Career

Formerly Minister for Education and Skills and Minister for Public Services in Carwyn Jones's Welsh Labour Governments from 2009-16, a Deputy Minister in Rhodri Morgan's One Wales Government from 2007-9 and Assembly Member for the Rhondda from 2003-16.

Prior to his election to the National Assembly in 2003, Leighton had had a successful career in the private, public and voluntary sectors. He was the BBC's Head of Public Affairs in London from 1993-1996 during its Charter Renewal campaign He ran a number of businesses in the public relations field and set up his own business after leaving the BBC.

Qualifications

• BA Hons, English and History, University of Wales, 1978
• MA History, University of Sussex, 1980

Media contributions

Leighton has written for an extensive range of publications in both print and digital format, including the Guardian, the Irish Times, New Statesman, Times Higher Education Supplement, the Western Mail, The New European, Golwg, Agenda, ClickonWales, and many others. He has broadcast regularly for a wide range of media outlets on both television and radio. Recent examples are listed on his personal website www.leightonandrews.com

Professional memberships

• FRSA
• NUJ
• PSA

Academic positions

• 2004-2016, Honorary Professor, JOMEC, Cardiff University
• 2002-2003, Lecturer in Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies (JOMEC)
• 1997 Visiting Professor, University of Westminster

Speaking engagements

• June 2018, Evidence-Based Policy-making, Public Health Wales.
• March 2018, Plenary Session on Bursting Filter Bubbles and Opening Up Echo Chambers, Political Studies Association Conference, Cardiff.
• March 2018, Governing Wales, conference paper, PSA Conference, Cardiff
• March 2018 Facebook, the Media and Democracy, International Politics Department, Aberystwyth University.
• November 2017: All Wales Continuing Improvement Conference, Swansea.
• November 2017, The role of the Minister in driving Innovation, Conference Paper, PUBSIC Conference, Oslo.
• October 2017, Facebook, the Media and Democracy, RTS Cymru Annual Lecture.
• September 2017, Evidence-based Policy making, Academic Impact conference, Swansea University.
• September 2017, The Walled Garden, the Filter Bubble and the Public Sphere, Conference Paper, Future of Journalism Conference, Cardiff.
• August 2017, Conference Paper, The BBC and the Road to Amsterdam, Media Policy and Digitization Conference, Nordic Political Science Association, Odense.
• July 2017, Conference Paper, Algorithm 'N'Blues, EGOS Conference, Copenhagen.
• May 2017, Guest lecture on The War Room, University of South Wales Global Governance MSc.
• March 2017 Central South Education Consortium
• November 2016, Velindre Hospital Trust Leadership Conference
• July 2016, Incerts annual education conference chair
• Numerous speeches and lectures as a Welsh Government Minister prior to that.

Leighton teaches a post-graduate politics module PLT 435 'Government from the Inside: from the Minister's Viewpoint'.  He will also be leading the International Business Environment module BST448 on the MSc in International Management in Cardiff Business School in 2018/19.

He has co-developed the Executive MSc in Public Leadership https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/taught/courses/course/public-leadership

He also contributes lectures to the third year undergraduate module on 'Conflict and Change in Educational Policy', to the second-year module on Business, Government and Society, and to the first year Business Environment module, and has contributed lectures to MBA and other programmes.

Research interests

• Public Service Leadership and Innovation, including Ministerial Leadership
• Governance of Devolution
• Public policy-making
• Education Policy
• Media and Social Media Regulation
• Governance in the digital age

Recent peer-reviewed journal publications include Public administration, public leadership and the construction of public value in the age of the algorithm and 'big data' in Public Administration; Telling Governance Stories in PS: Political Science; How can we demonstrate the public value of evidence-based policy making when government ministers declare that the people ‘have had enough of experts’? in Palgrave Communications.

Books by Leighton:

Wales Says Yes (Seren, 1999)

Ministering to Education (Parthian, 2014).