William Sieghart is founder and Chairman of Forward Thinking, a London-based NGO founded in 2003. William has also had a distinguished career in publishing and the arts. He founded Forward Publishing in 1988, one of London's leading magazine publishers. He was also the founder of the Forward Poetry Prizes, Britain's largest prizes for poetry and National Poetry Day. For many years he was a member of the Arts Council and Chairman of its Lottery Committee. He is currently Chairman of the Arts Foundation, Streetsmart - a homelessness charity he founded in 1998 and Forward Arts Foundation. William is a Trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Free Word, Reprieve, Cuba Studies Trust and on the advisory committee of the British Institute of Human Rights. Sieghart is also a published author and a regular broadcaster.

Winning Words was a national initiative conceived by Sieghart, founder of National Poetry Day, to incorporate poetry into the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.