Rt. Hon. Andrew Mitchell MP is the Minister of State, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (Minister for Development), and a Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield. He was previously the Member of Parliament for Gedling from 1987 to 1997 during which time he held office as a Government Whip and was Minister for Social Security. He also served as a Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1992-93. Andrew was educated at Rugby School and studied History at Cambridge University. He was elected as President of the Cambridge Union in 1978. He served in the Army (Royal Tank Regiment) and was a United Nations Peacekeeper in Cyprus before joining Lazard, the international investment bank. In November 2003 he was appointed Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs and from September 2004 he was the Shadow Minister for Police. Following the General Election in May 2005, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. He then served as the Secretary of State for International Development from May 2010 - September 2012 and as Government Chief Whip from September – October 2012. Mr Mitchell advises the Centre on its overall programme and especially on our distinguished lecture and public policy forum series. Mr Mitchell's critical contribution is based on his leadership and experience in public policy, foreign affairs, international development and the African continent.
C. Peter Timmer is an authority on agricultural development, food security, and the World Rice Economy who has published scores of papers and books on these topics. After undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from Harvard, Timmer served as a professor at Stanford, Cornell, three faculties at Harvard, and the University of California, San Diego, where he was also the dean of the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. Timmer is now the Cabot Professor of Development Studies, emeritus, at Harvard University, as well as a non-resident Fellow at the Centre for Global Development in Washington, DC. Prof Timmer has over four decades experience in Asia as an academic researcher and policy adviser, including extensive involvement in the development of Indonesia’s food policy from 1970 to 2015. He was awarded the Leontief Prize in 2012 for advances in economic thought and delivered the 18th Annual UNU-WIDER Lecture at the UN in New York in 2014, on Managing Structural Transformation: A Political Economy Approach.
David Howarth is a professor of law and public policy at the University of Cambridge, also the Head of Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge. He was the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge from 2005 and 2010. A graduate of Cambridge (Clare College) and Yale, David Howarth joined the Department in 1987 as an assistant lecturer in Law. He was subsequently promoted to lecturer, reader and in 2015 to professor. He became Head of Department in January 2020. He teaches constitutional law, private law, comparative environmental law, and law and economics, having previously taught business law and environmental policy. In 2012 he founded and acted as Director of Cambridge's Master's in Public Policy (based in POLIS), where he taught courses on Public Law and Public Policy and Climate Change Policy and was Co-Chair of the University's Strategic Research Initiative in Public Policy. His research has covered both private law and public law topics and he is especially interested in issues of legal design (e.g. Law as Engineering (2014)). Outside the University, Prof. Howarth served as MP for Cambridge (2005-2010) having previously served as a Cambridge City Councillor for 17 years, for three of which he was Leader of the Council. From 2010 to 2018 he was a UK Electoral Commissioner. He became an honorary bencher of Middle Temple in November 2018.
Kun-Chin Lin is the Professor of Military and Security Studies at the Department of Spacepower, Air University in the United States. As the first full professor for this department – established in 2019 as the education arm of the US Space Force – he will lead research on great power competition in the space domain and teach in the Schriever Scholars Program dedicated to developing space strategists. Previously he was the a lecturer in politics at the University of Cambridge. He received his BA from Harvard and MA and PhD from UC Berkeley, and was a Leverhulme postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford. He has taught at King's College London and the National University of Singapore. He serves on the advisory and editorial boards of top academic publications including Business & Politics and the Political Economy of Public Policy Series (Palgrave MacMillan). He is a member of the Frost Sullivan’s Board of Economic Advisors, the academic board of the newly established Growth, Innovate and Leadership (GIL) University in Malaysia, and a collaborating partner of the Global Biopolitics research group based at King’s College London. He frequently offers expert opinions for the media and at conferences and events around the world on topics of the political economy of China, infrastructure and energy policies, regulatory diffusion, and regionalism in Asia.
Lucia Reisch is the El-Erian Professor for Behavioural Economics and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, Department of Political Science, and International Studies (POLIS). She is a behavioural economist and social scientist with a PhD in economics and social sciences (summa cum laude) and joined Cambridge from Copenhagen Business School. Lucia one of Europe’s leading academic experts in behavioural insights-based policies for sustainability and has published widely cited papers on sustainable consumer behaviour, behavioural insights, and consumer and sustainability policy. A special feature of Lucia’s academic work are interdisciplinary international research projects, often with partners from STEM, law, and psychology. These collaborations are mostly due to the large-scale European and national research projects she has attracted, all centering on behaviour change towards sustainable consumption and production. She is an Editor of the Journal of Consumer Policy (SpringerNature), an interdisciplinary journal with focus on consumer research and law impacting policy, now published in its 44th year. Among other editorships, Lucia is a founding Editorial Board Member of the Journal Behavioural Public Policy (Cambridge University Press) as well as a member of the Editorial Board of Food Policy (Elsevier). Lucia brings two decades of experience with high-level policy consulting on consumer behaviour. She has been founding chair of the Advisory Council for Consumer Affairs of the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (2014-2018). She has also been a member of the German Bioeconomy Council, the German Council for Sustainable Development (2010-2019), and a regular member of high-level scientific committees and ad hoc groups consulting for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on sustainability issues (e.g., the Ethics Commission after Fukushima, 2011). Beyond the German government, she has consulted for international organizations (EU, OECD, UNEP, World Bank, Inter American Bank) and governments worldwide on making use of behavioural insights. She is a contributing author to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report (Chapter on demand-side policies). Her academic achievement has been rewarded with being elected as a lifelong member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering. Lucia holds an honorary Leibniz Professorship at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen.
Nikhil Agarwal is India’s foremost Innovation and Policy expert. He is currently CEO of FIRST @ IIT-Kanpur. Foundation for Innovation & Research in Science & Technology (FIRST) is responsible for all the incubation, innovation, research and startup activities at IIT-Kanpur. In 2018, he was appointed as Vice Chairman, Mahaashmita Livelihood Rural Accelerator Program (MILAP), Govt of Maharashtra – a program in joint collaboration with MSRLM and FICCI. In 2014, Indian Prime Minister urged the Indian diaspora to return to the country to serve the motherland. Dr Agarwal responded to the call to join Govt of Andhra Pradesh as Chief Executive Officer, Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society (CEO, APIS) to kickstart the statewide innovation agenda between 2015-2017. He was involved in developing large scale innovation projects such as cyber security innovation park, rural innovation labs, incubation centres, startup ecosystem, setup INR 1 billion startup fund to name a few. He is instrumental in forging important national and international relationships for the state. He is also the founder of Entrepreneur Café – a global movement spread in 110 cities and six continents, connecting over 45,000 entrepreneurs. Dr Agarwal has founded businesses and advised firms on strategic matters in the last 20 years of his career. He has worked with global multinationals like Cadbury's, FIC and Zensar (RPG Group). He has lectured at leading universities like Virginia Tech Polytechnic & State University, University of Bradford and University of Cambridge. His articles, interviews and work has been extensively covered in international media including Harvard Business Review Blog, Forbes, CNN Money, BBC Radio, The New York Times and Economic Times. Professor Agarwal has served on many international think tanks and holds leadership positions in global organisations such as QuestionBox and WBAF. Between 2006 -13 he served as high-level-advisor to United Nations Global Alliance on ICT & Development (UNGAID). He was the International Advisory Board Member at World-Entrepreneurship-Forum (WEF) and Open Mind Foundation. He was the first Asian to be elected as Co-Chair of the prestigious Internet Society Advisory Council (ISOC-AC) for 2008-10. Between 2017-19, he was the Hon Fellow of IC2 Institute, University of Texas at Austin. He is recipient of ‘Excellence in Promoting Innovation in Governance’ by Govt of Rajasthan, India. He has travelled extensively around the world and worked with global institutions, corporations and multinationals. He has published over 70 research papers, conference publications, editorials and articles in leading publications. Professor Nikhil Agarwal has earned his MPhil (University of Cambridge) and PhD (University of Edinburgh) in the United Kingdom. Nikhil has interest in martial arts – he is co-recipient of ‘Guinness World Record’ in Taekwondo in 2017.
Rajah Rasiah is a Professor of International Development at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. He obtained his doctorate in Economics from Cambridge University in 1992, and was a Rajawali fellow at Harvard University in 2014. He was the first holder of the Khazanah Nasional Chair of Regulatory Studies, and served as Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya in 2009-2010 and 2013-2014. He is a member of the GLOBELICS scientific board, and an advisory member of the Industrial Development Research Centre, Zhejiang University, professorial fellow at UNU-MERIT, senior research fellow of the Technology Management and Development Centre at Oxford University. His policy-oriented work includes research in several countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Among the major contributions he has made for the benefit of society include the conceptualization of technology, and its link to development, and methodologies designed to capture clustering, technological capabilities and industrial policies. He regularly consult for the multilateral organisations namely United Nations agencies and the Asian Development Bank. He is the 2015 recipient of the Celso Furtado prize from the World Academy of Sciences for his seminal contributions in the field of social sciences.
Robbie Stamp is the Chief Executive of Bioss International, he also sits on the British Standard Institute’s National Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence and is currently working on ISO recommendations on Board Governance and AI. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts , is in attendance at the All Party Parliamentary Group on AI and formally submitted evidence to the Lords Select Committee . He is a member of the APPG on Human Health and Longevity and a Senior Fellow at the Cambridge University Resilience and Sustainable Development Programme. He is on the International Advisory Board of the Past Foundation. He speaks regularly about the intersection of the Governance of human institutions and complex adaptive systems and contributes where he can to discussions on the ontology of data, its ‘power relationships’ with humans and the nature of human embodiment. Prior to this, Robbie was Chairman and Chief Executive of The Digital Village, a media company founded with the late Douglas Adams, which pioneered social networks to create content on the internet. Robbie has given two TEDx talks: at TEDxLondonSalon on digital afterlives, and at TEDxLondon on “How Grief Feels“. As the creator of the Bioss AI Protocol, he has been a regular keynote speaker at the CognitionX AI Conferences, and submitted evidence at the invitation of the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. Between 1995 and 2000, Robbie was CEO of h2g2, formerly The Digital Village, the company he co-founded with the late Douglas Adams in 1995. Earlier in his career, Robbie worked as a television producer on a series of documentary films on the environment, for Central Television’s flagship documentary series Viewpoint that won over thirty major international awards, including in 1988, the prestigious Prix Italia for Can Polar Bears Tread Water? about global warming. Robbie has co-authored three books, The Day War Broke Out, Trojan Horses and Top Guns and Toxic Whales. The eldest son of Bioss International founder Gillian Stamp, Robbie is married with two children.
Steve Evans is a Professor of Industrial Sustainability and Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability at the Institute for Manufacturing and the Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability. He spent 12 years in industry, rising to become Engineering Systems Manager at Martin-Baker Engineering, the world's leading manufacturer of ejection seats. He is the research director of the Centre for Industrial Sustainability (CIS). His industrial experience led to an emphasis on improving engineering performance and provided an excellent grounding for tackling complex, real-life problems. Steve has over 20 years of academic experience which includes working collaboratively with leading industrial and academic institutions from around the globe and supervising over 120 PhD. and MSc. students. His research seeks a deep understanding of how industry develop solutions that move us towards a sustainable future. He has lead, or co-lead, the first UK EPSRC research projects in the fields of Concurrent Engineering, Co-development and Eco-design and is the Director of the new EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability.
Steve McCauley leads work on the subject of adaptive leadership and how it can be applied as part of The International Development Leadership Programme. He is an executive leadership coach based in London and provides strategic, board and Cabinet and Board level advice to senior leaders in the worlds of government, policy development, politics, business, finance, professional services and the arts. Steve has developed effective methods to cultivate adaptive leadership, a powerful synthesis of some of the best practices in 6 creative and adaptive thinking, strategy consulting and executive coaching. His background includes working as a senior executive in media, communications, technology and entertainment. He has worked in the United States and ran the international division of a NASDAQ listed digital media company in Los Angeles. He was later an adviser to the BBC in London. Steve McCauley was instrumental in helping the Government of Rwanda to develop its thinking about media transformation. He has provided strategic advice to Ministers about media reform and related policy issues.
Elizabeth Carriere is a former Governor of the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat West Indies and a seasoned diplomat and senior director of international development programmes. Her international work spanned over twenty-five years in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean - mainly for the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Programme areas include gender equality and anti-gender-based violence, health, education, economic empowerment, employment, business and small enterprise development, microfinance, civil society development, peace-building, security sector reform, anti-corruption, and tax and land reform. Her special interests are in social justice, with a focus on women’s and girls’ empowerment and community-based movements and organizations.
She was awarded an OBE in 2015 for her role in assisting the safe evacuation and protection of people affected by South Sudan’s civil war in 2014, where she was the UK Country Director for DFID. Prior to her international work, she was a senior manager in Canadian governments in fields related to social justice: immigration, refugee resettlement, economic inclusion, diversity, anti-racism and gender equality.
She holds a Master of Science from the University of London SOAS, in Public Policy and Management. Her postgraduate studies at the University of British Columbia focused on anti-racist adult education. She has also worked as a consultant and educator, focusing on public consultation, diversity and NGO organizational development. She was an active member of writers’ groups and Canadian literary publishing in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
She currently lives on Gambier Island (Cha7elkwnech, unceded land of the Squamish Nation) in British Columbia, Canada, where she is actively involved in community organizations, as a community volunteer and as an organiser of cultural and social events. She remains closely linked to discussions on global issues and is particularly interested in new social movements against racism, and those that critique and confront the historical and contemporary colonization of international development.
