The Makers Advisory Board

Ed is the founder of The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS), an alternative higher education provider in Whitechapel, London. LIS was founded in 2017 and is the first new institution since the 1960s to hold full degree-awarding powers in the United Kingdom.

Before that he co-founded School 21, an innovative 4 – 18 school in Stratford, East London, designed for children from all starting points and backgrounds (achieved Outstanding Ofsted in 2014).

Ed advises leaders at Cambridge University, the London School of Economics, ARK Schools, Teach First, and Eton College. He is also the co-founder of EDSPACE, a co-working space for innovative education companies. Ed is an ex McKinsey consultant and a former theatre producer. He holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London and a degree in Business from the London School of Economics.

Selina is a Director in the Global Markets Technology organisation and is responsible for Architecture Governance. Selina gained a Computing MEng at Imperial College, London. Prior to joining Bank of America she worked at Goldman Sachs and in the Hedge Fund Industry.

She was recognized as a Bank of America Global Diversity & Inclusion Award winner for her collaboration with Stemettes in 2013 and in 2018 for leading efforts in the EMEA Women in Technology & Operations employee network.  She sits on the Board of Trustees for Stemette Futures, a UK charity, which encourages female students to consider a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  Selina is also an advocate for Code First Girls. She also sits on the business advisory council for the Foundation for Education Development. 

Danny is a delivery driven Technology Leader who is passionate about using digital transformation to enable organisations achieve their strategic objectives. He is currently Chief Digital & Information Officer at London Business School. Prior to that, he was Chief Digital & Information Officer at Antony Nolan.

Danny is highly experienced in taking advantage of new technologies to deliver business outcomes, project delivery and organisational transformation with an inclusive, supportive engagement style. He is commercially astute with experience spanning retail, agency and the third sector.

In 2020 he was named CIO of the year, at the top of the CIO 100. The judges were all hugely impressed by the work Danny had been doing at Anthony Nolan over four years. Scott Carey, Group Editor for Enterprise at the technology publisher IDG and a member of the CIO 100 judging panel said. "His ability to modernise the IT function at the charity is starting to pay dividends in the form of truly lifesaving advances both in the laboratory setting and the way Anthony Nolan finds donors and raises funds, making this accolade truly well-deserved."

Sarah Ellis is the co-founder of Amazing If, a company with a mission to make careers better for everyone. Together with her business partner Helen, she is the author of two Sunday Times bestselling books The Squiggly Career and You Coach You. Sarah and Helen are also hosts of the podcast Squiggly Careers which has had 4m downloads and their TED talk, The best career isn’t always a straight line, has been watched by almost 2m people.  

Prior to Amazing If Sarah’s career included leadership roles at Barclays and Sainsbury’s before becoming Managing Director at creative agency Gravity Road. Sarah is an alumnus of Harvard, London and Warwick Business Schools (MBA with distinction), a qualified professional coach and a mental health first aider. She is also Co-Chair of the Mayor of London Workspace Advisory Board. Sarah lives in London with her partner and her bug-loving 6-year-old Max.

Smaranda is currently serving as the Global Talent Counselor for McKinsey & Company’s Digital, Telecom, Media & High Tech, and Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure Practices. In this capacity, she is responsible for crafting and implementing talent development strategies for McKinsey's client-facing professionals.

Smaranda is a passionate advocate for Diversity & Inclusion. As an Honorary Fellow of Cambridge Judge Business School, she co-founded the flagship 'Rising Women Leaders' Executive program, where she has been teaching strengths-based leadership, purpose, and resilience since 2017. She has also lent her expertise as a finalist coach for female entrepreneurs in the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards.

Smaranda is a frequent keynote speaker on topics like AI, leadership, and female empowerment. Certified as an Executive Coach by INSEAD, she's conducted leadership workshops for participants from leading tech companies and business schools.

Tessy is the Chief Executive of the Diana Award. Tessy has over twenty years in third sector leadership and in-depth experience working with young people.

She is a passionate humanitarian and campaigner who has gained international reputation for work around social equity and social justice for young people. At the heart of her work is the belief that with the right support and investment, young people are the best instigators for achieving real, sustainable change in their lives, their communities and the lives of their peers.

In January 2019, Tessy became the very first British National to be honored with The Prestigious Martin Luther King Award. Tessy is a member of the BBC’s Appeals Advisory Committee and sits on a number of high profile Executive Boards such as The Royal Taskforce on Cyberbullying, UK Council For Child Internet Safety, Comic Relief and more. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

Tarun brings with him an extensive background in leading some of Europe's notable tech scale-ups. This includes key roles at Next Jump, leading its international expansion to reach £3B GMV, and at Ankorstore, helping establish its footprint in the UK as it became one of Europe's fastest growing tech unicorns. 

Aside from scaling businesses, Tarun is deeply passionate about scaling culture. The distinctive organisational culture at Next Jump was spotlighted in Harvard Business Review's "An Everyone Culture." Tarun has subsequently trained a wide array of leaders on this topic, spanning Fortune 100 companies & startups, to government intelligence (including MI5 and MI6). One of Tarun's core drivers is helping people achieve their full potential. His decision to join the Maker's Advisory Board reflects this, coupled with the shared vision of better aligning education with the evolving needs of work.

Jamie is an entrepreneur, a serial CEO and Non Executive Chairman. Over a 30 year career, Jamie has founded, invested in and managed some of the UK's best known entrepreneurial businesses including Innocent drinks.

He has lectured on Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and developed government policy for both the Treasury and the Labour Party on enterprise, entrepreneurship and education. Currently managing a portfolio of non-executive and pro bono roles,

Jamie recently founded a social enterprise, All Together, which provides pro bono advice and support to small business owners and CEOs from some of the UK’s most successful business leaders.

Dan is the CEO of Hargreaves Lansdown. He was previously CEO of customer data science and analytics firm Dunnhumby. He has 30 years of experience leading global digital organisations and a proven track record leading product teams across industries like healthcare, financial services, digital media, life sciences and digital marketing.

Most recently, Dan served as Global EVP and CTO of Elsevier – the science, technology and healthcare division of RELX. In this role he oversaw the digital transformation of numerous business areas and helped the company become a multi-billion dollar information and analytics provider. Before joining RELX’s Reed Business Information division in 2004, Dan held numerous other leadership roles at IBM, WPP, and GMAC.

He serves on the PLC board of Hargreaves Lansdown and is the industrial advisory board of Imperial College London. Dan was one of TechRepublic’s ‘The top 50 CIOs”, was inducted into the CIO hall of fame in 2017 and has been featured in CIO Magazine, EY Insights and Boardroom Insider

Helen is a partner based in McKinsey's Sydney office and a leader of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey. She was part of the leadership team that globally scaled QuantumBlack from one location in 2015 to over 40 today. During this time she has guided global organisations on their own analytics journeys, advising top executives and leaders on the potential for insight and innovation through advanced analytics.

Helen is passionate about the intersection of tech, talent and growth. She’s founder of McKinsey’s Analytics Academy and a thought-leader in progressing ethical and sustainable AI standards. Before joining McKinsey, she worked previously at Tesco, the Bank of England, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and the European Commission. She’s a mother of two and former sailing world champion.