Equality and Human Rights Commission

On 4 December 2009, Michael Smith (known as Mike) was announced as a commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and on 17 December 2009 the Commission appointed him as the chair of its Disability Committee.

Mike is currently chief executive officer of two user led organisations of disabled people based in East London: Disability Coalition - Tower Hamlets and Disability Information Training Opportunities.

Prior to this he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 19 years, qualifying as a chartered accountant and specialising in company tax advice. After working in risk management his most recent role was Director of Policy, Compliance.

Mike was amongst the first appointees to the EHRC Disability Committee (2007 to date) where he led on legal matters, including the Equality Bill, and social care.

In 2009 Mike chaired the Oral Evidence Panel for the EHRC’s Formal Inquiry into sex discrimination and the gender pay gap in the financial services sector. Mike is currently Lead Commissioner on the EHRC's current Formal Inquiry into disability-related harassment.

Mike has been involved in equality and diversity organisations for the last 10 years, starting off with his involvement in the disability movement in Tower Hamlets, London. Mike is Chair of the National Centre for Independent Living (2005 to date), which is the national umbrella organisation that works with government and other stakeholders to help realise independent living for all disabled people, and a former member of the board of Stonewall (2006 to 2010), the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity.