Economic Research Council Master Committee
William de Laszlo is an advisor to three family offices on their UK and European investment strategies whilst also exploring opportunities in social and charitable ventures. Prior to this William spent five years at Rcapital, a London-based private investment business, focusing on deal origination and transaction strategies. Working alongside the founding partners, he established himself on the transaction side of the turnaround sector and was involved in a number of high profile deals such as Little Chef and highly complex transactions such as Harley Medical Group. As part of Rcapital’s senior team, William was involved in sourcing and evaluating new deal opportunities, working with incumbent management and evaluating the ongoing performance of portfolio companies. During his time at Rcapital, William oversaw 27 investment transactions of stressed and distressed UK SMEs, which often required funding in a matter of days and transformational turnarounds in a matter of months to bring them back to profitability. William holds an MBA from Oxford University's Saïd Business School which followed his role as an analyst at JP Morgan, working between the Investment and Private Banks and dealing with Family Offices. Before working in the city he graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst where he received the ‘Distinguished Service Award’. William’s five year service in the Grenadier Guards included combat a tour in Bosnia where he was awarded Operational Service Medal EUFOR, and a tour in Iraq where he was awarded Operational Service Medal. William left full-time military service as a Captain. Today William holds a number of board seats for UK SME businesses focused on the manufacturing sector.
Greg Opie graduated from the London School of Economics in 2009 with an MSc in Economic History and a BSc in Philosophy and Economics. Greg initially worked at Lombard Street Research as an assistant researcher, contributing to a number of pieces of research including "Sharpening the Axe", a report on the austerity measures carried out in the 1920s, and "Trends, Cycles, and Revolutions", which focused on the history of business cycles. Greg worked at the Economic Research Council from 2010 to 2016 as the ERC’s Programme Director. He has written a number of articles that have appeared in the national press, most recently in the New Statesman's Investment Special. He was also a regular weekly guest on Share Radio, where he discussed the economic issues of the day.
Robyn Scott is MD and co-founder of OneLeap - an online platform that enables smart young people to get in touch with decision-makers, while raising money for charity - as well as co-founder of Mothers for All (mothersforall.org), an ambassador for the Access to Medicine Index and an adviser to Shared Impact. She is also a writer, her first book a memoir about growing up in Botswana against the AIDS epidemic. Her second book is the true story of a group of maximum security prisoners who adopted AIDS orphans. She has worked for BP and the FT. A Gates Cambridge Scholar, she has a BSc Bioinformatics and an MPhil Bioscience Enterprise Distinction. She is a fellow of the RSA.
David Hobson graduated from New College, Oxford in 2001 with a BA in PPE and from INSEAD in 2006 with an MBA. During his career David has worked at McKinsey, HM Treasury and most recently for the GIC (of Singapore). David is a member of the ERC's Masters Committee as he believes that the ERC has an important role to play in framing, and debating, the contentious issues in economics.
Daniel Madden works for Platinum Equity, a US Private Equity company. He has a BA in Modern Languages and Management Studies from Cambridge University and an MBA from Columbia University.
Daniel spent six years living and working in New York before returning to London in 2010. He is relatively new to the ERC and looks forward to helping widen the reach of the ERC to new members.
Toby Cross is a private banker with Barclays Wealth. Prior to joining Barclays he spent 4 yrs with the private bank at JPMorgan. Before entering finance Toby was an officer in the RAF serving in a number of locations including Northern Ireland and Iraq.
He holds a Masters degree in Management from Exeter University and an MBA in finance from Warwick Business School. He sides with the Austrian school and can be relied upon to present the libertarian view!
Oliver Bond is a Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, working with businesses that require rapid change and turnaround management. Previously, Oliver worked in Private Equity at Macquarie, working within their Infrastructure funds and was involved in M&A, managing the businesses within the funds, working within the fund management team and liaising with investors.
Oliver is a member of the Scottish Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a BA in Business Economics from Exeter University.
Kristina Maria Manalo is a Digital Transformation Consultant in England, specialising in Cloud Transformation, IoT Strategy and Business Change. She completed her MBA at Oxford University, and her Bachelor's degree in Biomolecular Chemistry as a Chancellor's Scholar at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She's passionate about technology, impact, and developing an approach to capital growth which embraces social, individual and human capital, as well as financial capital.
Tom Chatfield is a British writer and commentator. The author of five books exploring digital culture – most recently How to Thrive in the Digital Age (Pan Macmillan) and Netymology (Quercus) – his work has appeared in over twenty territories and languages. As a consultant and designer, Tom is interested in improving our experiences of digital technology, and in better understanding its use in policy, education and engagement. He speaks and broadcast around the world on technology, the arts and media. Appearances include TED Global and the Cannes Lions Festival; the World Congress on Information Technology; and venues ranging from the Sydney Opera House to the Googleplex. Tom writes and commentate widely in the international media, as well as guest lecturing at universities in the UK and Europe. He’s an associate editor at Prospect magazine; a faculty member at London’s School of Life; a past guest faculty member at the Said Business School, Oxford; and a senior expert at the Global Governance Institute.