People
Gates Cambridge Trust: Trustees
The Gates Cambridge Trust brings together eight distinguished Trustees from a range of backgrounds, two of which are appointed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others by the University of Cambridge. The Trustees meet twice a year in order to provide strategic direction for the programme.
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Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Chair of the Gates Cambridge Trust
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Lord Rees of Ludlow
Former President of the Royal Society and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge
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Dr Andrew Robertson
Chief Policy Officer at BIO Ventures for Global Health and Gates Scholar (2001)
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Dr David Runciman
Reader in Political Thought at Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
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Gates Cambridge Trust: Officers and staff
Three distinguished University figures and a small, dedicated administrative team are responsible for managing the Gates Cambridge Scholarships programme. The Provost (CEO) is responsible for the overall operations of the programme, the Treasurer (CFO) manages all financial matters, and the Secretary maintains all Trust records. All three Officers report directly to the Trustees.
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Treasurer: Mr Andrew Thompson
Fellow and Senior Bursar Emeritus of Magdalene College, Cambridge
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Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz was installed as the 345th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge on 1 October 2010. The Vice-Chancellor is the principal academic and administrative officer of the University.
Sir Leszek was previously Chief Executive of the UK’s Medical Research Council (2007-10). From 2001 to 2007 he was at Imperial College London, as Principal of the Faculty of Medicine and later as Deputy Rector, responsible for the overall academic and scientific direction of the institution. He led the development of inter-disciplinary research between engineering, physical sciences and biomedicine.
In 1988 he was a Lecturer in Medicine at Cambridge. He went on to be Professor of Medicine at the University of Wales in Cardiff, where he led a research team that carried out the pioneering work on vaccines for which he was knighted in 2001. In particular, his unit in Cardiff conducted clinical trials for a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus (a cause of cervical cancer) – the first in Europe.
He was a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1996 and a member of its Council from 1997 until 2002; and he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008.
William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
William H. Gates Sr. guides the vision and strategic direction of the foundation and serves as an advocate for the foundation’s key issues. He first answered his son's request for help in using his resources to improve reproductive and child health in the developing world by directing the William H. Gates Foundation, which was established in 1994. It merged with the Gates Learning Foundation to create the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.
Gates earned his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Washington, following three years of U.S. Army service in World War II. A founding partner at Preston Gates & Ellis, Gates has served as president of both the Seattle/King County Bar Association and the Washington State Bar Association. He has served as trustee, officer, and volunteer for more than two dozen Pacific Northwest organizations, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and King County United Way. In 1995, he founded the Technology Alliance, a cooperative regional effort to expand technology-based employment in Washington. Gates also has been a strong advocate for education for many years, chairing the Seattle Public School Levy Campaign in 1971 and serving as a member of the University of Washington's Board of Regents since 1997.
Gates and his late wife, Mary Maxwell Gates, raised three children: Kristianne, Bill, and Libby. Now married to Mimi Gardner Gates, Gates continues his lifelong commitment to many civic programs, cultural organizations, and business initiatives
Eric S. Godfrey is the Vice President and Vice Provost for Student Life at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. In this role as the chief student affairs officer for the University, he provides leadership for a range of programs and services aimed at enhancing the student experience, including admissions, financial aid and scholarships, student activities, student residences and food services, mental health services and University Police.
During his 30 year plus tenure at the University Godfrey has held a number of administrative and leadership positions in Student Life and University Advancement. Prior to arriving at the University, Godfrey held student services positions at California State University Long Beach, The Pennsylvania State University and Pacific Lutheran University.
Godfrey received a BA in Psychology and an MA in Education from Pacific Lutheran University and earned additional credits in the Doctoral Program in Education at The Pennsylvania State University.
Professor Martin Rees is former President of the Royal Society (2005-10) and a member of the House of Lords. He is Master of Trinity College and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal.
After studying at Cambridge, he held post-doctoral positions in the UK and the USA, before becoming a professor at Sussex University. In 1973, he became a Fellow of King's College and Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge and served for ten years as director of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. In addition to Gates Cambridge Trust, he is on the Board of Trustees of the Science Museum and the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.
He is the author or co-author of more than 500 research papers, mainly on astrophysics and cosmology, as well as seven books, and numerous articles on scientific and general subjects. He broadcasts and lectures widely, and has held visiting professorships at many universities around the world.
Andrew S. Robertson has served as the Chief Policy Officer of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) since September 2010, where he focuses on innovation policy for neglected disease research.
Before joining BVGH, Andrew was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he researched policy issues in synthetic biology, personalized medicine, and global health. Prior to this, Andrew served as an International Health Officer and Science Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Secretary, from 2005 to 2007. At HHS, his portfolio included issues concerning global health, biodefense, and biosecurity, with a particular focus on pandemic influenza. Before HHS, he held a faculty research post at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, where he focused on immunology and protease inhibition.
Andrew is an alum of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship Program (’01), and co-founder of the Gates Scholars’ Council and Gates Scholars’ Alumni Association. He holds a Ph.D. in genetics from Cambridge, and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Certificate in Science & Technology Law).
David Runciman is Reader in Political Thought at the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and Staff Fellow in Politics at Trinity Hall. He is currently the holder of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2009-12).
His recent books include The Politics of Good Intentions and Political Hypocrisy (both Princeton University Press) and he has written widely about the history of ideas and contemporary politics.
He is a regular contributor to a number of newspapers and journals, including the London Review of Books, and to politics programmes on BBC Radio.
He is currently writing a history of confidence in democracy, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present financial crisis.
Professor Smith read Geography at St Anne’s College, and completed her DPhil at Nuffield College, both at Oxford University. Prior to moving to Cambridge, she held the Ogilvie Chair of Geography at the University of Edinburgh (1990-2004), and was Professor of Geography and a Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University (2004-9). She is a Fellow of the British Academy, an inaugural member of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a member of the Society of Authors.
Professor Smith has had a distinguished career both as a social geographer and in the interdisciplinary world of housing studies. Her work is centrally concerned with the challenge of inequality, addressing themes as diverse as residential segregation, housing for health and fear of crime. Her current research focuses squarely on the housing economy, and particularly on the uneven integration of housing, mortgage and financial markets. In addition to her academic work, Susan is a keen skier with a passion for music, and a particular interest in the world of brass.
Megan Vaughan is Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the University of Cambridge and is Director of the Centre of African Studies and a Fellow of King's College. Prior to coming to Cambridge she taught at the University of Oxford and the University of Malawi. Her research has focused on the history of food supply and famine in Central Africa, colonial medicine and psychiatry, gender relations and the history of the slave trade in the Indian Ocean. Her current project (funded by the AHRC) is an interdisciplinary study of death in the history of Africa since 1800. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and is President of the African Studies Association of the U.K.
Robert Lethbridge is Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Hon. Professor of Nineenth-Century French Literature in the University of Cambridge. He is Emeritus Professor of French Language & Literature in the University of London. Much of his research has been devoted to French Naturalism. As well as authoring a monograph and some 50 essays, he has edited a number of texts by Maupassant and Zola in the Oxford World Classics series (Bel-Ami, Pierre et Jean, Germinal, L’Assommoir and La Débâcle) and translated Zola’s Pot-Bouille for Everyman. He has also taught and published extensively in interdisciplinary perspectives, editing, with Peter Collier, Artistic Relations. Literature and the Visual Arts in Nineteenth-Century France (Yale University Press, 1994).
Andrew Thompsonis a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge and has been the Treasurer of the Gates Cambridge Trust since 2007.
He joined the Royal Air Force in 1971, retiring as a Group Captain in 1994; he was appointed an MBE in 1980. In 1986 he took an MPhil in International Relations at St John's College, writing a thesis on Britain's relations with NATO.
He was subsequently deeply involved in the analysis of the 1991 Gulf War, leading a tri-service team that reported to the Secretary of State for Defence on the British contribution to the Coalition operations.
He began a second career in college administration when he was appointed Bursar of Darwin College in 1994, before becoming Senior Bursar of Magdalene in 2001. He is a past Chairman of the Cambridge Bursars' Committee and has served on both the University Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Development. He was a Director (and Treasurer) of Cambridge in America from its inception in 1999 until 2008.
Dr Jonathan Nicholls took up the post of the University of Cambridge’s 26th Registrary in October 2007. The Registrary is the principal administrative officer of the University of Cambridge and Secretary to its Council.
Dr Nicholls gained a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge in 1984, where he was a student at Emmanuel College. He has devoted his career to higher education administration. He joined the University of Warwick in 1982 as a junior administrator and became its Registrar in 1999, moving to Birmingham University as its Registrar and Secretary in 2004.
He is a member of the national Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff and is currently the Deputy Chair of the Association of Heads of University Administration (AHUA). He is currently an appointed Governor of the University of Cambridge NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust.
Born in Cambridge, Jim was educated at Parkside School and Hills Road Sixth Form College; he gained a First Class Honours degree in Politics from the University of Newcastle in 1999.
Upon graduation he took up a position at the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust & Cambridge Overseas Trust, working across the full range of the trusts' activities. In 2002 he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship for postgraduate study in Australia, but instead took up the opportunity to become a professional musician.
Jim was appointed Executive Officer of the Gates Cambridge Trust in 2005 and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the scholarships side of the programme. He reports to the Provost (CEO) and Treasurer (CFO), manages two members of staff and has a range of responsibilities within the office.
Jim is privileged to be a Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge (since 2006) and has served on the College's Communications Committee.
Originally born in Stockport, David earned a his Masters degree in Physics at the University of Sheffield in 1999 and completed his PhD in Astronomy at the Open University in Milton Keynes in 2003. He subsequently trained as a Chartered Accountant at Chater Allan LLP, a Cambridge firm specialising in the charity and not for profit sector. On completing his training David worked as Finance Manager to the Non-School institutions at the University of Cambridge, being awarded an MA during his service. David joined the Gates Cambridge Trust at the start of 2010 and was privileged to become a Senior Member of Wolfson College around the same time.
David runs the Accounts Office for the Trust and reports to the Treasurer. His duties include preparation of the financial and management accounts, budgeting and modelling and most importantly, making payments for Scholars' fees and maintenance.
Kirsty, the newest member to the Gates Cambridge Trust team holds the position of Scholarship Officer. Her responsibilities include coordinating many aspects of US and International rounds of Scholarship interviews, in particular the International round. She also is involved with the organisation of the bi-annual meeting of the Trustees, and developing Alumni relations.
Holding a Bachelor of Arts with double majors in Employment Relations/Organisation Studies, and Psychology, Kirsty has gone on to complete her Postgraduate Diploma in Business and Administration, and is working towards a Masters in Management.
Kirsty took a career break on route from New Zealand to the UK, and volunteered for 4 months in a rural Ugandan primary school. Her interests include travel, which has taken Kirsty to over 30 countries, and her new found interest of scuba diving which is is an underwater world of new opportunities.
