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 B. Adamson
Reader (Associate Professor) in International Relations, SOAS University of London
Fiona B. Adamson is Professor of International Relations with research interests in the international politics of migration, mobility and diaspora, with a particular focus on conflict and security. She is currently Associate Editor of Security Studies, and co-president of the Migration and Citizenship section of the American Political Science Association. Fiona is a researcher in the EU H2020-funded project MAGYC (Migration Governance and Asylum Crises) and co-convenes (with Eiko Thielemann) the London Migration Research Group (LMRG).
She joined SOAS in 2007 and served as Head of Department 2010-2013, and Research Director 2018-2021. Previously, was Director of the Programme in International Public Policy at University College London (UCL).
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
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
Deputy Executive Editor, The Economist
Kenneth Cukier is the Deputy Executive Editor at The Economist in London and coauthor of the award-winning book Big Data, a NYT Bestseller translated into over 20 languages, and of Framers on the power of mental models and the limits of AI. He is a regular commentator on technology in the media and a popular keynote speaker, from TED to WEF. Cukier was previously a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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. and of the oil and gas specialists Lambert Energy Advisory Ltd.
Sir 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
Executive Director, Governments and Policy, Climate Group
Champa Patel is the Executive Director for Governments and Policy, which includes leading on the strategy, development and growth of Climate Groups work with subnational and national governments, including the Under2 Coalition, and international institutions. She also leads on the organisation’s policy development and advocacy strategies. Most recently, Champa was Director of Innovation and Deputy Director of the Future of Conflict Program at the International Crisis Group. She was formerly director of the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House managing policy research on the region.
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.
