David King

Sir David King is the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and a senior scientific adviser to the financial services giant UBS. He was the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Office of Science and Technology from October 2000 to December 2007. Born in South Africa in 1939, and after an early career at the University of Witwatersrand, Imperial College and the University of East Anglia, he became the Brunner Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 1974.

"While an Executive Director at UBS, David became involved in business-to-school mentoring through a community programme. Since 1992 he has mentored a number of young people from some of the most deprived areas of south London, some of whom have now gone on to attend university. This work was recognised by HRH The Prince of Wales when David was invited to represent UBS at an event at Highgrove. David has an MSc in Business Process Management. He left UBS to further his philanthropic journey and feels working at Pilotlight brings his business and mentoring experience to bear on managing the relationships between teams of Pilotlighters and charity managers."

Affiliations

 * Head of Programme Development, Pilotlight UK
 * Trustee, Ecological Sequestration Trust
 * Trustee, Ditchley Foundation
 * Councilor, Copenhagen Climate Council
 * Editorial Advisory Board, Chinadialogue.net
 * Advocate, Ashden Awards

From sceptic to proponent of nuclear power
King became a trusted advisor to Tony Blair and one of the key people who has persuaded Blair for the need of a nuclear revival. His enthusiasm for nuclear has led Guardian columnist George Monbiot to write that he fears that "the government's chief scientist is mutating into its chief spin doctor."

Resources
For further information, see SpinProfiles page [David King]