 18 July 2015. Their wedding was mentioned in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Conor McGinn MP.[26] Stirk performed in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake in the US,[27] UK,[28] Russia,[29] Japan and in the film adaptation of Phantom of the Opera.[30] He trained at the English National Ballet School, London (1996-1998) and the Royal Academy of Dance (2012) and has worked with the English National Ballet, the Israel Ballet and Ballet National de Marseille.

Honours and offices held

Gemmell was appointed OBE in the 2016 New Year Honours List[31] He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a founding Leadership Fellow of St George's House, Windsor Castle. He is listed in GQ Magazine’s 2016 Most Connected Men in the UK.[32]

References

  1. ↑ "Drumming it into them. NYOS, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall". Herald Scotland.
  2. ↑ Judy Maltz (28 January 2013). "New Director of British Council Calmly Weathers Israel's Storms". Haaretz.com.
  3. ↑ Sergio Burns (July 2017). "Alan Gemmell OBE The Well Connected Man About Town". Ayrshire Magazine.
  4. ↑ Mark Brown. "Love is ... five gay films going global in the name of human rights". the Guardian.
  5. ↑ Foreign and Commonwealth. "Human Rights Report 2014-15" (PDF).
  6. ↑ Heather Cassell (17 March 2016). "World's first online LGBT film festival opens". The Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco.
  7. ↑ "fiveFilms4Freedom reaches 140 million". casarotto. 11 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Soma Das. "Sridhar Rangayan on the National Award". Hindustan Times, Mumbai.
  9. ↑ Alanna Jane Higginson. "Paul Burston featured in British Council's fiveFilms4freedom 2016 Global List". Out News Global.
  10. ↑ "BBC - Get Creative - Mix the City lets you create your own music mash-ups". BBC.
  11. ↑ "Mix the City: Tel Aviv Webby Award Honoree".
  12. ↑ "Remixing Culture And Why The Art Of The Mash-Up Matters". TechCrunch. AOL. 22 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "Make a music video with Mix the City Istanbul - Straitangle". Straitangle.
  14. ↑ S Ravi (15 June 2016). "Mix and Match. As the British Council unveils a series of initiatives to showcase contemporary UK culture in the country, Alan Gemmell, the new director, talks about things to do". The Hindu.
  15. ↑ A Gemmell (8 November 2016). "Fancy Directing Kalki Koechlin And Adil Hussain In 'Romeo And Juliet?". The Huffington Post.
  16. ↑ Dipanita Nath (8 November 2016). "Make a Scene An online initiative, Mix the Play, launched during the visit of British PM Theresa May, allows users to create their own version of Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene.". The Indian Express.
  17. ↑ Judy Siegel-Itzkovich (11 November 2015). "In the face of BDS movement, Britain and Israel agree to expand scientific cooperation". The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com.
  18. ↑ "Israeli scientists aim for Parkinson's breath test breakthrough". Times of Israel. 11 February 2015.
  19. ↑ Foreign and Commonwealth Office (11 February 2015). "UK and Israel ties boosted by new medical research funding". gov.uk.
  20. ↑ "U.K. Prime Minister Announces $4.9 Million for British-Israeli Medical Research". Haaretz. 12 February 2015.
  21. ↑ "PM David Cameron meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu". UK Government. 10 September 2015.
  22. ↑ "New British ambassador announces water research programs for UK, Israeli scientists". The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com.
  23. ↑ "House of Lords. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Questions. Middle East - Water. Written answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns". Hansard. 4 May 2016.
  24. ↑ "Graduate Research Opportunities in Water Technology and Health". British Council Israel. British Council. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  25. ↑ Ciaran Shanks (18 May 2016). "Irvine diplomat Alan Gemmell is honoured by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace with OBE". Irvine Times.
  26. ↑ "Business of the House of Commons Questions. Question from Conor McGinn MP.". Hansard. 16 July 2015.
  27. ↑ "Tony Winner Bourne's Swan Lake Tours U.S. for 10th Anniversary". Playbill.
  28. ↑ "Dates of the 2005 UK tour of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. 19th September 2005-12th November 2005".
  29. ↑ "Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake"".
  30. ↑ "Damien Lee Stirk Filmography". British Film Institute.
  31. ↑ "Alan Gemmell Order of the British Empire". The Gazette. 31 December 2015.
  32. ↑ Charlie Burton (6 April 2016). "Who are the 100 most connected men in 2016?". GQ.
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