Our council

Those marked with an * are also on the Board

* James Cameron is the Chair of ODI’s Board and Council.  A lawyer by training, James is the non-executive chairman and co-founder of Climate Change Capital and has spent much of his legal career working on climate change matters.  He is also a member of the WEF’s Agenda Council on Climate Change, a Trustee Member of the UK Green Building Council and the Carbon Disclosure Project and, a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group and of the Green Investment Bank Commission.

Professor Sir Mike Aaronson is a Professorial Research Fellow and Director of cii – the Centre for International Intervention – at the University of Surrey.  He is also a Non-Executive Director of Oxford Policy Management, Chairman of Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. Up until March 2012 he was a Civil Service Commissioner and worked for 17 years with Save the Children UK, from which he retired as Chief Executive in 2005.

Hugh Bayley is a Labour MP and member of the International Development Select Committee, Board Member of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and IMF, and Vice President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Dr Jo Beall joined the British Council in July 2011 as Director of Education and Society and a member of the Executive Board. Prior to this she was Deputy Vice Chancellor at University of Cape Town and Professor of Development Studies at London School of Economics.

Alan Beattie is International Economy Editor with the Financial Times. Prior to this he was an economist at the Bank of England.

Sir Malcolm Bruce is Liberal Democrat MP and Chair of the International Development Select Committee. He is also Chair of Globe UK and President of Globe International.

Tony Colman is the Director of the Africa Practice and is a former Labour MP. While in Parliament, he was a member of the International Development Select Committee.   He is doing research in the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia.

Richard Dowden is Director of the Royal African Society and a writer and journalist on Africa. He is the former Africa Editor of The Independent and The Economist and worked on The Times.  He is also author of Africa; Altered States, Ordinary Miracles published by Portobello Books.

Professor Diane Elson is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. She is currently adviser to UNDP and UN Women on gender and development.

Professor Ian Goldin is Director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford. He was Director of Development Policy at the World Bank before becoming the Bank’s Vice President. Prior to that he was Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and served as an adviser to President Nelson Mandela. He is the Senior Independent Director at CDC Plc and has been knighted by the French government for his services to development.

Brendan Gormley MBE is a trustee of One World Media, the Noel Buxton Trust and Age International UK, and a member of the Risk Expert Group and the Foresight Group, which aims to improve future disaster anticipation.  From 2000 – 2012 he was the Chief Executive Officer of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and has also held a number of roles at Oxfam.

Dr Guy Goodwin-Gill is Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College and Professor of International Refugee Law at the University of Oxford. He was President of the Refugee Legal Centre/Refugee & Migrant Justice from 1997-2010 and is a Patron of AsylumAid in London.

Nik Gowing is the main programme anchor for BBC World News, the BBC’s 24-hour international TV news and information channel.

* Ann Grant is Vice Chairman, Africa at Standard Chartered Bank.  She was British High Commissioner to South Africa from 2000–2005.

Lord Michael Hastings is the Global Head of Citizenship with KPMG. He was the BBC’s first Head of Corporate Social Responsibility. He is a non-executive Director for British Telecom on BT’s Board of Responsible and Sustainable Business.  He is also a Trustee of the Vodafone Group Foundation and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Diversity and Talent.

Edward Hedger is an ODI Staff Member of Council.  Ed is Head of the Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure at the Overseas Development Institute in London. He specialises in budgeting and public expenditure management reform issues in developing countries and fragile states. He has also worked on the design and implementation of aid modalities, the political economy of policy reforms, and the role of domestic accountability mechanisms.

* Isobel Hunter is an Independent Human Resources consultant with a particular focus on international organisations in the not-for-profit and public sector.

Baroness Margaret Jay is Senior Non-Executive Director of the Independent Media Group and a member of British Telecoms Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. She has been a Member of the House of Lords since 1992. She is the former Leader of the House of Lords, Minister for Health (1997-1998), and Minister for Women (1998-2001).

* Kate Jenkins has wide experience of leading major strategic change in the public and private sectors in the UK and abroad.  She is currently a director of Carrenza Ltd, an internet service provider and Chairman of Carrenza Consulting Ltd, a specialist IT consultancy. She is a Visiting Professor in the Government Department at the London School of Economics. She is Vice Chairman of the Council and the Court of Governors at the LSE.

Baroness Glenys Kinnock was a Labour Party MEP from 1994 to 2009. She was awarded a life peerage when she joined the government in 2009 as Minister for Europe.  She also served as Minister for Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and the UN.

* Richard Laing has a number of non-executive roles across commercial organisations and NGOs, with a focus on developing countries.  He was Chief Executive of CDC Group plc, the UK’s bilateral Development Finance Institution until 2011. Prior to this, he held a number of positions at De La Rue plc in Brazil and the UK, latterly as Group Finance Director. He worked previously in agribusiness and at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Dr. Jemilah Mahmood is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Humanitarian Futures Programme, King's College London.  She is the founder of the humanitarian organization MERCY Malaysia and had previously been the Chief of Humanitarian Response at UNFPA. She is also on the Board of Doctors of the World (Medecin du Monde) USA and had also served on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children UK and Advisory Group of the Central Emergency Response Fund of the United Nations.

Professor Anne Mills is Vice-Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Professor of Health Economics and Policy in the Faculty of Public Health and Policy.

Sarah Mulley is Associate Director for Migration, Trade and Development at ippr.  Before joining ippr, Sarah was Coordinator of the UK Aid Network. She was previously a Research Associate at the Global Economic Governance Programme in Oxford; worked as a consultant for a wide range of research and policy organisations; and was a Senior Policy Analyst at HM Treasury, where she held a range of domestic and international policy positions

Dr Robin Niblett is Director of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Prior to this he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS).

Lord Matthew Oakeshott pursues two interwoven careers, in investment management and politics.  His professional career is investing in commercial property all over the United Kingdom for pension funds, charities and investment trusts as Chairman of OLIM Property Ltd.  He was an ODI/Nuffield Fellow in the Kenya Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, and then Special Adviser to Roy Jenkins from 1972 to 1976 as Home Secretary.    A former Oxford City Councillor, he joined the House of Lords in 2000.  He was a Pensions and Treasury Spokesman until he resigned last February.

Nick Scott is an ODI Staff Council Member; he is ODI’s Communications Manager - Digital and Events

Tidjane Thiam is Chief Executive of Prudential plc and former Chief Executive of Aviva Europe.  Tidjane is a member of the Prime Ministers Business Advisory Group and a member of the Africa Progress Panel chaired by Kofi Annan. He is also a sponsor of Opportunity International

Lord Adair Turner is Chairman of the Financial Services Authority and a cross-bench member of the House of Lords.  He is a trustee of the British Museum and spent several years as Chair of the Committee on Climate Change. He is also a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Cass Business School, City University.

* Martin Tyler, is Executive Director, Operations at Asthma UK and has previously worked at a senior level in a number of international charities including Amnesty International, Christian Aid and the Fairtrade Foundation. He holds various other Trusteeships.

* Sue Unsworth is a Principal with The Policy Practice. She was formerly Regional Director for Asia and subsequently Chief Governance Adviser at the Department for International Development.  She has also been a Research Associate with the Governance Team at IDS, University of Sussex.

* Stewart Wallis is Executive Director of nef (the new economics foundation).  Prior to this he was at the World Bank before joining Oxfam as International Director in 1992.

* Chris West is the Director of the Shell Foundation.  He has lived in both East and West Africa and has previously worked for DfID.  Chris was involved in early discussions around the creation of the Shell Foundation and joined shortly after its launch in 2000 as Deputy Director. He also played a leading role in co-founding GroFin, which is now the leading provider of business development assistance and appropriate finance to start-up and growing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. He was appointed SF Director in 2008.