John Bird MBE is the founder of The Big Issue and currently president of The Big Issue Foundation Board of Trustees. With no party-political allegiance, The Big Issue campaigns on behalf of homeless and socially excluded people. In June 1993, The Big Issue went weekly, and regional sister titles were later established in cities around the UK and subsequently in Australia, South Africa and the USA. In June 1995, John Bird was awarded the MBE for ‘services to homeless people’ and in 2006 he received the prestigious Beacon Fellowship Prize for his energy and originality in raising awareness of homelessness and his support of homeless communities worldwide. John Bird was nominated for life peerage by the House of Lords Appointments Commission in October 2015 to become a non-party-political peer.