Academy faculty
The faculty members are senior representatives from academia, the public and private sectors, NGOs and the media who have distinguished themselves in their fields. They are committed to our mission of promoting informed and values-driven leadership in an interdependent world. Faculty members provide intellectual and practical support in various ways such as leading a weekly discussion session or hosting a Global Introduction event at their organization and providing guidance to fellows by drawing on their own leadership experience.
Dr Leslie Vinjamuri
Director, US and the Americas Programme, Chatham House
Dr Leslie Vinjamuri is director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House and professor of international relations at SOAS University of London. She is chair of the faculty of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy at Chatham House (from 2018-2024, she was Dean of the Academy).
Leslie leads research initiatives on America’s Changing Global Role, Reimagining Multilateralism, and the US, Geopolitics, and the Global South. She is the author most recently of ‘Why Multilateralism Still Matters’ (Foreign Affairs).
Professor Fiona Adamson
Reader (Associate Professor) in International Relations, SOAS University of London
Professor Fiona Adamson is a Reader (Associate Professor) of International Relations in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London. She is an expert in the international politics of migration, global governance and international peace and security. She is currently a member of the European Union Horizon 2020 Project “Migration Governance and Asylum Crises” (MAGYC) – a multi-year collaborative project with 13 institutions across Europe and the Middle East. She serves on the editorial boards of European Journal of International Relations (EJIR), Ethnopolitics and Nationalities Papers. Adamson was Chair of the SOAS Department of Politics (2010-13) and is currently its Director of Research. Prior to joining SOAS, she was the Director of International Public Policy at University College London (2003-7). She is a co-convenor of the London Migration Research Group (LMRG) and has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University, Stanford University, Humboldt University in Berlin and University of Basel. She received her PhD from Columbia University and BA from Stanford University.
Professor José M de Areilza
Secretary General, Aspen Institute España
José M de Areilza is secretary general of Aspen Institute España and Professor of Law & Jean Monnet Chair at ESADE, Ramón Llull University, Barcelona. He has served as adviser to the Spanish prime minister and has been dean of IE Law School at IE Business School in Madrid.
Professor Kerry Brown
Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute, King’s College London
Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. From 2012 to 2015 he was professor of Chinese Politics and director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Prior to this he worked at Chatham House from 2006 to 2012, as senior fellow and then head of the Asia Programme, directing the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN) from 2011 to 2014. From 1998 to 2005 he worked at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as first secretary at the British embassy in Beijing, and then as head of the Indonesia, Philippine and East Timor section. He lived in the Inner Mongolia region of China from 1994 to 1996.
Jessica Cecil
Founder and director, BBC Trusted News initiative
Jessica is the founder and director of the Trusted News initiative, the leading global coalition of major tech companies and news organisations taking practical steps to counter disinformation. Previously, she led the initiative focusing the BBC’s digital services in the UK and worldwide. She is a former Controller of BBC Make it Digital which inspired a new generation to get creative with digital technology. With partner organisations, BBC Make it Digital developed a codeable computer, the BBC micro:bit, and gave it free to one million 11 and 12-year-olds across the UK, with a further four million now in the hands of children in 50 countries, from Finland to Singapore. Before this, she was Chief of Staff to four BBC Director-Generals. She is an Emmy-nominated programme maker and senior journalist, and was Assistant Editor of BBC Newsnight. She is a Trustee of the University of Bristol, on the advisory boards of Rand Europe and IntoUniversity, on the International Committee of the Wallace Collection and is a former non-executive Director of the London Ambulance Service.
Professor Alexander Cooley
Claire Tow Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and Director of Columbia University’s Harriman Institute (2015-2021).
Professor Cooley’s research examines how external actors—including emerging powers, international organizations, multinational companies, NGOs, and Western enablers of grand corruption—have influenced the development, governance and sovereignty of the former Soviet states, with a focus on Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cooley is the author and/or editor of eight academic books including, Dictators without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia (Yale University Press 2017), co-authored with John Heathershaw, and more recently, Exit from Hegemony: the Unravelling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020), co-authored with Daniel Nexon.
In addition to his academic research, Professor Cooley serves on several international advisory boards engaged with the region and has testified for the United States Congress and Helsinki Commission. Cooley’s opinion pieces have appeared in New York Times, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs and his research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Open Society Foundations, Carnegie Corporation, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States, among others. Cooley earned both his MA and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Kenneth Cukier
Senior Editor for Data and Digital Products, The Economist
Kenneth Cukier is Senior Editor for Digital Products at The Economist and the host of its weekly podcast on technology. He is also the co-author of Big Data: A Revolution that Transforms How We Live, Work and Think, a New York Times bestseller that has been translated into more than 20 languages. His TED Talk on artificial intelligence, data and society has over one million views.
He is a trustee of Chatham House and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock GCMG
Chairman, Gatehouse Advisory Partners Ltd; Chairman, Lambert Energy Advisory Ltd.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock is chairman of the strategic advisory company Gatehouse Advisory Partners Ltd, and of the oil and gas specialists Lambert Energy Advisory Ltd. He is a member of council at Chatham House.
Jeremy was a career diplomat from 1969 to 2004, developing specializations in the Middle East, transatlantic relations and the United Nations. His postings included Dubai, Washington, Saudi Arabia, Paris and New York. He served as political director in London from 1996 to 1998, as UK ambassador to the UN in New York from 1998 to 2003 and as UK special envoy for Iraq, based in Baghdad, from 2003 to 2004.
Rt Hon Lord Mark Malloch-Brown KCMG
Chairman, SGO; Former Deputy Secretary-General and Chief of Staff of the UN
Mark Malloch-Brown is a former number two in the United Nations and has served in the British Cabinet and Foreign Office.
He is currently chairman of SGO and its elections division, Smartmatic, and is on the Boards of Investec, Seplat, Kerogen and is co-chair of a new Global Commission on Business and Sustainable Development. He previously led FTI Consulting’s EMEA practice.
Mark served as deputy secretary-general and chief of staff of the UN under Kofi Annan. For six years before that he was administrator of the UNDP, leading the UN’s development efforts. He was later minister of state in the Foreign Office, covering Africa and Asia, and was a member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet.
Other positions have included vice-chairman of George Soros’s investment funds and Open Society Institute, a vice-president at the World Bank and the lead international partner in a political consulting firm. He also has served as vice-chairman of the World Economic Forum. He began his career as a journalist at The Economist.
Dr Champa Patel
Director of Innovation and Deputy Program Director for Future of Conflict, International Crisis Group
Dr Patel is responsible for establishing the Innovation Hub and manages research and advocacy on climate, tech and economic aspects of conflict. She was formerly director of the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House managing policy research on the region.
Before joining Chatham House she held several roles at Amnesty International, including regional director for the South Asia and South East Asia and Pacific offices, and global director for campaigns overseeing human rights research, advocacy and campaigns. Prior to Amnesty she worked in public health for almost a decade, focused on children at risk, refugees, asylum seekers and internal trafficking.
Xenia Wickett
Founder, Wickett Advisory executive coaching
Xenia helps organizations and private individuals realise their full potential and has a global client base. She has extensive international experience spanning NGOs, academia, and government, and is currently a Commissioner for the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission and a member of the Executive Committee of the Pilgrims and Programme Committee at Ditchley Park.
She served with the US government as Director for South Asia on the National Security Council and at the State Department as Special Adviser at the Homeland Security Group and as an Officer in the Bureau of Non-Proliferation. Shortly after 9/11, she was detailed to the US Office of the Vice President to help launch the Office of Homeland Security Affairs.
Xenia also previously worked as head of the US and Americas programme and Dean of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs at Chatham House, and as a member of committees and groups at both the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum, as well as in senior positions at Equinor, the PeaceNexus Foundation, and Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.
Advisory board
Members of the advisory board are individuals with longstanding senior experience from across areas such as government, the private sector and civil society. In many cases they have knowledge and expertise on fellowship opportunities and leadership programmes around the world. Their role is to provide advice and expertise in support of the mission and activities of the Academy.
The current board members are:
- Chair: The Rt Hon Baroness Manningham-Buller LG DCB, Co-President
- Sir Roderic Lyne, Former Deputy Chairman
- Bernice Lee, Research Director, Futures; Hoffmann Distinguished Fellow for Sustainability; Chair, Sustainability Accelerator Advisory Board
- Dr Patricia Lewis, Research Director, Conflict, Science and Transformation; Director, International Security Programme
