Our Advisory Board
Mohammed Amara
Mohammed is an Experimental Psychology student and researcher at the University of Oxford whose work focuses on psychology, AI, and human learning. He has been involved in research across areas including learning, misinformation, digital health, and machine learning, and has also worked as an AI engineer on projects in education, industry, and public-interest technology. Alongside this, he has supported youth and social mobility work through organisations including the Social Mobility Foundation and Odd Arts. Coming from a first-generation, low-income background, he is particularly interested in bringing both lived and current experience of education to conversations about how opportunity can be widened and barriers reduced.
Dr Louise Ashley
Louise is Reader (Associate Professor) and IHSS Associate Fellow in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London. Louise is a leading academic in organisation studies and the sociology of work, specialising in socio-economic diversity, social mobility and inequality in elite professions. Her research has been published in international journals including Work, Employment and Society, Human Relations and Social Science & Medicine, and her sole-authored book, Highly Discriminating (Bristol University Press, 2022), has been widely acclaimed as a landmark contribution to debates on class and workplace inequality.
Louise has a strong record of research leadership and funding success and is currently part of an international team researching the repercussions of wealth inequalities funded by the VW Foundation. Beyond academia, she regularly works with government and industry, serving on bodies including the former City of London Corporation’s Taskforce on Socio-Economic Diversity. Her research also contributes to media and public debate on inequality and access to elite work. Louise is a Bridge Group Fellow.
Marc Burrows
Marc became KPMG Group and UK Chief People Officer in 2026 and sits on KPMG UK’s Executive Leadership team, leading the firm’s people strategy. Having previously led KPMG’s client-facing Global Mobility Services business, he brings deep experience in global mobility and talent, helping teams thrive across geographies and changing ways of working.
Across his career in Australia, Switzerland and the UK, Marc has focused on developing diverse talent and building inclusive, high-performing teams distributed across more than 100 countries. He mentors KPMG apprentices, supports Black Heritage colleagues’ development, and mentors high‑potential female talent through a cross-mentorship programme, alongside speaking regularly on the Future of Work, global talent movement and reward strategies.
Mikael Down
Mikael is an Executive Director and Head of EMEA Sustainable Finance at Morgan Stanley, where he leads the development of new sustainable finance products, solutions, and partnerships across the region. With a career spanning public, private, and non-profit sectors, Mikael has played a leading role in shaping UK financial regulation and advancing ethical standards in financial services, through senior leadership positions at HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Banking Standards Board. He has also led several initiatives to promote socio-economic diversity and inclusion within and across the sector.
Mikael is an Industry Professor at University College London, a Fellow at the Forward Institute, and a Board Member of OceanMind. He sits on the Impact Investing Institute Advisory Council and the Transition Finance Council. Mikael holds an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and is in the final year of a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Ethics at the University of Leeds.
Professor Sam Friedman
Sam is Professor of Sociology and (from September 2026) Head of the Department of Sociology at The London School of Economics and Political Science. Sam is a sociologist of class and inequality and is the author of The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged, Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour, and co-author of Social Class in the 21st Century. His most recent book (with Professor Aaron Reeves) entitled Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite was named as a ‘2024 Book of the Year’ by The Economist and The Times and won the 2024 Mary Douglas Book Prize from the American Sociological Association. He is the co-editor of The British Journal of Sociology and served as Commissioner at the UK Government’s Social Mobility Commission from 2018-2021. Sam is a Bridge Group Fellow.
Claire Jackson
Claire is a corporate partner at Slaughter and May, where she began her career as a trainee in 2011. She advises on all forms of domestic and international mergers and acquisitions transactions, including public takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and corporate financings. She also regularly advises Boards on corporate law, governance and disclosure matters. Her clients are cross-sector and include GSK, Aviva, NEXT and Close Brothers.
Beyond her client work, Claire is passionate about supporting the firm’s efforts to deliver broader inclusion and diversity, including as a dedicated recruitment partner and a sponsoring partner for the firm’s social mobility network launched in 2023. She participates in a range of initiatives aimed at promoting socio-economic access and inclusion in the industry and was most recently involved in establishing and recruiting for the firm’s inaugural Solicitor Apprenticeship Programme.
Professor Beth Johnson
Beth is Professor of Television and Media Studies at the University of Leeds. Beth’s research focuses on inequality, class and representation in UK television and the screen industries, with particular emphasis on how social background shapes opportunity, creative labour and cultural production. Beth is a member of the DCMS College of Experts, Faculty EDI Director for Arts, Humanities and Cultures at Leeds, and Principal Investigator on the major UKRI-funded project What’s On? Rethinking Class in the Television Industry.
Professor Lindsey Macmillan
Lindsey is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the University College London Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO). She is also a Research Fellow at Institute for Fiscal Studies, IZA, and CESifo, Treasurer of the Scottish Economic Society, and an elected Council member for the Royal Economic Society. Lindsey currently sits on the Opportunities Mission Expert Reference Group for the Department of Education and the Labour Market Advisory Board for the Department for Work and Pensions. Her research considers the role of early skills, education, and labour market experience in the transmission of incomes and work across generations. She has published widely on areas relating to intergenerational mobility, educational inequalities, and the role of family background in access to jobs.
Gerald Mullally
Gerald is the Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), a global leader in quantum computing. He leads the company’s strategy and execution to scale quantum technology and deliver enduring value for customers, partners, and shareholders. Under his leadership, OQC launched the industry’s first Quantum-AI Data Centre in collaboration with NVIDIA, with systems now deployed in London, Tokyo, New York, and Spain. Powered by OQC’s architecture – the fastest ever benchmarked – these systems enable next-generation applications across financial services, security & defence, and artificial intelligence.
Gerald brings over two decades of experience delivering mission-critical technology programmes across financial services, energy, and defence, including with Accenture and PwC. Before joining OQC, he served for eight years as a Director in the UK Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office, where he led national security and resilience initiatives.
Dhatri Navanayagam
Dhatri is an award-winning business and communications strategy consultant with 15 years of global experience helping brands and institutions solve complex challenges to drive growth and differentiation. She has held senior roles across advertising, media and marketing, including a decade across WPP’s network in New York and London, working with the likes of Google, Airbnb and the Gates Foundation. Most recently, she served as Senior Strategy Director at EssenceMediacom.
At WPP, Dhatri designed and implemented socio-economic inclusion initiatives to widen access for and accelerate the progression of talent. She also launched and led UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance, a global cross-industry C-suite coalition advancing gender equality in advertising. Dhatri is a 2024 WACL Talent Award recipient and was recognised with the Patricia Mann Award for championing positive industry change with Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership. She holds a BA in History and French from the University of Oxford.
Our Advisory Board is chaired by the Bridge Group’s Trustee André Flemmings and Chief Executive Jenny Baskerville.