Leading and organising impact

Dr Adaku Jennifer Agwunobi is a Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Engineering Science, working on orthopaedic clinical tooling. She was the first Black doctoral researcher to obtain a PhD at Loughborough University London, where her PhD focused on the well-being of Black entrepreneurs. She has two Masters degrees: an MSc Health Economics and MSc Marketing (with Distinction). Additionally, her first degree was BSc (Hons) Economics.

In addition to her academic research, Adaku is an entrepreneur, recently winning an Oxford Hub Social Enterprise Award for her tech-savvy natural hair care and wellness brand called ‘hairgoals’.

Alona Revko is an Academic Visitor within a program funded by the British Academy. Her current research focuses on stakeholder relationships and the development of social entrepreneurship ecosystems. Alona is also a professor at Chernihiv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine. She has over 10 years of experience teaching various courses for Ukrainian master students, including Social Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Leadership and Administration, and Sustainable Development of Society. Alona has international experience in social entrepreneurship and sustainable development, participating in study visits and scientific internships in different European countries including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and Georgia. The outcomes of her research are reflected in more than 80 publications.

Aoife’s research focuses on understanding what systemic environmental challenges such as the climate crisis, and associated system transitions, mean for business. Aoife holds a joint appointment between the Smith School and Saïd Business School. Aoife was previously a senior researcher at the Group for Sustainability and Technology (SusTec) at ETH in Zurich. She received her PhD from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and her MA from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

Char is inspired by people in business who use their power as a force for good and firmly believes that accountants will save the world. She is a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded Volans, Heliotropy and B Lab UK. More recently, in 2022 Char joined Natura &Co, the world’s biggest B Corp, as the Global Director of Advocacy where she is focused on supporting the business take a stand on key issues, and deepening relationships with partners who share a commitment to engaging in system level change. As a part of this role with the Skoll Centre, she designed the popular MBA course ‘The Regenerative and Circular Economy: How to Do Business in a Climate Emergency’, and the executive course ‘The Oxford Climate Emergency Programme’.  

Darshan is a Visiting Fellow at the Skoll Centre at the University of Oxford and is the founder of social innovation studio, Super Being Labs. With 17 years of experience using design, creativity, and technology to help tackle complex social problems, he founded Super Being Labs to design a world that truly enables the best of human potential. Each project sits across 1 or all 3 of these systems - systems for young people, systems for issues today, and systems for the arts. He is also the co-founder of Being ManKind, a project that uses storytelling to inspire boys to shun damaging gender stereotypes and grow into kind, compassionate and empathetic humans - everything that will render terms like 'Man Up' redundant. Outside of work, Darshan is a non-exec Chair at Sporting Memories Network - a social enterprise using sporting reminiscence to fight dementia and isolation for the elderly, Chair for STCA - a community charity in London, and also serves on a few other boards too. 

Derrick Feldmann is recognized internationally as a leading researcher and advisor on social issues, movements and consumer public action. His insights are sought by organizations and media globally, and his work is regularly cited as a reliable source of data on today’s social issues. Feldmann has built an impressive body of research and insights into how and why the public takes action for change. He is the author of three books: "The Corporate Social Mind: How Companies Lead Social Change From the Inside Out", "Social Movements for Good: How Companies and Causes Create Viral Change" and "Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement". Feldmann currently splits his time between social issue research, the advisory firm ISG and the Ad Council Research Institute, where he oversees public research studies on pressing issues affecting Americans. 

Esther Benjamin has been a global leader in business, government, and non-profit organizations for nearly 30 years, working in over 100 countries. She is currently CEO and Executive Director of World Education Services, based in New York, and serves on the Board of Directors of Echoing Green, B Lab Global, and Candid, among others. Iin 2021, she received the Fulbright Award for Global Leadership from One to World. Prior to this, she worked with Laureate Education, Inc. as CEO for Africa Operations and CEO of Monash South Africa in Johannesburg. She was then Laureate’s SVP for Global Public Affairs. Esther also served in President Obama’s Administration as Peace Corps Associate Director for Global Operations.  

Dr Laurence Wainwright is Course Director of the MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment and a Departmental Lecturer. A teaching and learning oriented academic, Laurence has 12 years experience in lecturing, facilitation and supervision across universities in Australia, Sweden, the United States, and United Kingdom. Laurence is passionate about the holistic development of the students who he teaches and helping them to develop into well-rounded individuals with a mindset of intellectual curiosity and courage, continuous self-improvement, and service to a mission beyond themselves.

Laurence's research interests and teaching areas are multidisciplinary and diverse. They include sustainability and corporate social responsibility; mental health impacts of climate change; strategy, management, leadership; and precision psychiatry, psychopharmacology and drug repurposing. In addition to his role in the Smith School, Laurence is a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, an Early Career Research Fellow, and a Contributor Researcher and Facilitator in the Department of Psychiatry.

Dr Lennon Mhishi is a Project Researcher at Pitt Rivers Museum on the project Reconnecting 'Objects': Epistemic Plurality and Transformative Practices in and Beyond Museums funded by VW Stiftung. He is an anthropologist whose interdisciplinary work spans interests in Africa and its diasporas, the afterlives of slavery and colonialism, and the approaches to contemporary forms of exploitation, forced labour and human rights in different African countries. He has experience in migration and diaspora, heritage, music, and other arts-based, creative approaches to knowledge making and engagement. He is keen to pursue a research agenda, curatorial and museum practice that centres community-engaged, collaborative, antiracist, and inclusive practice. 

Martin is a consultant in organisation and leadership development, a facilitator of innovation and change; trainer, coach and author. He serves as Core-Faculty Member and Visiting Fellow of the Presencing Institute and is also a faculty member for the Global Alliance for Banking on Values and the Mastercard Executive Leadership Program. Previously, he served on the leadership programs of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, London Business School and the Copenhagen Business School. In the last 15 years, Martin has been facilitating leadership development and innovation programmes for senior executives in Africa, Europe, India, China, and the Middle East. Organisations he has consulted for include 3M, The Tony Blair Institute for Global Governance, HSBC, the World Bank, McKinsey & Company, the United Nations, and the Department for International Development of the British Government (DFID), among others.

Marya Besharov is Professor of Organisations and Impact at Saïd Business School and Academic Director of the Skoll Centre. Her research and teaching focus on leadership, social impact, and hybrid organisations. She engages with leaders and organisations worldwide to help them manage competing demands of social impact and financial performance. Marya received a BA in Social Studies, an MA in Sociology, and a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from Harvard University. She also holds an MBA from Stanford University. When she’s not doing research, teaching, or leading the Skoll Centre, she enjoys cooking, running, and spending time with her family.

As director of TEDxLondon, TEDxLondonWomen and before that TEDxEastEnd, Maryam has taken some of the world's most challenging, complex and important ideas and transformed them into high-impact stories for every kind of audience - from billionaire philanthropists to school kids in East London. Her mission is to bring life to ideas, give speakers the tools and confidence to present them brilliantly, and to create platforms that let the world hear them. In 2015 Maryam started X Equals to support individuals and teams bring life to their ideas through events design, curation, storytelling and pitch coaching. She currently works with several organisations focused on fighting climate change to help shape their strategy and communications towards major donors and has coached over 500 startups to pitch their ideas and business plans for investment. 

Oscar worked as a doctor in Hauora Tairāwhiti (a rural NZ hospital), and Counties Manukau (Auckland) before taking up a Rhodes Scholarship and moving to Oxford for his DPhil in Healthcare Leadership Development.

Oscar’s teaching and research focuses on supporting real-world impact from leadership development in healthcare through impact-focused evaluation.

Oscar is currently Director at Thrum Leadership Ltd.

Sophie Maclaren specialises in workplace wellbeing, mindfulness, and leadership development through interactive workshops, facilitated programmes, and executive coaching. Her work draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, and leadership studies, combined with evidence-based mindfulness practices for impactful behaviour change with measurable outcomes for individuals and organisations. As well as designing mindfulness and leadership programmes at Saïd Business School, Sophie has worked with over 30 elite law-firms, banks, sports teams, universities, social enterprises, and professional service firms. She has also worked with the UK parliament on their Mindfulness Initiative think tank to support the Mindfulness All Party Parliamentary Group. 

Tara is a change leadership advisor, EMCC-accredited coach and social entrepreneur who strives to connect the dots between healthy people and healthy democracies, bringing consumer and citizen perspectives to conversations about culture change in health care and other complex systems. Over the past two decades she has convened and partnered with academic, cultural, scientific, and nonprofit institutions to lead strategic initiatives to advance public health, education, corporate social responsibility, and social change. Previously, Tara led Health Impact at the nonprofit Consumer Reports, where she developed strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of consumers. In 2017 she founded Civic Health Partners, an independent consulting practice working with purpose-driven organizations to develop trustworthy leadership and public engagement strategies. Tara speaks and writes about the future of health and the role of trust in achieving a more just and equitable health system. Her work on trust has appeared in JAMA, JMIR, BMJ Opinion, and the AMA Journal of Ethics podcast.  

Dr Astrid Krisch is a spatial planner and human geographer specialising in urban policy, sustainability transitions, and the governance of climate action. Currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation, University of Oxford, she has held research and teaching roles at institutions including the University of Cambridge, TU Wien, and WU Wien. Her interdisciplinary research explores social innovations in urban provisioning systems and their role in climate justice and systemic transformation. As a Skoll Centre Early Career Research Fellow, Astrid will co-produce actionable knowledge with policymakers and communities to bridge research, practice, and policy impact. 

Dr Hayley Pring is a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations, working on the Climate Vulnerability Project. She received her DPhil and MPhil at Nuffield College, and her BPhil/BA from the Australian National University with scholarships from Nuffield, the Governor-Philip Foundation, and the James Fairfax Scholarship. Hayley's research focuses on the role of reputation in influencing firm behaviour in world politics, the political economy of climate change, and when climate vulnerable groups mobilise. 

Ignacio Pérez Karich is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Future of Mobility at the Oxford-Hyundai Motor Group Foresight Centre. His research explores the intersection of mobility, urban governance, and big data, focusing on socio-technical systems and the future of transport in diverse contexts. He holds a DPhil in Geography from the University of Oxford, and degrees from UCL and PUC Chile. Ignacio has worked with the UNDP, IDB, and leading think tanks, contributing to debates on smart cities, sustainable mobility, and data governance through interdisciplinary research, scenario planning, and ethnographic and computational methods. 

Dr Tori Ford is a qualitative health researcher working as a postdoctoral research fellow within the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. She recently completed an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship examining gender health inequity and recurrent vulval pain. Tori is also the Founder and Executive Director of Medical Herstory, an award-winning social impact organisation on a mission to eliminate sexism, shame, and stigma from health experiences. She holds a BA from McGill University in Gender Studies and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in Health, Medicine, and Society. Her work on advancing gender health equity has been recognised by the Rising Star Champion Award, the University of Oxford Paving the Way Award, and being named a Top 25 Woman of Influence.