Leaders from business, investment and politics add a broad range of talent and experience to Aspen UK’s Board.
LONDON, United Kingdom 29thApril 2019 – The Aspen Initiative UK, an independent, not for profit organisation which inspires and supports leaders to transform themselves and their society, today announced the appointment of three new trustees to its growing Board.
Aspen UK, established in 2017 by a Board of trustees with the support of the Aspen Institute US, is mandated to play an active role in bridging UK’s political, social and cultural divides, and does so by using the unique Aspen method of text-based and professionally guided conversations.
Leading investor Toby Coppel, former Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie and senior business executive Zelmira Koch Polk will join an experienced board made up of leaders from politics, business and beyond, tasked with setting the strategic direction of the organisation, making decisions on key appointments, and broadening Aspen UK’s support base.
Toby Coppel is co-founder and partner at Mosaic Ventures, a European venture capital firm managing $300 million and focused on early-stage investing. Toby joined Yahoo!’s management team in 2001 and spent 6 years as the Chief Strategy Officer, leading over $5 billion of investments and acquisitions. He serves as the Chair of eLife Sciences, an open life sciences research platform supported by the Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Max Planck Foundation.
Zelmira Koch Polk is Managing Director and Founding Partner at The Hearth Advisors, an education and healthcare advisory group with offices in Delhi and London. The Hearth Education practise works with the public and private sectors building, managing, monitoring and evaluating education institution in countries around the world. Zelmira is also a non-Executive Director at EdTech X Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company formed to acquire control positions in education, education technology and training companies across the globe, and CamBioScience Limited, an international Life Science Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company offering a Cloud Platform and innovative Artificial Intelligence technology.
Charlotte Leslie is Managing Director of the Conservative Middle East Council (CMEC), building UK – MENA relationships and enabling parliamentarians to gain a first-hand understanding of the region. She is also the Government’s appointed trustee to The Football Foundation. From 2010 to 2017 Charlotte served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bristol North West. She specialised in Middle East issues and sat on Select Committees for education and health. She was awarded the Spectator’s “Backbencher of the Year” award for her work on the NHS. Before entering politics, Charlotte worked in television production at the BBC, and at charities including the National Autistic Society.
Penny Richards, Managing Director of Aspen UK said: ‘Every organisation needs star trustees and the appointment of three experienced leaders with diverse backgrounds to our Board will augment Aspen UK’s capacity to reach different communities and bridge divides in UK society. I look forward to working with these talented people to build and inspire better leaders in UK public life’’.
The global Aspen network, founded in 1949 in Aspen, Colorado as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, is a nonpartisan forum for values-based leadership and the exchange of ideas. Aspen has partner Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Tokyo, New Delhi, Prague, Bucharest, Mexico City, and Kyiv, as well as leadership initiatives in the United States and on the African continent, India, and Central America.