Enter our 2026 Caring at Christmas Poetry Competition! 

Nick Baird is a former Ambassador and business leader. In the first part of his career, he had diplomatic postings in the Middle East and Europe and was Ambassador to Turkey and Chief Executive of the UK’s export agency, UKTI. After moving to the private sector, Nick was Corporate Affairs Director of the international energy company, Centrica/British Gas, and a Non Executive Director of Nord Anglia Education. During this time, he was also a Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is currently Chair of the Trade Remedies Authority and the alcohol industry’s responsible drinking regulator, the Portman Group. 

Nick is married to Caroline, a former teacher, and has three adult children and three grandchildren. He has caring responsibilities for his sister with special needs. He has loved poetry since having the A A Milne poems read to him as child. He studied English literature at Cambridge University where his dissertation was on the American poet, Robert Lowell.

Pippa has enjoyed a long career in TV, radio, film and theatre.

Her most notable TV work includes Greenwing, The Brittas Empire, Bodyguard, Prisoners Wives and Scott and Bailey. Her more recent work includes Magpie Murders, Bergerac and she will soon be seen in The Last Detectives, a new crime drama. 
 
Pippa’s voice is well known through her radio work and she has participated in many drama’s and poetry programmes. She curated her own choices for an episode of Poetry Please with Roger McGough, 
 
In film she played Colin Firth’s sister in Supernova and has recently starred in a short film The Kitchen Garden which gathers together many of her most treasured themes– kindness, nature and food . 
 
In 2002 she edited an anthology of poems in response to the war in Afganistan called Poems for Refugees. It ignited a love of poetry which has continued to grow ever since. 
 
She lives in Dorset and when not working enjoys poetry, meditation, art and walking.

Michael joined Carers UK in 2011 and leads the Carer Support team. This includes supporting Carers UK’s 47,000 members, running our programme of online meetups for carers, managing our online forum Carers Connect, coordinating regional ‘roadshow’ events and providing a rewarding range of community, online and employee volunteering opportunities.  He is also the operational lead for all safeguarding concerns. Michael is the author of four books of poetry and has coordinated six creative writing and poetry competitions for Carers UK. He is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London.