Board of Trustees

Mr André Hoffmann is the non-executive Vice Chairman of Roche Holdings Ltd and President of the MAVA Foundation. André is a substantial donor and long-term supporter of the Trust. He is particularly interested in conservation and is Vice President of WWF International. 

Dr Alina Barnett is an Economic Adviser at the Bank of England. She is a Trustee and an Adviser to the Business Challenge. Alina is the granddaughter-in-law of George Weidenfeld. 

Mr Michael Lewis is Chairman of the Institute of Strategic Dialogue and Oceana Investment Corporation and a significant donor to the Trust. He has been a Trustee since the founding of the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust. Michael Lewis is Chairman of the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust.

Professor Francisca Mutapi is a Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity, co-director of the Global Health Academy at the University of Edinburgh, and Deputy Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Unit Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa. She is the first black woman known to have been awarded a professorship by the University of Edinburgh. She gained a DPhil in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford, as a Beit Trust Scholar. She is an alumnus of Linacre College, Oxford.

Mr George Robinson is a partner of Sloane Robinson LLP an investment management business specialising in global equities which he co-founded in 1993. He founded the Sloane Robinson Foundation, together with Hugh Sloane, in order to provide scholarships for overseas students to study in Britain and for British students to study abroad. He has supported numerous charities, especially in Africa and Asia. He is an active investor in early-stage technology and biotech companies and co-founded Technikos, a private equity partnership which invests in spin-out companies from the Oxford University Institute of Biomedical Engineering. He graduated with a BA in Engineering Science from Keble College, Oxford is an honorary fellow of Keble College, Oxford as well as a member of the Oxford University Endowment Investment Committee

Mr James E. Lieber is the founder and president of Lieber Strategies with more than 25 years of experience in the strategic management of complex international projects and situations for multi-national corporations, investment funds, organisations and high net-worth individuals in Europe and the United States. Prior to founding Lieber Strategies, James was Director of Corporate Affairs at LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton S.E.  James holds a juris doctor degree cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut with honours in art history.  James is an attorney admitted to practice in the State of New York and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Advisory Board

The Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust is grateful to our Advisory Board members for their practical supportexpertise and ongoing commitment to the work of the Trust.

  • Mr Eric Abraham

  • Mr Ben Barnett

  • Ms Nina Coad

  • Dr Precious Lunga

  • Sir Trevor McDonald

  • Lady Elizabeth Roberts

  • Mr Joseph Ssentongo (alumni rep)

  • Mr Karl Yin