Board of Governors

Chair

Date of appointment: 12 April 2021

The first woman to serve as Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister (2007-2013), Julia was central to the successful management of Australia’s economy following the global financial crisis. She delivered nation-changing policies, including the reform of education, emissions trading, and the provision and sustainability of healthcare. In 2017, Julia was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Julia was the Chair of Global Partnership for Education from 2014-2021. She now leads the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care in South Australia.  In 2014, Julia joined the Board of Beyond Blue, Australia’s leading mental health awareness body.

In April 2018, she was appointed Inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King's College London. She is also Patron of Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education. 

Prior to entering the Australian Federal Parliament, Julia worked as an industrial relations lawyer, and as Chief of Staff to the Premier of Victoria, Australia. 

AC: Companion of the Order of Australia 

Deputy Chair

Date of appointment: 1 January 2018

Fiona Powrie is Director of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford. She gained a PhD in immunology from the University of Oxford and then moved to the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto. She returned to the University of Oxford in 1996 where she was the Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology and Head of the Translational Gastroenterology Unit from 2009-2014.

Fiona’s research is focused on interactions between the intestinal microbiome and the immune system. She identified the role of regulatory T cells in controlling intestinal inflammation and established the cytokine IL-23 as a therapeutic target in inflammatory bowel disease. She is particularly interested in translating basic research into clinical application. She leads the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre’s Gastroenterology and Mucosal Immunology theme and recently established the Accelerated Therapy for Arthritis Programme, a clinical research network designed to increase the testing of novel therapies in the clinic.

She serves on a number of scientific advisory boards including the Lister Institute, the Imagine Institute in Paris and the Evergrande Centre in Boston. She received the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2012 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2011, EMBO in 2013, the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014 and the US National Academy of Sciences in 2020.

DBE: Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
FRS: Fellow of the Royal Society
FMedSci: Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Date of appointment: 1 May 2021

Arup K. Chakraborty is one of 12 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is the highest honour awarded to a faculty member. He is also Professor of Chemical Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry. He was the founding director of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. 

With a background in chemical engineering, Arup's focus is on the intersection between immunology, physics and engineering. His work aims to help develop better vaccines and therapies by examining how the immune system works to combat pathogens. He is particularly interested in the human immune response to highly mutable pathogens such as HIV and influenza. He has also made significant contributions to the role of phase separation in transcription. Working with collaborators, his interdisciplinary lab at MIT brings together computational studies rooted in statistical physics with clinical and experimental investigation. 

He is a member of all three branches of the US National Academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Date of appointment: 1 September 2019

Richard Gillingwater has had a career in finance, has set up and ran UK Government Investments, created to manage the government’s state-owned businesses, and chaired the UK’s development finance business, CDC, investing in Africa and Asia. He has also served as Dean of Cass Business School and as Chair of the Open University and has wide board experience.

CBE: Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Date of appointment: 1 May 2021

Gabriel Leung is Executive Director (Charities and Community) of Hong Kong Jockey Club overseeing its Charities Trust.  Previously, he was the longest-serving Dean of Medicine and inaugural Helen and Francis Zimmern Professor in Population Health at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is one of Asia’s leading epidemiologists, with extensive experience in viral epidemics.  

Gabriel’s career has spanned academia, public service and philanthropy. Previously, he was Head of Community Medicine at HKU, and Hong Kong's first Under Secretary for Food and Health. He also served as the youngest ever Director of the Office of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

He is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine and was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the Government of Hong Kong.

GBS: Gold Bauhinia Star

Date of appointment: 6 November 2023 
 
Sir Stephen Lovegrove started his career in management consultancy and investment banking. He was most recently National Security Advisor following appointment in 2021. 
 
Prior to this, Sir Stephen was Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence from 2016-2021 and Permanent Secretary for the Department of Energy & Climate Change from 2013-2016. 
 
He spent nine years at the Shareholder Executive, now UK Government Investments, where he was appointed Chief Executive in June 2007. 
 
Sir Stephen has held positions including as a Board member on the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and a trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation. 
 
He is also non-executive director at property developer Grosvenor Britain and Ireland.  
 
KCB: Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

GCMG: Order of St Michael and St George

Date of Appointment: 6 November 2023 
 
Diana Noble is Deputy Chair of the Court of Directors at the Bank of England. She is the founder of Kirkos Partners, an advisor to leaders of private equity firms.  
 
Diana was the CEO of CDC, the UK’s £5 billion development finance institution, from 2011 to 2017.  
 
Prior to this she was EVP Operations in the Clinton Foundation’s Health Access Initiative where she was responsible for 43 countries, five global teams and oversaw the scale-up of a global programme to give children access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment equal to that available to adults. 
 
Diana has diverse Board experience, including chairing the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Society. She also chaired the Bank of England’s review into Ethnic Diversity and Inclusion. 
 
CBE: Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Date of appointment: 1 September 2019

Cilla enjoyed a long career in advertising, including leading the creative agency, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, where she was Group Chief Executive and Group Chair.

She has chaired the Women’s Business Council, the GREAT Private Sector Council and the Advertising Association, and acted as a trustee of Comic Relief and Business in the Community. She is a non-executive director at Whitbread plc and Derwent London plc, and is Deputy Pro Chancellor on the Council of the University of Birmingham.

DBE: Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Date of appointment: 1 January 2020

Elhadj As Sy is the Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation Board, and Co-chair of the WHO/World Bank Global Pandemic Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB). In addition to these functions, Mr. Sy is also a member of the Governing Board of Interpeace and serves on numerous other boards and organisations.

Mr. Sy has over 30 years’ experience of leadership in the humanitarian, health, environment and development sectors, and has previously served as the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) – the world’s largest humanitarian network.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Sy was UNICEF’s Director of Partnerships and Resource Development in New York. He has also served as UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Global Emergency Coordinator for the Horn of Africa, and at senior levels of other agencies including UNAIDS, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Date of appointment: 1 November 2021

Ijeoma Uchegbu is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at UCL (University College London), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre for Drug Delivery Devices at the University of Oxford. She is also the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of Nanomerics, a speciality pharmaceutical company that seeks to create better medicines by enhancing and repurposing existing drugs.   

Ijeoma has a background in physical science, which informs her work stretching from the molecular design of pharmaceuticals through to how these products work in the real world. Her research team has successfully designed nanosystems which deliver genes to tumours and facilitate the oral absorption of hydrophobic drugs.  

Starting her career as a pharmacist in Nigeria, she later went on to study for a PhD from the School of Pharmacy, University of London. Ijeoma also has well-established experience of working in an advisory capacity on race equality as Co-chair of UCL’s Race Equality Steering Group and UCL Provost’s envoy for Race Equality.   

She is a Council member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2012, she was awarded Scientist of the Year by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

FMedSci: Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences 
FAAS: Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences