Impact and Innovation Board

Carl Bildt is Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, Senior Advisor to Wallenberg Investments in Sweden, and a member of the Board of Trustees of RAND. He previously served as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden and was appointed WHO Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator in March 2021.

Jessica Cecil is Founder of the Trusted News Initiative and a former senior leader at the BBC. She has extensive experience leading global collaborations to combat disinformation and strengthen public trust in the media.

Since leaving the BBC, Jessica has been a Trustee of Bristol University. She is a Non-Executive Director at the Digital Catapult, a Council Member at Chatham House, and is on the advisory board of IntoUniversity.

David Cleevely is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He is Chairman of Chemify and Focal Point Positioning, and has played a long-standing leadership role in the Cambridge innovation ecosystem.

He co-founded organisations including Cambridge Network, Cambridge Wireless, Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Ahead.

Malik R. Dahlan is Emeritus Professor of International Law and Public Policy at Queen Mary University of London and a member of its Advisory Council, where he previously held the Chair of International Law and Public Policy until the end of 2021. He was the Founding Principal of Institution Quraysh for Law & Policy (iQ) and leads the Scotia Group, a global climate impact initiative launched following UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow.

Priya Guha works across technology, innovation and investment as a non executive director and adviser. She brings extensive experience spanning government, diplomacy and the private sector.

Previously, Priya was a career diplomat, most recently serving as British Consul General in San Francisco. Priya was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to international trade and women in innovation.

Daniel He is Chief Executive Officer of Equitile Investments, a London-based asset manager specialising in actively managed, long-term global investment strategies for retail and professional investors. Daniel is a Fellow of Cambridge Judge Business School and serves as Secretary-General of its China Advisory Council. He holds an MPhil in Engineering from the University of Cambridge.

Lord Simon McDonald is Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1982 and served as British Ambassador to Israel (2003–2006) and Germany (2010–2015). In September 2015, he became Permanent Under-Secretary at the FCO and Head of the Diplomatic Service.

After leaving the FCO in autumn 2020, he was appointed a life peer. His first book, Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy, was published in November 2022.

Lene Oddershede is Chief Scientific Officer at the Novo Nordisk Foundation and a key architect of several major research initiatives, including the Novo Nordisk Foundation Quantum Computing Programme, the Quantum Foundry Copenhagen, and the AI- and quantum-dedicated supercomputing facilities Gefion and Magne.

As a researcher, she has led several interdisciplinary large-scale research projects and previously served as centre leader of a Danish National Research Foundation (Grundforskningsfond) Centre of Excellence.

Lord George Robertson was the Lead for the United Kingdom Strategic Defence Review and is a former Secretary General of NATO. He previously served as UK Secretary of State for Defence and now chairs the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee.

In 2023, he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Dundee. He also holds Ukraine’s highest honour, the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise.