Our Liberal people
Our activities are coorindated by the local party Executive Committee. We have branches in Belgium and Luxembourg. Meet the members of all of these below.
Dave Sapiro (Chair)
Originally from Liverpool, Dave has been living and working outside the UK since the mid 90's. After a few years in the Far East he moved to Amsterdam, then Paris and then to Brussels for 18 years and a couple of years ago to Düsseldorf for his first stint of life in Germany. Dave's career has mainly been spent in business services and IT: having started working as an Occupational Psychologist in what would have been called a start-up disruptor today, he moved to IT and AI and later ran an international Management Consulting, Project Management and HR Software company.
Dave is a big supporter of constitutional reform and started his campaigning with Charter 88. People in the UK need to have a constitutional settlement that allows them to have parliamentary representation that reflects their values. He believes the party should continue to campaign and join whatever alliances are necessary to make this happen.
In the meantime, he hopes to contribute to the harnessing of the interests, passions and experience of our members in Europe to further the interests of the party in the UK and to ensure the party does not forget about the interests of citizens outside the UK.
Ian Franks (Vice Chair)
Ian joined the Young Liberals in his hometown of Orpington in 1966 and through that became a main party ward committee member and a tireless election worker. Active in civil liberties and anti-apartheid movements, he was chair of the town’s Stop the 70 Tour committee.
Having chosen to put his career in journalism before politics, he paused just once to stand as a Liberal-SDP Alliance council candidate in 1982.
Unfortunately, he received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2002 and retired from full-time work in 2006, choosing instead to write about disease and disabilities as a freelancer.
He moved to Spain with his American wife, Lisa, in November 2015 and joined Lib Dems in Europe, being elected secretary at the 2020 AGM.
Tom McAdam (Membership Development Officer)
Tom joined the Liberal Democrats after moving to a LibDem constituency, Twickenham, in 2012. He first campaigned in the devastating 2015 General Election. Moving to Zürich in Switzerland in 2016 for a new job, he was fearing having to leave UK politics behind but soon found the LibDems in Europe. On joining the executive committee as the Data Officer, he then became Vice Chair, and was Chair until December 2023.
He is passionate about electoral reform and believes it's a key component in fixing many of the problems with UK politics.
His day job is in software engineering, and outside of politics and work he can be found enjoying the Swiss mountains in the company of his dog, Jags.
Rob Harrison (Treasurer)
Robert has lived in Germany for almost 30 years, and was previously chair of LibDems in Europe. He has a Ph.D. in Physics and is a qualified patent and trade mark attorney. He currently works as a consultant and company director for high-tech companies. He has been a European Parliamentary Candidate for the German liberal FDP and, in addition to his interest in science and tech policy, has been involved in developing policy on European affairs.
Nick Catephores
Born in London, raised in London, educated in London, after his last day at school Nick walked up to Liberal Party headquarters, paid the membership fee (aaaaand never heard from that party again). Couple of years later he found his way to the Greens, for which he stood in local elections (in London) and did a whole lot of volunteer work.
Despite having left the UK more than 28 years ago - living in Belgium (three times), France, and Luxembourg - he always retained an interest in liberal/progressive politics back home, voted Lib Dem as an overseas elector, and joined the Lib Dems on the day the 2017 general election was called.
Nick's work has been in the political/administrative field, and he's had the pleasure of working together with politicians of various persuasions and from many countries.
Since 2019, he's been a member of the Execs of the Lib Dems in Europe and/or of its Luxembourg branch. In life beyond politics, Nick can be found globetrotting, photographing penguins and in sports bars around the world cheering on the football team he supports (which is - surprise - from London 😀).
Always up for a chat/connection
Andrew Burgess