Thomas Lingard

Having started his career in the technology function at Unilever, he pivoted quickly to work at the intersection of business and society leading teams across Public Affairs, Advocacy and Sustainability functions. Most notably, he founded Unilever’s Global Advocacy team in 2011, which helped to shape the UN Sustainable Development Goals and supported the creation of the Global Climate Action Agenda within the UNFCCC. This effort was pivotal to demonstrating the global business community’s widespread support for an ambitious global agreement at the COP21 Paris Climate Conference in 2015. Subsequently, following the rise of climate misinformation on social media platforms, he became concerned about the societal risks presented by the growing power of digital technologies and was selected to join the inaugural cohort of the Masters in AI Ethics and Society in 2021 run by the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. Besides being CEO at the Centre for Future Generations, Thomas is a Senior Associate of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, a board member of both Climate Catalyst and Influence Map - two leading international climate organisations – and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Previously, Thomas served two years as Deputy Director of Green Alliance, an influential UK policy think tank, and has also served on numerous governance boards, advisory boards and councils, including for Oxfam, the World Economic Forum, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.