Imperial College London

The Business School's Advisory Board is comprised of high-level outside representatives of business. 

Sir Andrew Witty (Chair), President of United Health Group and CEO of Optum

Andrew has been Chair of the Business School's Advisory Board since 2020. Previous to holding the roles of President of United Health Group and CEO of leading US healthcare provider Optum, he was CEO of GlaxoSmithKline from 2008 to 2017.

In 2020, he was appointed to co-lead the WHO’s COVID-19 vaccine efforts and joined the expert advisory group for the UK Government’s Vaccine Task Force.

Zein Abdalla, Former President, PepsiCo

Zein was the President of PepsiCo Inc, a leading global food, snack and beverage company, from 2012 through to his retirement in 2014. Prior to that he served as the CEO of PepsiCo Europe. 

He has also held a number of senior management positions with the Mars Group and his executive experience with large scale global companies has given him expertise in corporate management, general management, in developed and emerging markets, supply chain, procurement, global brand management, and innovation and global strategy.

Natasha Foong, co-founder of IncuVest

Natasha is co-founder of IncuVest, a technology investment platform. She is an experienced startup investor with personal investments in software and consumer internet businesses. 

Natasha began her career at the Singapore Economic Development Board where she became Head of the Venture Capital Group and Vice President of EDB Investments. She was co-founder of Valuair and she also spent several years as a business consultant in various industries including retail, hospitality, healthcare and education.

Faisal Galaria, CEO of Blippar

Faisal is CEO at Blippar, a leading technology company specialising in Augmented Reality and one of the UK's first tech unicorns.

From 2016 to 2019, he was the Chief Strategy & Investment Officer of Gocompare Group, where he helped lead the listing on the London Stock Exchange in November 2016 and oversaw several successful acquisitions. Faisal has held senior roles at a number of leading global digital businesses including Spotify, Kayak.com and Skype.

Joanne Linder, Owner, SmartPitch

Joanne is the co-chair of Imperial College Business School Alumni Advisory Board and is an active member of the alumni community.

Joanne started her career at BAE Systems and had a largely blue chip career until her MBA, including at Granada and ABN AMRO. She set up her first business when she graduated, having specialised in entrepreneurship, and was a pioneer in personalised web content during the dot-com boom.

Mary Meaney, Advisory Board, Beamery and former Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Mary currently works with a range of companies on their most important strategy and organization topics.  She is a member of the Advisory Board of Beamery, the new talent operating system that enables the world's largest companies to attract, engage and retain talent at a global scale.

Prior to this, Mary was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company where she served on McKinsey's global Board (the Shareholder's Council), led the global Organization Practice, and published a book with co-author Scott Keller entitled: Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths.  While at McKinsey, she worked in over 30 countries with some of the largest companies in the world in consumer products, chemicals, energy, and pharmaceuticals.  She has lectured extensively in France, the US, UK, and China.

Mary was a co-founder of the McKinsey Women’s Initiative, which aims to promote women leaders in business. She is currently running a Remarkable Women's Program with TeachFirst to support women in education.

Sara Murray OBE, founder and Chief Executive Officer, Buddi

Sara is a serial technology entrepreneur. She founded and runs Buddi, the Queen’s Award-winning wearable-as-a-service company, which operates in health and criminal justice markets, delivering to government customers on five continents.

Sara also founded Ninah Consulting, which she sold to French Communications Group, and is now a multibillion-pound UK listed business.

Cindy Rose OBE, President of Microsoft Western Europe

Cindy became President of Microsoft Western Europe in 2020, having previously served as CEO of Microsoft UK. Before Microsoft, Cindy led Vodafone’s Consumer division, managing the expansion of their retail store estate from 350 stores to over 500 stores. Before Vodafone, she was Executive Director of Digital Entertainment at Virgin Media.

Previously, Cindy worked at the Walt Disney Company in a variety of roles including General Counsel for Disney EMEA and Senior Vice President & Managing Director of the Disney Interactive Media Group.

Michael Shepherd, Managing Director, Growth Point Technology Partners

Mike co-founded Growth Point Technology Partners. He is a software engineer and entrepreneur, who is based in Silicon Valley and now advises technology companies with investments and exits. 

Before co-founding GrowthPoint Technology Partners, Mike was a principal at SVB Alliant conducting software mergers and acquisitions transactions. Prior to joining Alliant, he was Managing Director of the Nextera Interactive division of Nextera through to its IPO. 

Naveed Sultan, Managing Director and Chairman, Citi's Institutional Clients Group

With over 30 years of institutional banking experience, Naveed has been at Citi for over 26 years in a range of increasingly senior roles and is currently responsible for leading the digital policy, strategy and advisory practice across all client segments. Prior to his current appointment in Q4, 2020, Naveed was the Global Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions within Citi’s Institutional Clients Group. This multi-billion dollar business (2019 rev., $10.3bn) is one of the largest global businesses within Citi’s Institutional Clients Group encompassing integrated working capital solutions including: payments, trade and supply chain, export agency finance, liquidity and investment management, wholesale card services, consulting and digital services.

Naveed has wide-ranging experience covering Corporate Finance, Corporate Banking, Transaction Banking, Consumer Banking, Operations & Technology and is a regular speaker and author on such topics.

Don Hoang, Partner, Atomico

Don is a Partner at Atomico and leads investments across both the Venture and Growth stages. He has spent 21 years as an operator and investor ranging from startup, growth, and pre-IPO / public companies. 

He has played a key role on the executive teams at category-defining companies such as Revolut and Uber. He also has a background in early-stage and private equity investing. Don is an active angel investor and was a scout for Sequoia Capital.

At Revolut, Don was VP of Global Business and responsible for profitability, strategic initiatives, growth, product, financial and distribution partnerships, business and corporate development, capital markets, business operations, and strategy. Don built his global department from the ground up and helped Revolut grow to its $33bn valuation.

At Uber, Don helped build an international team spanning 45 countries. Don was responsible for raising over $3.5bn of growth capital for Uber, architected over $4bn of M&A, and responsible for a P&L worth over $100m in annual revenue for Uber. 

Sanjay Bahadur, Deputy Executive Vice President & Head, Group Strategy and Business Development of Nestle

Sanjay Bahadur serves as Member of the Executive Board, Deputy Executive Vice President, Head - Group Strategy and Business Development of Nestle. Sanjay will head the newly created Group Strategy and Business Development function, which will support Nestlé in identifying internal and external strategic growth opportunities. The new function will also manage external partnerships and licensing agreements for the Nestlé Group and oversee the company’s corporate venture capital activities. Sanjay joined Nestlé in June 1982. He has extensive market experience having worked in India, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Turkey and China. He was CFO for the Greater China Region prior to assuming his role as Head of Acquisitions and Business Development

Sapna Sood, Senior Vice-President of The Adecco Group

Sapna was appointed to Marks and Spencer in June 2020. Sapna was, until recently, a senior executive at Compass Group, as the Group Director for International Clients and Market Development business. She was also a Non-Executive Director at Kering from 2016 to 2020. In her previous career she held leading operational roles in the building materials and industrial gas sectors in Europe and Asia-Pacific, latterly as CEO and President of LafargeHolcim in the Philippines. Sapna has in-depth knowledge of running complex supply chains, including in food and clothing, as well as experience of leading large transformation programmes.

Miguel Veiga-Pestana, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability of Reckitt

Miguel Veiga-Pestana joined Reckitt as the SVP Corporate Affairs & Sustainability in 2017 and is responsible for all aspects of strategic communications, brand and reputation management. He was appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer in 2018 responsible for overseeing the development and integration of Reckitt’s sustainability and purpose led agenda. Prior to joining Reckitt, Miguel was Chief Communications Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation based in Seattle. Over a thirteen-year period (2001-2014) he held several regional and global communications roles at Unilever notably as the Vice-President for Global Sustainability Strategy and Advocacy. Miguel has more than 25 years of communications, external affairs and sustainability experience having held positions in the UK, US and Brussels (EU)..

Dalya Al-Muthanna, President UAE and Global Chief Strategy & Operations - GE International Markets

Dr. Dalya Al Muthanna is President of GE in the UAE and the global Chief of Strategy & Operations for GE International Markets. Dalya partners with the GE businesses in the industrial verticals of Energy, Aviation, and Healthcare to develop and facilitate the execution of market business strategy in the UAE. She also holds a global role leading the strategic direction of the GE International Markets organization. Dalya gives particular interest to promoting diversity, developing leadership capability and local talent, as well as driving innovation to advance technological growth in the region. She joined GE in 2008 as part of the company’s two-year rotational Experienced Commercial Leadership Program. She has held multiple senior roles since then, including leading the growth strategy for the Middle East, North Africa & Turkey as well as heading strategic marketing for GE’s Energy businesses, where her responsibilities included driving results for GE Oil & Gas, Energy Management, and Power & Water. Dalya holds a Ph.D. degree from Imperial College London in business model innovation to promote a low carbon economy in Dubai and an MBA degree from the American University in Dubai.