Dr Fiona Butcher

Reappointed for a four-year term from 3 September 2022 until 2 September 2026.

Dr Fiona Butcher is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of Trinity College London, an international awarding organisation and educational charity. Before moving in-house, she worked in the fields of EU and competition law, regulation and compliance at a magic circle firm and at three regulators, including as the Legal Director of Ofwat. She holds law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Dr Butcher has a keen interest in art history and holds a PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she specialised in Modern British Art and wrote her doctorate on British landscape painting in the early Cold War period. In addition, she has worked in the Interpretation Department at Tate Britain and contributed to various art publications.

Dr Helen Czerski

Reappointed for a four-year term from 3 September 2022 until 2 September 2026.

Dr Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.

She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. She has worked on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic.

Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for ten years, covering the physics of the natural world and the physics of everyday life in BBC2 landmark documentaries and a range of BBC4. She is a frequent voice on the radio, on podcasts and also live stage performances.

Helen writes regularly about science, and her first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.

Remuneration and Governance Code

Trustees of Royal Museums Greenwich are not remunerated. This appointment has 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. Dr Fiona Butcher and Dr Helen Czerski have not declared any significant political activity.

Neil Grant

Reappointed as Trustee from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2026.

Neil Grant studied archaeology at the University of Reading before training as a Chartered Accountant. Since then he worked in industry for a number of years before becoming Head of Corporate Finance and

Performance for English Heritage and then its successor organisation, Historic England. Neil has written a number of books for Osprey Publishing, focusing on small arms development and military history. He also regularly contributes articles to Tracklink, the magazine of the Tank Museum. He is currently the Chair of the Ordnance Society, an academic group dedicated to the study of historic artillery, and visits coordinator for Friends of the Tank Museum.

He is particularly interested in mediaeval horsemanship and sword fighting techniques, both of which he has written about and demonstrated at living history events. He is also interested in the use of technology to improve and deepen the museum experience.

Paul Kirkman

Reappointed as Trustee from 28 September 2022 to 27 September 2026.

Paul Kirkman is a consultant to cultural and heritage organisations with 30 years top-level experience in public policy and cultural sector leadership. Paul was Director of the National Railway Museum in York from 2012 to 2017, where he returned the world-famous Flying Scotsman to operation and established a partnership with the City Council for a £700m brownfield development of land around the museum. From 2005-2012 Paul had a range of senior roles at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, including leading on the 2010 Spending Reviews and responsibility for policy and funding for the National Museums and Arts Council England. He was Head of Policy of Planning at the Natural History Museum between 1999 and 2001, at the launch of its Darwin Centre development. He had three spells at HM Treasury and was Private Secretary to the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, working for Howard Davies and Adair Turner in the period in the run up to the 1997 election. Paul originally studied Philosophy at Edinburgh University, has an MA in Art History from Goldsmith’s College and was a fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme.

Jonathan Sands

Reappointed as Trustee from 28 September 2022 to 27 September 2026.

Jonathan is the Chairman of creative brand agency, ‘Born Ugly’ and formally the majority shareholder of global brand design agency Elmwood. His work has taken him all over the world from New Zealand to North America and throughout Asia and Mainland Europe advising some of the biggest brands on the planet. His businesses have won more Design Effectiveness Awards than any other alongside awards for ‘Best Company To Work For’ by The Sunday Times and The Yorkshire Post and various individual awards for business leadership. He is a former council member of both the RSA and the Design Council where he served for ten years and a former Chairman of the Design Business Association.

Jonathan has also been a ‘Visiting Professor of Innovation’ at Huddersfield University where he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science in 2002. In 2011 he was awarded an OBE in HRH The Queen’s New Year Honours list for his services to the creative industries.

Beyond the creative industries Jonathan is also Non Executive Chairman of the digital veterinary business Vet Ai which uses artificial intelligence to diagnose pet illness through the Joii APP and finally he is a trustee of the Royal Armouries where he Chairs their commercial arm RATE.

Remuneration and Governance Code

Trustees of the Royal Armouries are not remunerated. This appointment has 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. Neil Grant, Paul Kirkman and Jonathan Sands have declared no activity.

Published 31 May 2022
Last updated 2 September 2022 + show all updates

Four experts have been appointed to support an external review of the UK’s advanced computing capabilities, as part of plans to turn the country into a science and technology superpower.

The Future of Compute Review, launched during London Tech Week, is being led by the Professor of Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge, Professor Zoubin Ghahramani, who is a world-leading expert in the field of machine learning.

The four experts, who combine a range of expertise from research, business and finance, will form a panel to support Professor Ghahramani and explore what is needed to ensure the UK has the computing capacity needed to remain at the forefront of innovation.

The panel will oversee the evidence submitted to support the review’s findings, which will inform the government’s approach in this important area.

The panellists are:

• Professor Anne Trefethen, FREng, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor of Scientific Computing, University of Oxford
• Dr Graham Spittle CBE, Dean of Innovation at Edinburgh University
• Shaheen Sayed, Senior Managing Director, Accenture UK and Ireland
• Sue Daley, Director of Technology and Innovation, TechUK

Biographies

Professor Anne Trefethen FREng, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor of Scientific Computing, University of Oxford.

Anne Trefethen is a pro-vice-chancellor, professor of scientific computing and fellow of St Cross College at the University of Oxford. Anne joined the university in 2005 to lead the development of the Oxford e-Research Centre where she served as the director for over six years. Her research has been focused on high-performance numerical algorithms and large-scale scientific applications. She has contributed to the fields of parallel numerical algorithms, software design and engineering and most recently to energy-aware algorithms. In 2001 she became the deputy director of the UK e-Science Core Programme working with the research councils and DTI (now Innovate UK). She has spent ten years in the US at Thinking Machines Inc. and as associate director at the Theory Centre, Cornell University.

Dr Graham Spittle, CBE, Dean of Innovation at Edinburgh University

Dr Graham Spittle, CBE, was appointed chair of Health Data Research UK in 2017 having taken on the role of interim chair in July 2016. He was, until recently, IBM’s Chief Technology Officer, Europe and Vice President, Software Group. Previously he held several senior executive positions within IBM: Vice President, Software UKI (UK & Ireland); Vice President, Worldwide Integration Development; Director of the IBM Hursley Laboratory in the United Kingdom, and Director of MQ Development. In June 2008 Dr Spittle was appointed as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to industry.

Shaheen Sayed, Senior Managing Director, Technology Lead, Accenture UK and Ireland

Shaheen is the Head of Technology for Accenture UK and Ireland, with 20 years of experience, specialising in leading complex technology and business transformations and pioneering new market technologies. Shaheen has held global technology leadership roles driving cutting edge technology solutions across a diverse range of industries including capital markets, environment and rural affairs, telecommunication and healthcare.

Shaheen is a regular guest lecturer on the LSE global masters in management programme and is recognised as an industry thought leader on inclusive business cultures and talent. She was most recently voted ‘Women of the Year’ at the Women in IT Awards, was named as one of the Top 10 most influential black and minority ethnic leaders by the Financial Times and featured in the Cranfield School of Management’s list of ‘Women to Watch’.

Sue Daley, Director of Technology and Innovation, TechUK

Sue leads techUK’s technology and innovation work including work on cloud, data protection, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), digital ethics, digital identity and internet of things as well as emerging and transformative technologies and innovation policy. She has been recognised as one of the most influential people in UK tech by Computer Weekly’s UKtech50 Longlist and in 2021 was inducted into the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame. A key influencer in driving forward the data agenda in the UK, Sue is co-chair of the UK government’s National Data Strategy Forum. As well as being recognised in the UK’s Big Data 100 and the Global Top 100 Data Visionaries for 2020, Sue has also been shortlisted for the Milton Keynes Women Leaders Awards and was a judge for the Loebner Prize in AI.