Trustees Appointed to the Science Museum Group
The Prime Minister has appointed Sarah Staniforth, Steven Underwood, Iain McIntosh, Judith Donovan, Professor Ajit Lalvani, Sir Peter Hendy, Jo Foster and Dr Hannah Fry to the Science Museum Group Board. The appointments are for terms of four years commencing 8 August 2018 for Sarah, Steven and Iain, 1 February 2019 for Judith and Ajit, and 1 July 2019 for Sir Peter, Jo and Hannah.
Sarah Staniforth
From 1985-2014, Sarah held a number of senior executive positions at the National Trust. She is currently President of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and holds a number of trusteeships, including with the English Heritage Trust. Sarah has previously sat as a Member of the Museum Accreditation Committee for Arts Council England (2011-2017) and currently sits as a member of the Science Museum Group’s Collections and Research Committee.
Steven Underwood
Steven is the Chief Executive of the Peel Group, one of the UK’s largest privately owned real estate, transport and infrastructure investors. Before joining Peel as Corporate Development Director in 2007, Steven spent eight years in investment banking with Rothschild and before that qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. He represents the Peel Group on the Boards of a number of its investee companies, including Ports, Airports, Media and Land & Property. Steven is also a non-executive director of Harworth Group PLC and is the alternate Director for Peel’s Chairman, John Whittaker, as Deputy Chairman of Intu Properties plc.
Iain McIntosh
From 2009 to 2015, Iain served as Chief Financial Officer for the educational IT services group, RM plc. Prior to this, he was Chief Financial Officer at the Axon Group plc and has held senior finance roles with a number of international organisations. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Science Museum Group’s Finance Committee.
Judith Donovan
Judith is the founder of the marketing agency, JDA Group. She is currently Chair of the Eden Project and has previously served as a board member of the Big Lottery Fund, chairing its Resources Committee. She has served in non-executive roles for a number of organisations, including Network Rail and the Health and Safety Executive, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Ajit Lalvani
Ajit is the Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Respiratory Infections and Director of the Tuberculosis Research Centre at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London. He is also Honorary Consultant Physician at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Visiting Professor of Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at University of Oxford. His research programme focuses on translating scientific discoveries into innovative practical solutions to protect the health of the public through better screening, diagnosis and prevention of major infectious diseases, including flu and TB. He is a non-executive director of Vitabiotics Ltd and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Bromley-by-Bow Centre where he supports the charity’s mission to improve social determinants of health and tackle health inequalities.
Sir Peter Hendy
Sir Peter is the Chair of Network Rail (2015-). From 2006-2015, he was Commissioner of Transport at Transport for London, playing a leading role in the successful operation of London’s transport systems during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sir Peter sits as Chair of the London Legacy Development Corporation (2017-) and was formerly President of the International Union of Public Transport (2013-2015). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation and the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Jo Foster
Jo has been involved in the teaching of Science for 17 years and is currently Vice Principal at Camborne Science and International Academy in Cornwall, acting as Director of its innovative STEM Centre Nexus and Gifted STEM Programmes (2015-). Prior to this, she was Assistant Headteacher at Humphry Davy School in Penzance. Since 2017, she has been a Trustee for the Institute for Research in Schools (2017-).
Hannah Fry
Hannah is an Associate Professor at the Bartlett Centre for Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, where she has worked since 2012. Prior to this, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Mathematics. She regularly appears on science-based broadcasting programmes for the BBC, including co-presenting the long-running BBC Radio 4 series, The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry, and is an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association.
These appointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. All of the candidates have declared no such political activity.