Reuben College is delighted to welcome its first cohort of Visiting Fellows: Sam Gyimah, Sarah Haywood, Donald Palmer, and Sir Graham Wrigley KCMG. Elected by the College’s Governing Body, these individuals bring with them a wide range of experience and expertise that will enrich the College’s intellectual and interdisciplinary exchanges, and inject novel ideas as well as stimulate new conversations within our community.
College members will meet with our new Visiting Fellows at ‘Dining with Dinosaurs’ seminars, interactive workshops, and other events throughout the year.
Sam Gyimah is the Founder of SG&, an advisory firm specialising in issues at the intersection of strategy, capital deployment and government, primarily in the technology and innovation sectors. Sam draws on a decade-long leadership experience at the heart of government as a Member of Parliament and as a Minister (latterly as Minister for Science, Innovation and Higher Education with an £8bn R&D budget) and a decade in investment banking and business before politics.
Sam also serves on the Boards of Goldman Sachs International, Oxford University Innovation and Cambridge University Endowment Trust, and is the host of The Geopolitics of Business podcast.
Sarah Haywood is the Managing Director of Advanced Oxford – a not-for-profit membership group that provides a united voice on key issues affecting the development of Oxford’s innovation ecosystem. Sarah previously led teams in the NHS, the pharmaceuticals industry, and as a senior civil servant in the Department for Business, during which she led the Bioscience policy team. She also set up and was first CEO of MedCity.
Sarah is an expert in innovation and innovation ecosystems, working as a mentor and advisor on accelerator programmes and to investors. She sits on Advisory Boards within University of Oxford, Imperial College, TheHill, and Health Innovation Network Oxford and Thames Valley. Sarah studied Biology at the Oxford University and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
At a recent Reuben College ‘Dining with Dinosaurs’ seminar, Sarah shared her insights on innovation ecosystems and the ingredients needed to help innovation thrive. Read a short blog summarising Sarah’s presentation here.
Donald Palmer is an Associate Professor of Immunology at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. His main research interest is focused on understanding the effect of age on the immune system.
Donald teaches on several undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and also supervises undergraduate and postgraduate research projects. He is on the Editorial Board of various scientific journals and is currently Education & Careers Secretary of the British Society for Immunology.
Sir Graham Wrigley KCMG is a British entrepreneur and philanthropist who served as Chairman of British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution (formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation), from 2013 to 2021. Prior to his career in international development, Graham was a founding partner and member of the management board at Permira, which he helped to grow into a leading global private equity firm.
Graham works with several charities, including the Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Trust UK, where he serves as Chairman. He was knighted in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday honours list for services to international development spanning 32 years.
