This extra session with thought leaders on Talent & Culture is offered to the Founders & Funders community in collaboration with one of our partners, the social enterprise Becoming Me, and Alumni of the Saïd Business School.

This session will be on Zoom: https://sbsox.zoom.us/j/95123253015?pwd=SWp2UERNLytMM055bENGWU1PYUhndz09#success

How to nurture talent, develop potential, and take responsibility for impact on the world

Join us for an interactive conversation with an exceptional panel:

Marios Papadopoulos MBE
Music Director and Founder of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
Having begun his career as a concert pianist, Marios Papadopoulos founded the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998 and has continued at its helm as Music Director ever since. Under his direction the Orchestra has gone from strength to strength, performing regularly in Oxford and beyond, and forging a strong relationship with the University of Oxford.
Described by The Times at his 1975 piano recital debut as having ‘all the attributes of one of the world’s greatest players’, Papadopoulos has gone on to enjoy an international career both as pianist and conductor. He has appeared as soloist with and conducted many of the world’s greatest orchestras and worked with a host of eminent musicians including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Hélène Grimaud, Nicola Benedetti, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires, Menahem Pressler, Maxim Vengerov, Renée Fleming, Vadim Repin, Martha Argerich and Lang Lang. His recordings of the Beethoven sonatas have been set on a level with Schnabel, Brendel, Barenboim and Wilhelm Kempff (Daily Telegraph, Classic FM Magazine Critics’ Choice).
Marios Papadopoulos holds a doctorate in music from City University and is both a member of the Oxford University Faculty of Music and Fellow by Special Election of Keble College, Oxford. He became an Honorary Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2010 and was awarded Oxford City’s Certificate of Honour in 2013. Papadopoulos was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 2014 New Year’s Honours List for services to music in Oxford.

Professor Julia Black CBE
President of the British Academy
Julia Black is President of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences. She is also Strategic Director of Innovation and Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was Pro Director of Research from 2014-19 and interim Director of LSE from 2016-17. Julia holds a number of other roles, notably she is an External Member of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Committee, Senior Independent Member of the Board of the UK Research and Innovation Council, a member of the Council of Science and Technology and a member of the Board of the Courtauld Institute of Art. Julia is also a director of Zinc, a social sciences, mission based incubator.
Julia completed her first degree in Jurisprudence and her DPhil at Oxford University and joined the LSE Law Department of the LSE in 1994. Her primary research interest is the legitimacy and dynamics of regulatory systems, including transnational and non-state regulators. She has written extensively on regulatory issues in a number of areas, and has advised policy makers, consumer bodies, law reform bodies and regulators on issues of institutional design and regulatory policy in the UK and overseas over many years. She has received grants from the British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, the ESRC and the Canadian SSRC.She has been a visiting fellow at the University of Sydney, All Souls College, Oxford and in 2014 was the Sir Frank Holmes Visiting Professor in Public Policy at the Victoria University, Wellington, NZ.She served as an independent Board member of the Solicitors Regulation Authority from January 2014 – December 2018 and chaired its Policy Committee.She was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2015, and an Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford in 2017. She received a lifetime achievement award from the Standing Group on Regulatory Governance of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) in 2016 and was awarded a CBE in the 2020 New Years’ Honours List for services to the study of law and regulation.

The Revd Jonathan Aitken
Priest, Author, Campaigner for Prison Reforms, and former member of Parliament

Jonathan Aitken is an ex-MP, ex-Cabinet Minister and ex-Prisoner. He is the author of 19 books and is a Chaplain at HMP Pentonville who serves on many charitable Boards including the Saïd Foundation. He is a strong supporter of the charitable work of Dr Rasha Saïd and the PEACE series.
After graduating in Law from Christ Church, Oxford in 1964 he became a Fleet Street journalist. He was a senior reporter and feature writer for the London Evening Standard serving as a war correspondent in Vietnam, Biafra and The Middle East. After journalism he went into business and became chairman of a merchant bank in the City of London. In 1974 he became a Conservative Member of Parliament spending eighteen years on the backbenches until being appointed Minister of State for Defence in 1992. He joined the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1994.
His political career ended when he told a lie on oath in a libel action. Subsequently he pleaded guilty to charges of perjury and served a seven-month prison sentence in 1999. After graduating with Distinction in theology after two years at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford (2000-2002) he began a new career as a writer, lecturer, and broadcaster. His wider activities include being a Director of Prison Fellowship International, Executive Director of The Trinity Forum in Europe; Honorary President of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and in 2015 President of Tempus Novo a charity set up by two former Prison Officers, Steve Freer and Val Wawrosz, to enable ex-offenders to find employment after release. In 2007 he was appointed Chairman of the Centre for Social Justice’s policy study group on Prison Reform. He is patron, president or trustee of several Criminal Justice charities including NACRO, Caring for Ex-Offenders and Blue Sky.

Moderator, our own Dr Christiaan de Koning