Aidan McQuade, alumnus and former tutor at Strathclyde Business School, was this year's winner of Mastermind, the BBC2’s challenging quiz programme.
Aidan is director of Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation, having its roots in the 19th century's slavery abolition movement. The organisation works to eradicate all modern forms of slavery across the globe, from human trafficking, to bonded labour, forced marriage, forced labour and the worst forms of child labour.
Aidan's specialist subject in the final was Abraham Lincoln. He said of his choice, "I chose the subject of Abraham Lincoln because his long moral journey and ultimately successful fight to abolish slavery always fascinated me and inspired some of my career choices.
"As Director of Anti-Slavery International and as an anti-slavery campaigner I take a lot of inspiration from Lincoln. Lincoln showed the possibilities of politics when coupled with moral courage in obtaining advances in human rights."
During his tenure as Director, Anti-Slavery's achievements have included holding the state of Niger to account in an international court for failing to protect its citizens from slavery, obtaining a new statute in British law proscribing forced labour and mounting a series of investigations identifying where forced labour is used in the production of goods for western markets.
Before joining Anti-Slavery International, Aidan worked for over 13 years in humanitarian response, development and human rights, with periods in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Afghanistan and Angola.
Aidan comes from South Armagh in Ireland and studied civil engineering in Queen's University Belfast, and business at Strathclyde Business School. In 2010, Aidan completed his doctoral thesis entitled, "Doing the right thing: human agency and ethical choice-making in professional practice".
Aidan wrote a blog post 'Slavery: It's no History Lesson' for the SBS blog after his win on Mastermind.
