Speaker bios

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Professor Mathieson is Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Edinburgh. He read Medicine at the London Hospital Medical College and qualified with First Class Honours from the University of London in 1983. After junior medical posts in and around London, he obtained a research training fellowship at the University of Cambridge, leading to a PhD in 1992.

He became Director of Studies for Clinical Medicine at Christ’s College, Cambridge. Peter moved to Bristol in 1995 as the foundation Professor of Renal Medicine at the University of Bristol and Honorary Consultant Nephrologist, North Bristol NHS Trust. In 1999, he was elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.  In 2007, Peter became Head of the University Department of Clinical Science at North Bristol, was appointed as Director of Research & Development for the North Bristol NHS Trust, and was elected President of the Renal Association, becoming the youngest President in its history.

In 2008 Peter was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Bristol.  Between 1999 and 2013 he taught Medicine annually in Mbarara, SW Uganda and also conducted some clinical research there. He also contributed to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa either as part of International Society of Nephrology delegations or representing the University of Bristol.

In April 2014, Peter assumed office as the 15th President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, a post he held until January 2018. In February 2018 he took up his present post at the University of Edinburgh. In 2021 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

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Professor Lesley McAra is the Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute and Assistant Principal Community Relations at the University of Edinburgh.  An alumna of the University of Edinburgh and the Open University, Lesley is a leading international scholar in youth crime and juvenile justice and an active campaigner for penal reform. 

She is a former President of the European  Society of Criminology and continues to plays a major role in the Society as part of its Executive Board. In her capacity as Assistant Principal, she is academic lead for the ‘local impact’ component of University of Edinburgh strategy, driving a new vision of the Civic University, one which places its research and teaching in the service of the community.

In 2013, Lesley was recipient of the Howard League Research Medal which celebrates high quality research from ‘new thinking researchers’ who have changed penal policy and practice. This was followed in 2016 with the award of the Chancellor’s medal for research impact and in 2019 by the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s prize for ‘Outstanding Public Policy Impact’.  In 2018, she was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to Criminology.  

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Professor Liz Grant is Director of the Global Health Academy and Assistant Principal Global Health at the University of Edinburgh. She is responsible for developing and supporting global health partnerships with colleagues in low and middle-income country (LMIC) communities, and for local and global advocacy translating global health research into action.

She is a co-director of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Compassion Initiative, developing work on the value base of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the science of compassion, and the contribution that faith communities make to the SDGs.  Her own research interests span planetary health and palliative care in contexts of poverty and conflict – new beginnings and better endings.  She also sits on the Scottish Government NHS Global Citizenship Board. 

Liz was on the Board of Directors for the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, (CUGH), an association of over 170 Academic institutions training in Global Health,  and currently chairs the CUGH Research Committee.  Previously Liz was the Senior Health Advisor to the Scottish Government’s International Development Team working primarily in Malawi.  She has  worked for NHS Lothian’s Public Health Directorate leading an NHS HIV partnership between the NHS and Zambia.  She has been an advisor to a number of global health

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Gordon Brown served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007 and as a Member of Parliament in his home county of Fife, Scotland, from 1983 to 2015.  

He is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and is a passionate advocate for the rights of children and believes every girl and boy deserves the opportunity of an education, learning and skills for the future. Since September 2021 he also serves as WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing.  

 Gordon is Chair of the High-Level Steering Group of Education Cannot Wait, the education in emergencies fund; Chair of the Inquiry on Protecting Children in Conflict; and serves as Chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. 

 Gordon is the author of several books including Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation and My Life, Our Times and most recently Seven Ways to Change the World (Simon & Schuster, June 2021).

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Susan Rice, a Chartered Banker, chairs Scottish Water, the Financial Services Culture Board, and is senior independent director of J Sainsbury plc, and of North American Investment Trust.  She also chairs the Scottish Fiscal Commission, Scotland’s independent fiscal and economic forecaster.  

Previously, she was Chief Executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc, the first woman to head a UK clearing bank.  She was also inter alia a Director of the Bank of England, C Hoare & Co, energy company SSE, and a lay member of Court at University of Edinburgh.  Before that, she worked in the US in banking and, earlier, as a dean at Yale and Colgate Universities in the US and as a published biomedical researcher 

Professionally, she has focused on the creation of long-term value in business and enterprise, and the connection between businesses and society around them.  Her involvement with GEFI and ethical finance, with the Climate 2020 group, P-CAN and climate change, with several major cultural institutions in Scotland, with Big Society Capital, Charity Bank and impact investment reflects the belief that economies strengthen when all parts of society flourish. 

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Katherine is co-founder and Strategic Advocacy Advisor of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and co-founder of WEAll Scotland. She held various roles with Oxfam GB and instigated the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership. Katherine sits on several advisory groups, including The Democracy Collaborative and CUSP. Katherine holds a Political Science PhD from ANU and is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde and a Distinguished Fellow of the Schumacher Institute. Her book The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown Up Economy (co-authored with Jeremy Williams) was published in 2019. 

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Omar is the Director and Co-founder of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI). A Chartered Accountant by profession, having worked in audit and private equity, Omar now specialises in

ethical/responsible finance and Islamic finance. He has over two decades of experience in financial services, advising numerous financial institutions across London, GCC and Africa.

Since 2010, along with his private sector work, Omar went on to advise multiple governments, regulators on enabling policy for Islamic finance and the United Nations Development Programme on SDG aligned strategic initiatives and products. He holds select board advisory roles including with the UK Islamic Finance Council (UKIFC), Prince’s Trust Scotland, Oxford University Faith-Aligned Impact Finance and supports Glasgow Museums on preserving South Asian Heritage in Scotland.  

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Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She is winner of international prizes including the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.

She was named as one of the '3 most important thinkers about innovation' by The New Republic, one of the 50 most creative people in business in 2020 by Fast Company, and one of the 25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism by WIRED. She is the author of three highly-acclaimed books: The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths (2013), The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018) and the newly released, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (2021).

She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her current roles include being Chair of the World Health Organization’s Economic Council on Health for All and a member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council, the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisors, and the United Nations High-level Advisory Board (HLAB) on Economic and Social Affairs, among others. 

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Gbenga is a Professor of Finance at the University of Edinburgh, the Deputy Scientific Director at the Fondazione European Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre in Pescara and a Fellow at the RoZetta Institute in Sydney.

His current research sits at the intersection of the economics of markets, data science and policy. His work on the microstructure of high-tech financial markets has been of much interest to both practitioners and policy makers/regulators, including at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), where he is often a Research Visitor – his research on dark pools and interest rate swaps were recently published by the FCA. Gbenga is the author of Carbon Markets: Microstructure, Pricing and Policy (published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018).

His work has also been published in leading international academic journals such as Journal of Financial Markets and Journal of Banking & Finance, and featured in the news media, such as The New York Times, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes and Bloomberg Markets.

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Hiro Mizuno is a Japanese financial executive, serving as theSpecial Envoy to the United Nations Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments since January 2021.

He previously served as Executive Management Director and CIO of GPIF (Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan with AUM $1.5 trillion).

Prior to joining GPIF, Mr. Mizuno was a partner at Coller Capital, a London-based private equity firm (January 2003 - January 2015). He formerly worked for Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. Ltd. in Japan, Silicon Valley and New York (April 1988 – January 2003).

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Chinelo Anohu runs the Africa Investment Forum (AIF), the pre-eminent investment platform on the continent. A flagship initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB), in concert with key founding partners, The Africa Investment Forum is increasing deal flow into Africa; accelerating the pace of deal-making on the continent; and bringing financial closure of impactful transactions in Africa.

Prior to joining the African Development Bank, Chinelo served as Director-General of the National Pension Commission of Nigeria where she played a pivotal leadership role in the transformation of the role and effectiveness of pension funds in the country with the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme.

Chinelo obtained an LLB from the University of Nigeria, a BL from the Nigerian Law School, and an LLM in Communications and Computer Law from the London School of Economics. She has undergone Executive Education at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Colombia Business School, and the Insead Business School France.

In 2014 she was named one of New African magazine Most Influential Africans. She is a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Group and sits on the International Advisory Board, Edinburgh Business School, Scotland.

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Ellen was re-elected in March 2021 and is Edinburgh University Students’ Association’s (EUSA) first retuning President. She has been directly involved in the University’s and Association’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the main reasons she reran was to provide continuity for the organsiation.  

Ellen was a direct entry, BSc Biomedical Sciences, student at the University of Edinburgh and graduated in June 2020. During her time at University, she was involved in the committees of a variety of different societies and worked for EUSA’s Venue Operations department since May 2019 which is where she realised her passion for working for her student body. As President, Ellen leads the overall representation of the student body to the University. They are the main contact for the Students’ Association and also chairs the Association’s Board of Trustees and Association Executive.  

After her time in office, Ellen intends to pursue a career within medical charities and academic research in the field of genetic counselling and reproductive health.