Sir Geoff Mulgan CBE is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London (UCL), starting in February 2020.  Prior to that he was Chief Executive of Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation (an endowment which grew in worth to around £450m) between 2011 and the end of 2019.   Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office.   From 2004 to 2011 he was the first Chief Executive of The Young Foundation. He was the first director of the think-tank Demos; and has been a reporter on BBC TV and radio.

He has a PhD in telecommunications and has been a visiting professor at London School of Economics (LSE), University College London (UCL) and Melbourne University, a senior visiting scholar at Harvard University and President of the Innovation Design Department at the Italian University for Design (IAAD) in Turin.   He has also been a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy.

​Geoff has helped found many organisations including Demos, the Young Foundation, the Social Innovation Exchange (SIX), Uprising, Studio Schools Trust, Action for Happiness, the Alliance for Useful Evidence, States of Change, Learn Direct, TACSI, Maslaha and Nesta Italia.  He has co-chaired a World Economic Forum group looking at innovation and entrepreneurship in the fourth industrial revolution.

He has advised many governments, foundations and companies, chairs an international advisory committee for the Mayor of Seoul and sits on advisory committees for the Prime Minister’s office in the United Arab Emirates, the Scottish Government and SITRA, the Finnish innovation agency.  He will be a World Economic Forum Schwab Fellow from 2019-22.  He has pioneered many ideas used by governments and civil society – including joined-up government, anticipatory regulation, experimentalism, social impact bonds, open innovation and creative economy strategies (these are covered in more detail in the ‘ideas’ section on this site).

Geoff’s books include ‘The Art of Public Strategy’ (Oxford University Press), ‘Good and Bad Power’ (Penguin), ‘The Locust and the Bee’ (Princeton University Press) and ‘Big Mind: how collective intelligence can change our world’ (Princeton University Press).  His latest book – on social innovation – was published in late 2019 by Policy Press.  His books have been translated into many languages including – Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Russian, Malay, Italian, Punjabi, Turkish and Greek.

Geoff has given TED talks on the future economy, happiness and education (these and others can be found in the videos section of this site).