speaker-info

Geoff Mulgan

Chief Executive Officer, NESTA

Geoff Mulgan has been Chief Executive of Nesta since 2011. Nesta is the UK’s innovation foundation (established as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts). It runs a wide range of activities in investment, practical innovation programmes and research. It works across the UK and globally. From 2004-2011 Geoff was the first Chief Executive of the Young Foundation, which became a leading centre for social innovation, combining research, creation of new ventures and practical projects.

Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos. He has also been Chief Adviser to Gordon Brown MP; a lecturer in telecommunications; an investment executive; and a reporter on BBC TV and radio. He has been a visiting professor at LSE, UCL, Melbourne University and a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy. He is currently a senior visiting scholar at Harvard University (2015-18). He is an adviser to many governments around the world, and has been a board member of Big Society Capital, the Work Foundation, the Health Innovation Council, Uprising, Political Quarterly and the Design Council, and chair of Involve, the Studio Schools Trust and the Social Innovation Exchange. Since 2013 he has co-chaired the committee overseeing science, technology and digital in the London government under Mayor Boris Johnson.

His recent books include The Locust and the Bee (Princeton University Press, 2013), The Art of Public Strategy – Mobilising Power and Knowledge for the Public Good (OUP, 2008) , Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government (Penguin, 2006) and Connexity (Harvard Business Press and Jonathon Cape, 1998). His next book, for Princeton University Press, focuses on the theory and practice of collective intelligence.