Team
We believe that family income should not be a barrier to the pursuit of excellence
What is a ‘martingale’?
A martingale is a mathematical concept, our founding subject of interest at Martingale. In probability theory, a martingale is a random process where the expectation of future values is equal to the current value, regardless of all prior values.
We have named the Martingale Foundation after this concept as we believe that students who have excelled in their undergraduate studies should be supported to excel at postgraduate level, irrespective of family income.
Martingale Team
Advisory Board
Michael Clark
chair
Chief Executive, purposeful ventures
Prior to launching Purposeful Ventures, Michael was Deputy CEO of Ark. From 2012, he was on the management team of Ark Schools and built and led Ark Ventures. During this period, Ark grew from 11 to 39 schools and Ark Ventures successfully incubated 15 charities. Prior to Ark, he was a junior partner at McKinsey and co-led its education practice in the UK.
Michael was a founding trustee of Pause, Global Schools Forum, Frontline and Ada and, as well as Martingale, is currently on the Boards of SHiFT, Ark Start and Ark Curriculum Plus.
Simon Coyle
Head of Philanthropy at XTX Markets
Simon started his career as an inner-city school teacher through the Teach First programme. He left the classroom to co-found The Brilliant Club, an award-winning charity that recruits, trains and places PhD researchers to work as tutors and teachers in state schools. After stepping down as Chief Executive, he advised a range of education organisations on strategy and fundraising. He is now Head of Philanthropy at XTX Markets, a leading financial technology company.
Jonathan Roiser
Professor of Neuroscience and Mental Health, UCL
Jonathan Roiser is a cognitive neuroscientist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. He leads a research team investigating the psychological and brain processes underlying mental health problems and their treatment, especially depression. He is also director of two PhD programmes, both of which have a strong emphasis on equality, diversity and inclusion, and he has worked for several years with the In2Research programme, which mentors students from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter postgraduate study.
Paul Wakeling
Professor of Education
Paul is a sociologist based at the University of York. His research focuses on inequalities in access to postgraduate education. Through numerous research articles and reports he has highlighted how access to master’s and doctoral studies is impacted by social class, gender and race/ethnicity. He has advised policymakers, universities and a range of third sector organisations on postgraduate access. He is currently leading work on reforming doctoral selection criteria and practices as part of the Yorkshire Consortium for Equity in Doctoral Education.
Paulette Williams
Founder of Leading Routes
Paulette has over two decades of experience in human resources and higher education, specialising in fair access and equity; and education strategy. She brings expertise in facilitating institutional culture change, implementing equity and inclusion programmes, and leading strategic projects. Paulette is the Founder and CEO of Leading Routes, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting Black scholars in higher education, highlighting Black-led research, and collaborating with institutions to create inclusive cultures. Concurrently, she holds the position of Head of Student Success at UCL, where she leads a dedicated team in proactively addressing disparities in student outcomes among marginalised groups.
Student Advisory Board
Olivia Allen
Olivia is a PhD student at Queen Mary University of London where she is developing an organ-on-a-chip model to study the effects of air pollution on bone development as part of the BBSRC London Interdisciplinary Biosciences Programme. Previously, Olivia attended the University of Portsmouth to study Biomedical Science (BSc) and Molecular Biology (MRes), followed by research scientist roles at the Francis Crick Institute and in the biotechnology industry. Outside of the lab, one of Olivia’s interests is science communication and public engagement, particularly speaking to younger students about STEM careers.
Amir Fathi
Tina Kimfumu
Tina is a dynamic professional specialising in technology, ED&I, widening access and participation, and corporate social responsibility. With extensive experience in the corporate sector, she has advised numerous Government organisations, corporations, financial institutions, charities, and universities. Tina founded and led the African and Caribbean Network Corporate Responsibility team at KPMG UK, managing a national team and collaborating with grassroots charities to support young Black communities. Currently, as a PhD scholar at the University of Bath, she explores the impact of technology on workers, with a focus on employee well-being, productivity, and addressing organisational inequality in the digital age.
George Mears
George is a PhD student with the London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme, on a collaborative project between Royal Holloway, University of London, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology. His research is focused on understanding the traditional medicinal use of a plant from Tanzania, Myrica salicifolia, to seek new medicine and aid its sustainable use and conservation efforts. He was brought up in a working-class household and state school educated. Having experienced the barriers to postgraduate study, he would like to translate his knowledge into support mechanisms for aspiring STEM students.
Merlin Williams
Martingale Ambassadors
Andrew Clark
Dr Andrew Clark is Executive Director, Programmes at the Royal Academy of Engineering, the UK’s National Academy for engineering and technology. He oversees their activities to support talented engineers, including research, education, enterprise, and diversity and inclusion programmes. He is the lead on the new £150m endowment from government to the Academy for Green Future Fellowships, a new funding mechanism to support researchers and inventors to develop useful, scalable technologies to help reach net zero and adapt to our changing climate.
Prior to joining the Academy in 2016, he had worked in various roles at UCL, the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, the Open University, and University of Oxford.
Alex Fleming
Alex has worked in the education and NGO sectors for 15 years, with a passion for empowering young people and children. He is currently Head of Corporate Partnerships at UNICEF UK, responsible for building strategic partnerships with global companies. Previously, Alex held leadership positions at The Prince’s Trust and Future First, after working as a secondary school teacher for 6 years. He holds a MA in Education & Leadership from UCL and a PGCE from the University of Oxford. He is a long standing School Governor of Harris Academy Bermondsey and lives in South East London with his wife and 2 daughters.
Kate Hunter
Kate Hunter is a Senior Partner and co-Head of the Higher Education practice at Executive Search firm Perrett Laver. She has worked across the UK university and research landscape, supporting appointments at governance, executive leadership (including Vice-Chancellor) and professional service leadership level. She has a strong interest in social mobility and access to higher education, having supported the Sutton Trust, Into University as well as the Martingale Foundation on senior appointments. Prior to Perrett Laver Kate was Executive Director of CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Europe, and she started her career in communications, working at Queen Mary, University of London and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Kate has a BA Hons in French with Spanish from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Rebecca McKelvey
Upon graduation Rebecca completed the TeachFrist programme and taught science for four years at a school in East London. She then completed a Masters and PhD in neuroscience at UCL and, inspired by her students, she founded the social mobility charity In2scienceUK where she worked for 10 years to expand the program’s reach. She now works at Google DeepMind as Education Partnerships Lead where she develops programs that broaden participation in AI postgraduate research. She is passionate about STEM education and the power of opportunity.
Hannah Thompson
Hannah gets energy from creating proud moments which have a positive impact on individual growth as well as teams, society and the world with lots of fun involved.
In her career this translates to getting stuff done across multiple business functions such as product, business, operations and people to create products that monitor health and enable precision medicine and clinical trials.
Hannah is currently using her experience to create momentum as co-founder at cfdx, a Precision Neuroscience AI startup and momentum for others through founding GoPotato where she mentors scientists who want to leave academia.
Tim Wilkinson
Tim is retired, after nearly 30 years in finance. Over the past 10 years he has served as Head of London for Balyasny Asset Management and head of Macro for Citadel Ltd Europe; both large Chicago based hedge funds. Prior to that he ran Fixed Income Proprietary trading at Lehman Brothers Europe.
Tim attended state school in the London Borough of Havering then completed a degree in mathematics at the University of Bristol.