Join IGHI Director and Aurora Prize Selection Committee member – Professor the Lord Ara Darzi, Co-Founders of theAurora Humanitarian Initiative, scientific investor and professional entrepreneur – Noubar Afeyan, impact investor and social entrepreneur – Ruben Vardanyan and Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the Rt Hon. the Baroness Northover for a panel discussion “Inspire, Empower, Impact”.
The panel discussion, which will be moderated by former special advisor to the UN, Dr David Nabarro, will focus on the current global humanitarian crisis and the ways that disruptive philanthropic initiatives, such as Aurora, can address them and pioneer new solutions for social and economic development. Students are invited to participate in the discussion and share their ideas during the Q&A session.
Panel member biographies
Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham
Professor Darzi is Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. He also holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College London, and the Institute of Cancer Research and is Executive Chair of the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Qatar. He is a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College Hospital NHS Trust and the Royal Marsden NHS Trust.
Professor Darzi leads a large multidisciplinary team across a diverse portfolio of academic and policy research. He has published over 1,000 peer-reviewed research papers to date, developing his status as a leading voice in the field of global health policy and innovation. In recognition of his achievements, Professor Darzi was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign associate of the Institute of Medicine. In 2002, he was knighted for his services in medicine and surgery, and was introduced to the United Kingdom’s House of Lords as Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham in 2007. He has been a member of the Privy Council since June 2009 and was awarded the Order of Merit in January 2016.
Noubar B. Afeyan
Dr. Noubar Afeyan is founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a unique enterprise that systematically makes breakthrough, life-science innovations which improve human health and sustainability. During his 30-year career as inventor, entrepreneur and CEO, Dr. Afeyan co-founded and helped build over 40 successful start-ups. He is currently a Lecturer at Harvard Business School and was a Senior Lecturer at MIT where he taught courses on technology-entrepreneurship and innovation since 2000. Noubar received a Technology Pioneer 2012 award from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Dr. Afeyan is a member of the Corporation (Board of Trustees) of MIT and a member of the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also serves on the boards of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the IDeA Foundation and the UWC Dilijan International School. Previously, he was a co-founder and board member of the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, a private-public partnership dedicated to promoting economic development in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. In 2008 he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an award granted to outstanding Americans who have distinguished themselves as United States citizens and who have enabled their ancestry groups to maintain their identities while becoming integral parts of American life. He was a Great Immigrant honoree of the Carnegie Corporation in 2016. Dr. Afeyan is engaged in a number of philanthropic initiatives. In 2015, he co-founded the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.
Ruben Vardanyan
Ruben Vardanyan is an Armenian-Russian impact investor and social entrepreneur. He serves on the advisory boards of the IFC (World Bank Group) and Fundação Dom Cabral business school in Brazil. He is also a board member at Ameriabank (a major Armenian bank), SOLLERS (Russia’s auto major) amongst a host of other companies, NGOs, public and professional organizations. A prominent financier, Ruben is known both for his commercial projects (investment companies Troika Dialog and Vardanyan, Broitman and Partners) as well as his deep reaching philanthropic programs, such as the first UWC college in Eastern Europe (Dilijan, Armenia) and the Tatev Revival Project, part of which includes the construction of the world’s longest cableway leading to an ancient monastery. Together with their partners, Ruben and his family have invested about $500M in projects in Armenia, developing a commercial approach that relies on involving blended financing to find solutions to social problems. They have also raised over $500M to finance the first private business school in Russia – a pioneering institution both in terms of scale and in its collaborative nature. In 2015, Ruben co-founded another global project, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors. He spends a significant amount of his time on projects related to the development and professionalization of charity infrastructure in Russia (Philanthropy Infrastructure – PHILIN) and the question of succession and wealth curation (Phoenix Advisors). With support from Ruben, Troika Dialog, SKOLKOVO business school and several charitable foundations, classics of world business literature were published in Russia. Since 2016 he has chaired the judging panel of the PwC ͞Business Book of the Year in Russia Award.
The RT Hon. the Baroness Northover
Lindsay Northover was educated at Brighton & Hove High School and St. Anne’s College, Oxford University, where she received an MA in Modern History. She went on to study at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania, where she gained an MA and PhD. She was a Research Fellow at University College London, St. Mark’s Hospital, and St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, and later became a Lecturer at University College London and the Wellcome Institute.
She joined the House of Lords, becoming a Life Peer, in May 2000. Initially she served as health spokesperson between 2000 and 2002, before joining the frontbench team as Spokesperson on International Development.
During her time in the Lords she has been a member of various Select Committees including those on Embryonic Stem C ell Research and the European Union (Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and International Development and the Sub-Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs).
She held a number of Coalition Government Spokesperson roles over the course of the Government including Spokesperson for the Government Equalities Office (Women and Equalities) and International Development; and Whip and Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport; Education; Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Health; Justice; the Law Officers; and Wales.
In 2014 she became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development. In this role she called for sustained commitment to development, with a particular focus on empowering women and girls, ensuring that they have access to education, healthcare, and rights, including bringing to an end early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation (FGM). She was appointed to the Privy Council in March 2015.
In July 2015 Lindsay was appointed as the Liberal Democrat Party Spokesperson on International Development.
Lindsay has been a Member of Council of the Overseas Development Institute, Trustee of the Tropical Health and Education Trust, a Trustee of UNICEF UK, and Trustee of the Liberal Democrats.
Event Chair – Dr David Nabarro
David Nabarro is a medical doctor, international civil servant and diplomat, who served as Special Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change. He also led the UN’s response to the cholera epidemic in Haiti and previously served as the Special Envoy on Ebola.
In September 2016, Dr Nabarro was nominated by the UK to stand for the post of Director-General (DG) of the World Health Organization (WHO).[2]