Our trustees

Bio

Sir David Bell is also a non-executive director of The Economist and is Chairman and board member of numerous organisations and universities.

David was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Pennsylvania. He received his knighthood for services to industry, the arts and charity.

Bio

Amy set up The Talent Foundry in early 2009 and is the driving force behind achievements including the establishment of Rock Assembly as an annual end-of-term futures fair and pop concert for over 10,000 young people at Wembley Arena.

Amy is a consultant advising a range of organisations on their communications and positioning. Amy was awarded an MBE in 2020 in recognition of her establishing the charity and for services to young people and education.

Amy stepped down from her role as CEO in 2023 and joined The Talent Foundry Board in 2024.

Bio

Fiona has been the Government Chief People Officer since September 2022. She joined the Civil Service from University College London (UCL) where she was Vice-President of Operations.

Before that, Fiona led the HR, Communications, Corporate Responsibility and Business Excellence teams for Compass Group UK and Ireland. She also has extensive experience of HR management and operations at retailers including Comet, Dixons and Asda - in particular, establishing new apprenticeship and graduate programmes to benefit young people and colleagues at early stages of their career.

Fiona graduated in Chemical Engineering from Bath University and also has a BSc in Psychology from the Open University.

Bio

Luke is President at The Economist, joining the Group in August 2024 and leads The Economist business. Previously Luke served as General Manager of Disney+ EMEA, responsible for the roll-out and rapid growth of the service across the region including strategy, operations, and commercial performance.

Prior to Disney, he worked at Sky as Chief Marketing Officer, where he led the transformation of its on-demand services and launched a range of new products. Before Sky, he held leadership roles in digital, business development and strategy at BBC Worldwide (now BBC Studios).

Bio

Mike Green is the CEO at Defence Infrastructure Organisation. Prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer of the Department for Education (DfE) and Director General of the Operations directorate.

Mike is a graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) at Saïd Business School, Oxford University and is Senior Responsible Officer for two of the department’s major programmes.

Before joining the Civil Service, Mike was a civil engineer and spent his career in the private sector working for companies such as Boots.

Bio

Lord Newby has been an adviser to The Talent Foundry since its inception in May 2009, and was subsequently elected as a Trustee.

Lord Newby is leader of the Liberal Democrat Group in the House of Lords, and has previously worked for the Lib Dems as Treasury Spokesperson, Government Deputy Chief Whip and Chief Whip.

He has also worked extensively in consultancy and communications.

Bio

Mohsen is an experienced teaching professional and is currently CEO of the Anthem Schools Trust.

Prior to this, Mohsen worked as Deputy CEO at The Mossbourne Federation as well as Principal and then National Director of Education for E-ACT, a multi-academy trust responsible for 28 academies. He is also a trustee for the United Westminster and Grey Coat Foundation, and the AQA.

Bio

Sarah is Editor-in-Chief at Research Professional News, a leading global specialist research and higher education news service published by Ex Libris.

She also has overall responsibility for all editorial coverage in the regional titles Research Fortnight, Research Europe and Research Africa, and regularly appears as a conference speaker on issues relating to higher education and research policy.

Her broader journalistic experience includes work for the New Statesman and arts publication Three Weeks. She studied English at the University of Cambridge.

Bio

Duncan Scott is a Director in PwC’s Risk practice, specialising in the resilience of banks’ operations and their risk management approaches.

Duncan leads some of PwC’s most significant banking projects in these areas, including the support of a number of the UK Government's Covid-19 support schemes and advising the world's largest banks in implementing upcoming regulation.

Bio

Catherine is Head of Finance at the Houses of Parliament Renewal and Restoration Delivery Authority, responsible for financial management across the company.

Catherine is an experienced finance professional, and chartered accountant with a career leading finance teams across local government organisations. She also worked for KPMG, where she led corporate transformation programmes.

Before moving into finance Catherine was a Geography teacher at an outstanding comprehensive school in inner London, as part of the TeachFirst programme.

Bio

Graeme is Commercial Finance Director at Tesco, responsible for the financial strategy across the commercial and customer organisations to ensure financial success and long-term growth.

Graeme is an experienced finance professional, and chartered accountant with a career leading large finance teams within the retail industry, both in the UK and in Europe. He has previously worked for Asda as well as bringing experience gained from working in both financial and legal service sectors.