Rt Hon Lord Paul Boateng is a leading figure on Africa and its development and a member of the UK House of Lords, having been raised to peerage in July 2010. Appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury in May 2002 under Prime Minister Rt Hon Tony Blair, he then took the office of the British High Commissioner to South Africa from March 2005 to May 2009. In March 2012 he was invited to become a Trustee of the Planet Earth Institute and was appointed Chairman in February 2017. He remains a strong voice for Africa and beyond.
Dr Álvaro Sobrinho is a prominent Angolan businessman and philanthropist, and Founder and Trustee of the PEI. Born and raised in Angola, Álvaro has been at the forefront of the rise of one of Africa’s most powerful economies and is now devoted to his mission to empower the continent through investment in science, technology and advanced academic training. Following the completion of the United Nations sponsored International Year of the Planet Earth in 2009, Álvaro was one of the key founding members of the PEI as a means to bring academia, governments and the private sector together to develop innovative, locally-led projects to train a new generation of African scientists.
Sir Christopher Edwards is a highly distinguished academic, knighted in 2008 in recognition of his contribution to science, academia and the medical sector in the United Kingdom. Sir Christopher was previously Chairman of both the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Trust and of Medical Education England, and the first Principal of Imperial College School of Medicine from 1995 to 2000. Sir Christopher was also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, leading a transformation programme that saw it become one of the UK’s finest higher education institutions. Sir Christopher has long had a personal and professional passion for the African continent, and joined the PEI Trustee board in 2012.
Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Founder and Director of Research at the Harefield Heart Science Centre (Magdi Yacoub Institute). Born and raised in Egypt, he established the largest heart and lung transplantation programme in the world where more than 2,500 transplant operations have been performed. Sir Magdi has an active interest in global healthcare delivery, and a strong interest in accelerating scientific and technological advancement in Africa.