Our trustees

Tera is a leading expert on economic growth, productivity, and public policy, with a distinguished career spanning three decades in government and business.

She serves as a senior economic advisor to McKinsey & Company and contributes to several expert advisory bodies, including the Office for Budget Responsibility and the LSE Centre for Economic Performance. Tera chairs Pro Bono Economics and The Productivity Institute’s Advisory Committee and is a trustee of Be the Business and a governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. She also holdsan Honorary Professorship at the Alliance Manchester Business School and is a Fellow
of the Academy of Social Sciences and the RSA.

Previously, Tera served on the boards of Innovate UK and the Royal Economic Society and, over a period of 10 years, held chief economist roles at the UK’s energy, transport, and business departments. At the Department for Business, she was Director General for Strategy, Analysis, and Better Regulation and Deputy Head of the UK Government Economic Service. Earlier in her career, she spent over a decade
as a management consultant at McKinsey.

Tera holds an MSc in Technology (Industrial Economics) with distinction from Helsinki University of Technology and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.

Akiko works as the Interim Director of Liberty, an advocacy group and membership organisation which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties, and promotes human rights. She was previously CEO of the National Survivor User Network (NSUN), a mental health charity led by and for people with lived experience. 

Akiko’s previous roles include Director of NGO Mental Health Europe, as well as leading a service at Mind in Camden for people who hear voices, working in the community, youth services, forensic settings, and Immigration Removal Centres. Akiko is a Professor in Practice at the Institute of Medical Humanities at the University of Durham, and has been a trustee on a number of charity boards, most recently National Voices and ISPS UK.  

Belinda Phipps graduated with a BSc Hons in Microbiology. She joined Glaxo Pharmaceuticals becoming UK Marketing Manager. Whilst completing an MBA at Ashridge Management College she joined the Blood Transfusion Service as Chief Executive with a view to leading a merger. After a period managing a Medical Publishing company she became Chief Executive of an NHS Trust. Belinda joined the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) as Chief Executive in 1999. She became Chief Executive of the Science Council in 2015 was Chair of the Fawcett Society and Chair of the NMC Appointments Board and a PipUK Patron. Since then has had a spell at the BMA as interim CEO and is now interim CEO for the drug alcohol and mental health charity WithYou. She has also been a local councillor and runs the  local Transition Town group.

Damien Régent works as a non-executive director with multiple organisations. He is a finance and risk analysis professional by background. Over the recent years, he has worked on several not-for-profit boards in domestic and international charities as well as in UK housing associations. He also has board experience at the NHS and in small high-growth internet businesses.

Damien’s first career was as a financial analyst for global institutions such as Moody’s and UBS Investment Bank. He left the City in 2013 to build a portfolio of entrepreneurial and governance roles.

David is Chairman of the Gregson Family Foundation; a Board Member of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and of the Barclays Women’s Super League; a Trustee of Pro Bono Economics and Windsor Leadership Trust; an Advisor to the Sutton Trust (which seeks to improve social mobility through education), Phoenix Equity Partners, a leading UK private equity business, and The Productivity Institute; and a member of the Advisory Board of Alliance Manchester Business School.

Through his family foundation, David spends considerable time seeking to improve the opportunities for young children in modern Britain. David has co-founded the #BeeWell programme that seeks to improve the wellbeing of young people in every corner of England with a view to rebalancing the English education system by 2030.

Previously, David was a co-founder and Chairman of Phoenix. Over his career, he has been a director or chairman of 35 companies and charities. Most recently, David has been Chairman of the LTA, which is responsible for tennis in Britain; Chairman of CGL, the UK’s largest social and health care charity; and a Director of LLDC, which is transforming East London following the 2012 Olympics. 

Ed Humpherson is Director General for Regulation and head of the Office for Statistics Regulation, the UK’s regulator for government data and statistics. He is responsible for ensuring that government departments and agencies produce and use data to serve the public good across all aspects of policy, including health, care and the pandemic; the economy; crime and justice; the environment; transport, housing and communities; and all other policy areas. He is also Vice Chair of the charity Motability, which supports the transport needs of disabled people, and a trustee of the Regulatory Policy Institute. Before taking on his current roles, he was a Board Member and Executive Leader for Economic Affairs at the National Audit Office.

Jenny Scott is a founder partner at Apella Advisors and a senior advisor to North Star Transition. Jenny began her career as an economist at the Bank of England before becoming an economic journalist for a number of years, first with Reuters and then with the BBC where she was a regular correspondent across television and radio. Jenny then returned to the Bank of England as Executive Director for communications throughout the financial crisis and Brexit referendum. Jenny is a trustee for PBE and also for WCCM, a meditation charity.

Jonathan Loynes is an experienced economist who spent 18 years at economic consultancy Capital Economics. He helped to build the organisation into one of the world’s leading independent research firms and, as Chief Economist, oversaw the output of over 50 economists around the world. He was also the main point of contact for the company’s many clients and was widely quoted in the media on a range of economic issues. Previously, he was Chief UK Economist at HSBC. He holds degrees in Economics and International Finance. 

Matthew Brumsen works as an independent consultant in the wealth management industry, offering strategic advice to institutions and individuals. He previously worked at UBS as head of UK wealth management and was a member of their Group Managing Board. Prior to that, Matthew spent nine years at Goldman Sachs having started his career as an economist at the Bank of England.

Mitch is Global Brand & Purpose Director for Mars, Incorporated, responsible for building the Mars Incorporated brand and differentiating it with the actions taken by the company to live its purpose. She is also Deputy Vice-Chair of the UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance, and has held roles as Vice-Chair of Stonewall, Non-Executive Director of The Marketing Society, a member of the government/business leaders group Disability Confident and recently as a Commissioner on the Law Family Commission on Civil Society carried out by Pro Bono Economics.

Her expertise is as a strategic brand, marketing and communications expert with over 25 years’ experience of growing some of the world’s most loved and globally powerful brands. Her passion as a leader is unlocking the potential of people and organisations through connecting with their purpose and enabling people to bring their full selves to work (and beyond). She has a deep understanding of, and commitment to, ESG, and a specific area of deep expertise in putting diversity, inclusion and equity at the heart of any organisation, strategy, brand or team.

Named “Marketer of the Year” by The Drum, “Leader of the Year” by The Marketing Society, one of the “Top 20 Women to Watch in Europe” by Adage and one of the “Top 100 Women to Watch” in the annual Cranfield Female FTSE Board Report by Cranfield University. She is a Fellow of The Marketing Society.

Dr Rubina Ahmed is the Director of Research, Policy and Services at Blood Cancer UK, where she is accountable for the delivery of the charity’s mission-focused programmes. 

Rubina holds a PhD in Immunology and an MSc in Management and has a background in scientific research funding, policy and public affairs, organisational strategy and change management.

She has worked in both the public and charity sector for a number of years, including with the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and the Stroke Association. Alongside her work at Blood Cancer UK, she is a Council Member (Trustee) of the British Science Association – a charity focused on the engagement of the public in science.

Andy Haldane is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He joined the RSA as Chief Executive in 2021 after more than 30 years at the Bank of England, latterly as the Bank’s Chief Economist and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. Among other positions, he is Honorary Professor at the Universities of Nottingham, Manchester and Exeter, Visiting Professor at King’s College, London, a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Social Sciences.

Andy co-founded PBE with fellow economist Martin Brookes in 2009 and became the organisation’s President in 2022, having previously served as a Trustee. He is also Vice-Chair of charity National Numeracy and Chair of the National Numeracy Leadership Council. Andy served as Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office from September 2021 to March 2022 and chairs the Government’s Levelling Up Advisory Council. He has authored around 200 articles and four books.

Lord Gus O’Donnell is a former British senior civil servant and economist, who between 2005 and 2011 served as the Cabinet Secretary, the highest official in the British Civil Service. From joining the Treasury as an economist, and serving in the British Embassy in Washington, involved with the IMF and World Bank, he became Permanent Secretary of the Treasury in 2002.

Since leaving the Civil Service in 2011, and being appointed a Life Peer in 2012, he has been involved in many areas: the chair of Frontier Economics, a visiting professor to the London School of Economics and University College London, a trustee of the Economist Group, a strategic adviser to the Chief Executive of Toronto Dominion Bank, on the main board of Brookfield Asset Management, President of the Council of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, and Chair of Trustees of Pro Bono Economics.